Aerrow is finally reunited with Clarke in this chapter, how not in a way that either of them perhaps were expecting
Black.
Total, utter darkness
The tunnel was dark and dank. Dust and grime burned the back of Aerrow's throat but he kept moving. He had to find Clarke.
What he did when (or if) he found her, he didn't know. He just hoped beyond all hope that she was still alive.
The far bigger question he found himself was how he would act when he did. Nearly the exact same thing had happened to him over two years ago, and he had become cold and distant. Back then though, he had tried to forget about emotions such as love, though ultimately Clarke and Sara helped him rediscover them. He realised now that it was just about impossible to forget about an emotion as powerful as love. It was however possible to avoid it.
Did he still love her? Yes. Whether or not she still loved him he had no idea. He flashed back to his hallucination of her in the cave, where she told him he was a monster and she never wanted to see him again. He kept telling himself over and over that it was just a hallucination and there was no truth behind what he heard. Or was there? Suddenly, he was glad he was wearing the grounder's clothes and facemask.
Eventually, his eyes adjusted to the darkness and he was able to see a bit more clearly where he was going. Not that it was much help. The entire place was a maze. It would be easy for him to lose his way and never come out. He began to see the truth behind the grounders' warnings.
He made the smart decision to start marking which way he'd come by making arrows out of rocks on corners, so at least he could find his way out again, much like the mythological hero Theseus leaving a trail of thread behind him when navigating the maze of the Minotaur, a monstrous half man – half bull that feasted on the flesh of young men and women. Aerrow may not have been facing a Minotaur, but the Reapers sure came close.
Suddenly, he saw the faint orange hue of a fire up ahead of him. Instinctively, he pressed himself to the side of the tunnel and edged his way towards it. He had found the Reapers lair.
This place was familiar. He had been here once before, trying to find his way back to the drop ship with Clarke and Finn. He had been horrified then and he was horrified now. There were at least 15 Reapers sat around a sickly orange fire in the centre of a clearing in the tunnel. Off to the side were two massive mine carts, where the Reapers piled the bodies of their victims.
There were no bones on the ground nor the smell of human flesh. Aerrow looked on in horror as he realised that Clarke and the others must be in the carts, on the brink of death, but still alive at least.
One of the Reapers got to his feet and began walking over to the carts. Aerrow needed to make his move soon, but there was one problem: there was no way he would be able to take on all the Reapers. He had fought off 5 of them once and barely escaped then, there was no way he could take 15. The fight would be short and his death painful.
He couldn't sit aside and do nothing though. He wouldn't resign Clarke to her inevitable, gruesome fate. Maybe it would be best to sacrifice himself, giving her the chance to escape. Given the things he had done, maybe he deserved to be eaten alive. Clarke didn't though. She didn't deserve such a fate. She deserved to see the light of day again. She deserved a life.
As the Reaper approached the carts, Aerrow solemnly drew his swords and tried to calm himself. He took several deep breaths and forced himself to accept what he had to do. The Reaper grabbed the cloth covering the carts and Aerrow prepared himself to attack. The Reaper removed the cloth revealing…
…Nothing.
The carts were completely empty.
Aerrow breathed a sigh of relief. It meant that Clarke was still out there, somewhere. Maybe she had escaped, or maybe she was at another 'storage' location. Either way, he still had to find her.
This time though, he had no idea where to go. He would just have to search the entire mine system until he found her, or the Reapers found him.
He was about to turn the other way when the Reaper who had removed the cloth walked back to the fire, grabbed a flaming torch and began heading down a small side tunnel. Maybe he was heading to another gathering of Reapers or going out to find more bodies. Aerrow didn't know. What he did know was that now his best option was following this Reaper, so, sticking to the shadows, he skirted around the clearing and set off down the tunnel after the Reaper.
Tailing the Reaper was easier said than done. The man – if you could call him that – moved quickly and constantly checked behind him. Aerrow was glad he had left Scar behind. The Monitor Lizard was a faithful companion and his help had been invaluable at times, but down here he would be more hindering than helpful, and Aerrow needed all the help he could get.
Concentrating hard, he followed the Reaper around every turn. Briefly, he passed a junction where at the end of the side tunnel, he saw daylight. He marked the junction with one of his rock arrows, before setting off after the Reaper once more. The entire time a single thought invaded his head. He had to find Clarke.
Suddenly, Aerrow came around a bend and saw nothing. The Reaper had simply vanished. No! he screamed inside his head not now
Had to find Clarke…
Then in the distance he saw the faint orange glow of the man's torch disappearing around a corner. He breathed a sigh of relief and set off in pursuit, moving as fast as he dared.
Had to find her…
He heard a serious of animalistic grunts around the corner. He hurried around it and there he saw her.
Her face was bloody, her hair a mess and she too was dressed in grounder clothes, but he would recognise her anywhere. Finally, he had found Clarke.
Despite the darkness of the tunnel and the even greater darkness in his heart, his eyes lit up at the sight of her. He felt something surge through him. Happiness? Relief? He didn't know. The last time he had felt such a strong emotion was… when he found out Sara was still alive, during the battle with the grounders.
At the same time though this was different. He was a changed man since that battle, and he no longer viewed the world in the same way, so while he was overjoyed at finding Clarke, he was unable to enjoy the feeling, to embrace it.
Right now though there was another problem to worry about. He might have found Clarke but by no means was she out of danger.
There were three Reapers converging on her from all sides. "no…" she whimpered, realising she was trapped "no no no… please!"
He had never seen her like this. She had always been so strong, so unafraid. Even when staring down the barrel of a full-on assault by the grounder army, she had kept her cool and fought them off. Right now though, she was scared. Totally, utterly scared. She looked so innocent, so helpless, in a way he had never seen her. In that moment, seeing her alone, trapped and terrified, he forgot his previous resolved emotions and his heart went fully and completely out to her.
He needed to act and he needed to act now. He felt the anger rise up in his chest again. He was so used to it by now it just felt normal.
He drew his swords and, with a cry of rage, charged towards the Reapers
Clarke P.O.V
Clarke whipped her head from left to right, desperately searching for a way to escape. She saw none. She saw the closest Reaper raise his axe and howl, and she saw her future.
Suddenly though, someone, a grounder, came charging out of the black and ploughed into the Reaper. At first she thought it was Anya, but once her eyes came into focus she realised that this grounder was a man.
She watched on as he wielded two shiny silver swords expertly in his hands, cutting two of the Reapers down in a brutal clash of blades.
All of a sudden, the third Reaper came at him from behind. Clarke watched on in horror as the Reaper grabbed the grounder's back and threw him against the side of the tunnel. The grounder hit the wall hard. He gasped in pain and collapsed to the ground. The Reaper stood over him and brought the end of his spear/axe hybrid weapon down. The grounder managed to grab the wooden shaft of the weapon and hold it clear of his throat, but only just.
The Reaper had the leverage though and slowly, the sharpened tip of the spear came closer and closer to the trapped grounders throat.
Clarke saw this as her opportunity to escape, but she didn't run. Her feet remained rooted to the ground. Her eyes were locked on the grounder that had come seemingly from nowhere and had saved her from an awful fate. She didn't know what made her do it, but she grabbed a rock from the ground and bashed it against the side of the Reapers head, knocking him off the grounder.
The Reaper then came at her. She tried to back away but found herself pressed against the wall of the tunnel. Just as the Reaper was about to lay his deformed hands on her, the tip of a sword exploded out through the front of his chest.
The Reaper howled briefly, before dropping to the ground, dead, revealing behind him the imposing outline of the grounder who had saved her life.
Clarke dropped to her knees, panting, her ordeal over, for now. She stared up at the grounder, who stood impassively in front of her. "Thank you" she breathed "thank you…"
The grounder stared back at her before eventually offering a single, slow nod of his head. She locked eyes with him for a moment, trying to come to terms with what had just happened and what to do next, before suddenly the man reached out to grab her hand "Come with me" he said roughly
Clarke hesitated. This grounder might have saved her life just before, but that didn't mean he wasn't planning to take it later on. "Wait" she said, finding strength in her voice once more "why did you save me"
The grounder stared at her. From behind his facemask, despite the gloom of the tunnel, Clarke saw his eyes flash with… something, something she couldn't identify. He sighed, before replying "Neither of us want to see you die"
Clarke stared wide eyed, trying to comprehend the meaning of his words. Maybe he mistook her for a member of his tribe or something. After all, she was wearing clothes which belonged to a grounder.
"Please, come with me" the grounder said. There was something familiar about his voice that she couldn't quite lay her finger on. There was also a sense of urgency and the faintest undertone of kindness in his voice. She quickly weighed up her options. Anya was nowhere to be seen and this grounder seemed to genuinely want to help her. Why exactly that was, she didn't yet know, but she needed his help to escape the labyrinth. Where she would go from there, she would decide when the time came.
She took a deep breath "ok" she said quietly
The grounder nodded her again before roughly grabbing her hand and leading her down one of the tunnels
They moved slowly and carefully, ever aware of the patrolling Reapers. The grounder seemed to know where they were going, and she was grateful for that
"Who are you?" she asked him suddenly, as they came to a halt before a corner in the tunnel. The grounder turned back to face her. His eyes were unreadable. She didn't know if he would even give her an answer
The grounder inhaled sharply and she thought he was about to say something when the echoes of footsteps and the flicker of a light came up the tunnel behind them. Clarke and the grounder turned as one to face it, expecting more Reapers to be coming around the corner at any moment. There was something odd about the light though. It was too bright to be from a fire.
Suddenly, 4 people came around the corner. They carried high-tech rifles with ghostly green laser sights and, bizzarely, they wore full body cover-alls and each had a breathing apparatus. These were not Reapers. These were soldiers.
They instantly saw the two standing in the tunnel and aimed their rifles at them
"Mountain Men…" Clarke breathed in horror. Mount Weather must have figured that she had managed to escape.
"Clarke Griffin, you're coming with us" one of the soldiers spoke in perfect English.
One of the other soldiers aimed their green laser sight squarely on the grounder's chest and pulled the trigger.
He was too slow though. With lightning fast reflexes, the grounder yanked both himself and Clarke around the corner, avoiding the spray of bullets that burst forth from the soldiers' rifles.
"we need to move, now!" he told her, urgently "do you trust me?"
Clarke had no answer. She couldn't trust him. She had only just met him. She shocked herself then when she gave him a small, quick nod
"Ok" he said "now lets go"
The two of them took off down the tunnel, with the Mountain Men in hot pursuit.
Bullets flew everywhere. The soldiers were fast but the grounder and Clarke were faster. At every turn they were just far enough ahead of the Mountain Men to avoid a bullet to the head.
"what are we doing?" Clarke shouted desperately as they ran
"I- I don't know" the grounder shouted back between breaths "we can't fight them"
"They can't breathe this air" Clarke told him "they can't stay out here forever"
"well then we outrun them" he replied quickly
They shot around another corner and there in front of them, gloriously, was the light of day. They both stopped briefly, thanking god they had made it out, when suddenly a bullet whistled past them, narrowly missing Clarke's head and instead impacting with one of the rotting wooden beams that held the roof of the tunnel up. They whirled around instantly. The soldiers had caught up with them.
Both stood dead still, both of them knew that the exit was too far away. They would never make it in time. Now they were completely out of options.
"I saw everything" Clarke spoke up loudly and defiantly "I know what you're doing to them"
"Which is why you're going into the harvest chamber with them" the soldier replied
Clarke was rendered speechless. Dread filled her thoughts as she imagined herself being held upside down in suspended animation as her very blood was drained from her. She heard the grounder growl beside her. He would surely share the same fate.
"Give up Clarke. You have nowhere left to go" the soldier continued
"Neither do you" the grounder said suddenly, spinning around suddenly and swinging his sword at the creaking wooden beam, cleaving it in two. He yanked Clarke with him and they sprinted for the exit of the tunnel.
They got there just as the roof of the tunnel collapsed, burying the four unfortunate soldiers alive.
Clarke collapsed to the ground and just lay there, breathing in the sweet fresh air and relishing the feeling of sunlight on her face again.
She heard her rescuer crash onto the ground beside her, breathing heavily.
She allowed herself to smile in joy.
She had survived the horrors of the tunnels.
She had escaped the prison of Mount Weather.
This chapter and the ones following it were immense fun to write. I did like Clarke and Anya escaping together in the show, but unfortunately for the context of my story, I needed her to escape with Aerrow, and I just thought it would be really cool if she didn't know who it really was who saved her from the Reapers. I worked really hard to try and keep Clarke's mentality the same as it is in the show, rather than just have her brainlessly work with an unknown (to her knowledge) grounder. If Aerrow is going to make her trust him in his disguise, he's going to have to work for it. This is explored more in the next chapter.
