They drove non-stop, only taking breaks when they absolutely needed to. Just as the sun was rising they reached the place where they had been told to leave their vehicles, as they had to walk the rest of the way. 10K and the others did as was told, parked, grabbed their belongings and started making their way to the meeting point. A short walk later and the promised door and person waiting on them were in sight.
Garnett, who they had agreed would be their main spokesperson gave a slight wave in greeting. "Hi, thanks for meeting us."
Their guide gave a small nod in return and when they had all caught up with him, asked them to follow him. They watched as he used a key card and opened the door before waving them all inside. When everyone was in, the door shut with a loud bang, startling half of them.
Garnett tried again to make conversation, "I'm Charles Garnett, what's your name?" They already knew each others names, of course, but it was a polite opening that should have been well received. Or it would have been if so far their guide had been treating this like a chore he didn't want to do.
"Finn. We're almost to the others, you can have your questions answered then." Came a snappy reply, causing 10k and the others to exchange looks at his attitude.
The guide wasn't lying, just a few moments later they could all hear raised voices from an open doorway just ahead of them. As they came to a stop they could smell and see that they had been brought to a large cafeteria-style room with both long tables and smaller round ones all mixed together. 10K would bet all his ammo that all of their stomachs rumbled with hunger at the same time.
Their presence was noticed almost immediately by the one that had been next to the doctor yesterday, who was sitting with most of the others at one of the longer tables. 10K watched as he got up, walked to a smaller table where the doctor herself was sitting with another female and tapped her shoulder to get her attention. After a few words, the doctor turned her head and upon seeing them, quickly got up and walked to them.
"Hi everyone and welcome. I'm Clarke Griffin and this is Bellamy Blake as you all know. You made excellent time, we were told you might not make it until much later."
This time, it was Warren that spoke up with a smile. "Thank you for letting us come. We got lucky, no road blocks or anything to slow us down."
Clarke grinned at that, she seemed genuinely glad they hadn't had a hard time. "We are just having breakfast, please sit down and join us."
They all followed her to a table, none of them, of course, had any intention of turning down food. Hardly a heartbeat passed before plates, forks, cups, jugs of water and severing platters piled with food were set down in front of them.
"Eat as much as you want. Behind you on that small counter is coffee and tea if you want those. When you're done we can talk. Enjoy."
10k could only stare in awe at the food in front of him. They were given heaping portions of dried fruit, jerky, oatmeal, and small bowls that held peanut butter and honey. It looked like a feast, one he couldn't wait to dig into.
As they eagerly started to fill their empty stomachs conversation slowly started back up, filling the room again with happy noise and chatter. It was strange to just sit down and enjoy food like this, it was even stranger to sit, be carefree and laugh like 10k could see many of them doing. What would it feel like to let his guard down enough for that? Would he ever be able to?
Bellamy slouched in his seat with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face as he watched the new group, his anger climbing the longer he stared. He knew in his gut this was a bad move, however, he couldn't say no to Clarke and her reasons. Since they didn't want to let her go to California it would be smart to get some samples of her own so she could run some testing here. The tests she had run on herself hadn't been enough to figure much out, as she had told him numerous times already. There was also the fact that he knew how alone Clarke sometimes felt and that Murphy guy would be someone she could talk to about their shared experiences. While he had reluctantly agreed, that didn't mean he wouldn't also trust his gut. He would just have to keep a very careful eye on them.
Bellamy stretched his legs out, slowly stood up and grabbed the notebook and pencil that had been next to his breakfast plate. Company or not, they had stuff to do.
"Good morning everyone." He even remembered to smile with his greeting. He hoped Clarke saw that maybe she would get off his ass for being so grumpy and demanding when he talked to others. "Before we talk about today, does anyone have news from yesterday that hasn't been reported in yet?" He knew two groups came in pretty late last night that he and Clarke didn't get to talk to, they told them to just go to sleep as they seemed more tired than normal. So it didn't surprise him when Miller raised his hand up. Miller had led one of the scouting parties out the day before, they had been sending a few people out daily when possible to learn what they could about their surroundings.
"Dax, Harper and I came across a farm late yesterday afternoon. They had living survivors on it."
Bellamy's first reaction was anger, this was something they should have reported first thing. Then again, he remembered that he and Clarke had been firm in them getting some rest, even as they had tried to give their report. He could only be angry at himself.
"They saw us, I guess we didn't keep as quiet as we thought."
Ok so maybe Bellamy could be angry at them. Were they seen? His eyes made a fast pass over the three of them. They came back unharmed at least. "What happened?"
"They were nice about it. Shocked to see us, but nice. One man came to talk to us, asked us some questions. And no before you ask, we didn't answer them. When he saw how quiet we were he said he understood why we might not be willing to talk as it's hard to trust people these days. Then he told us that they have a medium size camp and have been working the land and animals they have managed to keep alive. He also stated that they are not the only group, there is another one about one hundred miles away that they often trade with. Then he told us to tell our leader about them, to see if we would be interested in doing trading as well. I said I would bring it up and that was it."
Bellamy caught Clarke's eye and she nodded at him, he knew she would be curious about other survivors and about trading with them. He groaned inwardly, not looking forward to dealing with more new people.
"That might be something worth looking into. Are you up to leading a party to talk to them more? See what they have, what they need, all of that?" Bellamy was glad for Miller's nod. He liked him, he had a good head on his shoulders. "Talk to the others, form a small team and then find Clarke or me. And thanks for being smart about not answering anything." Bellamy smirked at Clarke as he praised Miller. He smiled, was less grumpy and he praised someone! Take that Clarke!
He fought to control his smirk as he asked if anyone had any other news. No one did so he went on to assign the days tasks and almost felt like smiling again when hardly anyone complained. Proud that he got through that without biting someone's head off, he plopped down in his seat to finish eating.
Clarke shared a smile with Octavia who was sitting next to her, both amused at what they knew Bellamy was thinking. Both females had been on him lately to be nicer because it would make things run smoother.
Seeing that her co-leader was finished and already eating, she knew it was almost her turn. They had agreed that she would be the one to welcome their guests and get them into beds or rooms. Looking over at them, she could see that they had finished all of the food already. It made her happy that they had come here and that they had more than enough food to share, who knows when the last time they had a decent meal had been.
Clarke got up and motioned to Octavia that they needed to get their day started. Octavia was her shadow most days, helping Clarke when she could, learning as she went. Clarke had felt it would be a good idea for someone besides her to be trained and was pleased that it was Octavia that had spoken up, asking to be taught, as they got along great and worked well together.
As they stood up Octavia nudged her in the side and when Clarke saw the wicked grin on her face she almost didn't want to know what she was thinking.
"Don't look now but Mr. Dreamy eyes is so checking you out! He can't take his eyes off of you!"
Clarke didn't have to ask who she was talking about, Octavia had been downright impossible since last night when Clarke had admitted she thought 10k was rather attractive and had amazing eyes. It was true of course, but it had only been said out loud to shut the other girl up when she wanted to hear what Clarke had thought of the other group. She loved Octavia to death, but man could the girl gossip like no one else! Growing up the way she did though, it was understandable that she was trying to make up for lost time of having no friends, or anyone really, to talk to.
She couldn't help but look at him as she said that, and Octavia was right, he was staring right at her. But as soon as their eyes connected he looked away and his cheeks turned slightly pink. Almost as quickly as she processed that she filed it away to think on later, too many things to do today, daydreaming about hot guys with beautiful eyes would have to wait.
Clarke shot Octavia a look that said to behave, ignored her eye roll and walked over to her new patient Murphy and his group. Every step closer, the more she wondered what was wrong with him. He looked like hell and honestly, some of the zombies she had seen had looked better than he did.
Seeing her approach, the one Citizen Z told us was leading them, Charles Garnett, stood up and the others slowly followed his lead.
"If all of you are done eating, we can get you settled into beds or rooms and show you to the showers?"
At their eager nods, Clarke had them follow her out of the cafeteria and down a few hallways. She lead them to the large bunking area they had made up for them to have to themselves and showed them in.
"If you all want to share you can bunk in here. If not, we also have four single rooms available, two back near the cafeteria and two down by the clinic. There are beds in the clinic, so if you want Murphy, you can stay right in there. I have a room down there so I will always be close by if you need me."
Clarke and Octavia stepped away to give them some room to talk, but it didn't take them long to decide that Murphy would take a bed in the clinic, Steven, or Doc as they called him, would take a room near the clinic and all of the others said they would be fine together in the bunking room. Then at the last minute 10k changed his mind and asked to stay in the other room by the clinic. Clarke looked on as his choice made Cassandra look at him in confusion before stepped closer to him, putting her arm around him and leaning in to give him a side hug, laying her head down on his shoulder with a smile afterwards.
Of course, Octavia noticed it as well and whisper hissed her displeasure. "If he is taken what was he giving you those looks for? What a loser! Like we need another Finn around here!"
Clarke couldn't agree more. Finn had been sleeping with Roma at the same time he had slept with Clarke. He had lied and told both girls that he had fallen in love with them and they were the only one he could ever see himself with. It was a total accident that the girls had found out about each other, but they were both glad they did. Since then neither one had hardly anything to do with Finn unless they had to and everyone else had been treating him pretty bad as well. What was it about guys that they felt the need to do that to girls, was one girl not enough?
Before she could get too pissed, she finished showing those staying in the bunks around, making sure they knew where extra blankets and pillows could be found and asking if they needed anything to let her know. Luckily it had two locker style shower rooms that they had also stocked, so they were all set to shower and get cleaned up. Octavia showed them the map on the wall outside the door, making sure they knew how to get to the clinic when done, as they all agreed to meet up there.
Clarke quickly showed Doc and 10k where the clinic was, their rooms and the shared bathrooms on that hall that they all had to share. It wasn't too bad, that hall had five rooms and shared three bathrooms. The clinic also had a full bathroom and smaller sized locker style showers that Clarke and Octavia sometimes used, so really there was more than enough for everyone.
Just like the others, she made sure they knew where everything was and left them to themselves. She showed Murphy to the private bed in the clinic and left him to get cleaned up as well.
While they waited for the group to come back to the clinic to talk about what was going on with Murphy, Clarke had Octavia help her get some basic supplies and equipment on a hip-high rolling cart and placed it next to one of the examination beds. Then Clarke quizzed her on the items and what they did, happy when she got all of it correct.
It didn't take long for them to come in, Murphy took the longest. And they were all shocked when he came out naked except for a towel around his waist.
"What? It's not like I'm not going to have to strip down so she can examine me anyways." Murphy snarked at them.
Clarke couldn't stop the gasp at seeing him. His bite wounds looked terrible, the skin around them looked so dark it could have easily been mistaken as gangrene.
Why didn't he heal like she did?