Chapter 4
Clarke and Madi convened in one of the reefer tunnels that has survived the explosions at Mount Weather and praimfaya. Madi still hated going in them, but had long since resolved to stop remembering the past. The past had disappeared, along with her family and village.
Clarke breathed heavily. Her eyes showed more emotion than Madi had seen in recent months. Madi could sense Clarke's pain and waited for her to speak.
"I know one of them. My friend, Murphy. He was there."
Madi nodded, silently taking this in. She had heard about Murphy. He sounded like a true warrior who survived, no matter what. He had been falsely accused of murder, nearly hung up, tortured, made sick by her people to soften the battlefield… and that was just the first few weeks on the ground. Clarke had tried to explain to her the concept of redemption with these stories. How Murphy had changed, and become his true self instead of trying to be somebody he wasn't. Murphy represented second chances and redemption.
"What do we do?"
Clarke hesitated at the question. What could they do? She looked at Madi, desperation instead of resolve on her face.
Madi understood quickly that sentimentality had no place in plans. She didn't survive on her own after praimfaya on memories. She survived day by day on grit, determination, and cockroaches when she could find them. She had to get Clarke to focus.
"Clarke, we know the ground better than they do. We have an advantage. Remember what you told me about when you first landed and our clans had all this knowledge? We have that now. Let's use it."
Clarke's eyes lifted sharply. Her brain was back.
"Yes. It's critical we get a message to Murphy. Something only he will understand or see. We need him to know he is not alone and once he knows that he might be able to help us out on the inside."
"How do we do it?"
Clarke sat silently for a while, thinking. Madi was relieved to see her ace was filled with the challenge of analysis as opposed to grief. Madi knew Murphy was not her best friend, or even her close friend, but Madi knew better than anybody that any familiar face would have been a distraction. She would have given anything to see her older brother again. Just the thought put a knot in her stomach that she didn't have time for. She pushed it away and refocused as well.
She wondered aloud - "What would be sign for Murphy, something that he would know meant something but that others would not? But something that these strangers would not recognize as a sign."
Clarke admired Madi and her analytical mind. Clarke used to be like her, only focusing on the goal and pushing away her feelings. She gazed at her before quickly coming up with an idea.
"Jobi nuts. We need Jobi nuts. Murphy will recognize them. He may even be able to use them against the Eligius."
"But how do we get them to him?"
Clarke considered this. It would not be easy and she wasn't sure what type of monitoring they had from the ship. "We can go at night. We can leave the jobi nuts where Murphy will be able to reach them and where they were sitting today. Murphy will know what this means and will use them in the most opportune way he can think of… which means we will likely need to act fast tomorrow. Let's sleep for a few hours now and I will leave at nightfall."
Madi knew Clarke would try to protect her, but logically, she was more spry, she was faster, smaller. But there was no use arguing with her so she nodded and they pulled out their sleep sacks in the tunnel and prepared to rest, but neither was able to. The excitement of seeing the first humans in over six years meant that they simply closed their eyes and thought about what they had seen until nightfall. Clarke got their collection of Gobi nuts together and Madi collected additional ones. They went back to the edge of the forest and waited with baited breath for the sky to darken completely.
