Chapter Twenty Five: Medicine
"Pick it up, pick it all up
And start again.
You've got a second chance
You can go home
Escape it all..."
-Daughter
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Bradley and Murphy followed Roxanne back to the others. They all agreed to make their way back to the camp so they could look into the maps they found and discuss what this could mean.
Bradley swung onto Nyx's back while Murphy mounted Mud. The others did the same. Roxanne nudged her horse, a dark red stallion she called Big Red, closer to Bradley. Big Red extended his neck in greeting to Nyx, and got a sharp nip in response.
"Nice necklace," Roxanne commented, eyeing Bradley's neck.
Bradley blushed slightly, raising a hand to touch it again. Then she shot a look at her friend as they rode side by side. "You and the Commander seem awfully cozy."
Roxanne didn't blush like Bradley, but her gaze did drift over to Lexa. "So?"
"I just figured after what happened with Bellamy, you wouldn't be so quick to get back on the horse." She winced. "So to speak."
Roxanne snorted. "Bellamy and I... I don't know, Brad, it just wasn't meant to be or whatever. He always had his eye on Clarke." When she saw her friend's sympathetic gaze, she waved it away. "Don't do that. It's fine. I'm fine."
"Say fine one more time and I might not believe you."
Roxanne's gaze turned amber in the patchy sunlight, gleaming restlessly. "I'm not going to tie myself to a person who wants to be with someone else. I mean, if it was Murphy, wouldn't you let him go?"
Bradley considered that, pushing down the odd lump in her throat that formed at the thought of Murphy kissing someone else, saying I love you to someone else...She shook her head. "I guess," she said uncertainly.
Roxanne shook her head, flicking the reins to scatter the flies away from Red's matted mane.
Bradley changed the subject. "What do you think we'll find with the maps?"
Roxanne thought it over. "I think... it's going to show us a way we can survive this place. Start over."
"Enough to call the others down from the Arc?"
Roxanne looked up at the sky, at the quarter moon. "Maybe."
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A few days went by after the trip to Mount Weather and all was quiet around the camp. But that silence was shattered by a rather loud and colorful exclamation coming from Raven's tent.
The others rushed in and saw her standing there, pale, stating at Monty and Jasper in shock. When Clarke asked what had happened, Raven lifted up the transmitter she had been working on for months now and turned the nob.
There was some crackling and interference, but the sound of a voice slowly came through.
"Hello? Hello?"
Clarke stiffened and Bradley gasped, slapping a hand over her mouth.
"Hello? This is Abby. Can you hear me? Clarke?"
After that day, things began changing at the camp very quickly.
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The following months found the camp divided in its tasks, with one large group working with Roxanne and Lexa's to track down and scout out the fat lands that the maps depicted outside the region of Mount Weather. The other part of camp worked with Raven, Monty, Jasper, and Clarke, preparing and building in preparation for the arrival of the Arc and the others they had not seen in a very long time.
It was determined that the inhabitants of Mount Weather crossed the desert and salt flats out past the mountains, searching for something that their maps didn't even show. People around the camp would speculate where they went around the camp fires at night. Many believe they died trying to cross the desert and their bodies were now buried, never to be found again. Some believe they found the sea and were living far, far away, never to be seen again. And a few believed that they found Paradise, a piece of land that still held some of the old earth's beauty, before it was ravaged by nuclear wars and wasted by toxic gases.
Whatever the case may be, those people were never seen nor heard from again, lost in their journey to search for something else after the downfall of Mount Weather.
As for the Arc's descent, it was planned to arrive at the beginning of winter, right before the cold and the storms came in and made landing too difficult. Clarke was in communication with her mother and Jaha nearly every day, getting and giving status reports.
The camp expanded, covering the entirety of the foothills surrounding the lake they had settled by. The forests nearby had been cut down and moved into camp, where new cabins and tents were built quickly.
Everyone was surprised when Bellamy, Finn, and Murphy took charge on building and expanding the camp. The three young men had quickly learmed that if they put aside their differences, they actually got along fine, especially when they all had one goal in mind.
So they all coexisted and worked together, moving towards that day when three Arc would touch down and they would be reunited with their parents, their family, and friends.
The anticipation grew every day, as well as the nerves.
When they found a quiet moment to be aline, Bradley and Murphy would take their horses around to the other side of the lake. They would sit in the shade of the trees they hadn't cut down and would talk about the aspects of the Arc coming to Earth after all this time.
They were both nervous about it all, but both shared a measure of excitement when it cake to the thought of change. They agreed that everything was finally settling into place, and after months of living and fighting, it felt nice to simply work and relax.
Even now, they laid out side by side along the lake shores, dozing in the mid afternoon sun, shaded by the tree branches, curled up in the long grass.
Bradley toyed with the necklace that rested against Murphy's chest now, her eyes closed and lips curved.
She had made it herself weeks ago, a flattened disk with their initials carved into it, placed on a simple chain. On the other side was an engraving of the moon and stars, like her own necklace. Along his didn't have the words, the meaning was clear, and Bradley felt ridiculously pleased at this symbolic bond with him.
"What are you thinking about?" Murphy murmured, tugging gently at the ends of her hair.
Bradley sighed andeeply snuggled deeper into his side. "Moons and stars."
His chest shook with silent laughter. "There and back?" he asked softly.
Bradley tightened her hold on him. "Always."
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Disclaimer: I do not own the 100.
Author's Note: Please review!