Disclaimer: I own nothing but Danai. The rest belong to the CW.
Chapter 1
Danai was stuck up a tree watching the area where the dropship was. She'd run when she saw the door closing and the last thing she saw before it shut was Clarke's face contorted into agony at the people she knew she'd have to sacrifice to save the rest. Danai didn't envy her that decision, she didn't know if she could have made it. She'd waited until the ring of fire had swept around the dropship, killing anyone it could. Flames licked at the edges of the woods but hadn't reached her. It was a close thing. If she'd been a few feet slower, she'd have been burned, as it was, she felt the heat of the fire and thought she may have some burned hair. She put up her hand to check and sure enough she now had short hair, the rest being burned off.
She'd climbed a tree to wait it out - and to avoid any grounders that had escaped it as well. She never saw a single grounder once the fire had died down, but she remembered seeing Jones consumed by it. A memory that she'd be having nightmares about.
Just when she thought it would be safe to go down, a vehicle pulled up. An actual engine driven vehicle! As far as they knew, the grounders didn't use them so who were they? She watched as figures in some kind of isolation or radiation suits climbed out. They hid themselves among the trees and waited. So did Danai.
The dropship door opened and Clarke slowly came down the ramp, followed by Anya and the others. Suddenly the suited figures lobbed smokebombs at them and red smoke spewed forth. Danai watched as Clarke and the rest fell down unconscious. Not just smokebombs! Some kind of knockout bomb! Danai scrambled to find a safe place she could sit without falling out of the tree. The red smoke was heading her way. She wedged herself into the v-shape of a branch and trunk and held on tight. The last thing she saw was the suited figures picking up the others and putting them in their vehicle. She was unconscious before they set off back to wherever they'd come from.
Xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
She woke up listing dangerously to one side. She held onto the trunk of the tree and that was the only thing stopping her from falling. She straightened up, trying to erase the dizziness that the red smoke had caused. She took several deep breaths to get her lungs cleaned out of that red crap and felt her dizziness and the headache that was forming, dissipate. She looked around her, checking the vicinity for anyone moving. She had no idea if anyone was friend or foe. She didn't want to run into any grounders or those that had taken her people.
She saw movement and watched as a grounder slowly crept towards the dropship. He was holding a rope with Murphy attached to the other end. Danai kept watching as he crept forward and then tugged on Murphy's rope and told him to stay where he was. The grounder dropped the rope and crept into the dropship. Suddenly a single shot rang out! Danai gasped. At least one of her people was still in there! Grounders didn't use guns! She waited until she saw Murphy heading towards the dropship. He went in but there was no shooting. Danai climbed down the tree and crept to the dropship herself. She heard voices but couldn't make them out.
"Don't shoot!" she called. She went in and saw Raven on the ground, blood all around her and a bloodied and battered Murphy sitting near her.
"Danai?" called Raven.
"Yeah," Danai said.
"Who's Danai?" asked Murphy.
"That would be me, Danai Morris, Arrow Station, thief." Murphy smirked.
"Still don't remember you."
"Don't doubt it. I wasn't part of your little group and after they tried to murder you, they banished you. No reason for you to remember me." Danai sat on the floor, exhausted.
"Apart from being a thief, what did they get you for?"
"I stole something of mine back from the guard who stole it from me."
"Ah, now I remember, the non-thief."
"Why do you call her a non-thief?" asked Raven.
"She only stole back what was stolen from her. We never considered her a true thief." Raven looked at Danai who just shrugged. Raven winced.
"Here, let's get you a little more comfortable," Danai said, putting her hand down to lever herself upwards.
"Stop!" shouted Raven. Too late, Danai had already put her hand on a live wire and the electricity ran through her body, shocking her unconscious. "Danai!" Raven shouted. Murphy had gotten up and was looking around for something to use to move her body away from the live wire. He ran out and saw Bellamy, Finn, Kane and Abby.
"Bellamy! We need a branch! Live wire!" he yelled, pointing to the dropship. "Danai's being shocked!" Bellamy wanted to kill Murphy for what he did, but he heeded his words and ran to the edge of the ring of fire and came back with a branch he could use. He ran up the ramp with the others following him. Abby gasped, but Kane pulled her back when she was about to go to Danai.
"Wait, Abby, it's not safe yet." Bellamy used the branch to move Danai aside and then flicked the live wire to one side. Abby ran to her side.
"She's not breathing! Starting compressions!" Abby worked hard and kept checking her pulse. One of the guards took over checking her pulse as Abby concentrated on pumping Danai's chest. The others looked on, concerned for her.
"Got a pulse!" the guard said. Abby stopped and felt for the pulse herself.
"Okay, she's got a good pulse….she's stable for now." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Kane looked around.
"What happened?"
"She accidentally put her hand on a livewire when getting up," Murphy said.
"No, I mean with the devastation out there," he said, waving to the door. "What happened?"
"Grounders!" spat out Bellamy.
"There were about two to three hundred of them, Kane," Raven said. "We didn't stand a chance without using the dropship's engines and igniting the rockets to expend the last of its fuel, creating a ring of fire." He and every other adult there were amazed.
"Where are the others?" asked Finn.
"Don't know. I was unconscious when they left the ship. I have no idea where they are."
"The grounders took them!" said Finn.
"No they didn't," slurred Danai.
"Hey, no talking, you've taken a big jolt of electricity."
"Wasn't grounders," said Danai, ignoring the adult in front of her.
"Who was it?" asked Bellamy.
"Don't know. They wore radiation suits. They have a car - or van or whatever it was - and they had some kind of knockout smoke bombs. They all fell down unconscious. The suited figures picked them up and put them in their vehicle."
"Where did they go?" Finn asked.
"Don't know. The smoke knocked me out before they left."
"Where were you?"
"Up a tree."
"Doing what?"
"Trying to survive."
"You were outside when they set it off?" asked Bellamy.
"Mmm," Danai agreed before falling asleep again. Abby checked her pulse.
"She's asleep."
"Think she was telling the truth?" asked Kane.
"Yes."
"She's one of us, Kane, she wouldn't lie about that."
"Where's she from?"
"Arrow Station," said Murphy. Bellamy still wanted to kill him, but reined himself in. With the Arkers around, they'd arrest him for just hitting him. He didn't want shocklashed just for doing anything to Murphy.
"We need to go after them, Bellamy," said Finn, desperately.
"We have injured Finn," said Kane. "We need to get them back to Alpha Station and get them medical help." Finn looked as if he wanted to take off to find them himself, but one look at Raven and he knew he had to get her some help. He nodded and they made stretchers for both Raven and Danai. Kane and the guards took them back to Alpha Station and the fenced off area they'd claimed as their own. Each of the delinquents knew that it would cause the grounders to attack them for daring to take the land that belonged to the grounders. Bellamy was no fan of the Grounders, but even he knew that just taking the land they were on was an act of war - after all, it was what they'd done when they first came down. Bellamy still didn't trust the grounders, but his sister did, Clarke did and even if Bellamy didn't want to, he trusted Clarke.
Xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Danai woke up inside a metal room. Damn, she thought, back on the Ark. She wondered if everything that had happened had been a dream, but as she looked around, she saw Raven on another bed with Abby and Jackson leaning over her. They were talking about the need to operate without any anaesthetic. She sat up.
"I may know where to find some," she said. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up. She immediately grabbed the side of the bed as a wave of dizziness passed over her.
"Danai, you're not well enough to go anywhere," Abby said.
"If I don't you'll have to operate on her while she's awake," Danai said.
"Tell us where it is and we'll go look for it," reasoned Abby.
"No. I know exactly where I need to go, your people would flounder around wasting time looking for it."
"What are you looking for exactly?" asked Jackson. Danai hesitated.
"There's a place I found that had some old world stuff in it including a medbag. Clarke told me to keep it there for safekeeping and only to go get it if we absolutely needed it."
"How long would it take for you to go get it?"
"Several hours. It's northeast of our dropship."
"That could take too long, Abby," Jackson said.
"It may be her only chance, Jackson." Abby debated with herself.
"Come with me," she said to Danai. Danai followed her as Abby led them to where Kane was talking to Finn, Bellamy and Murphy.
"What is it, Abby?" Kane asked.
"Raven needs medication we don't have. We need to operate on her, but we don't have anything to knock her out with. Danai says she knows a place that has an old world medbag. We need those meds, Kane."
"I can't let one person leave the camp, Abby. It's not safe down here."
"Actually, it's not safe for YOU. Us kids are fine. Murphy and I can go get it and bring it back," said Danai.
"I can't let you do that, sorry."
"You don't have a choice, Kane. How do you think the others will see you when they find out you wouldn't let someone go get the medication needed to save one of them?"
"You don't know if the medicine is usable," he said, indignantly.
"And we won't unless we're allowed to go get it," Dania said, raising her voice. "You still don't get it, do you Kane? We kids made a pact with the grounders - a non-aggression pact. Bellamy and Finn broke it and that's why they attacked the dropship. That non-aggression pact is viable for Murphy and I. Anyone you send outside these fences could be killed." Danai hoped he wouldn't pick up on the fact that the kids were targets too.
"So could you."
"But we've been down here longer than you, Kane. We know the land around the dropship. We know what to look for and what to avoid. We know how to find water, we know how to hunt for food, do you?" Kane looked like he wanted to say she couldn't go on the principle that he was an adult and they were children so he knew what was best for them. Danai seemed to know what he was thinking. "Life experience, Kane, not age makes you an adult down here. We've been here for two months. Two months in which we learned how to find water, how to hunt, and how to survive. You've been down for a day. You know nothing about the ground, so by grounder standards, you are the children and WE kids are the adults."
"I'll go with her," said Finn.
"No offence Finn, but I'd rather go with Murphy. You're in love with Clarke and that makes you a liability." Finn looked aggrieved but kept his mouth shut.
"Okay, you can go, but I'll send some guards with you."
"No," Danai said. "You'd slow us down and you make too much noise moving through the woods."
"I need to make sure you're safe, Danai."
"Funny, I don't remember that when you dropped us down here to die," she said.
"We didn't!" said Kane.
"Yeah, you did. We had nothing, Kane. Not one thing that was useful. No weapons, no food, no water and nothing to use for building anything. We made what we needed. We learned because we wanted to survive. You gave us nothing, and don't even think of saying that you needed it up on the Ark! You didn't need some of the tools we needed. You could have spared some medicines - even if it was only our share of them, but you kept them for yourselves!" Kane looked at her dumbfounded.
"We left instructions on the recording," he said.
"Well thanks to Finn here, the comm unit was busted by two idiots who followed Finn out of his seat to do another illegal spacewalk! Murphy, let's go." Danai turned her back on the rest of them and left the room. Murphy smirked and followed. They went to the gate and told the guard to open it. The guard refused until Kane told him to open it. The guard nodded and turned the electricity off and opened the gate. Danai and Murphy slipped through it and ran into the treeline and disappeared from view.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Danai led Murphy towards the hidden bunker she'd found. It wasn't the same one Finn had found though, this one she kept for herself. She'd felt guilty at first, but when Clarke and Bellamy were going toe to toe for the leadership and when their plans went wrong, the camp was the last place she wanted to be.
"How far is this place?" asked Murphy.
"Just a couple of miles past the dropship actually," Danai said.
"And why did you pick me?"
"Because Finn's too unstable right now. He's all about finding Clarke, but couldn't give a shit about the rest of them. Bellamy's too stubborn in his own rightfulness to actually listen to anyone else. You, on the other hand, are motivated by self preservation. You will listen if it's to save your life."
"True," Murphy said.
"I picked you because you're the least likely to fuck up. This is for Raven, Murphy, you owe her that." Murphy was quiet as he thought about things.
"I never meant to shoot Raven."
"No, you were aiming for someone else. You really think killing someone else would make you more likeable to them?"
"No, of course not!"
"Then man up, Murphy! Take responsibility for your actions!"
"Like you did on the Ark?" he shot back.
"I never did anything like that up there or down here. I stole back what was mine, unfortunately they'd repaired the cameras in certain corridors. Cameras that had been broken for several years. We all know which corridors, Murphy, we've all used them when we shouldn't have."
"You got caught, Morris."
"I'm not a good thief, Murphy. I never want to be a thief."
"Yeah, well, life doesn't always give us what we want, sometimes we have to take it."
"By stealing? By force? Which one were you in prison for?"
"Hey, I set fire to the guard's quarters who arrested and floated my dad!"
"And how'd that turn out for you?" Danai spat back. Murphy was silent.
"Yeah, that's what I thought. Our actions have consequences, Murphy. Each of us is responsible for them. You want to kill someone, then you have to take the consequences too. Don't think you can run away from them either, it doesn't work like that. You can run, but those actions stay with you. Shooting Raven will not go away when you run, it'll be in your head forever. You just have to decide if it was worth it. Did shooting Raven give you a high? Did it make you feel like a man? Or did it make you realise that killing or maiming someone is not as fun as you thought?"
Murphy was quiet again as he realised she was right. Shooting Raven had been an accident, but it would haunt him for the rest of his life. There wasn't anything he could do for her but this - finding medicine to help her.
Danai and Murphy pushed on and reached the bunker at dusk.
"This bunker is mine, Murphy. I find things missing from it next time I come here and I'll find you and I won't be nice about it. No-one else of our people knows it's here. Do not tell them!" Murphy nodded. Even though he would take what he wanted, when he wanted, this bunker would be off limits. He owed Danai and Raven that much. If he could honour his word on this, then he'd be a better man, someone he would look at in years to come and say he'd done one good deed for someone else. Murphy knew he wasn't a good person, but deep down, he wanted to be. Maybe this was his first step on the road to redemption.
"I promise not to tell anyone else about this bunker or what's in it."
"Good, we're here." Danai bent down and pulled up the hatch. It was situated near the base of a tree with bushes growning around it. She went down and switched on a flashlight. She used that to light the way to the candlelamp she'd found and used one of the few matches she had left to light it. It didn't give off much light, but it was enough to see by. She switched off the flashlight and replaced it by the ladder and picked up the lamp and carried it to the back of the bunker to some shelves. Murphy followed her and whistled in amazement at all the things on the shelves.
"How much stuff is here?" he asked.
"Don't know, I've not done inventory yet. I've visually inspected it and counted some stuff, but I haven't written it down yet." Murphy nodded, calculating how much stuff he could take and get away with. He stopped short. Not even five minutes did he keep his promise not to take anything and here he was, planning how much of it he could steal. No, he would keep his promise. Nothing down here was for him.
Danai had been watching Murphy from the corner of her eye to see his reaction and she knew he was planning to take some of it. She was disappointed in him, but that was what he was at his core, selfish and only thinking of himself.
She pulled out a large medbag and opened it. There were a lot of instruments and medicines and bandages inside. Both of them looked at it and then at each other.
"Hopefully, there's enough stuff in here to help Raven," Danai said.
"Okay, anything else we need to take back to them?"
"We could take that set of surgery equipment," she said, pointing to a small package labelled surgery tools. Murphy picked it up.
"Anything else?" Danai looked around but she didn't see anything that could be used by everyone back at the camp.
"Anything else is just a few bits and pieces. We take those back and they'll keep them for the privileged and the guards. No, I think this will be enough. Anything else would be fought over." Murphy nodded. Thinking back to the first days of their own landing, he knew if he'd gotten hold of them, he'd be blackmailing people for the use of a blanket, or making sure that others did his work for him in return for a clean shirt. Danai had it right, those of the Ark would be fighting over who got them in no time.
"Let's go," he said, moving to the ladder.
"Wait!" Danai called. Murphy stopped and turned around to see Danai pulling something from one of the cupboards.
"I was last here two days before everything went to shit with that ring of fire," she said, turning around with her hand full of dried, smoked meat. "Here, I made some Jerky. We can eat it on the way back to camp." Murphy nodded and picked up several pieces.
They set off back to the camp in darkness, only guided by the moonlight seeping gently through the trees. They made it back by sun up.
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Danai and Murphy walked to the gates and asked for entry. The guards opened the gate only wide enough for them to squeeze through. Monroe and Sterling came up to them.
"You need to hurry, Raven's getting worse," Monroe said. They took off running and when they were through the doors of medbay, they dropped their packages off with Abby and Jackson.
"We got whatever medical stuff there was, but it wasn't much. Hope it helps." Abby and Jackson were too busy sorting through everything to answer. Murphy shrugged his shoulders and both of them left. It was now up to Abby and Jackson to fix Raven. They'd done all they could, it was now down to the professionals.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Outside medbay, Bellamy and Finn were there to greet them.
"Well, did you find anything?"
"Yeah, we came back with a large medbag and a package of surgical tools. Don't know if there's the right medicine for her, but at least they can operate with the right tools," Danai said, rubbing her eyes and yawning.
"You get any sleep yet?" asked Finn.
"No, we walked straight to the place, got the med stuff and came straight back. I'm exhausted. Where can I bunk down for a sleep?" Bellamy and Finn looked at each other. Danai and Murphy caught it.
"What?" asked Murphy.
"Well, no-one's actually gotten around to building anywhere to sleep."
"What!?" exclaimed Danai and Murphy.
"They haven't done anything to start building anywhere to live. They're using the remnants of the Ark to sleep in," said Bellamy.
"What about food?" Danai asked.
"The food processors still work, so they're still eating that stuff," Finn said, pulling a face.
"Oh, hell no! I'm not going back to eating that crap! My body needs proper food. That stuff wouldn't keep a squirrel alive down here!" Danai exclaimed.
"We know. We've had to eat that stuff because they won't let us go outside the fence."
"God! Too scared of their own shadows, I bet," Danai said. "Well, fuck this! I'm going to build my own shelter and then get some rest. Are they letting us have blankets, or are they keeping them for themselves?" Silence followed which was very telling.
"Ignorant fuckers! There's going to be a riot soon if they don't fucking share and co-operate!" Danai stalked off back to the gate.
"Open up, I want to find shelter for myself since you idiots aren't!" The guard on the gate looked around but saw no-one in authority. Danai stood there, hands on hips and fury on her face.
"Well?!" she barked. The guard opened the gate and Bellamy, Finn and Murphy followed her with Monroe and Sterling running to catch up with them.
"Where are we going?" Monroe asked.
"To find enough wood we can drag back here to make shelters with," Danai said, stalking into the woods.
"We don't have any axes, Danai," said Bellamy. Danai stopped when she was out of sight of the Ark station.
"I know," she sighed. "I was so mad at them that I forgot to get one." Bellamy and the others burst out laughing.
"Okay, let's just find fallen branches and drag them back," he said, still chuckling. Everyone nodded and paired up to find some.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
They dragged several large branches back to the gate and went back for more. The second time they dragged the wood to the gate, Kane told them to come inside as it was too dangerous outside. Danai said she'd wait until she'd got enough wood to build her own shelter because apparently the Arkers were doing nothing to make a new life of the ground. She also stated that she'd go hunting as well before coming back in as she knew once she was inside, they'd never let them out again. Kane knew she was right, but it was a blatant disregard of his authority.
"You come inside this camp right now! If you don't, you'll be punished!"
"How? You gonna float me?" she shot back at him.
"You will be subject to the Exodus charter and shocklashed."
"Well then, that's my mind made up!" she said, walking back to the trees.
"Guys," she called out. Each of them popped their heads up or around a tree to see her.
"Yeah?" asked Bellamy.
"Kane said we have to go back inside the camp or be punished by shocklashing."
"Is he serious?" asked Finn.
"Yup, he's too scared of losing his authority as the new Chancellor. Stupid idiot still thinks he's in charge!"
"Well, Clarke's not here!" Finn said.
"I know, and when she does come back, he's going to have to realise that the grounders see her as our leader, not one of these adults."
"We'd better go back guys," Bellamy said. Danai was not going back, but she wasn't going to tell them that.
"I've dragged a pile of wood to the gate, can you take it in for me, please? I told Kane I'd go hunting before I went back inside, 'cos I knew he'd never let us back out."
"Ballsy," said Murphy. Danai shrugged. The others started back but Murphy waited.
"You're not coming back, are you?"
"I don't belong there, Murphy. None of us hundred belong there anymore. They don't see that. They see children. They see the need to protect the very children they threw away. Ironic really. We won't be able to do the things we need to survive. They'll keep us locked away behind the fence because THEY are afraid of their own shadows. We've hunted and built and figured out how to survive. They don't want that. They want the Ark. They want their nice, cozy, safe space station. They don't want to live down here, they just can't go back to space."
"Where will you go? Back to that bunker?"
"No, I'll find somewhere near here. I'll try to get you some proper food. The nearest section of fencing to the trees is actually behind the wreckage. I'll leave some game there for you. It'll be up to you how you cook it and what you say to the Arkers."
"They'll know someone is doing this," Murphy said.
"As long as they don't catch me or shoot me, I don't really care. I'm free Murphy, how many of us can say that?" Murphy nodded.
"Take care, Morris."
"You too, Murphy. I'll be around if you need me for anything." Murphy nodded and set off back to the gates with an armful of wood. He knew she was right, but he also knew that the Arkers wouldn't let them all go. One had a better chance of staying free, he just wished it was him, but if it had been, he'd have taken off and not looked back. At least Danai was staying around to help them.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Once back in camp, Murphy informed the others of the hundred that Danai was staying outside the fence. Bellamy had at first been livid, but the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. Out there, she was relatively free to do the things needed to help those inside the camp. He hoped that Kane wouldn't be too stupid as to go and look for a single person who didn't want to be in the camp in the first place! No doubt, Danai could evade them, but the resources they'd waste looking for her was stupid. Maybe he'd be able to influence Kane by telling him not to waste valuable resources looking for her, after all, she was one of the hundred and knew how to hunt and how to find water for herself.
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Danai had stayed near the camp the first day, evading Kane's patrols far too easily - they never looked up into the trees! The second day, she ranged up towards Mount Weather. She had no intention of going to it, but she wanted to make sure that none of their patrols were heading their way. She found a good place to watch over the valley between the two mountains. She'd even been to Finn's bunker and searched for some binoculars. She only found a small collapsible telescope. It was better than nothing, so she'd taken that and she went back to the lookout point and watched the valley for several hours each day. She'd hunt on the way back and at first, she dropped fresh rabbit kills near the fence, but soon realised that the others would have to explain where they got it from, so she switched tactics.
She started leaving food already cooked, wrapped in broadleaves. She'd leave several packages in the tall grass and waited for the others to come and get them. When they arrived, she'd already fashioned a sort of paddle and she'd lay the food on the paddle and pass it through the electrified fence to them. Once the food had been taken, she hid the paddle and took off again.
She did that for several days until one day, they didn't arrive. She'd waited as long as she dared before she took off and walked the perimeter of the camp out of sight of it. She eventually found them waiting for her. They had guns.
"Come on, Abby gave us the guns and snuck us out of camp to go find Clarke and the others," Bellamy said.
"Yeah, well, that's going to be difficult. I think they're inside Mount Weather," Danai said.
"What makes you think that?" Finn asked.
"Because I've been watching that valley between our two mountains and have seen some suited figures moving around there."
"That doesn't mean anything," Finn said, getting more belligerent. "We know the grounders took them!"
"NO! I told you that it was suited figures and I've seen them coming and going from Mount Weather!"
"NO, you don't understand. We are at war with the grounders! It was them!" Finn would not be dissuaded.
"You're wrong, Finn. I'm going to look for them, but if you want to run around looking for them in the wrong place, go ahead, waste time." Finn looked at her stubbornly and set off in the opposite direction. Bellamy looked at Danai.
"We'll go with Finn to keep an eye out for them. We're also looking for other stations," he explained. Danai nodded.
"Watch him, he's so hung up on Clarke, he cannot see that he's doing anything wrong."
"I know, we'll watch him." Danai nodded then set off towards Mount Weather.
Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo
Okay, that's the first chapter. Thoughts, please. Samdagger.