Arkadia, present day

It was a gloomy day mid February and the prospect of heading out into the woods was not appealing. Still, Clarke was waiting for Bellamy to be ready, so that they could start their trip up to the mountain before it started raining again. It was a scouting mission they had done several times in the past months, armed with Geiger tubes to document the contamination levels and other technical supplies to make sure that they were still safe at Arkadia. The malicious part about radiation was, that you could not see it. So monitoring was important in order to notice in time when the levels started rising too high. Three months after ALIE's defeat and they were still no way closer to a solution. They had another three months left to live and if things progressed like this, they would die without a fight, because their enemy this time was soundless, invisible and impossible to beat.

So as usual when they left the camp behind them, Clarke was quiet and lost in thoughts, hoping they would not return with bad news, since good news never happened either. They walked in silence for a while, the breaking of twigs under their feet and occasional rustling in the trees the only sounds in the woods around them. Mist crept over the surface and gave the scenery a creepy touch, one Clarke had grown accustomed to.

It was Bellamy who spoke first, looking over his shoulder to meet Clarke's eye.
"What's going on with Kane? He's been out of it the last days since you showed him that file", he stated, brows furrowed together.
Clarke looked up and shrugged slightly, unsure of how to answer. Just because she was Abby's daughter and her mother obviously engaged with Marcus in a way that crossed friendship, didn't mean she had more information than anyone else.
"I don't know. He basically kicked me out and we haven't spoken about it ever since. There wasn't really a lot in the files. Just bits and pieces of cases that happened ten years ago, but something in his eyes told me there's more to it than just a hand full of children disappearing. Has Raven told you about the signal sent to Mount Rushmore? She thinks it wasn't a coincidence we landed there."
"Yeah, she told me. We could go look, you know? See if there is something left there. Maybe the mountain men used to live there, too. There could be supplies, or other things helpful to our cause."
Clarke considered for a moment, before shaking her head.
"We shouldn't just go there alone, without anyone knowing where we went. I don't trust anything that could have to do with mountain people. We need to complete the mission before it gets dark and can come back another day for the rest. But maybe we should find out more before. Try to talk to Marcus about it, or see if Raven can find any more details on it. As interesting as it seems, we already have enough on our plates. We can't be running after potential crimes from ten years ago."

She surely wanted to find out what exactly had happened, but she had to keep the greater picture in mind and right now Skaikru had more to worry about than that. Maybe they would find time another day to go out and explore, but that would have to wait.

Bellamy just nodded quietly and marshed on, until Clarke caught his wrist and stopped him dead in his tracks.
"Listen", she whispered, putting a finger to her lips.
His brows knitted into a tight frown and his ears focused on their surrounding.

"Nothing."

She nodded, icy cold fingers still holding his wrist.
"It's so quiet suddenly. All the birds stopped singing. Something isn't right."

Bellamy had to agree that it was odd and an uncomfortable feeling crept up his spine. They had faced Grounders in the woods before, acid fog and other troubles, but the utter silence was eve more threatening than that, it seemed.
"Maybe we should come back another day."
A flock of crows suddenly burst up from the trees above their heads, startling both of them. Their gaze shot up to the sky, where swarms of birds seemed to escape – something.
"Yes, let's get back", Clarke agreed with a nod, releasing her hold of him and turning around on her heels to walk back into the direction they had come from.
It was mere minutes before they realized all light was fading and the sky was darkening above their heads, heavy clouds mounting in the sky like towers, lightnings flashing inside of them. A strong wind started to hiss through the trees and bushes, swirling up leaves and small stones and gaining intensitiy with every minute.
"We should look for shelter. We will never make it back to Arkadia in time before the storm hits us", Bellamy shouted over the noise of thunders raging, looking around to find something that looked like a place to hide for now. A branch smacked into his face and he stumbled briefly, eyes darting back and forth to figure out what to do. Given the force of the wind already, it was not unlikely to say that they were facing a tornado here, which was not good at all.
"Run", he finally called out to Clarke, because that was the best option right now. There was no cave or ruin in sight for them to hide in, so they had to get as much distance between them and the storm as possible and hopefully stumble over a shelter on their way.

As the wind got stronger around them, they ran nearly blindly ahead, eyes tearing from the harsh air and rain that started to fall, leaves and twigs in their faces. Neither of them saw the abyss before it was too late and their feet lost footing on solid ground, sending them flying down a steep hill, over rocks and and through bushes, bodies colliding painfully every time their bodies bounced against them.

The world was swirling before Clarke's eyes as she fell, her head hitting the rocks over and over, until she finally lay still in a bed of leaves, the roaring of the storm above her, mind slowly fading to unconsciousness. The last thing she saw before everything faded to black, was a face. Covered in dirty and freckles, two bright blue eyes much like her own staring down at her and a hushed whisper mixing with the wind.
"Mother can't find them."

The Ark, 10 years prior

Everything was going according do plan. The pod had been launched during the Unity Day festivities and was expacted to reach earth any minute now. Authorities had noticed the launch nearly immediately, but believed it to be a malfunction, since there was no evidence anyone had launched it on purpose. The chancellor's launch codes were needed for that and he had been enjoying the performance of the first graders at the time it had happened, so no one was overly suspicious.
No one, except for Marcus Kane.
He was hovering about the scene of the accident, asking unpleasant questions about what exactly had happened, when, why. Eloise was mildly annoyed with his behavior, although it was possibly natural for a guard to be interested in it. Then again, he was also investiating the missing children and Eloise could only hope that he was not smart enough to count two and two together. But that was not going to cloud her enthusiasm over the successful mission now, because the children were gone and no one could get them back anymore now. Earth expected them and with it a not so bright future as lab rats for different purposes. Did she have a bad conscience? Not at all. Some pawns had to be sacrificed in order to win the big game and if those expendable and unimportant brats from Factors station could ensure the survival of them all on earth, it was worth it.

She turned into the opposite direction and walked away from Kane, up to the elevator that would bring her back to the Alpha station, where a nice bottle of wine was waiting for her in the fridge at her apartment. Just when the doors had nearly closed, an arm shot inside, stopping them and Marcus Kane stepped next to her.

"Mrs. Cullen, it's good to see you. I don't think the launch was an accident. There is no sign of any malfunction in the wiring around the pod box and it also seems as if surveillance was in a loop during the time of the launch. You see -" he held a tablet out for her to see a video from the surveillance camera, pointing at a flickering light. "The same flicker, every 5 seconds. Looks like a loop."
Eloise frowned, mustered the screen without any interest and looked back up at Marcus.
"I think you're reading too much into this. Why would anyone launch a pod on purpose? There is nothing down on earth for us, but death. It was an accident, not more. I know you have been working hard on those missing person files, maybe you should take a few days off. You are obviously stressed", she stated coldly, stepping past Marcus when the doors opened.
"Good evening, Mr. Kane. You should go and enjoy the rest of the festivities."
With that she walked away, making a mental note to send someone to kill him in case he continued to dig deeper.


Hey guys, thank you to everyone who favorited this little piece of writing, I really appreciate it! I would also really appreciate it if you took the time to review, bc your opinion counts and keeps me motiviated to continue writing 3 hope you enjoyed the chapter