Hi guys! Hope you're all having an amazing day! Here's the next chapter :)

Chapter 19: Chilly in the 464

Clarke's P.O.V (4:12pm)

A day and a half has gone by since we left the desert and drove through Columbus, now a tundra, to the state of "Indiana", where we took a break and searched for supplies in a small ruined town. We were able to venture around the freezing area and get some more, very stale and very frozen water and a few bottles of alcohol that Monty mixed with some leftover gas to get us some more fuel. I was pretty proud that Jasper didn't ask if he could have 'just one sip' this time. He's doing much better. As for where we are now.. according to Murphy's phone map we should be somewhere between, what used to be, Hammond and Downtown Chicago, which is where the 'Crater' that Lincoln was talking about is supposed to be. The clouds hung over us as a reminder that we weren't safe just yet. Lincoln wasn't lying. The tundras we have been driving through have been nothing but cold weather with frigid winds and icy grounds. Those slippery grounds make it pretty hard for a girl to pee considering we can't just 'whip it out' as Murphy says. The sun was still out but it was getting darker by every minute. Raven was driving Bellamy, Murphy, Kane, and I in the car while Monty was leading us in the buggy with the others. I could see Warin's happy tail wagging from the back seat of the buggy. It's been quite a peaceful drive. Murphy has been playing music every now and then which kept us all happy. I was in the back of the car between Bellamy and Kane who both refused to sleep more than 4 hours the past day and a half. It was comforting having Bellamy so close to me. Falling asleep with my head on his shoulder every few hours was right where I belong.

"Fucking finally!" Murphy cheered from the passenger seat as the phone turned on after charging.

"Is the DJ booth back up and running?" Raven asked.

"See for yourself, madame." He said as he tapped the phone which started playing a song over the car's speakers. 'Come With Me by Surfaces and Salem Ilese' as the car's console screen read.

"It's good to see those two happy," Kane stated to Bellamy and I. "They went through a lot. All of you have." He turned away to look back out the window. I turned to Bellamy and we shared a look and a shrug that said 'He's alright'.

"How are you feeling?" Bellamy asked me quietly with soft eyes.

"I'm good. I feel like we're finally getting somewhere." I answered with a smile which he returned. The sunset was making his eyes glow in a way that I've never seen before. His hair was all over his forehead but not long enough yet to cover his eyes fully. The collar of the red winter jacket he was wearing was covering his neck but I could faintly make out the stubble trying to grow on it.

"SO BABY COME WITH ME!" Murphy sang his little heart out from upfront while Raven glanced at him every now and then with a smile. The song was just right. This was happiness.. THIS was where I belonged. With all these wonderful people. My thoughts were cut short as Monty slammed on the breaks of the buggy in front of us causing Raven to follow suit. She put the car in park and opened the door, which caused a relentless binging noise to occur.

"What the hell man!?" She asked walking over to the buggy, the crunching of her boots in the snow following her every step. The 4 of us followed her out of the car, weapons in hands, to investigate what happened.

"Lincoln told me to stop! I wasn't about to say no to him." Monty answered frantically as the others piled out of the vehicle. Lincoln was standing in front of the buggy holding the map we made in his hands. He was cycling between looking at the map and then looking at the area in front of him as if to compare the two scenes.

"What's going on Lincoln?" I asked walking up to him.

"The crater.." he stated, looking at the map.

"Are we almost there?" Kane asked.

"Yes."

"Then why did we stop?" Raven asked.

"Because we're already here." Lincoln stated. Kane and I shared the same confused look.

"Um… I hate to break it to you man but.." Jasper looked around doing a little spin with his arms spread. When he did a full 360 he stopped and said, "I don't see any deadly radioactive crater anywhere." He was right. All we could see in the distance was a horribly destroyed city. With almost no signs that it was ever there. What were once tall buildings were mounds of rubble. The few buildings that were standing were so broken it was shocking they hadn't fallen yet.

"It's impossible... Where is it?" Lincoln asked himself, seeming kind of angry. "All the travelers who made it this far claimed they turned back because there was a crater that swallowed their companions."

"Maybe we're not as far as we thought." Octavia stated, putting a calming hand on Lincoln's back and trying to stay optimistic.

"Or maybe we're lost," Murphy stated, walking over to Monty. "I guess that big brain of yours doesn't come with any street smarts huh Mont?"

"Screw you Murphy." Was his only response.

"Honestly, why is he even here?" Jasper asked, referring to Murphy. It was Raven's turn to speak now,

"Hey, at least he didn't spend half the trip drinking a valuable resource."

"Y-Yeah.. well… I've been a hell of a lot more useful than Murphy and the old man over there." Jasper said, gesturing over to Kane, who didn't seem to care in the slightest.

"Leave him out of this." Bellamy snarled. All that could be heard was a bunch of bickering voices after that. Arguing over, seemingly, nothing… this was not us. I grabbed one of the rifles from the buggy and shot it once up in the air to get everyone to shut the hell up.

BANG! The shot echoed in the wind.

It worked.. unsurprisingly.. the evening was silent now, except for the panting from Warin of course. So I decided to start talking.

"We did NOT come this far just to lose our heads and fight each other. I was going to leave Arkadia and never come back... And this was one of the reasons why. I didn't want people fighting over a mess that I put them in." I started tearing up. It seemed like nobody could meet my eyes except for Bellamy and Lincoln. "You guys wanted to come with me? Fine, I get that. In fact, up until now, I felt this is exactly where I belonged. Where I was happy.. with you guys. My friends... My family." My tears were running down my face faster now. No one said a word but the way they all looked around at each other suggested that they felt the same. "We've been through so much together. We've fought hard to get where we are. So I ask you all.. please. Get along so we can figure this out like we always do.. like we always will... Together." The tears flowed out of my eyes as I tried to keep up with wiping them away. The night was still silent and the weather was getting colder by the minute. But I stood my ground in front of all the guilty faces. Without a word, Jasper walked up to me and hugged me. It caught me off guard but I hugged him back, tight. Soon after him, Monty joined in on our hug. Then Bellamy. Then Raven. Then Octavia. And finally Kane, Lincoln, and Murphy. We all stood there embracing each other for what felt like hours but were only minutes. The cold weather seemed much warmer with all the arms around me. My tears of guilt turned into tears of joy as I laid my head on, the much taller, Jasper Jordan's chest with one of my arms holding Monty and the other holding Bellamy. This IS where I belong. We broke from the embrace and I gave them all a smile which they returned. "Thank you," I said. "Now let's figure this shit out."

Bellamy's P.O.V (4:30pm)

Yeah so.. basically... I'm in love with Clarke Griffin. I have finally come to terms with that fact about myself. The way she took control over all of us bickering morons and poured her heart out to us is just one more thing I can add to my long list of things that I love about her. She's been through so much this past month, she doesn't deserve to have to keep all of us from ripping each other's heads off. All I want to do in life now is protect her and take her away from any pain that she has been through. I want to show her all the things that make this scary world beautiful. I want to make her feel the way I feel every time I look at her. Happy. Safe. Calm.

That's all she deserves. That's what I'm going to give her.

"Could it be that.. the travelers who made this journey before lied about the crater so that no one would want to follow them to this.. paradise?" Monty asked, looking at Lincoln.

"It would make sense.. yes."

Was this a good thing? Yes and no. Yes, because we don't have to worry about falling into the crater. No, because that probably means people have made it to Calgary and we might have to beg them to let us into it.

We all got into our respective vehicles and started our journey towards, what used to be, downtown Chicago. All that was left was a couple of ruined buildings if you could even call them that anymore. They were too mangled to have anything useful in them so we drove past them. You could see that one of the bombs definitely hit near here as the remaining poles and some buildings were bent away from where the blast had occurred. The tires of the buggy in front of us were making tracks in the snow to guide us through the uninhabitable city. The wind was starting to pick up but I didn't pay too much attention to it. We made it to what used to be a sort of pier. We exited the vehicle to be greeted by the freezing outdoors. The cold wind started picking up even more out of nowhere which, in turn, caused the snow to start blowing around.

"We have to find shelter!" Kane shouted over the howling wind which was getting louder by the minute.

"I saw a building just back here come on!" I shouted to everyone as I turned on the flashlight that I taped to my rifle.

"Hell no! Did you see how messed up those buildings are!?" Murphy shouted from behind me.

"You wanna stay out here and freeze!? Be my guest!" I replied which seemed to shut him up.

We made it to the entrance of the building which no longer had a door. I stopped and waited for everyone to get in safely before I followed them in. Murphy and Kane pushed a large shelf over to block the entrance from letting in any more cold air and snow. It was still freezing cold and I could hear everyone's shaky breaths. It was also very dark in this place with the only light coming from my gun's flashlight. Kane unzipped his backpack and got out his own flashlight as well as a camping lantern. He turned on the powerful lantern and it lit up the area enough for us to see that we were, in fact, inside a.. bar.

"No fucking way." Jasper said.

Yeah, we managed to take shelter in a bar of all places. I decided to take charge.

"Monty, Murphy, start a fire if you can. Kane, let's check this place for resources. Warin's with us." The three men, and our canine companion, followed my requests while everyone else took a seat at the bar and awaited a nice warm fire. I heard two sets of feet walking behind me as I walked around the bar and.. last time I checked... Kane doesn't have four feet.. and Warins paws were.. well, paws. I turned around to see Clarke behind Kane with her pistol out. I gave her a smile and a nod and the three of us continued to look around the bar for anything useful.

"Bellamy," Kane called from behind me, I turned around and he nodded his head towards where he was pointing his light. I followed the light to see a door that I somehow didn't see when I walked past it. I went over to the door and put my hand on the knob as Kane and Clarke readied their weapons. Warin sniffed at the door, which was unusual for him to do. I barely opened it a crack before the door was pushed open and a body fell out onto the floor with a thud. I heard Clarke gasp and Warin started smelling the body. It was a young woman dressed in, what looked like, some kind of grounder clothes with fur.

"She died of hypothermia." Clarke stated.

"What was that?" Octavia asked as she and the others walked over to us. All shocked by our discovery. Lincoln's eyes widened at the sight of the girl's body.

"Did you know her?" Clarke asked, with a sorry voice.

"No. But she was Trikru.. the markings on her face tell me she was exiled though."

"She must have seen this journey as her only hope." Octavia stated sadly. I noticed, now, that the unfortunate girl was holding something in her hand, a book of some sort. I bent down and softly took the book from her skinny frozen hand. It had the Trikru logo scratched into the cover. I handed it to Lincoln as I felt that was the right thing to do. He dug out his journal from his bag and held it up next to the girl's book. They looked identical. The same brown color. The same logo was scratched into the cover. Jasper said what we were all thinking.

"If that ain't a sign that we should open it I don't know what is." Lincoln unclasped the straps from the book as we all gathered around behind him to see what was within the book. The first page showed a sketched picture of a pathway in a forest. He turned the page and it was another sketch, this time of a desert... Once he turned the page again and I saw the woman's sketch of the Wasteland I realized this young Trikru girl went on the same exact journey that we did...

"Well then... that's comforting to know.." Raven stated, referring to how this girl ended up. Octavia spoke now,

"There's a big difference between her and us... we're not doing this trip alone."

"Exactly." I agreed with my sister. "We have each other." Everyone smiled at me and it felt good to not be alone. To have all these wonderful faces, smiling at me, or in Murphy's case.. giving me a tight smirk.

"Are there any words in the book Lincoln?" Clarke asked as he flipped through.

"Not really.. just sketches" he flipped through it faster until he got to the end where he stopped and held it open. "There are words on this page but they are in trigedasleng." We all leaned in to have a peak. Sure enough, there was a written paragraph. The handwriting was very jagged as if it were rushed and she was shaking while she wrote it.

"Care to translate for us there, chief of the dirt people?" Murphy asked, earning him a bap on the back of the head by Raven.

I am hiding from the cold. It is dark and I am hungry. I no longer feel as if I can go on with the journey. It is with great hope that someone finds this book. Finds me. I have ran out of water. I am hearing the voices of my mother and father calling to me. My fire has burned out. Much like my life is about to. I wish I had made it to The City of Dreams. It was my last chance. My last battle. My fight is over. If you are making this journey. Don't give up. Travel on the frozen water ahead until you reach what is known as Milwaukee. The lands are dangerous and hold many obstacles. You will save time this way. All I ask is that you give my body to the air. Good luck on your journey, traveler.

-Mikaela

When Lincoln finished translating her message it was hard not to be upset. This poor girl had so much hope. So much faith. And even in her dying moments, she made sure to help whoever finds her book. We wiped away our tears and began planning what we should do.

"We have to bury her." Jasper stated.

"No," Lincoln answered. "She wished to have a Trikru burial. We must give her body to the air. We must cremate her."

We all agreed she deserved the burial she wished for. The storm had cleared and we all wrapped up in our winter clothes and headed outside where we set up any wood we could find into a bed shape. The girls wrapped the woman's body in a carpet and Murphy and I picked her up and laid her onto the wood bed we made. Lincoln said a few words to her in his native language as we all stood around the body. As we lit the fire at each end and watched it engulf her body all we could hope was that she found peace. That we helped her in any way, just like she helped us with her message.

"Let's head inside." Clarke said after a while as the fire burned bright. We agreed it was time to go inside and went back into the barren bar. Murphy's and Monty's fire was ready so we lit it and called it a night as we all found a place to lay around the fire. Except for Lincoln, who decided to be on the first watch for the night. I chose a spot by Clarke, of course. I knew there was no need to fall asleep cuddling like we usually do since it was warm enough and we were inside but I still missed the feeling of her body pressed up against mine. It was always comforting to be holding her, to be keeping her away from all the danger and never wanting to let her go. But, alas, I don't want to draw some kind of line by spooning her around everyone when there's no need to, right? I mean, I don't want to do something she doesn't want to do, that's just wrong. With that thought, I fell asleep cradling my cold rifle instead of the warm, beautiful, smart, funny, strong woman right next to me that I so love.

The morning came fast and it turns out that, even when I'm asleep, my brain knows exactly what I want. My arms were no longer around my rifle but around Clarke, and she had a hand on top of mine covering her stomach. It felt so real, so comfortable, so natural. Our legs were intertwined and we were sharing each other's warmth. It was time to get up though. I didn't want to freak her out when she woke up and saw that I threw myself all over her in the middle of the night. I reluctantly untangled myself from the embrace and stood up to look around for my rifle. I glanced over at Murphy and Raven who were fast asleep together. Murphy was using his backpack as a pillow and Raven had her head laying on his chest with her arm wrapped around him. It made me wish for a day that Clarke and I could look like that. So at peace. I walked over to my backpack and grabbed some water to drink before unwillingly waking everyone up. I hated doing it but we had things to do!

"Hey, guys. Wake up. We should get going." I said loud enough for everyone to hear. They all groaned and angrily got up from their slumbers. I picked up my bag and opened the door to see what the weather was like and it was… beautiful. The sun was shining on the snow making a very bright, but very pretty, aesthetically pleasing scene of the broken-down city and the pier. And the smell was so.. clear.. so fresh. I was taking in the view when I noticed Kane standing to my right, probably on watch.

"Hey." That was all I said and he responded with a nod. "How long have you been out here?" I asked.

"Just a few hours. Are we ready to go?"

"I think so." As I responded Murphy walked out to join us.

"Just don't do any long motivational speeches and we won't be here too long." He stated as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. I gave a smirk and said,

"Sounds like someone woke up on the wrong side of th-"

"The floor Bellamy. I woke up on a floor in a freezing abandoned building with a snoring Jasper and a grunting Lincoln. So excuse me if I'm not as chipper as usual." Kane and I exchanged an amused look as he walked back inside to grab his things.

Once everyone was ready and outside we made the short walk back to where we left the vehicles and got to digging them out of the snow that collected around them overnight. Once the Charger and Buggy were free Clarke spoke up to all of us with Murphy's phone in her hand,

"Alright, we all know the plan. We're going to ride around on the shore of this area until we reach Milwaukee. Which, from the looks of it is about an hour or so drive so not bad."

"Which is good.. being on that frozen water for too long will give me the heebie-jeebies." Raven said as she leaned against the car with her arms crossed.

"Yeah, shouldn't we... test the thickness of the ice before we take these heavy things on it?" Monty asked.

"He's got a point," Octavia added. "Hey, Murphy go run across the ice really quick will ya?"

"Bite me, Blake." Was his only response. "I'm not trying to fall into that freezing cold wasteland water and have my nuts shoot up into my stomach." He leaned up against the car with Raven before saying, "I mean, why don't we just have someone walk ahead stabbing the ice in front of us if you're that worried?" Everyone went silent and just stared at Murphy. Did he just have a good idea? I mean it's not the first time but it's a very rare thing to happen.

"What?" He asked, alarmed.

"You just had a great idea, Murphy." Clarke stated. Murphy chuckled with a sly smile before realizing what that meant...

"Oh HELL NO!"

That hell no didn't help much, however, because 10 minutes later Murphy was standing with a spear in front of the Charger with the buggy close behind it. Did we feel bad? Of course, we did. But we had to get a move on and Murphy's idea was the best one for us to be cautious. Kane decided to stay upfront with Murphy so that he had an extra hand and so if anything happened Kane would be there for him.

"Why do I have to have good ideas.." Murphy stated loud enough for us to hear from behind him. We had the windows rolled down so that if the spear he was using poked through the ice, he could warn us that it was getting thinner.

"You can do it, Murphy, I believe in you! It's only an houurrr!" Raven teased from the driver's seat as she hung an arm out the window. I looked over at Clarke and she had her eyes glued to the two men standing ahead of us outside.

"They'll be okay, Clarke." I said which broke her trance.

"I hope so. What if something happens to them and it's our fault because we sent them out there?"

"I can't promise nothing will happen. But if something does, which... Seems pretty unlikely... We will do everything in our power to help them out. Like we always have and like we always woll." She gave me a smile and dropped her head down to my chest to which I put my hand on her cheek and rubbed circles with my thumb. I love her...

"Woah!" Murphy shouted as he poked through the ice. "Go more left!" Raven gave a thumbs up and turned more to the right. We carried on like that for the next 45 minutes. It was going smoothly until Murphy slipped on the ice causing the snow on top to disperse and clear where he landed. I saw Kane ask if he was okay and then helped him back onto his feet but then Kane seemed to freeze while looking down at the ice.

"Is he okay?" Raven asked in a worried tone. Kane didn't answer but Murphy brushed the snow off of his clothes before answering for himself.

"Yeah, I'm fine!" We could faintly hear him thank Kane but when he didn't respond Murphy asked, "What the hell's wrong with you, man?" Without a word, Kane grabbed Murphy's face with one hand and forced him to look down into the ice. It was now, that Murphy shared the same expression as Kane.

"What the hell is going on up there!?" Jasper asked from behind us in the buggy.

"Murphy!" I yelled to the entranced man, "Talk to me! What's happening?"

"Get the fuck out here… now." That was all he said before Raven, Lincoln, Octavia, Clarke, Warin and I exited the car and made our way to the two guys. As we walked towards them, our boots crunching on the ice and snow, I couldn't help but notice that the ice was rather clear... It wasn't foggy or dirty or anything, I could very clearly see the rocks and gravel underneath which was strange. I bumped into Raven who had stopped dead in her tracks like everyone else. I followed her gaze to where she and everyone else was looking and I couldn't believe it. There… Buried under the snow and under the clear ice… was the start of the crater. It was massive. The only reason we could tell that's what it was is because of how clear the ice was. If I got close enough to the ice and looked a certain way I could see all the way into the middle of it but nothing else as it was way too big. Just around 30 feet under us was one of the causes of the world's demise. Just 30 feet under us was an awaiting sickness that could kill us all. Just 30 feet under us was the reason so many people turned back from this trip.

"No.. No no no no" Lincoln repeated the word over and over. I place a hand on his back and said.

"Look. As long as this thing stays far under us, we'll be okay."

I spoke too soon, however, as we all heard the same crack starting to form in the ice.

Fuck.

Me.

Reviews:

Linden Len:Shout out to Columbus OH! Woot woot! Stories rarely take place here! I am so happy you are back. Love this story and what a great chapter! "I just wanna go zoom zoom!" ICONIC

Answer:Hell yeah Linden! Glad I could give your city some light :) thanks for the support it means so much!

NoRoleModelz98:glad to know this story is still going, been needing more stuff to read!

Answer:BRO! You have no idea how good it is to hear from you oh my lord :D I hope you're doing amazing and I hope all is well with you and your family. It means the world to me that you are still reading and supporting my story's love you bro. You are still my role model!

GinnyWeasley09:Oooh yay a new chapter! I was so happy to see this update in my emailsthis was great, I was having so much fun reading Murphy and Raven's povs, you always write them so accurately! And I can definitely see Kane becoming a father figure, I can't wait to see more of that. Hope you are doing well in college!

Answer:GINNY! I'm so incredibly grateful to hear from you again! It means the world to me that you're still reading my story it made my day to see your name pop up in my inbox :) I'm glad you like the way I write Murphy and Raven's POVs. I try to make them as close to how I feel they would be putting their thoughts down on paper as possible. I'm glad you liked Kane's father figureness you will love the next chapter for that reason :) Thank you for remembering and asking about my college! It went well! I'm all done my second year now so just gotta work for a year then get back to school for my third year. Have an amazing day :)