This story starts just after the fall of Mount Weather. There will be no ALIE, city of Light or the nuclear reactors ready to blow. ALmost everything before the fall of the mountain is canon with the exception of Sterling's death - an unnecessary death if you ask me. Please review, I like those! Enjoy, Samdagger.
Disclaimer: Not mine - well except for Cooper. They belong to the CW.
Chapter 1
Cooper Lyons watched as the remains of the hundred walked into Camp Jaha after being freed from the mountain. She was one of them but she knew she would never set foot inside that place. As far as she was concerned, the Ark had treated them like they were already dead. Sending them down to die was actually the best thing they did. The ground was amazing, it was just the people who sucked - correction, it was the adults from the Ark who sucked. The Commander had at least kept her promise and the alliance together, but the mountain men and the Arkers were both acting like they had done nothing wrong in the way they treated their prisoners.
The grounders at least had a sense of justice, but the Ark and the maunon just acted like their treatment of prisoners was normal practice. The Ark had thrown them away and then tried to control them again when they came down! According to Octavia, the Arkers were still acting like they were still in space! Cooper was not going to stay in a place that did not face reality, they wouldn't last long with that attitude, but their way of ignoring those younger than them just because they were younger, was stupid. The hundred had hunted and foraged and went out each day to get water, they fought a war against the grounders, for fuck's sake!
She waited outside until only Clarke and Bellamy were left. She heard them talking and then Bellamy arguing with her, telling her he forgave her. She had no idea why Clarke needed forgiveness, but for some reason, Bellamy was trying to give it to her. Cooper could have told him that she needed to forgive herself. No-one else could do it for her. She watched as Clarke walked away and made her decision.
"I'm going with her," Cooper told Bellamy as she passed him. He grabbed her arm.
"Wait!"
"Bellamy, I can't let her go off alone."
"I know, but wait for a couple of minutes while I get some things together, okay?" Cooper sighed but nodded.
"Two minutes, Bellamy," she said, meaning it. He nodded and ran off. It actually took him four minutes, but he was back with a backpack and a tent pack. The backpack had some equipment in it like knives and binoculars, two handguns with several clips for them.
"That's all I could get," Bellamy said, half-apologising.
"It's better than nothing. I'd better catch up with Clarke," Cooper said, strapping the pack to her.
"Check Finn's bunker for sleeping bags or blankets," Bellamy suggested. Cooper nodded, turned and started off in the direction of Clarke.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
She caught up several minutes later and walked beside her, not saying a word. Clarke looked at her and the pack and grunted. She'd been so focused on getting her people out of the mountain that she never even thought of what happened after. What happened was Clarke realising that to be the person she used to be, she had to find herself. She had walked away with nothing but the clothes on her back and the gun in her hand. Neither woman said a word as they walked. Cooper let Clarke wander where she wanted but still stuck with her. It took another four hours before Clarke spoke.
"Why are you here?" she asked.
"Because I don't belong back there. I belong with the hundred, but not the Ark. Bellamy may not have had good judgement skills in the beginning but he did say something that was true. We're grounders now."
"So?"
"We are no longer living in the sky, Clarke, we're on the ground and should start acting like we are - well the Arkers should, we hundred had already started figuring it out. The point is that if they don't start listening to those kids who have already learned to hunt and forage, they'll die before winter's over."
"That doesn't say why you're here with me," Clarke said.
"Because you're my leader," Cooper said, with a shrug. "If I can't go into the Camp, then I'm sticking with you."
"What if I don't want company?"
"Tough. I'm here and I'm not going anywhere, you're stuck with me."
I'm not good company, Cooper," Clarke said.
"Huh, I didn't even know you knew my name," Cooper said.
"Just because you stayed in the background, doesn't mean I didn't know you by name and face. I may not have talked to everyone but I still made a point of knowing who was who."
"Do you know why I was in the skybox?"
"Yeah, and I know you didn't do it."
"I did," Cooper said. "Oh, I didn't kill the guard who I was imprisoned for, but I did kill one before that."
"What happened?"
"He had dragged my mother to the floating chamber and intended to float her. He never said why and neither did my mother, but when he shoved her inside, I got there in time to shove him inside as well and pulled out my mother. I then shut the doors before he could get out and then I pushed the button. My mom never spoke a word - in fact she never spoke about it again and rarely spoke at all after that."
"And you never found out why?"
"No," Cooper said sadly, shaking her head.
"So why were you accused of killing that guard?"
"Because we had a very public argument about his arrogance and his penchant for ogling young girls. I never threatened him, just called him out on his behaviour. When he ended up dead, I became suspect number one and I was arrested. I doubt they even investigated it, they had someone and I was underage so anything I said was ignored. I ended up in the skybox."
"How long were you in there?"
"Almost four years."
"Wait, I know you're still 17 so you were put in prison at thirteen?"
"I don't think they see teenagers as real people, Clarke. Under thirteen and you are treated as if you can't understand right and wrong, but the day you turn thirteen, all bets are off and the minute you step out of line, they grab you and put you into prison."
"Charlotte was twelve," Clarke pointed out.
"Charlotte was a special case. She pushed a guard so technically they used that to imprison her. She had no parents anymore so there was no-one to complain about it."
"They are so stupid at times," Clarke said, thinking back on what she knew of those in Alpha station and the council and Chancellor.
"The Grounders' way is better - even if sometimes they don't care about evidence!" Cooper said, remembering what Raven had said about her time as a prisoner of theirs and the punishment they started to hand out to her.
"They still have to figure out that blood does not have to end with blood," Clarke said.
"Revenge or avenge?" Cooper asked.
"Sometimes both," Clarke said, shrugging.
"Err, isn't revenge when you take action against someone who hurt you and avenge is when someone else takes action against whoever hurt you?"
"Yeah, but I think they just blur the lines so they can fight."
"They are formidable fighters," Cooper said. "I mean if we hadn't set off that ring of fire, I doubt we'd have lived through that fight."
"No, we wouldn't have," Clarke said, thinking about all that had happened since then, including her feelings for the Commander.
They stopped walking when they heard a sound to their left. They looked and saw a squirrel running through the branches. They walked on, not really going in any direction.
After another hour of walking, Clarke decided the small clearing in the trees would be a good place to set up camp. If they caught some meat soon, they could cook it before night fell. The fire would stand out at night but right now, the smoke would be hidden among the trees. Cooper set up camp while Clarke went to catch a couple of rabbits and try to find some greens, though with winter approaching, they were scarce.
Cooper had the tent up and a fire going when Clarke came back. She handed one to Cooper and they both skinned the animals before cutting them up to roast. Through trial and error while in the camp, they found it was easier to cup them up before they cooked them. The rabbits were cut into four with a leg in each as well as a portion of the body muscles. Leaving them on the bone, helped them to stay together better.
Soon they were eating the rabbit and the few bits of greens Clarke could find. They'd blanched them in hot water for a few minutes and ate them. They climbed into the tent and lay down on the bare ground. At five foot ten, Cooper was a little tall for the two man tent, but she'd put up with it. She had short dark hair - it was much easier to maintain than long hair - and had blue eyes. She had an easygoing personality and often stayed in the background. she never liked arguments so when Clarke and Bellamy were going toe to toe over the leadership, Cooper often made herself scarce. Now, though, she was with Clarke and most likely about to put herself in the middle of things. She was cold and the ground was hard.
"Tomorrow we need to go to that bunker and see if there are any sleeping bags or blankets we can use," Cooper said.
"Yeah," Clarke said, not really feeling like going back there.
"He never told me," Clarke said out loud.
"What? Finn?" asked Cooper.
"Yeah, he never told me about Raven. I mean, he knew I wouldn't sleep with him if I knew about his girlfriend, but he never even mentioned her as an ex. He let me believe that he was single and available."
"Boys don't think like we do, Clarke. They think if they don't get caught, that it's alright, that it's not really cheating. I mean she was still on the Ark, right? And I bet he thought he'd never see her again."
"Still didn't give him the right to mess around on her!" Clarke said, huffing.
"No, it doesn't."
"I still miss him," Clarke admitted. "I did love him, you know, but looking back, it was that stupid lust setting in that did it for me. I think it was a stupid childhood crush and not love as I know it now." Cooper turned to look at her.
"You love someone?"
"Yeah."
"Who?" Clarke looked at her.
"Lexa."
"COMMANDER Lexa?" Cooper asked with surprise.
"Yup."
"How does she feel about you?"
"We've never actually talked about it, but she did kiss me just before the call to war, so I think she likes me too," Clarke said, with a small smile of remembrance. "But it was too soon after Finn so I told her I wasn't ready."
"Maybe one day you will be."
"That's just it. I was ready, I just used it as an excuse. I was scared, I mean, she's THE Commander of the entire grounder clans. She has control over half of the old USA! Why me?"
"Because you're you," Cooper said. "You've led us when we didn't want it, you helped us to survive, sometimes by saving our lives literally like Jasper, or by making sure we knew what we were doing with those weapons you and Bellamy found. Everything you've done was to save us, one way or the other."
"What if it's not enough?" Clarke asked. "We're invaders according to everyone else!"
"What if it is?" Cooper asked. "What if she sees you and not what everyone else thinks you represent?"
"And what's that?"
"Clarke, everyone in camp, without fail has noticed your beauty, but we also saw someone who cared about us. You are from Alpha so we hated what you represented, but we came around because you showed us that you can be relied on to help. You would do whatever you could to help us to survive. You didn't try to save yourself and those from Alpha, you tried to save ALL of us." Clarke lay back and thought about it.
"I don't know what to do," she admitted.
"About what?"
"Lexa and what I did to save our people. I've got a lot of grounder blood on my hands, Cooper. It was my idea to use the fuel in the ring of fire and I never told those in Tondc that a missile was heading their way. 250 people died because I didn't tell them and then we had to go and fight the mountain to get our people back."
"Lexa will have to wait. Those deaths were to save your people, Clarke. If you hadn't we'd all be dead. Yes, the grounders would still be alive, but we'd all be dead. You can't say that their lives were more important than ours otherwise you would have left us in the mountain." Clarke thought about it and realised there was no choice if they wanted to live. The grounders were hell bent on killing them and to live, they had to fight and kill some of them. Them or us, us or them, it wasn't a choice, it was survival. Clarke sighed.
"It'll be some time before I can get my head around that, Cooper."
"I'm here if you want to talk," she said. Clarke nodded and they both lay back and tried to go to sleep. It would be a couple of hours before they were both asleep.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
The next morning, they finished off the rest of the meat and greens and then Clarke led them towards the bunker. Clarke was dreading it. As far as she knew that man's body was still there and would still be in a state of decomposition. When they got there, Clarke stopped Cooper from entering and told her why. Cooper nodded and pulled her jacket off and then her shirt. She put her jacket back on and tied the shirt around her head to cover her mouth and nose before she entered. The smell was awful and made her want to throw up. She scanned the room quickly and spotted the sleeping bags on one of the beds. She grabbed them and went back into the clean air, shutting the hatch before taking off the t-shirt.
"God, that's disgusting!" she said, taking in deep gulps of air to try to clean out the smell. Clarke took the sleeping bags and spread them out over some bushes to try to air them out. She passed Cooper some of the healer herbs she'd learned from both Nyko and Lincoln that were used to clean the nose and throat of nasty smells and tastes.
"Here, smell this," Clarke said, holding out the herbs. Cooper took them and held them under her nose and took a deep breath. The smell was quite nice, not too heavy nor pungent. She pulled in the aroma through her nose and out through her mouth. After a couple of minutes, Cooper felt a lot better. She grabbed the one bottle of water that Bellamy had put in the bag and took a sip, swilling it around before spitting it out and then taking a small drink.
"That's much better!" Cooper said with assurity. Clarke nodded and sat beside her, still not liking being that close to a place she once liked because it was Finn's secret place and the place she's given herself to him.
After a few minutes, they got up, rolled up the sleeping bags and left. Clarke led them along a trail and after a few hours, Cooper asked where they were going.
"I don't know, but I've been thinking about everything that happened."
"Like what?"
"We found Alpha station and Mecha joined them. Mecha was left where it was. What if we can find it and get inside?"
"Are you thinking of items we could use or somewhere to live?"
"Both, but mostly about what we can gather. I think the station needs to be dismantled. It's on Trikru lands so I think we should offer the metals to them. I just don't know what to do about the rest of it. There's bound to be dangerous fluids still inside it, it was engineering after all."
"Do you know where it is?"
"Roughly, it's not that far from Arkadia though."
"How far or rather how near to Arkadia is it?"
"About seven klicks." Cooper thought about it.
"We could take a look," she said. Clarke nodded and continued on the path.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
It took them two days to reach Mecha station. They looked at the huge station, still mostly intact.
"What now?" Cooper asked.
"Well, the main entrance to Mecha should be on the other side," Clarke said. They looked at it and realised it had come down on its side and then the realisation set in, the entrance was now on the roof. They both looked up and up. Cooper sighed and looked for a route up.
"Mom said that when they came down, they came out of the roof and down the side away from the lake," Clarke told her. Cooper looked around and found the lake, then went to the opposite side. She saw where footprints had disturbed the dust.
"Here!" Cooper called and started looking for hand and footholds to climb up. It took a while, but she eventually reached the top. Clarke started up but Cooper said she'd look for one of the maintenance hatches she'd seen near the new base for mecha. Clarke nodded and Cooper went to the main hatch and opened it. She saw the furniture they'd used to climb out and debated if it would be safe to use. Coming out was one thing, but gravity had a nasty way of playing with you when you least expected it. She sat on the edge and tested the chair, it moved too easily to put her weight on it and trust it to stay on the table so she kicked it aside and then jumped onto the table itself. It skittered a little across the floor but it stayed upright. Cooper sighed in relief and jumped to the floor. Now she had the fun part of trying to open doors that were on the floor or ceiling, or on the walls, sideways, not upright. It took her a while to wrestle with the doors before she reached the maintenance hatch and then opened it. Clarke was there waiting for her.
"You took some time," Clarke said.
"This station is on its side, Clarke, the doors are on the walls sideways and some of them need to be opened upwards. Those doors are heavy." Clarke nodded and they went in.
"Where to?" Cooper asked. Clarke looked around and then tilted her head sideways to get the proper perspective to orient herself.
"This way," she said. They moved off and Clarke led them through doors and hatches until she reached main engineering. They went through and Clarke went immediately to the Chief Engineer's Office. Cooper followed her. Clarke went to a panel on the wall, which was actually the floor and tried to open it.
"Dad always said that engineers were the most sneaky people because they could build secret places into existing walls and floors." Clarke finally pried the panel up and reached in for whatever was inside. She came away with a flashlight, toolkit and a couple of shirts. Clarke started tearing up and she held the clothing close to her.
"These were dad's. He often spent a night in the office during one emergency or another so he kept spare clothing in the secret compartment." She took a deep breath and was amazed that they still smelled like him.
"Anything else?" Cooper asked.
"Well, dad knew stuff and he kept it secret. The only thing he didn't was the fact that the Ark was running out of air, that was what got him killed." Cooper nodded and watched as Clarke reached in for anything else in there. She came out with a file. She opened it and read it.
"Shit!" Clarke said and handed the file over to Cooper to read. After Cooper had read it, she closed the file slowly as she absorbed what she had read.
"Is he serious?" Clarke nodded.
"Dad was not a liar. He only put stuff in there if it was true."
"But the air supply…" Cooper trailed off.
"Was made to fail by Diana Sydney and her rebels," Clarke finished.
"Why didn't your dad go to Jaha with this?"
"I think he tried, but by then, there was too much at stake for Jaha to do anything about it. Civil war could have broken out on the Ark and who knows where that would have ended!"
"We wouldn't have survived, would we?" Cooper asked, meaning the kids in prison.
"I think no matter which way the war went, we'd have been expendable. No matter who won, both sides would have needed air and we were taking up space doing nothing but waiting to die!" Clarke said.
"It's probably a good idea she's already dead then," Cooper said, "otherwise I'd probably try to kill her."
"She'd have been put on trial and executed by now," Clarke said. Cooper nodded and looked around.
"Anything else we can take or need?"
"I think we can find some other things, but I think they took most of it." Cooper nodded and headed over to the computer. It was still attached to the wall. She switched it on and it came to life. On the screen was a list of all the stations and their projected courses. It looked like they were all supposed to come down within twenty miles of the dropship. They already knew where Alpha station actually landed. The computer died as the battery finally died.
"That last screen had all the projected paths of the other stations, Clarke," she said.
"Where were they supposed to land?"
"Within twenty miles of our dropship." Clarke pondered on it.
"If any of them had landed anywhere near clan populations we'd have already heard about it, or at least Lexa would and she'd have told me."
"So they could be anywhere?" Cooper asked.
"Yeah. God, I hope none have landed in Azgeda territory!" Clarke said.
"Wouldn't they have said anything to the Commander?"
"Not necessarily, they may have kept that in reserve for if they ever needed it. If they have any of our people, they could use them for slave labour or hold them until they could give them up for concessions," Clarke replied.
"Maybe we should go see if we can find them," Cooper said. "You're not the only one who feels guilty, Clarke. I was inside that mountain and I saw what happened. Fox, Jessica and three others were taken, Harper and Monty went missing, it was a nightmare." Clarke kept silent. "I didn't fight hard enough when they came for Jessica, I should have fought harder!" Clarke reached out a hand to console her.
"I'm sorry, Cooper. I escaped and left you all behind."
"But you did it to free us. I figured that part out on my own while still in there. There was nothing you could do from the inside, you had to escape and you couldn't take us with you so you got out and got help. I don't blame you for that. I blame those mountain men. They killed the grounders and they killed my friend - for what? To keep themselves alive inside a mountain? That's not living though, is it?"
"It wasn't just to keep themselves alive, Cooper, they took our bone marrow so they could walk outside without their radiation suits and kill all the grounders. That's why they wanted our bone marrow. We were their salvation from the mountain. They would kill us for our bone marrow and then they would kill all those left who would not join with them in exterminating the savages!" Clarke told her. Cooper froze.
"They took our marrow and killed our people to leave the mountain and slaughter those that lived through the war?"
"Yeah, they are just like the Ark in thinking this land is theirs. It's not, it belongs to the clans, Cooper, we have no claim to it."
"I figured that when Jasper was hit."
"It's such a mess! Adults who don't listen to those younger than themselves and those same adults thinking they had a right to exterminate an entire culture because they had what they wanted!"
"Or are scared of them." Cooper stopped to think about the attitude of the adults. "I've been out of that mountain for three days and already I can see them gathering in that camp, wondering what is going to happen. Kane and your mom have been through a shock at what they saw in the mountain and yet, I still wonder if they would have rescued us if it meant they'd be injured or killed."
"I know. I had a hell of a fight with my mother several times since my escape, mostly about me doing what was needed to secure peace with the Commader and then an alliance with them against the maunon."
"Maunon?"
"Trikru word for those in the mountain," Clarke explained.
"And who are the Trikru?" Cooper asked. Clarke looked at her.
"I keep forgetting you were in the mountain and not outside planning it. The Trikru are the grounders in this area. The Commander is the leader, or Heda in their language, of twelve clans. Each clan has their own territory and all the clans together are spread out over half of the old USA. All of the eastern half of America is now clan land including the eastern part of Canada. That's Azgeda territory." Cooper was silent as she took in the scope of the territory of one leader.
"I think you'd better tell me everything that has happened since your escape. I have a feeling it's not going to be good and it's not going to be easy."
"No it's not. I'll tell you tomorrow, it'll probably take me all day to recount everything that happened." Cooper nodded.
"Well then, let's find somewhere to bed down for the night." They moved off to another section that Clarke knew had the living quarters. The only problem they had was the beds were now on the walls instead of the floor so they couldn't use them. Clarke sighed and placed her sleeping bag over a poster on the ground - which was once a wall. It was really weird seeing things from that perspective, it looked different and the same at the same time. She shook her head and laid down and went to sleep.
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The next day after their breakfast, Clarke told Cooper everything. She left nothing out, not even her feelings for the Commander, but Cooper guessed she wanted that part kept to herself. Clarke talked about Finn's massacre at Tondc, she told of Raven's arrest and accusation of trying to poison the Commander, of Gustus's betrayal. She talked about Tondc itself and Indra, of Octavia becoming her second, of Bellamy making bad decisions, of the fights she had with her mother and her eventual coup. How Jaha had gone off into the desert looking for some city of light or something rather than help save the kids trapped in Mount Weather. She talked about how they had to sneak out of the fenceline to get anything done.
It took Clarke all day to recount everything she could remember.
"Shit, Clarke! How the hell did you manage to keep from strangling those adults when they came down?"
"Honestly, I have no idea. My mom still thinks of me as a little girl who needs to be protected even though I'm the one the Commander deals with. She sees me as the leader or our people while Mom sees a child. Mom looks at the grounders with barely concealed disgust and contempt. She wouldn't even try to negotiate with them, she just said what was going to happen and then basically dared them to do something different. My mom has no idea how to interact with people from another culture."
"We see culture, she sees savages?" asked Cooper.
"Yeah."
"So what happens now? Is the alliance still alive or is it over now the mountain's been taken care of?"
"I truly have no idea. I hope the Commander keeps it going, I mean with them as allies instead of enemies, we should be able to figure out how to survive winter - if my mom ever gets her head out of her ass and looks at them without distaste!"
"Maybe you should have stayed at the camp," Cooper said, quietly.
"I couldn't. I pulled that switch and killed hundreds, Cooper. I need to atone for that. Then there's the 300 in the ring of fire, 250 at Tondc, fifty odd of our own people and the one or two here and there. I've been on the ground for less than three months and in that time I've killed nearly a thousand people. I have a lot to atone for."
"Then maybe we should go looking for the other stations. See how many are still alive and how they are doing."
"What do we do with them? We can't bring them back to Arkadia, we can't hunt enough for a lot of people and we can't plant anything until spring."
"No, but we can teach them to hunt and forage, we can teach them stuff we learned. If they're still within their stations, they can use them for shelter during winter."
"A lot of them may have died, Cooper."
"I know. I'm originally from Factory station and I'd like to find them. My mom's still alive - or she was when we came down."
"I'm from Alpha so I know where that is. Did you know my mother still lives in the same quarters as we did on the Ark? And with the medbay still more or less intact, I think that contributes to her attitude of being better then the grounders. She can't see that we are all people just trying to survive.
"Life should be about more than surviving, Clarke. It should be about embracing life and living it the best you can, not just waiting for the next fight in which you could die."
"It's the grounders way though. They live day to day because they die young."
"Then maybe you should try and teach the Commander that. If you can show her, she can show the rest of her people. With the mountain men gone, her people aren't being taken anymore." Clarke nodded.
"Alright, maybe I will, but not until we've found as many of our people as we can. We know where Mecha and Alpha are, we just have to find 10 more stations who are scattered God knows where!"
"So what's first?"
"Did you see where the trajectories went?"
"Some of them. I'm not very good with computers, maybe we should bring either Monty or Raven here to see if they can bring it back to life."
"Both of them are recovering from having bone marrow taken," Clarke said.
"Maybe this would be a good distraction for them."
"I'll think about it, but for now, we need to go hunting before it gets dark," Clarke said, getting to her feet. Cooper copied her.
"I'll go find us some rabbit or squirrel," Cooper said.
"And I'll go to the lake and get us some water. I'll look around for a large container so we don't have to keep going there all the time," Clarke replied. Cooper nodded and headed off for some food.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Over the next couple of days, Clarke and Cooper debated going to Arkadia to find Raven or Monty to help them figure out where the other stations could be. Both knew if they went into the camp, they'd never come back out. Cooper asked a lot of questions about its layout and where guard posts were and a lot of other questions about the security side of it. Clarke told her what she knew, but stressed that she hadn't paid that much attention to it. They were sitting on top of the station, enjoying some late sunshine when they both heard horses. They lay flat on top and waited for them to pass, but they stopped right by the station.
"This is Mecha Station," they heard Octavia say. Both women looked at each other and then crawled to the edge and looked over. There was Octavia and Indra both looking at the station.
"Octavia," Clarke said. Octavia looked up.
"Clarke! What are you doing here? Arkadia's over that way," she said, pointing west.
"We know. We also know that if we go back into that camp, we'll never be allowed out nor to do anything either."
"Your mother's looking for you. She's gonna send out scouts to try to find you."
"Ahh, shit!" Clarke said.
"This could be a problem," Cooper said.
"Who are you?" Octavia asked. Cooper looked at Clarke then answered Octavia.
"Cooper Lyons, Skybox." Clarke smirked.
"Clarke Griffin, Skybox," she said. Octavia laughed.
"Octavia kom Trikru, formerly of Skybox." They all grinned while Indra looked on, not understanding what they were talking about. Octavia sobered.
"What are you doing here?"
"We want to find the rest of the Arkers. Mecha and Alpha are in Arkadia, but where are the rest of them? If any had landed in Triku lands, you'd have heard by now," Clarke said to Indra.
"Not necessarily, there are places that are uninhabited by us but are still our territory."
"If we find them, would they be allowed to live where they are? Arkadia can't hold many more people and still feed everyone," Clarke asked.
"That would be up to the Commander," Indra said.
"I can ask her the next time I see her," Clarke said. Cooper nodded.
"So if you're trying to find the other stations, why are you at Mecha?"
"We managed to switch on one of the computers and it had the projected trajectories for the other stations, but then it died. We need either Raven or Monty to see if we can resurrect the computer, but we don't want to get caught. You know what mom's like, we'd never be allowed to leave again, especially me!" Clarke said. Octavia nodded.
"We're going there, ourselves, actually. The Commander has asked us to set up trade with them. Right now, they have nothing to trade with, but we want to have something in place for next year once they've harvested their crops." Clarke mulled it over.
"Could you talk to either of them and get one of them here? The way in is hard though. Raven may have some trouble."
"She's not going to let that stop her," Octavia said.
"I doubt a Pauna in full on rage would stop her either," Clarke said facetiously.
"Okay, I'll talk to both of them."
"Mochof," Clarke replied and Octavia grinned before she and Indra left.
"Hey, don't tell anyone else where we are please, we want to find those stations, not be placed back into a prison camp!" Cooper shouted after them. Octavia replied with a backwards wave before they disappeared into the trees.
"What now?"
"We search this place and wait for one of them to turn up," Clarke replied.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
They waited another two days before they heard voices outside.
"Hey, open up!" yelled Raven. Cooper went and opened the sideways door for them to enter. Raven, Monty, Harper and Monroe entered Mecha. Clarke hugged each one and Cooper nodded in acknowledgment when they waved to her.
"Come on, this way," Clarke said, leading them into the depths of Mecha. Clarke led them through the doors, struggling with the ones that opened upwards, but they eventually got to main engineering.
"Didn't realise how much I missed this place," Raven said quietly, looking around.
"You worked here?" Cooper asked.
"Yeah, I was one of the mechanics working here. That was my workspace," she said, pointing to one of the benches near the wall. She went over to it and checked the bench. "The drawer always stuck and if you didn't know the secret, it was hard to force open." Raven felt around for her sweet spot and then thumped it and pulled the draw handle at the same time and the drawer opened. Raven looked in and saw that everything in it was what she'd placed there. She pulled out some tools and put them in her pockets, next she pulled out one of the small solar panels and batteries for it.
"So, Octavia said you needed help with a dying computer?" Raven asked.
"Yeah, we managed to switch it on for a few seconds and the last screen had the projected paths for the other stations. We need to resurrect the computer to find out roughly where they were supposed to land," Cooper said. Raven nodded and Cooper pointed to the computer. Raven and Monty went over to it and checked it out. Clarke turned to the other two.
"What are you two doing here?"
"We don't belong in Arkadia anymore," Monroe said.
"I never was part of that place," Harper said. "We want to help you with whatever it is you're doing. We don't want to live behind wire and be scared of shadows like those in there are doing. Some of the kids taken by the mountain are there because their parents are, but most of us want to be free again. To run around and roam where we need to to hunt for our food, go on water runs and just be ourselves again. We can't heal in there, it's too much like the Ark and that's too much like the mountain. We were free for a couple of months and we want that back," Harper finished. Clarke and Cooper both nodded.
"I feel the same," Cooper said. "That's why I went after Clarke."
"So what do we do?"
"If Raven and Monty can get that thing working, then we figure out where they could be and go find them. Arkadia can't hold many more so if they are in an area that doesn't have any clanspeople in it, I'd suggest for now they stay there. We can show them a few things but they need to prepare for winter," Clarke said.
"Cooper," Raven said. Cooper went over. "Can you go find one of the solar panels and see if it's connected to the wiring?"
"I can, but I have no idea what I'm looking at," Cooper admitted.
"As long as at least one panel is connected, we can figure the rest out," Raven told her. Cooper nodded and Raven told her where to find them. She set off and Monroe, Harper and Clarke just watched as the other two talked about what to do about it.
Cooper came back several minutes later.
"There's two panels still attached to the wiring. I had a quick look at the nearest one and the wiring is still running through the station. I lost sight of it in section 4, upper level, corridor 1." Raven nodded.
"I know where that is," Monty said, "but I'll need Monroe to find the other side of the passageways to trace it back to here." Monroe nodded.
"I'm in," she said, hopping off the edge of the table she had somehow perched on. They left and the rest waited for them to report back.
Eventually they found a break in the wiring which Monty fixed and soon the monitor came to life. Raven immediately checked what was on the monitor and shunted it to a new file just in case something happened and they lost it. Monty and Monroe came back and Monty helped Raven to check the computer for anything to do with the other stations.
Soon they had a list of stations and where they were supposed to come down. Looking at the list, they realised that most of them were supposed to land within twenty miles of the dropship. If they had, they'd have been found by now, so Raven and Monty went back and rechecked the trajectories and then gave them a drift factor to check. This time, a lot of them would land either on the coast or further down the coast in Yuleda territory.
"If they landed in Broadleaf territory, surely they'd have told the Commander?" Monroe asked.
"I'm not so sure, Monroe, if any of the stations drifted far, they could be down in the Florida keys or down in an area only lightly populated - if at all," Clarke said.
"So what do we do first?" Clarke thought about it.
"Harper and Monroe, Flint Station was projected to land near Tondc. With the new drift factor, check the coast. We need a map," Clarke said. Raven pulled up a map of the old areas. Clarke bent over the monitor and pointed to a place directly east of Tondc. "Try here and then move up the coast until you find a way to cross the river that empties out into this big bay. Walk around the bay and go as far as… Atlantic City. After that, head inland towards Baltimore. I'm fairly sure Polis is around there somewhere. I know the lower part of Polis is on the coast but not on the main shoreline. I think it's one of those inlets. Go to Polis and go see the Commander. Raven and Monty can stay here and find out whatever they can. Hopefully they find something useful. If you do, then go and tell Octavia. She can go to Polis and tell the Commander if needed," Clarke said.
"And what are you two doing?" Monty asked.
"We are going to Polis to talk to the Commander first and then we're going to check out one of the other stations," Clarke told them.
"Will the Commander talk to you?"
"I think so."
"Alright, when?"
"Tomorrow. We'll do some hunting today and one of you can go get water from that lake behind us and tonight we can plan what we need to take with us."
"Sounds good," Monroe said. "Can I go hunt with you?"
"Sure. If we can get a deer, there'll be enough meat for all of us and plenty to take with us. We'll roast it all, to keep it a little longer, but we'll all take some with us." They nodded and they all separated to do their tasks.