AN: The little disruption to the site these past 2-3 days were awful for me! I was desperate to update before I went away but when the login errors persisted, I was forced to take my laptop with me, so here I am lugging it around on my holiday :( Boo.
MAJOR MAJOR squeals and thank yous to Sydcasy; my very first reviewer! I HOPE TO SEE MORE IN THE FUTURE *HINT HINT* :P Reviews make me more motivated to get a chapter out sooner because they're like little pancakes of appreciation. I could gobble them up all day! So it's really in your best interest, no?
Clarke had just been about to suggest they head a little further west when Bellamy's "Are you sure you know where you're going?" had her hold her tongue.
"Yes," she said with barely held back frustration. They should have found it by now. If only Thalie or the hunting party had thought to drop breadcrumbs for them to follow. Not that she was going to admit that now.
"We've been walking for over an hour now and I doubt this is where the hunting party would have strayed. The vegetation's thinning. Animals aren't going to be foraging around here."
"We're just not looking hard enough. You're not even looking," she added over her shoulder as she pointedly stared at his aloft gun. "You're too busy looking for Grounders that aren't even here."
"Fine," Bellamy said, dropping the gun and sliding the strap around until the weapon sat flat against his back instead. He showed her his empty hands before turning his attention to the ground. "Happy?"
Clarke felt a thrill of fear run down her back at the thought that they was one less person guarding the group, with only Finn locked and loaded, ready for shooting. However, she shook it off because at least that meant there was one more person looking for buried vehicles. I'm not leaving until I find that ambulance, she thought resolutely.
"Hey, shouldn't we have brought someone actually from the hunting party?" Raven asked from several paces away. She had her head bent to the ground as she studied the ground for any unevenness. "You know, one of the guys who brought Thalie back?"
"Maybe," Clarke admitted. She pursed her lips. "Too late now though. Let's keep looking. Even if we don't find the ambulance, maybe we'll find another bunker."
"And you're sure it's this way?" Bellamy asked with derision.
"Clarke said she's sure," Finn called across the group. "Let's trust her instincts." He gave Clarke a nod that said 'I've got your back'.
"Well we're trusting our way further and further away from the camp," Bellamy said.
"Let's pick up the pace," Clarke suggested, increasing her stride to cover more ground before Bellamy could decide it was time to turn around. Not that she'd listen, of course. It was just easier to argue that they'd come all this way and it wasn't worth turning around yet if they kept going.
Another half hour passed before anything changed. A sweet fragrance began to trickle into Clarke's awareness, and she inhaled deeply. Similar sounds around her indicated she wasn't the only one noticing the smell.
"What is that?" Raven asked in a low, awed voice.
"It smells incredible," Finn agreed. Clarke made a noise of agreement.
Bellamy remained silent.
"Come on," Finn said and they increased their speed, following their noses until they were almost blinded with the smell.
"I could die happily," Raven admitted with a deep breath.
They emerged into an enormous clearing. The clearing was covered with hundreds of thousands of little pink and red flowers.
Raven sneezed. "Okay, now it's not so lovely," she admitted with another sneeze. Two more sneezes followed.
But Clarke was too busy taking in the view before them to listen. It was a strange sight to be sure, even without the bright colours making the nerves behind her eyes slightly throb. It appeared as if the flowers had tried to grow themselves into a beanstalk but then given up halfway.
It was then that she noticed the large building some ways away. The flowers had grown over it, yes, but its shape was still obvious enough that they could recognise civilisation had once stood there before being reclaimed by nature.
"There's something there," Clarke announced, pointing at the large rectangular mass of flowers. "They've grown over a building."
The group kept to the outer edges of the clearing, wary of Grounders, as they made their way to the structure. As they got closer, they realised it was quite long, but not very tall.
"I'm guessing it's a hanger," Raven said before sneezing again. "You know, for planes," she added at everyone's blank looks.
"Are we… could this be an airfield?" Finn asked, making a slow circle as they reevaluated the area.
"My guess is that we're in an old airport. Rural, given the size of the hanger. It's say three, maybe four planes top are sitting in there. If they're any in there at all."
Clarke took an excited step further. "They'll have medicine kits at the least," she said.
"And extra materials for fortifying and building camp," Bellamy added firmly.
The four made their way to the front of the building and tried to pull open the doors. "That's going to be a bitch to open," Raven announced after it was wordlessly decided they couldn't do it. "We're going to need more than four people to do that. Probably some juice to oil those hinges again. If this thing was automatic, there's going to be a manual override switch inside we'll need to hit first anyway." She sneezed twice in succession before growling in frustration.
"So I'm guessing that's a radiotower then?" Clarke asked, pointing to what she'd considered a halfassed beanstalk before.
"Oh yeah. Let's check it out."
The four of them cautiously made their way through the centre of the field, aware they were easy targets in the open space. "This should be easy enough to open," Finn said when they realised it was as simple as getting through a straightforward standard door. He took aim with his gun and shot at the lock before anyone could argue.
"Save the ammo for the Grounders," Bellamy snapped, reaching for the gun.
Finn pulled the weapon out of his reach. "One bullet for who knows what radio equipment is up there? Seems a fair trade."
"It's a lucky dip," Bellamy ground out but nonetheless, pushed open the door and lead the way. They climbed up the narrow stairs until they emerged onto the top floor. Clarke imagined it would have been quite light had the windows not been coated in a hundred years' worth of dust. Pulling her sleeve over her palm, she walked to a window and wiped at it. The glass was filthy, and she'd only managed to clean a portion of the dirt on the inside of the window. But the light filtered through and made the place less creepy.
"Well well well," Bellamy said with a familiar grin tugging at his lips. "This seems rather fitting, doesn't it?" Clarke watched him silently as he took three slow, leisurely steps toward her. "I seem to recall hearing some fairytales growing up about princesses locked in towers." He gave her hair a gentle tug. "Look at that. You're home."
Finn and Raven were ducked under the desk that spanned the circular wall, pulling out all the wires they could get their hands on. Clarke glanced back to Bellamy. "Oh, and who are you supposed to be? Prince Charming or the Big Bad Wolf?" Clarke regretted the words as soon as they were out of her mouth. She hadn't intended to sound flirty, but flirty she definitely had.
Luckily, Bellamy didn't seem to notice. He gave her hair a final tug and said "Wrong story, Princess," before turning on his heel and returning to guard duty at the top of the staircase.
With a roll of her eyes, Clarke joined the search team and hunted around for any supplies that would be useful around camp. Correction: everything in this room could be repurposed for camp, but they could always come back. This visit, Clarke was hunting for medical supplies. Bandages, ice packs, towels, blankets. Even a freaking sticky plaster would do. Scraped knees could lead to some nasty infections if left uncovered.
Clarke found an Automated Defibrillator attached to the wall, but the battery was dead and she doubted they'd have need for it given that they were all young and relatively healthy. When she found a cupboard marked with a green cross, she let out a triumphant "Aha!"
Bellamy glanced over and she caught his fond smile. As much as they might argue, at least he understood how important it was for her that they find decent medical provisions for the camp infirmary. Opening the cupboard, she found a small first aid kit that looked to never have been used, and an industrial sized metal box that was stocked to the brim. Clarke sent up a fervent prayer of thanks to whoever was looking out for them and hauled the two kits up onto the desk.
Her wide smile proved to be infectious, as the rest of the group lit up with similar ones.
"Happy, Princess?" Bellamy asked. Clarke merely hugged the kits on the desk and the four laughed.
"It's a start," she told him seriously. "These may be fine for the short term, but I'd love it if we could have acc -"
"Just be grateful you've got what you do," Bellamy told her. "We can always come back. Now. Let's see about some camp materials." And with that, they filled their bags with radio equipment, spare clothes, empty waterbottles, two sets of walkie talkies, whole reams of paper, pens, old manuals and magazines; whatever they could carry.
"There's so much useful stuff here," Clarke said as she zipped her backpack closed. Finn, Raven and Clarke's bags were all near bursting with salvaged treasure. "I'll bet the planes have some useful gear too."
"Yeah," Bellamy agreed as they descended the narrow staircase. He shielded his eyes against the midday sun when they emerged back outside. "It makes you wonder why it's been untouched for so many years. Why haven't the Grounders raided the place?"
"Lighten up," Finn suggested as he snagged a flower from the ground and tucked it above Clarke's ear. Bellamy, who had been shouldering the door back shut, rolled his eyes. When would Finn realise that he was making Clarke uncomfortable when he flirted with her in front of Raven?
Raven started to say something, but was interrupted by a stream of sneezes. They continued walking and had left the clearing by the time her sneezing fit decided it was finished. Free from her allergic hell, Raven was now able to properly allow her anger to express itself.
"For God's sake!" she yelled, aiming a kick at the field of flowers that continued to sprawl itself across the ground into the woods. "Why – are – there – so – many - " she yelled, punctuating each word with a kick or swipe, "freaking – FLOWERS?" She picked up a rock and threw it at a tree.
After this outburst, which was cut short but a few more sneezes, silence rang out in the group's ears. That is, until they realised it wasn't their ears ringing any longer. It was a dull hum, increasing steadily in volume. Everyone stood stock still – Finn and Bellamy poised with their guns at the ready – waiting for the cause of the noise to reveal itself.
It was then that Clarke noticed the flowers at their feet beginning to wilt. "Look," she said, crouching down to look properly at the pink and red painted petals. She couldn't tell if it was her imagination, but the flowers seemed to be paling, like the colour was a blush, and the blood was sinking back under the skin as the arteries shrank.
"Are they dying?" Finn asked curiously with a quick glance at the ground before returning his attention to the trees.
"No," Clarke said slowly. "I think they're…. hiding."
"I think I know why," Raven said just as slowly, her gaze lost in the distance. Clarke followed her gaze and rose to her feet.
"RUN!"