A/N: Hey people of the internet! This is my first fanfic in a while so go easy on me if I'm rusty... This first chapter is a little slow only because I had to find a way to get our favorite star-crossed lovers together and this is the only way I could think of. Stick with me and it will (hopefully) get better! Its also on AO3 under the same title if you want to read it there.
The news of Earth's impending doom hung heavily over Clarke as she packed every last piece of food in her house into a sack. Every other resident of her small town had already done the same and began their search for a shelter that would withstand a dozen or so nuclear bombs. Many left with their families to get to the nearest army base, which were considered the safest places to reside during the upcoming apocalypse. After the global recommendation for everyone to take shelter, Clarke's, once mildly-populated, town succumbed to emptiness and silence. Clarke, however, stayed. She had no family or friends to tag along with, and no idea where to go. As army bases started to permanently close their doors, Clarke's only option was to fly out of state to search for one, but that plan proved to be worthless, considering plane ticket prices were rapidly climbing. Being a college drop-out who works at a fast-food chain, Clarke couldn't pay for a ticket, had she wanted to. She didn't want to leave, though. Every part of her felt perfectly content with living out her, possibly last few days alone. Or at least, that's what she told herself.
Still, she spent every waking moment searching for a sturdy looking structure that would miraculously survive the explosions. She never found any.
This day started no different from the rest; she woke up and brewed coffee as if the day was completely normal and the world wasn't on the verge of ending. When she turned on the small television in her apartment, it played the same automated message that it had been playing, day in and day out, for the past three days. It went something along the lines of "take shelter now and if you haven't, you're basically wishing a fiery, painful death upon yourself" and never failed to make Clarke miserable about the situation she was in. Despite this, she kept it on all day as if it was motivating her to go out and do something to help herself.
After sipping her coffee and staring at the television screen as if it was about to say something different, she decided to grab her backpack filled with food and head out to search for shelter, again. Her apartment complex was eerily quiet as she left her home and descended a few flights of stairs to get to the ground level. She walked out of the vacant lobby and over to the bike stand that held her old, worn bicycle. She hadn't bothered to lock it up the night before, considering there was no one there to steal it.
She had spent the last few days biking through neighborhoods and planned to spend this day doing the same. The morning air was colder than usual and held a thick humidity, telling Clarke that winter was approaching. She wondered if she would be alive long enough to see another winter. The thought wasn't contemplated for long before she pulled her bike from the rack and climbed on it.
The streets were littered with trash and debris as if a tornado had blown through and swept everything away, including the people. Clarke didn't understand how people could just get up and leave in an instant. She had passed by countless houses with lights still on, or even a TV still playing the automated message. People had, quite literally, dropped everything and left, even if that meant racking up a hefty electric bill.
There was a park, a few lots away from Clarke's apartment complex, that she passed every day on her hunt for shelter. The park was beautifully red and orange, as it was every fall, and Clarke couldn't stop herself from glancing at it longingly as she passed. The leaves had just started to fall, making the trees look patchy and coloring the ground with bright yellows and contrastingly brown underbrush. Squirrels roamed freely through the trees, unfazed by the sudden drop in human population. Clarke wondered what would happen to the squirrels after the bombs, but swiftly averted her thoughts to a less depressing topic.
Past the park were more buildings, such as restaurants and offices. Clarke reminded herself to come back to them for more food if she ever found a place to stay. She rode by her favorite café and daydreamed about her favorite coffee and what she would give to have just one more cup. She made another mental note to raid the café, too.
Soon the buildings became fewer and farther in between, until the streets split off into more streets, and those streets led to neighborhoods. Clarke had already combed through the communities, but the thoroughness of her search always hung questioningly over her. Still, she kept biking until she was in unfamiliar territory. She assumed that she had arrived in a not-so-good part of town. Dirt roads twisted and turned in every direction, leading to who knows where. The paths were surrounded with overgrown grasses and trees, making it seem as if they would lead into a forest-like land. Clarke turned down one of the roads, hoping to find a house at the end of the trail.
The shade from the trees mixed with the cold of the air and the silence put Clarke on edge. She couldn't help but realize that too many scary movies had been made in this exact type of location. She kept going, though, holding onto the hope that maybe even serial killers had taken shelter. The path became more narrow and didn't even look wide enough for a car to fit through, telling Clarke there probably wasn't a house anywhere. But what if there was? Continuing forward, she had come to realize that she had forgotten which way she came from and which way she was supposed to be going.
She slowed her pedaling, letting one shoe drag along the dirt to stop her bike from moving further, and looked around. She was lost. Turning her head to look behind her, she saw that the many twists in the path had left her unable to recall which ones to take to get back. Panic set in for a split second before Clarke forced herself to calm down.
"Just retrace your steps," she said aloud, quiet enough for just herself to hear it. She got off her bike and decided to walk it alongside her, turning to to face the way she had come from (or at least the way she thought she came from). Her constant second guessing kept her from feeling confident about the correct road to take. Each turn she took seemed to make the path smaller and smaller until it tapered off into endless stretches of forest. Yeah, definitely lost.
In frustration, she threw her bike from her grip, watching it fall into the dirt. She found a large oak tree to sit against and took off her backpack to get something to eat. You just need some brain food. Then you'll be able to find your way out. She assured herself, unzipping the bag and pulling out a couple granola bars. She ripped open the packaging and practically shoved the bar into her mouth, fully realizing how hungry she was.
The first bar was gone in a matter of seconds, and the next one followed shortly after. She reached into the sack again and felt her hand brush over her cell phone. She reluctantly grabbed it and clicked it on, only having one new notification. It wasn't a text or a call. Instead, it was an error message, telling her that she was no longer connected to a network. She had known the day would come eventually that phones stopped being able to make calls, but the abruptness of it all left Clarke with a pit of guilt in her stomach. She unlocked the screen and frantically clicked on her messages, opening the recent conversation with her mom- the one that she had yet to respond to.
The worried texts from her mom were all asking where she was, if she was okay, and telling her to move back in so they could be together during all of this. Clarke had meant to respond- she really had, but after not speaking to her mom in months, she found it hard to find the right words to say. And now she didn't have the chance to type them, even if she wanted to. The regret was overwhelming, forming tears in the corners of her eyes and blurring her vision. Despite the notification she had just seen, she typed out a short message to her mother, hoping, begging for it to go through. A blue line started to move across the top of her screen, telling her it had started sending, but as quickly as the blue line appeared, it was gone and replaced itself with a bright red exclamation mark next to the text. Message not sent.
Clarke's face grew red from anger, mostly at herself, but also at the stupid bombs that were going to crash into the Earth any day now. Her hand squeezed around her phone, threatening to crush it in her palm. Desperate to get the device away from her, she chucked it at a tree trunk and watched it shatter into splintering glass and metal. Admittedly, it was a foolish idea, but why would she need a phone that didn't work anymore?
She blinked a few tears from her eyes and looked down at the bag in her lap. The bag of food. Food that she was supposed to be eating sparingly. But in that moment, she couldn't care less about the need to save food. For all she knew, she could be permanently lost in this forest, without shelter. What was the harm in enjoying herself while she had the chance? She carelessly dipped her hand back into the bag and pulled out a packaged snack cake. She had been eating them since she was little and still loved everything about them. Needless to say, the treat was gone in seconds and she had no intention to stop eating.
After consuming an embarrassing amount of sweets and junk food, she reached back into the bag, telling herself for the umpteenth time that this would be her last one. However, before she could pull out anything, the sound of crunching leaves broke her from her binging. She looked up, expecting to see some animal that had been drawn to her from the smell of food, but instead, she saw a crossbow aiming straight at her forehead. Her eyes widened, not even noticing the person holding it.
She didn't even think crossbows were real. She had always assumed they were just made up weapons used specifically for television shows, and seeing one pointing at her left her wishing she was right about her previous assumptions.
Instinctively, she removed her hands from the bag and slowly raised them above her head, hoping to dissuade the person from firing the weapon.
The first words to come from the figure seemed to be a different language (or perhaps fear had made her delirious; she wasn't sure which one was more likely). The voice was womanly, prompting Clarke to look a few inches above to arrow at the green eyes and dark brown hair that held the weapon. Clarke could feel every muscle in her body going stiff. There was a human standing in front of her. For a moment, she thought she was hallucinating, thinking that there couldn't possibly be anyone left besides her.
She must have been lost in thought for too long, because the rough voice spoke again. The words were still lost to Clarke, confirming that the girl had to be speaking a different language. Clarke's arms began to shake above her as she wondered how the hell she would convince the girl to not shoot her, without being able to talk to her.
The crossbow came up to the stranger's eye, as if she was preparing to fire, and Clarke's heart jumped, trying to think of a solution before the girl got too impatient. Clarke raised her hands higher, crossing her arms over her face as if they could shield the arrow from hitting her. Her arms blocked her vision, causing her to flinch when she heard the girl step closer.
Within a few seconds, the brunette was standing right in front of her, towering over her with a mischievous look on her face. Clarke turned her head away from the weapon, which was still aiming ominously at her forehead. Her cheek brushed gently against the bark of the tree she was sitting against, preventing her from backing up any farther in attempt to get out of her current situation.
From the corner of her eye, Clarke could see one hand leave the weapon and reach down to Clarke's bag. Clarke had half a mind to grab her bag and pull it closer to herself, but the panic running through her had seemingly paralyzed her. The girl's hand wrapped around the backpack strap and tugged it from Clarke's lap. She slung it over her shoulder, allowing Clarke to catch a glimpse of a fading tattoo on the upper half of her arm.
The thief backed away, still sporting a look that Clarke could only describe as a mix of malice and complacency. Clarke could only imagine the "deer-caught-in-headlights" look covering her own face. She assumed that the mysterious girl noticed this dumbfounded expression, considering the smallest smirk that appeared on her lips before she turned and ran off, taking the last of Clarke's food with her.
Part of Clarke wanted to go after the girl (she knew she could catch up if she used her bike), but the other part of her didn't see the point in putting herself in danger just for some food. Finally lowering her hands from her face, she let out a shaky breath that she was unaware of holding and tried to make sense of the events that had just taken place.
No food, no shelter, no phone, and she was lost. She forced a few more calming breaths before slowly standing up and pulling her bike from the dirt. The girl's face occupied her thoughts, still confusing her more with each passing second.
Where had the girl come from? Why was she hiding in a forest when she should be seeking shelter?
Unless her shelter is somewhere in the forest.
Suddenly, Clarke's eyes lit up with inspiration. If she could find where that bag-stealing girl was headed, it should theoretically lead her to some sort of shelter. Foolishly ditching her plan to get back to her own house, she flipped her bike around and pushed it forward, in the direction that the girl ran off.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. The voice in her head chanted with each step she took. She was well aware of the many faults in her plan, but continued anyways, having no other ideas. She reckoned that the plan couldn't make things any worse, considering she was already in a worst-case-scenario.
You could catch up to her and end up with an arrow in your skull.
Okay, maybe things could get worse but Clarke forced that thought from her head.
Within a few minutes of walking, the trails had started to widen again, instilling a hopeful feeling in her chest. This sensation quickly dissipated, however, when she noticed how overwhelming the land in front of her was. There were countless different routes to take and those paths split into dozens more, making Clarke wonder if she was just inside one, big maze.
After a couple hours of walking and convincing herself that she would find shelter any minute, Clarke was close to giving up. The sun was just starting to set and Clarke had passed so many trees, she wondered if she would ever see anything besides them again.
A shining object drew her out of her thoughts and made excitement bubble up inside her. She leaned her bike against a trunk to investigate. Clarke squatted down and brushed away some dirt and leaves, only to have her hopes ripped from inside her when she saw what the shiny item was.
The glimmering was from a large piece of glass, and under that piece of glass was a familiar piece of metal that Clarke recognized to be her phone.
She'd already been here. Perhaps more than once.
The broken glass compelled her to actually give up. She dropped to the ground and buried her head in her hands, trying her best not to scream out in anger. She rubbed her eyes in exhaustion and looked at the sky to see that it was getting late. The throbbing in her legs made sleep sound tempting and the irritation building inside her justified a break.
For the first few minutes, Clarke just stared blankly, consumed by her own thoughts. But soon, her eyes felt heavy, both from the tears she had shed earlier and the fatigue taking over her. She could continue to search for the road that led back to her house, but if her previous experience was an indication of how that would go, she didn't want to waste the energy. But did she really want to sleep outside? She was already laying down before she thought of her answer to the question.
The ground was extremely uncomfortable (even when she piled leaves into pillows to support her head) and she was reminded of this discomfort each time she rolled over and felt dull aches in her back and neck. By the time she was falling asleep, the space around her had become darker and colder, making Clarke wish for the comfort of her bed and the warm blankets that were on it.
She did fall asleep eventually, though. It wasn't very deep and each time she woke up she felt more uncomfortable than the time before, but nonetheless, it was sleep.
Clarke's eyes snapped open earlier than they should have, indicating that something had awoken her. She was proven correct in her thinking when she heard the distant sound of leaves crunching.
Bolting upright, Clarke scooted against the large base of a tree as if it would protect her from whatever was drawing near. The footsteps were almost certainly from a human. What was another person doing out in the forest?
Unless it's not another human.
Clarke couldn't bring herself to believe that she would run into the same girl twice in one day. Only did she believe it when she saw a familiar head of brown (and the infamous crossbow) walking towards her.
A/N: you made it to the end, congratulations! I plan on having a new chapter up every sudnay or monday, but could easily be persuaded to post sooner with a few kind reviews! (;