The Foresaken
By Samdagger
Disclaimer: Not mine! These characters (other than OC's) belong to the CW and Jason Rothenburg. This story was inspired by another book by Ann McCaffrey and a few of the numerous superhero films. I will stress, this is NOT a superhero story, but a story about kids with emerging talents and what they do about them.
Chapter 1
"We need to do something!" Jaha said, standing up to make his point. "Those people are deviants! They're mutants, not normal! They could take over and wipe us out!" Jaha was on the verge of panic.
"Those are our kids, Chancellor!" One of the other Councillors said. His son was one of them. Kids who had developed some kind of powers that were supernatural or superhuman. His own son, Troy, had the ability to lift things with his mind. That's all he could do, move things without touching them. Other than that, he was a normal young man, but Jaha wanted all of those who showed powers to be jailed.
"They are dangerous!" Jaha shouted.
"No more dangerous than some of the guards up here," Abby Griffin said. She'd run foul of them when her husband had been arrested and floated and her daughter put in prison just to keep her quiet. Clarke has shown a talent for healing, but it wasn't until she'd gone through puberty that it came into its own. She was learning to be a doctor and was helping out with small injuries when the Ark was rocked and a muffled boom was heard. An explosion happened fairly near the medbay. Clarke was ordered to stay there while Abby and Jackson ran to help the injured. Jackson triaged while the guards took them to the medbay and Abby operated. One of the men injured was only just 18. He was a friend of hers from school and he was in critical condition. Jackson had also said that he only had a 5% chance of survival. Clarke put her hand on his chest and closed her eyes. As Jackson and two guards watched, the young man's stats rose and stabilised as Clarke healed him. Soon the young man was sleeping quietly without any injuries at all. All three of the adults were shocked. At that time, Jaha hadn't done anything about the newly emerged talents, but he soon had Clarke imprisoned and her dad floated. Jaha had told Abby it was because of the need to keep the failing air supply a secret, but in reality, he decided to punish Jake when he 'confessed' to hiding Clarke's ability, and Clarke was imprisoned 'to keep her quiet'.
"Abby, those kids are dangerous!"
"How? Are you scared they'd take over and do a better job of running the Ark?" she asked him. There was silence around the council chambers as they waited to see what Jaha would do. They didn't think Abby would voice her opinion so blatantly.
"No, I'm in charge! Those children found to have this mutation will be imprisoned. Any adults with this mutation will be floated immediately."
"If they're floated, then everyone will be up in arms about it, Jaha. It'll show that you are so desperate to stay in charge that you'll arrest anyone for any reason - even if no crime has been committed. Is that what you want? Total anarchy just to keep yourself in power?"
"I'm doing this for everyone, Abby. We cannot let them loose in the Ark, they are too unstable and resistant to my rule!"
"Well, Clarke's already in prison, so what are you going to do if Wells shows this talent?"
"Wells is not a deviant! He is a pure human, not a mutant!"
"Pure human? Jaha, no-one is a pure human. There's no such thing!" Abby told him, scornfully.
"These talents are something that we all have within us and anyone of us could have it emerge. We have no idea how it happens nor why it's happening now. Why not from birth? Something happened to release these talents which used to be locked up within us. And now you want to imprison any child that shows the talent? It's not like they are doing it deliberately, it just emerges."
"We can't allow those mutations to run wild, Abby! What if someone can become invisible? How many crimes could they commit? How many people could they set up for those crimes? What if someone can change shape and turn themselves into one of us? How much carnage could they cause? It's too dangerous! This is the only way to make sure they are contained and cannot do anything to damage the Ark."
Most of the councillors around the table thought about it. The only two who didn't were the ones with children showing talents.
"Okay, all those who agree with the Chancellor?" All but two hands went up. "Those against?" Abby and Councillor Gibbons hands went up. "Motion carried," said Kane. Jaha nodded and smiled before he sat down. Abby and Gibbons were horrified. Both of them unhooked their council pins and threw them on the table before walking out.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Several kids were rounded up and put in the prison. Those who were already in the prison and had talents were moved into their own section. At the moment, only nine people were there. More people would be added as more talents came to the fore. Clarke had been taken out of solitary as the air supply problem was now public knowledge. His primary reason for putting Clarke in prison had now changed with the emergence of her talent. He could now keep her in prison with the others like her. He had her moved to the new section. The guard pushed her through the door and locked it behind her.
Clarke looked around her as she held her jacket.
"What the hell's going on?" she asked.
"Those of us with talents are being rounded up on Jaha's orders and stuck in here. I take it that you've got one?" said one of the boys.
"I can heal with my hands instead of equipment," she replied.
"Who are you?" asked a girl.
"Clarke Griffin, once of Alpha," Clarke replied. "Who are all of you?"
"Octavia Blake, fast reflexes, like super fast!" Octavia grinned and Clarke returned it.
"Atom, super strength," said the first boy. "The rest of us are a mixture of talents. Monroe can change her skin colour like one of those chameleons I read about, Harper can shape shift," he said, gesturing to Harper.
"No way!" Clarke said in awe. Harper nodded.
"Miller can turn invisible, Murphy can manipulate liquids, Troy's telekinetic and Drew can control heat and cold. Don't know how he does it, but he can put his hand on something and make it hotter or colder. It's really weird if you're holding an object and it suddenly freezes!"
"That was once to show you what I can do!" Drew said.
"Any more?"
"No, we're it for now."
"So what now?"
"We go to school tomorrow to learn Earth Skills," Atom said.
"Why not today?"
"They need a guard for each of us so we'll be going to school tomorrow morning."
"School, right!" Clarke said, sullenly. "Who's taking Earth Skills?"
"Pike," said Murphy with disgust.
"Him!" Clarke exclaimed. "What the fuck does he know about shit?!" Atom and Murphy smirked. No-one liked him. He was well known in the school as a bully for those who didn't come from either Alpha or Mecha. Why he thought it was alright to bully kids, no-one knew. "What's he trying to teach us?"
"How to survive on the ground," Murphy said, rolling his eyes.
"How? No-one knows how to survive on the ground!"
"I don't know, but he is. Jaha gave him the authority to do so. We just don't know why," Atom said, shrugging. Clarke hesitated and looked around.
"I do," she said. Atom noticed her reticence and led her to a cell she would live in until whenever.
"This is yours, now what do you know?" Murphy had followed them. She motioned for them both to enter and close the door.
"My dad was the chief engineer and he found something out that Jaha floated him for and stuck me in solitary for."
"What?"
"The air supply is failing." Both boys were startled to hear that.
"So they're trying to teach us how to survive on the ground so we all go down?"
"Not exactly. According to mom, Jaha's got some idea in his tiny mind about sending us kids in prison down to see if the ground's survivable."
"I thought it wasn't for another hundred years?" said Atom, frowning.
"So did I, but if he's sending us down, he may have found a way to legally kill us if it's not safe down there."
"So what do we do?"
"Organise. If the ground is safe, we need to organise and have people in place to do things. I can heal others, so medical is covered. Does anyone know how to start a fire?" she waited a split second. "Never mind, you said Drew can control heat and cold, so he probably could start a fire. We need to hunt for food and find a source of water as well."
"Anything else?"
"Watchers and a defensive wall," Clarke said. "We need to keep the wild animals out and we need to watch for predators as well, especially nocturnal ones." She thought for a few seconds more. "You know if they were wrong about the radiation on the ground, they could be wrong about no-one surviving down there." Clarke was still staring at the floor while she spoke so she didn't see Atom and Murphy exchanging looks.
"You think so?" asked Murphy.
"Yeah, I don't see why not. If there are people down there, then they own the land. I'll abide by that, but I can see the Arkers trying to take land that doesn't belong to them."
"So if we are sent down and meet some people, what then?"
"We try to make peace with them, I mean we aren't being asked to go down, are we? We'll be sent down against our will. Maybe that will sway them."
"Well, we'll talk about this another day. For now, just settle in and come out when you want. Food will be given to us at noon today and twice a day after that," Atom said. Clarke nodded and the boys left the cell. Clarke looked around. It didn't look much different from her old one except that it was slightly bigger and she wasn't segregated anymore. It may be a prison, but she had an idea that it would be more like a family than being out and about in the Ark. Though God knew what her mother would think of it all.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Later that day, the others met for their noon meal. They knew it was only for that day and it would go back to being twice a day so they were taking advantage of the meal and the downtime to get to know their fellow super skilled prisoners.
"So, if you're from Alpha, what are you doing here? I mean, you were a prisoner before all our skills emerged. Why?" Clarke looked at Atom who gave a subtle nod.
"My dad was the Chief Engineer and he found out that the air supply is failing," Clarke told Troy. All at the table were shocked.
"How long?"
"A few months," Clarke admitted. Again they were all shocked.
"So what's going to happen?" Clarke looked at Atom, and again, he nodded.
"Jaha's got a plan to send us to the ground to see if we can survive there. If we can, then they come down and live on the ground."
"Tell them your theory of the ground," Atom said, elbows on the table, chin in his hands.
"If the ground is viable and it's not even a hundred years after the war, then they could be wrong about people living on the ground. Maybe the radiation wasn't as strong as they predicted, or maybe they just got their data wrong, either way, if there are people down there, we need to make peace with them. Show them we are not really invaders, but we were sent down against our will. We need to prove ourselves to them, but our skills may have the same effect on them as they do on the Arkers."
"So...what? We go down and figure out how to live down there?" asked Octavia.
"That's all we can do. We go down and we plan. If the Arkers don't want us then we find a place for us to live, somewhere away from the Arkers and the grounders."
"Like?"
"One of the Caribbean Islands. We don't need a big one, just one big enough to live on."
"I like that," Murphy said.
Just then there was a commotion as the guards unlocked the section door and dragged in a yelling teen who was cuffed.
"When I'm released, I'm gonna melt your face off!" she yelled at the guards dragging her along the floor. They didn't respond, just dropped her on the floor and left. The girl struggled to her feet and looked around.
"You all have these abilities?" she said, sullenly.
"Yeah," Clarke replied. "Let's get those handcuffs off," she said, moving towards the girl.
"I got it," she said and gripped the chain and squeezed and a few seconds later, the chain parted, having melted without heat. She then put her hands on the bracelet on the other wrist and melted them as well. She pulled the now melted metal from her wrists and then cupped them in her hands and turned it into a ball of solid metal. She placed it on the table and smiled at them. Everyone was stunned.
"You can melt metal!?" Monroe asked, awed.
"And stone and wood."
"How do you melt wood?"
"Well, that's more manipulation. Actually all of it is. I can manipulate wood, stone and metal into anything I want. I can't turn stone into wood or metal into cloth, but what I can do is pretty good. What are your abilities?"
"We have a range of them from invisibility to hands-on healing, telekinesis to super fast reflexes," Atom said.
"What's your name?" asked Clarke.
"Idona," she replied.
"Nice to meet you," Clarke responded. Idona nodded in return.
"Alright, where do I sleep?"
"Come on, I'll show you," Harper said, moving off to the cells.
"What do you make of her?" asked Clarke of them all.
"You know, with our talents, we could go into a life of crime and make a fortune in the old world," Murphy said, smirking.
"She could probably and literally make a fortune, Murphy, all she'd need is the correct metals and she could make exact copies of any coins in the world!" Monroe said. Murphy grinned at the possibility.
"We could use her down there. We all have talents, abilities or skills we need down there."
"What do we call what we have?" asked Drew.
"A blessing," Clarke said. Sniggers and laughter followed.
"No, really, what do we call them?"
"I say skills or talents," Clarke said. "Jaha calls us mutants, but I prefer to think we're blessed with skills to help us survive."
"I can get with that," Troy said, nodding.
"Yeah."
"Uh-huh."
"Yep," several people said.
"Alright, we have skills, not mutations or criminal tendencies," Atom said. Everyone smiled and went off to do other things. Even in prison, people found ways to keep themselves busy. Boredom really was the path to depression in prison.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Three days had passed before anyone else came in. Roma Bragg was escorted into their section and left without a word from the guards.
"Is the silent treatment standard practice?" asked Roma.
"Seems to be," Monroe said. "Hey, Roma. What's your skill?" Instead of answering, Roma levitated off the ground and all the way to the ceiling. She came back down with everyone watching her.
"Nice!" Monroe said. "Can you fly?"
"No, just hover," replied Roma.
"Still handy, though," Clarke said.
"How?"
"You don't need to climb to see high, you just levitate upwards."
"True," Roma said. She shook herself. "So where am I sleeping?" she asked.
"Second level, 4th cell from the left," Monroe said, pointing to her cell. Roma nodded and then, instead of using the stairs, she levitated up to the second level and over the railing, coming to the floor and floating into her cell.
"I thought she said she couldn't fly?" Clarke said.
"She did. Does it count as flying if you're upright and moving slowly?"
"I think so. It may not be flying in the conventional sense of those old superhero films, but she was moving through the air without any other aid."
"Maybe when we're down, someone can make her a superhero costume," Monroe said, facetiously.
"Maybe we should all have one," Clarke mused.
"Alright, that's tonight's entertainment sorted," Monroe said. Clarke shook herself to bring herself out of her musings.
What?" Clarke asked.
"Tonight. We always gather around in the lounge area and have a talk about something, Clarke. We've done that since you got here."
"Yeah, less than a week ago, Monroe!"
"Still counts," Monroe countered.
"So we're going to design hero costumes for ourselves?"
"More like each others. Come on, Clarke, it's just a bit of fun!"
"I know. Alright, but no pink for me!" Clarke said, grinning at Monroe.
"Ugh, none for me, either!"
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
That evening they all sat around on the sofas provided. It was a little better in their section as they had a lounge area. The others didn't.
"So, what's the topic tonight?" asked Atom.
"Superhero costumes!" Monroe announced.
"What?" asked Drew.
"Yeah, Clarke mentioned it."
"I did not! You were the one who said that someone should design Roma a superhero costume!" Clarke refuted.
"Yeah and then you said we should all have one."
"I said MAYBE we should have one. I was being facetious!"
"It's all a bit of fun, guys," Monroe said.
"Alright, I'm up for it," Miller said. Everyone turned to Miller. He was known as taciturn at best. He kept quiet and usually only spoke when spoken to. For him to volunteer for a bit of silliness was unusual.
"Fine, who's costume do we design first?" Harper asked.
"Well, I can't see Miller needing one - no pun intended," said Monroe.
"Why not?" asked Idona.
"Because he can become invisible. If he does that, we won't see him or the costume," Monroe explained.
"Yeah, but he can still have one for when he is visible," Idona countered.
"Alright, how would you design it?" Idona looked Miller up and down.
"Maybe a one-piece, all camouflage," Idona said.
"Hell, I can do that without a costume!" Monroe retorted.
"Yeah, but you still want a costume, don't you?" Harper said.
"If everyone else is getting one, I want one as well," Monroe said, shrugging.
"Alright, that's Miller sorted out. Monroe next," Atom said, grinning.
"I got this one!" Clarke said.
"What?"
"Camouflage pants and a sky blue shirt! We stick her on top of a mountain and she'll blend right in!" Everyone laughed.
"Alright, you're next, Clarke!" Atom said, setting himself up as the host.
"Well if she's got healer skills, then she needs a white coat," Drew said.
"My mom's already got one and she doesn't have my skills, pick something else," Clarke said.
"Okay, what about a blue set of scrubs, tight-fitting like lycra with a white shirt over them and a stethoscope around your neck?"
"Not much different there," Clarke said.
"Black one piece with a purple cape and sky blue headband," Octavia piped up. Everyone stopped and thought about it.
"Not bad, Octavia," Miller said.
"Okay, next is Idona. What should she wear?"
"Something metal, wood and stone. Or at least camouflage like that. Maybe a wooden shield with a metal spear and a stone knife, maybe flint?" suggested Harper.
"Hmm, not sure about the shield, and I'd rather learn how to fight with two swords, but I like the idea," Idona said. "What am I going to be wearing? I seem to remember some of those costumes from the films were bright and stood out. I mean didn't one of them have a blue costume with red underpants on the outside?"
"Yep, Superman," Drew said. "There was also very little clothing on the female superheroes too."
"Catering to the males, no doubt," Clarke said.
"Well, they were invented in the 1930's or something," Drew said.
"Yep, male ego. Women wear very little so men can ogle them. If any of you put me in one of those skimpy, barely there costumes, you'll be wearing it! Got that!" Harper said. All the males nodded seriously, even Murphy.
"I'd like to see Atom wearing one of those cartoon strongman outfits," Clarke said, grinning.
"What do they look like?" asked Atom.
"A leopard print leotard over what looked like long john underwear and a tight fitting top. They were often portrayed as dark haired and with a moustache!" Everyone laughed at the image of Atom dressed like that. They spent the rest of the evening laughing and joking about various superhero costumes they could all wear. It was a little bit of silliness in a serious place.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
A week later two more joined them. Monty Green and his best friend Jasper Jordan.
"What are you two doing here?" Harper asked them. They knew each other from school as they were often in the same classes.
"Monty thought it would be a good idea to increase the yield of the crops in Farm Station," Jasper said.
"Well I did!" Monty said.
"Yeah, and got us caught!" Jasper said, snorting.
"I couldn't stand by and watch as they fucked it up! At the rate they were going, their crops would have failed, so I fixed the problem."
"With your skill!"
"Whoa, whoa, boys! Calm down," Harper told them, holding her hands out to placate them.
"Okay so, Monty, what's your skill?"
"I'm instinctively good with plants and animals. I can find solutions to problems, usually before most people know there's a problem," he said. Harper nodded before turning to Jasper.
"What's yours, Jasper?"
"I can learn at an accelerated rate. You tell me something once and I can retain it. I'm learning first time, all the time now," he said.
"Good. In here we call them skills, or if you're Clarke, a blessing."
"So what can you all do?"
"There's a wide range, hands-on healing, super strength, telekinesis, Drew can control heat and cold, lightning fast reflexes, manipulating wood, metal and stone, invisibility, cloaking and camouflage and flying - sort of and Murphy can manipulate liquids."
"Which one's yours?" asked Monty.
"I'm a shapeshifter," she said, nonchalantly.
"Really? Wow! Makes ours seem small," Monty said, a bit disappointed they hadn't cooler skills.
"Not really. If Jasper learns at an accelerated rate and you can do farming, that's going to keep us alive. Jasper, when we go to Earth Skills, listen to everything Pike says. If he lets us read survival books, you sit there and go through them. Can you speed read?"
"I don't know, never tried that."
"Then try it when in the classroom. Pike knows we're all in prison because we're talented, but he can't complain if you actually are learning stuff, can he?" Jasper smirked.
"I think I'll try it. Maybe if I read everything those survival books say, I can actually teach you about it and probably make a better job of it than him!"
"Good, we need to know how to survive down there, and if you read those books, you're our best hope of surviving. We'll all help you with our skills, but it'll be down to you to remember what you've read. None of us puts any faith in what Pike's been teaching us, some of it seems counterintuitive."
"In what way?"
"Well he told us that making snares will help us hunt. Yes it will, but he told us HOW to use them and from what we can figure out, the animals would spot them and avoid them. He doesn't even try to camouflage them. He wants us to find rope to make the snares with and we don't have any, so how is that helpful? I think we'll find something down there, but we'd have to prepare it first, you know, weave them together to have some kind of rope-like thing we can use for a snare."
"It's not going to be easy, is it?"
"No, but he won't go back over what he's already taught us, he'll just tell you that you'll have to catch up by us telling you what he taught. Maybe if you suggested that you read it, it'll make it easier to understand and then you can tell us the correct way to make snares and use them!"
Clarke walked by them, calling hello as she passed.
"Isn't that Dr Griffin's daughter? What's the Princess doing in here?"
"That's CLARKE Griffin, yes, and she's here because she's our hands-on healer. She saved Kyle Thompson just by laying her hands on his chest and thinking about healing him. If she hadn't, he would have died. They'd given him a 5% chance of survival and were reluctant to use medicines on a dying kid! She saved him, but she was put in here with the rest of us. That is, AFTER Jaha had already locked her up because she knew the air supply is failing."
"What? Jaha put her in prison for just knowing that?"
"No, he put her in solitary for just knowing that. Clarke's the only one from solitary that hadn't committed a crime. But now that he's implemented this new rule about those with skills needing to be locked up, she was brought here."
"So what do we do now?"
"I'll show you to your new rooms," Harper said.
"You mean cells?" asked Jasper.
"We've decided to call them rooms. We don't see what we do as something criminal, so we're making this place as homely as we can. We've got a lounge area and our rooms. "There's also two different toilet and shower blocks. One at each end. Boys get the one near the far end and the girls get the one near the lounge. DO NOT enter the girls block and we don't enter yours, okay?" Harper was making sure the boys knew she was serious about it. They didn't need peeping toms from either gender!
Both boys nodded vigorously. Monty looked around.
"Cameras?" he asked.
"In our lounge and corridors, none in our rooms, though if your room is near a camera, sometimes they can look in. We're trying to put people in rooms that the cameras can't see into. There's no cameras in the toilet blocks either."
"Good, I don't want some guard to enjoy watching us in there!" Monty said.
"Us neither. If either of you spots a camera in there, tell us and we'll deal with it." Both boys nodded again.
"Come on, let's get you up to your rooms," Harper said, leading them off.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
A couple of days later Wells Jaha was escorted to their section of the prison. He was pushed in and then locked in.
"Wells?" said Clarke, not quite believing her eyes. "What are you doing here?"
"I've got very good eyesight," he said, shrugging his shoulders.
"You mean you've got a skill too?"
"Yeah. I hid it for a while, but when I heard you'd been sent here, I decided it was time to show my true colours - so to speak."
"Why? You could have stayed out of prison."
"Because Chancellor Jaha is paranoid. He thinks we'd overthrow him or something like that."
"CHANCELLOR Jaha?" Atom said.
"That man is not the man who raised me! I don't know what happened to him, but that's not the man I remember from my childhood. My dad was a loving, caring human being, and the Chancelllor isn't!"
"So you decided you'd rather be with us?" asked Clarke.
"Yeah, if Chancellor Jaha can do that to kids, then I belong here."
"We're still subject to floating on our 18th birthdays, Wells," Clarke told him softly.
"I know, but maybe it'll make dad re-emerge to try to save me, but he won't."
"Well then, welcome to our little group." Atom turned around to the others. "Anyone who gives Wells a hard time will have to answer to me! Leave him alone!" Several people nodded.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
The next morning, everyone was mentally blasted by a shriek from a young girl who was terrified for some reason.
"Geez, kid! Tone it down!" Idona said, putting her hands to her ears and shutting her eyes tight at the intense pain they all felt.
"Mom and dad's about to be floated!" the kid yelled.
"Where are you?" Idona asked her.
"At the floating chamber. Jaha's gonna float them! No, mom, no!" Idona grabbed Clarke and Troy and took them into the nearest toilet block.
"Troy, can you find them if they're floated?"
"I think so. I watched as he floated my mom a couple of years ago."
"Then as soon as he's floated them, find them and bring them here."
"Clarke, think you could revive them?"
"They'll be dead, Idona, I'm not sure I could do that!"
"Then try. If we can save that kid's parents, then we should. She's only around 12-13." Clarke nodded. Troy's eyes lost focus on his surroundings as he searched for the floating chamber. Through the young girls' telepathic link, he watched as they were floated and as soon as Jaha turned his back, he searched for her parents and brought them to Clarke. Clarke knelt down and put one hand on each of them and closed her own eyes as she concentrated on reviving the pair.
"Get Drew," Clarke barked out, still trying to help the couple. Idona went out and dragged Drew back to the toilet block. His eyes widened at what he saw.
"Drew, get over here, help me warm them up! I'll concentrate on reviving them, you concentrate on warming them up slowly." He nodded and both of them got to work. Idona was still in contact with the girl.
"Hey, kid, is this the first time you've used your skill?"
"Sort of. I can read people's minds and if they want to, I can see what they see."
"Alright, look through my eyes, but keep it quiet, okay?"
"Why?"
"Just do it kid." The girl gasped to see her parents inside the Ark.
"Tell one of the guards you can read his mind and then find a way to prove it. You'll be brought to us. We are trying to revive your parents right now. Clarke's a healer and Drew can control temperatures. He's warming up your parents while she revives them." The kid nodded and then Idona felt an emptiness as the kid shut down the contact. Idona looked at the pair trying to keep those parents alive.
"I'll inform Atom and the others." She left and rounded up the others into the other toilet block and told them what had happened. Atom immediately stood in the doorway to block people from rushing over to have a look.
"What are we going to do with them? They can't stay in the toilet block!" Murphy said.
"No, but I used to roam through the tunnels all the time," Idona said. "I can make a hole in the wall and those two can go through and just about fifty feet to the right of the other toilet block, is a hatch leading to the closed off section of Orchid Station."
"Closed off?"
"Yeah, several years ago, it was deemed that most of Orchid wasn't needed. They'd moved most of the residents out and only left a few hundred. All the workplaces there are in the habitation section. Diana Sydney had part of the station closed off and no-one uses it. They can go there to live. If we are going to the ground, then they'll come with us. Troy can teleport them down. That kid keeps her parents."
"We don't know what they did, Idona," Monroe said.
"No, we don't but do you really think that a 12 year old girl deserves to have both parents floated? I don't know exactly what they did, but from what I got from the kid, it wasn't something that deserved to be a capital crime before that act came into law."
"Like what?"
"I don't know, stealing? Doing something only slightly illegal as opposed to murder," Idona said, raising her hands and then dropping them, slapping her thighs when she did.
"And what about food and water?"
"We give them a little of ours. Hell, I'm willing to give up a small portion of the slop we get!"
"So we all give up a small portion each?"
"Yeah, instead of eating say, twenty spoonfuls of that crap, we only eat 18 or 16 or something. With all of us giving up two spoonfuls, we give them 30 spoonfuls. That's 15 each. That's almost the same as what we'd be eating."
Harper nodded. It would keep them alive and fed.
"And with them using Orchid station, they've access to beds, toilets and free water as well," Miller said.
"Really?" asked Monty.
"Yeah, I'm from Alpha too and my dad's a guard. He told me that when it happened, they forgot to shut off the water supply to that section and since no-one has used it in over a decade, they forgot about it. If they're careful, they can have more water than we have."
Clarke came to the door, but stayed out of sight of the cameras and nodded to the other block. Idona saw it and smiled. She raised her thumb to acknowledge that the couple were alive and awake.
Idona and Atom went over while the others went to the lounge area. They walked into the toilet block to see two dazed adults sitting on the floor, trying to come to terms with what happened.
"Hey, are you okay?" asked Atom, squatting down to their level.
"Yeah, I think so," said the man.
"What are your names?"
"Eric and Amelia Johnson," the man replied.
"Charlotte!" Amelia said out loud.
"Shh!" Atom said, "Please keep your voices down. This section is heavily monitored and any sound carries to the microphones outside." They both nodded.
"What will happen to our daughter?"
"She's already making plans to be arrested," Idona said.
"What?" exclaimed Eric.
"Your daughter's a telepath. She'll be brought here."
"But what about us?"
"I'm afraid you need to be put elsewhere. Since Jaha floated you, you cannot roam the Ark. Don't worry, I've been all over the Ark when I was younger. There's a place for you to hide."
"Our Charlotte is one of you!?" asked Amelia.
"Yeah, don't worry, we'll look after her until you can." Suddenly there was a commotion as Charlotte herself was escorted into the prison section. She waited until the door was locked behind her and looked at the others in the lounge. Octavia only tilted her head in the direction she needed to go. Charlotte nodded and walked over to the toilet block and inside. She saw her parents alive and well and ran to them and flung her arms around both of them and hugged them hard. They returned the hard hug, crying their relief that their daughter was safe.
"Hey, we need to get you out of here before someone comes to see why we're gathering in the toilet block," Idona said.
"Where are we going and how do we get there?" Amelia asked.
"That's my skill set," Idona said, smiling. "Behind this panel is a tunnel. Turn right and about fifty feet on is a hatch that leads to a closed off section in Orchid Station. You should be safe there for now, just don't use lights and only use the toilet and water when you absolutely need it. No showers, just washing. I'm sorry it's not ideal, but it'll keep you safe, hidden and more importantly, alive." Amelia nodded before she turned to her daughter.
"Charlotte. You have to stay here. If the guards know you are missing, they'll turn the Ark upside down to find you. We're alive honey, and that's what you need to keep hold of, okay? We're alive." Charlotte nodded and hugged her mother again.
"Will I see you again?"
"Yes, you will," Troy said. "Once a week I can bring them inside the toilet block to see you for a few minutes, but we need to be careful. If Jaha gets to know, I have no doubt you'd be floated again and maybe us too."
"Okay, how do we get to the tunnel?" Idona moved to the wall, put her hands on it and then melted the wall making a hole big enough for the couple to walk through. They gaped.
"We are just normal kids who can do extraordinary things, Mr and Mrs Johnson, we're not bad. We can use our skills for the betterment of the Ark but Jaha's paranoid about us. If we can do things to save people or things or increase the yield of the food, then isn't that a good thing?"
The couple nodded.
"Come on then. Once inside the tunnel, I'm afraid I have to seal it up again, but that hatch is only fifty feet ahead on the right. I'll wait a couple of minutes for you to get there and then I'll seal it up again. Oh, Troy here will teleport food to you. You'll have to share, but it should be enough." Again they could only nod. They got up and gave Charlotte one last hug before entering the hole and turning right. Atom was keeping guard on the door and Idona was listening to the couple move through the tunnel. Once she heard them open the hatch, she closed up the hole and it looked like it had never been broken. Clarke took Charlotte by the arm and led her back to the lounge.
"Pretend to cry, Charlotte. Remember, you've just lost your parents to floating. I'll take you straight up to the rooms and you can stay there for a few minutes, then come down and we'll pretend to commiserate with you," Clarke said softly. Charlotte nodded and they made their way up the stairs.
Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo
Okay, that's chapter one. As usual, one chapter a week on Sundays. I'm still writing None So Blind and I have several other stories on the go as well. It may take me a while to complete them, but I aim to do so. Reviews and feedback, please. Samdagger.