Warnings for attempted murder, genocide, child death, gun violence and trauma, and forced pregnancy, rape, and suicide.
Chapter 6
The fall of the Mountain Men
Clarke led Lincoln and the other Outsiders to the north side of the mountain, which was the exit that Maya had directed them to.
They were close to an entrance. An entrance, sadly, which was locked up like a vault's door.
Clarke gasped, seeing the door in the light of the spotlights lined up all along the interior walls of the mountain.
How were they going to get out? She could feel the exhausted panting of the Outsiders behind her and she knew that between their most likely malnourishment, their tiredness and probably some injuries too, they wouldn't be able to make it for much longer, unless the doors were opened up fast.
Clarke tried not to panic too much. Maya, she really hoped Maya would move quickly.
Maya, on her end, moved as fast as she could.
She had raced up the stairs to the upper levels. She knew where the controls were. She had seen them a few times now.
She got to where the controls were. She took a hard turn and all but leapt at where there was a door, leading to the main control room. She used her keycard, a keycard which almost no one else except the top staff of the Mountain Men could access, and she opened up the door.
She figured if there was a guard on duty at this moment for the controls? Then she could come up with a story about what she was doing there. The cameras in the lowest level, where the prisoners were kept, were reduced to only the hallways. There were no cameras in the main room full of prisoners. Because of this? No one would have seen her help release the Outsiders.
Which meant that she could come in and feed the guard in the room a story about why she was there, and the guard would not realize the truth.
She hoped, anyway.
She opened the door and came in and released a relieved breath. There was no guard here. Likely the guard that was usually put here, had been called away for one duty or other.
Maya closed the door, barricaded it with a few chairs and desks, then went to the panel and began to work, grabbing the toolbox nearby and starting to unscrew what she needed to, and rewire what she needed to rewire.
She knew she would have to act fast.
If she didn't, before Dante or Cage found out that Clarke was with the Outsiders? Then Clarke was dead.
Maya moved as fast as she could, trying to ignore the knot of fear and anxiety in her over all this.
In one of the lower labs, close by where the room was where the prisoners of the mountain were kept, was Dr. Tsing. She had taken another sample of Clarke's blood and couldn't help but try to analyze it further.
It wasn't that she thought anything could be gained for her and her people from Clarke's blood. Tsing knew better than that.
Terrible things happened to those who dared treaded on the territory of any of the cosmic gods.
Which was why Tsing would not even try to see if any of Clarke's blood or bone marrow could be applied to the Mountain Men. If she did that? It would be the death sentence of whichever person she injected the blood or bone marrow into.
But Tsing saw something in the code of Clarke's DNA. Something that was oddly…familiar.
Rising up from her seat, Tsing grabbed the glass slide with one of Clarke's blood samples on it and went over to the microscope and placed the glass slide under it.
She then peered through the eyepiece.
Something was very familiar about Clarke's DNA.
She had seen a human hybrid with this DNA type before. Nothing identical-Clarke was very unique biologically in that way. She was A Positive, what part of her was human, was A Positive, anyway. And there wasn't much human DNA in that girl.
But the rest of Clarke's DNA?
Tsing wasn't very sure. But she was certain she had seen at least part of this DNA code before.
But where?
Clarke wasn't a Deep One. That Tsing was sure of. She knew what Deep One DNA looked like.
Besides, Clarke was ten. Her fingers should start to change by now, if she had even a drop of Deep One blood in her.
The fingers were always the first to change in a child of a Deep One.
What was Clarke, then?
Tsing looked over the various DNA strands, as she logged into her computer and looked at what she put through the database.
She brought up a few other files with other DNA strands. She took a deep breath and on a whim, compared Clarke's DNA, with the other strands that she had taken in the past, before Clarke ever got here.
Two of the strands of DNA? Strands of DNA which Tsing had taken from an individual who had been supposedly the daughter of Yog-Sothoth.
The results of comparing these DNA samples?
Not surprising to Tsing. It wasn't an exact match, but Clarke and the other young woman were related.
However, not close enough for Tsing to say for certain, meant that Clarke was the daughter of Yog-Sothoth.
She wasn't.
Tsing nodded. "I thought as much," she confessed.
Yog-Sothoth's young tended to develop extra limbs and tails very early.
Which made her doubt instantaneously that Clarke was Yog-Sothoth's direct child.
But again, that left the question, who were Clarke's biological parents?
If Clarke's DNA was anything to go by? Then Clarke's human parent, wasn't that human at all. Clarke should at least be fifty percent human, if she was a human hybrid. But she wasn't.
Clarke was barely ten percent human.
Which left only one possibility. Clarke's cosmic parent, was fully cosmic. Her human parent, however, while carrying human DNA, had likely been only about a quarter human, maybe even less.
Which meant that the barely human parent of Clarke's? Had been a human hybrid.
Tsing sat back, shock hitting her.
Never in her entire life, had she heard of such a thing.
The cosmic gods didn't breed with hybrids. Not from what she had heard. Which brought up another question; why this girl's human hybrid parent? Why had that particular hybrid been of interest to this cosmic god?
When Yog-Sothoth had made the deal with Dante Wallace's father, and at Yog-Sothoth's demands, Dante's father had forfeited any wife that his son would marry any daughter that he might have, to Yog-Sothoth.
Tsing was positive that the reason why no one had seen either Dante's wife or daughter ever again, was because Dante's wife, Matilda, had likely thrown herself out of the mountain before Dante could offer her in a hazmat suit to Yog-Sothoth, rather than be impregnated by the creature and bring forth a hybrid. And she didn't doubt that Matilda had torn her daughter, Zelda out of her hazmat suit and into the open air, exposing her to the poisonous environment, killing them both.
There was a reason why Dante was haunted by their deaths. He blamed himself.
Even if it was his father that had made the deal, Dante was the one that had chosen to go through with the deal.
That botched deal, the deal that was made, that was not successful, because Matilda killed her daughter, then herself, before either of them could become pregnant with Yog-Sothoth's children, was why the mountain was now falling apart. Soon, the mountain would fall and everyone inside would be dead. It would be only a few decades now.
That was why the Mountain Men had to move fast to find a cure for them.
Dante had disintegrated the bodies of his wife and daughter, not wishing anyone to find out how they had died, and why.
He had been haunted ever since.
But the point was? The cosmic gods tended to like to breed with human beings that didn't have any cosmic blood in their veins previously.
So what was this anomaly? Why this? Why had a cosmic being chosen to mate with Clarke's hybrid parent?
Tsing, against her better judgment, brought up the other DNA sample and compared it with Clarke's DNA sample.
As soon as she did, Tsing gasped and her eyes widened.
Clarke was that cosmic god's child?
She didn't know what cosmic being had mated with Clarke's ancestor to produce Clarke's human hybrid parent, but she recognized the parent that had no human DNA in them.
Tsing stared at the screen and didn't move for several seconds.
She needed to go tell Dante. Now.
She got up from the chair and made her way to the radio that she had placed down some feet away.
Carl Emerson, one of the head guards in the mountain, made his way back to the main room, where he had been guarding the front panel, where all the cameras were set up.
He had been watching the screens before, but he'd been called away. Now, he headed back.
He got down the hallway and reached the backroom, which had the control panel in it.
He was about to enter, when the door only swung in slightly. It was like it was blocked. Emerson growled, confused, ramming his left shoulder into the weight of the door, but it wouldn't budge.
What was this?
He looked through the round window of the door.
His eyes widened. What the hell? Maya Vie? What was she doing here?
Emerson rammed into the door again, and Maya, who had to have heard the first time he rammed into the door, turned around, peering over at him, a pained expression on her face, an expression that chilled Emerson.
Maya's expression screamed that she was resigned to something and didn't see any other option she could take.
That was not an expression you wanted aimed at you. Maya appeared sad and resigned and she appeared terrifying in her sadness.
Emerson didn't understand. What was Maya doing? Why was she here?
"Maya?!" He yelled, "Open the door! I need to get in!" He knew that Maya would hear. He had opened the door up enough for her to be able to hear him, even if he hadn't been able to open the door enough to get all the way through.
Maya looked back at him, shook her head, that heartbreaking expression still on her face and she went back to working.
Emerson's heart stopped when he saw what she was doing. She was physically hacking into the hardware of the panel. Literally opening it up and rewiring everything.
Cursing, Emerson spat out, anger rising and he kept in mind where on his person his rifle was.
"Maya!" He snarled, "You-I don't know what's fucking going on, but you are going to let me in and stop what you're doing!"
Maya shook her head, but this time, did not turn to Emerson as she worked. "No, Emerson," she yelled, and Emerson noticed that her voice was strained, "I can't. I have to do this. What we're doing is wrong!"
"What are we doing that's wrong?" Emerson snorted, "Maya, what are you talking about?!"
Maya didn't answer.
Emerson spat out again. He didn't know what Maya was babbling on about. But he was going to stop her one way or another.
He pulled his rifle off of his back, checked that it was loaded; it was, and pulled the safety off of it.
He stepped back and aimed the gun at the round window.
Maya turned around and saw the barrel of the rifle, aimed right at the round window, and Emerson watched as she ducked down under the metal panel, but she still worked on rewiring things.
Emerson glowered and opened fire.
The bullet pierced the glass of the round window, but it didn't shoot Maya. He let loose several more rounds, but they shot through the glass window, but didn't hit Maya, and the bullets bounced against the metal.
He then glared and saw in the lowest right-hand screen, that there were people running around in the hallway, just one wall between the mountain and the outside world. Emerson's eyes widened in comprehension.
The prisoners were free.
Emerson's condemning eyes went back to Maya.
Maya had let them out!
"Maya!" He spat, disgusted, and grabbed his radio and contacted the nearest guard.
"Any guard listening!" He spat, "There are prisoners loose in the northmost hallway of the mountain. They are just near the main exterior door. Capture them!"
His message went through to the radios all throughout the mountain.
Lovejoy was the one closest to the hallway where Clarke and the Outsiders were, and he ran over, pulling his firearm out, pulling the safety off.
Lovejoy reached the hallway, walking right along the barren, rocky interior walls of the mountainside.
He readied his rifle, took aim when he saw a group of people coming closer, then stopped, when he saw who was with the escaped Outsiders.
Clarke?!
The girl from that "Ark" place?
What the hell was she doing here?!
Lovejoy raised his head from his aimed rifle as he stared at the approaching group. Clarke and the Outsiders stopped in their tracks, seeing Lovejoy there, aiming his rifle.
Clarke's eyes widened, seeing Lovejoy.
"Lovejoy," Clarke said quietly.
Lovejoy all but snorted Clarke's name out. What the hell was going on?!
"How did you find out about the prisoners?!" He demanded of her, "Maya told you?!"
Clarke suddenly looked alarmed. "What do you mean about Maya?!" Clarke demanded, "How do you know that I didn't let them out myself?"
Lovejoy snorted again, "As if I'd fall for that. Emerson has Maya alone, you traitorous brat. And he's going to fill her head full of bullets for betraying us."
Clarke's eyes became wider, and her blood ran cold.
Carl Emerson had Maya.
And he was going to kill her for treason.
Clarke almost whimpered, mind going to her father, Jake. Someone else who had almost been executed for treason.
She tried to control her breathing, which almost became weak and shortened.
She had to stop it. She had to stop Emerson.
Clarke apologized quickly to Lincoln and ran between him and the other Outsiders, running back to the doorway from where she and the Outsiders had come out of.
"Clarke!" Lovejoy spat, beginning to raise his gun again, but the Outsiders rushed him, eight of them leaping onto him, overpowering him and putting their hands around his throat as they tore Lovejoy's rifle from him.
Seeing that the Mountain Man was kept under control by the other people of the tribes, Lincoln ran from the hall, after Clarke.
He had to make sure she was safe. He at least knew that the Mountain Man guard would be dealt with.
Clarke got through the doorway, back into the mountain, and Lincoln ran after her.
Clarke ran up the stairs into the hall, to the upper level, with Lincoln running close behind.
Clarke tore to the right, going to Dante Wallace's quarters. She hoped he wasn't there, but she knew what she had to get.
She ran to the room, finding Dante not there, then tore through the room, going to the wall on the opposite side of the door, grabbing up the round shield that was the great Captain America's shield.
It weighed more than a ton.
She winced as she carried it through the room to the door.
She almost crashed into Lincoln when she tried to get through the doorway.
Lincoln looked at Clarke, startled.
"What are you doing here?" Clarke asked, confused, "Why aren't you with the others?"
"The Mountain Man was overpowered," Lincoln assured her, "I wanted to make sure you were safe."
Clarke half felt like snapping at him, but she was worried about Maya.
"Help me save Maya," she practically pleaded with Lincoln, going out of the doorway and lugging the very heavy shield with her down the hallway.
Lincoln again, followed closely behind her.
Clarke knew where the room was where Maya had gone. Maya had pointed it out to Clarke a few days ago, explaining that that was where the controls for the entire mountain was.
Clarke ran down the hall, and she gasped when she saw Carl Emerson right there, with his rifle aimed and aiming it at the door.
Which told Clarke that Maya was in that room just as Maya said she'd be, rewiring the panel.
Clarke screamed out at the guard, "Emerson!"
Emerson turned to look at her, startled, but his rifle was still aimed at the door to the control room.
Clarke had no idea what she was doing, but she turned the shield around in her arms, her thin, small arm barely getting through the two loops where the bearer of the shield was supposed to use as a grip, and held the shield up in front of her, the shield practically obscuring her body, save for her feet and legs.
And she charged.
She decided as soon as the thought had popped into her head to do this, that she was clearly out of her mind. But if that meant saving Maya? Then she'd be happy to be out of her mind.
She ran forward, holding the shield up protectively and she heard bullets being fired.
Clarke winced, positive that the shield she had was a fake, and the bullets would pierce the metal and hit her.
But all she heard after the bullets were discharged, were light metal dings slamming against the shield, nothing else.
Clarke opened her eyes, startled. She heard more gunfire. And heard more metallic dinging against the shield.
But nothing else happened.
And she knew that the bullets had to be hitting the shield that she was holding, because if it wasn't hitting the shield?
Then the gunfire wouldn't sound so close, practically right next to Clarke's ear.
Clarke gasped, almost laughing. This shield really was Captain America's shield!
Clarke yelled out, charging forward again and rammed the shield and her body against Emerson.
She heard Emerson shouting in rage and surprise, but felt him fall back against the wall with all her weight, which wasn't that impressive next to the weight of the shield, which Clarke supposed, if it was in fact Captain America's shield, must really have been made out of vibranium.
Emerson was rammed against the wall, and Clarke was able to hold him there for at least a few seconds, but she felt him push his hands back against the shield, pushing her back.
Now, the shield was heavy, but the child wielding the shield? Not so much.
Which was why in only seconds, Emerson was able to push Clarke back.
Thankfully, Lincoln was on Emerson fast.
Lincoln grabbed Emerson and used his right elbow to push into Emerson's neck, cutting Emerson's air supply off.
Clarke peered up from behind the shield, startled when she heard Emerson groaning weakly.
Her eyes widened when she saw Lincoln choking Emerson with his elbow.
She almost opened her mouth to plead with Lincoln not to kill him, but stopped herself. Emerson had tried to kill Maya. And he would have killed her and Lincoln too.
She squeezed her eyes shut and looked away as Lincoln crushed Emerson's throat, choking him. This was one of those things that obviously had to happen. But she didn't want to watch it happen.
Clarke shuddered as she heard Emerson's choking becoming shorter and shorter, and Eddie Emerson's face popped into her mind.
"I'm sorry, Eddie," Clarke thought to herself, as she heard Emerson's choking increasing, then stopping and heard him drop to the floor.
Clarke forced her eyes open only then and stepped away from…from the corpse.
Clarke felt mildly sick, even though she hadn't looked at the body yet.
"Lincoln," Clarke said, "We need to get into that room. Maya needs help."
"Alright," Lincoln said, about to follow her, but Clarke said quickly, "Grab any gun that Emerson has, we can't risk the guards getting their hands on more guns to shoot at us."
Lincoln answered quietly and leaned down, grabbing up all the firearms that Emerson had on him.
He and Clarke both went to the room, and Clarke banged on the door.
"Maya!" She yelled, "Let us in! It's me and Lincoln!"
She watched as Maya froze, and watched as Maya turned around to look out at her.
"Oh, no," Maya said, sounding panicked, "Clarke, why are you here?! You need to run! The guards will be here soon! Emerson was just one. How do you think you'll deal with a bunch of them?!"
Clarke shook her head as she tried to get her way between the door and the doorjamb. "I'm not leaving you!" She snapped as she struggled with the door.
Maya cursed quietly, realizing Clarke wasn't going to run, so, she went to the door and removed some of the debris she had placed in front of that door.
Maya moved away from the door and opened up the door, letting Clarke and Lincoln into the room.
Clarke ran in first. Then Lincoln.
As soon as they did, Maya closed the door and placed the debris back in front of the door.
Maya went back to the panel, kneeling down under the panel and snapped at Clarke, "Clarke, whatever you do, don't come out from behind that shield, alright? Stay behind it." She then looked at Lincoln, "And you protect Clarke, please."
At the desperation on Maya's face when she said this, Lincoln nodded to her.
As Maya worked, Clarke looked around the room. She said, "Where's the hazmat suit you mentioned, Maya?"
Maya stiffened, then said, still focusing on the wiring, "I lied. There's no extra hazmat suit, Clarke."
Clarke stared at Maya. "What?" She asked, voice wounded.
Maya shook her head and ignored Clarke's shocked and fearful face as she kept working.
Emerson was dead, but Lovejoy's message had been sent out to all of the guards. And all the guards armed and ready, came running.
The commotion outside of the room alerted Clarke, Maya and Lincoln to the guards' presence.
And that was when the guards began to open fire.
Clarke gasped, ducking behind the shield again, looking to Maya to see if she needed to duck behind it too.
Lincoln, went to the side of the room, hugging himself to the wall, avoiding any bullets.
"Maya!" Clarke recognized Lancaster's voice, "You know this door won't hold long."
Clarke looked around.
"They're going to kill you, aren't they?" Clarke asked fearfully.
Maya sucked in a breath, as she rewired everything, this time for entirely different reasons than originally intended.
This time, it was because she was doing the worst thing she could think of.
Her intention had originally to let Clarke and the Outsiders out. But now, she was going to have to go to the extreme.
She had already accepted that everyone in this mountain was going to be dead soon. So now she was going to commit the ultimate betrayal.
She was going to kill all of her people.
She ignored Clarke's question and kept working.
Outside of the room, the guards kept shooting at the door, kept pushing. And they were making progress.
First the biggest shelf blocking the door, fell over, then the next shelf.
"Um, Maya?" Clarke said nervously.
Maya's lower jaw clenched and she sparked the last two wires together, and she smiled sadly.
Everything was wired the way she wanted it.
"Clarke," Maya said, knowing that Clarke deserved to know what was about to happen and needed to know that it wasn't her fault, "Listen to me, sweetie," she faced Clarke's frightened face and spoke softly, gesturing to the main switch, "I've rewired everything so that this main switch? Is what will open every single door and window of the mountain. There will be no safe place in the mountain for people like us Mountain Men. We will all be poisoned."
Clarke stared at Maya, speechless for several seconds, before she said, "But….why would you…do that?"
Maya smiled sadly, "Because Clarke, it's the only way to stop us. The Mountain Men? We'll always kill people. If we don't kill the Ark people? We'll go after the Outsiders. And if not them? Someone else. This is the only thing for us Mountain Men."
Clarke shook her head, not wanting to comprehend. "Maya," she said weakly, "Don't. Please."
Maya smiled sadly. "I'm sorry, Clarke," she said, about to approach the lever, when a barrel of one of the rifles, belonging to one of the guards, stuck through the doorway, took aim right at Maya, and fired.
"Look out!" Lincoln yelled.
But the bullet fired, and hit Maya right in the chest.
"Maya!" Clarke screamed, watching in horror as the blood shot out of Maya's chest.
Lincoln hurled himself at the door, ramming it closed and making the guard that shot Maya drop his rifle.
"Maya!" Clarke sobbed, running to where Maya collapsed to the floor and she kneeled down next to the girl who had become like her big sister.
Maya wasn't dead yet. There was a pool of blood beginning to form under her body, and she was shaking and there was a hole in her chest. But she wasn't dead yet.
She gasped out, blood beginning to flow from her mouth as she stared at Clarke imploringly, "Clarke…you have to pull the lever. You have to live. If you don't pull…the lever…you'll die."
Clarke shook her head, leaning the metal shield against the wall next to her. "No," she said, tears beginning to stream down her face, "I can't. If…..if I do that, you and everyone else will die! Eddie, Charlie, the younger kids, they'll all die!"
Maya actually chuckled, and the blood seemed to gush out of her mouth, "Clarke, we've been dead for a long, long time. You're just killing us more quickly…..please, Clarke, for me? Do it. Pull the switch. If you won't, the Outsiders will die. Outsiders will keep being taken and drained of their blood. There are twelve tribes, Clarke. That means thousands, even millions of people who will be in danger if the Mountain Men aren't killed. There are only a few hundreds of children in the mountain, Clarke. There are million of children in the tribes," Maya's eyes stared up at Clarke, and as the light began to fade from her eyes, the dark-haired girl choked out, "Please….stop the Mountain Men. Kill the few children that are here in this mountain, to protect the millions of children in the tribes. And to protect the children from the Ark."
And then, Maya was gone.
Her life faded from this world.
Clarke sat down on her rear on the floor, feeling cold as she watched Maya stop moving, as she heard no breath leave Maya.
"M-Maya?" Clarke whimpered quietly, feeling the tears continue to stream from her eyes, "Maya?"
But Maya didn't move. Didn't move for a second.
Clarke's eyes closed and she hugged her knees to her chest, shaking and crying.
Maya was dead. Maya was dead.
She hadn't been able to save Maya.
She heard commotion by the door and looked over with a tearful gaze at Lincoln, who was blocking the door as he nodded to the lever.
"It's alright, Clarke," he said, "You don't have to pull the lever, I will."
Clarke's jaw clenched.
This wasn't Lincoln's place to do it. She knew he had every reason to want to, because of what the Mountain Men had done to his people.
But Maya had entrusted her with this.
Clarke thought about what Maya had just said.
The few for the many. Kill hundreds of mountain children for the millions of children in the tribes.
Clarke's teeth ground together, as she stood up, tears still flowing down her face, as she walked to the panel, where the switch was.
She could do as Maya had begged of her.
For Maya.
Clarke's eyes clenched shut as she wrapped her hand around the lever. "I'm sorry, Eddie, Charlie, all of you," she thought to herself.
The faces of the children who had become her friends these past few months, flashed in her mind and she wept harder, as she pulled the lever.
"I'm sorry," she thought to herself as she pulled the lever all the way, "I'm so sorry."
And the lever was pulled.
It happened so slowly, that Clarke almost thought that nothing was happening.
Then she heard mechanical groaning and whirring all around her.
And she heard the metal creaking and she knew the doors of the mountain were all opening up.
Clarke finally forced her eyes open and she stared at the screens where she could see the kids that she had become friends with over time while here.
And she watched, feeling her heart clench, as she watched each of the children who she had become friends with, twist and their faces contort in pain, and she watched as bloody slices began to open up all over their bodies.
Blood began spilling out of their mouths as they cried out and coughed.
She felt the tears come out of her eyes in rivers.
She was killing them. They were dying because of her.
She was their murderer.
And it was murder. The guards might have been trying to kill her. But the children hadn't done anything.
And so it was murder.
Clarke was a murderer.
Clarke's body shook as she cried, as she watched the children of the mountain scream and die and bleed out as they fell to the floor.
Clarke couldn't watch any longer. She looked away.
She knew it was wrong. She knew she didn't get to look away after what she did.
She didn't get to soothe her conscience in any way. But she had to look away.
She shook as she stared at Maya's dead body.
She had caused all this. She was the reason Maya was dead. She was the reason all the people of the mountain were soon going to die.
Clarke stared at Maya, still crying, chest feeling like it had been stabbed, as she listened to the screams from the speakers.
"You should have let me die," Clarke whispered to Maya quietly.
"Clarke," Lincoln said, pulling himself away from the door, as he heard the groans of pain on the other side of the door and started hearing the sounds of something colliding with the floor, "We can leave now. I'll help you get out."
"Why," Clarke snorted, "Not like there's anyone here to kill me anymore."
Lincoln said, walking over to where Clarke stood, "You shouldn't be here alone. It won't be good for you. Being with the bodies."
Clarke shook her head, sitting down slowly next to Maya, staring at the corpse. "Seeing her body till I die," Clarke said quietly, "Is what I deserve. I should die too for everything I've done."
"Clarke," Lincoln said, leaning down and grabbing Clarke around the waist, "I am sorry," he lifted Clarke up forcefully and carried the girl over his left shoulder, ignoring her struggling and her hitting the back of his head.
He opened up the door and carried her out of it, walking down the hallway.
He heard her gasp, as they went by the dead bodies of the guards, the guards all bearing multiple open sores all over their faces, blood pools all around them, obviously leaking out from their bodies.
Lincoln brought Clarke down the stairs to the lowest level, went through the room with the cages, got to the back door and went out it, running to where several of the other people from the tribes were still waiting by the mountain's outer door, waiting for Lincoln to return.
"Linkin," one of the prisoners who was from the Floukru tribe demanded, "What's happened?! I heard screaming."
Lincoln nodded, as she finally put the struggling Clarke down. "The Mountain Men are dead," he said, and he nodded to Clarke, "The girl, Klark, she's killed them."
The remaining people from the tribes, stared at Clarke, disbelieving.
"Really?" One Boudalankru man demanded in his tribal language, staring at Clarke as if he suddenly learned that he was in the room with the Pauna, "How is that possible?"
"I assure you," Lincoln said, "She killed them. She pulled a lever that opened up the doors of the mountain and flooded the mountain with the air that was poisonous to all of the Mountain Men. I saw it."
Clarke looked away, trying to swallow the bile in her throat.
She felt multiple eyes on her after Lincoln said that. Then she heard a word that she didn't understand.
The word was "Wanheda."
Clarke heard the word repeated a few times. Clarke narrowed her eyes. What was that word? What did it mean?
She heard the word, "Wanheda" a few more times, till Lincoln snapped at them to stop it and told them that it was upsetting Clarke.
Clarke wasn't sure why it would upset her. She didn't know what "Wanheda" meant.
"Klark," Lincoln said, "We should leave now."
Clarke shook her head, "I have to get my stuff. My father? He gave me things. A pack with all my things. I can't leave it behind. And I have to get that shield too. The one that we left behind in the room where Maya died."
She thought about the possibility that that shield was actually the shield of Captain America. If that was in fact what it was? She couldn't just leave it here.
She looked at Lincoln and he nodded after a few seconds.
"I'll come with you to get those things," he said, "Then we're leaving."
Clarke snorted. "Fine," she said, beginning to walk back down the hall.
She felt like the whole world had crashed down around her.
She was a killer. She had killed over a thousand people.
There were thousands and thousands of people on the Ark.
But only a few thousand in the mountain.
And she had killed all of them.
She had committed genocide.
Clarke shook at the thought as she walked. What would her father think?
If her father knew that she had killed this many people? Would her father ever forgive her?
Her father was a good and selfless man. Which led Clarke to the assumption that no, her father would not be able to forgive her. And how could she blame him?
Clarke increased her walking alongside Lincoln, and walked to her room, to get her things.
When Clarke led Lincoln to her room, she grabbed her backpack, feeling the weight of the statue in it.
She was not going to let anyone see that statue. For some reason, it felt like it was a bad idea to let people see it.
As Clarke and Lincoln left the room, Clarke walked down the next hall, finding Cage Wallace dead on the floor, blood pouring out of his mouth as he lay there with his eyes open.
Clarke winced and looked away. She hadn't liked Cage.
But she hadn't wanted to kill him, either.
She felt ashamed that she was relieved to see him dead.
She and Lincoln went past him, and went down the halls, to the main hall and Clarke froze next to Lincoln, seeing the many dead bodies all lined up along the benches of the tables.
Clarke's eyes roved over the corpses of the dead children, lying on the table, their hair encrusted with blood.
Clarke felt sick, and looked away, as soon as she saw the soccer ball that she and the other kids had played with a few days ago.
She had killed them all. She was the reason why the Mountain Men were now extinct. She had killed all of them.
Including the children.
"Klark," Lincoln said softly, as if he was afraid of making her upset, "We should get the shield, then leave."
Clarke nodded and begrudgingly followed him. They left the room of dead bodies, and went to the control room, going past the dead bodies of the guards.
They hesitantly entered the room and Clarke shuddered, tears beginning to flow again as soon as she saw Maya's body.
She slowly went over to where the shield was leaned against and grabbed it. She stared down at Maya's body.
"I'm sorry, Maya," she said brokenly, "I'm so sorry."
She knew Lincoln would make her leave if she didn't come with him now, so she forced herself away from Maya's side and followed Lincoln, hefting the shield and refusing to let Lincoln take it, down the steps in the next room, to the hall on the lowest level, outside of the room where the cages were.
When they met up with the remaining Outsiders, Clarke noticed the new looks of respect she was being given by the Outsiders.
She didn't like it.
It made her feel like they were happy to see her, because she had committed mass murder.
She hated it. Shouldn't they be disgusted with her? Horrified? But no, they were looking at her as if she was a hero.
She wasn't a hero. She was a murderer.
Clarke's right arm clenched, the straps of the shield she was heaving up, straining against her clenched arm.
In some ways, she was almost glad that her daddy's hero, Captain America was most assuredly dead by now-or rather, had been dead likely for centuries.
Because she was the type of person that he likely would have fought against.
"We should leave now," one of the Outsider women said to Lincoln and they began moving.
Clarke's eyes still were crying as she tried to wipe the tears away.
As she did, the woman who had spoken to Lincoln asked, eyeing Clarke, "Why are you crying, Wanheda?"
Considering Clarke had heard the term "Wanheda" addressed to her plenty of times now, she knew that the woman was talking to her, but Clarke still didn't understand what that word, "Wanheda" meant.
Still, she answered, "I'm crying, because I murdered all of these people. I killed all the children in the mountain. And my friend, Maya."
The words that Clarke got in response, stopped Clarke in her steps, making the girl shocked.
The woman scoffed, "Why are you shedding any tears for them, girl? They were butchers. The murderers of our people. They deserved death. Including the children. Better to kill them now than for them to grow up to the age when they could kill our people too. Better to kill the children. And you killed that friend of yours? If she was of the Mountain Men? Then she got what she deserved."
Clarke heard this and stared at the woman.
What the-?
Clarke couldn't believe what she was hearing.
These people were happy to hear about children dying? And they mocked Maya's death?
Again, the question entered Clarke's mind, "is this all human beings are?"
Clarke couldn't stop herself.
She tore herself from the Outsiders and ran over to where Lovejoy's body lay.
She dragged the shield, ignoring Lincoln yelling after her. She got to Lovejoy's body, kneeled down and while her right arm held onto the shield, her left arm reached down for Lovejoy's handgun.
She grabbed the handgun and pulled it out of its holster and aimed the gun right at the Outsiders.
She heard all of them let out quiet gasps and watched them back up.
She glared at them, rage now replacing sadness.
"Get out," She growled, "I'm not coming with you! You're happy that children are dead?! That my friend, Maya is dead?! I'll kill you!"
That last part was a bluff, and she knew that she wouldn't actually kill them, still it was almost enjoyable to see the shock and fear on the faces of the Outsiders.
"Klark-" Lincoln began, but Clarke wasn't going to give him the chance. She aimed the gun and aimed slightly to the right, then opened fire.
She felt the kickback and had to slam the bottom of the shield onto the ground to brace herself against it to stop herself from falling right over.
The bullet that was released, fired right past the man that had stayed, and as Clarke shot at them, she saw that several of them were convinced of her words, and they looked at her in fear.
The woman whispered, "Wanheda," again and Clarke heard the fear there, and the woman ran.
Which left Clarke and Lincoln alone.
Lincoln held his hands up in the classic "I surrender," gesture.
"Klark," he said gently, "I will not say what they said. I am not pleased that the children of the mountain are dead. And your friend, Maya, was brave. She was strong," Lincoln stared at Clarke without fear, as he observed Clarke standing there with the gun aimed, "Maya would have been a warrior if she had lived in any of our tribes. I want to help your people survive. Your people, where are they?"
Clarke eyed Lincoln, then said, no small amount of caution in her voice as she answered, "They're in a ship. In the sky. They are coming down soon."
Lincoln looked surprised, though Clarke suspected from what he had heard said between her and Maya, he still had a hard time believing.
For people on the ground and had never encountered a spaceship and didn't grow up with the tech that the Mountain Men had grown up with? A spaceship most likely was a bizarre thing to hear about.
Lincoln nodded, "Then I wish to help your people survive on the ground. If you will have my help."
Clarke stared at Lincoln still, but lowered her arm holding the gun.
"Alright," she said, "I'll trust you, Lincoln. But just you. None of your other people. Just you."
Author's note
A question you might be asking yourselves at the end of this chapter is, why haven't you seen anything about Dr. Tsing or Dante Wallace's bodies. Just a thought.