Chapter 2

Taylor remembered how Jasper had been speared in the show, just for crossing a border the 100 could not have known about. So, Taylor knew that she needed to keep watch of where she was going now. Taylor could only hope that she actually was within the time frame of the series she had watched. The series had not provided much information about former commanders and she could only imagine what would happen to her if Lexa was not the one reigning the clans and she ran into a grounder.

What she I was still in the time before the clans had peace? Judging from the nature around her, Taylor definitely was after the modern world she knew had ended and she was relatively certain that she would be killed on sight without any question if there was a war still ongoing between the clans.

The fangirl within her rejoiced at the possibility to come face to face with some of her favourite characters of the show, but Taylor immediately shook her head at her own stupidity. Even if she happened to encounter any of the grounders, Taylor would need to remember that they will not be the characters she had read about in fanfictions. The series had portrayed the grounders as mostly brutal warriors who would probably kill you first and ask questions later. She would need to be extremely cautious if she did not want to be executed on first sight.

Taylor knew that it would be possible that the characters she had seen in the show did not even exist where she was right now. She was not sure about the "rules" of this whatever journey she had made involuntarily.

"An easy death had obviously been too much to ask for" she thought sarcastically as she sighed deeply and rolled her eyes.

The wind picked up around her and she began to feel the coldness seeping into her soggy clothing. Taylor clenched her jaw shut with a slight clicking sound, when she began to chatter with her teeth. She wound her arms around her torso, trying to preserve as much warmth as possible. She was all too aware of just how quickly she tended to catch a cold, so, she was relatively certain that she may already on the way of getting sick.

Taylor remembered from the show that there definitely would be predators roaming through the woods around her and she did not have any weapon, so, she knew that she would somehow have to try to stay away from animals. Taylor was very certain that she would die instantly if she was to encounter a panther or this mutated gorilla from the show. She shuddered slightly as she remembered the Reapers from Mount Weather and she wondered if she should expect them to suddenly appear in front of her as well.

She had no idea in what direction she was even moving. It was entirely possible that she was moving in circles without even noticing at all.

Taylor sighed again and she barely noticed as a few tears mix into the raindrops falling down her face. This was a different kind of desperation now coursing through her mind. Before, she had been desperate to escape her life, to end it, to finally have peace. But Taylor knew that her life had been relatively comfortable. She had had her own place; she had a secure job and salary and a fridge stocked with food and a supermarket just around the corner. She had never before been in a situation where her basic needs for survival were not met easily. Now, she had absolutely no clue about where she was. Taylor did not know where to find water or something to eat, neither where she could safely seek shelter. She really had no idea about what she should best do now. Continue moving?

Taylor knew that she could theoretically just sit down and wait. But she was not convinced that just sitting down and doing nothing was actually a viable option now. What if no one would cross her path? She knew that thirst and hunger would get her moving sooner or later again.

But she was also not sure about how she would be welcomed if she really encountered another human being. If she encountered a grounder it was a very real possibility that she would be killed without any further questions asked. If she encountered someone from the Mountain, if that even existed right now, the same could happen. Taylor was unsure what would most likely happen if she ran into someone from the Ark. Would they recognize that she was no Grounder?

Her head was spinning with all these questions running through her mind quickly and she thought that she was beginning to panic again. The rational part of her mind quickly recognized though that panic would get her nowhere now.

So, Taylor tried to forcefully calm her breathing and pay more attention to her surroundings again. She had not even noticed that she must have been sobbing for some time, as she tried to calm down again.

The rain was still pouring down relentlessly and she sensed with a grimace how water had already begun to gather inside of her boots.

Taylor looked around herself again, searching for anything beside the endless trees surrounding her, but she failed to spot anything and let her shoulders drop in defeat. For all she knew, she could be hours or even days away from the next living human beings.

Her determination to keep moving, vanished completely as a thought loudly coursed through her mind "What if in this reality there aren't even any Grounders and I am utterly alone?"

In the end, Taylor located a small cave with pure luck, almost falling right into the entrance. The cave must have been used before and in the near darkness she could distinctly locate what must have been used as a fireplace by whoever had occupied the cave before herself. She had been lucky though and no one joined her within the cave.

The night passed horribly slowly and once the sun began to rise, Taylor gave up on sleeping altogether. She was not sure if truly had slept at all during the whole night. She was feeling chilled to the bone and her clothes still clung to her skin uncomfortably, she could feel that they were still dumb and she almost knew for certain that she had caught a cold now.

Her stomach was rumbling with hunger and she didn't think that she had ever felt as stiff as she did now, lying on the stony cold floor of the cave without any kind of bedding had definitely been the most uncomfortable bedding she had ever tried to sleep on.

With growing unease, Taylor slightly pinched at the skin of her hands and noticed that she was already showing signs of dehydration. She needed to find water to drink and urgently at that. No matter how uncomfortable a rumbling stomach may be, she knew that lack of water would kill her way quicker than starvation could.

Taylor slightly shook her head at herself. She had attempted to take her own life the day before and now she thought of ways to stay alive.

She wandered through the forest without any real idea of where she was going, hoping that she would encounter a stream with luck, just as she found the cave the night before. It occurred to her some time later, that it would have been clever to somehow mark the way back to the cave, but now she already was too far away from it to try and find he way back now.

She did not know for how long she had been wandering around, when she indeed stumble upon a body of water. It did not appear to be a stream and looked more like a puddle of water, left over from the strong rain during the previous night. The water was muddy and Taylor doubts it is suitable to drink, when she suddenly heard movement ahead of her from between the trees. For a second, she remained frozen to the spot, unsure of what she should be doing.

Taylor glanced up at the trees around herself. The deepest branches she could spot were high above her head, so she discarded the idea of trying to climb onto a tree and hide there.

Her heart began to beat faster, when Taylor noticed that the sounds were getting louder with each second, so whoever or whatever was causing them, had to be moving in her direction.

Taylor got up from her crouched position at the puddle of water and while she was still contemplating what her next actions should be, two persons broke through the trees ahead of her.

One woman was pulling a blonde female behind herself by a rope which was tied around the blonde female's hands. Taylor's mind only needed the blink of a second to recognize Clarke Griffin as the blonde woman, her bright and shining hair gave her away immediately. Taylor's mouth fell open though when her eyes trailed over who must be Anya.

The woman was glaring at her suspiciously and she seemed to have crouched into a defensive stance, ready to launch herself at Taylor without much notice.

Taylor lamely held up her hands, showing that she was not carrying a weapon. She regretted not having learned Trigedasleng now. "I am unarmed" Taylor immediately proclaimed in a loud tone, when Anya's brown eyes narrowed at her.

Anya's face darkened visibly when she heard Taylor speaking in English, giving away at once that she was not a grounder.

When she slightly shifted her feet and let the rope binding Clarke's hands together fall to the ground, Taylor knew that she was screwed.

Her eyes shortly flickered over to Clarke, who had obviously recognized this as her chance to escape and when Taylor's gaze flickered back to Anya, Clarke had already turned on her feet towards the tree line.

Anya seemed to cuss under her breath in annoyance and obviously was torn between following Clarke and attacking Taylor.

Taylor realized that the general would still be carrying the chip with which the Mountain Men had followed Clarke and her in the show, so the Mountain Men could not be too far away either right now.

What would happen if Clarke fell back into the hands of the Mountain now? There probably never would be an alliance between the grounders and Skykru, which would mean that the Mountain would never be taken down. But Taylor knew that Anya was not going to survive this day, if the events played out like they did in the show. Although she was aware of the fact that the Anya who was still standing across of her, was not the same woman from the fanfiction she had read, she also did not want her to die either.

"I am not from the Mountain, Anya" Taylor proclaimed, when the older woman seemed to have decided to make her attack. Taylor could see her brown eyes widen at the fact that she had known her name and the general's brief confusion was immediately replaced with suspicion.

"How do you know my name?" the general growled at Taylor in a hostile tone through clenched teeth.

Taylor felt the hairs on her arms raise at the threat carried in her tone and she tried to raise her hands again as her mind hurriedly tried to think of a convincing argument.

"I …" she stumbled upon her own words, as her thoughts became clouded with panic. Even from the slight distance, Taylor spotted how much taller Anya was and she sensed that her patience was waning quickly as well. "The Mountain Men are still following you" Taylor tried to warn the general, hoping that a change in the events may somehow safe the other woman's life "You have a bump on your right arm. It's a chip they use to locate you" Taylor hurried to add.

Anya tilted her head slightly as her brown eyes almost burn with their intensity, obviously trying to make up her mind if she ought to trust this stranger.

Taylor knew that she was probably the worse liar on earth, so she was not overly worried that the general may think that she would be trying to lie to her. Everyone had always told Taylor that her eyes were as easy to read as an open book. Taylor could see the general subtly feeling along her arm with her fingertips and her gaze left Taylor's features when she must have found the bump under her own skin.

"How do you know this?" Anya repeated the question and Taylor was not sure if she imagined it or if the general's tone had really lost some of the biting edge.

Taylor slightly shook her head "You would not believe me, if I tell you" she honestly retorted, feeling that lying would only get her into more trouble. For some reason she wished for Anya to trust her and she would definitely not earn the suspicious woman's trust if she lied to her face.

The general's features turned alarmed again, but the other woman turned her attention to the bump on her arm.

Taylor was not surprised when Anya brought it to her mouth and bite down at the bump, tearing the skin and the chip from her arm, which immediately began to bleed profusely. Taylor felt the immediate urge to move closer to Anya and offer to take care of her bleeding arm, but she remembered Anya's refusal in the show to the same offer from Clarke.

When Anya opened her mouth, Taylor interrupted her and exclaimed what she remembered the general say to Clarke in this moment "I know that you will not go back there". Taylor could see that she was right, without the general needing to say anything, by the quickly hidden flash of shock within her brown eyes.

Taylor took a deep breath; she knew that she was walking on dangerous grounds with her next words, but she figured that being with the grounders would be the safest for her and she wanted to remain with Anya hoping to keep her alive through the night. She did not understand the sudden urge herself, but Taylor decided to just follow her inner feelings.

"I know that you have been commander Lexa kom Trikru's mentor before she became the commander and you have been taken into the Mountain after Clarke has burned your army at the dropship" Taylor proclaimed, cautiously edging a little away from the other woman, hoping to get out of her reach if Anya was to decide to still launch at an attack at her.

The older woman appeared speechless for a moment, but her defensive stance someone lessened, before her head whipped around altogether suddenly, alerted by a sound coming from the tree behind us.

Taylor had not expected Anya to reach out so quickly and she yelped when one of her hands closed around her left wrist suddenly and the general already pulled her along, hissing into my ear "I do not know who you are, but you are coming with me!"