『 𝐈'𝐦 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐮𝐛𝐛𝐥𝐞,
𝐚 𝐰𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐚 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞 』
- 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘴 (𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘥 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥) -
𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝘽𝙡𝙪𝙚 𝙎𝙩𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙨
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It seemed like Clarke knew what she was doing. She looked confident on which way to go with that map of hers, so the five of us —Finn, Octavia, Monty, Jasper, and I— followed her. I stayed in the back of the group, looking around, wondering about everything my eyes landed on and our current circumstances.
Things are crazy. I mean, a couple of hours ago I was sure I was about to be floated. Then I thought we were all going to die even before landing. And now, well, here we are, walking on Earth and towards Mount Weather because obviously, still to this day, our leaders can't do shit right on the first try; unless... wait a second, maybe they made us land here because of some twisted joke they have going on up there.
"Hey, Clarke, hold up." I made my way towards the front of the group, passing by Octavia and the guys who seemed to be playing with flowers. "Are you sure they just missed the spot we needed to land at?"
"What do you mean?" She looked offended and slowed down her pace.
"I mean, maybe they deliberately decided to miss Mount Weather and make the dropship land somewhere else. Maybe they wanted to check if we could survive radiation just for them to land exactly there and claim it."
"Samantha, what are you trying to imply?" Her tone was a little too aggressive for my liking. "That we are their guinea pigs?"
"I'm not trying to imply anything because at least that part is a fact." I crossed my arms over my chest. "We are their trial subjects." I glared at her. "I'm just adding to it."
"I know you don't trust them, but can you trust me?" Her eyes fixed on mine. "I don't know what happened to you back on the Ark, but down here we need to trust each other." She continued walking, moving her eyes to the path ahead of us. "We are all we have."
The sudden turn of conversation made me uneasy, so I choose to change the subject myself before she decided to ask me about my past.
"If we are all we have maybe you'll want to wait for the rest, or soon there will only be you and me walking around here."
I pointed at the rest of our group who were now about 20 meters behind us. When did we start walking so fast? Clarke was quick to scold them, saying we needed to move faster to get to Mount Weather and come back with supplies.
"Come on, Clarke." Finn didn't waste a second to use that obnoxious flirty tone he used when he wanted to get his way. "How do you block all this out?"
"Well, it's simple. I wonder why haven't we seen any animals? Maybe it's because there are none. Maybe we've already been exposed to enough radiation to kill us."
"Clarke," I tried to reason with her, "most of us were about to die anyway. And if I'm honest, dying down here, surrounded by all this green, seems like a hell of a way to die to me."
Octavia and the guys laughed, but Clarke didn't seem to like my sudden appreciation for our surroundings, shushing me and walking away.
I wondered if that was her way of dealing with people who didn't bow down to her feet just because she was the Ark's sweetheart: ignore, avoid, and get everything she wanted all the time. Not my favorite type of human.
"I have to know what you two did to get busted," Finn asked Monty and Jasper as we all followed Clarke.
"I honestly cannot imagine you guys doing anything worth getting locked up for."
"Sumac's not the only herb in the garden," Monty answered looking at me with raised eyebrows. "If you know what I mean."
"Yeah, and someone forgot to replace what we took." Jasper looked sideways at Monty.
"Someone's apologized like a 1000 times." Monty sighed, pushing Jasper playfully to the side as Finn, Octavia, and I started laughing.
"Now that's more like it. I couldn't think of anything but that sure makes sense." I winked at them gaining a laugh from Monty before Finn started talking again.
"How about you, Octavia? What did they get you for?"
I thought I was the clueless one, but it seemed Finn was even more out of the loop than I was. I could only imagine how hard of a topic that was for Octavia, so I couldn't help but worry about how she would react, wondering if it'd be best to change the subject myself before things got dark.
"Being born."
Octavia's voice was so cold, I would have sworn she was a ghost if I hadn't had her in front of me and hadn't seen her shot running after Clarke.
Poor girl. She has probably gone through so much, I wished I could have helped her. It's not like I could have done much, I got myself arrested... I decided Octavia deserved a better life down here and, even if it took all my strength, I was decided to make it happen. We all did. And I always did best with a purpose. I couldn't save anyone back on the Ark, but maybe it'll be different down here...
I was so deep in my thoughts I almost crashed into a tree when Finn pushed me, bringing me back to the conversation before he apologized and asked whether I had heard anything they were saying.
"Did you have to crash me into that tree to catch my attention?" I eyed him, rubbing my side. "No, I obviously didn't hear you. What was that again?"
"We were wondering how you got arrested."
"Me?" I looked at them, sighing mentally. Can't we just ignore this topic? Obviously not.
"Yeah, we all know how each of us got sent down here. You need to tell us; otherwise, it is not fair play."
"Well, sparing you the details, I got revenge for something that happened and the Ark's leaders seemed to think my methods weren't... civilized enough."
I rolled my eyes once again, air-quoting my words. Monty and Jasper ran into each other and almost fell flat on their faces. They look so scared it's almost hilarious. Monty looked almost afraid to ask, but he did anyway.
"On whom?"
"And how?"
"Yeah and why?" Finn added. "Tell us the whole story."
"Oh, trust me, you don't want to know. Plus I don't do well with unprompted demands."
I raised my eyebrow at them and kept on walking to catch up with Clarke and Octavia. I could sense their gazes on my back but I didn't care. I didn't want to have that conversation before we found food. Or ever at all.
When I got to where the girls were, they gestured for me to remain quiet and to look in front of them. I did as I was told and I saw it: a deer peacefully grazing in the clearing ahead of us. It looked like a scene from a dream; as if one of us were sound asleep dreaming and the rest could open a window and stare into their fantasy. But as with everything down there, that glorious vision ended too soon. When the boys got to us, one of them stepped on a branch, scaring the deer. It turned towards us and that was when we saw it: it had two heads. When it saw us, it turned back and went away.
"What was that?"
"Now we know radiation won't kill us."
"Yeah, those are the good news." I stood up after Finn and Clarke spoke. "The bad news is we all may grow a second head and, honestly, there are a few people down here I cannot stand with one head. I can't imagine what I would do if they got another one."
"I'm sure there is someone who could say that about you." Jasper's words were almost unintelligible because he was laughing too hard.
"What?" I tried to look hurt, placing my hand over my heart. "I'm the single funniest person down here. What are you talking about?"
"Nothing, forget it," Jasper tried to control with laughter. "It was just a comment."
"Don't try looking hurt, Sam, we know you aren't," Monty added smiling.
"It takes more than that to hurt me these days, but I'll give you guys a 2/10 for your effort."
I grinned at him before turning to look at Finn and Clarke who were having a conversation of their own, trying to figure out what our next move was even if I personally thought it was crystal clear, Clarke finally agreeing that we could keep moving and only stop when night came, so I nodded, walking past them on the direction I knew we had to go toward.
"Ok, then let's keep it moving, people, and let's hope we don't run into any carnivore animals looking like that deer." They all either looked at me or huffed my name, making me turn around to see them all with different expressions on their faces ranging from annoyed to scared. "What?" I shrugged my shoulders. "I'm just being honest."
"Well, that for sure is something I don't want to see." Octavia nodded my way and started moving again.
We had been walking for another 30 minutes in absolute peace until what I came to realize would become the norm happened: Finn decided to start asking questions again. Nothing good ever comes out of any of his questions.
I landed eyes on Octavia walking ahead of all of us and decided to join her to avoid any more trouble, or at least, avoid the trouble of having anything to do with it for once.
"Octavia! Wait for me!"
"I can't be always waiting around for you." She smiled at me.
"I'm sorry, I was just trying to avoid the drama I can sense every time Finn opens his mouth." I shook my head, almost missing the sad look in Octavia's eyes before she dropped her gaze to the floor. "I'm sorry, Octavia."
"About what?"
"I should have stopped Finn from asking. I mean, how does he not know?" I eyed her, being completely honest. "Even I know and I live in my own bubble 90% of the time."
"It's ok. Someone eventually was going to ask."
"You deserve better, you know that, right?" I smiled, feeling like Octavia and I could eventually become good friends because being around her was easy; she didn't judge, she didn't ask questions, she just... was. "I'm not trying to say I understand what you went through because no one ever could, but I do understand the pain of trying to just live and do the best you can and, somehow, messing up and bringing others down while you drown."
"Sam, I don't know what happened to you." She faced me and I felt a knot on my throat as I gulped. "You don't have to tell me, just know that you have me now."
She stopped walking, forcing me to do the same and hugging me. I was not expecting that and it took me a good second to hug her back. Once I did, everything felt as if it were going to be ok. Maybe a new beginning was exactly all I needed. A rebirth of sorts.
"Now you have me too, Octavia, I'll—"
"Call me O, Octavia is my business name and it is way too long." She smiled mocking me and breaking from the hug.
"Hey! That is mine!" I punched her lightly on the arm. "But seriously Octa... I mean, O, now you got me too and I will make sure you have the life you deserve, none of these idiots is going to mess with you."
"Well, now you sound like my brother." She rolled her eyes at me.
"Excuse me!" I placed my hand on my chest, faking being hurt as my voice went high. "I like to think I'm a very fun person to be around and, don't mind me, but your brother doesn't seem anywhere near cheerful. In fact, he looks rather... how can I say this without being offensive?" I eyed her. "He has a stick up his ass."
"Oh, I know. Back on the Ark, he used to be so fun! But now he is acting more like my father than like my brother."
"Well, don't worry then. Now you have an awesome older sister to hang with." I winked at her. "If I may say so myself. Plus, I wanna think sisters are cooler than brothers."
Octavia laughed and I smiled. I guess everything is turning out for the best now.
Since we had stopped walking, the others easily caught up with us. My intention was sticking with O and the guys, but as Clarke and Finn walked past us, I caught the last of what he was saying and I couldn't help but go after them, Monty quickly filling in the gaps and finally learning the truth I had been seeking for so long: the Ark was dying, and to prevent Clarke and her father from coming clean about it, they killed him and locked her up. And, after that, the rules of the Ark became more and more strict as the weeks went by and they found no solution.
"That's why it is worth the risk, sending us here." Clarke turned back to look at me. "You are right, Samantha, they are using us; by sending us down here they have bought themselves some more time."
Monty was quick to voice what everyone was feeling, wanting to know if more people would die because of this, all of us knowing the answer to that question. Everything made a little more sense now: the rationing of food and medicines, getting rid of the extra weight around the Ark, the severity of the sentences that once were just a fee and now became death... I thought I hated the Ark when they locked me up but now... now I wanted to destroy it and the leaders, not the people like me, but what could I do about it? Nothing, just like every other time.
"Good." Octavia's hard tone made me focus back on the conversation. "After what they did to me, I say float them all."
"You don't mean that."
Octavia ignored Jasper's comment and kept on walking away from us, the guys starting a conversation of their own on whether Octavia was out of her mind and didn't mean it or was just angry. I couldn't exactly blame her; none of us really should even judge her because she had a point. We all knew it.
The conversation died out after that, walking in line in silence until we heard something new, finally coming to the top of a rock and seeing a stream of clear water running just below it. Water. Well, at least this trip got us something good: we won't die dehydrated.
I was approaching the lower rocks to touch the water when I heard a splash just in front of me that made my heart stop beating for a second.
"What the fuck?" I fell back on my ass on the rock behind me, holding my chest before a face emerged from the water. "For fuck's sake, Octavia, you scared the shit out of me!"
"C'mon, get in." She faced the upper rocks where everyone was standing. "Everyone, get in!"
"Octavia," Monty looked down warily. "We can't swim."
"No," she chuckled, standing up, revealing that the water wasn't nearly as deep as it looked to be for it only reached her hips. "But we can stand."
"Well," I shrugged my shoulders, standing up and smiling at Octavia, starting to take off my pants. "I deserve a nice bath, so I won't miss this opportunity."
Octavia cheered for me, the rest laughing as I got in; it was cold but I was too excited to be bothered by it, Octavia placing her hand in front of me as I was about to reach her so I could get on the same rock she was on. It was surreal, like taken out of a novel. I could barely believe I was hip-deep in clean real water.
"Octavia, Sam, get out of the water. Now!"
I looked behind us to where Monty was pointing at. I saw a shadow moving in our direction and I had no intentions of finding out what it was. I tried to reach Octavia, but everything happened too fast: when I almost had her hand in mine, something pulled her away from me and deep into the water.
"Octavia!" I couldn't see her. "We can't let her die!" I screamed while making my way back to the rocks, expecting the worst. "Can anyone see her?"
This is my fault. If I had been aware of our surroundings. If I had moved a little faster maybe that thing would have taken me. It should have taken me. I started panicking. The water had gone calm again. I can't do shit. I can't save anyone.
"This is my fault, fuck! If she dies the first thing I'm doing is finding that thing, killing it, and then throwing myself off a cliff." I started mumbling, unable to stop my thoughts from coming out of my mouth. "What was that thing!"
"Sam, calm down, we..." Monty started as I huffed annoyed. "There!"
Octavia was back on the surface, screaming and trying to stay above the water to breathe; I was so scared and so angry and I could barely think straight. The thing that had caught her was nowhere to be seen as Jasper and I started running towards where she was, the rest staying at the top of a mountain of rocks from which they could see everything as act as lookouts.
"We have to get her before it comes back." Jasper looked at me and I nodded.
"It's coming back!" Monty screamed, pointing right behind her. "Octavia, you have to swim to the rocks!"
"We have to distract it. Help me."
Clarke started pushing a massive rock towards the edge to get it into the water with Finn's help. When it finally hit the surface, the monster turned towards it, but soon lost interest in it since it didn't splash like Octavia was doing. We needed a different distraction.
"We need something else." Clarke's voice trembled.
"Jasper, you take her. I'll distract it."
I started running towards the place where we first got into the water, an idea in mind. I may be able to save her. I have to. I jumped in the water and started moving around to get the monster's attention.
"Sam, are you insane!" Finn screamed at me. "It is coming for you!"
"Well, that's the fucking plan, you genius! Now tell me which way it is coming from and when you get O out of the water."
"On your left!" His voice was shaking. "Almost there."
I could see it. It was like a snake, with teeth like a shark. Sure radiation changed things around here. When I could clearly see it, I took the rock behind me and smashed it into the monster's head.
"Jasper's got her, get the fuck out of the water now!"
The monster had moved back, but it wasn't over yet. There was no way I could make it out of the water before it struck again.
This is it. I survived being 18 on the Ark, coming down to Earth, a camp full of delinquents and I'm about to get eaten by a snark. What a nice day to have been alive.
I saw it coming towards me, it was bleeding badly. Probably like I will be in about 30 seconds.
Suddenly a rock fell right in front of me. What now? I glanced over my head and saw Finn and Clarke getting rocks and throwing them in front of me.
"You can do it, we will distract it." Finn motioned me to move. "Don't look back, just get to the shore!"
I nodded and started to move back to the shore as fast as my legs allowed me, feeling the water's cold hug around me, and then something soft and scaly touched my skin.
If I weren't stepping on the water I'd say that thing is moist. It was the snark's tail, trying to catch my ankle or anything it could grab to secure their lunch. Ugh, this thing must be really hungry not to let me go even if it gets stoned.
I managed to avoid it and finally got out of the water, panting heavily as I rested my hands on my knees, almost landing on the floor as someone hugged me.
"Well, that's enough bathing for the rest of my life, if I'm totally honest." I chuckled as I hugged Monty back, looking up at Clarke and Finn. "Thank you." I broke from Monty's hug. "Where is O?"
"I'm here!"
I heard her scream from the other side of the rocks so I made my way with Monty towards her. She was lying on the ground with her head on Jasper's lap, a tourniquet on her right leg, I assumed made by Clarke. Wao, these people work fast. I lowered beside her.
"You scared me to death back there." I tried to give her a confident smile.
"I scared you? Sam, you—"
"You almost got yourself killed!" Clarke cut Octavia off, shoving me to the side. "What were you thinking?"
"In case you hadn't noticed by now, Clarke, I wasn't thinking, I was acting." I eyed her, seeing her drop her gaze. "Come on, don't be mad. I couldn't stay behind doing nothing while she was about to get killed. You guys couldn't either, I just reacted faster."
Clarke nodded, raising her eyes and doing something I was not expecting: she lowered next to me and hugged me.
"Thank you."
"Hey! I want to hug her too!" Octavia protested, trying to pull me down to her. "After all, she saved my life."
Clarke and I started laughing and she pulled back from the hug. I turned to Octavia who was starting to get back up and hugged her.
"You are not getting anywhere near water ever again, O."
"Thank you, Sam. I owe you big time."
"Oh, no. Don't even go there, please." I smiled at her. "Let's just start again, ok?" I extended my arm and offered her my hand to shake. "Hello, I'm Sam. Nice to meet you."
We all laughed and stood there until Clarke thought it was alright to move Octavia after the shock, but it got dark pretty soon after that, so we decided to stop and rest, making camp between a couple of trees that offered us some kind of shelter.
The next morning, all feeling renewed from that well-deserved sleep, we kept on walking towards Mount Weather. I wasn't sure how much longer it'd take us, but I was hungry, so I hoped not long.
We ended up back on the stream where we had encountered the snark, knowing we had to find a way to cross it without actually getting in the water. After walking up and down the shore for a while, Finn finally found what seemed like a strong enough twisted jungle vine that we thought we could use to go from one side to the other without risking facing ourselves with the monster again.
"You wanted to go first." Clarke teased Finn as we all watched him get to higher ground to gain some momentum. "Now quit stalling."
Finn was holding the vine on top of a rock, looking down at us, clearly thinking his decision twice but decided to do it. I knew it was all to impress Clarke, but if that got us to the other side, he could do whatever he wanted. But fast before I had to go up myself.
"See you on the other side."
"Wait!" Jasper stopped him a second before Finn jumped. "Let me. I can do it."
Finn laughed and nodded, handing the rope to Jasper as he ran up the slope and stood next to him, glancing at Octavia for a moment. I had to laugh. We were out there risking our lives and those two were only thinking of love and getting laid. I shook my head, prompting Jasper to jump. I only cared for the food so whoever jumped I wanted them to do it now.
"Either you go or I'll take that rope!"
I started walking up to them when Jasper shook his head, jumping and laughing as I stood next to Finn, watching as Jasper reached the other side and let go of the vine, Finn catching it as it came back to us and offering it to me so I nodded.
"Yeah! We did it!" Jasper laughed, taking something from behind him and showing it to us. "Mount Weather!" He pointed at the sign. "Come on, Sam! Food's this way!"
"Coming!" I chuckled, holding onto the rope and jumping. "Make way!"
It all happened so fast. I was still mid-air when I saw it, something flying right past my head and hitting Jasper, pinning him to a tree behind him, the vine pulling me back for I didn't jump in time because of the shook, feeling arms around me as I reached the rock I had jumped from, Finn pulling me back as much as I screamed for Jasper, screaming at him to let me go, to let me jump and go help him.
"We need to hide!" Finn moved back, pulling me by my jacket as the rest reached us.
"But Jasper is hurt and alone!" I tried to get rid of him. "I'll go!"
"Get back now!"
He screamed angrily at me, pulling me down towards the rocks to get cover. I was so angry, I just wanted to go after Jasper, go help him, do something, anything. I'd go by myself; I didn't care, but Finn had a hard grip on me, and Monty soon squatted next to me, taking my hand in his. He was terrified. They all were, hearing them all gulp to Clarke's words as she finally said out loud what we all were thinking.
"We are not alone."