After a week had passed, they had a list of everyone's names and those of people they knew were dead. Clarke and Cooper set off again. They left the trailer behind because they didn't know where they would be going next. Cooper said goodbye to her mom with a promise to return in the spring.

They went back to Harrisburg and by-passed the town, waved to those on guard and returned to Polis to inform the Commander.

When they reached Polis, they found Bellamy, Sterling and Murphy there.

"Murphy? I thought you'd gone off with Jaha?" Clarke asked.

"I did, but I soon realised just how paranoid he is - no, not paranoid, delusional. He's completely delusional, Clarke. Most of those who followed him have now returned to Camp Jaha."

"How many has he left?"

"About half a dozen."

"So he's leading around six people on a hunt for a mythical city across a desert without knowing where it is?"

"Yeah," Murphy replied.

"Stupid idiot!" Cooper said.

"What are the rest of you doing here?" Clarke asked.

"Well, your mom let us out to go look for you," Bellamy admitted.

"And you came here!?" asked Clarke incredulously.

"Well, yeah, you and the Commander seemed to be on good terms so I thought you may have come here."

"So now what?"

"Well, we were supposed to be taking you home, but the Commander told us what you were doing. We want to help," Bellamy said.

"How?" asked Cooper, suspiciously. Bellamy fidgeted a little bit and hesitated before he answered.

"When we first came down, I was an idiot. I realise that now that we've fought side by side with the grounders. I saw then that they were just people trying to survive and save their people. I watched as warriors fought against the mountain men and how some of them saved our kids from being killed. We were fighting them less than a month before and now we were fighting side by side. It took me some time to see that what I did was stupid. I never thought of anyone other than myself and my sister."

"And now that you've figured it out?" Clarke asked.

"I want to live free and we can't do that in Camp Jaha. We're still treated like we don't know what we are doing." Clarke was silent for a little while as she sorted it out in her head.

"If we let you help us, don't use it as an excuse to recruit people to fight against the clans. Don't use it as an excuse to drag us back to Camp Jaha. We don't belong there anymore, Bellamy. We stopped belonging when they dropped us down here with nothing."

"I won't. I realise I have a lot of trust to build up, but I'm determined to do it. Octavia said she hadn't seen you. Was she lying?"

"Let's just say she was obeying an order from a previous leader with Indra's permission," Clarke said. Bellamy nodded.

"So, what have you done so far?"

"Come with us so we only have to tell this once," Clarke said, motioning them to follow her. They went to the tower and asked permission to see the Commander. Permission was granted immediately as the guards had all been told that Clarke kom Skaikru was welcome anytime and whenever she needed an audience with her, she was to be shown straight to the throne room and a messenger sent to her immediately.

They waited in the throne room until the Commander came in and then they all bowed, Bellamy a little slower than the others, but he did bow to her.

"Commander," Clarke said. "We were successful in finding one of the stations." The others stirred at that.

"Which one?" the Commander asked, mostly for the benefit of the others.

"Tesla station, or what's left of it." Bellamy moved from foot to foot but looked at the Commander before he spoke.

"How many survived?"

"Only 268. The rest died on impact and the station has a lot of damage but it's still livable. We've taught them how to hunt, forage and make fires. We've also had them building hides in trees for lookout posts. We found one of the military places and raided it for wet weather and cold weather clothing. With them, the watchers should be able to stay out all day and night during the winter - unless the snow is really deep."

"We also told them the restrictions on how much they can hunt and forage. Luckily they have enough stored food from the Ark to last them into spring with only hunting one large animal a week and several small ones," Cooper said.

"Are they willing to stay there until next spring?" the Commander asked.

"Yes, Commander. Their leader is one of the guards from the Ark, Sergeant William Jacobs."

"He's one of the good ones," Bellamy said, remembering the man.

"He seemed to be. He certainly listened to us when we were teaching them."

"Do you know who else made it?"

"From there? Yes, we have a list of all survivors and a partial list of those known to have died. Cooper's mother was there and is alive."

"You found her?" Lexa asked.

"Yes, Commander. My mother is alive. She was supposed to be in Factory station where we lived, but after my arrest, she found love with another man, unfortunately he died in the crash."

"But she's okay?" asked Sterling.

"Yeah, she is. She's talking again which is a good thing." The others looked at her, but Clarke shook her head, warning them not to ask.

"Anything else?"

"Not at the moment. We'll need to plan and co-ordinate for when Harper and Monroe come back," Clarke said.

"What do we need to do?"

"I think one of you needs to stay here and co-ordinate and store things we find. We've already got some stuff here for the girls when they're searching. I think if we find more military places and can bring more clothing back, we can store it here for when we need it. There were almost 3000 people on the Ark when it came down. With only a couple of hundred in Arkadia and 268 in Tesla, we'll need clothing for a lot of people. Any weapons found in the military places are to stay there. You can take knives, but not guns or ammo." Clarke was adamant about that. It would help keep the peace. Bellamy and Murphy hesitated and then nodded. They didn't like it, but they would stand by Clarke's rules.

"So what now?"

"Now, we need to organise," Clarke said. "Commander, is there a building we can use? Somewhere we can stay as we pass through, store supplies securely and plan things?"

"Yes. There are several buildings unused at the moment. If one of your people is willing to stay here, there is an abandoned warehouse with several rooms attached that you can use. If it meets your requirements, I will authorise its use as the Skaikru Embassy and warehouse. Whoever stays here, will have to deal with the ambassadors trying to find out what you have. The building is a secure one that can be locked from both inside and outside."

"Thank you, Commander. If we can use the building or alter it for our use, then we will take it," Clarke said.

"I'll have a guard show you where it is," Lexa said. "In the meantime, could you tell us exactly what happened on your journey?" Clarke nodded and everyone found seats as they listened to Clarke and Cooper tell their story.

xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx

Once finished, a guard took them to the warehouse near the outskirts of the city. Bellamy and Murphy immediately saw one problem and that was several ways to get to it and it was at an intersection, which meant lots of foot traffic.

"We need guards," Cooper said, looking around them. Bellamy nodded.

"Who can we get to do that?"

"There are some of us still in Camp Jaha who want to leave. Too many rules that we don't agree with," Murphy said.

"We can't take them all and bring them here," Clarke said.

"I know but if we have around four guards, they can trade off and be able to sleep while others guard," Cooper said. Bellamy nodded. They went inside and the guard showed them around. Murphy spotted several places they'd need to repair where any enterprising person could enter without using the door.

"How long has this been empty?" he asked the guard.

"Over ten winters," he replied.

"We need to repair this place first," Murphy said. Cooper made her way to the small rooms she assumed were the living quarters and went into one of them then backed out.

"We need to deep clean this place as well!" she said. There's a rat's nest in there!" Clarke sighed.

"Did you bring anything to barter with?" she asked the others. They all shook their heads. "This is going to be difficult. Any of you know how to ride?" Again headshakes greeted her.

"Clarke, what if we ask the Commander to borrow a wagon and then I can take it and one of these three to get more supplies from Carlisle and we can barter with some of those items. As long as we keep enough stuff for our people, we can barter the rest."

"Good idea," Clarke said. "Murphy, with me, the rest of you try to figure out how to clean this place out." Murphy followed Clarke out the door.

"Where are we going?"

"Back to see the Commander. I want you to go with Cooper to get those goods and see if you can find secret places there. Cooper found one in another small military place but you can spot them better." He smirked and they made their way back to the tower.

After getting permission to take one of the smaller carts that attached to the horse Cooper would ride, Clarke and Murphy went back to the warehouse to inform Cooper. Cooper and Murphy left for the stables and then left the city heading northwest to Carlisle.

Meanwhile, Clarke and Bellamy were searching through a pile of debris left behind while Sterling was looking up at the ceiling.

"Sterling, what's up?" Clarke asked, noticing his inaction.

"There's so much potential here, Clarke. We could put another floor in and use that for the valuable items and for living quarters. I mean, look at all that dead space!" Both Bellamy and Clarke looked up and realised what he meant. There was room for a third floor as well.

"Maybe we can hire some of the locals to build it for us," Bellamy said. "There's bound to be experienced builders and carpenters here."

"There are, but they'll try to gouge us and charge too much - much more than we can afford and maybe in the wrong currency," Clarke said.

"Meaning?"

"Now the mountain men are dealt with, there's no real bar to them having their weapons. It was only the fact that the maunon would massacre whole villages if they found modern weaponry in them. They were scared the savages would fight back."

"So that's why they don't use them? That's why Indra wouldn't let them practise with our weapons in Arkadia?"

"Yeah, but now, what's stopping them from figuring out where they are and how they work? I mean think of the advantage they'd have over enemies."

"So what do we do?"

"We learn their weapons. If we use modern guns, they'll want to barter for them even if the Commander has banned it."

"Alright, we don't bring modern weapons here. What about their weapons? What if we find knives?"

"Those can be traded. Right now we only have four of them. Cooper and I have two, we have two spare. Do you have any weapons?"

"No, well, my handgun."

"You have it on you?"

"Yeah."

"Then keep it hidden, no matter what happens. Once we get things sorted, hide it somewhere in here and don't tell anyone where. I'd prefer that it went back to Arkadia or to one of the stations when we find them."

"How are we going to find them?" Sterling asked.

"Raven and Monty are at Mecha station resurrecting computers and getting the projected flight paths for the stations. We think they have landed in unoccupied parts of the clan lands otherwise they'd have been found by now. Harper and Monroe are off looking for Flint Station out near the coast east of Tondc. We headed north looking for Tesla and found them in a valley surrounded by high ridges. We found very little housing out there, guys, it was rarely settled even before the bombs. I suspect others are in similar places, we just have to find them."

"What happens when we do?"

"The Commander has said that they should stay where they are over winter and then in spring we can figure out where to put them. They can't go to Camp Jaha, it can't support many more."

"Is there any place they can go?"

"That's one of the things we need to plan and investigate over winter."

"Alright, so what now?"

"Now, we start getting rid of this crap and finding things we can trade with, though I'm not sure we'll find anything in this mess!" They nodded and set about searching the entire building and each room for anything they could use to barter with.

xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx

Cooper and Murphy set off for Carlisle by heading north first. Murphy rode in the cart. Cooper had given him her sleeping bag to fold up and sit on for a more comfy ride. They made it to Harrisburg two days later and turned west, following the road until they came to Carlisle military barracks and Cooper showed him where they found the clothing and stuff. Murphy and Cooper worked their way through everything they saw, pulling out clothing, knives, firestarters, medkits and a whole lot more.

They stopped off at Harrisburg for the night and gave the Chief one of the firestarters as payment. Cooper showed him how it worked and then they left heading back to Polis. They arrived back a week after they had set off. They rode back to the warehouse and saw people working on it to fix it. Cooper pulled up and saw the Commander in conversation with Clarke and Bellamy working alongside some builders, helping to repair the place.

"Hey, Clarke, Commander," Cooper called out to them. They turned to see her and the cart full of items.

"What did you get?"

"Clothing, firestarters, knives for trading with, medkits and a lot more. We'll have to inventory it. We didn't do that at Carlisle, we just loaded it up with a lot of stuff."

"Anything left?"

"Yeah, lots. Some of the stuff we left behind we could use for trading but for now, we have things to help us in our searches." Clarke nodded.

"The main door is big enough for you to take the horse and cart inside. Get it all in there, unhook it and leave it in the cart. Sterling's on guard in there. Take the horse back to the stables."

"Sha," Cooper said, turning to do as she was told.

xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx

Later that day, Harper and Monroe made their way into Polis and were directed to the warehouse. They walked down the street and saw Bellamy, Sterling and Clarke all busy cleaning and repairing a building.

"Hey," Harper shouted. They turned around and watched them walk down the street with large packs on their backs which they didn't have when they left.

"Welcome back," Clarke said, hugging them. Bellamy and Sterling followed suit and soon they were shown inside the building where Cooper was on guard for the goods they'd already accumulated.

"What is this?" Monroe said, looking around.

"This is the Skaikru warehouse and possibly the embassy if we can get it set up properly," Clarke replied.

"And Bellamy and Sterling?"

"Oh, they and Murphy were sent by mom to find me and they've decided to help us look for the rest of our missing people." Clarke told them.

"Are any more of our people here?"

"Not yet, but Bellamy and Sterling are going to go back and report that I haven't been here, but reports have me north of Mount Weather. We found Tesla station there. 268 survivors are there including Cooper's mom. They are staying there until spring when the Commander and I will decide what to do with them."

"So why are we here?"

"This place is gonna be our headquarters for now. When we go looking for people, we'll come back here. The Commander has said we can find old world things to bring back to barter except for modern weapons like guns and ammo. Those stay with the bunkers and military places we find. We found one north of Polis and we've had two trips to it so far. What we have here is what we've found. Some of it will be used for the stations we find to ride out the winter, but some of it we'll barter and trade with."

"Did you find another station?" asked Sterling.

"Yeah, we found Flint. 224 people are still alive. We have their names and the names of the people they know are dead."

"Yeah, we did that too with Tesla. I'm not sure if we should tell Camp Jaha yet. Some of them may want to set off to find them and we don't want that yet. Camp Jaha is still too much like the Ark and Tesla at least is going to live by Trikru ways."

"Maybe we should just contact the stations and then in spring when you've decided what to do with them, we can tell Camp Jaha."

"I need to tell mom I'm still alive before that," Clarke said.

"How?"

"Very carefully. I think I'll wait until Bellamy and Sterling return and then send a messenger to Octavia. She can go and tell mom I'm okay. She can also tell her that we are looking for any stations out there."

"So you're not telling her you're here in Polis?"

"No, she'll either come here and try to drag me back to their camp or send a letter to the Commander demanding my return."

"So what are you going to say?"

"That I'm searching all over for our lost stations and that I'll be moving about a lot over the winter and then I'll stop at wherever I am until the snows recede if they are bad ones. I'm still seen as the leader of our people and mom is seen as the leader of one village of Skaikru. Now that we've found two more, they fall under Skaikru as well so that's three villages now. She's only the leader of Camp Jaha while I'm the leader of the Skaikru."

"She's not going to like that, Clarke," Bellamy said. "She wants to be the leader of all of us."

"Yeah, well, she's going to have to learn that the world does not revolve around Abby Griffin nor that the Skaikru are the best people or that they are superior in any way!" Clarke didn't really want to get into it but knew if her mother knew where she was, she would try and get her back within the walls of Camp Jaha and keep her there, a virtual prisoner.

xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx

Over the next three days, they all worked alongside the Trikru craftsmen, getting the warehouse repaired and a second wooden floor installed with living quarters up there. Bellamy had the idea of underfloor heating from learning about it in the books he read about ancient Rome, but with the floor made of wood, they may catch on fire from stray sparks. In the end, they settled for insulated walls of sheepswool with a second wall keeping it all in place. The floor too, had insulation and they soon realised how much sound was muffled by it.

One of the lower rooms was turned into an office and another into a filing storage area for any trades and deals they made with the locals. It was more of a failsafe than anything else. The Commander told of various traders over the years who tried to renege on hand-shaken deals. Clarke decided that any deals would be written down in both English and Trigedasleng. Anyone who couldn't read either was given a representative who could. It wasn't much and they knew it was still open to arguing over what was actually written down as opposed to what they thought they were agreeing to, but it was the best they could do for now.

The last room was turned into a weapons locker. Each Skaikru member was to be trained in weaponry and once mastered, they would be allowed to use them for defence and for guard duty. Wearing weapons within the city walls was strictly forbidden, unless you were within your own embassy. The warehouse was their embassy so the guards could wear their weapons to help deter thieves.

Once the building was finished, they all had a meeting. They had included a large conference room underneath the second floor which only took up half the floor area. The other half also had a second floor but was completely separate from the living quarters. Sterling had taken to carpentry and had been busy making shelving units for both floors of the warehouse side.

They all gathered in the conference room and sat on the few chairs they had been able to barter for. They had yet to find a suitable table. They had locked the doors from the inside and they sat around discussing what to do next and where to go.

"So we have found Tesla and Flint Stations. We have another 550 people to help. Does Flint need anything?"

"Yeah, cold weather gear to start with. They landed on the coast and even though they can fish for their food - one of them loved the idea of fishing when he read about it in a book - they still need to go out for firewood and stuff. One of the people there was a machinist and has cobbled together a rudimentary fireplace complete with chimney. It's only in one room and everyone has to either squash in or take turns, but they can all be warm at some point in the day or night," Harper reported.

"Who's in charge there?"

"They were still arguing about it when we got there so we just appointed someone else. It was almost like you and Bellamy when we landed. One deciding they needed to organise and one deciding they could do what they liked. We found their version of Octavia and put her in charge. Sarah Harvey."

"Will she be able to keep them in line?"

"Yeah, we think so, most of them just want to survive the coming winter and live in peace so they've all said they'd support her. There's maybe 20 people who don't want to play nice with the locals so she's having them imprisoned if they try to leave or if they disrupt their jobs or anything like that."

"Good, but that's another thing we have to watch out for. We can't afford another group like Camp Jaha," Clarke said.

"So exile them," Cooper said. "Find one of those Caribbean islands and shove them on there. They can either figure out how to survive or die," she said with a shrug. "They'll either get it or they won't."

"Okay, I'll have to talk to the Commander about that and that'll have to wait until spring. For now, you can take some of the gear we found here back to them. How far away is it?"

"It took us four days to get there, another two to walk up to where they crashed. They were lucky and they fell in an area with plenty of game and a river fairly near them," Monroe said.

"So it'll take you at least two weeks," Clarke said, mostly to herself as she thought through the possibilities. "It may be quicker to ride."

"Not really, there's a lot of rivers and tributaries to cross and we had to wade some of them, there weren't any bridges there anymore," Harper replied.

"So no carts, what about horses?"

"Same problem, no bridges. The horses may be okay, but anything we pack onto them will get wet." Clarke sighed.

"Okay, are you two okay to go back with some things?"

"They'll still get wet, Clarke."

"Okay, then we need to find bunkers or military places somewhere near them and then take them to Flint," Clarke said. She turned to Bellamy. "When you go back, go to Mecha station first and see if Raven and Monty are still there. If they are, see if they can pull up some maps of the entire eastern USA including maps of specific areas. We need to know where things are. I'd like any known bunkers and military places marked on the map. Whatever you do, do NOT let my mother see it!" Bellamy nodded.

"What then?"

"If those two are willing, see if they want to come here and help us. Once we get everything we can from those computers, we can figure out where to go next. According to the data we've already found, there should be another station roughly south of Camp Jaha." Clarke pulled out her map and showed them where Factory station was supposed to land and where they thought it might have actually landed. "See these ridges and cliffs here?" This is where it was supposed to land, but I think it went off course and drifted west and south to here." She put her hand on a place south, south west of Arkadia. "This is roughly 15 kilometers away and there are freshwater ponds around. If they came down on flat ground here, they could potentially farm there. We just have to check if it's within anyone else's hunting grounds." Bellamy nodded.

"Who's going to Factory station?"

"Well, with Harper and Monroe taking things back for Flint, and you and Sterling going to Arkadia, that only leaves three of us. One will stay here and the other two will go, but I'm not sure who, yet."

"So either you, Murphy, or Cooper." Bellamy nodded as he spoke. "Okay, we'll set off tomorrow and should be back in about a week. If you can hold off for that long, we'll have more people for guard duty."

"Hmm, not sure we can. With winter starting to bite, we have to find them as soon as possible."

"Yeah, but that only leaves three people for either sentry duty or going off to find Factory station and you need at least two people for each job."

"I know," Clarke said, sighing.

"We can delay for a week. We're taking clothing to them, not looking for a station so they can wait for one week," Harper said. Monroe nodded. "We'll take sentry duty here while you three go off and find Factory."

"Are you sure?" asked Clarke.

"Yeah, it's no problem. All we have to do is guard this place, right?"

"Yeah, we're not open for business yet. We're still gathering goods, but if you need to barter for some food, use something from here, just don't use all the survival stuff." Both Monroe and Harper nodded and Clarke sighed in relief this time.

"Okay, then we have a plan. Tomorrow Bellamy and Sterling go back to Camp Jaha and report that I've been spotted north of Mount Weather. Get Raven and Monty headed here if they've found everything they can. Meanwhile, I'll go and see the Commander while Cooper and Murphy get our packs ready, okay?" she asked, looking around at everyone. They all nodded back at her. "Good, let's get some sleep and then we can get on with it."

Murphy was on first night watch and Sterling was on after that, but the rest found beds and went to sleep.

xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx

The next day, Bellamy and Sterling set off to go to Camp Jaha via Mecha station. Clarke went to see the Commander and Cooper and Murphy packed some bags. At the end of the day, they had permission from the Commander to go find Factory Station. The Commander had also checked those places that stations had already been found and agreed to a three mile hunting zone for each one. That would give them room to roam for their food and stay out of another's hunting grounds. So far, Clarke thought they'd been extremely lucky in finding them and that most of them wanted to live by the rules of the ground.

They regrouped in the warehouse and decided to start out the next day.

Murphy looked at the horse skeptically.

"You know I've never ridden a horse before, right?" he asked Clarke.

"I know, but it's the quickest way to find the station," she replied. Murphy sighed and was instructed on how to mount the horse and how to hold the reins. Clarke would give him further instruction on their journey - and a supply of muscle ointment. Murphy had his own tent and Clarke and Cooper would share the other one. Each had their own packs with some extra goods for factory like medkits and flint strikers. It would take them three days to get there, but they had to make sure they by-passed Arkadia, so they were going to go south first and then turn east once they came to Alexandria, south of Tondc. With their compasses, they'd make sure they never strayed to the north once they turned east.

They took four days to get there, mostly to give Murphy a chance to learn to ride and partly because they kept stopping to check on where they were. They stopped on top of a small ridge to take a look. In the distance they saw the remains of a station. They saw some people milling around outside with several others on the roof with rifles.

"This could be trouble," Clarke said, passing the binoculars to Murphy. He looked at the remains of the station.

"Yeah, that's factory station. There are several people I remember from there. Two of those on guard duty on top of the station were in school with us. I see Jason Mackie and Amy Broadlands up there."

"They were in our English classes," Clarke said.

"Yeah, they were good people. Let's go see if they still are." Clarke nodded and they made their way down the slope and stopped just inside the treeline.

"Hey Factory Station!" Clarke called out, just before they broke through the trees. They stopped, just past them and waited.

"Who are you?" asked one man with his gun pointed at them.

"Clarke Griffin, Alpha, Cooper Lyons, Factory, John Murphy, Factory!" Clarke replied.

"Murphy?" a voice called out.

"Hey, Jason," Murphy said, waving to the man on the roof.

"Yeah, Mike, I know him, He was from Factory," Jason called down.

"And I know Cooper," another voice said.

"Hello, Monica," Cooper said, hugging her.

"Hey. Your mother came down in another station, Cooper. We don't know where they are."

"I know, we came across Tesla station. Mom's alive. I've seen her." Monica sighed in relief.

"Oh, thank God!" Monica was one of her mother's best friends growing up.

"So you're from the Ark" the first man said.

"Yeah, we're from the hundred prisoners sent down to die," Murphy said.

"You're prisoners? And they let you roam around?"

"Jaha pardoned us on the way down," Murphy told him.

"So is Jaha still in charge?"

"No, I am," Clarke said.

"You're just a kid!" he said.

"Down here, no-one cares how old you are, just that you can do the job. The Commander of all the people around here is only 23 and she controls all of the eastern part of the old USA. The grounders do things differently and see people, not ages."

"Grounders? Who are grounders?"

"No-one came to investigate when the station came down?" Clarke asked.

"No, why should they? No-one lives on the ground - well except for us."

"That's where you're wrong, there are twelve clans of people all descendents of people who lived through the bombs. Our information was wrong."

"You can't prove that!"

"Yes, we can," Cooper said. "The ground isn't safe enough yet and it'll take two hundred years before it's safe enough to live there. Sound familiar? It's what we are taught in school and yet here we are, at only 97 years, so how can we survive if it's not survivable for another 103 years?" They stopped to think about it. Cooper pressed on. "If they were wrong about that - and you're living proof they were - then why can't people have survived?"

"There are people down here?"

"Yes and you landed in their territory. Right now, you are in Trikru lands. It's actually the best one to land in. We have an alliance with the Commander and the clans. She comes from this clan and is one of our supporters. Right now, I am both the Skaikru leader and ambassador. That's because none of the adults we encountered would do anything to help us free our people from Mount Weather. We had to go to the clans for help. Even now, my mother is the leader of her village and she still sees them as savages. They came to our aid when we needed it and she still thinks she's better than them because they don't use guns, they use swords and bows. Mom has yet to understand that it's not the type of weapon that counts, just how someone can use it."

"Wait, your mother is Councillor Griffin, right?"

"Yeah, but she likes to think of herself as Chancellor Griffin now. Personally, I think she's power mad. She still sees the little girl she knew on the Ark. Believe me, no-one who survived from the dropship is still a child. We all grew up fast when our own people threw us away!" Cooper went to Clarke and put her hand on her arm. Clarke pulled herself back from the rage she still felt at the ignorance of the adults.

"We fought against them when we first came down. They saw invaders. What would you do if someone invaded the Ark? They were just defending their territory, but we didn't know anyone had survived the wars, so when we came down, we thought we were alone. That war was hard fought and around half of us died. There are currently just over 50 of us left out of a hundred. We put that war aside when we were taken by the monsters inside Mount Weather. I was one of them and so was Clarke. Murphy was still free - to a degree, but the thing was, if we can stop fighting against the very people trying to wipe us out, why do the adults - who never fought in that war, think they should carry on the war and wipe them out? What good will it do?" Cooper said.

"We would have our own land," one of them said.

"Great! Then what? Do you know how to hunt? Do you know which plants are poisonous? Which ones are edible? Which animals are around here and which ones are likely to kill you? Do you know how to tell if the water is drinkable? Do you know how to turn pelts into clothing or bed furs? Do you know how to start a fire without matches or lighters? Do you know anything about surviving on the ground? You can't go to the mess hall for your meals because there are none down here. You can't just go get water from a tap because there aren't any. You can't go and requisition clothing or sheets or anything else because there are none. How do any of you know how to survive?"

"We can learn!"

"From whom? By the time you learn, it'll be winter and you'll all die from freezing to death or from starvation or dehydration! This world is not a kind place. It wants to kill you and your life means nothing down here - but then again, it meant nothing up there either. Down here, the temperature changes all the time. In summer it's so hot, you don't move very much in the heat of the day. In winter, the temperatures can drop so low you can freeze to death."

"So what do we do?"

"We will teach you to hunt, find clean freshwater, which plants are edible and we'll help you survive. The Commander has given permission for you to hunt only in a three mile radius from the station. That keeps you out of another village's hunting grounds. Don't stray over the border. You may think that you have the right to food outside of your area, but you'll be taking food from the mouths of children. Is that what you want?" No-one spoke.

"Now, who's in charge here?"

"Samuel was, but he's injured."

"Who's next in command?"

"Ariel. She's off hunting, or at least trying to."

"Has she gone alone?"

"No, she has two others with her."

"Where did they go?"

"South." Clarke looked at Murphy.

"Do you know her?"

"Yeah, I'll go find them and make sure they know the boundaries." Clarke nodded as Murphy got off his horse and gave the reins to Cooper. He settled his pack on his shoulders and set off.

"I was learning to be a doctor, show me to Samuel," Clarke ordered.

"Does anyone know how to start a fire?" Cooper had the notion that for each station they came across, they'd have the same conversations and show them the same things in the same order. Several people came forward.

"We don't know how, but we want to learn," Monica said. Cooper nodded and set about showing them how to use a flint striker and what wood and materials they needed.

xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx

They spent five days there and made sure they knew to keep within three miles of the station. They said they'd try to find clothing for them for winter and then set off back to Polis which would take another three days.