Come on guys! Reviews would be nice - well, nice reviews would be nice. Samdagger.
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Chapter 48
After the meeting was over, Adara sat back thinking over something she had thought of while in Tondc.
"You know, we haven't been in touch with the Ark since we got here. I don't want them to know we found this place, except for Kane. If they know of this place, they'll try to take it over and take charge. I won't allow that. This place is for us to hide from the mountain. After they are dealt with, I want us to move above ground, keeping this place as a fallback if needed. Kane needs to know this. Is there a way to contact the Ark without letting them know where we are at?"
Monty and Raven looked at each other. Both had thought of ways of communicating with the Ark without the mountain being the wiser, but neither had thought about it being a secret from the Ark.
"I've figured out how to hide our transmissions from the mountain by bouncing the signal off one of the old military satellites. I don't know how to hide ourselves from the Ark, though. They do have the technology to find us using the location where the radio signal originates." said Monty.
"I haven't figured that out either. If we bounce the signal, they can still back trace it. I think the Ark's radio is more sophisticated than Mount Weather's. I'll dig around some more and see if I can find some instructions on these radios." said Raven.
"Okay. Get on that as soon as you can, please. Monty, you still need to monitor the mountain though." Monty nodded. "Raven, I believe you wanted to show me something?"
"Yes!" exclaimed Raven, getting up, excited to show off what she'd done.
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After Raven had shown her the solar panels, the generator they were hooked up to and the way she had given priority to the medbay and elevators, they headed for the mess hall, still talking about the solar panels. They had taken their seats and Adara glanced over to see Atom talking to Monroe about something. She watched them getting closer. She nudged Raven and nodded her head in their direction.
"Something going on there?" Adara asked.
"Not really, I think Monroe's naive to what she's doing and Atom seems to know that. I think there's a possibility there, but Monroe needs to be a bit more experienced or at least more knowledgeable about body language and flirting," said Raven, looking at them. Adara looked at Raven.
"Missing Luna?" she guessed.
"Yeah, none of us are with our soul mates. Clarke's waiting until Polis - don't know why. She's daft to wait when she's right there," Raven said, pointing in a vague direction of Tondc. "Murphy's waiting until the mountain's dealt with then wants to go find Emory. I want Luna, but she's with someone else. I hope we get to be with our soul mates this time."
"Yeah, someone to share your life with would be nice," Adara said wistfully. "I never got that last time. I don't really want to leave this area. I love it here."
"Did you ever dream it would be like this - down here on earth I mean?"
"No. Oh, I read books and saw pictures of what it was like, but I had no idea of the beauty of it. It's not just the trees and plants and animals, it's the smells and the tastes, I mean take this meat. You ever tasted anything like this? Food on the Ark was just so bland."
"I know. My favourite are the apples. They're so crunchy and tasty! Yumm!" Adara was about to answer her when she heard her name being called. She looked around and saw Jones and Murphy standing there looking excited. The girls picked up their now empty plates and took them to the washing area and set them down. They made their way to the boys.
"What's up?" asked Adara. Murphy beckoned them to follow him and Jones. They looked at each other, shrugged and followed him. Murphy led them to a corridor on the seventh level.
"Jones found a map of the bunker on the computer. On it he saw a secret corridor that leads to three secret rooms. He came and got me and we've checked it out. We found the secret door and we broke in." With that, he led them to the other secret door and opened it. Before them was a long corridor with three doors. Adara opened the first door and found a large room with weights and mats and bars attached to the wall.
"A training room?" she asked.
"Yes," said Murphy. They looked around and then left, moving on to the next room. It was an armoury with a lot of weapons in it.
"Shit!" exclaimed Raven, looking around in wonder. "There's enough weapons here to outfit a small army!"
"Anyone else seen this?" asked Adara, seriously.
"No," said Murphy, shaking his head. When we saw this, we came straight to you."
"Good. This stays secret, got it? Not even the other cabinet members are to be told. I want a lock put on this door." Adara was serious about this. She couldn't let these weapons be used until and unless the Commander approved it. Murphy and Jones nodded. Raven looked at her and reluctantly nodded too.
"Okay, What's in the last room?"
"We never looked."
They went to the third door and opened it. It was a shooting range.
"Crap, this door too!" said Adara. "In fact, close off this corridor completely. No access for anyone unless I say so."
"Oh, come on, Adara! We could use the training room!" pleaded Murphy.
"And how are you going to keep the others from figuring out the other rooms. You really think that if someone wanted to take those weapons, we could stop them? We need to make the people here understand that the weapons we need to learn are swords, bows and knives. People need to learn how to work the land, not how to make others do it for them."
Jones stepped forward.
"If the ones on the Ark come down, they will want the weapons and they will use them on whoever they want to. Don't forget Jaha sold us out. Who knows who else has their own agenda? I'm with Adara. These need to remain hidden from everyone. They can only bring our own downfall. Do you really want that? I know I don't."
They looked at Jones and Murphy reluctantly nodded.
"Bellamy, Pike, Clarke's mother, Dax, Mbege and several others I could name would take those weapons and turn them on the clans. Adara's right. Let's hide this corridor, the way to this corridor is hard to find, so all we have to do is put a lock on the outside and maybe pile some stuff against it to hide it." said Murphy. The rest nodded and left the corridor.
"Meeting tomorrow morning to discuss everything except this corridor, okay everyone?" There were nods all around before they all went their separate ways.
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The meeting the next day was to figure out what they were going to do - both in the bunker and with the mountain men. Adara, Clarke, Raven, Monty, Jones - as Monty's second, Atom, Murphy, Octavia and Monroe, were all sitting around a conference table in various states of wakefulness. Jill was ready to take notes.
"Okay everyone, I want a list of what each of your departments' needs. If you need more equipment, more personnel - be aware that most of the people here are already in teams, if someone on your team isn't working out or have expressed a desire to work with another team, I want to know. We may be able to move some people around. I also want to know those who have taken to their work willingly and those who have shown excellence in their tasks. I don't want any unhappy people bitching and moaning that they don't want to do the work they've been assigned. Some of those not assigned to teams would like a chance to do something other than whatever jobs we give them. Mostly cleaning and no-one likes cleaning. So I want to weed out those who are not pulling their weight. They can be put on the menial tasks. I also want to know how your department is doing. O, I know your department is out hunting and foraging, is there anything out there we should be aware of. Any shortage of greens or animals. Anything like that." Adara turned to Murphy.
"Murphy, your team is the only other team to regularly go topside. I want maps of the terrain if possible, I want to know if the mountain men have been coming from the same direction or are they wandering around all over the place. Any feature that may be buildings nearby. From what I've seen on old maps, the whitehouse was housed in its own grounds with a fence around it and lots of lawns and gardens, but it was still in the middle of Washington DC. To the south should be nothing but open ground and parkland. North, East and West were built up areas. See if anything jumps out at you about the ground. I can use my double vision to see things." Adara stopped and took a drink before she moved on to the next person.
"Atom, as the only other team that leaves the bunker, I need an accurate map of those passages and tunnels. Check for places that could be close to the surface. If I remember correctly, we are close to that station we found first and that was a major hub for the trains. See if you can locate any other points like that on the maps. Sometimes the tunnels had hidden doors in the walls that led to maintenance areas. We may be able to use things that are in there. I'd like us to find some kind of vehicle that we can use on those rails to move around faster. It needs to be light and more than likely, manually operated. They must have had a vehicle like that to move heavy equipment and materials around without using a huge train." Atom nodded.
"Monroe, do you have a full inventory of what's been found?" Monroe nodded and handed over several pads with everything they had inventories so far. "Good. I want you to get with Clarke later and see if you can turn some of those small offices on the third floor into rooms that can be used for sex." Everyone looked surprised with a few raised eyebrows. "I've noticed a few couples going off for sex and I want to make sure that they're not going to get injured while doing it. I caught one couple in the kitchens at night going at it. Give them rooms to have sex in, please." Chuckles and nods went around the room.
Monty, how are we on those old radios?"
"Raven and I have taken one of them apart to see how they work and we got a shock. Those radios are about two hundred years old!" Everyone looked shocked by that. Monty nodded and continued. "We're using a modern equivalent for the parts and we think it should be done this morning, but we need to do another one to receive so we can know if they are working properly. I think we can do that by tomorrow night?" he questioned as he looked to Raven. Raven nodded.
"Have you found anything else about this bunker in those computers?"
"Well, we found the names of the last people assigned to the bunker and their jobs - including one General Michael Wallace, one of the military commanders and most likely Dante's forefather. Most never got here, though because the President was on the other side of the country. We did find a list of the facilities he was listening in on, though. There are about ten that he regularly listened in on and the rest just occasionally. There seemed to be some kind of communication attempted with the base after the bombs fell. It was logged that a base in Idaho was trying to make contact for about twenty years after they fell. It stopped after that, no other attempt has been made."
"The President, maybe?"
"Could be, or someone who thinks this bunker should have been staffed."
"Well, that's a problem for another time. What we need now is bunker related stuff. Are there any supply depots nearby, what other ways in and out are there, stuff like that."
"Yep, I'm on it," said Monty. Adara nodded and turned to Jones, who was basically in charge of the Mount Weather surveillance.
"Jones, anything new from the mountain?"
"Nothing important like orders or anything. I have noticed, though, the civilians seemed to be getting restless - no, that's not quite the right word… agitated, maybe? They seemed to be questioning the military more about the grounders - they call them the outsiders instead of savages, they seem to think that anyone who has been saving their lives for almost a century are not savages. They've been asking to see the outsiders more. Even going so far as to say that they could just wave to them through a window so that they wouldn't need to expose anyone to radiation. Of course, the military are turning down those requests."
"Is it serious?" asked Monty.
"No, I don't think so, but I get the feeling that they could pressure the military to do something stupid. What? I don't know, but the pressure is mounting."
"Do you think the civilians would openly revolt against their leaders?" asked Adara.
"I don't think they'll go that far, but they are becoming more distrustful of the military and the leaders. There are some that have openly defied the orders to get clean blood and have stated that they won't unless they get to meet their benefactors. Those people are forcibly taken to the medical bays and knocked out before given clean blood."
"I think we can use this to our advantage when the time comes. Keep monitoring those civilians too, Jones. They could be used as an indication on when to attack the mountain." said Adara with satisfaction. "Murphy, you found anyone else who can help with this?"
"No, not yet, Those on sentry duty are the best of who I've got. Those doing other tasks, are not likely to keep their mouths shut." Adara thought about it.
"Jill, can you go find Harper for me, please?"
"Sure," said Jill, getting up and leaving the room.
Adara needed to be able to talk freely in these meetings about the past life and Jones was the only one who didn't remember. She made her decision.
"Jones," she said. When he looked at her, she said, "Gromyo."
Like all the others, shock and surprise were evident on his face. He looked around with new eyes at everyone around the table. He could see sympathy on everyone's faces.
"We've all been through this, Jones. Everyone around this table, but only a few others know about this second chance. For most, it's the first time they've been to the ground."
"I remember. I died in that ring of fire, you know. I was fighting one of the grounders hand to hand and I remember thinking that I wasn't going to make it back in time. I knew that I would die, but I knew that Clarke would keep the rest of our people safe. I died knowing that everyone else would be okay." He looked around at the sad expressions and realised that not everyone did survive.
"How many?" he asked softly. It was Clarke who answered.
"48 of us were taken by the mountain men into the mountain. Six, seven others survived outside. The rest were killed by grounders or in the ring of fire along with 300 grounders. Those inside the mountain were treated like they had saved us from the savages - as they called them - and we were given new clothing and a dormitory. We could move freely where the civilians could, but we weren't allowed to leave. We were prisoners there. I managed to escape with one of the grounder prisoners, Anya, but we were both shot by the Ark guards when we came upon the remains of Alpha station on the ground. It was night and they shot first and asked questions later. Anya was shot in the stomach and bled out. I was shot in the arm and because I was dressed in grounder clothes and had mud on my face and hands to escape the mountain men following us, I was taken prisoner. It was only when my mom noticed me being dragged through the gate that she put them right about who I was. The adults of the Ark were being all self-righteous about being in charge, just because of their age and my mother was the worst of them. I was the leader and I knew what we needed to do. God, remember the fights we used to have, guys?" she asked.
"Oh, hell, yeah," said Octavia. "We had to sneak in and out of Raven's Gate to do anything. We had to defy orders from her mother - who by the way was the new chancellor - and go do the things we needed to do. It was a mess!" Nods from Murphy and Raven agreed with her.
"Anyway," Clarke continued. Finn went on a rampage and killed 18 grounders in Tondc with one of the rifles we had, Murphy tried to stop him but Finn didn't care. He was in love with me and it made him crazy. In the end, he gave himself up to save the rest of us from being slaughtered by the grounders. We weren't enemies at the time. Finn's actions were an act of war. They wanted to execute him by 'death by a thousand cuts'. It's their way of killing someone who hurt their own. I stabbed him with a knife to save him from the torture. I did love him then, in that previous life. It hurt so much to have to kill him to save the rest." Clarke stopped as tears rolled down her cheeks. Raven got up and went to Clarke and hugged her.
Octavia took up the story.
"Those still outside had to abide by the Exodus charter and they decided to pardon Finn for his crimes as war crimes - even though at the time, we weren't enemies. The adults just didn't get it. They didn't understand what it was like to live on the ground. They thought of it as savage and unforgiving, but it was like that on the Ark where 'justice' was killing someone for stealing or throwing a punch at someone. Down here, we knew what living on the ground meant. It was hard and unrelenting. If we lived through the day, that was a victory for us. So many of us died in the end. Only a handful survived a full year on the ground. It didn't really matter. Everyone died in another deathwave, Jones. That's why we were given a second chance. A chance to get it right."
"A chance? By who?"
"We don't know," said Adara, lying. "I woke up one day and I could remember the last time around. I woke up on the Ark, two weeks after my mother had been floated. I wondered why no-one else seemed to remember, but I had this word in my head. Gromyo. No idea what it meant, but it was there. I went to Clarke and I had this sudden impulse to say it so I did. The effect was that she woke up too. Problem was that I seem to be the only one who can wake people up. Clarke tried several times and nothing. Between us we decided to wake up Kane. In the previous life, he had an epiphany about things after they killed those 320 people when they didn't have to. Kane was on our side. After that we woke several people and when I got myself arrested and into Skybox, I woke up some more. We planned for this. We knew Jaha was in contact with the mountain and thanks to our previous life, we knew we had to stay away from it. We are still trying to figure out what we are supposed to do, though. It's been tough going, but this second chance is a chance to do better than before and get it right."
Jones was stunned by all he had heard. They all knew that it would take some getting used to.
"O, take him somewhere quiet and let him digest this. Answer any questions he has about the past and don't sugarcoat it. He needs to know what happened and why we are doing it differently this time. Also, tell him who remembers and who doesn't." Octavia nodded and went to Jones. Jones was still sitting there, trying to absorb it all. Octavia put her hand on his arm and he jumped.
"Come on, Jones, we'll go somewhere you can process this," she said gently, pulling him to his feet. He nodded and followed her out of the room.
Adara turned to Raven.
"You have anything to report?" Raven shook her head. "Atom, can Monty and Jones borrow Harper to listen in on the mountain? Until Murphy can find a reliable person, I think they need Harper right now."
"For how long? She's my second in command, guys and I need her, too."
"I know, but it won't be for long. A few days, okay?" Atom nodded.
"Thanks, Atom," Monty replied, quietly, still thinking about the past.
They all left the meeting a bit subdued. Talking about the past had them in a reflective mood. It would take some time to get past it.