2.
After inspecting the medbay on the Dropship and having her suspicions come true of their lack of proper sterile supplies and equipment, Clarke knew that she had her work cut out for her. Skicru isn't an underground group of delinquent outcasts threatening the system; they were well organized, structural and knew which battles to fight. However, they were also dauntless and fought harshly, meaning that the medbay would most likely be filled with bodies both alive and on the verge of death at any time of day, and Clarke would not be prepared.
"This is Harper and Monty," Raven said pointing at a tall dark blonde-haired girl rolling her eyes at the Asian boy sitting across from her in a dirty blue jacket, who looks like he's about to pass out. "Harper is actually on the Alpha Squad working under Miller's supervision, who you'll meet soon enough, she's a guard, and Monty works with me downstairs in mechanics but when needed they come up here and deal with minor injuries and bruises."
"Hey," Harper said, walking over and acknowledging her with a short nod of the head. Clarke nodded back, and walked through the room, getting another feel for how it must have worked in here without any of the right equipment.
"This place is a safety hazard in itself, there is limited space to have more than two patients in at a time, no anesthetic, no medicine, antibiotics, sterile wipes, rubbing alcohol, there's not even a proper bench for patients to lie on." Clarke listed off while kicking the broken, wooden, sad excuse for a bench lightly with the toe of her boot.
"Yeah, well for the past couple of years we basically traded off treating each other with whatever we can find." Raven mutters moving over to where Monty is now drifting off.
"Which means water and bandages." Harper adds.
Clarke looked over the room once more. Harper walked past her to help Raven wake Monty up and walk him out. Raven then turned to her raising an eyebrow but Clarke remained neutral not allowing her to see the worry in her eyes.
"Room's this way." Raven gestured down the long corridor with her head and began walking ahead. Clarke shut the door to the medbay behind her and quickly followed. Down the long hallway was a large metal door, and Clarke assumed that behind it she would find Raven's room but instead, it was a larger room in the shape of an octagon with four doors lined up on each side with the hallway continuing right across from her. She spotted Harper shoving Monty through one of the doors on the left, then the boy with the goggles she had seen earlier looked like he was thanking her before they parted ways.
"Sky box," Raven said simply, "this is just the second floor's, there's one on the bottom floor, and one on the third floor near Blake's room."
"Oh"
"The main floor is occupied by the guards, second has engineers, mechanics, those who came from farm station, and third is everybody else that don't really have a specific skill." Raven continued walking ahead, but before she could turn to whichever door belonged to her, a male voice called out.
"Reyes! Running away from fixing the rover," he scoffed, "typical."
"Shut up Wick, I got caught up with something" she replied nodding her head towards Clarke.
"Ah, and you are?" he smiled charmingly and extended his hand but Clarke didn't get a chance to shake it before he was pushed aside and towards the long hallway they had just entered from.
"Get the fuck out of here Wick, I'll meet you in a couple of minutes" she muttered shoving him away one last time. His chuckle, so contagious, could be heard as he walked down the hall getting further away from them, and Clarke had to bite back a smile. Raven rolled her eyes and opened the door across the hall from the room where Monty was just shoved.
"This is where you'll be staying I guess, Blake's pissed I stepped in when he was being a dick so this is apparently my punishment." Raven's monotone voice came to her so easily; Clarke figured that she must be well accustomed to being ridiculed by Bellamy Blake for stepping out of line.
"I thought you said there were no real rules here, why is he imposing punishments?" Clarke raised her eyebrow mocking her, but mostly him.
"You can't have a functioning society without a way to ensure that humanity can continue to exist."
Clarke stopped. The parallel between this world and the one she left hours ago seemed more real than she wanted to let herself believe. Looking around the room, being in front of Raven, a girl who she had once known under very different circumstances and knowing what will inevitably happen in a few short months, were all just too much. Before she can ask to leave, to get some air, she heard the girl behind her speak up.
"Well, I better go see what Wick is messing with downstairs. You good?"
"Yeah" Clarke breathed out, barely.
"Ok"
All at once Clarke realized she was now alone.
Fuck, she thought before setting her backpack down on the very old, ripping at the seams pink couch tucked in a corner. With only one bed in the room, she figured the couch will have to be it for now. Contemplating between changing into some comfortable clothes or screwing this whole plan and running out of here as fast as she can, her gaze fell to the cool metal wrapped around her wrist.
It was her father's watch; it didn't work anymore but it had at one point. Once upon a time, when people were okay with denying the oppression they were under, when they refused to believe that a better life can exists, her dad would wear it all the time and before he passed, he placed it in her hand wrapping her fingers around it, and a soft kiss on the forehead.
She twisted it around, feeling the cold touch of the metal scrape along her inner wrist where dried blood had gathered. Before saying goodbye to her childhood home she had removed her chip. It was injected at birth, holding the information of every single beating heart on Arkadian ground. From health stats to a tracking GPS, the chip carried power to Jaha and co better than if Jaha himself was sitting at his desk watching them all from behind his computer. With these chips, he might as well have.
Sighing deeply for what felt like the thousandth time that night, Clarke moved her bag over as a makeshift pillow before laying down on it. She tucked her knees closer to her chest wrapping her arms around herself. She was here now and in truth that was all that mattered. Work started tomorrow, and she knew that Bellamy Blake would be waiting.
Except that morning he wasn't. Instead as the light in the room grew heavier on her eyelids, she heard voices.
"Stop staring, what the fuck is wrong with you?"
"Look, no one has come here willingly in a while—"
"Who the hell let you two in anyways?"
The voices that seemed distant were suddenly very clear, but Clarke couldn't tell how many voices there actually were. She shifted, opening one eye to be faced with Monty, Raven and the boy who still seemed to have those flimsy goggles wrapped around his neck.
"W-what?" Clarke muttered, getting up from the same position she had slept in. Her dark jeans clung tight to her legs, and her shirt sticking to her from sweat. She adjusted her worn out navy jacket and looked back at the three pairs of eyes staring at her.
"Dude, you were right, it is the princess." Goggles said with a slight smirk, looking slightly buzzed, or high.
"Told you." Monty nodded his head at her.
"I'm Jasper, this is Monty."
"She knows who I am, I think"
Clarke gave a slight chuckle, shaking her head letting her hair fall around her shoulders.
"Yeah, we kinda met." she glanced at Monty before looking over at Raven who was moving across the room picking things up, shifting their spots.
"Making room for the spare bed they're bringing in later, the couch will ruin your back," Raven said without sparring her a glance. "By the way, we have like five idiots up in medical waiting for you."
"What time is it?" Clarke asked. It seemed like it was way to early for these people to have caused damage already.
"Ten, maybe, ten thirty, hey don't you have a watch?" Jasper questioned, pointing at her wrist. Clarke shook her head and even she didn't know whether it was in amusement or disbelief. Not letting anyone else get a word in, Clarke got up to her full height, and headed out the door to rush to the medbay.
Harper was already there when Clarke arrived. She was dealing with a guy who looked no older than thirteen. Clarke watched as the room was barely accommodating the five patients, with one of them waiting outside the door.
"Here, I'll finish with him. The redheaded girl has a deep cut, wash it thoroughly with—" Clarke shook her head annoyed before clenching her jaw, "water, and stitch it up."
"I don't really know how to properly stitch, they usually fall out a couple hours after."
"Ok, you finish with him, and I'll deal with her. After you're done, call Monty, you need to learn how to do this right."
Harper smiled. It took Clarke back a bit. She had been kind to her yesterday, and the two weirdos from this morning seemed nice enough as well. She didn't understand why Raven had told her last night that she wouldn't be accepted here. Of all places, this place should be the most accepting.
The rest of the morning was productive to say the least. After the five patients from earlier were situated, Clarke had about twenty minutes to teach Harper and Monty the basics of stitching, cleaning a wound, and determining whether or not it has been infected, before someone else dropped by with a gash worse than anything Clarke had ever seen before. Soon after, the flow of people was constant with only about a five to seven-minute break between each group.
"What the hell are you guys doing that's causing this many injuries already? No one is outside the Dropship. I didn't hear anything about a mission from Raven."
"It's training season. The guards are all going through new rotations, Alpha has some new recruits taken from lower squads so they have to go through all new training." Harper answered. Monty had gone down to the kitchen or lunchroom; Clarke had a small peek of it yesterday but knew she couldn't have located it to save her life.
"I don't…" Clarke trailed off. She didn't understand, Alpha, lower squad? She thought battle of the social classes didn't exist with Skicru.
"Oh, right," Harper smiled sympathetically, "Well, Alpha Squad is the highest, well trained and active squad for combat. They are lead by Nathan Miller, his dad was a guard, well is a guard back in Arkadia." Clarke knew about Nathan Miller, his father came charging into a council meeting the day his son took off. No one had known where Nathan had gone, why he left, all they knew was that he suddenly vanished. His father spent the next few months using his power as a guard to find his son but he never did.
"Then there are the Betas, and Gammas, who are kind of like second in command, if for some reason the Alphas don't make it in time for a mission, they take over. The Deltas were next."
"Were?"
"Yeah. They were all young; Bellamy got rid of that squad after saving his sister. They were practically children. Kid soldiers. We are not Arkadia." Harper enunciated, eyes narrowly looking down at the hem of her shirt. She pulled at the strings channeling her anger. Arkadia didn't necessarily have child soldiers, but they did allow a training process for males and females at the age of fifteen to start early to join the guards. And, they were the ones easily executing innocent lives for mistakes that are just as innocent.
Clarke wasn't surprised at the hatred these people carried. Each of them had a story, their own version of the injustice they faced. Clarke had hoped she wouldn't learn any of them, because then knowing will haunt her, knowing will make what she's going to do that much harder.
"Wait, his sister? Octavia right?" Clarke asked. She had heard all about his situation, obviously, the whole of Arkadia had. Due to the limited water supplies and food, even though they have a greenhouse system planting and growing various edible greens, there were extreme rules regarding repopulation. Each couple would have to be registered to Arkadia, and allowed to conceive one child only. There were promises that as soon as the essentials for life, the technology, the ground itself was completely survivable, then the law would be lifted and repopulation can happen at anyone's content. Empty promises was what Clarke had repeated to herself every time someone had mentioned it.
"Yeah. I know it's kind of weird having someone else, like by blood, be connected to you…or I don't know, it's different." Harper trailed trying to find the words to explain a situation they were all unfamiliar with.
"I bet it's nice," was all Clarke had said and in that moment Monty walked through the door carrying what looked like three sandwiches and three cups.
"Moonshine." Monty winked when Clarke's eyes wandered to the cup.
"We have moonshine and we washed about twelve wounds today with water?"
Monty faltered, almost dropping the sandwiches and the cups. He gave a nervous smile, and the nodded his head furiously. "Ok, ok, I'll work up a batch specifically for medical use. It won't be too strong but it will do the job." He promised, setting down the cups.
Clarke grabbed a sandwich before rolling her eyes at him.
"You better. Have it done by tonight, I have a feeling tomorrow morning we're going to need as much of it as you can make." With the way the 'training session' happened today, she didn't want to think about tomorrow, or even the next few hours that she will be in this room for. Harper and Monty began talking about previous missions, Harper was on the squad that was able to get supplies, radios, and even one of the rovers parked in the garage.
"We build most of the stuff we have, Monty and Raven are amazing with that," to which a light blush covered Monty's cheeks, "but sometimes we don't have enough parts, or food, or anything else really," she nodded towards their surroundings, "so they send us out. I usually take rotations, guarding the Dropship in case anyone finds us, but this time I got to go back into Arkadia."
No one asked if she missed it. No one talked about his or her previous time there; it was as if it never existed. It was the unspoken rule, do not discuss who we were or what we saw, if you know what's good for you. Skicru was a clean slate, foreveryone, Clarke hoped so anyways.
The rest of the evening went on, they actually ended up having a lot more patients than they did in the morning. It was only when two patients ended up in a fist fight, one of their wounds bleeding out onto the floor that Clarke had had enough. She called Harper to break up the fight and take over for a few minutes.
She walked out of the room fuming. She really didn't know where to go from the medbay so she left as if she was going back to Raven's room. When she got to the skybox, she took the narrow hallway out and into the wide-open space similar to the one on the ground floor, the one she saw when she first entered. The staircase was to the left as it had been on the ground floor also. She took the steps two at a time. When she reached the third floor she was slightly lost. She looked around at the different hallways and possibilities.
"You lost?" a guy with shaggy brown hair and with what would be described as an all-American boy smile, a few centuries ago, asked.
"Uh yeah, I'm looking for Bellamy Blake?" she asked, glancing around him hoping the bastard would show his face.
"He's training some guards, I'm Finn by the way, you're Clarke right?" he asked, the smile never leaving his face. She just stared at him, she knew him. He was the guy that came to the hospital with Raven when she cursed at him for not getting himself checked out sooner.
"Yeah, can you take me to him?"
"You don't seem like his type, Princess, he's into brunettes." Finn must have been joking, or something, the smile on his face turning into an amused grin. Clarke scoffed lightly, he may seem like he has a sense of humour and possibly even a kind heart, but she was not in the mood.
"I'll find him myself," she announced before taking off in a random direction.
"Other way."
She glanced over her shoulder; Finn was standing, still amused, and with his hands in his pockets and his head tilted towards the hallway on the other side of the room. He chuckled lightly and began walking in that direction.
"You don't seem like the kind of person who would just show up here in the middle of the night demanding to help the underprivileged." Finn raised an eyebrow at her as they walked side by side a few feet apart.
"You don't seem like the condescending asshole that would help me find where the biggest asshole is." she bit back but Finn had just chuckled louder this time.
"Raven was right; you'll be fine here."
Clarke felt her heart beat louder. She felt a slight sense of pride and gratitude for Raven, the girl was beyond loyal, and whether she wanted to admit it or not, she was the sweetest person Clarke had ever met, besides maybe Monty, who seemed incredibly innocent.
"Right here," Finn pushed open a large door revealing five rows of young men and women, standing in formation, arms behind their back, legs apart, eyes focused on the front.
"Ok, we just showed you how it's done. Partner up and practice!" a loud deep shout rang through the room. Clarke stepped in further to see Bellamy give the order, then talk quietly to the guard standing next to him. It was Nathan Miller; they seemed to be talking about something important. Nathan had his eyes squinting in concern, arms crossed at the chest looking torn, but Bellamy looked stronger if it was even possible. He seemed extremely determined, not a hint of fear in his eyes.
Nathan looked up at her in that moment then he indicated to Bellamy she was there with a slight whisper. Bellamy looked up to meet her eyes this time and they seemed angry now.
"Don't worry, he's pissed at everyone, all the time, but that was the quickest death glare I've ever seen, so maybe yeah, he hates you." Finn spoke her thoughts out loud, and if she weren't pissed at the condition of the medbay, or at the fact that Bellamy thought he had any right to be angry with her when she had done nothing wrong, she would have laughed at Finn and his attempt at being funny.
She walked to the front of the room, ignoring the way the place fell silent, and how the trainees' lingering gazes followed her. Bellamy turned his body to face hers, strong arms now crossed over his chest, face blank.
"You're still here." he stated, brown eyes focused on her blue ones. He didn't seem surprised or annoyed. Almost calm, almost like he didn't care.
"Your medical unit sucks. There are no proper sanitized equipment or supplies." She remained calm as well, glad that her voice was steady and her glare unfazed.
"It's what we've had for the past ten years, it's what we will continue to use."
"You can't be serious, it's a safety hazard all on its own."
"Relax Princess," he said louder stepping closer to her. She glanced at Nathan whose eyes were now narrow, and his smirk growing by the second. She was nervous to peek behind her to see the rest of them staring at her. "We're fine, besides, I don't have time to sanction a mission to grab some bandages just because you haven't been able to make do with what you have."
Clarke knew this would happen. The way he said that stupid nickname, that for some reason everyone has taken to call her by, he threw the status she had in Arkadia in her face. If she was pissed before she didn't notice because now she was furious. She took another step closer to him, inches from his face, her chest a breath away from his, and this only made him glare down at her harder.
"Listen, think what you want about me, but with the way they keep getting hurt," she pointed at the group behind her, "you won't have anyone left to send out for missions, or supplies, or war." she resisted the urge to poke him in the chest. "You care about these people, your people, show it."
With those words, she turned on her heel and walked away from him towards a very entertained Finn. She glanced at the guards who now stood in the middle of the room unmoving; they looked back at her with a look of…hope? Clarke didn't know and she didn't let herself think too much of it. Just before reaching the door she turned to face Bellamy again. He was already looking at her, watching her walk away. He shifted from one foot to another, still holding her eyes.
"And for God's sake, go easy on them. We can't keep up in medical."
There was amusement in his eyes now, and a hint of a smirk threatening to show, but his face turned blank once more when she pulled the door open and walked through.
"Get back to work!" she heard him yell as she shut the door behind her.
"That went well," Finn yawned, stretching his arms out, behind her. She didn't even bother answering him.
Fuck Bellamy Blake, and fuck his brown eyes.