Hi! I just want to let you know that I haven't abandoned this story, fear not I'm committed to finishing it!
I know it's been long, too long, so I made an effort and this chapter is longer.
The adventure finally begins!
Clarke took a minute to contemplate the vibrant world around her, so different from the sterile and white Ark; the impossibly tall trees that seem to scrape the sky, the beautiful flowers and gentle rays of the sun on her face, it was like a balm for her troubled soul.
Clarke let out an audible sigh as she looked at the ground, loving the feeling of fresh and muddy earth beneath her feet. A sense of content and peacefulness settle in her heart, long gone were the nights of longing and dread, she finally came home.
No matter how dangerous and hectic their life on earth had been she couldn't deny the immense beauty that had always surrounded them. Beauty that she hadn't always appreciated but would never take for granted anymore.
For a second she wondered if she should try to keep things as close to the original timeline as possible but remembering how that path led to a future littered not only with mangled corpses and broken dreams but, even more important, without Lexa, she completely dismissed it.
The original future or was it the past now?. Whatever. The original something can float itself. She was not only going to survive this time, no, this time she was going to thrive and flourish while trying to enjoy the hell out of her journey towards the love of her life.
"We got problems, Clarke" Wells said distracting her from her thoughts.
She folded the map she had been pretending to study while letting her mind contemplate and discard different possibilities on what to do this time around.
Trying to plan for every contingency was not only exhausting but realistically impossible and trying to analyze every variable and predict the outcome was even more futile, as any change, no matter how little it might seem in the grand scheme of things, could screw all her careful planning.
Knowing that even the most meticulous constructed plans could fall apart Wanheda had advised her that instead of wasting precious time in useless plotting, which may ultimately lead to their premature death if wrongly executed, they only needed to focus in minimizing the risks.
"All the systems failed. A dozen panels are missing and the communication system is completely dead"
Knowing about the failure beforehand had helped to soften the blow, the first time around she had been devastated but now her mind easily shifted to another topic without dwelling on it.
"Our first priorities have to be safety, water, shelter, and food"
Wells nodded in agreement. He might not know much about survival technics in hostile environments, earth skills was his least favorite subject, but it definitely sounded like a reasonable course of action.
While everyone ran through the trees giggling and cheering, marveling at the wonders that the earth so freely offered, she fought back the urge to do the same. She owned it to them to hold firm and be a strong leader, a better leader than the first time around.
"Everyone gather around!"
Minutes later everybody was looking at her expectantly "We need to organize ourselves…"
"This isn't the Ark Blondie, we don't have to listen to the privileged ones like you anymore!" Bellamy said, making a few cheer and holler in approval.
Clarke sighed and rolled her eyes but let him speak his piece. Bellamy, while charismatic, lacked foresight and long-term planning, he was surely going to say something stupid, like the first time around, and she planned on exploiting that to her benefit.
The 100 were all naive in their understanding of the world around them, of the dangers that sat in the trees observing them and all the challenges they would face before been able to call the earth their home. She needed them organized and willing to cooperate, this time she was not letting their survival in the hands of luck and fate.
Luck is a capricious mistress at best, one who gives you a break every now and then but mostly just screws you over whenever you expect it the least. Organization and discipline were the keys to success.
"No more rules" We are the masters of our destiny!" Bellamy shouted
"No more council!"
"No more guards!"
"No more sky-box or floatings!"
With every word, he yelled the others began to applaud even more fervently. Excited shouts echo Bellamy's words.
"No more rationing!"
Wells was about to intervene but the blonde stopped him with a vigorous shake of her head. Thankfully the boy listened to her or they would surely have lynched him, mobs were always dangerous and unpredictable, incensed ones like this even more so.
"No more anything!"
"That's exactly the problem!. No more anything!"
Her words made the hollers of euphoria lower instantly. Bellamy looked at her with surprise etched in his face while Wells was nodding as if he already knew what she was going to say. He probably did, she thought, he must have realized how precarious their situation was.
"We have no protection from possible predators, no shelter, no water, no food, and no medicine. We have absolutely nothing!". No more rules, no more morals, and restrictions. Just utter chaos. She added to herself.
The once elated crowd had become deadly quiet now. This was the moment she had been waiting for when they finally understood how difficult the days to come would be.
"I want all of you in groups of ten. When that's ready let's divide..."
"Who put you in charge blondie?" Bellamy challenged her.
As a few others voiced their disapproval of Clarke, the blonde made a hasty decision, she would let things play out without her intervention for a little while. They wanted freedom, fine, let them figure it out for themselves that living on earth was a lot harder than living in the Ark.
Maybe if they suffer a little they will see reason and won't fight me every step of the way. If she had dwelled on the sentiment she might have wondered where did that spiteful side of her had come from but instead, she stored it for later as this was definitely not the time for self-introspection.
"No one did, I am just saying what needs to be done for everyone to survive. The original plan was for us to arrive near Mount Weather. That's over there!" Clarke pointed to the mountain that was barely visible in the distance.
"We will never make it in one day and even if we could we have no clue about what kind of obstacles are between us and that place or even if it actually has any food"
Whispers started again. She had to remind herself that at the end of the day they were a bunch of scared children who had tasted freedom for the first time. Had she been that naïve too?. She couldn't remember even if she tried.
"You want to be in charge Bellamy or maybe you do Atom?" The black hair boy raised his eyebrows in surprise "Yes, you, I heard you snickering and badmouthing me" He looked a little ashamed but she just rolled her eyes "Well you guys are officially in charge but don't come crying when things get rough"
She turned around leaving the group of stunned teenagers behind.
"Where are you going?"
It didn't surprise her that it was Octavia who called for her, out of the two Blake siblings she had always been the most level-head one.
"To look for water and food and maybe explore a little. You are welcome to join me if you want"
"Octavia stays here."
"That's her decision, not yours… " Clarke started to say.
"I'm going, Bell," Octavia said, a dangerous edge in her tone. "I've been locked up all my life, you are not going to lock me up too." Bellamy grabbed her arm and started to talk to her in a harsh undertone about possible dangers.
Clarke decided to leave Octavia to deal with her brother, if she had stayed she would have ended up strangling Bellamy to death. She didn't really miss dealing with this arrogant and over-confident version of him.
She carefully approached Murphy, maybe with a little nudge in the right direction and a hand extended in friendship he would grow out of his jackass persona faster and became the man she remembers, the one who was with her after Lexa's death. Besides curtailing any influence Bellamy could have on him would only make her life easier in the long run.
"I'm going to see if I can find water and hunt something to eat. Do you want to come?"
He looked at her skeptically "Why me?"
"Out of everyone here you are my best chance at actually accomplishing something" The blonde said while gesturing at the other teenagers "You are a survivor Murphy, you know how to fight and truthfully I already like you for the sole reason of breaking Taggarts nose" she admitted with a sheepish smile.
"Flattery will get you everywhere blondie"
Clarke couldn't help but sigh in relief, earning Murphy's friendship was the key to get his loyalty and trust. Out of all of the delinquents, he was the most dangerous and unpredictable one but he also proved to be resourceful and a lot more suited to grounder life than most, all in all, someone she would really like to have in her corner this time around.
"I guess there is no point in waiting for the fuckboy over there and his cronies to pull their heads out of their asses and realized how fucked we actually are. Do you have a plan blondie?"
In under a minute Wells caught up with them and a few seconds later Finn joined them too, walking beside an already smitten Octavia.
No Monty nor Jasper this time she idly noted, was Murphy's presence the reason for their absence?.
On one hand, she missed Monty, the self-proclaimed king of all things technological, with his soft-spoken ways, logical reasoning under pressure and reassuring yet not over-bearing presence.
On the other a large part of her was relieved when she didn't see Jasper in their little hunting party, she didn't know if she was ready to face him yet.
Clarke understood, better than most ever will, that everyone grieves in the own way and at their own pace but Jasper never even made the effort to try moving on. He held on to his sorrow and let it consume his entire being, sinking into the haze of alcohol immediately after returning from the mountain.
In the end he had become a shadow of his former self, long gone was the easy-going kid she had met, he had become lazy and cruel, lashing out at everyone around him, especially her. In his delirious mind, she was the source of everything bad that had ever befallen the delinquents, something he took immense pleasure in reminding her at any chance he had.
Sometimes on her loneliest nights, while on the run, all she could hear where his taunting and vicious words, tainted with a maliciousness she had never even suspected he possessed.