Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Author's Notes: Please review if you have any constructive criticism or just comments on the story so far. Thanks in advance.
Chapter Four
[Day 2 – Camp Jaha – Conference Room]
The conference room wasn't huge but big enough to hold a far amount of people. The table in the center of the room would be lowered into the floor if it wasn't needed. Kane and Abby were seated at the table waiting for the others to arrive. They had just finished their conversation when the door opened and David Miller walked in with three people following him. The first was Sinclair with black hair with patches of grey wearing the almost standard issue black jacket with dark pants and shirt. Sinclair was an engineer by trade but with his work on the ark in the monitoring station he became more of a people organizer. The second person was Catherine who was in charge of food collection, preparation, and distribution. With her short red hair and tan jacket she stood out among a crowd. Last was Jake Peters who found himself representing the builders. A millwright by trade he was now overseeing anything that needed to built or repaired. Everyone who survived the crash now reported to one of the six people in this room.
Miller stood inside the door allowing the others to take their seat. Before he could exit allowing this meeting to start Abby spoke to him. "Miller stay."
Being a guard and ready to follow any orders he just nodded his head and didn't question the order. Abby continued to speak to him with a smile, "We're promoting you to Major. You're officially in charge of the guard now."
"Thank you ma'am." He smiled with gratitude even if it was just a formality. Since Major Byrne was killed Miller had taken over her duties.
Having discussed this with Abby before anyone entered Kane spoke up and added more details to the promotion, "Any time I'm away from camp you will sit on this council in my place. So you stay in the room and pay attention." He joked.
While Kane was talking to Miller all the new comers eyes slightly widened at the word 'council'. Abby with her crouches leaning on the back of her chair and the cuts on her face still healing noticed that everyone reacted to the word and decided to start the meeting.
"Alright. Marcus and I have decided to reform a council. With no immediate crisis we need to take stock of our problems and discuss solutions. We're going to forgo elections for now. Everyone works with you so you should have a good understanding of the concerns of the people. Catherine came to me last night with what I think to be our number one problem."
Everyone looked to Catherine and she took a deep breath. She wasn't used to being the center of attention. "Food. We're running out of food. Every time a hunting or gathering group to out to collect food they have to go further and further away to collect anything."
"How long do we have?" questioned Peters.
"It's hard to say. With the addition of the kids I'll have to do some recalculating. A few weeks at best." She replied.
Abby decided to get the discussion going, "I told Catherine I didn't want to start rationing food just yet but to make sure everyone eats what they take. No waste. Pass that on to all your people as well. Now does anyone have any ideas for food generation?"
Everyone began to think but Catherine spoke up right away. "I had an Idea that you're not going to like."
"Lets hear it." Abby encouraged her to continue.
"Well the grounders have to grow their own food. Maybe we could trade them something for seeds and we could start growing our own." She explained. Everyone around the table looked like they didn't really like this idea so she continued in defence of her idea. "Its spring time now and from what we've all learned is that winter is cold and summer is hot. However the winter wasn't that cold which means summer could be extremely hot. Even if we found seeds and planted them ourselves we'll still need some advice from the grounders about how to do it right."
"Anyone else have a suggestion?" Abby asked the group.
No one around the table had any experience with this kind of matter so they all shrugged. Except for Kane who seemed to be deep in thought and not paying attention.
"What is it Marcus?" she questioned.
With a smirk Kane looked to Abby and replied, "I think suggestions that we're not going to like are par for the course today." He dropped his smirk and continued with a serious look, "There's always Mount Weather."
Abby wasn't expecting this suggesting and was shocked into silence as Sinclair responded, "They've survived for a century they must have hydroponics and a way of producing artificial proteins."
"You can't be suggesting we move to that mountain!?" Abby's voice was angry as she was thinking about all the horrible things that had happened there. She was responding personally instead of like a leader.
"No." Kane replied with this calming voice. "Perhaps a team could to investigate. Harvest what is already there and maybe bring back the technology so we could us it here."
Understanding that Kane's words made sense Abby thought about it for a moment when Peters' spoke up. He had never been to Mount Weather but heard how bad things were. "If the grounders are rebuilding Tondc we could offer man power as trade for the seeds and knowledge."
"We don't know what our relationship is with the grounders anymore. Lexa betrayed Clarke and I don't know what that means for us now."
Kane had the most experience with the grounders and gave his input, "I don't think Lexa wants a war. I think she'd be open to negotiation as she has been in the past."
Abby nodded. "Okay. I say we talk with the grounders first. If that doesn't work we try Mount Weather. I don't want to go there if we don't have to. Anyone disagree?" she asked the table.
"Why don't we do both?" asked Sinclair
Kane took it upon himself to answer that question, "Because both trips would require guards and we don't have enough guards because of what we're going to discuss next."
Confusion placed itself on the faces of everyone at the table again excluding Abby and Kane. "Lets talk to the grounders then." Replied Sinclair.
"Agreed." Catharine and Peters said at the same time.
"Well, now that is decided time for some actual good news. Hopefully." Everyone noticed Abby's mood pick up leaving the topic of grounders and Mount Weather as she continued, "Raven has picked up a radio signal from another Ark station."
"Which station is it?" "Where are they?" "What'd they say?" the three questions were asked at the same time by everyone at the table.
"We don't know. It was an automated message with no information. Wick and a team are out in the forest now trying to determine a direction." Kane informed everyone.
Abby brought the attention back to her, "We'll figure out who will go search for the Ark station when we get more information. For now I have other tasks for you."
The rest of the meeting was Abby giving out orders for the new council members. Peters was ordered to fabricate new pins for everyone to denote them now being Councillors. He was also ordered to figure out a way to cut down trees and refine the wood into planks. If this was going to be their new home structures would have to be constructed. Sinclair was ordered to assign the 44 new residence of Camp Jaha to work details. However he wasn't to press the matter with anyone who wasn't ready to take on a job yet. Some of the kids rescued from Mount Weather needed time to recover physically and mentally from their ordeal. Finally Catherine was asked to go out into the forest and find a place to start a farm. If everything was successful with the grounders they'd need to start preparing the land.
Kane's task was to check in with Raven regarding the search for the direction of the Ark station signal.
[Day 2 – The Forest – Outside Camp Jaha]
After making it one kilometer out and setting up their equipment Raven informed them over the radio that it wasn't far enough to get a good enough signal. Lincoln and Octavia lead the group towards their next destination followed by Bellamy, then Wick, then the two guards. Not really expecting any danger everyone still kept alert and ready for anything. Bellamy occasionally thought about Clarke and how she was doing. After starting off as basically enemies they became friends as they both realized they made good co-leaders of the 100. Each one had their strengths and without either one of them no one of the original 100 would have survived.
"This should be good." Wick stated as he stopped and took the transmitter off his back. Bellamy and the two guards approached as they unloaded the technology they were carrying so Wick could assemble the thing.
"This better be good enough." Bellamy commented giving Wick a hard time.
"You got something better to do?" Octavia said taking her eyes off the area around them to give her brother a hard time.
"No." he smirked enjoying the banter. He was glad to be with his sister again. As the guards took position scanning their flanks and rear Bellamy stepped beside Lincoln who was watching the forest ahead of them. "Any sign of anything or anyone?"
"Nothing in the last few days."
"Good." Replied Bellamy as he turned to see how Wick was coming along.
"Hey" Lincoln said as he turned and grabbed Bellamy by the arm. Octavia looked on and wondered what he was going to say. She knew Lincoln was a man of few words when it came to anyone but her.
"I want to say I'm sorry for what happened in the tunnels."
So much had happened since Lincoln betrayed Bellamy by turning him over the reapers due to the drug addition caused by the Mountain Men. "Don't worry about it. We're even now."
Lincoln smiled realizing he was referring to when he was tortured by Bellamy for information. Releasing Bellamy's arm Lincoln went back to looking for danger as Octavia came up beside him and took his hand. She knew how much Lincoln hated himself for being weak and abandoning Bellamy.
"Alright, turning it on now." Wick spoke into the walkie-talkie they had brought with them.
"Roger that." Raven's voice came over the radio as everyone just waited.
A few minutes passed and Bellamy had to ask, "How long will this take?"
"Not" Wick's reply was cut off by Raven's voice, "Okay. Looks like its coming from roughly 5 degrees north from where we are."
"Great. We're on our way back." He replied into the radio.
"Cya when you get here." She responded.
"Give me a hand with this?" Wick motioned for Bellamy to assist him in taking apart the radio. The two guards approached also to carry their piece.
Lincoln turned to Octavia and with his head he motioned away from the Camp. She knew what knew he was suggesting so she turned to her brother and told him, "We're going hunting. You guys can get yourselves back."
"Take care of my sister." Was Bellamy's only response as he looked at Lincoln.
"Always." Was his answer.
As soon as they were out of hearing distance from the others Lincoln began to speak his mind. "You need to make a decision about your brother."
"What do you mean?" she was confused by his statement.
He looked at her as they slowly walked through forest and clarified his statement, "You can't stay with him forever and being with them makes you angry."
"Where else are we going to go?" she questioned not verbally admitting that she didn't want to leave her brother.
"Indra would take us back." He said a little happier with this option. He loved Octavia and would follow her anywhere. But the option of living with his friends as well as her was the best possible outcome.
"I won't follow Lexa's orders." She replied with anger in your voice. Lexa allowing a bomb to be dropped on Tondc and the betrayal of Clarke didn't allow Octavia to trust her anymore.
"We could just leave. Be by ourselves not to far away." Was the last option he could think of.
"Being with you is good enough for me. I know I need to make a choice but I'm not there yet." She replied linking their hands once again. He stopped and kissed her. Pulling back he nodded letting her know he understood the dilemma that was taking place inside her head.
"Thanks." She appreciated his understanding.
Lincoln had a very stoic face that most people couldn't read. But Octavia knew him well enough to know something else was bothering him. Putting her hand that wasn't linked with his up to his cheek she asked, "What else? What's wrong?"
"We should be on the expedition." He said a little reluctantly.
Based on their conversation she thought it was trying to get her away from camp so she pulled away from him and questioned, "Why?" He however didn't let go of her hand as he answered. "To the north is the beginning of the Ice Nation's territory. You don't' want to aggravate their Queen." He replied with warning in his voice.
"But they know about our Alliance." She countered his logic.
"What is the state of the Alliance? The Commander betrayed Clarke." He said as he pulled her by the hand and started walking again. She thought about her response as they walked. She didn't like conflict and a meeting between the expedition and the Ice Nation had potential to go badly depending on who was sent. As much as she didn't like the grounders or the sky people as organization she didn't want people to get hurt for stupid reasons. Knowing that she and Lincoln bridged the culture differences between the two groups of people them being there would make things go smoother.
"Okay we'll go." She finally said.
"Okay." He replied as he squeezed her hand.
Then they continued on the hunt while teaching each other about their cultures.
[Day 2 – The Forest]
Clarke took a break from wondering the forest to sit under a tree to have something to eat. Her circular thoughts were getting her nowhere. Leaving everyone behind at Camp Jaha was supposed to not make her think about the things she did to get them there. However the thoughts continued regardless of where she was. She considered briefly about just heading back to camp but reject that idea immediately. The remaining 100 would still consider her their leader and looking to her for leadership scared her. She wasn't happy with what she had to do as a leader and wasn't looking forward to retaking that position.
Finishing the small amount of food she had left she realized she would have to hunt. Being the leader with bigger responsibilities she never had to hunt. The one time she did have to go hunting she was captured by Anya and almost killed. Putting that thought out of her head she got up and began the search for a piece of wood that could be fashioned into a spear. She didn't have to look far before she found something that was straight and sturdy enough. She sat back down and removed the knife from her boot and began to whittle the stick into a spear. Having seen the preparation of meat back at the drop ship she was confident in that task. What she was worried about was finding something to kill that wouldn't also kill her.
Several failed attempts at spearing rabbits and squirrels had taken place when she decided to head towards the river and try to spear some fish. She was getting better at throwing the weapon but the animals were too smart or at least too quick. Having limited bullets is why she chose not to use her gun. That and she didn't want to draw any unnecessary attention. On the way to river she gathered any nuts or berries she could find and placed him in the small bag she had.
Arriving at the river she crouched down on a rock just above the surface. Her back was to the shore with a much larger rock to right. Paying full attention to the water in front of her she wasn't going to be taken off guard by any river monsters. Seeing fish just out of her reach so got an idea. She walked back to forest to collect some dried leaves then returned to her rock. Crumpling up the leaves and placing them top the water she hoped the fish would think it was something to eat.
The bad thing about waiting for fish is that it gave her a lot of time to think. She hated it. Failed attempts in the forest at least got her mind off her problems.
"I need someone to talk to." She sighed.
"And not myself." She replied vowing to never do that again.
Just then she noticed a fish slowing moving to the surface close enough for her to reach. She readied her spear and waited for it to investigate. Striking out as fast as she could she successfully speared the fish right through its body. Quickly lifting the spear out of the water so the fish couldn't struggle its way off she was happy at what she accomplished. Now it was time to build a fire. Oh boy. She thought to herself.
