"So, you are a bunch of convicts?" I ask as I sit around a fire with Finn, Clarke, Wells, and Octavia; as we eat the jaguar meat.

"Technically, yeah," says Finn. "All of us have been arrested for something, no matter the severity."

He drops the ball. "No matter the severity? What are you talking about?"

"To help conserve resources, the punishment to every crime, including petty crimes, is execution by being floated into space," answers Clarke. "If one is under eighteen, they are put on lockup until they get reviewed."

"Forget petty crimes," says Octavia, scoffing. "My mother was floated when they realized that she had me, since they can only allow one child, and I was arrested for being born."

The stick slips from my fingers and I am oblivious to my dinner falling into the flames.

"Here's your bag," says Bellamy, handing it to me. "You should be able to get a surplus of food in return."

"They literally executed your mother for having a second child?" I ask.

Bellamy hesitates before saying, "Just be glad you weren't born on the Ark or your parents would have been floated into space by his father." Bellamy sends a glare at Wells's way.

"First, I wouldn't blame him for his father enforcing rules," I say. "And second, what kind of barbaric society executes people for petty crimes and having a second child?"

"Your people speared Jasper in the chest, strung him up for live bait, and you have the nerve to call us barbaric?" Clarke demands.

"At least we don't execute people just for small crimes and having more than one child," I point out.

"Stop," says Wells, like he's trying to keep the waters calm. "Let's just eat."

Clarke just glares before turning to her dinner.

"As you know, tents were pitched," says Bellamy. "You could sleep in one of them."

"I think I should be going back home after I eat," I say, trying reverse psychology. "I don't want my father to send a search party."

"I don't think he would mind if you would stay here overnight," says Bellamy. "It's getting dark and I wouldn't want my own sister to venture out at night."

Well, what did you know? It actually worked.

"Alright, but I'm sleeping in your ship," I say.

Bellamy nods before walking away.

"Are you actually going to barter these for supplies?" Wells asks me, gesturing to the bag of wristbands.

"Yes," I say. "I could actually get enough food for hundred people with those. Old Jack at the trading post/farm, has enough food to feed an army of five hundred."

"You are not trading those," Clarke says. "We need them."

"I doubt they will work after removal," says Wells. "I am confident mine got fried after it was pried off."

"They need to know the ground is survivable," snaps Clarke.

"Most of us don't know how to hunt yet, especially those who never paid attention in Earth Skills when we learned archery," Wells points out, his calm tone which was in stark contrast to Clarke's abrasiveness. "We're going to have to rely on Costia's bartering until we do. Not all the wristbands have been removed so maybe they will come down."

"I can't believe you are putting faith into a Grounder, but considering that you turned in my father, I shouldn't be surprised." Clarke leaves the group, with Finn following her.

"Why are those things important for her?" I ask

"If the wristbands go off, they think you are dead," says Wells. "They transmit all our vital signs to the Ark. Since Bellamy is convincing people to remove their wristbands, they most likely think that we are dying from radiation."

"Radiation poisoning doesn't work like that," I point out. "Fifty years after the Nuclear Apocalypse, the first clan members saw a group of people exit Mount Weather. Most of that group who didn't make it back inside died, their bodies roasting from the inside out. It was like they were placed in a microwave, to quote the clan founder. If you were dying from radiation poisoning, you all would have suffered the effects at the same time and you would be dead since yesterday."

"Science wasn't my brother's best subject," says Octavia.

"Since it looks like your people think you are dying slowly from radiation poisoning, then your people must be a bunch of science illiterate idiots," I point out.


My dream cycle that night is chaotic. One moment I'm hunting a mountain lion in a corn field to trudging through the snow. I feel like I'm being engulfed in snow when I feel a kick in the stomach.

My eyes tear up and I roll to the side but not before I look to see what it was. Murphy is standing by with a smirk on his face.

"What was that for?" I demand, sitting up.

"Just seeing if you were real or not, that's all," he says as I stand up.

Yeah right. I bet he got off on kicking me awake. In retaliation, I bring up my knee to the area between his legs and knee him. Hard.

He bends down and places his hands on his crotch; his face twisted with pain. One way to take away a man's pride is to knee him in the balls, as Anya would say.

"That was uncalled for, bitch," I hear Murphy say.

"Then you shouldn't have kicked me in the stomach," I say as Clarke descends from the ladder.

"How is he?" I ask.

"Loopy but okay," she says.

"Good," I say. "Had we waited, he'd be in serious pain."

"Why do you care so much?" Clarke asks me, her blue eyes cold. "Your people knocked him down with a spear and strung him up for live bait."

"If it weren't for me, your majesty, he would be dying a slow painful death," I point out, before barging out of their ship.

At the doorway, I could see Mount Weather from where I'm standing. We're not exactly in the danger zone but twenty miles is still dangerously close.

I have descended the ramp of the ship when I hear Bellamy say, "Trina and Pascal have been gone for a day now."

"They could have just gotten lost," says one person.

"Or got taken by Grounders," says another.

I walk towards where Bellamy is standing and say, "Possibly taken by Reapers."

They all look at me as if I'm speaking pig Latin. "Reapers," Bellamy repeats. "What are they?"

"Men who have been taken to the Mountain and turned into cannibalistic savages," I say. "When they see a human while hungry, they eat the organs from your body.

"Please, I don't want to bring dinner back up," says a Sky Person before walking away.

"Interesting," says Bellamy. "I will believe it when I see it."

He walks away and I walk to the wagon to retrieve what is left of the jaguar meat from last night; which I preserved in sea salt when everyone had their stomachs full. I take a piece and head to the fire to warm it up.

I put the meat through a stick and rest it on the fire to warm it up when Finn sits next to me.

"Eating what is left of the meat before it spoils?" he asks.

"I used sea salt to preserve it so it doesn't spoil," I point out, turning the stick.

"I think I remember hearing something about that in Earth Skills class up in the Ark, when Pike was teaching us about food preservation," says Finn. "I am surprised I listened since I wasn't one of his best students."

"Earth Skills is important but what's interesting is that the biology and wildlife of the planet has changed for two hundred years after the bombs," I say. "You wouldn't know that."

The meat feels hot so I take a bite. Not only does the sea salt preserve the meat but it also gives it flavor.

"I like your necklace," he says, pointing to the sea shell pendant. "The blue brings out the green in your eyes."

I frown. Everything about his tone and smile indicates flirtatiousness. I hate it when people who have no prior emotional attachment to me flirt with me, especially boys.

"You remind me of a boy I once knew."

It was during the Conclave after Huron's assassination. There was this boy who was the son of the butcher in Polis. Since I was the daughter of Trigeda's general, he made romantic advances to me despite the fact that he had a girlfriend and that I was romantically involved with Lexa.

After the Conclave, I expressed my irritation to Lexa.

"He keeps chasing me and his girlfriend keeps sending me daggers," I told her

"Then he should know you are spoken for," Lexa said.

The next morning, it was no coincidence when milk and feathers were dumped on him. If someone feels like another is chasing their lover, the offender suffers humiliation. It's part of Woods Clan culture.

Ironically, his name was also Finn coming to think of it.

"I do?" asks Sky Boy Finn, furrowing his eyebrow.

"Yes, he had the same name as you," I say. "He made romantic advances despite the fact that he himself had a girlfriend and I myself had a girlfriend as well, only my girlfriend is in a position in authority."

"Oh, so that means you like girls?" Finn asks, afraid that he offended me.

"I love girls and boys," I clarify. "However, emotional attachment is a requirement if you want the key. And you my friend, I have no emotional attachment to you."

I walk away from him. What a prick. He's the type of guy who would make romantic advances to another girl while having a girlfriend far away. I don't know him, but he's that type of guy.

"Costia," I hear Clarke address.

"I am no mood for more of how I am somehow responsible just because one of my people disobeyed my Commander's orders, Princess," I say.

"That's not why I am talking to you," she says. "You are a native of this territory which means you would know where the berry bushes are. Wells said you would know."

The way she says his name is like it's something poisonous. She did say that he turned in her father.

"I would know, yes," I say. "I know which ones are poisonous or not. It's all in the berry and plants book."

"Good," says Clarke. "I want you to come with us since you know."

I raise my eyebrow. It could be a trap for all I know but it couldn't be if Wells is tagging along. Then again from what observed about these newcomers' is that they don't seem skilled with being soldiers and they don't have any weapons. They are just convicts after all.

But that could be the strategy, to appear unskilled and unarmed. They could still be trained warriors regardless if they are criminals or not.

The convict part could be an elaborate cover story but if one of them was arrested just for existing, the society they live in must be very cruel.

"Very well," I say. "Just follow my lead."

I stand at the edge of the camp to wait for them and I grit my teeth when I see that Clarke has tagged Finn along. Hopefully he glues himself to her and not me but if he has a girlfriend up in that space castle, I hope she knees him down there if she ever comes down here.

"Watch out for snares and tripwire," I say. "You don't want to risk getting impaled or hung upside down by accident."

"So, blueberries are poisonous now?" Wells asks me, holding my book.

"Yes, some fruit that was poisonous is no longer poisonous and vice versa," I say. "Radiation does interesting stuff to the living organisms."

As I lift up a branch to get it out of the way, Wells says, "According to your map, it looks like we're in Virginia."

"Once Virginia," I correct. "This is Woods Clan territory, which makes up part of the former states of West Virginia and Virginia. We border Ice Nation and the Blue Cliff clan."

"I guess they aren't as welcoming," I hear Clarke say.

I chuckle. "You should be glad you landed on Woods Clan territory. Had you landed in Ice Nation, most of you would have died. They do not wait. They will kill newcomers the first time they see them enter their territory."

"Sounds like your people," Clarke scoffs.

"That was an act that has most likely been rectified," I assure her when I find a bush of raspberries. "There is a bush up ahead."

The bush ahead projects hyperactive growth. It spawns new berries per day after one has been plucked. Just another reminder of the nuclear war.

"Raspberries," Clarke says, opening a backpack before pulling them out by the leaf. "We need a lot of these."

We pluck the bush clean and move on from there.

The next stop is the strawberry bush, which is picked over but we were still able to get enough. Finn picked the last berry from the bush and pointed it to Clarke's mouth. She opened it and allowed him to put it in her mouth, laughing in the process.

Wells turns away while I try not to bring my breakfast back up. That interaction was nauseating and awkward.

We were on our way to the wild berry bush when we hear the sound of the Fog Horn. No, no, no, no!

I take out my own horn that was hanging from my belt and gave a blow before yelling, "Run!"

I lead them away from the Acid Fog, the blood pumping in my ears as I run. Luckily we're not far from a bunker.

"What is that?!" Clarke shouts as I open the bunker door.

"No time for questions!" I shout as I watch the encroaching yellow-green fog that can kill anything in its path. "Get into the bunker now!"

They descend down the ladder and I descend underground after Finn. Closing the airtight door and locking it just before it goes over us. I open the porthole window before stepping down the ladder and approach an oil candle.

"What the hell was that thing?" Finn demands as I lighten the first oil candle.

"Acid Fog," I answer before moving to the next oil candle. "It kills almost any living thing in its path. If you don't die afterwards, people will have no choice but to end your misery."

"That is one evidence of a radioactive world," Clarke mutters.

The thing is, it didn't exist until after the time the door to Mount Weather opened and people roasted alive. Too bad they all didn't die or they wouldn't be going out of their way in trying to annihilate my clan for almost two centuries. Though Ice Nation also suffers.

"Is there any indication how long we will be down here?" Wells asks as I make it to the bunk bed.

"Twenty hours," I answer, sitting on the lower bunk and taking off my boots. "In the meantime, we should pass the time."

I take out my battered copy of War of the Worlds before lounging on the bunk.

"I used to read that book from time to time back on the Ark," Wells says, drawing a chair close to the bunk. "Clarke and I would pretend that we were being invaded."

I chuckle. "Back when I was young, during the rounds of Acid Fog, mother would tell me and my siblings to pretend that the Martians were invading to keep us calm. That they be gone in twenty hours."

The vision blurs in my eyes and I choke back a sniffle.

"What happened?" Wells asks me, his voice considerate.

I only knew him a day but I know that he's not high and mighty like his companion that is in the same room as us. Him, I can tell.

"It was the dead of winter nine years ago," I start. "I was with my mother to gather firewood for our house. Then they came. The Reapers."

I could still see it. Their shouts as they ran towards us. The lack of growls indicating that they were there to take her to the Mountain. Her last words to me before they dragged her off."

"She hid me in the trees to keep me safe." I choke back sobs. "I was found ten minutes later by a family friend from another village. I still think about that day even though I try not too."

I am a idiot for breaking down in front of strangers, who could use this information against me but I gave in anyway. It was bound to happen with me mentioning my mother.

"I lost my mother too," says Wells in a faraway voice. "Died when I was seven to influenza. The medicine rations weren't enough to keep her alive."

I hear Clarke mutter to herself before saying, "Stop trying to make yourself look good, Wells."

"Clarke, please try to remember –

"I remember that you turned in my father when I told you to keep it a secret, you cretin!" Clarke snaps, cutting him off. "You promised you wouldn't tell your father about my father wanting to go public with the information and you turned around and did just that!"

Her hands are balled into fists. Her jaw is clenched and her body looks like it's shaking. As for Wells, he says nothing. It's as if he's taking it for some reason.

"Do you guys want to play Monopoly?" Finn asks, as if he wants to alleviate the tension.

Nobody seems interested. Clarke keeps sending ice cold daggers at Wells's way. If looks could actually kill, he'd be six feet under by now.

"Costia, have you played Monopoly before?" Finn asks me. As if I'm too clueless to know.

"Yes, I have, and just because my society has gone back to medieval times, that doesn't mean we have no knowledge of the things that existed before the Nuclear Apocalypse," I spit out.


That night, my mind is totally blank. Once in a while, I would see Clarke and Finn cuddling together on the trundle bed nearby. I didn't see Wells anywhere. He was probably by the alcove watching the fog from the porthole to make sure it had dissipated.

I had once again drifted asleep and I don't know how much time has passed when I heard Wells say, "The fog has cleared."

I sit up and stretch my limbs before slipping on my boots. From my peripheral vision, I see Clarke and Finn stretching before getting out of the bed.

After I shrug on my trench coat, I pick up my things but let Clarke ago up first before ascending the ladder myself.

"I don't understand why you just took that from her," I ask as Wells closes the bunker door after Finn got out. "You need to stop being a doormat. Assert yourself."

"I am just doing what a friend does best," he says with a shrug as we walk back to camp.

"She's treating you like you're her doormat," I point out. "Considering that she obviously hates your guts, I wouldn't be around her, Wells. It's unhealthy and toxic."

"I made a choice," he says. "If she hates me for the rest of my life, I made the right choice, and that's all you need to know."

He walks away and I just stare at him. From the sound of it, he's covering for someone. Taking the blame for turning her father in when it was someone else.

Also, what information was Clarke's father going to spill?


Before we arrived at the camp, we found out that one of the Sky People (specifically the one I saw Octavia with two days before) was caught in the Acid Fog; his skin nothing more but gruesome burns. Apparently he didn't make it into the cave where Bellamy and Charlotte were hiding. When Bellamy couldn't mercifully end his life, Clarke did; humming "All The Pretty Horses" as she stuck a knife into his neck.

That boy was the only casualty among them.

Also, I am relieved that some of them thought to take my horse into that ship of theirs (or the Dropship as they call it).

While Clarke is busy tending Jasper, I sort the berries that we picked into different sides of the box that carried my supplies. There are more of the raspberries then the strawberries though.

"That is too much red," I hear Murphy say as he comes up behind me before taking a strawberry. "I always loved strawberries but you could have picked blueberries too."

"Blueberries are poisonous," I point out. "Have been since the bombs fell. Now, do you have anything better to do then being a creep?"

Murphy just shrugs. "Interesting. Also, you should know it was my idea to bring your horse into the Dropship when the Acid Fog came."

"Why would you care?" I demand.

"Since the bombs put technology in kaput, I guess you are back to the days where horses were considered a man's livelihood," he says with a smirk before walking away.

I shake my head. That douche canoe most likely had that idea to save my horse because he cared. Most likely he wanted to look good after I kneed him in the balls yesterday in retaliation for kicking me in the stomach.


"What was that stuff you gave me?" Jasper asks me when I hand Clarke the roll of bandages while we are changing the poultice and bandages on his chest.

"It's honey with sleeping herbs," I answer. "We give it to people when they are sick or injured so they can sleep soundly."

"A knock-out herb," he replies. "I would like some more of that."

"Only if you have a seriously injury or sick to the point where you can't sleep," I point out.

I am going to have to keep my provisions bag on me all the time because I fear he might find the case and use the herbs for recreation purposes. And I hope that he doesn't since one of them is poisonous.

Apparently Finn took the board games from the bunker, because I see people in groups playing a particular one. Hopefully they focus their energy on them instead of destructive behavior.

By nightfall, I find Wells sitting at the top of the hill, watching the sun go down.

"You're on watch?" I ask him.

He looks up and smiles, asking, "Want to join me?"

I nod.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" I ask as I sit next to him, looking at the purple sky.

"You never see things like this when you're living in space," he tells me. "The view from my window was always the earth and the stars."

"The stars are beautiful from the ground," I say. "Then again that's how I know it."

"I always wanted to see the stars from the ground and they are beautiful down here," he concurs.

I hear small footsteps and I see that Charlotte has approached us.

"Hi," she says shyly.

"Couldn't sleep?" Wells asks her

"I never can," she says.

"Oh," I say, smiling at her. "Sometimes I can't sleep at night too. You can sit with us."

"Are you sure?" she asks, taking a step back.

"Yes, I don't bite," I say with a smile.

She hesitates before she sits down between us. Between one of her fingers, I thought I could see a makeshift knife.

I peek into my provisions bag to pull out my copy of Peter Pan while I hear Charlotte speak of an undescribed nightmare and how she thinks she could end them. A horrible gut feeling propels me to turn my attention to her and I see her about to raise the knife to his neck.

I grab her wrists and wrestle her to the ground. Covering her mouth with my arm to muffle her screams as I take the knife from her fingers.

"What is wrong with you?" I demand, pocketing the knife. "What were you thinking, huh? What could you possibly be thinking? Why would you want to kill him?"

From a distance we hear a thump. Not from an animal no, but it sounds like a corpse fell to the ground after being held in a grip by someone else.

"What's that?" he asks as I stand up.

"I don't know but we should investigate," I say, taking out my arrow. "Go back to the Dropship, Charlotte."

Quietly I walk, careful that the grass doesn't crunch under my feet. Unfortunately, I don't think Charlotte listened to a word I said, since I'm hearing those same small footsteps following us.

"This is a bad idea," Wells whispers from behind after a minute. "We should go back."

The first thing I see is an arm but I regret looking past that tree. Someone – one of the Sky People obviously by his clothes – is lying on his back, his chest and stomach opened; with his heart missing and parts of intestines remaining.

"Graham?" Wells asks, his eyes wide as he stares in shock.


Graham was the name of a delinquent in The 100 Trilogy by Kass Morgan. Considering that Bellamy built the wall in response to Wells's death in television canon, someone had to die but it won't be Wells in this case.

Also, the bunker that they hide in is the same one as the one referred to as "The Art Supply Store."