The remnants of the Arc could not possibly provide shelter for all of its former inhabitants. Even if there were enough quarters, it had landed awkwardly, jutting up from the land in a broken and unstable circle. A few people climbed upward, fighting gravity to reach their former homes. The metal creaked and groaned as more people attempted this, until Kane and Abby put a stop to it altogether. They would stay on the bottom floor of the Arc, or make shelters inside the camp walls. The only trips up into the top tiers would be carried out by the engineering crew, and then only to retrieve vital resources.
Building shelters took time, and it took work. Abby started laying out a small area for herself. She marked the corners with stones and was about to ask a neighbor for help carrying logs over to form the walls when Kane stopped her. "There are quarters for you inside," he said. "Where you will be close to medical." He didn't mention that with the work of running the camp and tending to the sick and injured, Abby didn't exactly have time to try her hand at amatuer construction.
Abby settled into her quarters, just down the hall from the medical area and not far from the Council members. Like all living quarters on the Arc, this was a tight space, designed for three people at most: a pair of adults on the bottom bunk and a single child above.
Abby felt a pang of loneliness as she stood alone in the stark, empty room. Once she had shared her quarters with Jake and Clarke. There was no such thing as quietness or solitude then; she lived shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of people in the Arc and her home consisted of a 8' by 15' box of a room filled with her vivacious husband and boisterous child. But then Jake was floated and Clarke imprisoned, and ever since then she had been forced to face the crushing solitude of her empty quarters.
For a brief window, she'd held out hope that she and Clarke could make a home together on earth. But Abby knew that was no longer a possibility. The weight Clarke had borne since crashing to earth months before wore hard on her. She would always be Abby's child, but she was no longer a child, content to live with her mother and follow the Council's rule. Clarke was making her own way in the world now, and Abby needed to as well.
Abby just wished that her own way in the world didn't involve living alone in quarters meant for a family.
Raven needed a place to stay. They'd abandoned the dropship after she'd rigged the fuel to burn several hundred grounders to death. Mount Weather wasn't an option, of course. Kane and
Abby didn't think they should risk moving in there, didn't want Trikru that Skaikru was taking over the place of the Mountain Men, will all their advanced weapons and technology. And besides, Raven had no desire to go back there even if she could. Back to the place where she'd been tortured, where she had watched Abby tortured and her friends killed.
Arkadia had more than a few places to crash.
Most of the young people had taken to life outdoors; embracing the open air after a childhood sealed in space. Clusters of hammocks dotted the camp, strung haphazardly between trees.
Raven tried sleeping in a hammock once, but the resulting pain convinced her never to do it again. Walking with the brace put enough strain on her body without sleeping in some contorted strap of cloth.
The people from the arc had constructed rough bunks in some of the bigger, more open areas of the Arc. There weren't enough for everyone, and the barracks feel would not suffice in the long term, but it made a suitable stop-gap while people build their own shelters.
Abby lay in bed while Raven got dressed and put her brace back on. "You could stay here," she suggested.
Raven clenched the last strap of her leg brace. "Tonight?"
Abby sat up, the sheet slipping down her chest. "Yes. Or… In general."
"Thought you didn't want people knowing about us." They'd decided that together, not to complicate Abby's bid for Chancellor. Nobody would bat an eye if Kane or Jaha took up with a lover in their early twenties, but there always was a double standard for women in power. "Not until after the election, at least."
Abby reached for her. Her fingers wrapped around Raven's wrist and Raven turned to look at her. "Kane is going to win the election," she said. "And I want him to. He's the better diplomat, he'll be good for strengthening our relations with Polis. So we shouldn't have to sneak around anymore."
Raven frowned. She pushed herself up into a standing position, keeping one hand against the wall for balance as her weight settled down into the leg brace. Her hips and lower back spasmed in protest at the uneven tilt of her pelvis that put more pressure on her good leg. "Let me think about it," she said.
It didn't take her long. After dinner, Raven showed up at Abby's door, a small pack slung over her shoulder.
Abby smiled widely at the sight of her when she opened the door.
"I can't believe you talked me into this," Raven grumbled.