Chapter 67
Clarke walked back into the room with the Commander. Both looked stunned and shocked at what the others had written.
"Clarke? Commander? You two alright?" asked Adara, looking over her shoulder at the pair.
"No." Clarke shook her head. "I don't think I am. Hearing about ALIE and going into the City of Light to kill her was one thing, but to read all this?" Once again, Clarke shook her head. Lexa led her over to their chairs and they sat down.
"Is that really what happened?" asked the Commander. All heads nodded at her, solemnly.
"How do we fight her?" Clarke asked. "If she could do all that, how do we fight her?"
"She still needs people to distribute those chips and to lead her army. Don't forget, attrition is her goal in this. She is chipping one person at a time and each person chipped is one less warrior to fight against her - and one more to fight FOR her. She wants every single person in the world to be chipped. When they are, she'll make sure that everyone is in the City of Light and then make them forget to go back to the real world. Their real bodies will die, but the spirit will remain in the City - I hope."
"What do you mean, you hope?" said Raven.
"If she wants to do away with humanity altogether, she may well delete the City with all those minds inside. Don't forget, the City Of Light needs a power source and all power sources can be disrupted or shut off." They all looked at her, stunned and horrified at the thought.
"Would that kill those inside?" asked the Commander.
"I don't know. I was dead by then." She turned to Clarke. "What happened to those people who were in the City when you shut it down?"
"They became themselves again."
"What about those whose body died outside? Did you see 'dead people' in there? People who you knew were chipped but had died on the outside?"
"Not that I can remember, but then again, I wasn't exactly looking for them either. We were running for our lives and to destroy ALIE. There was no time to really look around."
"Raven, any chance we could mess with her programming, or would she be too protected to do that?"
"She's too protected, Adara. Any intrusion into her programme and she would know."
"Crap." Adara looked around. "When did all this start? I mean, Jaha went to the island with Murphy, but he was locked in a bunker for three months."
"Thanks for the reminder," Murphy said, glumly.
"Sorry, John, but I need to know. Was Jaha actively chipping people then? Did he wait until the mainland to chip people? Did he wait until Arkadia to start it? Why didn't she get one of her servants to chip people before then?" Each of them were looking at the others, trying to figure if any of them knew the answers. None of them did.
"I've gotten into the files you wanted," Monty said.
"Good, I'll look at them later. Right now, I want you to scan the papers into the computer and give us a timeline or at least a linear progression of events."
"About ALIE?" asked Monty.
"Yes. We need to know when this all started and what happened in what sequence. Could some of the things that happened be put into another order or not?" Monty nodded.
"I'm not going home for a few days, am I?"
"Sorry, Monty, but you're needed here. I can send a couple of people here to keep you company if you want?"
"Harper?"
"Only if you focus on the job in hand and not on your bedroom activities."
"Adara!" moaned Monty. Adara smirked, as did Clarke, Raven and Murphy.
"Okay, I'm just messing with you. I'll send Harper here, alright?"
"Yes, please," grinned Monty.
"Okay. Tell her what you are doing and tell her to keep this secret. I don't want people to remember this all that much, especially if we wake people up."
"Who were you going to wake up?" asked Clarke.
"Your parents, if that's what you wanted. A few of the other hundred who had experience with this."
"I don't want my parents to remember their deaths and I certainly don't want my mother to remember what she did when chipped! She nearly killed me!" Adara was stunned.
"Okay," Adara drawled slowly. "Clarke, I think you need to write down your experiences too. I think I need to read exactly what went on inside that City. Maybe if we all read each other's experiences, then we can come up with a plan to destroy her before she destroys the world - again."
"Good idea," said Octavia. "I want to know where to stab her with my sword to put that bitch down permanently!"
"Octavia," the Commander said, as she rose to her feet. "You will fit in just fine in Tondc under Indra's tutelage." She gripped Octavia's arm in Trikru fashion and smiled at her. "Welcome to the Trikru clan." Octavia was overjoyed.
"I can really be Trikru?"
"With Adara's permission, you can." Octavia spun around to Adara, and gave her a pleading look.
"Okay, you can be Trikru, but I need you on this first, O. I need all my people focused on destroying ALIE once and for all." Octavia looked disappointed, but she rallied.
"But once she's dealt with, I become Trikru?"
"Yes, Octavia kom Skaikru will become Okteivia kom Trikru." Octavia squealed and grabbed hold of Adara in a huge crushing hug, dancing side to side with her.
"Okay, Okay, O. Let go!" Adara said, laughing.
Once they had all settled down again, Adara turned more serious.
"These papers don't leave the bunker, understand?" she said, looking at each of them, including the Commander. They all nodded, even the Commander.
"Good. That said, we need to read each other's stories. Let's go to the lounge and get comfortable. There's food and drinks in there too." Everyone got up and made their way to the lounge.
"Clarke, since you've read all the statements, you can do yours. Please include the events that led up to the Commander's death. I want to prevent that, too."
"So do I," both Clarke and the Commander said at the same time.
Adara passed out the remaining statements and each was told to pass it to the right when finished. Each had been given their own statements and they passed it to the right and started to read the statement they had received. It was going to be emotional and long, but they knew they needed to know what happened with the others.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Late that afternoon, after all the statements - including Clarke's - had been read, they all sat there, stunned at what they had learned. They also had a great deal more respect for what each person went through.
"God, if Lincoln doesn't make you an honorary sister after what the two of you went through, I'll hit him!" Octavia burst out, looking at Adara.
"I think we've all become a family, O," said Adara. Octavia burst out laughing.
"Bellamy doesn't like it when you call me O. He thinks he should be the only one. I think he's jealous that I have friends that he didn't know first."
"Is he still a douchebag?" asked Raven.
"Yeah, a bit. I think he'll become more so when I become Trikru."
"Well, he'll either learn or be exiled. I won't let him become the idiot he was the first time," said Adara.
"I know and I've told Bell that too. Not sure he believes it though."
He will when I tell him to shape up or be exiled. He's seen us exile others so why would he think he's exempt from that?"
"Because I'm his sister."
"What? He's trying to trade in on his sister? That'd be a first!" snorted Monty.
"I'll have another talk with him," said Octavia. Murphy spoke up then.
"Can we get back to ALIE? I think we need to make sure she can't get her hands on any missiles. We need to make sure any weapons left in the mountain or any other facility they know about is destroyed."
"Care to share?" asked Adara.
"From reading the statements and from what I remember, she only picked up the pace on her plans when Jaha came down in that missile. She used it to set off the power stations around the world. If she can't get missiles, then I don't think she can implement her plans - or at least it would keep her at a snail's pace instead of racing ahead and killing everyone."
"Raven, would that work?" asked Adara, not daring to get her hopes up. Raven took some time to think it through.
"I think so, at the very least, we get rid of any threat of mass destruction. We may have to deal with her eventually, but for now, I think destroying those missiles would slow her down and keep us alive. If we can locate those bunkers in your head, then we do have a place to survive too."
"What bunkers?" asked Clarke.
"I've got the locations of about twenty bunkers scattered all through the clans regions. I think I've identified the location of one of them just north of the old city of Atlanta. Raven and I were trying to pin it down."
"How many?" asked Clarke, with surprise.
"Twenty."
"And they can hold from 700 to 2000 people. That's a minimum of 14,000 people, Clarke. Way more than we could save last time," jumped in Octavia.
"Oh, thank God!" said Clarke, putting her hand to her chest and breathing a sigh of relief.
"Yeah," said Raven. "Now we just need to locate them."
"I can point out the general area, but it will take some finding, guys."
"You point them out and the Commander will help find them - or at least inform the clans of their whereabouts and they can help us." Clarke looked at Lexa for confirmation. Lexa nodded.
"With twenty bunkers, so many more of my people could be saved," she said. "If you can show us the general location, I will ask the clans to find them. You will have to show our people how to take care of the machines, though."
"Yes, we've already talked about that and with Jake and Wick available, Raven has people she can use to show some of your people how to maintain them." Adara had a sudden thought. "Not every clan may have a bunker in their clan lands. I'm not sure what to do about them. I would like to think that a clan that had more than two, would let one of the other clans use it, but we all know that when lives are on the line, you try to save as many of your own people as you can. It may cause fractures in the clans." Lexa nodded again.
"I know. I will need to take counsel with several people about this first. Is the bunker under Polis included in this list?"
"No. We know where that one is and this bunker as well. The list I have is for at least twenty more." The Commander smiled widely with relief.
"That is good to know. I will see if we can assign people to each bunker so people know where to go."
"Sounds good. I'll get with Monty and Raven in a few weeks to search for them. In the meantime, Monty, you'll need to stay here and vacuum that database for any mention of missiles. Number, locations, storage, weapons or armouries that aren't in clan territories, anything that even mentions weapons, got it?"
"Yeah, but I could do with some help."
"Well, Harper could help you with some of this." Monty perked up.
"Oh, yeah," he said, grinning.
"Okay, I'll send Harper to you when we get back. Right now, I'm hungry. Who wants food?" There was a chorus of 'me' from all of them. They all dived into the food and drink. An hour later, they left the bunker and headed for Lake Town - Clarke and the Commander too.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
They got to the village at the same time as Atom's team came back. Harper was in charge this time as Atom was in charge of Lake Town. Adara listened to the report from Harper and then said that she needed Harper to go back to the bunker and help Monty who had stayed behind. Atom reluctantly let her go, but said that she either assigned another permanent member to his team or stopped borrowing his best scout. Adara promised that she would ask Harper what she wanted to do - after she had helped Monty in his work.
The Commander looked around at the village and marvelled at what they had already achieved. She knew that most of the planning and building had been done by the hundred with some help from the Arkers, and she saw some of the Arkers working in a field. She watched as more Arkers were taking instruction from the hundred and even more were asking the hundred questions about their work. The Commander was pleased that this group of Arkers were trying to fit in. She knew that Adara had told them that no matter where they went on Earth, they would be either expected to work or, if they were on their own, then they would have to work for their own food and shelter. Adara had taught them well.
Clarke was talking to her parents and Charlie. It seems that Charlie was working at the hospital with Abby and Jackson and teaching THEM how to make some of the medicines found down on Earth. Clarke hid a smirk when Abby sounded almost aggrieved at having to learn from a 12 year old, but Clarke pointed out that Charlie had been taught by the best healer in the Trikru clan and that he had said that Charlie had the promise to be an excellent medicine maker. Abby had reluctantly agreed that the medicines that Charlie made were very effective as painkillers and ointments. Clarke knew that Adara was secretly making a small chest of drawers for Charlie to store her gathered goods in. It was one of those cabinets with lots of tiny draws. Four draws high with six draws in each row. She was also getting help from one of the metalworkers to make small label holders on the front of each draw.
Jake was talking about having to be Raven's apprentice. He was laughing as he told her about it, so Clarke knew he had no problem with no longer being the Chief Engineer and learning from someone much younger. Abby was struggling to come to terms with the much more primitive medicine than she was used to, but she also knew that if she wanted to save lives, she was going to have to learn how the medicines worked and how to make them. She wondered if she could teach some of the healers more advanced but still primitive - in her mind - medical techniques. She was sure that it would help save more lives.
Clarke was sure that this time, her mother would not try to take over the leadership of the Arkers and that her dad would be instrumental in that. Her dad being alive was the one big bonus she was grateful for. He was a steadying influence on her mother and he was keeping her from doing anything stupid. Her father was the linchpin for the family and Clarke was happy that her dad at least had approved of Lexa as a future daughter-in-law. Clarke had yet to talk to Lexa about that, but there was time for that later. Right now, she was enjoying a late summer evening with her family.