"We are sending you down not because we think you will survive, we send you to give us more time. Make no mistake, the 100 of you will die as heroes and the Ark will remember this great sacrifice. In peace, may you leave the shore. In love, may you find the next. Safe passage on your travels until our final journey on the ground."
There is a stunned silence as the delinquents wait for Chancellor Jaha's last words.
"May we meet again."
The dropship makes a sudden lurch that Clarke Griffin feels at the bottom of her stomach and she fights down the burning sensation crawling up her throat. Fingertips hesitantly brush against the back of her palm and she doesn't hesitate as she uncurls her fist and slide their hands into hers.
Clarke knows these hands.
Warm hands she used to pull down the hallways of the Ark system as they ran from imaginary monsters. Sneaky hands that used to always beat her in chess matches. Kind hands that gifted her with paints and markers.
A sob passes out of her pursed lips. "Wells."
Brown eyes full of tears meet her own. Brown like the soil she imagined in her dreams.
"What are you- You're not supposed to be here!" There is a hysterical shrill in her voice that would leave her mother less than impressed- except Clarke is going to die today so what her mother believed no longer matters.
His hands squeeze tightly against her own. "I can't die knowing you hated-"
"It wasn't you!" His eyes widened and the tears she tried to hold in slip passed her grasp. "It was my mom."
Darkness engulfs them and sparks fly across the dropship. Screams fill the air until everything stops. There is a silence, the kind of silence that makes Clarke's gut go wild. They've landed safely on earth, the 100 year old piece of crap was supposed to explode before they could reach their destination.
Is it terrible to wish for my own death to be over with already?
Someone lets out a screech, "We're alive!"
People let out whoops! and Clarke finds herself eagerly scrambling out of her seat. The other's excitement is contagious and she follows the crowd to the hanger door.
They were wrong. We can live- We will live!
A boy named Bellamy Blake opens the doors and what greets them is a desert wasteland.
Earth is unforgiving.
It's nothing like the textbooks Clarke used to read in class. There is no spot of green, no soil, and no life. All the earth gives is mountains of sand and a burning sun. Whatever hopes Clarke has for earth dwindles and it turns out her dreams are just dreams after all. Bellamy takes a pack of kids to search for water, but Clarke stays behind. In her gut, she knows they will find nothing.
Too much time in the sun will lead to dehydration and slowly the organs will begin to fail as the sun begins to burn their skin. It is a long and painful death.
She knows this, she tells them this, but her pleas go unanswered.
Raven Reyes, another stowaway like Bellamy, claims she can rewire the dropship to bring in cool air. "Baby, I'm the youngest Zero-G Mechanic on the Ark in 52 years. I got this."
With no proper equipment, Raven ends up burning the top of her fingertips. The mechanic refuses to cry as Clarke rips up a piece of her jacket to wrap around the girl's fingers. She sadly smiles at her handywork. "That's all I can offer you."
Clarke rips up the rest of her jacket to create a head shawl to keep water trapped inside her body and the others follow her lead. Raven continues to work and if Clarke wasn't so worried about the girl further hurting herself, Clarke would be impressed.
As the sun begins to set, Clarke makes her move. "We have a couple of hours to look for food and water now, but we must be back before dark."
Wells, Monty, Jasper, and Bellamy's sister Octavia follow her out into the desert. Monty ends up being their saving grace. The boy recognizes a fruit that holds an abundance of water and they manage to make it back to the dropship before the darkness settles in. As night hits, they quickly realize how foolish they really are. The day may be blazing, but the nights are cold. The cold seeps into Clarke's bones and she finds a young girl cuddling next to her for warmth.
"I don't want to die." The young girl's confession breaks her heart and she holds the girl tighter to her chest. When the girl's breathing evens out, Clarke whispers out in the night, "I don't want to die either."
Charlotte follows Clarke around like a little duck and Clarke finds she doesn't mind the young girl's company. Charlie is so pure and innocent and Clarke knows that she will do anything to protect her. Even if it means staying away from Wells, who reminds Charlotte of the day of her parents passing. Clarke knows that Charlotte just needs time to see the kind soul that Wells is, but she's not sure if they have time.
Even between the rationing, the fruit they manage to collect runs out in three days. They go out once again to search for something else when the first sign of life springs out of nowhere.
A scaly object curls around Clarke's right arm and her left hand manages to grip the base of its neck as the snake begins to hiss at her. The snake's grip on her arm tightens as she pounds its head into a rock.
"Clarke!"
It's Octavia who manages to grab onto the snake's second head and together they kill the beast. Jasper picks at the two mangled heads and asks, "Mutations caused by radiation?"
Monty bumps their shoulders together. "Who cares what it is! That's what I call dinner."
It's not much, but the constant hunger in Clarke's stomach is slightly dulled by the snake's meat. The next morning a cool air breezes over her cheeks and Raven grins down at her. "Told you I could do it."
On day five, Bellamy's hunting party returns with a significantly smaller number of people who left.
Bellamy and Atom carry a boy and plops him down in front of Clarke. "Help him!"
The boy's chest shutters with each breath and he cries as she touches his burned skin to open his eyes. Clarke sharply asks Bellamy, "What happened?!"
The confident boy in search of water is gone and all that is left is a scared little boy. "It came out of nowhere- I couldn't- lost."
Octavia wraps her arms around her brother. "Bellamy?"
He sobs into Octavia's shoulder and Clarke grits her teeth before demanding, "Get him to stop crying, he can't afford the water loss!" She turns back to the injured boy and looks at his eyes. His pupils are pinpoint and look right through her. Clarke doesn't even have to check to know his heart is racing and a quick assessment verifies beliefs. She turns back to Atom, "What's his name?" When he doesn't answer, Clarke snaps, "What's the boy's name Atom?!"
Atom squats down and runs his fingers through his hair. "I don't know! I don't think anyone knew his name."
Even with all his burns, Clarke can see how young he is. A boy of fourteen years, Clarke can't help but wonder if he's even had his first kiss. The information she needs comes to her mind quickly:
Fluids and cool packs. Sugar to raise his blood sugar and a scalpel to remove the dead layers of skin. Antibiotics to boost his immune system.
Clarke knows how to help him, but she can't.
She gently runs her fingers through his hair and whispers, "You need to wake up. Please wake up."
If he goes to sleep, he may never wake up.
His body is silent before his head shakes and a white, foamy fluid leaks out of his lips.
"Help me get him on his side!"
Wells turns the boy over and becomes green at the sight of vomit. Clarke barks, "Don't you dare puke, Wells!"
When the boy's episode is over, his cries shake her very core. "It burns! Make it stop! Make it stop!"
Clarke pulls his head into her lap. "Shhhh, you're okay. I got you."
The boy whimpers and Clarke hums the same song her father used to sing to her at bedtime. Her kind father that her mother admitted to floating. Her mother who unquestionably accepted how things were supposed to be.
Tired eyes stare into her soul. "We can't save them all Clarke."
It feels like a betrayal to her father's wishes as Clarke sympathises with her mother's parting words. John Murphy holds out a makeshift knife out to her and Clarke wordlessly accepts it. There is no hesitation as she pushes the knife into his carotid and blood pours over her hands like a fountain.
Earth is unforgiving.
They can't bury the dead. They quickly find out the sandstorms uncover their bodies so they begin to burn the bodies.
For dust thou art, and dust thou return.
"What happened?"
Clarke had left him alone as long as she could, but Bellamy needed to speak. "There is nothing. We found nothing." His jaw tightens. "They wanted to go back, but I made them stay." His face crumbles as he clearly remembers the details. "The sandstorm came out of nowhere. We weren't prepared, it just sucked us in and we were walking in circles for days. We got so hungry we started eating bugs."
Clarke whispers softly, "It's not your fault."
Bellamy spits in anger, "I made them stay. I walked them to their deaths! How can you say that?"
"You didn't know, but now you do. You don't make the same mistake again."
Bellamy's shoulders hunch together as if they will collapse in on themselves. "I'm so tired Clarke, I don't think I can do this. You clearly have this under control."
Clarke rolls her eyes and snorts, "We have no food, we have no water. Everyone is starving and if we don't find anything soon, we will all die. I hardly call that under control." Bellamy grips onto the ends of his hair and shakes his head."Look at me, Bellamy." The boy's eyes meet her own. "We don't get tired. Everyone is looking at us and I can't do this alone."
His shoulders sag so heavily and she craves for the cocky boy who believed he would be their savior. "I'm so tired Clarke."
Something pangs in her chest and she presses her forehead against his. She admits, "Me too."
Jasper is dead and vultures are picking at his body. If Clarke had the energy, she would shoo them away. If Clarke had the energy, she would give the boy a proper burial. If Clarke had the energy, she would stop Monty from crying so much.
Instead, she watches one rip out his eyeball and bites down the urge to vomit. Monty screams and Clarke can't help but wonder where he finds the energy to do so. Everything is so heavy and maybe she can close her eyes just for a moment.
Just for a moment.
"Clarke." She looks up from her drawing to find the same cheeky smile she managed to capture in ink. A sigh tumbles out of the girl's lips, "You always make me look better than I really am."
Clarke leans in and her nose rubs against the girl's cheek. "I just draw what I see, Phoebe."
Clarke swiftly pushes her lips onto Phoebe's freckles and the girl lets out a gasp, "What if someone saw that?"
She rolls her eyes and lays her head on Phoebe's lap. "No one saw anything."
Phoebe pushes her away and says, "You don't know that Clarke."
The air becomes tense and Clarke tries to apologize, "I'm sorry, but I swear no one-"
"I'm getting married, Clarke." Her chest hurts as though someone physically punched her, but Clarke stays silent. "We can't keep doing this anymore." Honey brown eyes find her blue ones and swears tumble out. "Don't look at me like! You knew this day would come!"
The sudden anger burns away the sadness in her chest and Clarke growls, "Like what?!"
"Like you love me!"
Without her consent, Clarke's eyes drift to Phoebe's lips and the other girl shakes her head. "We can't."
Her next plea is absolute. "We can't. You know the rules."
Phoebe's red hair swishes as she turns away from Clarke. "Go to your compatible Clarke."
Her cheeks are wet. Clarke commands herself to stop crying, but the tears keep falling down her face.
"It's raining!"
Charlotte grips on her arm and tries to pull her up. "It's raining, Clarke!"
Clarke tips her head back and opens her mouth. It's the best thing she's ever tasted in her life. It smells amazing, like what she had once dreamed earth would originally be like. Her mind quickly plays catch up and she orders, "Find everything you can and fill it with water now!"
They scramble around until they manage to pile up gallons of water. With a heavy heart, Clarke looks to those who are left. Half of them are gone and anger knots deeply in her chest.
"They left us here to die!" She screams out into the abyss, "They told us we would die and yet we live!"
Lightning crackles behind her as if it is cutting the earth in half. "We will not die!"
The delinquents scream into the sky, "We will not die!"
Earth is unforgiving, but so are they.