Murphy lets out a sigh and sends a pointed look to Rory. "Go after him."
Rory snaps out of her daze and tears her eyes from the door that the older Blake just stormed through, not liking the ultimatum she'd just given him. Instead of staying to talk things through, he chose to leave and Rory is absolutely, completely ok with that. Well, actually, she isn't. She just doesn't want to admit it to herself that him leaving made her heart hurt.
"I'm not leaving you in here alone." She tells Murphy.
"Aurora Taylor Montgomery," Murphy says, pushing himself to his feet and slowly walking over to his best friend, "get the hell out of this ship."
Rory starts to protest yet again. Yes, a large part of her genuinely doesn't want to leave Murphy alone in camp out of fear of what the other delinquents may do to him, but, an equally large part of her is just using Murphy's safety as an excuse to not go out there and confront Bellamy. Murphy knows this, Clarke does too.
"I'll stay with him." Clarke says, stepping forward. "Look, I'm not going to kill him. Right now we need him so, I'll stay and make sure no one tries anything. I promise I'll keep him safe."
Seeing Rory freeze, Murphy takes another slow step and pushes her towards the door. "Go." He tells her, and finally she listens. She always does.
- - - -
Rory hears him before she sees him. Bellamy is stood in the middle of camp, shouting orders at the gunners and other delinquents. No one can walk past him unscathed, every single one of them is at risk of being on the receiving end of his anger. She lets out a sigh as she watches some of the youngest delinquents cower away from him and scarper as soon as he looks their way, and makes her way over to him.
"What do you want?" Bellamy asks as soon as he feels Rory hovering over his shoulder.
"I want you to stop shouting at everyone in camp and start shouting at me." Rory tells him. She takes a step forward and folds her arms over her chest. "You're mad."
Bellamy rolls his eyes and turns to face her. "I'm not mad."
"Yes you are. You're mad that I brought Murphy back into camp and you're mad I'm on his side not yours. Well, I'm sorry you're not the only person on Earth I'd die for, but you need to get over it." She says, not even realising what she's just admitted.
"Well the feeling is mutual." He mutters back, just as oblivious as Rory. He folds his arms and raises his voice to a normal level. "Why are you even out here? Shouldn't you be with Murphy?"
"You really think I wanted to leave him alone knowing you and Clarke are willing to shoot him?" Rory asks, raising her eyebrows and jutting her chin out. She doesn't get any kind of response from him, not even one of anger or annoyance, so she lets out a sigh and unfolds her arms. "If he could have, he would've pushed me out that ship. Told me to go after you even after you held a loaded rifle at him because he cares about me."
That gains a response from Bellamy, who lets out a bark of laughter. "John Murphy doesn't care about anyone other than himself."
Rory glares at him and steps towards him, poking her finger into his chest. "You don't know him like I do, no one down here does, so I'd appreciate it if you just shut the hell up about his intentions."
He grits his teeth and stares back at her. They both lock eyes for a brief period, neither of them backing down.
"That was really stupid what you did in there, Aurora." Bellamy snaps, his patience finally leaving him.
"Which part? Defending my friend who we banished and left alone to die who then got brutally tortured by the enemy because they wanted any piece of information they could get from him after we ruined our chance of peace? That part?"
He clenches his jaw, trying not to lose more of his cool. "The part where you stood in-front of a loaded gun."
"So that's what all this is really about?" Rory asks quietly. "Because I stopped you killing him?"
"Were you out of your goddamn mind? I could've killed you!" Bellamy shouts.
The two of them fall silent again, Rory not prepared for Bellamy's admission. He looks away first, turning his back on her and walking away. Rory shakes her head and follows after him, grabbing hold of his arm and turning him to face her.
"You wouldn't and you couldn't." She tells him.
"You don't know that! You don't know what was going through my mind. All I was thinking about was killing Murphy."
"I know you better than I know myself, Bellamy. Look, I know you don't trust me anymore and I know I need to earn that back but I still trust you. Nothing's changed for me and it never will. I always have and always will trust you." She softly tells him. "I'm sorry that I scared you, danger didn't even cross my mind because it was you. You'd never do anything to hurt me. This past year has been a lot and, we've both changed because of it. I get that. I don't like it but I understand it. You spent a year thinking I'd sold you and your family out to my father and then pretended you didn't exist. I spent the whole year thinking you were dead because of what I'd done. It's going to take time to get back to where we were, to those two kids that snuck out after curfew to look down on Earth, and I'm just..." She trails off, taking a shuddering breath. "I'm scared that we don't have enough time to do that. I don't want to keep fighting and arguing with you, I'm just so tired. And I- I miss you. I miss us. From now on we have complete honesty, no more lies."
Bellamy nods his head in agreement and the two of them start as they mean to go on. Rory tells him everything that happened after they had both got arrested, relaying the story she told Octavia hours earlier. He explains what happened to him the past year, about what happened in the cells and when he saw her afterwards doing her rounds. Nothing was left unsaid. Lying was all they knew on the Ark, never being able to tell the truth to anyone but each other. The tables turned when they landed on Earth, the lies were whispered to each other rather than outsiders who would never understand. But, these lies that were once so foreign on their tongues stopped here.
This was the first step to them finding the versions of themselves they left behind on the Ark. This was the first step to them becoming Rory and Bellamy again. From this day forward, no lies pass between them except for one. One lie, whispered so softly by Rory into Bellamy's ear. A moment no one wanted to intrude upon. I'll be back soon, I'll make it. But, that's a story for another time.
"Did you mean what you said in there? That if the time comes, you'd leave with him?" Bellamy quietly asks, once they've finished talking about their last year on the Ark.
"Yes." She tells him without hesitation. "But I also meant what I said to you a few days ago. I can't be part of a world without you in it. The last year was hell and I never want to go through that again. I know we've got slim chances of surviving down here for the long term but, on the rare chance we live to have a future, I can't picture mine without you in it. I care about you, a lot, and I hope you still care about me too."
"I do. I do still care about you." He quickly tells her, his heart breaking slightly at the thought that Rory thinks he stopped caring about her. "I just... I get mad when you do stupid things that put your life at risk. And, you do things like that a lot."
She lets out a short laugh. "You're one to talk."
"You can't leave with him." Rory hears Bellamy's unspoken words clear as day. He tells her she can't leave with Murphy, but what he really means is that she can't leave him behind. He can't watch Rory Montgomery walk out of his life again. "You know that one day you're going to have to choose, right? Him or us."
"I won't have to if you don't make me. I just-" She pauses, thinking through how to say her feelings to him, "I can't even begin to imagine losing either of you. First I lost Wells, now M-Marcus. I don't want to lose you too. When you walked out of camp today I was so scared that you weren't going to come back alive. I never feel like that, Bell."
"I'm not going anywhere, I promise." He tells her, pulling her into a tight hug. "Either we all go or none of us go."
- - - -
Whilst Rory and Bellamy hug it out in the middle of camp and eventually go their separate ways, Raven is hard at work in one of the tents. Even though it's futile, Raven still tries to fix the radio.
None of them on Earth know the horrific truth of what had truly gone down during Unity Day on the Ark. Whilst they were partying and celebrating their last few hours of freedom, all hell broke lose on the Ark. A bomb was let off in the middle of the Unity Day story killing multiple people, including Vera Kane, but missing its intending targets: Theolonius Jaha and Alexander Montgomery, the two men walking away with nothing more than a few scratches and a ringing in their ears for a few minutes. A coup, lead by Dianna Sydney and using the face of their Princess to create more sympathisers, had started. It all culminated in the rebels seizing control of the Exodus ship, and crashing into Earth because the ship wasn't ready yet. Marcus Kane and Abigail Griffin weren't on there. They're still alive and well.
"Oh. Sorry." Clarke says as she sees Raven sitting at the desk. "I didn't know anyone was in here."
"You okay?" Raven asks, noticing that something isn't right with Clarke.
Clarke nods her head, her eyes still darting around the tent. "Yeah."
Clarke begins to make her way out of the tent but Raven stops her. "Still nothing from the Ark. It's like they shut it down from their side. It could be solar flares blocking the signal." She trails off, allowing Clarke to fill in the rest.
"But you don't think so." Clarke says, not needing to ask for confirmation.
Raven pauses and looks down before shaking her head resolutely. "I got a bad feeling."
They're both silent for a few seconds, thinking through the all the terrible things that could've happened that led to the radio silence. Eventually, Clarke takes in a deep breath. "There's a lot of that going around." She quietly says. She looks at Raven for a few seconds before sending her a small, sad smile and then moves to leave again.
Raven takes off her headset and calls out to Clarke, stopping her once again. "Clarke, wait. I'm sorry about your mom." The tears that Clarke has been so desperately trying to fight, to keep inside of her, start to flow except there's something different about them this time. Bright, red blood falls from her eyes, startling Raven and making her rush over to Clarke. "Oh, my God, Clarke, your eyes."
Clarke quickly lifts her hand to her eyes, wiping away a tear. Her eyes widen in shock and confusion when she pulls her hand back and sees it covered in blood. As she tries to process what's happening, a voice calls out her name, pulling her from her thoughts. And, just like normal, she doesn't hesitate. She quickly heads outside and to Connor, the source of the cry.
"Clarke! Where's Clarke?" Connor desperately calls out, stumbling down the slope towards the centre of camp.
Clarke rushes out of the tent and towards him. "Connor?"
Connor's coughs cease for a few seconds allowing him to speak. "It won't stop." He tells her, his cough starting back up once more. Clarke looks at him closely, the space between his nose and mouth is covered with blood and his hands are just as bad.
Raven looks over at Clarke and hands her some cloth to wipe away the blood. "Clarke, What's happening?"
"Clarke! I need your help in here!" Rory screams from in the dropship, the terror in her voice clear to everyone. "Clarke, something's wrong with John!"
Just as Rory's screams start, a delinquent sat by the fire starts to loudly cough, attracting all of their attention. Blood falls from his mouth into his hand, all of his friends quickly backing away from him.
"Raven, get away from us." Clarke tells her.
Raven looks away from the scene by the fire and back to Clarke. "What?"
"They're the ones who brought Murphy in." Clarke says, quickly but carefully walking past Raven and heading to the dropship.
When she walks into the dropship she's met with the sight of Murphy coughing his guts up. Rory's sat next to him on the floor, her hand wrapped around his. Clarke can see the pain Murphy is in, his knuckles turning white from the sheer grip he has on Rory's hand. Rory doesn't flinch, she doesn't try to let go, she just wraps her arms around him and starts to whisper reassurances.
"Breathe, ok, just keep breathing. You're going to be just fine, we'll fix you. I've got you, I'm not going anywhere." Rory mutters to Murphy. She holds him tightly in her arms and rubs his back.
"Murphy, hey, look at me." Clarke says, kneeling down in front of him so he can see her. "I need you to tell me exactly how you escaped from the Grounders. What happened?"
Murphy manages to stop coughing, blood still drips from his mouth but he can speak, just about. "I don't know. I woke up, and they forgot to lock my cage. There was no one there, so I took off."
Clarke's face falls as she comes to one realisation. "They let you go." She mutters, leaning back and starting to stand up. "Rory you need to get away from him."
"I'm not leaving him!" Rory shouts, her focus now on Clarke. Tears, caused by the sheer fear of the concept of losing Murphy, start to fall from Rory's eyes. She doesn't bother to wipe them away, knowing more will just take their place. "Besides, Clarke, I carried him in here. I'm already infected, we both know that."
A solemn look graces Clarke's face, knowing that Rory is right and that she's already carrying the infection. Rory looks up at her with a sad smile just as Bellamy walks into the dropship carrying his rifle, ready to use it if he needed to.
Clarke holds out her hand to stop him. "Bellamy, stay back."
"Did he do something to either of you?" Bellamy asks, listening to Clarke for once and not getting too close. Clarke shakes her head in response, turning to face him and allowing Bellamy a clear view of Rory and Murphy on the floor. He takes them both in; he sees the fear in Rory's eyes and the way her hand shakes, he notices the tears flowing freely down her face, and he sees the state that Murphy is in. His eyes widen at the sight. "What the hell is this?"
"Biological warfare." Clarke tells him, watching her friend rocking Murphy back and forth in her arms and whispering to him. She walks over to the water bucket and soaks a piece of cloth in it, heading over to Rory and Murphy and crouching down next to them. "You were waiting for the Grounders to retaliate for the bridge? This is it. Murphy's the weapon."
"Is this your revenge," Bellamy asks, glancing at Derek and Connor who are both hunched over on the floor, "helping the Grounders kill us?"
Murphy shakes his head slightly, not wanting to force Clarke to stop cleaning the blood from his face. "I didn't know about this, okay, I swear."
"Stop lying." Bellamy shouts, his patience finally leaving him. "When are they coming?"
"Hey, back off." Rory shouts, quickly getting to her feet. "You really think if he knew he was their weapon he'd have come back?"
Bellamy is taken aback for a second when he sees the tears rolling down Rory's face, but quickly recovers. "Yeah, I do. We hanged him Rory, we don't know what he's willing to do."
"There's no we. We didn't hang him, you did." She spits out, venom seeping into every word. "This is all your fault. If he dies, this is on you and I will never forgive you!"
With her back to him, she doesn't see the smirk Murphy sends Bellamy's way. Rory moves back to Murphy, taking a seat next to him again and holding onto his hand.
"Murphy, think, all right?" Clarke asks him softly. "What can you tell us that's useful? Did you hear anything?"
Murphy thinks for a moment, trying to remember something, anything, that might help. But, he comes up short. "They are vicious, cruel."
"You want to see vicious?" Bellamy angrily asks, walking towards the trio ready to hurt Murphy.
Clarke holds out her hand again. "Hey, don't. Whatever this thing is, it spreads through contact."
"Oh god, Bellamy." Rory gasps. She lets go of Murphy and rushes over to the tub of Monty's moonshine that they had been using earlier to clean Murphy's wounds. "Use this, quickly."
Clarke frowns slightly, confused as to why Rory thought Bellamy needed decontaminating. "He hasn't been near Murphy, he'll be fine Rory."
"No, but he's had contact with me." Rory tells her before rushing over to Bellamy. "You need to get out of here and you need to change clothes and-"
"Hey, hey, calm down Ro. I'll be ok, you're not showing any signs of infection." Bellamy says, trying to calm her down. He holds out his hands, intending to place them on her arms to try to ground her and her mind, but Rory darts back before he can make contact. "We've got more important things to worry about anyways."
"No!" She shouts, her voice cracking as she does so. "No. Nothing is more important than making sure you're safe."
Just when the air starts to fall thick with tension, Finn makes his entrance, snapping everyone back to reality. He rushes into the dropship, calling out to Clarke.
"Finn, you shouldn't be in here. No one should." Clarke tells him.
"I heard you were sick." He says, Clarke only rolling her eyes slightly and turning back to face Murphy and Rory. He glances over his shoulder at Derek and Connor then back to Clarke. "Clarke, what is this?"
"I don't know, some kind of hemorrhagic fever. We just need to contain it before-" Before she can finish her sentence, Clarke gets cut off.
They all turn once they hear Derek's coughing turn into retching, unable to ignore the fact he's clearly getting worse. Blood pours from his mouth at an alarming rate, causing Clarke and Rory to rush over to him to try to help. Rory beats Clarke to Derek, Finn stopping Clarke in her tracks when he touches her arm.
"Hey, don't touch me. You could get sick. Wash your hands. Now." She tells him, continuing to make her way to Derek and Rory.
"What the hell is happening to him?" Finn asks, watching Derek cough up more blood.
Clarke shakes her head and watches the sick boy in concern. "I don't know."
Derek's whole body convulses with each cough. They get worse and worse until finally, they stop. Derek stops along with them, his body dropping the short distance to the floor and not moving again.
"Is he-" Bellamy asks, his voice trailing off at the end.
Clarke reaches her hand to Derek's neck, feeling for any sign of a pulse. "He's dead."
Rory lets out a quiet gasp and looks up at Clarke, her face filled with worry. "We need to stop this."
The whole room falls silent, each of them taking a moment to process Derek's death. Each of them taking a moment to process exactly what this means for everyone else. If Derek's dead, is there really any hope for the rest of them? Are they all going to end up the same way?
"Here. Alcohol. Hold out your hand." Clarke says to Finn, snapping them all back to reality.
Finn does as she asks. He holds out his hands and allows her to pour a large amount of Monty's moonshine into his hands. "What do we do?"
Clarke thinks for a few seconds before she answers. Bellamy and Rory stay silent, they're in charge with Clarke but when it comes to anything medical they know she's the best person to make decisions. "Quarantine. Round up everyone who had contact with Murphy. Bring them here." Finn nods his head and quickly exits the dropship, intent on finding all those who could be infected.
As soon as Finn passes him, Bellamy speaks up. "And everyone they had contact with?"
Clarke looks back at him. "Well, we have to start somewhere."
"Clarke's right." Rory says, walking back to Murphy and sitting down next to him, knowing there's no chance of her leaving the ship anytime soon. "We've gotta contain this as fast as we can, that means starting with all those that are sources. Maybe whatever this thing is gets less potent as it passes from person to person? That's best case scenario."
"And what's the worst case scenario?" Bellamy asks, not really wanting her to answer him.
"Worst case is that it doesn't get weaker. Worst case is that we all end up like Derek. But hey, at least then we don't have to worry about the Grounders coming and killing us. Or the weather. Or the people from the Ark." She tells him, undeterred by the looks they're all giving her. "We'd finally be able to stop fighting."
Clarke knows Rory is still keeping something from them, if it wasn't obvious after Charlotte died it is now. She notices Murphy place his hand on her knee and give it a reassuring squeeze. He knows, she thinks. If it had been any other day, in any other situation, she'd have brought it up but time isn't on their side and they can't afford to lose any precious minutes. So, she bites her tongue and pushes her worry to the back of her mind, focusing on Connor. "Connor, who was with you when you found him? Who carried him in? Think."
Connor thinks for a few seconds before he starts to speak, not really wanting to be the one to break the news to Bellamy. "The first one there other than Rory was-"
Rory answers for him, her eyes locked on Bellamy. "Octavia." She says, and Bellamy rushes out of the dropship to find his sister.
- - - -
Octavia is in her and Rory's tent, lying down on her bed. Lincoln's journal is in her hands and she takes the few rare seconds of peace that she has to look through it. Eventually, she comes across a drawing of herself and can't help the smile on her face widening. Her smile only grows when she turns the page a few more times and sees a few sketches of Rory including one of her addressing the crowd on Unity Day. She really did look like a Queen, she thinks to herself. Suddenly, a noise startles her from the entrance of the tent.
"Jee-" Octavia jumps at the sound of Bellamy entering the tent and quickly hides the journal under one of the blankets, "Jeez, you scared me."
Bellamy stays at the entrance of the tent, and studies his sister intently. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine. Get out." Octavia says, not even bothering to turn to face him.
"You touch Murphy yesterday?" He asks, this time Octavia turns around.
"What are you talking about? Where's Rory?"
"She's in quarantine." He tells his sister casually. His words are calm and measured, but inside he's loosing his mind. He keeps telling himself that it's his Rory, that girl is a fighter and she'll be ok. But if he doesn't pretend like it's no big deal, he'll go crazy with worry. So, he pretends. "Did you touch Murphy yesterday?"
"Woah, back up a minute. Quarantine?" She asks, her concern for her best friend overwhelming her confusion. "And I don't know. I guess so. Why?"
"The Grounders sent him here with a virus to infect us. Derek just died from it, another mark for your boyfriend's book. Get up. Clarke needs to examine you." He explains, then turns around and leaves the tent.
Octavia stays lying down, completely dumbfounded by the news. She watches him walk out of the tent and eventually snaps out of her daze. Before she leaves, she pushes the blanket on top of the journal to make sure it's well and truly hidden, then heads for the dropship.
When she reaches the dropship, Clarke, Bellamy and Rory are all waiting for her, a torch in Clarke's hand and cloths covering their mouths. She takes in the sight before her, and tries to hide the shock in her eyes upon seeing Murphy curled up in the corner. She doesn't want to make Rory even more worried. She doesn't struggle or protest, letting Clarke begin the examination.
"Okay. We're done." Clarke says, pulling the torch away from Octavia and falling against the ladder behind her. The sickness is definitely taking hold of her. "No visible signs of swelling or bleeding."
Bellamy breathes in a sigh of relief. "So you're saying she doesn't have it?"
"I'm saying she doesn't have symptoms, but that could change. We need to keep her here just in case."
Bellamy shakes his head adamantly. "No way. Look at this place. She'll get sick just being here. When I left, Rory was fine and now she's not." He says, gesturing to Rory's face where dark blood stains under her eyes.
"I'm still fine." Rory tells him. "But Clarke, you're not. You're exhausted and you need to rest."
Clarke doesn't protest when Rory holds onto her arm, giving her some support to stay upright. "Do you want to stop the spread, or not? Look. I'll keep her on the third level with the people who aren't symptomatic yet. Think of it as a way to stop her from sneaking out again."
Octavia sends Clarke a glare. "Screw you, Clarke."
Clarke ignores it, and keeps her attention on Bellamy. "I'll let you know if her condition changes."
Bellamy pauses for a second, contemplating whether to leave Octavia there or not and then decides Clarke is right. They need to stop the spread. He nods his head at Clarke then turns to leave, exiting the dropship leaving Octavia behind. Rory follows him out, leaving Octavia in the capable hands of Clarke.
"I'll make sure she stays safe, I promise." Rory calls out to him as she watches him walk down the ramp and to safety.
Bellamy merely nods and asks her a simple question, not wanting to show her how scared his is for her. "You going to be ok in there?"
"I've survived life this long." She says with a small smile on her face. Even in the face of impending danger and death, Rory still manages to joke. "I'll be ok. Promise me you'll stay safe and not do anything stupid whilst I'm in there? We all know I'm your impulse control."
Bellamy lets out a small laugh, and the smile previously on Rory's face now graces his own. "I promise."
She takes one last, long look at him and the outside world before turning on her heel and heading back into the dropship, praying that won't be the last time she sees him. That sentiment echoes in Bellamy's mind. He stays standing there, watching her walk away from him, until she disappears from sight completely, not wanting her to ever leave him.
Whilst the two of them steal one last conversation with each other, Clarke and Octavia are alone on the dropship. Octavia starts to make her way towards the ladder, intending to climb up to the level where those who aren't displaying symptoms are being held but, Clarke's words stop her in her tracks.
"Octavia, wait. I need you to sneak out again."
So she does. She leaves camp undetected, heading into the woods to Lincoln hoping that she'll return with answers, with a cure, so that she doesn't have to watch her best friend die.
- - - -
Whilst Octavia goes to find Lincoln, things get progressively worse in camp. More of the delinquents are falling victim to the sickness, and not all of them recovering, certainly not at the rate Rory has. The whole camp falls still when Rory and another delinquent start to carry out some of those who have lost their fight with the sickness. Another body gets placed on a sheet by the fire, Rory can't help but be reminded of Wells and Bellamy carrying Atom's body back to camp and placing him on the floor just inside camp.
"All right. Show is over. Get back to your posts." Bellamy shouts to the crowd that has gathered, all of them dispersing immediately. He walks over towards the dropship and watches Rory walk back up the ramp. "You guys got enough food in there? Water?"
"Yeah. Some medicine might be nice." Clarke mutters, the sickness increasing its hold on her.
"I'll see what I can do." Bellamy can't help but smile at her words. She sends him a small smile back and starts to head inside. "Octavia, you okay?" He asks, moving closer to the dropship when he doesn't get a response.
"Bellamy, wait. She's not here. I sent her to see Lincoln." Clarke reluctantly admits. Both Rory and Bellamy stare at her in surprise. "Look. If there's a cure, he has it. I didn't tell you because I knew you wouldn't let her go."
"If anything happens to her, we're gonna have problems." Bellamy tells her, walking away from the dropship heading further into camp.
Clarke watches him walk away and calls out to him to no avail. "Bellamy... Bellamy!"
"Why didn't you tell me? You let her go into the woods alone with no backup. I could've gone with her, I could've made sure she was ok." Rory says, taking her turn to be angry at Clarke. "I promised Bellamy I'd keep her safe, now he thinks I had something to do with it. Anything could've happened to her, Clarke."
The two of them watch Bellamy storm through camp, reaching a group of the delinquents. "Out of my way." He mutters, making one of them turn to face him.
Jason, one of the delinquents, looks at his friend horrified. Blood pours from his nose and eyes, he has the sickness. "Dude, your eyes!"
As soon as they hear this, a couple of gunners in the vicinity aim their rifles at the ill delinquent, ready to shoot if necessary. "Nobody touch him!" One of them shouts.
"Get to the dropship." Bellamy tells him, backing up with the others and pointing to the ship. "Now."
Raven watches the scene unfold with another group stood just behind the fire. "Hey are you okay?" She asks Fox as the girl starts to sway on her feet.
Fox doesn't answer Raven, she can't answer her. She collapses, a couple of other delinquents reaching out to grab her before she hits the floor. They can't shake the instinctive reaction to reach out. They regret it instantly, Fox projectile vomiting blood into their faces.
"Oh, my God. Oh, my God, it's on me."
The camp quickly erupts into chaos. Safety's click off all the guns, and they are all aimed at Fox and the other two delinquents who caught her. "Get away! Get back! Get back!" The gunners shout, forming a wall of guns between those who are ill and those who aren't.
Bellamy and Finn both rush forward into the middle of the chaos, telling the group to all calm down and put their weapons down. Gunshots suddenly erupt, the noise ricochetting through camp making everyone stop and turn to where the sound originated.
Clarke is stood on the ramp to the dropship next to Rory, rifle in her hand still pointing to the sky. "This is exactly what the Grounders want. Don't you see that? They don't have to kill us if we kill each other first." She tells the group as she walks off the ramp, and stands in front of them.
"They won't have to kill us if we all catch the virus. Get back in the damn dropship!" One of the boys shouts.
"If you don't put that gun down right now, I'll shoot you myself. You won't have to worry about the virus then." Rory says, taking the rifle from Clarke when she passes her. She stares down the other gunners, her rifle aimed straight at the boy who had threatened Clarke. "Everyone, guns down. That's an order."
They all back down except for that one particular boy. Unflinching, he keeps his rifle trained at Rory. She doesn't have to shoot, however, as Bellamy swiftly disarms him with an elbow to the throat. "Not to state the obvious, but your quarantine isn't working." He tells Clarke.
Clarke doesn't respond, the sickness finally catching up to her. Her eyes flutter shut and she sways on her feet, eventually her legs give way and she starts to fall to the ground. Finn and Rory both rush towards her, not caring about the sickness.
"Finn, don't touch her!" Raven shouts, just as Finn reaches Clarke and holds her in his arms.
"Hey, let me go. I'm okay." Clarke tells him weakly, the strength leaving her body even more.
Finn shakes his head, refusing to put her down. "No, you're not."
"Octavia will come back with a cure." She insists.
"There is no cure..." Octavia calls out, all of them turning to face her, surprised at hearing her voice. "But the Grounders don't use the sickness to kill."
"Really? Tell that to them." Bellamy tells his sister, gesturing towards the bodies that Rory had carried from the dropship earlier. "I warned you about seeing that Grounder again."
"This really isn't the time, Hotshot." Rory mutters to herself, glaring at the back of his head.
"Yeah? Well, I have a warning for you, too. The Grounders are coming... and they're attacking at first light." She states, the whole camp erupting in mummers. The fear in everyone's eyes is clear as day and one thought crosses all of their heads; we're not prepared for this. Before her message has sunk in, Octavia walks away towards the dropship and Finn, tearing her arm from Bellamy's grasp when he reaches out to her. "Come on. I'll help you get Clarke into the dropship."
Octavia stops when she gets to Rory, the older girl opening her arms and pulling her in for a tight hug. "I'm glad you're safe. Is Lincoln ok?" Rory asks, letting go of her and seeing Octavia nod her head. "Good. Murphy's getting better, he's still in the dropship so if you need help he's there for you. Clarke touched this rifle, can you disinfect it for me when you get chance with some of the moonshine in there?" Octavia smiles at Rory, taking the gun from her hand and continuing towards Finn. "Thank you, for everything O." Rory calls out to her before turning her attention to the other Blake.
"How many bullets can you make by first light?" Bellamy asks Raven, breaking her focus on Finn and Clarke.
Rory doesn't hesitate anymore and quickly walks over to Bellamy. "They're attacking at first light, we've got time, not a lot but we have some and we need to use it. They don't know that we know they're coming, we need to use this time to prepare."
"You're sure you've recovered? That you're feeling normal?" He asks, staring down at her intently. Rory nods her head and looks back at him defiantly. "Then over to you, Killer. Tell us all what you need, where you need us, and we'll do it."
"Listen up!" Rory calls out. The camp falls silent, all previous mummers hushed. "You all heard what Octavia said, the Grounders are coming. We don't have much time but we have a little so I need you all to stay calm and do exactly as I say. We've trained for this, everything you've learnt these past few weeks has been for this." She tells them, trying to settle their nerves slightly. "Our people are still ill, our numbers are depleted so our main focus is defence. We hold them off for as long as we can and try to take down as many as possible in the process. Gunners are our first line of defence, I need you to get your rifle and ammunition and take your place on the wall. There are limited supplies, don't shoot unless you are sure it's one of them moving. Monroe, you'll take the lead until Bellamy and I join you." She tells them, the group all nodding their heads in response. "If you weren't trained on the guns, I need you all to get a weapon from the armoury tent and keep it on you at all times. Oldest delinquents line up for first choice, when the time comes I want all the kids inside the dropship not out here fighting against men triple their size. Leftover weapons go to the Gunners, I want as many of them to also have a knife with them in case they run out of bullets. Miller, you're in charge of organising this." He nods his head, moving closer to the tent ready for when they all get dismissed. "Food and supplies need to be moved to a safe spot. Our final line of retreat is the dropship, if they break through we go there so we need our supplies there too. I don't want anyone going in there if they aren't ill so leave the supplies at the bottom of the ramp so we can take it up to the upper levels. With me I want Bellamy, Monty, Jasper, Harper, and Raven. We'll form a team to make as many bullets as we can in the next few hours." Those she names all nod, glancing at each other at the same time. "Look, I know this is scary. I'm not going to stand here and tell you it's all going to be ok and we'll all survive. We all need to take the next few hours to come to terms with our mortality and the likelihood that we won't all make it. Stay close to one another, be there for each other, and when they come have each other's backs. We're family and we always will be."
From the moment that Octavia returns with the news of the impending attack, Rory lets the person she was when she gave her speech on Unity Day loose again. She's their Queen, and they are her army and she'll lead their charge into battle even if the only thing that becomes of them is death. Death is one thing Rory Montgomery has never been afraid of.
- - - -
"There's five to a clip. Let's go. We need to get these guns on the wall." Bellamy tells the group.
Bellamy, Rory, Monty, Jasper, Raven and Harper have taken over the ammunition tent and set up a kind of conveyor belt to load the rifles. Each bullet gets checked, loaded into the clip, locked onto a cleaned rifle, and placed on the pile near the door. Whilst the others focus on the weapons, Rory studies the map she's made in her notebook. She picks out any weak spots in camp, tries to work out which way the grounders will attack so that those areas can be reinforced, and she plans out retreat routes in case the dropship isn't a viable option.
"Why just five?" Monty asks Raven quietly.
"We're running out of gunpowder." Raven mutters.
"Oh, we're so dead." Harper groans, glancing over her shoulder to the others.
"Don't worry. I got your back." Jasper tells Harper making Monty scoff. "Got something to say?"
Raven glares at them. "Hey, guys, stay focused. We're doing good. We need as many rounds done by dawn as we can."
Finn suddenly comes into the tent, making them all stop what they're doing momentarily. "It won't matter if there's no one left who can shoot. What do we need to build a bomb?" He asks Raven.
She shrugs her shoulders, contemplating the question in her mind. "Depends on what you're trying to blow up."
"How about a bridge?" Finn asks, all of them looking at him confused except for Rory and Raven.
"What are you talking about?"
"Murphy says he crossed a bridge on his way back here from the Grounders' camp. Sound familiar?" He asks the group.
Bellamy nods his head. "Yeah. So what?"
"So the virus is fast. He's already getting better. Rory's completely recovered. Blowing up the bridge won't stop the attack, but the longer we can delay it, the more of us will be able to fight." Finn explains.
"If it works, then we'd have the chance to build up our numbers and make sure every single person is ready to fight." Rory says, weighing up their limited options. She can't help but remember the day they found Murphy outside the walls of camp, and how unprepared they were then. "But if it doesn't, we lose our gunpowder supplies which means no more bullets. I think we need to take the risk. The gunners were a mess when we found Murphy, that's with everyone there and well, so having depleted ranks and a whole army of Grounders? The odds aren't great."
"Even if Murphy is telling the truth-- and that's a big if-- that bridge has survived a nuclear war and ninety-seven years of weather." Bellamy tells them, voicing one of Rory's concerns.
The familiar glint that Rory hasn't seen in a while graces Raven's eyes when she looks up at the group. "It won't survive me."
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A.N
We're back bitches! This is INSANELY delayed and I can't say sorry enough, this is longer than normal to make up for it a bit. I thought I'd have chance to write during my internship but, nope! No time at all! I just want to say a BIG thank you to all of you for sticking around and giving this book a read, it means so much and I've absolutely loved reading all your comments.
This ep has been super hard to write I'm not gonna lie but I really like how it turned out and I hope you all did too! It hasn't helped that I'm not a huge Bellamy fan rn after watching season 6 (we're at ep 10 in the UK at the moment) but I'm getting back to being one! There's a lot of foreshadowing in here for later seasons if you look closely. Also, if it wasn't obvious before I'm utterly in love with John Murphy. Oh and Octavia Blake too.
Questions: do you all prefer shorter chapters or longer ones? Andrew, the guy from the Ark, will be in the next book and I need a faceclaim, anyone have any suggestions of what you think he looks like?
I really hope you liked this chapter! Let me know in the comments what you thought and what we're your favourite parts, and leave a vote if you liked it!