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Chapter 1: Pilot
With a heavy sigh, Bellamy shuts the door of the trash chute and wipes his hands on his uniform. He's gotten rid of the last of that day's garbage and is now free to return to his quarters for the night. Without a word to any of his coworkers, Bellamy returns his janitorial cart and flashes his maintenance badge to ensure that his hours would be clocked for the day.
It had been like this for months. Ever since he'd made that reckless decision to let Octavia go to that party. The decision that had resulted in his demotion, Octavia's confinement, and his mother's death. He supposed that maybe in part he was punishing himself – cutting himself off from everyone on the ark, refusing to make friends with any of his coworkers. But the truth is, Bellamy knows he deserves it. He deserves to be miserable for the rest of his life. After what he did, he should have been the one to have been floated – to have risked Octavia and his mother the way he did for the selfish pleasure of putting a smile on his sister's face – he was the one to blame. And his punishment had been the lightest of the three.
He slowly makes his way back to his quarters. There is no reason to rush really. The empty room he calls home is only a reminder of the family he'd ripped to pieces. Out in the ark corridors, Bellamy can pretend that everything is as it used to be. He can pretend that Octavia is waiting for him to come home, to tell her all about his day. Octavia loved hearing Bellamy's stories about life outside their four walls. Even a story as mundane as having to take the long route to work because the main corridor was closed for maintenance would have Octavia on the edge of her seat.
But when Bellamy opens the door to his quarters, Octavia isn't sitting there waiting anxiously for him to come home. His mother isn't on her way home with rations for two that they would divide into rations for three. The room no longer bears any sign of life. Not Octavia's, not his mothers… not even Bellamy's.
When his mother had been floated and Octavia confined, Bellamy had cleared out all the personal belongings that they'd left behind. He'd thought that seeing them everyday – his mother's favorite sweater, Octavia's hair ribbons – would be too painful. But looking around at the empty room, Bellamy wonders if this isn't more painful. Spending everyday in a room that was only a shell of what it used to be. Staring at an empty chair day in and day out that should have been occupied by his sister. But there's nothing Bellamy can do. This is his life now.
A knock at the door pulls Bellamy from his thoughts. Feeling a little annoyed at the disturbance, Bellamy turns around and walks to the door, pushing it open to see who could possibly be interested in seeing him.
"Cadet Blake."
The man at the door is Lieutenant Shumway.
"It's janitor Blake now, Lieutenant."
If Shumway has only come to mock Bellamy's new station, then Bellamy is ready to shut the door right in the man's face. How dare he come waltzing in after everything that happened? After Shumway arrested Octavia, testified against both Octavia and Bellamy's mother, pressed the button that floated his mother, cut Bellamy from the guardsman training program? How dare he show up at Bellamy's door after ruining everything in Bellamy's life?
And suddenly, Shumway is inviting himself inside and Bellamy is letting him. Of course, Bellamy would rather punch the man in the face than let him into the home he'd shared with his family, but Bellamy knows better. A punch in the face of a Lieutenant – Commander now, as Shumway informed him – would only result in Bellamy getting floated. The ark has a zero-tolerance policy on violence towards guardsmen.
"What the hell do you want from me?" Bellamy asks.
He knows that Shumway had to have come for a reason. And then Shumway mentions Octavia.
"Is she okay?" Bellamy asks, his entire body freezing up as he imagines the worst. What could have happened to her that would have the Commander at his door?
And then Shumway tells him about the mission to earth.
"No, no… you can't, it's not safe, you have to stop them!" Bellamy cries, unable to move, unable to think, unable to breathe. Octavia was supposed to get a second chance. On her eighteenth birthday, her case would be reviewed, and the decision would be made to either let her return to life on the ark, or to float her. Bellamy had been counting on Octavia received her freedom. After all, it isn't as though Octavia was the one that had broken the law. And their mother had already been floated. But if Shumway is telling the truth and Octavia is being sent to the ground – even if she didn't die immediately from radiation, she wouldn't last long without any survival skills.
And then Shumway offers Bellamy a seat on the drop ship and Bellamy knows there's going to be a catch, but he also knows that he doesn't have a choice. Letting Octavia go to earth alone, with a bunch of juvenile delinquents? That's not even an option.
The next thing Bellamy knows, Shumway hands him a gun. "Kill the Chancellor," the Commander orders him.
Bellamy takes the gun in his hands and suddenly all the rage he feels, all the hopelessness, all the despair of the last months come to a head and Bellamy points the gun right at Shumway. It would be so easy, just to pull the trigger and end the man's life right there. Bellamy doesn't care about the Chancellor, but he sure as hell knows he'd like Shumway dead. But Shumway makes a good point. Octavia's ship is about to leave and Bellamy needs Shumway to get onto it. He can't kill Shumway. Not yet anyway.
Bellamy lowers the gun and nods. "What's the plan?"
Shumway immediately bolts into action.
"First, you'll need a guardsman uniform. It's the only way you'll get onto the dropship," he says as he leads Bellamy out into the corridor. "Now, the Chancellor is going to be supervising the boarding of the dropship, so it's going to be tricky getting in a good shot. I'll distract everyone by saying there's a prisoner trying to escape. When they all look the other way, you shoot. As soon as the Chancellor drops, everyone will rush to his side, which will be your cue to get on that dropship. Once the doors close, you're on your own."
"Just one question," Bellamy says, pausing outside the door to a janitor's closet that Shumway claims to have stashed a guardsman's uniform in. "Why do you want the Chancellor dead?"
"Does it matter?" Shumway asks.
Bellamy realizes it doesn't. He'll kill Jaha either way if it means protecting his sister.
Getting into the guardsman uniform feels strange, alien. As a cadet, he'd always aspired to one day get to wear the full uniform, but this feels like a lie – he didn't earn this uniform, he stole it. But that doesn't matter now.
He emerges from the closet fully dressed and stashes the gun in his weapons pouch. Then he follows Shumway towards the hangar bay where the dropship is being loaded with 100 of the teenage prisoners from the sky box.
Bellamy cranes his neck, frantically trying to catch a glimpse of Octavia, but it's no use. There are too many people, and besides, Octavia might already be on board. Shumway gestures in the direction of Chancellor Jaha and Bellamy nods, getting into position between the dropship and the Chancellor. He has to wait only a moment for Shumway to make his exclamation.
"Stop her! She's trying to escape!" he cries.
Everyone turns to see where Shumway is pointing. Even the prisoners stop walking to see who might be trying to escape.
Bellamy knows it's not or never. He glances around to ensure that nobody is watching and then realizes that even if they are watching, he still has to do this. He won't get another opportunity like this one. He raises the gun, points it at the Chancellor, and closes his eyes.
"My sister," he mutters under his breath as he works up the nerve to pull the trigger. "My responsibility."
He shoots. A loud bang goes off and Bellamy stumbles a bit, surprised by the kickback.
Everything is chaos. People are screaming, people are crying, and almost everyone is running to see if the Chancellor is alright. Bellamy runs in the opposite direction.
The dropship isn't far, but when he reaches it, he finds that the commotion he left behind is nowhere to be found. Down here, nobody knows that the Chancellor is dead yet. Bellamy had been counting on the chaos to ensure that nobody would see him slip into the dropship. Without it, Bellamy will have to improvise.
The prisoners are boarding the dropship in a straight line. Guardsmen are all around, ensuring that everything goes smoothly and efficiently. Bellamy knows that as soon as the prisoners are all on board, his chance to board too will be gone. So, on an instinct, Bellamy steps out, grabs the nearest prisoner – a girl – by the arm, and leads her into the dropship himself.
"Hey! What are you - ?" the girl cries, unhappy at being manhandled.
"Shut up," Bellamy mutters, keeping his head down as he passes the guardsmen. If they were to see his face, they might realize he isn't one of them.
As soon as they're on board the dropship, Bellamy releases the girl and she hurries away to take a seat, shooting Bellamy annoyed looks as she does so. Meanwhile, Bellamy scans the space, hoping that Octavia is on this level. When he concludes that she isn't, he's about to turn around to try a higher level, only to find that the prisoners are all on board and that the doors are closing.
"This is it," Bellamy mutters under his breath, to the confusion of some of the teenagers nearby. He locates the last empty seat on his level and sits down, ensuring that the restraints are fastened tightly. The trip to earth will be rough, and Bellamy doesn't want to get thrown from his seat.
"You're coming with us?" the boy across from Bellamy asks, frowning at his uniform.
Bellamy nods, not in the mood to entertain a long conversation about what he's doing there and how he isn't actually a guardsman.
There's a loud noise, and the dropship starts to vibrate. Bellamy knows it's getting ready to drop and he closes his eyes and prays that the landing doesn't kill them all immediately. If they're all destined to die on earth, he wants – he needs – to see Octavia at least one more time. He needs her to know that she isn't alone, that she isn't going to die on earth alone.
Another loud noise and the vibrating stops. The weightlessness tells Bellamy that they have separated from the ark and are heading to earth. He opens his eyes and looks around at all the terrified faces surrounding him. These people – these children – they aren't ready for this. None of them seem capable of fending for themselves, of surviving alone on earth. One hundred isn't many people and the earth could hold any number of unimaginable dangers.
Another loud noise and the lights flicker. A few people scream as the whole ship shakes. Bellamy feels his heart jump a little in fear, but he swallows it. He can't be scared, not with everyone else so terrified. Someone has to keep a cool head if they're all going to survive down there. If Octavia is going to survive down there.
Monitors on the walls flash and suddenly, there is the Chancellor, taking about second chances and wiping their slates clean. Bellamy's first thought is that this must be a recording, because Jaha is dead and couldn't possibly be speaking live right now. Bellamy's second thought is that there is no way his slate is going to be wiped clean. But there's no time to dwell on this right now.
Bellamy knows the moment they enter earth's atmosphere because suddenly the ship starts shaking like crazy. There are a few screams, people crying out that they're all going to die, and Bellamy closes his eyes and tries to ignore them. The lights continue to flicker, and the monitors go dead. The shaking gets worse and now sparks are flying everywhere. This ship is something like a hundred years old, and suddenly Bellamy isn't so sure it's going to make it.
Then, as abruptly as it all started, they feel a hard jolt and everything stops. They've landed. Bellamy opens his eyes and stares around at the others in wonder. Everyone seems a little shocked that they didn't die upon re-entry into earth. Nobody says anything for a moment, and then the restraints release and it's a free-for-all.
Frantically, Bellamy pulls himself out of his restraints and stands up, rushing to the front of the group. Bellamy had been seated on the lower level of the ship – the level with the doors – and everyone is clamoring to get outside. It's chaos, and Bellamy decides in that moment that he is going to take charge.
"Hold it!" he cries, putting himself between the teenagers and the door. He holds his hands up. "Just back it up guys!"
Bellamy locates the lever that will open the door and goes to pull it. The sooner the doors are open and everyone starts leaving the ship, the sooner he'll be able to find Octavia.
But then someone yells out "stop" in a voice so commanding, so authoritative, that Bellamy pauses. Is there someone else on board this ship, besides the prisoners, who is actually in charge? Did the ark send someone to lead the teenagers?
The girl pushes towards the front of the crowd, going on about how the air could be toxic and kill them all and Bellamy is annoyed. It's not an adult at all, just another juvenile delinquent. In fact, Bellamy recognizes her as the daughter of one of the council members. Bellamy rolls his eyes. Who does she think she is, bossing him around? Just because her mother is on the council doesn't mean she suddenly gets to be in charge. Bellamy is older, has more life experience. This girl probably spent her earth skills classes passing notes with her friends instead of listening.
Bellamy snaps back a retort and turns again to the lever that will open the doors. He is about to pull it when a familiar voice calls out to him from behind the crowd, softly, but loud enough that he can hear it over the chatter.
"Bellamy?"
Octavia.
Bellamy can barely believe his ears. Of course, he knew she was here somewhere. It was the reason he'd gotten on this ship in the first place. But hearing her voice and seeing her in person was different. It was real.
Bellamy turned around and watched as the crowd parted, making way for Octavia who was pushing her way forward. Bellamy hadn't seen her in months – practically a year – and he found himself shocked at the change he saw in her. She looked so much older than when he'd last seen her. Her hair was down, rather than tied up with a ribbon, and her eyes had this look about them, this look that somewhere along the line she'd lost her innocence and her optimism. But as he continued to stare at his sister, he could see some of the light returning to them. She walked closer to him and then her arms were around him and he was hugging her back, holding her close, determined to never let her go again, to never let anything bad ever happen to Octavia for as long as he was alive.
"Where's your wristband?"
It's that annoying girl again. The one who seems to think she's in charge. Bellamy opens his mouth to tell her to mind her own business, but Octavia answers her instead.
"Do you mind?" she asks. "I haven't seen my brother in a year."
Bellamy is surprised by the harsh tone in Octavia's voice. In all the years he'd known her, she'd always been his sweet little sister. Already from the few moments he'd spent with her, he could tell that the months she'd spent in confinement had hardened her, turned her into someone different than she'd been.
Bellamy doesn't have time to think too long about this though, because Octavia's words have set off the crowd. To have a brother is a rare thing on the ark – almost unheard of – and suddenly everyone is interested in telling the story of how Octavia was kept hidden under the floorboards for fifteen years.
Bellamy looks to the crowd and then to Octavia, worried that she's going to be upset by the gossip that is being spread about her and cry. But Octavia does something Bellamy wouldn't have expected and she lunges toward the crowd. Bellamy grabs her by the arm and pulls her back, shocked at the aggression he's seeing in his sister and determined to put an end to it – to bring her back to who she used to be.
"Let's give them something else to remember you by," Bellamy says to Octavia, trying to re-direct her attention from the crowd and back to him. If he can just get her to focus on him, he knows he can get her to soften. Then he offers her the chance to be the first one to touch the ground and the smile Octavia gives him reminds him of the smile she had when he told her that he was going to take her to that party.
He shakes away that last thought as he turns to pull the lever. This time, there won't be any negative consequences. The ark isn't here anymore. Shumway can't hurt either of them now that they're down on the ground. Bellamy pulls the lever and the door opens, a blinding light appearing through the hole where the door used to be.
For a moment, nobody moves. Everyone just stares at the sight before them. Bellamy watches Octavia mesmerized by the wonder on her face and the anticipation in her slow walk down the ramp towards the ground. She reaches the end of the ramp and jumps off it to the ground, pausing a moment as she revels in the feel of having her feet actually on the earth. And then in one fluid movement, she raises her arms in the air and screams out in glee, "we're back bitches!"
Bellamy can't help the smile that fills his face as the ship full of teenagers goes crazy, everyone pushing forward to rush out and explore the forest before them. Bellamy pushes his way forward too and steps up to Octavia. This time, the look on her face is one Bellamy has never seen before. The joy and the total freedom he sees in her expression blows him away and he happily walks away to let her enjoy it.
As Bellamy walks away and watches everyone else revelling in the wonder that is the ground, he starts to worry. And now that they're all out of immediate danger, he has the time to worry. On the recording, the Chancellor said that the rest of the ark would be following them down once they knew the earth was survivable. The Chancellor also promised in the recording that the juveniles would all be pardoned for their crimes. But Bellamy isn't a juvenile and his crime is worse than the rest of them. If the ark comes down, Bellamy is sure he'll be executed on the spot for treason. And he can't protect Octavia if he's dead.
So Bellamy concludes that there's only one thing he can do. He and Octavia need to leave. The longer they stay here, the harder it will be to leave, so they need to leave right away. He'll grab enough rations to last them a few weeks, and then they'll head out and find a place of their own to settle down in. Somewhere far from the dropship and the one hundred prisoners – ninety-nine, Bellamy supposes, if he brings Octavia with him. The one positive thing about being on the ground, Bellamy realizes, is that unlike on the ark, he and Octavia actually stand a chance of taking off on their own and never being found.
Once the hype of being on the ground starts to die down, Bellamy locates Octavia so that they can get the hell out of there. Soon, someone is going to step up and take charge, and once that happens, the rations they came down with will surely be counted and monitored. Bellamy needs to get out of there before any sort of order is instilled.
"Come with me," Bellamy mutters to Octavia, leading her around to the front of the ship.
Octavia follows willingly enough for now, though Bellamy fears that she might be harder to convince once he reveals his plan in full.
They start to approach the ramp that leads into the dropship to find that an altercation is already occurring. Bellamy is unsurprised to find that the blond girl from earlier is in the thick of it, along with the Chancellor's son. They are arguing with a group of boys who appear as though they would like to declare themselves in charge.
Bellamy hears the Chancellor's son – Wells, he recalls – say something about trying to figure out where they all are and Bellamy feels himself getting annoyed. Why not let the group of boys be in charge? Why do Wells and the blonde seem to think that they're automatically in charge, just because of who their parents are? Suddenly, without even meaning to, Bellamy is calling out.
"We're on the ground. That not good enough for you?" he demands.
Wells walks forward and starts making some speech about following the Chancellor's directives and locating Mount Weather and then Octavia responds, sounding just as annoyed as Bellamy does with the way these two seem to think that they know better than the rest of them what to do. The blonde claims not to care who's in charge and Bellamy finds that laughable. Of course she wants to be in charge, or else she wouldn't be making such a big scene and she'd just be enjoying the trees and the grass and the dirt like the rest of the teenagers. Instead, she claims that everyone needs to pick up and follow her on a trek through the forest to Mount Weather, where the Chancellor claims there are supplies.
And Bellamy is so fed up with this girl that he speaks up again.
"I've got a better idea," he says. "You two go, find it for us. Let the privileged do the hard work for a change."
Everyone who's listening seems to agree that the son and daughter of the elites on the ark need to be punished and turn subservient to the rest of them, but honestly, all Bellamy wants is for Wells and the blonde girl to go away, at least until Bellamy can get Octavia to leave with him. The blonde claims the trek to Mount Weather is twenty miles, so hopefully by the time they return, Bellamy will be long gone.
Wells protests this, of course, and then a fight breaks out between him and the apparent leader of the other group. Bellamy tries to pull Octavia away, figuring that this would be a perfect opportunity to slip away unnoticed, but Octavia pulls her arm from his grasp, wanting to stay and watch the fight unfold. Bellamy rolls his eyes, but doesn't fight Octavia on this, figuring that if he was about to pull her away from the only society on earth, the least he could do was let her witness one lousy fight.
The fight doesn't last long though, some guy with long hair jumping down off the top of the dropship and inserting himself between the two parties. He turns to the angry boy and points out that Wells has a bad leg, and that the fight is hardly fair. The boy considers his options for a moment and then backs off, probably deciding that it wouldn't look too good to fight a crippled kid.
Bellamy turns back to Octavia, ready to suggest they leave now that the fight is over and there's nothing left to watch, but it turns out Octavia has left, and is walking over towards the boy with the long hair.
"Hey spacewalker!" she cries out. "Rescue me next."
The way Octavia says it has Bellamy cringing on the inside. The look she gave him, the sultry tone she used – she was flirting with the long-haired delinquent boy! And Bellamy doesn't like it. When did she even learn about flirting? When did she even start thinking about boys like that?
Bellamy walks up to Octavia and gives her a disapproving look. His hope is to make her feel ashamed for her overt display. He wants her to realize that her behavior was inappropriate and that she shouldn't be acting like that. Instead, she sizes Bellamy up, demanding "what? He's cute."
Bellamy tries to reason with her, but Octavia is insistent that there's nothing wrong with flirting with a criminal.
"Look O, I came down here to protect you," Bellamy says, grabbing Octavia's arm and pulling her away. He'd tried to play nice, tried to be patient with Octavia, but enough is enough. If Octavia's going to be difficult, then Bellamy's not going to give her a choice.
"I don't need protecting!" Octavia cries, pulling her arm out of Bellamy's grasp again. She goes on to yell about how she's spent her whole life locked up and how she needs to just enjoy life, and Bellamy knows that she has a point. And Bellamy realizes that he can't expect Octavia to ever be the same girl she was before she was confined because that girl was always locked up, afraid. And what Bellamy wants even more than for Octavia to be her old self again is for her to be happy and free.
But they still need to leave.
"I can't stay with them O," he says, trying to figure out how to tell her what he's done. While he needs to explain why they need to leave, he's not ready to tell his little sister about the horrible action he's committed. He knows he'll have to tell her eventually, but he also knows that once he tells her, she'll never see him the same way again.
"Can we just stay a couple of days?" Octavia asks once she's agreed to leave. "I'll go with you, we'll leave, but can't we stay here a little longer?"
Bellamy considers her request for a moment. On the one hand, the longer they stay, the harder it'll be to leave. Once rationing starts – and it surely will – it'll get more and more difficult to steal away with any food. And they would need rations in order to make it long enough to figure out how to eat off the land, as they would eventually have to do. But on the other hand, Octavia had never had the opportunity to just be a teenager with other teenagers her age. Like she'd said, she'd been locked up one way or another all her life. Bellamy supposes he could give her a couple of days.
"Fine," Bellamy agrees. "But when I say it's time, we go, clear?"
"Fine," Octavia mutters, not seeming altogether happy about it, but trusting Bellamy was doing the right thing for the both of them.
With that decided, Bellamy now needs to figure out what he was going to do for the next couple of days. He supposes he could just hang around like the teenagers, or he could try scouting out potential places he and Octavia could go, stash some rations in nearby caves to grab when they finally did leave.
He turns back to tell Octavia as much, only to find her walking towards Wells, the blonde girl, and the long-haired boy, who seem to be planning their mission to Mount Weather.
"Sounds like a party! Make it five," she declares, joining the group.
Clenching his jaw, Bellamy runs over to her.
"Hey! What the hell are you doing?" he demands. He'd agreed that they could stay at camp for a few more days. He'd said nothing about letting Octavia venture out into the unknown forest with a bunch of teenage criminals as her company.
Before he can get into it with Octavia though, he's distracted by the blonde girl yelling at the long-haired boy about his wristband. She claims that the wristbands all the juveniles were wearing are transmitting their vital signs back to the ark and that the adults will only follow them all down so long as they remain alive. If the wristbands are removed, the ark will think they were all dead and that the earth isn't survivable.
This gives Bellamy an idea.
If he can convince the other teenagers to take off their wristbands, then the ark would never follow them all down. They'd be free of the ark's tyrannical rule, and best of all, Bellamy and Octavia would be free to live life with the rest of them. Without anyone to come down and reveal Bellamy's crime, it would be like it had never happened. Bellamy could really start over.
When the group starts to head out, Bellamy doesn't even care if Octavia goes with them. How dangerous could it be, after all, to go for a walk on an uninhabited earth? Besides, what Bellamy needs to accomplish here in the camp will be easier done without Octavia hanging around and judging his every move. With her and the blonde girl both gone for the day, Bellamy can seize control of the camp and do what he needs to do.
"Go on," he mutters to Octavia.
It's just an added bonus that Octavia thinks he's letting her go simply because she wants to.
He watches Octavia walk out into the forest, waits until the five of them going on the expedition all become dots in the distance, and then he turns around to face the camp once again, ready to get to work.
The first thing he needs to do is to locate the strongest members of the group. The ones who would naturally try to take leadership power. If Bellamy can get them on his side, he'll have the whole camp in no time. If not, their opposition might be his undoing.
Bellamy decides to do a lap around the camp and check out some of the others that he came down with. One obstacle Bellamy realizes he's going to have to face is that these prisoners all seem to be friends already. As a general rule, everyone here is between the ages of fourteen and seventeen, with a few exceptions for younger kids. Most people on the ark don't commit arrestable infractions until they're at least fourteen, and at eighteen, they get reviewed and are either released or floated. So these teenagers would have all known each other even before their confinements. They would have grown up together, attended classes and social events on the ark together. Being significantly older than them – already twenty-three – Bellamy would be at a disadvantage. After all, it's harder to get people to trust you when they don't know you.
As Bellamy takes his walk, he notices a few important things. One is that a lot of the teenagers are sitting alone, sad or crying. This tells Bellamy that the euphoria of being on the ground has worn off and they've realized that their parents and loved ones remain up on the ark, far away from here. Bellamy suspects that this will pose a challenge once he starts trying to convince people to take off their wristbands. He won't only be convincing them to leave behind the rules and the authority of the ark's council, but he'd be convincing them to leave behind everyone they've ever known, all their friends and family. That wouldn't be easy.
The second thing Bellamy notices is that some people have already somehow managed to get into the rations and are gorging themselves on the food they brought down with them from the ark. This poses an entirely different problem, and one Bellamy can't address until he's found a way to put himself in charge here. But he knows that he's going to have to act fast, because if they run through their rations before they find another food source, then starvation is going to be an issue too.
The final thing Bellamy notices is that nobody really seems to know what to do with themselves. Apart from the blonde girl and the small group she took with her to find Mount Weather, nobody is making an effort to do anything productive, anything that might ensure their continued survival down here. Thinking back to his earth skills classes so many years ago, Bellamy recalls that fire and shelter are two things that they are all going to desperately need come nightfall when the temperature drops. Of course, nobody here has ever even experienced randomly fluctuating temperatures, so why would they think to prepare for that now? On the ark, there was one pre-set temperature and that was that.
Bellamy decides to pop into the dropship and take an inventory of the supplies they do have, to get an idea of what they're going to be working with. As he approaches the dropship though, he stops when he sees an altercation break out between Wells and two of the boys who were challenging him earlier. Apparently, they are threatening to kill him or something, but in the end, Wells just walks away.
Bellamy knows immediately that these are the boys he needs to win over first.
"If you're going to kill someone, it's probably best not to announce it," Bellamy greets them. He decides on this greeting because it indicates that he's not necessarily against them killing Wells. Of course, he is against killing, but if he's going to win these boys over, he needs to appear to be on their side.
"You're not really a member of the guard, are you?" one of the boys asks. Bellamy nods. He'd figured his guardsman's uniform could be a benefit to him in one of two ways. Either people would take comfort in the presence of a guardsman, or people would respect him as one of their own for impersonating a guardsman and therefore also being a criminal. Bellamy supposes it's avenue number two.
He takes his chance right there to plant the idea in the boys' heads about the ark not fulfilling it's promise of a second chance once they come down. He paints a picture for them of what life might look like if the ark and the council were to follow them to the ground and take over. And when he can see them getting angry, he goes for the final straw and demands why they're still wearing their wristbands.
"Okay, you said we could stop it," the first boy says. "How?"
"Take them off," Bellamy replies. He can see them considering it and he stands his ground. He drives the point home and then waits to see their response.
"And if we do…" the boy muses. "I mean, what's in it for us?"
Bellamy smirks. "Someone's got to help me run things," he declares.
And he walks away. It's perfect. Not only had he given the boys all the reason they need to take off their wristbands, but he planted the idea that he's in charge and indirectly handed them second and third in command. Now he just has to wait and see if they'll take the bait.
Bellamy slips into the dropship, back to his original mission of taking inventory of their supplies. Already he can see the results of the scavenging the others have already done and he sighs to himself as he picks through what's left. It isn't much in the way of food. But there are still tents and some medical supplies, and Bellamy's sure he can repurpose some of the other materials around the dropship. The restraints, for example, could be useful as makeshift rope.
Footsteps approaching him from behind alert him to the fact that Bellamy isn't alone anymore. He rises and turns around to find the two boys from earlier standing before him. They toss something at his feet and he looks down to find that they have managed to cut off their wristbands.
"So now what?" the one who's done all the talking so far demands.
"Well, first thing's first," Bellamy declares. "What are your names?" Being the only one around here who doesn't already know everyone is becoming a disadvantage and Bellamy needs to start putting names to faces. He discovers that the first is named John Murphy and the other John Mbege. He decides to just call them Murphy and Mbege.
"Alright, we've got two main priorities," Bellamy declares, deciding that he needs to start with the most important stuff and work his way from there. "We need to build a fire before it gets dark, and we need to get everyone to take off those damn wristbands." Shelter isn't too big of an issue. Though it would be tight, if need be, they could all sleep in the dropship. If it didn't rain, they could sleep outdoors for the night. As for food – there's no point trying to re-collect it, since it's probably all eaten anyway. Once it becomes an issue, Bellamy figures he can find an alternative food source. Or there's always the rations in Mount Weather to hope for, though Bellamy doesn't want to put all his hopes in that one basket quite yet.
Murphy and Mbege take on their assigned tasks with fervor. They immediately head out of the dropship and start ordering people to go collect firewood. While they're occupied with that, Bellamy collects everything useful he can find in the dropship and stores it up on the third level in a hidden cabinet that he finds, hoping that it'll be safe there from foraging teenagers. Once he's finished with his task, he heads back outside to see how things are going.
It's starting to get dark out now – the sun is setting, and many people are just standing there, watching it disappear behind the trees. Bellamy knows that as soon as it's gone, there won't be any light left besides that of the moon, and so he goes to check on the progress of the fire.
"We've got the firewood," Murphy says when Bellamy questions why he hasn't gotten it started yet. "But we can't get the damn thing to light."
"Try these," Bellamy mutters, tossing him a pack of matches. Murphy had been trying to do the thing where friction between two pieces of wood creates a spark, like how they'd been taught in earth skills classes. They would probably need to learn to do that eventually, once the matches run out. But for now, Bellamy just needs them to get the fire going.
With the matches, starting the fire is easy, and soon they're building it up into a bonfire. The other teenagers are gathering around the fire, some out of curiosity, and some because it's starting to get colder and the fire is warm. Bellamy decides that this is the perfect opportunity to address the group as one.
"Everyone gather in," he calls out to those still out on the fringes. He waits until everyone is close before speaking again. "It's been a rough day," he says, knowing that he needs to be sympathetic to get the more sensitive ones – the ones that aren't like Murphy and Mbege – to follow him. "But we're here, and we're alive!"
A cheer follows this, and Bellamy is a little surprised, but pleased. It might be easier than he thought to get them to listen to him. Most of them aren't leaders themselves and are looking for someone to take charge. Bellamy is happy to fill that position.
"The ark thought they could throw us on a ship and toss us out of the ark like yesterday's garbage!" Bellamy cries, causing another reaction, sort of like a loud booing, which Bellamy knows is directed at the ark. "They don't think we're good enough for them. But what I know, and what all of you know too, is that we're better off without them!"
The crowd cheers again, and Bellamy starts to feel a bit odd. Never before has he led people like this, but somehow it comes naturally to him.
"Let's show them that we don't need them anymore. Let's take off our wristbands and send the message that we control our own lives now. Who's with me?"
The cheer the crowd gives to that one is music to Bellamy's ears. He'd thought it would be hard to convince people to take off their wristbands, but maybe it wouldn't be hard at all.
"You two want to do the honors?" Bellamy offers his second and third in commands. He knows he has to keep them happy if he wants them to continue supporting his authority and figures that they might as well be the ones to cut off the wristbands.
Murphy steps up to the front eagerly.
"Alright who's first?" he calls out, pulling out a knife he must have taken from the dropship and holding it out in front of the fire so that the reflection glistened in the dark.
A boy – who Bellamy deduces is named Anthony from the cheers he gets – steps forward and holds out his arm. Mbege grabs a nearby rock and drops it on the ground in front of the fire, indicating that Anthony should place his arm on the flat surface at the top of the rock. He does so, and Mbege holds the arm down while Murphy readies the knife.
"This isn't going to hurt, is it?" Anthony asks, looking up at the two boys nervously.
Murphy twirls his knife and steps closer. "Just close your eyes and it'll be over in a second," he says.
Then Murphy bends down, inserts the knife between his arm and the wristband, and pulls up on the knife until the mechanism disengages and the wristband breaks apart.
Bellamy steps in and grabs the broken wristband from the rock and holds it up in the air for all to see.
"Anthony has been liberated!" he cries, tossing the wristband into the fire. "Who's next?"
The cheering of the crowd is now deafening, and with the first wristband removed painlessly, the rest start clamoring for their turn to be freed of the grip the ark has over them all. They get through about ten wristbands before they face any opposition. And unsurprising to Bellamy, the opposition comes in the form of Wells, returning from his trip to look for fresh water.
"What the hell are you doing?" Wells demands.
Bellamy tries to shut Wells down quickly. He knows that if Wells gets the chance to speak too long, some of the others might actually listen to him. For now, Bellamy is in charge. But only because everyone's looking for a leader and he's the only one to have stepped up. He has to squash Wells before he makes himself into an alternate potential leader.
Unfortunately, Wells is already starting with the speech-making, going on about needing the ark to come down for survival. He claims that they need the ark's expertise – that a bunch of teenagers who know nothing about farming or medicine couldn't possibly survive long on their own. Bellamy has to admit that Wells might be right. As a whole, the group would stand a better chance of surviving by leaving the wristbands on. But Bellamy can't think about the group as a whole. He has to think about Octavia. And if the ark were to come down and execute him, which would surely be their first action on the ground, he wouldn't be able to protect Octavia anymore. So he has to make sure the ark stays put.
And then Wells gives Bellamy the perfect transition into a speech of his own. Wells asks how Bellamy could not want his own people to come home to earth with the rest of them. And Bellamy knows exactly how to ensure that nobody shifts their allegiance to Wells, son of the late Chancellor.
"My people are already down," Bellamy says. "Those people," he points to the sky, "locked my people up." He walks towards Wells and decides to drive the point home by getting personal. It's hard for Bellamy, to say it out loud in front of so many people he doesn't know. But he knows that if he reveals some of himself, people will be able to empathize, to look at their own situation and his and to feel allegiance to Bellamy. "Those people killed my mother for the crime of having a second child." And finally, Bellamy turns Wells into the enemy. "Your father did that," he says.
Wells tries to defend his father, but it's no use. Bellamy can feel the support of the group. He can feel their fear and their anger, all now being directed at Wells. Bellamy knows that Wells has lost. And so does Wells.
"Here, there are no laws!" Bellamy cries. "Here, we do whatever the hell we want, whenever the hell we want!" The crowd cheers with him and soon everyone is chanting this new slogan, which Bellamy didn't even realize he was creating when he said it.
Bellamy looks around at the crowd with a smile on his face. Somehow, he's done it. Somehow, he's managed to insert himself as the unofficial leader of these hundred teenagers, and they've accepted him as such. At first, Bellamy's only real concern had been making sure that everyone removed their wristbands to prevent the ark from coming down. But now he realizes that he can do even more with the power he now has. As leader of the group, he'll be in the best position to ensure Octavia's safety and wellbeing.
He looks back at Wells, and finds the boy looking horrified. But Bellamy doesn't care. Wells is only one person, and Bellamy will deal with him if the need presents itself. For now, he's just the hated son of the Chancellor and nothing more.
Suddenly, there's a loud growling sound coming from the sky, and water begins to fall everywhere. Rain. First, there is some screaming, because not everyone immediately realizes what is happening. But in moments, the cries are shouts of glee and joy as they revel in this wonderful new experience.
Wells makes one final comment about needing to collect the rainwater, but Bellamy dismisses him. The earth is huge and plentiful. They'll find a fresh water source tomorrow. For now, Bellamy allows everyone to simply enjoy themselves. If Bellamy is going to be a leader, he's not going to by tyrannical like the council on the ark. Bellamy's not going to control every aspect of people's lives. When he'd said 'whatever the hell we want' before, he'd meant it. Freedom would be the new law. Octavia would want it that way.
Bellamy lifts his head and opens his mouth, allowing the water to fill it. Once enough has gathered, he closes his mouth and swallows, feeling the cool water running through his throat and settling in his stomach. He realizes that he hasn't had anything to drink since the water he drank while on his break, even before Shumway showed up at his door with he gun. Then he realizes that Wells was right about collecting the rainwater and glances over in the direction Wells walked away, relieved to find that Wells is in the process of fashioning a container that will hold some of the rainwater.
"Damn," Bellamy mutters to himself. Wells might not be in charge yet, but if it turns out that he knows better than Bellamy how to survive on this planet – if people realize that Bellamy doesn't have a clue what he's doing – then they'll turn.
"Hey Bellamy," Murphy calls out, walking over to where Bellamy is standing. "We've got a problem."
"What now?" Bellamy demands, tired of having to deal with so many things.
"Well after the prince's speech, some of the others aren't too keen on shedding their wristbands quite yet. They say they want to think about it first," Murphy replies.
Bellamy clenches his teeth. So, Wells did make an impression after all. He'd hoped differently, but he supposed it was inevitable that out of a hundred people, at least a few were having second thoughts.
"We need to get his wristband," Bellamy declares. "Once people see that his is gone, they'll be more willing to take off theirs."
"Not to mention as long as the Chancellor thinks his son is alive down here, there's no chance he'll call off sending more people down," Murphy adds.
Bellamy decides not to mention that this isn't a particular concern. With the Chancellor dead, there's nobody left on the ark to mourn Wells' death. But it doesn't mean that the people still on the ark won't be affected by the death of the late Chancellor's son. The rest of them, the criminals, the children of janitors and farmers, their lives aren't important. But the children of the elites – those deaths would be the best to make an impression on the council and whoever the new Chancellor is.
"Tonight," Bellamy declares. "I'll lure him away from camp. You be ready to use force if he's not cooperative. Bring some others with you. Mbege and maybe a couple others you trust."
Murphy nods his understanding and returns to the crowd, where he and Mbege continue to remove the wristbands of those willing to have them cut off. The rain still hasn't let up, so Bellamy heads over to the dropship, already annoyed at being stuck under a constant stream of water. He feels like he's stuck in the shower with no way of getting out. Not to mention he's fully clothed and now he's soaked. Bellamy decides that rain is overrated.
There are others in the dropship when Bellamy arrives. They too appear to be seeking shelter from the rain, most of them huddling together on the main level. Since Bellamy isn't in the mood to strike up a conversation with anyone, he goes to the ladder and climbs up to the top level where he stashed all the supplies earlier that day. He is pleased to find his stash remains untouched and nobody is up on the top level yet.
Bellamy chooses one of the more comfortable looking seats and sits down in it. He stretches his feet out and leans his head back and closes his eyes. It's been a long day and Bellamy is exhausted. After everything that's happened, Bellamy just needs a moment to himself to collect his thoughts and rest a bit.
As he sits there, he listens to the clinking of the rain on the metal of the dropship and is reminded how nothing will ever be the same again. He is on the ground. He will never live on the ark again. He'll never watch another moonrise from the large window down the hall from his quarters. He'll never again sleep in his own bed, or sit in that chair that Octavia always used to sit in. He'll never have to dump garbage down the garbage chute again. And the thing about being on the ground that scares Bellamy a little bit is the unpredictability. He has no idea what's going to happen tomorrow or the next day or the next. He has no idea what earth is really like anymore. Sure, he'd read about it in classes and been told by teachers what it was like, but that was the old earth, from before the nuclear apocalypse. This earth is new and unfamiliar, and the job now falls to Bellamy to figure out how to navigate it.
And then there's Octavia. No longer the sweet, shy little girl he'd helped raise. Now hardened by her time in the sky box, Octavia is angry and aggressive and strangely adventurous. She says she needs her freedom, and Bellamy wants to give it to her. But the problem is that she hasn't lived enough to know how to handle her own freedom. For now, she is safe enough on a mission to bring back food from Mount Weather. But once she returns, Bellamy wonders whether she will ever be able to fit into normal society – or whatever Bellamy manages to pass off as normal society in these circumstances. After all, she's never lived in normal society before.
Bellamy waits up in the dropship, running through his many thoughts, until the commotion outside starts to die down. He doesn't allow himself to fall asleep – he still has work to do tonight. And once he's confident that most people are asleep, or at least attempting sleep, he gets up and exits the dropship, taking hold of his gun and praying he doesn't have to use it.
Once he's outside, he is able to confirm that most everyone has found a spot – either inside the dropship or outside on the damp ground – to curl up for the night. The fire is long burnt out – the rain wouldn't have helped it there – and Bellamy finds the darkness to be an advantage.
He locates Wells sleeping against a tree, and then searches for Murphy, who he finds sitting in a group with some other boys, Mbege among them. Bellamy nods in Murphy's direction and waits for the four boys to stand up and take their positions. They will follow Bellamy and Wells away from camp, and on Bellamy's signal, they will attack if necessary.
Bellamy approaches Wells and lunges at him, covering his mouth so that he can't scream. Wells is immediately awake, fighting against the hold Bellamy has on him. Bellamy expects this, and holds up his gun to show Wells that he's not playing games. Wells' eyes go wide, but he stills, his gaze completely focused on the gun and the fear in his eyes shining bright. Bellamy hates having to use his gun at all, even as a prop. But he knows it's one of the best advantages he's got, and he's not about to waste it.
He leads Wells far from camp, not wanting anyone to accidentally stumble upon them on a late-night bathroom run or something. Bellamy lets Wells lead while he follows, the gun trained on the boy's back. Bellamy is confident that Murphy, Mbege, and the others are following, even though they remain invisible for the time being.
Once they are sufficiently far from camp that the sound of a gunshot wouldn't make it back to anyone's ears, Bellamy calls for Wells to stop. He tells Wells that he doesn't want to shoot him, but that he needs Wells to remove his wristband. Wells is immediately suspicious, but Bellamy isn't about to reveal his reasons to a boy he doesn't trust. Especially since Octavia doesn't even know the whole truth.
Bellamy tries to convince Wells to take off his wristband voluntarily. It'll be better all around if Wells just cooperates. If Bellamy can get Wells on his side, then the dissention will be wiped out immediately. If he takes Wells' wristband by force, the dissenters would still have cause to keep their wristbands on and more force might eventually be required. Bellamy doesn't want to be the kind of leader that forces compliance with violence, but if he has to do it to ensure Octavia's safety, then he'll do it.
Wells makes it clear that cooperation is not an option and Bellamy isn't altogether surprised. While he'd hoped for an easy out here, he'd known that it was an unlikely outcome. It's why he brought Murphy and the other boys, after all.
Behind Wells, Bellamy sees Murphy step out from behind a bush and raise his eyebrows. Bellamy gives him the nod, and Murphy approaches, the others not far behind. Bellamy stows his gun, knowing that he won't need it anymore and watches as Wells tries and fails to run away. He really had no chance anyway, with the bag leg.
The boys grab him and pin him down and Wells cries out for them to stop, to let him go. Bellamy hates himself a little in this moment, as he watches Wells' free will be stripped away from him. For all Bellamy's claims, to the hundred and to himself, of being a ruler who prioritizes individual freedom, he realizes that it's a lie. Because in this situation, Wells' freedom takes a backseat to Bellamy's agenda. And it goes against everything he thought he believed in.
Murphy takes out his knife and once Wells' arm is pinned down on the ground, he walks over, inserts the knife between his arm and the wristband. As he starts to move the knife, to break the wristband, Bellamy turns around and walks away. He can't watch the rest of it. He doesn't want to be there when it's over. And most of all, he can't let Murphy, Mbege, or the others think he's weak in any way. So like the coward he knows he is, he walks back to the dropship, climbs back up to the third floor, – which remains unoccupied save for him – locks the trapdoor behind him, and settles back down in the hopes of getting a little sleep before morning.