It was dark and quiet when Clarke rode into Ton DC. The night sky was a deep and dark purple, and stars sparkled and hid behind swaths of grey. Ton DC was a surprisingly small village for just how important it was. Its distance, or perhaps its proximity, to the Mountain made its location buried in the depths of Trikru forests a perfect place for a staging ground for any attack to be launched against their enemy.
And yet it never grew too large, never contained more than just enough warriors to deal with the always roaming reaper parties. But that was by design. Clarke knew that Ton DC would always be watched, would always be prone to attack. And she knew that if the Mountain truly believed that Ton DC were to become a direct threat, then they would strike, would wipe it out and leave them unable to provide for any army hidden in the forests.
And so she kept Ton DC's size small.
Clarke hushed her horse with a gentle stroking down its mighty neck, her own apprehension perhaps triggering her steed. The gates and walls of Ton DC were grand, parts rusted metal wrought into shape over generations, parts were vine covered and others seemed more natural forest than built structure.
Clarke came to a stop just inside the gates of Ton DC, the few warriors she rode with quick to dismount and greet those waiting for them with quiet words of acknowledgement. Ontari, ever present, ever near, and Gustus, her keen shadow of a guard dismounted their own horses before coming to stand by her side, each one casting furtive glances back through the gates and into the forests that surrounded.
It didn't take Clarke long before she spotted the village chief. Indra was a woman of few words who had fought the Mountain for longer than Clarke had been alive. Dark skinned and scar faced, Indra had always been a welcomed appearance on and off the battlefield due to her cunning, her experience and her dislike for those that did little to support their words with action.
"Indra," Clarke said in greeting as she began to walk forwards, her horse passed off to a young second who stared at her wide eyed and far too curious for their first's approval.
"Heda," Indra said, her voice low and rich yet quiet, as she extended her arm out in greeting for Clarke to grasp. "We have prepared a meal for you," Indra said quietly as she began to walk beside her.
"Thank you, Indra," Clarke said, her feet already taking her to the war room where she knew her meal would be waiting.
The war room of Ton DC was an underground bunker that was found at the end of a stone passageway of beaten and weathered steps located at the centre of Ton DC. The passageway stone was smoothed from years of use with signs of fighting etched across every surface. Even dark blood stains in the cracks of the stone walls remained from battles long since gone. Flaming torches hung from sconces bolted into the stone of the walls, they hung from the ceiling by chain where they swung ever so slightly to the presence of those that past.
As Clarke continued to walk down the steps she found herself taking in the tapestries that had always lined the walls of the passageway, some showed battles, stories old and fabled, and tales of mystery and intrigue. But the passageway and steps levelled out to a small room occupied by one large door before them and two warriors standing guard. Both warriors warriors bowed their greeting as Clarke continued through the door she came to stand in the war room.
The war room was large, perhaps even grand. Its walls of stone reached up higher than could be expected before curving towards the centre of the room to create one large continuous arc that spanned the entire length of the room's interior. More flaming torches hung from chain from the curved ceiling, their light danced across the stone and bathed the interior in a yellow glow.
A single large rectangular table dominated the centre of the room. Upon one end of the table lay a large map, its corners held down by models of surrounding landmarks, of villages and the whereabouts of known reaper camps. Laid out across the other end of the table were foods, meats, vegetables and roots roasted and spiced. Dried fruits and cheeses and even sweets made from honey and sugars were present as well.
"We will eat," Clarke said and she began to move for the nearest chair. "We will discuss the Mountain after."
Plates lay stacked high, spoons, knives and forks were placed into neat piles and pitchers of warm drink were being refilled by seconds, some more obvious in their admiration of the warriors who rode with her, others more focused on their given tasks.
Clarke leant back in the chair, one hand resting atop the weathered table, a finger tapping to the rhythm of some old song she had once thought familiar.
Ontari sat beside her, the woman running a spoon around the sides of a small bowl as she tried to scrape up the last of a custard dessert she had clearly taken a fancy to.
Clarke looked around her and to the other warriors who around the table. Those who travelled with her were much more easily identified by their more neutral coloured clothes where they so often needed to blend into more than just the forests or frozen wilds, or even open plains. Indra and her warriors wore the usual dark browns and blacks and greens that helped hide them from sight amongst the forests of Trikru lands.
The clinking of a mug coming down onto the table caught her attention and Clarke glanced out the corner of her eye to see Gustus wiping the back of his hand across his mouth before he sat up a little more straight and let his size dwarf the young second who reached out to refill his drink.
"Indra," Clarke said as she turned her attention to the village chief to find her patiently looking at her, both hands resting atop the war table.
"Heda," Indra said as she inclined her head just once. "More have arrived with tech," Indra began. "They came to the ground in a metal vessel."
"Like the skyfire?" Clarke asked and she remembered the first time she had seen the devastation the Mountain Men had caused with the skyfire that had laid waste to a bridge they had been trying to build across a raging river.
"Perhaps," Indra said. "But this one was large. As large as a building," she paused as she looked to left and at a woman who sat beside her.
"Yes," the woman said as she leant forward, the amber of her skin warm and smooth in the yellow firelight.
"Costia," Indra offered before falling quiet.
"Heda," the woman began. "I am Costia. I saw with my own eyes when and where they landed," she paused then, perhaps to recall, perhaps to consider how best to explain. "They have tech like the Mountain, they talk like the Mountain," her lips twisted in disgust. "They even wish to travel to the Mountain."
"You have not been seen?" Clarke asked and she leant forward as she inspected the young woman who she thought must not be much older than herself, perhaps even closer to a second than a scarred and blooded warrior.
"No," Costia said as she shook her head. "I have watched from the trees only."
"Good," Clarke said, and she wondered just how much these new enemies knew.
"I do not think they realise the dangers of the forest," Costia offered.
"Explain."
"I was watching a group scouting for supplies," she continued. "They arrived at the river closest to the shallow steps," and Costia stood and gestured to where a model was placed on the map. "They did not know of the river beasts."
Clarke took the time to let all the information sink into her mind, and as she did she found herself contemplating strategy, scenario, what it must mean if the Mountain Men had called for reinforcements and just how much her hopes of destroying the Mountain for good would need to change.
She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath then, perhaps to ease the frustration that this new revelation would cause, or perhaps simply because she enjoyed the remnants of the foods that still scented the air.
But Clarke's eyes opened and she looked around the table and to all those that sat, some eager for action, some more cautious, and even one whose gaze seemed distant, faraway and unsure.
"Maya," Clarke said, her voice hard.
The woman startled, her mind clearly elsewhere.
"Heda" she asked as she looked up.
"What would you do with these new Mountain Men?"
Maya seemed to think for a very long moment, she chewed on her lip and took a second to look at each face that looked at her expectantly before answering quietly.
"I would attack them, Heda."
Anya paced back and forth, her mind racing, her thoughts frayed. The lights overhead seemed to cast the entire command centre in a blue hue that at times looked purple, and at times look far too bright for the mood.
Anya looked at Kane to find the man frowning, arms folded as she stared at the radio as the technician continued to fiddle with its dials in an attempt to get it to work. Others crowded around too, each one hopefully anticipating a successful connection.
Since the volunteers had arrived on the ground the only contact they had had was the brief morse code signal sent to them that read: landing successful. Gathering supplies. Will make audio contact in 24 hours.
The Ark had waited, it had counted down hour after hour, until it had come time. Those with high enough clearance had all crammed into the command centre, those without had lined the halls in the hopes of hearing any news, good or bad, as soon as possible.
And so that was where Anya now found herself. Jackson stood beside her, the man's face frowning and his hands stuffed into the oversized pockets of his white medical robe.
"Got it," the technician said and as if as one, everyone in the command centre quietened, leant closer to where the radio with the range extender had been placed on the table and they listened.
Anya could hear her heart beating in her ears, she could almost feel the blood rushing through her veins, but she kept her face calm, she kept expression serene. Or at least she tried, for if she didn't, she was sure she would collapse, would break apart and not know how to fix herself.
A crackle of static filled the air before a voice emanated from the radio.
This is Lexa
Anya felt her lips twitch up into a smile.
"Ark here, this is Kane. What's it like, Lexa?" Kane said as he leant forward.
Kane, a pause before continuing. The Earth's survivable.
Lexa was tired. The conversation with the Ark had lasted what seemed like hours. She, and the other team leaders had all taken turns informing the Ark about their progress, they had answered questions when they could, and had given as much information as possible.
She looked up into the night's sky from where she sat at the edges of the camp they had erected and she couldn't help but to try and find the Ark amongst the stars. But she didn't quite know where it would be, she didn't even know if it was even over the right hemisphere.
She didn't say anything at the time, either, but she was relieved to hear Anya's voice, she was relieved to hear the change in tone where once there was nothing but desperation, now was a defiance, a determination.
Being on the ground still hadn't quite settled for her even after the few days they had been scavenging, foraging, searching and cataloging all they could. It was in part because she still hadn't become used to the very slight change in gravity, and perhaps in part because she didn't quite have any friends on the ground to share in the joy. Bellamy was an amusement at times, Raven, Harper and Monty more level headed, and it wasn't that she didn't mind their company during their scouting, it wasn't that she didn't like any of them, but she couldn't shake the sense of longing she had for Anya. It wasn't a romantic longing either, not even something she fully understood, but perhaps it was because she knew Anya would enjoy the ground, would embrace it and adapt as quickly as she adapted to the revelation that the Ark had problems unfixable.
Perhaps it was simply because Anya was the only true friend Lexa had had for as long as she could remembe—
Something caught her attention from where she sat with a fire to her back. Lexa didn't quite know what it was, she didn't quite even understand why the hairs on the back of her neck began to stand up on end, but as she looked into the trees before her she couldn't shake the feeling that something watched her from the shadows.
Other scouting parties had found animals, some more mutated by the radiation than others, and some even dangerous. That was partly why they were in the middle of placing walls around the drop ship lest an animal stumble into their camp.
But as Lexa continued to look into the darkness that swallowed the forest she was sure she sensed something recoil, something move just barely into the shadows, but enough that its presence was no longer seen.
It wasn't until Lexa felt the click of her rifle's safety catch echo out around her that she realised she had unslung it and levelled it before her, feet widened in stance and eyes squinting into the dark.
"Everything ok?"
Lexa turned to find Bellamy walking up to her cautiously, his own rifle already in hand as he looked past her and into the trees.
"Yeah," she said, and she turned back to the forest in the hopes of finding sight of whatever it was. "Maybe," and she shook her head.
"It's probably just the nerves from earlier," Bellamy offered with the half smile she found him fond of.
"Yeah, maybe," Lexa said, and she didn't think it too far fetched that first contact with the Ark, that them being so close yet so far, had frayed her mind that expected. But still, she didn't wish to take chances. "I'm going to check it out."
"Really?" Bellamy asked. "Now?" and he gestured around them, "It's dark, Lexa. You should be getting some sleep."
She paused, part of her wanting to delve into the forest, rifle in hand, and part of her longed for her tent and sleeping pack, and whatever small comforts it could offer.
"Yeah, ok," she said as she looked just once more into the forest before turning back to the camp. "Let's get some rest."
"So why'd you volunteer?" Raven asked as she ducked under a low hanging branch.
Monty didn't respond straight away, and from the way he looked to Harper, Lexa thought something more to whatever he was about to say.
"I wanted to help," Monty said after a moment. "We needed people on the ground who'd be able to figure out what to eat and what to avoid," he continued. "I knew I could do that," and he looked at Harper once more. "So I volunteered."
"Same," Raven said as she turned to face Monty from where she walked ahead. "But with engineering instead of plants," and she nodded to Harper. "And I'm guessing you're the same, too? But with Hydro?"
"Yeah," Harper said. "The same."
Lexa sighed as she stepped over a fallen tree trunk, the conversation that flowed from person to person fading into the background as she began thinking about the previous night when she had been sure something was watching her.
Part of her thought she was being overdramatic, too prone to worry and paranoid. But still, she couldn't help but to look into the trees every so often, and each time she did so, she found herself half expecting to see feral eyes staring back at her.
A shadow falling across her path broke her attention then and as Lexa looked up she found Bellamy falling into step beside her, his rifle in hand and his own gaze moving from tree to tree around them.
"Don't tell me I've made you paranoid, too," she said it half in jest, half in relief, if only because she thought it better that other people felt like they were being watched. If only for her own sanity.
"Look," and Bellamy shrugged. "After the rive monster I'm not taking any chances," and he smiled. "You're the boss and I'm supposed to be team's security. If you think something's watching us then I'm supposed to be keeping us safe."
Lexa couldn't deny the logic in that, and perhaps even getting to know those on her team more couldn't hurt.
"Is that why you volunteered?" she asked.
"To keep everyone safe?" Bellamy's voice seemed a little more quiet.
"Yeah," and Lexa found herself wondering what it must have been like to be the only person on the Ark with a sibling.
Bellamy fell silent though, and Lexa was sure she had hit a sore spot, something perhaps a little too raw to talk about. But before she could take back her words, before she could tell Bellamy to forget she said anything he simply smiled, laughed something between sadness and bitter longing and seemed to accept whatever demons must have plagued his thoughts.
"After my mother was floated," he began, "I was sure they were going to lock me and Octavia up," he said. "I thought maybe I'd be floated, too," and he shook his head. "I wasn't to blame," he said. "That's what I was told. I wasn't to blame for her actions, so nothing happened to me. Same for Octavia," and he shook his head as he stepped through a bush. "A life for a life. Our mother was floated but Octavia went free."
"I'm sorry," Lexa said quietly.
It wasn't that she hadn't heard the rumours, for something so alarming as a second child being born was hard to keep a secret, but still, she found it just a little more confronting hearing it from someone who had experienced it first hand.
"So yeah," Bellamy said with a shrug. "My sister my responsibility. I need to do whatever I can to make sure she's safe. So if that means volunteering on a suicide mission then that's what I need to do."
"You're a good brother, Bellamy," Lexa said, and for just a moment she found herself wondering if she had ever used that word in conversation before.
"It's weird, isn't it?" he said with a little laugh.
"What is?" and she looked up to find the darkness that had been in his eyes replaced by a calm and a serenity.
"That word," and he gestured to everyone else around them. "Brother. No one else ha—"
A growl erupted from the undergrowth, it seemed deep, guttural, violent and far too close for Lexa's comfort.
Harper yelped, spun around in the direction of the growl and levelled her rifle, Raven back-peddled from where she had been walking ahead of the group until she bumped into Monty, and the others all drew their weapons.
Silence settled over them then, the growl seemed to fade and Lexa found the hair on the back of her neck raising.
"What was that?" someone hissed and Lexa couldn't help but grimace as the voice further than she would have liked.
"Everyone bac—"
It happened fast.
A roar broke the silence as a figure, a beast, a monster and a man broke free from the undergrowth. The monster - a man, what would have once been human snarled and barred wicked teeth. Red seemed to cover his face, white seemed to stain his skin, and Lexa didn't spend too long trying to decipher what the lumps under his skin, or the open wounds that bled across his exposed flesh must have meant before all hell broke loose.
More of those monsters exploded out from the shadows, Monty yelled a warning before firing a shot that his the lead monster squarely in the chest. Raven tripped, fell to the ground and was pounced on before Harper dove atop her, rifle striking the monster over the back of its head before it collapsed.
And then they ran.
Lexa didn't know if she had given the order to retreat, she didn't know if she had even told them where to run, but her team scattered none the less. Bellamy stood where he was firing into the ground of monsters as those around him began to race back towards camp. Lexa in turn fired her own rifle, each shot too loud, too close, too deafening for her to understand. She didn't know if the red she saw was the spray of blood or of whatever grotesque pain covered the monsters, she did know if the smell, foul and putrid came from them or from any one of those in her team who may have soiled themselves in fear. And she didn't care.
Lexa began to turn, began to run, began to flee. But she couldn't, not when Bellamy seemed to be doing a stupidly good job of sacrificing himself in a foolish attempt to hold back what seemed to be a sea of monsters.
She screamed his name, she cried out a warning to flee, she shouted an order to run, to head back to camp, but he seemed not to hear her.
And so Lexa cursed herself as she stopped, as she skidded to a halt and turned before running forwards and towards Bellamy. Lexa fired her rifle, she didn't even think she took long enough to aim as she reached out and snared Bellamy by the elbow.
"Come on," she hissed as she fired a shot over his shoulder and at a monster that almost pounced on them.
And so they ran. Bellamy and Lexa ran hard, they ran fast. Lexa shouted a direction and she pointed to where she was sure the others had fled. Bellamy jumped over a bush, slid and scrambled to find his balance and raced forward. Lexa ran, she dove, she ducked and panicked her way past tree and bush and shadow.
The roars of the monsters seemed to grow louder and louder now that the shooting had stopped, they even seemed spurred on by the lack of challenge. And they seemed inhuman, they seemed unnatural, far too beastly to be anything but mutated and grotesque.
But there was a change in the air, there was a sudden drop in temperature and a blackening of the sky. Even the roars and growls of those who chased died only to be replaced by what seemed like a distant howling storm.
Lexa came to a heaving stop, her lungs expanding painfully with each breath she took. Even Bellamy seemed shaken, disturbed, uncertain and unsure. Sweat dripped from his brow, his rifle remained clutched in his white knuckle grasp and Lexa could even see his fingers shaking.
"What were they?" Bellamy hissed as he turned to face the way they had run, rifle already shouldered as he strained to see through the dark. "And what is happening?"
Lexa looked up into the sky, perhaps in the hopes of spying the storm that must be raging close by, but all she saw was the blue that split through the canopy overhead.
"And why did they stop chasing us?" Bellamy said, but Lexa didn't think he expected an answ—
Then she saw it. At first she thought it was a trick of the mind, but as she continued to look she realised that the distant forest seemed to be awash in a sea of sickly orange that seemed to be growing faster and faster.
The sound of the storm grew louder, too, each passing second grow in intensity, in deafening rumbles. And then she realised.
What had been chasing them had fled as soon as the storm started, whatever the noise was that echoed out through the forest was that orange haze in the distance, and as she looked just a little harder she realised that it approached with more speed than she could anticipa—
"Run," Bellamy seemed to be thinking the exact same thing for he grabbed her by the shoulder, spun her around and began to run.
Lexa didn't need to second guess his assumption that the orange glow was dangerous, all she needed to do was run.
And so she did.
Lexa ran hard, she ran fast, Bellamy raced ahead, he ducked under tree, shouted over his shoulder at her to hurry, to follow his voice as the green of the forest, as the brown of the trees and the blue of the sky began to take on a sickly orange glow.
Pain started prickling up and down Lexa's back, and she dared to turn and look over her shoulder only to find that the orange storm had raced closer and closer. She could see it closing the distance, she could see it swallowing the forest whole, she could see leaf beginning to burn, crackle, and dissolve.
And fear.
Fear spiked, fear increased, terror filled her veins as she realised that the pain burning across her back was the barest hints of the orange storm, was whatever radioactive remnants of the nuclear bombs, and that it would consume her, dissolve her, melt her down into a puddle of blood, of puss, before dissolving her into the ground.
And Lexa tripped.
She tripped for she had been too occupied with terror, with trying to get away, with trying to make sense of everything she had seen in the last few seconds.
Lexa hit the ground hard, her forehead smashed into a tree trunk and she bit her lip and tasted blood. Pain exploded across her face and her eyes watered. And she couldn't see. Lexa couldn't see as the orange began to close, as it began to fill her senses.
She scrambled on her hands and knees, she swore, she cursed and she raged into the forest as she tried to get away, as she tried to find somewhere, someway of escaping the burning that seemed to be engulfing her with every passing second.
But as panic began to truly set in, as fear began to take control of her actions, and as animalistic instinct began to take hold of every little fibre of her being, Lexa felt strong hands grab her by the shoulders and drag her to her feet.
A voice shouted for her to follow, to run, to race and shadow their steps.
And so she did.
Lexa blindly fumbled and stumbled after the voice, she ignored the burning that washed against her face. But the voice, the body, the person stopped in their tracks, leant down and pulled something from the ground.
And it was a door, a hatch, something that led into a darkness.
"Get in," the person roared over the raging of the burning storm, and Lexa cared not for where it may lead, she cared not for what may lie in wait and so she dove head first into the hatch.
Lexa hit something hard and the thump of feet falling down beside her told her that whoever it was had dove in behind her. The grating of metal against metal echoed out around her and she new the hatch had closed, had sealed behind them and locked them in whatever sanctuary she had found.
Lexa coughed, she spluttered and tried wiping the burn from her face, her eyes closed lest they sting more than they should.
"Hey," a man's voice said quietly, and flinched in shock as she felt water splashed against her face. "For the burning," he said. "You can open your eyes."
Lexa could be forgiven for not quite taking him at his words, and so she opened one first, the motion cautious and slow. She half expected a stinging burning sensation as soon as she could see, but true to his words no burn came.
Instead, as Lexa opened her other eye, she found herself lying on the ground of what must have been a small bunker. The walls were concrete and weathered to years of use. Buckets lay across one wall, another by her side that must have been what was used to splash her with water.
But then her gaze fell to the man who knelt down beside her.
"Hey," he said quietly, his hands held out in peaceful offering. "I'm here to help," and he shuffled backwards on his knees. "I saw the reapers attacking you, and then the acid fog came," and he gestured to his own body to show that he, too, had drenched himself in water. "The water stops the burning," he continued. "You're lucky to be alive."
Lexa wiped a hand across her face and grimaced as she felt the burn return, this time lessened.
"Yeah," he said with a tight smile. "Don't do that. There's still some acid residue on our clothes."
"I—" Lexa coughed as she looked around herself once more before taking in the man completely to find that she didn't recognise him. "Who are you?" she asked as she took in the camouflaged uniform he wore, the short cropped light brown hair and the weathered face of someone she recognised must be a soldier.
And so the man smiled as he held out a hand.
"Carl Emerson. Mount Weather security detail."