When the sun started going down Octavia walked silently towards the front of the arc and stood up on a crate. The camp turned to face her to hear what she had to say,
"We have a very important message from our Chancellor Abby Griffin. Things will be changing around this camp. The law of the arc will no longer be enforced and new laws will be enforced in their place."
Abby walked to the crate edge and Octavia helped her stand up, "As some of you may have noticed, my daughter Clarke never returned to camp. She said her final goodbyes to Bellamy and left for the forest. The weight of the actions she took to get us here were too great for her to bear and she must fight her inner battles on her own. Since Bellamy Blake was her most trusted ally and co-leader, he will become the new Chancellor of our people. I have already handed over my power to him in private so there will be no formal ceremony. Please rise for your new leader: Chancellor Blake."
He glided towards the crate but did not go to stand on it. Instead, he moved to the front and remained standing on the ground. Scanning the faces of the people before him he opened his mouth, "I stand on the ground before you because I am not above any one of you. I believe we are all equal, and so if anyone has any concerns or questions you may come to me at any time. I will not hide behind the title of Chancellor as I will also be running the guard and placing myself on the front lines with many other brave soldiers. Tomorrow morning I will commence assigning jobs and asking for volunteers to go into the forest. For now let's get some rest and spend the evening with out families." He nodded and dashed away, into the arc.
Bellamy's head was spinning, he slumped onto the floor and put his hands behind his head. Deep Breaths Bellamy, Deep Breaths he thought. His body was shaking, his stomach convulsing. He leaned out of an arc window and threw up on the ground. Looking at the faces of his people only reminded him the slaughtered Mountain Men. Clarke's words circled around in his head - I bear it so they don't have to - over and over again. He knew that he couldn't tell the other arc survivors what he did to get them where they are, it would not only break them but hearing the words come out of his own mouth would break him too.
"Bell?"
He turned his head to the door. Octavia was there with Lincoln standing behind her. She looked worried but didn't bother to ask what was wrong with him, "Lincoln and I wanted to talk to you about the job appointing. We want to run the militia, train some soldiers in the way of grounder warfare. That way we can fight back not only with guns but with handmade weapons too."
"Yea fine Octavia that sounds good. For now though go get some rest, you two deserve it." Lincoln rested a hand upon Octavia's shoulder and steered her out of the arc, smiling at Bellamy as he went. Lincoln had given up everything to be with Octavia and help save her friends and loved ones. He no longer belonged and had a feeling Octavia felt the same way. She was now almost full grounder. She looked like one, fought like one and had the same set of values that he did. They were aliens among the Sky People, they probably would be better off without them, gathering up the other skaikru outcasts and making their own camp in the forest, but with the enemies that they had it would be a suicide mission. He and Octavia walked to their tent and sat down across from each other, not saying a word. Lincoln looked down at the ragged carpet used to protect them from the dirt and bugs on turf. Octavia was picking at the edge of the rug, plucking pieces of frayed fabric and throwing them out the tent opening. Taking a deep breath, Lincoln stood up and grabbed a rock and knife, he dipped the rock in a pot of water and started sharpening the blade. The sound calmed him, and Octavia watching the knife as it slid upon the surface of the rock. Small sparks shot out the sides of the blade and fell towards the floor before disappearing into thin air. Octavia grabbed the rock out of Lincoln's hand and placed it beside her, she moved adjacent to him and rested her head on his shoulder.
"I'm worried about Bellamy," she whispered, "He's not the same person that he was when he first went into the mountain. He won't say what happened in there."
"Maybe he wants to fight his own demons Octavia. Some people are better off getting through things alone than others."
"Bell isn't like that, Clarke is. That's why she left all of us, because of what she did in the mountain. She let the oxygen in and killed all the mountain men so that she could get the rest of us out." She looked up at Lincoln searching for an answer in his eyes.
"Have you ever thought that maybe she wasn't the only one to make that decision?" He replied.
Octavia's heart sunk. She knew that Lincoln was right. Bellamy, Monty and Clarke were all in the control room together. Knowing Monty he probably set up the whole plan technically, but the decision to pull the trigger was most likely Bellamy's and Clarke's. Clarke left because she couldn't bear it, and now it was taking a tole on Bellamy too. He mind flashed back to when Jasper was injured and Bellamy said You don't have the guts to make the tough decisions, I do. The thought of Bellamy helping Clarke pull the trigger made her sick to her stomach. All those innocent people killed because of something Bellamy did. No wonder he was so upset, especially now that Clarke had left him all alone. She stood up and walked to her bed and lay down, she was silent and still. The world became black around her and she drifted off to sleep, her cheeks wet with tears.
Bellamy awoke curled up in a ball on the floor of the arc. He never made it to his bedroom before passing out in the dim hallway. The lights we flickering, deciding whether to be on or off. He knew the arc suffered considerable damage with the landing and decided that the camp not only needed a militia and a med-bay, but also a tech crew. He thought about standing up in front of all those innocent naive people again and his heart started racing. He turned right and strode out into the bright sunlight of the morning and squinted as his eyes adjusted. The people were waiting for him, eager to find out the fate of their camp which rested in his shaky hands. He slowly stepped in front of the crate positioned directly parallel to the arc.
"Good morning. I hope that everyone has gotten some rest. Today we must make some tough decisions about jobs and labour. Now that we are on the ground there are new and more important positions than what we had when we were on the arc. I've put together a list of people and placed them in specific jobs, but I need volunteers who would be willing to go foresting and hunting for food outside camp boundaries. Anyone?"
Seven individuals stood up. Jasper, Monroe, Kane, Miller and three guards, all ready to risk their lives obtaining food for the arc. Scanning the crowd Bellamy noticed harper, sitting against a pole with her hand in the air. He smiled,
"Thank you, this is a dangerous position, you'll all need weapons in case something happens while you're alone in the woods. My next list includes the people working in the med-bay"
Bellamy went on about jobs, listing people off in different areas: Abby in Med with Jackson, Octavia and Lincoln in the militia and Monty, Raven, and Wick in the Mechanics and Tech force. Each job fit the description of the person appointed perfectly. The camp set off to work in an orderly fashion. Bellamy walked to the front entrance and stared into the forest, hoping to see Clarke returning out of the darkness, but she wasn't there. He stood for hours looking at the forest, making sure no grounders decided to attack.
Octavia looked at the men and women who were appointed to the militia. Everyone seemed to be under the age of thirty, they looked healthy and willing to fight. She gave out grounder weapons; machetes, knives, bows, swords and spears, and the people obtaining them started to look frightened. As if they didn't know what they had gotten themselves into.
"I know you all thought that you would be using guns, but thats not how things will work in this militia. If you wanted to use guns you should've joined the guard's defines line. This militia is based off of grounder warfare, which we have all found to be very effective. You will learn how to camouflage, climb trees quickly, shoot long range weapons and learn close combat."
Lincoln stepped forward, "Octavia and I are experts with our own weapons as well as the ones that many of you will be using, but remember these are real weapons, they hurt."
"Well. Let's begin." Octavia smiled.