This chapter gives you a breather from the action. It's a series of vignettes about what some of the others are thinking.
Chapter 56
Atom was still at the mountain and still in charge. He couldn't wait until he could go back to exploring. He had found his calling in that. Now that the land was once again unchartered territory, he could explore the land for a new homebase - with the Commander's permission of course. He would consult Tondc about what to look for. He knew some things like a clean fresh water source, good soil for planting, a good place to site a village, enough resources to use without taking anyone else's. He also knew he would have to get information on things like the best places to build, what to build with, sources of clay, metal ores, what to plant in what kind of soil - he heard that, when they first got to Tondc, - what plants and animals were poisonous, where predators were likely to make their dens etc. It was a lot to learn, but Atom relished the chance to find out. He loved it down here. This was his home.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Raven was shaping up to be a good second in command. She had a gentle touch when needed and wasn't afraid to metaphorically bash people's head together to get things done. She was still pining for Luna, though. She knew that even if she and Luna never happened, she would wait for her. She would not settle for anyone else. She believed that she had found her soulmate and was willing to wait until Luna figured it out herself. Raven didn't believe that the universe would give her a soulmate that had another person as their soulmate. No, soulmates were two halves of each other like Clarke and Lexa or Octavia and Lincoln. Luna was hers and she would wait - however long it took.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Monty was watching Jasper with Maya, working side by side together. They both gave each other little looks. Monty knew those looks, they were the same ones he gave to Harper - and she returned them. Monty sighed. He knew that Jasper would stay with them and would probably move to one of the islands with them if Maya chose to go with them. Jasper was his best friend and he knew he was losing him. Maya was his world now, just like Harper was Monty's. Difference was that Monty was still with the hundred and would make a life with them. Jasper wouldn't. Monty sighed again. Sometimes having a best friend really hurts.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Miller was up a tree on sentry duty. He loved this work. He had a keen sense of protection, probably from his father who was a guard on the Ark. He hoped his dad decided to stay with the hundred. He missed his dad. He remembered the times his father would come home and play with him. He hoped that when the time came, he would be as good a father as his dad was. Miller had been thinking about when Adara had woken him up and he remembered both Brian and Eric Jackson with fondness. He was technically with Brian still, but he could not forget about Eric. He knew that when Eric came down he would not remember him in that way. Nathan knew that he wanted to be with Eric and would break up with Brian once he came down. He just had to get Eric to fall for him again. He had time. This was his life and he loved it.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Monroe was entering data into one of the computers Monty had found and got working again. It was much easier to cross-reference inventory this way than to look at several writing pads and try to make sense of it all. Monroe thought back on her previous life and realised that she missed being outside. When the inventory was finished, she would ask Adara if she could join one of the exploration teams going above ground. She and Atom had been getting closer. She liked him, but she knew she didn't know enough nor was mature enough to handle it. She had no sexual experience at all, even though she had a boyfriend, they were both only fourteen at the time and it never went past kissing. She had been looking at books in the library, trying to find out what she needed to know, but most of the books were about positions and stuff. She wanted to know about the mental and emotional side of love and sex and the most she could find out was to try it out. It seemed all the experts thought experience was the best teacher. No help there, then. Oh, well, she would have to try it. That's all there was to it!
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Harper was so ready to live above ground again. The first few days of the previous life had laid the groundwork for a life she could have. After the grounder attacks, though, she knew she would have to fight for it - not physically, but mentally. This world would kill you if you were inattentive. Take your mind off your work and it would kill you. Falling off a cliff, bitten by a poisonous animal, eating a poisonous plant, not looking around you and someone smacks you in the head with a tree branch. This world was not kind - but she loved it. She had not looked forward to spending five years on the go-sci ring. She never wanted to go back to space. She belonged on the ground, with Monty. She could picture it, a small stone cottage that they lived in surrounded by other cottages of her friends, living together in one big harmonious group. She knew it was a daydream and that not everyone would be happy, but she knew that they had no choice other than to be exiled to one of the islands. Life down here was what you made of it and she was determined to make a life for herself and Monty. She had lived twice, so she wanted to get it right this time. This time she and Monty would have a full and happy life - with their kids.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Octavia was thinking about her brother. He had been attacked by the mutineers. Did that mean he was against them? Had he been spying on them for Kane and got caught? Bellamy did not remember the previous life and she was determined that he would never remember the things he did. She knew she was struggling to forgive him for the things he did previously and she knew it was unfair for her to take it out on someone who didn't remember what he'd done. She knew that her life now would be infinitely better than her previous life. From the girl under the floor to a warrior of the Trikru and second to Indra, she knew where her destiny lay and it was with Lincoln. Bellamy had a choice to make when he came down. She no longer needed him to look after her and he had better get that straight! She would not allow him to destroy what she had helped to build - peace with the clans. If he didn't accept Adara as his leader and the way things were, she would make sure that he went to one of the islands and stayed there. No-one would be allowed to stay who was disruptive. Bellamy had some lessons to learn.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Kane looked up from the console he was working at as Callie and Abby walked into the command centre arm in arm and laughing. He remembered when Jaha had Callie floated and he remembered when he was on the ground and Abby became the woman he loved. Looking at them now, he knew that it had been wrong to pursue Abby so soon after Callie had died. Jake had been gone a year, but Callie had only been gone two weeks. He had tried to figure out why he had gone after Abby so soon and for the life of him, he couldn't find the answer. Maybe he was looking at it wrong. Was Jake such an integral part of Abby's life that he thought she was off-limits until Callie died? Was Callie such a big part of himself that he never saw Abby as anything other than his wife's best friend before Callie died? Neither scenario held any answers. He looked at them both and realised that he felt nothing for Abby other than friendship. Was that why he pursued her? A misguided form of friendship that he mistook for love? He didn't know. All he knew was that this time, Jaha wouldn't float his wife and he was determined that Callie would live out her life with him - on the ground where they belonged.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Jake was working on the engines needed to get the stations down to earth. Earth. A place of wonder and mystery he had heard of all his life and a small part of which he could see out of the window when the station was aligned with it. He wondered what life would be like there. He wondered - for the millionth time - if Clarke was really okay. Hearing that she was and that she had become the ambassador was good news and a shock at the same time. Not shocked that Clarke was okay. He knew she would be. She was a carer just like her mother. No, the part that shocked him was the ambassador part. Clarke hated being the person who had to get up in front of everyone and give a speech. She always avoided it when she could on the Ark. Jake thought back to the girl she was before she was arrested. Jake frowned. No, that wasn't quite right. He had noticed a change in her a few months prior to her arrest. She seemed to mature overnight. Looking back he realised that she was no longer a girl, she had become a woman and as such, she had the right to make her own choices - she had been doing that since they were sent down. She was a member of the Skaikru and an important one at that. Jake knew he and Abby had no right to interfere with that. He would make sure that Abby finally realised Clarke was her own woman and not just her little girl who needed protecting. Clarke could look after herself. She had proven that with the hundred.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Clarke was watching the natblidas train with the Commander. She could not believe that she could now spend her time with Lexa, getting to know her and more importantly, spending the nights with her. The time away from Lexa was time spent trying to figure out if she was always gay or if she was truly bisexual. After all, she was not going to be with anyone else and in this life, she had never been with anyone else. Clarke decided that she didn't care. As long as Lexa was by her side, she really couldn't care less what people labelled her as. As far as she was concerned, she was 'Lexual' - if that was okay with Lexa. Clarke turned around and watched the people move around doing their usual chores, the warriors were training and looking at the weapons used for training, showing the younger ones what to look for when checking weapons for damage, the civilians were walking past with baskets, boxes, bag and crates of things, going to and fro to their workplaces or homes or other businesses. No-one seemed to be staring at her like they were in the beginning. Most of them had accepted her - both in Polis and their Commander's life. She looked up at the sky. She still marvelled at the colour of it when the sun was out and the clouds were gone. Watching the Earth from above was so different. Here, she could see things whereas on the Ark, you could only see green and blue and some clouds. There was no way you could see the true colours of the sky or the plants. Trees weren't a consistent colour, light greens, mid greens, dark greens were all around her and in the fall, the Trikru had said that the colours changed to reds, browns and yellows. The artist in her couldn't wait!
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Murphy was slowly healing. He hated not being able to do his job properly and had to delegate. Not that Miller was doing a bad job, it was just the opposite. Miller was becoming a great leader and stand-in for him. No, what got to him was he couldn't go out yet. He wanted to see the trees. He wanted to climb the trees. In his previous life he was a dick! He readily admitted that. He was so immature and so stupid thinking that it only took talking the talk to make him a hard man. Man! He was nothing but a boy, scared of the world and pretending he was better than he was. He was a thug back then, plain and simple. How he wasn't killed, he didn't know. They called him cockroach because he always returned. He smiled at that. Secretly, he liked it. Emori had laughed when she heard Clarke call him that. Emori. His soulmate. Like Octavia and Clarke, Murphy had found his. He wasn't going to tell them that! Too mushy for him, but to himself he could admit she was the love of his life. He wanted to go find her and bring her back so Adara could wake her. Problem was, he met her in the sand dunes near the city of light. He had no desire to set foot near that place again. Maybe he could ask around about her, after all she was a trader and frequently came back to Trikru to trade. Maybe he'd wait and see if she came to him.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Lisa was putting some books back on the shelves. She enjoyed the work. Who'd have thought a perennial screw-up like her would find peace in the order of books. Books! Of all things she could have found to ground her, it was books. Not the actual books themselves, but the potential to learn whatever she wanted. She looked around. She was the boss of this place, this library - a place that she never would have stepped foot in if it wasn't for her parents. Before her parents encouraged her to learn from books, she learned from the people around her. She learned that the jobs were crap and people didn't bother doing it completely by the book - no pun intended - instead most of the workers did enough to get the job done but no more. If it broke, then it got fixed, but they didn't do a good job so that it would break less. Here, she saw how the leaders did things. Adara, Clarke, Octavia, Murphy, Atom… they all did their jobs properly. She learned the true value of a good job was in knowing you had done it right and not in the praise you got for doing it. She really was lucky in the job she had. She was also lucky in the role models she got to learn from. They had all utilised books to help them improve themselves and do a better job. She knew she would do all in her power to learn from them as much as she learned from books.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Jill looked up from her work at her desk in Adara's office. The office was the largest one they had found and there was enough room to put two desks in it. They had also put in several filing cabinets and two bookcases, one each for her and Adara. She liked sharing an office with Adara, it gave her an insight into the goings on of the bunker. She had taken to the job of personal assistant to both Adara and Clarke with aplomb. She found that she liked it. It was completely different to anything she had heard about before, but she knew that she was needed - and respected. From the time she found the bunker, she had been asked to do things and trusted to do them. She had seen Adara do that with everyone. She expected you to be trustworthy and gave you a job to do and left you to do it. It was a great morale booster for everyone. Looking back to the Ark, she could remember that people were treated with suspicion and you had to prove yourself before they trusted you to do anything. Here, you did the job you were given and you were given another job. Here, you weren't treated like a child, but a person who could do a job. If you found you couldn't do a job, there was no belittling. They just found someone who could and gave you a different one. Jill realised that this was the way it should be. She also knew that the adults on the Ark didn't think the same way. Well, they were going to have to learn. If you weren't considered an adult without life experience, then the kids down here were the adults and the adults of the Ark were the children, stamping their feet when they can't get their own way. The hundred would teach them or they would be exiled. Jill, for one, was going to make sure that they never tried to take over. She and the rest of the hundred wouldn't allow it
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Roma looked around her at the area she had been designated to explore. With Atom at the mountain being a prison warden and Harper still watching over the mountain, it was left to her to lead the exploration team. Adara had asked her to check out an area that in the old days was a wildlife area. On the old maps she had been given it was called Mertle - or something like that, the writing was really small. Best thing about it was it was right next to a river, the Patuxent River, or as the Trikru called it Tuck's river. It had been a sanctuary so not many buildings, but they could build, there were plenty of trees. It had fields that had already been cleared before the war too. Roma was hoping to find a clearing there, but knew that in nearly 100 years, it was most likely covered in trees again. She hoped that this place would be a good place to build a new home. One above ground, next to water and with plantable land and hunting grounds that hadn't been touched in decades, it sounded almost idyllic. Roma was looking forward to helping build a new home. It would be something she could look back on and say I helped build that. She was proud to be part of the hundred. In fact she could safely say that meeting Adara and getting arrested was the best thing that happened to her because it led her here. Home.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Sterling remembered his past life when Adara woke him up. He looked back on it now in quiet reflection while he lay on his bunk. There was no-one else in the dorm so he had it to himself and he loved the quiet it brought. He was thinking about the fire fight with the grounders just before the ring of fire. He knew that person was a coward. He and Monroe ran to save themselves instead of staying and fighting. In hindsight, it was the correct thing to do, but not the correct reason. He was scared and he ran. Monroe didn't want to go, she wanted to stay and fight, but he had persuaded her that the grounders would kill them if they stayed. Monroe wasn't a coward. He had seen the determination in her eyes to do the right thing and fight for the little piece of land they had. He wanted to run away and pretend it never happened. This Sterling, however, was glad to be a part of this hundred and fight for the things they believed in. Adara made a better leader than either Clarke or Bellamy. Both of them didn't have a clue on how to get things done. Clarke would let Bellamy's bad behaviour slide and Bellamy had his own agenda. Sterling knew that Adara had steered them in the right direction, towards the grounders. She had set the standard for behaviour without even trying. Adara was a leader he was proud of, someone who showed you how to be a better person just by being around her. She never yelled at you unless you were being really stupid, but she explained how to do things instead of telling you that you were stupid. Sterling admired that. With Adara, he had a leader he would lay down his life for. He would fight by her side just because she asked.