Before I knew it, two months had already come and gone. All of the days seemed to blend together, but I drew tallies on the side of our cell to keep track. Octavia and I had become very close, and I could tell that she looked up to me like an older sister. Her attitude about the whole thing was a lot more hopeful now that I had arrived, knowing that we weren't going to be stuck here forever.
I'd also started to get to know Finn, Jasper, Monty, Harper, Miller, Monroe, and even Murphy during my time here. We all sat together during our lunch hour and talked. I was the one who brought us all together. Surprisingly, I'd learned a lot more about them now than I ever did while we were on the ground. I guess I was just so focused on keeping them safe that I forgot to take some time to really get to know them. Finn actually told me about Raven this time, maybe because she came to visit every visiting day.
Visiting days were held once a month for about an hour. The only visitors I'd ever had were my parents and Wells. Jaha banned Bellamy from the sky box when his mother and sister were captured as a punishment for keeping the secret for so long. Although I wished I could see Bellamy, it was almost a blessing in disguise that he wasn't allowed to visit. It would have been much harder for us to see each other again because it would distract us from our mission. I did feel bad for Octavia, who never had any visitors.
"Hey Clarke?" Octavia asked from her bunk.
"Yeah Tavia?" I asked. She jumped off of the ladder and climbed into my bed. I was still getting used to the timid Octavia, and I slightly missed the grounder warrior Octavia. But it was nice to have my very own little sister to cuddle with. Octavia curled up against me, prompting me to wrap my arm around her.
"Nightmare." She said quickly. That was all she had to say for me to understand. Octavia got nightmares almost every night about her mother. It was heartbreaking for me to watch, but sleeping next to me helped her, so it was the least I could do. I glanced over at the digital clock on the wall, which read 12:46am, and sighed knowing that I needed to go to bed. I shifted a little bit to lay down, squeezed Octavia, and then fell asleep again with her in my arms.
"Alright let's play a game." Jasper suggested. Everyone at the table groaned and muttered various unhappy responses under their breaths. Jasper always wanted to play a game after we finished lunch, and it was starting to get old. Honestly, this entire situation was getting old. Every day was the same. We were woken up at 7:00am to have our cells and our bodies checked for contraband, then we were sent to the showers with our lunch groups, and then we are sent back into our cells to do our classwork (in my case, to tutor Octavia with hers), and then we our sent to lunch. Lunch is the same, boring protein bars every day followed by Jasper suggesting that we play a game. I'd tap my fingers on the steel table, trying desperately not to go mad. I thought being locked up in solitary was bad, but this is almost worse.
"Come on guys, just one game." Jasper pleaded. Murphy had his head down on the table, probably trying not to strangle Jasper while Finn and I glanced at each other in an attempt to figure out how to let Jasper down easy.
"Maybe tomorrow, Jasper." I said kindly. Finn rolled his eyes at me, prompting me to kick him under the table. He yelped, causing everyone to turn to him.
"Sorry, cramp." He lied. I chuckled at the weird looks everyone was giving him.
"So Eric got reviewed yesterday and they floated him. That's the third one of us this week to get floated. Things aren't looking well for us." Harper said to the group.
"I swear Jaha loves to push the button to float people." Miller muttered.
"Maybe the princess should talk to her prince Jaha." Murphy added. Finn shot Murphy a glare while I folded my hands in my lap awkwardly. I knew that they were floating people more often because the ark was becoming overpopulated. Although my father wouldn't find the fatal flaw for another few weeks, that didn't mean the council was just going to let us back into society anymore. Without us, there would be more rations for everyone else.
"I tried. He won't listen to me." I lied. Murphy scratched his chin and scoffed.
"Yeah, right. He'll probably just save you." Murphy growled. Finn told him to shut up while Octavia reached over to hold my hand.
"We did get another prisoner today, her name is Fox. She seems nice but she's very quiet." Harper told us. I had no idea how she got all of this information, but she was the queen of gossip.
"Lunch for group C is now over. Lunch for group C is now over." A voice said over the intercom. Guards surrounded us and escorted us back to our rooms to spend another afternoon doing nothing until we eventually fell asleep and started the day over again.
Three more weeks passed and it was finally visiting day. Our group got to visit in the morning while the other groups visited in the afternoon. Octavia stayed in bed, playing with her red hair ribbon while I got ready to meet with my parents and Wells as usual. Today would be different, because my father would be getting much closer to finding the flaw and Bellamy's role would be critical.
"Let me know if you hear anything about Bell. I'm worried about him." Octavia said. I nodded as I slipped on my boots.
"Prisoner 319 you have two sets of visitors this morning." A guard said at the entrance to our cell. I gave Octavia a faint smile before I followed the guards out the door and to the visiting center. Once I arrived, my parents were sitting at a table in the middle like they always did. I took my seat across from them and rested my cuffed hands on the table.
"How are you, sweetheart?" My mother asked. I shrugged my shoulders, and looked over at my dad.
"Bellamy has been coming over lately, he misses you." My dad said. I smiled, happy that Bellamy was doing what I'd told him to.
"He comes over every Sunday to watch soccer with us and likes to help me out at engineering. He's hoping to move up from a janitor position to a position with us. I took him in as my apprentice." My dad said. My heart warmed at the thought of Bellamy and my dad working together every day. It was smart of Bellamy to take that approach in order to get close to my father and learn about the flaw before my mother.
"He said he wants to be an engineer by the time you are released so he can provide for you." My dad added. My cheeks flushed at the thought of marrying Bellamy. I knew he was just saying it to convince my dad to make him his apprentice, but it still warmed my heart to think about. Too bad that would never be our reality.
"It there anything we can get get for you to make you more comfortable here?" My mother asked as she stared straight at the handcuffs binding my wrists. I shook my head and leaned back against the chair.
"Alright, well we better get going so you can have some time with Wells." My mother said as she stood up from the table.
"I love you kiddo." My dad said as he reached over and flicked the tip of my nose with his index finger. I smiled, wishing that the cuffs weren't preventing me from hugging him.
"I love you too." I replied as they left the room. Wells entered immediately after they left.
"Hey, Clarke." He said.
"Hey." I replied.
"How are you?" He asked. I was starting to get tired of being asked that. I was in lock up, how the hell did they think I was?
"I'm fine." I replied. We sat in silence for a moment, our eyes searching the room instead of looking at each other.
"So I saw Bellamy the other day." Wells said. My attention was instantly captured.
"And?" I asked eagerly. If I couldn't see Bellamy, I'd take everything I could get.
"He's a mess, but he's surviving. He misses you like hell." Wells said. I gulped and leaned back, instantly regretting asking about him.
"But he took up an apprenticeship with your father, which I'm sure you know, so he seems to be getting better. I'm sorry I can't get my father to let him see you." Wells said. I shrugged my shoulders.
"Visiting hours are now over." A guard announced. Wells pursed his lips and stood up.
"Hey Wells?" I asked.
"Could you tell Bellamy that I love him and that I'm happy that he's working with my father?" I asked.
Wells smiled faintly, "Yeah, of course." and then walked away from me.
Waiting for the next visiting day was excruciatingly painful. I knew that my father found the flaw by now, but this time Bellamy knew about it to. He was putting himself at risk of being floated if my father went public with the news. I had nightmares every night about them both being floated. Octavia's nightmares stopped weeks ago, so she let me crawl into her bed instead.
"Shh, Clarke, everything is going to be alright. Bellamy can do this." She would tell me until I fell asleep again.
Another few days passed by slowly and I spent them in silence. I was so lost in worry that I couldn't eat, sleep, or speak. All I could do was sit in silence and run different scenarios over in my head. What if Bellamy found out too late? What if my mom blamed Bellamy rather than my father and they floated him instead? What if Bellamy took the fall for my father?
I felt like I was about to throw up my protein bar from lunch this afternoon at the thought of Bellamy getting floated. I literally couldn't handle going to the ground without him. He helped me lead the 100 and without him I wouldn't be able to do it.
"Clarke? You need to snap out of this." Octavia said from across the room. She was sitting at the desk working on an essay for her Earth Skills class.
"Sorry." I mumbled, the first thing I'd said in days.
"She speaks!" Octavia exclaimed, dramatically throwing her hands into the air. I rolled my eyes and laid on my pillow.
"Shut up." I said, causing her to spin the desk chair around and gasp at me. I reached under myself to grab the old pillow and throw it at her. She caught it and ran to the bed, climbing on top of me, hitting me over and over again with the pillow until we both got tired and I surrendered. Octavia collapsed next to me on the bed, holding the pillow against her chest, trying to catch her breath.
"So when did you and my brother turn into more than just 'fake boyfriend and girlfriend'?" Octavia asked.
"It was the night before I left. We kissed and I told him that I loved him." I replied. Octavia playfully raised her eyebrows, suggesting that we had sex, so I playfully slapped her.
"No we didn't go any further."
"But you wanted to."
"I-"
"You totally wanted to."
I rolled my eyes at her and gave up on the argument. It was true that I had wanted to, but Bellamy didn't want to until I was with him for good.
"When I do I will make sure to rub every gory detail into your face." I teased.
Octavia stuck her tongue out and shook her head, "Ew Clarke! That's my brother!"
"You started it!"
"You're sick!" Octavia joked.
"You asked!"
Octavia covered her face with the blanket, probably trying to block out any mental images of me and Bellamy having sex. I laughed and rolled onto my side to shut off the light.
"Have sweet sex dreams about your brother and I" I joked to her.
"You too." She replied seductively. The scary thing was, I actually did.
It was finally visiting day, and I couldn't stop shaking. I had no idea if my dad or Bellamy was okay and it scared the hell out of me. If I lost either of them, I would lose all hope in this second chance.
Two guard arrived at our door as usual, but instead of opening the door and letting me out, they grabbed Octavia and I and pushed us against the wall.
"What are you doing?" I asked nervously as they were restraining me. None of them answered my question.
"Ow that's my wrist!" Octavia yelped. I glanced down at the wristband being attached to Octavia and my eyes widened.
"This wasn't supposed to happen for another year!" I said for Octavia's benefit.
"Shut up!" The guard said as he snapped the wristband onto my wrist. Octavia instantly started to panic, and reached out for me as they split us apart. When I got into the main hallway, I saw all of the prisoners of the ark being escorted towards the drop ship. We were going to Earth a year early. What if the radiation killed us? Why was this happening so soon?
My mother came out from around the corner and stopped the guards.
"Mom, what's going on?" I asked, with panic lacing my voice. She pulled me in for a hug.
"You're being sent to the ground, all 100 of you." She said. This wasn't right, what if it wasn't the same 100? Where was Bellamy?
"Where are dad and Bellamy?" I asked frantically.
"Your instincts will tell you to protect everyone else first." She said quickly, avoiding my question.
"WHERE ARE THEY!" I screamed at the top of my lungs as the guards dragged me down the hallway. My mom walked away to assist other guards at putting on the wristbands.
"MOM!" I wailed, kicking and screaming at the guards. I felt like my whole world was crashing down, but then I suddenly felt calm. There was a guard standing ahead of me with a smoking gun. He'd shot me with a tranquilizer gun, again.
"Where's Bellamy…" I whispered as I passed out in the guards' arms.