11

DAY FIVE

"So, what'd you do while we were gone?" Clarke asked her little brother. It was early morning and both had been woken prematurely by TJ's nightmares. It was still too early for them get up but also too late for them to go back to sleep, and so they were simply laid on their pallet in the drop ship, the younger curled into the older.

"I found some of the others that I'd been in lock up with, Striker and Luna," TJ said as he played with his sister's fingers. "Octavia helped us make knives. I made one for you."

"Did you make one for yourself?"

"Yeah, but I don't think I'll use it. I'm not a warrior like you."

"You think I'm a warrior?"

"Yeah."

Clarke smiled at the dopey look on her brother's face and sighed. She did not know what she was supposed to tell him about what had happened to their father. He had known just as much as she had, and had blamed Wells just as she had. She did not know if she could tell him that it was really their mother that had told the council about their father's plan. He was just a kid, she was not sure that it would be fair to burden him with that knowledge. Still, was it fair to let him go on hating Wells for something that he did not do? Wells, who had always been nothing but kind. In the end, she knew that she had to tell him the truth.

"Hey, I've gotta tell you something, and you're not gonna like it."

"What is it?"

"You know how the only people that knew about the flaw in the life support system and Dad's plan were you, me, Wells, and Mom?"

"Yeah."

"TJ, it wasn't Wells that told Jaha about what Dad was going to do."

"What? No, that means…"

"It was Mom."

Clarke held her brother while he cried. She understood his pain, she felt it too. She wanted revenge, she wanted her mother to hurt for what she had done. She had killed her father and split up their family. She had started the chain reaction that got Clarke and TJ locked up, and then later sent down to Earth to die. She was their mother but still, Clarke hated her.

They got up when the sun began to rise and left the drop ship to start their day. The siblings had already decided that they were going to build a tent that day so that they could have a little more privacy. They were collecting wood to be used for the frame when one of the older girls, Alissa, came running into camp screaming about finding a dead body. Clarke held her brother to her when they brought Wells' body into camp, a deep gash in his neck and several fingers missing.

Everyone assumed that it was the grounders that had killed him and it sent the people into a panic. Suddenly, all effort was transferred to building the wall and learning how to use spears and knives. Murphy wanted TJ to join them in weapons training but Clarke sent him to work on their tent and threatened the older boy within an inch of his life if he ever came near her brother again.

TJ looked up while tying the poles of the tent frame to see Octavia approaching him. She sat down next to him and began speaking softly, "I saw how messed up you were about Wells, were you guys close?"

"He dated my sister for a long time, and they were friends before that," the boy shrugged, keeping his eyes trained down at the rope in his hands. "He's always been there. Before everything with my dad we were friends. I guess he was kinda like an older brother. He was nice, always tried to include me when he was hanging out with Clarke. We thought that he was the one that turned in our dad, but he didn't. Our mom did. I never even got to say sorry for the way I've been treating him."

"Do you know why he let you and your sister believe that he was the one that got your father killed?"

"No, why would he let us hate him?"

"Because he loved you, dumb dumb. He loved you guys so much that he would rather you hate him than go through the pain of knowing that it was your mother. That's pretty great, to have someone love you that much."

TJ thought about that as he tied the material that he was losing to the poles. He understood what Octavia was saying, but it only made him feel worse. He had not been kind to the older boy when he had tried to talk to the Griffin siblings and now he would never be able to apologize for that. When he stood up and tried to move to work on another section Octavia grabbed TJ around his waist and pulled him down into her lap.

"He knew that you loved him, and he understood why you acted the way that you did," the brunette said. She held the boy tightly as he began to cry, wishing she could take his pain from him. "You know, I always wanted a little brother. I always wanted to know what it would be like to have someone to take care of like my brother took care of me."

"Oh, please," TJ scoffed, wiping the tears from his face with his shirt sleeve. "I don't need any more older sisters. I already have one and let me tell you, she's a handful."

"Are you talking bad about me?" a voice said, alerting the two to the fact that Clarke was walking up. She flopped down in front of them and wiped the sweat from her brow, hoping they would ignore her puffy eyes. "And what do you mean I was a handful? I was nothing compared to you."

"Whatever, I only got in trouble because of you."

"Like when?"

"Like that time you decided that we should practice our earth skills in the living room. We caught the couch on fire."

"That was your fault for dropping the paper."

"But it was your idea. What about the time that you convinced me to help you redecorate Mom's office by drawing all over the walls?"

"Okay, yeah, that was on me."

"And how about when you dropped me down the garbage chute?"

"Hey, that was Wells. He was supposed to hold onto you."

The siblings' laughter was cut off at the thought of the recently deceased. That had shared so much of who they were with them, and both knew that his ghost would be one that haunt them for the rest of their lives. Still, they were able to move on from their awkward silence and finish setting up their tent, with the help of Octavia.

When they were done, TJ moved over to where his friends were creating weapons. He took a piece of wood that was meant to be fastened into a spear and he suddenly got an idea. Clarke needed a weapon, but she also loved art. His father had told him about how some of the people on Earth used to carve pictures into the wood. He had called it whittling. He took the knife that he had made out of his pocket and began to work on what would be a spear shaft.

Starting at the bottom, he first carved a young girl holding a baby. Next, there was the same girl, a little bit older, with a toddler on her shoulders. Above that was an elaborate scene of an older boy holding the same toddler upside down by his ankles. And so it went on. There was the time that their dad had been chasing TJ and he ran into a wall, the day they caught their couch on fire, when TJ, Clarke, and Wells broke into the council chamber, and it ended with the three of them sitting on a couch, TJ spread across Wells and Clarke's legs.

"That's beautiful," Monty said, crouching down beside the boy and taking the spear shaft into his hand. "Have you ever done this before?"

"No, but my dad told me it was something that people used to do," TJ said simply.

"You're really good at it. Is that you, Clarke and Wells?"

"Yeah, I just wanted Clarke to have something to remind her of the good times. I used a spear handle because she needs a weapon, you know?"

"Could you maybe do one for me, something with trees and stuff on it?"

"Yeah, sure."

The brunette boy ruffled his hair and took off, leaving TJ to finish the spear for his sister. When he was done, he sat it aside and began working on one for Monty. He had found something to distract himself from his thoughts.

Meanwhile, Clarke was busy arguing with Bellamy over how they should divide up the duties. He thought that they should dedicate all of their manpower to building and guarding the wall but she disagreed, saying that, while all of that was important, they also needed to cure meat, find herbs, and plant and cultivate food. When he finally caved and agreed, it was lunch time.

The blonde took her lunch behind the drop ship, hoping for a moment alone. True solitude, however, was a thing of the past on the ground, and soon she was joined by someone she had been friends with for years. Squid was only seventeen but she had a look about her that just screamed that she was older. She was tall for a girl at six feet even and had a short brown Mohawk and piercing blue eyes. Her most noticeable feature was a deformed third arm under her right armpit that had earned her the nickname Squid. It was an uncommon birth defect but she had always taken it in stride.

"How's it going, Princess?" the brunette said as she sat down next to Clarke. Looking at her, you would never be able to tell that she was a girl. Her short hair and baggy boys' clothes hid any possible femininity.

"Not you too," complained Clarke good-natruedly. "Ever since we landed, people have been calling me that."

"Well, you pretty much are the princess of this train wreck, what with your mom being who she is and all. Besides, you and Bellamy have kinda taken charge."

"Somebody has to, better me being bossy than all of us dying, you know?"

"True. How's the little man doing?"

"TJ's okay, but he's taking Wells' death pretty hard."

"What'd you think would happen? You and Wells were always inseparable, and that boy has spent his entire life glued to your side. They were close through you. I imagine Wells was kinda like a big brother to him. Just, you know, be there for him and stuff."

"Wow, how profound."

Both teenagers laughed as they reveled in each other's presence. Friends were hard to make on the Ark but the two had met due to Squid's need to see Clarke's mother once a week as she grew up to have her examine her arm. The two had bonded and they had been friends since they were children.

Clarke left her food uneaten, and instead led a group out to go collect herbs. Her brother looked intent on what he was doing and so she left him alone, though she did pick up his friend Luna. The girl was skittish but very sweet and she figured that it would not hurt to take her under her wing. She also took Alissa and Goren, who'd both worked in agriculture on the Ark, as well as Squid and Monroe for protection.

They went down to the river to collect seaweed, as well as look for anything else that they might be able to use. Monroe noticed the fish and commented that they could probably spear them for food. They moved farther along the water line and found a fresh crop of berries that, from their earth skills lessons, they knew were edible. Unfortunately, with no way to know what affect the radiation had had on the plants, they simply had to take their chances and hope that what they were eating would not kill them.

DAY SIX

"Clarke, do you think we'll ever see them again?" the youngest of the Hundred, Striker, asked the blonde as she showed him how to boil herbs into tea. Both she Bellamy had agreed that they needed to delegate easier, though no less important, tasks to the youngest of them. They understood that there would be time for them to learn how to fight and such when they were older. For now, they thought that it was best to give them jobs that would benefit the group as a whole but would also keep them safe.

"I think so," Clarke smiled when they boy flopped himself down in her lap. "Do you have family on the Ark?"

"My parents, but I don't really care about my dad. I miss my mom, though. She's sick, but your mom's takin' care of her."

Clarke smiled at the boy's innocence. She had taken it upon herself to watch after the little ones. She had many reasons for that, one being that they were her brother's friends, but the main one was that she saw something of TJ in every single one of those kids. She also understood that, because of her brother, she had certain maternal instincts that were not yet present in the others of the Hundred. Most of them were older, between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, but they had to take care of the younger ones.

Striker was the youngest, only eight years old, followed by TJ ana a little girl named Max at age ten. Luna was twelve and both Charlotte and a boy named Colton were thirteen. She tried to pair the kids up with people that she held in some degree of trust to help them assimilate to life on the ground. She chose Striker for herself and was having him assist with the more mundane tasks involved with medical work. He enjoyed helping and she greatly enjoyed teaching him. He was smart and inquisitive, with wisdom far beyond his years.

She watched over TJ as well, but he did not seem to need much help. He was fairly content to just sit by and make weapons. Alissa was teaching Max and Luna all she knew about farming and growing their own food. Colton and Charlotte had both been placed on the building crew, where they were in charge of tying sections of the wall together. They were under the direct tutelage of Thallan and Blaise, older boys that were best friends. She was coming to trust the people that they had landed with, and she trusted them above most others. Colton had shown an interest in hunting and so she had convinced Finn to take him out that day.

Her days were filled with teaching Striker and helping the others with their medical needs. There was a lot more for her to do than she would have originally thought, as someone was constantly getting themselves hurt. There were sprains from all of the climbing, scraped knees from tripping over the tree roots, cuts from weapons' accidents, and an endless amount of bruises and bloody knuckles from people getting into fights. Clarke and Bellamy did their best keep order, and, though it was hard, everything was getting better by the day.