Chapter 8 - And You Dance Just Like You're the Only One in the Room


Where she stood could be called nothing but a cell, no matter how many comforts it held. She stared at the painting that hung on the wall with her hands cuffed behind her back. This was the third time in one day they had restrained her or cast her away behind a locked door.

She didn't bother to look at the men entering the room, instead keeping her blank eyes on the canvas in front of her. Dante's voice filtered through her ears telling them to "lose the handcuffs." yet again.

"There's a blank canvas if you'd like." He offered, once her hands were free.

"I used to paint the ground, too." She said staring at the landscape in the picture in front of her.

"It's not just the ground. It's a memory." He told her. Running his hand gently along the frame of the picture. "I painted this."

That surprised her. "You've been outside?"

"Yes," he said as if reading the question on her face. "Fifty-six years ago. For five minutes. I was seven when the first of what we call the outsiders appeared. Before that, we thought we were all there was. Imagine our surprise."

Though she heard the regret and pain in his voice; though she didn't have to leap to imagine their excitement at being able to be on the ground again, she couldn't let her heart go out to him. "I don't have to imagine."

"My father, was in office at the time, believed it meant that the Earth was survivable again, and so, he opened the doors. Within a week, fifty-four people were dead from the exposure. My mother and sister among them. Loss, pain, regret." She felt his stare on her face, but she refused to look into his eyes. "Time eases these things, Clarke, but the only time it's ever truly gone is when I'm painting."

"You didn't come here to talk about painting." She moved slightly away from him. "Did you?"

"I'm afraid I have bad news. Our patrols have swept the area and found no evidence of survivors, either at your camp or from the Ark." Her stomach rolled with the news and her heart rate picked up.

"How can they be sure?" her voice sounded breathless.

"They can't." he said as he grasped her shoulder. "I've ordered them to keep searching."

"I need to see for myself." The traitorous tears welled in her eyes again as her hands trembled but at least this time she could hear the steel in her voice.

"I'm sorry. I can't allow that." Her thoughts started to race at his confirmation that she was essentially a prisoner here. "I'm doing this for your own good, Clarke. It's not safe out there."

"Radiation has no effect on us." She turned to glare at him.

"It's not the radiation I'm concerned about. You need time to grieve." He sounded so sincere in his concern, but she hadn't felt the sincerity. As he turned to leave, he paused at the door. "These men will show you to your room."

"And if I try to leave?" She bit out as she watched him walk away from her.

"Please don't test me, Clarke." His reply came out just as sharp as her question. She would not give up her efforts to escape no matter how many times they arrested her. She would get her people back to safety.

XXXXXXXXXX

When Bellamy released Lincoln, he stood away from the cell door that had held him for the past several days. Unable to fully meet the eye of his best friend he stared at the wounds that covered the battered face he knew so well.

From the corner of his eye he saw his sister move forward swiftly to catch Lincoln when the guard that helped him out of the cage let go of him with whispered accusations thrown in his direction.

"Enough" he told the guards. "Lincoln has served his penance for his crimes."

His sister glared at him but Lincoln's gentle hand on her elbow drew her eyes back to his face. He shook his head at her, and she let her eyes fall to the ground.

His heart clenched at the sight of them together. Lincoln once again standing up for Bellamy in the face of Octavia's anger. He'd never been more thankful for Lincoln's soft heart than he was in this moment. He'd also never felt more guilty in the face of his friend's forgiveness.

He wasn't surprised when Lincoln and Octavia took off back to the village that they all had come from. Though it hurt him to send them off with bad blood in their heads, he didn't try to stop them. The Commanders in his head still yelling about being soft on Lincoln, but he wouldn't take their advice on this. He knew that Lincoln's heart was in the right place though his actions had horrible consequences.

XXXXXXXXXX

Later at dinner she felt him staring at her as he gave thanks. Deciding that she would play this game with him for a little longer, she flashed him a shallow smile. She would bide her time until she could leave with her people. Later she found a sketch book and more colored pencils than she ever thought she'd see in her lifetime and she couldn't help but smile at the gift. Her hands aching to draw everything that she's lost. All the kids who she couldn't save, but first she had to get out of here.

The next evening, when Miller showed up in the dorm that they were all staying in, she's sitting in her bunk in the most comfortable clothes she has ever worn; more full than she had ever been but the feeling of being watched was still present and she couldn't seem to relax. Her hands sketching what she could remember from her flights of freedom.

Jasper's voice calling out, "Look who finally got released." Is what drew her attention up to the entrance.

Miller's soft greeting reached her ears and with the relief that she felt she could genuinely say, "I'm glad you're ok."

"Yeah. Only took, what, 3 surgeries?" He turns awkwardly to Maya, who was standing next to him. "I hear you're fitting right in."

Clarke glared at Maya, who looked contrite at being called out. She turned to Miller and handed him some pills, reminding him to when to take them. Clarke watched Miller turn to find a bunk as Jasper and Maya walk off a little way to talk, trying to make sure he was in fact okay.

The sound of an alarm blaring had Clarke tossing down her sketchbook filled only with a map of the place. She jumped down when she saw Maya look at her nervously, before telling Jasper to save her a seat. As Maya tried to take off out the door Clarke cut her off demanding Maya tell her what is going on.

"That signal means the surface patrol is back and someone needs medical attention." she hurried around Clarke with a muttered. "I have to go to quarantine."

Quarantine. She knew where that was. Clarke strode away only to be chased out the door by Jasper. "Hey, Clarke. What are you doing?"

"Maybe they found survivors." She said hopefully as she moved further away from the dorm. "If our people are hurt, we have a right to know."

Jasper's frantic voice calls out to her. "I'm pretty sure we shouldn't just go wa-wandering around."

She rolled her eyes at him, if they aren't prisoners that's exactly what they should be allowed to do. As she approached the team getting into their hazmat suits, she overheard them talking about someone being shot and the other taking his suit off in the field.

"Who attacked them?" She demanded as she paused to wait for the answer.

The man who appeared to be the lead didn't answer her, but he did tell her that she can't go through the door because it was not safe. She barely bothered to remind him that it is for them as she called Jasper to follow. Whatever Jasper said to them as he followed is lost to her as she pressed forwards.

When they saw the door to the quarantine ward, Jasper grabbed her elbow. "Clarke, slow down! Stop pushing so hard." she ignored him, yanking her elbow from his arm as she opened the door to see a dead body on the table. "These people are-"

"Are lying to us." she finished for him as she spread the clear plastic down closer to the chest to see the fatal wound. "That's a bullet wound. Grounders don't use guns."

Jasper's eyes are drawn up as his mouth dropped open for a moment. "Unless the Grounders got the guns from us." is what he came up with when his mouth closes.

"I don't think so." She said. "I think our people are alive out there."

The pinched, angry face of Dr. Tsing found her before she yelled at whoever was behind her to "get them out of here." but not before Clarke saw them bringing in the man covered in radiation burns. His face was drawn back in pain as two orderlies helped him on to a cot next to his fallen comrade.

Dante's coddling didn't stop later in the day when she approached him about who shot the soldier. He told her that he was shot by an arrow and that sometimes people who have experienced loss like her see things that aren't there. When she demanded that she be allowed to see the body he gave in to her, but she wasn't sure that she could trust these people to tell her the truth.

She paced outside of the room where the body was being held like a caged tiger waiting for its dinner. When Dr. Tsing finally appeared with the body of the dead soldier, she checked the wound, but she didn't believe that they were above doctoring the holes to cover up their motive.

She moved on from the dead man, for he had no answers for her. "The man with the burns, how is he?"

The doctor hesitated before telling Clarke that he was improving. This doctor with snake eyes, didn't like being questioned. She asked to speak with the man still alive and the good doctor tried to shut her down, but President Wallace told her they would arrange it. She wasn't sure how much of the truth would be watered down before she was allowed to talk to him. But she would find out the truth if it was the last thing she did.

She found her way back to the dorms, but her anxiety kept her from truly relaxing. Jasper's tone felt like an attack when he asked. "What did President Wallace say?"

She didn't have a choice but to tell him that she had seen the body and it did in fact look like an arrow wound. Jasper told her she sounded crazy when she told him that they could have doctored the wound. They had no way of knowing what they had done to that man's body in the hours they hadn't been able to see it.

Jasper's voice sounded angry when he asked her, "Why do you want to screw this up for us?"

She met his glare with watery eyes. "I don't know what this is."

Jasper's face softened at the sight of her pain. "This is, it's safe. This is food, a real bed, clothes, and my personal favorite not getting speared by Grounders. How long do you think they'll let us stay here if you keep this up?"

Her eyes which had fallen to the ground, snapped up to his as he finished his last sentence. "Did someone threaten you?"

Shaking his head, he told her that it was just common sense and that she was the biggest threat to them right now. That send her stomach rolling and she couldn't stay in that room anymore. She turned from them and fled.

She found herself back on level five, sketch book in hand as she hid in a corner. She worked on adding in more detail to her map. At the sound of people calling out to Langston, she looked up. Her eyes found the man who just hours ago it seemed had been dying from the radiation burns was up walking around. He was well enough to joke with his friends.

She set her sketchbook aside as she slunk out of her seat to follow him. She followed him all the way until she saw the sign that indicated he was headed to the medical wing. The memory of the doctor's voice saying that only patients are allowed in medical sounds off in her mind.

Clarke turned to head back to the dorm rooms, swinging by and grabbing her sketchbook on the way back. When she gets to the dorm, she is alone, everyone still out enjoying their perception of safety. A feeling that she can't seem to mimic no matter how hard she tried. Her heart leaping to her throat, she paced.

"Only patients are allowed in medical." she mumbled to herself, looking down at the bandage that covers her stitches. She halts her pacing. "Only patients are allowed in medical"

Taking a deep breath before pulling off the bandage. Stepping closer to the bunk beds out of view of the camera she lifted her arm to a corner of the bed. Sucking in a breath she dragged her arm across the metal; blood gushing out of the reopened wound. A hiss spilling out between her teeth as she clenched her other hand over the sharp pain.

XXXXXXXXXX

The pain in Lincoln's leg slowed them both down considerably and it kept them off the quickest trails knowing that they would make the most noise.

"I don't think I'll ever forgive him for what he did to you." Octavia ranted, her hands gesticulating wildly in the air. When she saw the soft smile on his face, she couldn't help but smile back at him. "What?"

"You will forgive him, O." her mumbled denial pulling a laugh from his chest. "Yes, you will because he is your brother and you love him. He is only doing what must be done to protect our people."

"You are his people and you were following his orders." She crossed her arms, pushing her bottom lip out.

He pulled her towards him, softly kissing her pouting lips. "You know I was not. He did not tell us to help them beyond the offer of peace. I just couldn't not help. Not after the way Anya had betrayed the terms of the peace talks, not after she had fired the first shot."

Octavia's hand came up to rest on his cheek. Her smile softened the sharp features that she shared with her brother. She opened her mouth to say something but before she gets a chance to the cry of the reapers sounded from behind her.

They pulled away from each other, but he knew he won't escape. Stepping forward towards the cry of their tortured souls, blocking his chosen. "Octavia, you have to run."

"No, Lincoln. I can't leave you here. They will kill you."

He turned to look at her over his shoulder. "If you don't leave now, they will kill us both. Your brother needs you. He needs his heart. They commanders in his head will tell him to be ruthless but it will crumble him from the inside."

The tears that fell down her face broke his heart, but he had to keep her safe. "Go, Octavia. Now!"

The relief he felt as he watched her dark hair flying as she disappeared behind the trees almost took him to his knees. He didn't have time to feel anything else before the reapers descended on him; knocking him down and taking his weapons as darkness closed in on him.

XXXXXXXXXX

After being re-stitched the doctor walked out of the room leaving Clarke alone. Turning to Langston she moved closer to him. Her attempts shake him awake prove fruitless. "What are they doing to you?" she whispered to herself.

She saw the tubing running to the port in his chest and followed the tubing up to the machine by his head before it headed out through the wall. She followed the wall to a door off to the side. What she sees when she opened the door horrified her.

Cages filled with grounders line the walls, cages hung from the ceiling spinning around slowly she takes in the faces of terror surrounding her. She hears the grunt of irritation that comes from a cage where her feet are frozen. She locked eyes with someone that she never expected to see again.

"Anya?" She bent down to look at the woman, who is weaker than Clarke could ever imagine her being, in front of her. "Oh god, I'm gonna get you out of here."

Clarke's frantic eyes darted around looking for anything that could help her get Anya out. When her eyes land on some conduit piping leading up to a plug. Rushing over she pulled the conduit off the wall and darted back to Anya's cage, skidding on her knees. Threading the pipe into the lock she forced the lock down with all her might until the lock broke.

Right as Clarke is helping Anya out of the she heard the beep of a lock disengaging. She pushed Anya back in with a hurried whisper to "get back in." as she followed her into the cage. She heard the click clack of heels before she saw the slim form of Dr. Tsing as she checked the chart on her clipboard.

Anya tried to push her way out after the doctor, but Clarke held firm, shaking her head at her. That doesn't stop the other grounders in the other cages from reaching out trying to grab her. With a yelp she jumped away; a disgusted sneer is on her face as she turned to leave.

As soon as the lock engaged on the door, Clarke hurried out of the cage pulling Anya's weak form behind her, slinging Anya's arm over her shoulders when they are free of the cage. "We've gotta go, now!"

Clarke's eyes dart back and forth looking for a way out when she saw a sign that said End Containment Area. Pulling the door open she darted through the door with Anya. When Clarke realized there was nowhere else to go, she tried to exit the room, but the door closed before she could make it back across the room.

Clarke's frantic attempted to get out of the room are met with an alarm. There is barely time for Clarke to back up toward the center of the room where she had let go of Anya, as the grounder asked what the noise is, before the floor fell out from under their feet.

Clarke was grateful that whatever she landed on is soft until she realized that they have fallen onto the broken bodies of the used-up grounders. Some of them still alive but others are mercifully gone from the world of suffering she knew they would be in otherwise.

Clarke struggled to get out of the cart and way from the gruesome sight in front of her. Her desperation matched only her revulsion. Clinging to the edge of the cart she called out for the unresponsive grounder to grab her hand. When Anya's eyes finally travel the distance from the dying man in front of her to Clarke, she waved her hand again. When Anya's hand met hers, she pulled them both out of the cart.

Spotting a pile of clothes tossed out next to the empty cart across the way, she rushed over to them, digging through them to pull enough for both of them. "Come on, get dressed. We won't cover any ground like this."

When she met Clarke's eyes, Anya finally seemed to be present enough to say that she won't leave her people behind.

"Anya listen to me," Clarke plead with the resolute grounder. "My people are still inside there. But they have guards they have weapons once we're out we can find help and come back and get them."

"There is no we." She said as her eyes cut to Clarke. They heard a noise coming from the tunnel that lead away from Mount Weather. "Someone's coming."

"Not just someone," Clarke's eyes dart back and forth between Anya and the tunnels. "Reapers."

Anya started to stalk down the tunnel as she bent to try to pick up a rock off the ground. Clarke turned from trying to find shoes for the both of them and moved to stop Anya. "Hey, you can't fight you can hardly stand. I have a better idea come on."

She pulled Anya to the empty cart that the clothes were piled next to, throwing clothes and shoes into the cart and helped Anya in before jumping in herself just as the Reapers round the corner. The Reapers picked up some of the dead bodies that had fallen next to the other cart and threw them on top of Clarke and Anya. Clarke held her breath as the wheels of the cart started moving below her.

When the cart finally stopped moving, Clarke dared to open her eyes to only slits, hoping that the reapers weren't paying attention to them. When she didn't see anyone standing over the cart she sat up and moved towards the edge. Pulling the clothing with her she told Anya to "come on." but Anya didn't move towards Clarke. Instead she leaned over the young man who didn't have long left in this world.

Ignoring Clarke, Anya whispered. "Yu gonplei ste odon." Clarke wasn't sure what that meant until she saw Anya grasp the sides of the man's face gently before yanking quickly and snapping his neck. The sound echoes slightly, and Clarke knew they wouldn't have much time left before someone came to investigate. She pulled Anya over the side of the cart. Tossing the clothes out before Clarke helped Anya out of the cart, following her closely.

They moved quickly around the bend of the cave only to stop long enough to pull the clothes on and sink their feet into the boots. Clarke's frantic eyes paced around the open spaces in front of her trying to decide which way to go.

"Damn it! This place is a maze!"

Anya hunched over her knees breathing deeply, trying to catch her breath after the quick pace they had set. "What are they doing to us?"

"They use your blood." Clarke looked in her direction but couldn't quite meet her eyes. "I saw a soldier come in with radiation burns, hours later he was fine. It's like your blood is healing them somehow. I've never seen anything like it. Come on this way!" Clarke started to head off to the tunnel on her left before she noticed Anya heading in the other direction. "what are you doing? That's the way back to the Reapers."

Anya shuffled further down the other direction. "You go your way, I'll go mine."

Exasperated Clarke walked back towards the unmovable grounder. "Anya, we need to stick together."

Shuffling further away Anya said, again, "I told you there is no we."

Grabbing her elbow, Clarke turned Anya back to face her. "Hey! I saved your life."

"You saved because you need me." Anya sneered, yanking her arm out of Clarke's grasp. "I know the way back to your people; I know where all the traps are hidden. You'd never make it alone."

"We don't have time for this. Our best chance to get out of here alive is together." Clarke said as she moved back towards the tunnel on her left.

"All we can do is keep moving and hope-" Clarke's words got stuck in her throat as she turned to find the space behind her empty. "Anya? Anya!"

Clarke turned to run down the open tunnel that she had hoped was the one that Anya had taken. She ran for what felt like forever, until she ran straight into a reaper. She pulled back and tried to run back the way she had come only to find more reapers behind her.

"No! Please!" She begged as she struggled to get away from the grasping hands that held her tight to a body that smelled of mold and decay.

Suddenly a piercing high-pitched tone is sounded and the reapers that held her before dropped to the ground covering their ears as their bodies shivered with tremors. Before she can move away from the reapers at her feet, she heard the muffled shouts of two men in green hazmat suits. One grabbed her arm and hauled her over the still trembling bodies of the reapers, telling her that she is coming with them.

Clarke's hateful glare cut to the man who held her right arm as she said, "I saw everything, I know what you're doing to them."

The man on her left nodded. "That's why you're going in the Harvest Chamber with them." He said before pulling a radio out of his waist belt. "Alpha building two, we've reached the intake, one prisoner in custody."

The radio crackled before she heard another voice come across it. "Your mission was to bring back both of them. The outside cannot leave this base. Alpha one is coming out now."

Before anything else has the chance to be said, Clarke heard a scream rip through the air. She turned to look for the reason for the noise and see Anya on the back of one of the guards. "His mask!" She called out as she pushed the other guard out of the way to keep him from helping his friend.

When both of the guards were unmasked, quickly succumbing to the radiation, Anya pulled Clarke away from the dead. "I found a way out this way!"

Bending down to grab the guard's gun before she took off after Anya, gives the second group of guards' enough time to exit the metal door at the end of the hall. She heard them yelling about needing to keep them alive when they catch them, pushing her to run faster than she ever had.

Anya pulled up into a hard stop when the sound of rushing water became overwhelming. Leaning over the edge sent her heart racing out of her chest, as she started begging Anya for another way. Anya barely has time to tell Clarke that there isn't another way before she is launching herself over the edge.

The guards behind her tried to sound pacifying as Clarke turns on them with the gun outstretched in front of her. "We don't have to do this Clarke, you hear me? Doesn't have to end like this."

Clarke takes a deep breath as she nodded to the guard. She set the gun on the ground before she raised her arms and started moving forward. When she saw them relax their guns ever so slightly, she clenched down tightly on her fear before turning and running over the edge.

The force of her body breaking the line of the water felt like she had hit the hard-packed ground. Clarke struggled to get her head above water before she felt herself being hauled back to the shore. When her back hits the rocks of the shore she turns to cough up the water that is still threatening to drown her.

"Thank you, I think we should go back to the dropship first." Clarke said quickly trying to recover so they can get out of the reach of the mountain. "So, I can see if my-" Her words are cut off as she felt the contact of something hard against her temple.

Clarke's vision flutters as her head spins when she hears Anya saying, "We're not going back to your dropship. You burned 300 of my warriors, I can't show my face without a prize." Anya quickly tied up Clarke's hands before hauling her to her feet and heading off away from the river and certain death.

XXXXXXXXXX

Rubbing at the headache that was forming over his eyebrow, Bellamy sighed. A haggard sound coming out of his lungs. Lincoln had been reaped and Octavia's distraught wails still echoed in his head. The sky people had sent an unarmed man into TonDC with a man they had captured and interrogated in the four days they had been on the ground, to beg for peace. A sky person had been taken from the dead zone and brought to a cell in TonDC.

All his problems had come from the infestation from the sky. It was time for him to talk to the sky people. He needed to understand them before he could clear them off his planet.

Bellamy called for his guard. He'd take just a few with him and pretend to be nothing more than a normal grounder, see if they could figure out just what type of people they were dealing with. Now that the Sky Princess had been taken to the mountain, they might not have the same drive to survive. They would never show weakness to him if they thought him, important. With the start of a plan in mind he exited his room, Roma and Gustus falling in beside him.