"Strong leadership is essential for survival."

— Thelonious Jaha, "A Lie Guarded"

The rover pulled to a stop in the road next to the park. Kane was the first out and Benja ran to him, nearly toppling him over with a hug. Abby smiled before walking over to them and wrapping her arms around the two of them. She said, "He missed you."

"And I missed him," Kane said as he put Benja down. "Where's Clarke?"

"She, Bellamy, Nate, Harper, Monty, and Jasper went over to Gray two days ago to touch base with the Coalition and to assess their situation. They should be back soon," Abby replied. She looked at the others exiting the rovers and other vehicles. Raven and Sinclair came out of Kane's rover. Abby called, "You made good time."

"The end of the world really lights a fire under people's asses," Raven said, walking past with Sinclair. They headed for the trailers to direct the unloading.

"Did the black rain come?" Abby asked, turning to Kane.

He nodded. "It was bad, we had a hard time loading up."

"Were there any casualties?"

"One networking machine," he said with a smile. When she gave him a stern look, he added, "But no human losses."

"Good," she said with a slight roll of the eyes. "Would you like to see your new home?"

He nodded. She took his hand and led him and Benja away from the crowd toward the houses. They came to the dark blue, two-story home on the other side of the park. Kane let out a low whistle. "I picked a good one."

Abby smiled. "You sure did. Benja loves his room."

"Monti don fis pleiplei! | Monty fixed the game!" Benja said, excitedly, pushing open the front door.

"What game?" Kane muttered to Abby, watching Benja rush up the staircase.

"He means the computer," Abby said, leading him into the kitchen. "Tea?"

He nodded and looked around. The pictures on the fridge caught his eye. "They look like a nice family."

"They were the O'Donnells: Martin, Louise, Paul, and Sara." Kane raised his eyebrow. "They were in the public records down at City Hall. There was no record of why or when they left though."

He frowned. "There has to be a reason why they abandoned this perfect place."

"Maybe there was a bunker. This city was big."

He had seen the damage to the outskirts of the city. Not everything had survived the nuclear bombs. He considered the idea of the bunker. "I'll check City Hall myself tomorrow. There might be some useful information there."

"Gina and Emori had a look over a lot of the records," Abby said as the kettle whistled. She poured the boiling water into two mugs. "They found the residence records."

"How recent?" He asked, accepting one of the mugs.

"30 years."

He blinked. "What?"

"The last census was 30 years ago."

"How can that be?"

She shrugged. "The Council is starting to consider that there may be a hostile Ice Nation faction out in the woods. Bennett thinks that they kidnapped or killed all of the residents."

"Why wasn't I told of this?"

"We didn't want to worry you," Abby said, quietly.

His eyes narrowed. "Always tell me things like this. I was under the impression that everything was fine."

She ignored that comment and walked toward the staircase. "Come on, let me give you the tour."

Three hours later, Kane sat in the Council chamber. They had already discussed where everything would go and who would be in charge of certain tasks. The discussion turned to perimeter security. Bellamy, head of Security, wanted to appoint members of the Guard to be in charge of sectors. There were five sectors surrounding the city.

"I'll take the eastern sector," Bellamy said, pointing at the map. "I think that Lincoln should take the southeast, Helm the south, Costa the southwest, and Nelson the west."

"I want Nelson to help me with internal affairs in town," Scanlan said. They all knew it was because his wife, Eleanor, was about to give birth. "How about Miller for the west?"

"Miller will do," Bellamy said with a slight shrug. Bellamy wrote their names on the map.

Kane asked, "What did you find out from your visit to Gray?"

Bellamy sat down again. "The area surrounding Gray and Chebo wasn't deserted. Members of Ice Nation were there already."

"Are they hostile?" Bennett asked, taking notes.

"No, they follow Roan and will be compliant. If they had sided with Ontari, they would be in Mount Weather right now."

"The death wave comes in two days, we shouldn't have to think about Ontari and her army for several years." Sinclair said. He had been monitoring the wave from his tablet for the past several weeks.

"One less worry," Kane said, nodding. "Now, what do we make of the records collected by Emori and Gina?"

"They're contradicting," Gwen said, pulling out her tablet and looking over the notes sent to her. "There was a mandatory evacuation in 2050, but there was no record of how many evacuated or who they were. The next census wasn't until 2057 and it recorded that 70% of the original population remained. The most recent census, from 2120, showed that only 20% of the original population was left."

"And there were no more records?" Bennett asked. Gwen shook her head. "I don't know how much more we can do. If that's the end of the records, we can only speculate as to what happened to the residents."

"There's no use speculating," Abby said. "We should just wait until we have more evidence."

"I agree," Kane said, standing. "One last thing. William Lacroix. Do we have a cell to lock him in or are we going to release him?"

The others considered it. Bennett said, "I say release him, but put a guard detail on him at all times."

"We don't have the manpower for that," Scanlan reasoned. "I say let him rot."

"Jack's right," Gwen said, nodding. "It's only been three months. He's being kept in the old police station for now."

"Is that to be permanent?" Kane asked.

"If you want it to be," Scanlan said.

"I'll think about it," Kane said as he stood. "Dinner's ready, let's go eat."

Abby and John Murphy spent the evening taking inventory and making sure that each station had adequate medical supplies. They had yet to have a patient since arriving in Traver three weeks ago. It was idle work and they did it quickly.

"See ya, tomorrow," Murphy said with a wave. He crossed the park to where Emori stood with Yui Hill. They seemed to be discussing something serious. Abby guessed it was about how Yui and her son, Harry, were dealing with the loss of Robert Hill.

Abby went in the opposite direction, toward the south. She entered her home and found Marcus and Benja seated on the couch, watching an old football game on the TV. Benja was shouting and jumping up and down as the team in red and white scored a rather spectacular goal.

"Maybe we should keep it down," she heard Marcus mutter. Benja looked over at her and said, "Arsenal's winning!"

"Do we like Arsenal?" Abby asked, leaning on the back of the couch.

"He does, but he has poor taste. I'm a Bayern man, myself," Kane said, seriously.

Benja shot him a look. "I like Bayern."

Kane laughed and ruffled his hair. "Sure you do." Kane whispered to Abby, "No he doesn't."

"Ai sen yu in, Markos!" Benja said.

"English," Abby chastised. "You're supposed to be practicing."

Benja scowled and muttered, "I heard you, Marcus…"

"Thank you," Abby said, kissing him on the top of the head. "You should be going to bed, Ben, you have an early day tomorrow."

"I do?"

"Monty is going to start training you in Engineering."

Benja jumped up excitedly. "Goodnight!" He ran up the stairs before they could blink.

Kane looked at Abby. "That was some parenting."

"He's not my first bedtime breaker."

"Jake or Clarke?"

Abby smiled. "Both."

Kane chuckled. "We should probably get to bed, too. I have to brief Clarke, Harper, and Jasper on their mission to Gray in the morning."

"And what's that for?" Abby asked as they went up the stairs.

"I want them to question the Ice Nation members who were already there. See if they know anything about the former settlers who lived here."

Abby pushed open their bedroom door. "That's a good idea. Why didn't you mention it at the Council meeting?"

"I didn't want to raise their hopes of uncovering answers," Kane said, getting ready for bed. She climbed in with him and he reached to click off the light. He turned over to get more comfortable, but Abby caught him by the hip. She asked, "Where do you think you're going?"

"To sleep?"

She shook her head and leaned over him. "It's been three weeks."

"Oh, yeah," he said, grinning sheepishly. He pulled her toward him and, her body draped over him, into a kiss.

Hey everyone, you can thank a kidney infection, a three day hospital stay, and no master's work for this chapter!
-Lauren
P.S. Sorry it's been so long!