Clarke was tired. More tired than she had ever been before. Gravity weighed on weary shoulders. Boot clad feet sunk into unkind mud and Clarke tried not to swear with each missed root or rock she came upon underfoot.
It felt as though she had been walking for an age but the small watch strapped to her wrist told her otherwise. She'd need to return to the drop pod soon but her map told her there was an elevated clearing nearby that would give her a good view of the lands.
Upon Clarke's body was held a rifle that was slung over her shoulders. On her hip was a sheathed knife though she knew neither of those things would really help her should she need them in a hurry. One hand still held the tablet she glanced down at every now and then and the other was struggling to hold on to the supplies netted together haphazardly.
She knew leaving behind would have been easier but she didn't dare leave behind the only thing keeping her alive. Not until she found a place she thought safe as could be expected to rest for the night.
The trees that she passed dwarfed her. They seemed even grander now that she was amongst them. The moss covered bark seemed to glow in the day's light and even the wind that whistled against the bark and through the branches and leaves seemed alive with such intensity that it would be easy for her to get distracted by their beauty.
Clarke came to a pause by a large tree then. Her lungs filled with air that she had never dreamt of tasting and she let her body rest for just a moment. One hand braced herself on the moss covered bark, the other let go of her supplies before she reached down and began to massage an ache she could feel building in her calf.
She had never walked so much before. She had never used muscles that were now protesting the exertion. Her body wasn't even used to the difference in gravity. Her mind wasn't used to needing to think in the ways she was needing to think. Her eyes weren't used to needing to squint in the sunlight and her ears weren't used to straining to hear anything other than the quiet whirring of the Ark's systems.
And—
And.
And?
And Clarke, with her back to the moss covered tree trunk slid down onto the muddy forest floor.
Perhaps she had been holding it together since crashing to Earth. Perhaps she hadn't let herselffeelanything in the last few days or hours or the reason she suddenly felt a rush of emotion that screamed through her veins.
Clarke felt tears beginning to fill her vision. She felt pain beginning to etch itself into her heart and she scrunched her eyes up tightly and balled her hands into fists lest she scream out her emotions to the forest.
One single, tortured, choked sob broke past her lips. A heaving sigh of struggle and shaking of her shoulders was the only thing she managed to let escape before hit her fist against the tree trunk.
Pain flared against her already bruised knuckles. Clarke cursed out a harsh insult and she settled onto the forest floor.
Clarke wasn't even eighteen yet.
Her birthday wasn't for another couple days but she felt weary. Tired. She felt like she had lived more life than she had and she didn't know how to make sense of the things that had happened.
Solitary confinement. Not speaking to or interacting with anyone for the better part of a year. The threat of being floated. The thread of not even getting tolive. Being sent down to Earth alone, a test subject on a mission no one expected to succeed. And it wasn't a choice, not really.
It was that or accept the empty, cold, lonely embrace of space.
And Clarke let out a bitter laugh as she realised for the first time since coming down to the Earth that she wasalive.
She wished her father was here to see it. She wished she had somehow kept him as safe as he had tried to keep her.
Clarke realised she was crying when the first tears splashed down against the tablet's display held in her hands. She realised she was crying when she blinked and more tears fell free but Clarke didn't fight it this time as emotions took hold and the enormity of the task in front of her came into sharp focus.
Eventually though, her tears slowed, eventually she managed to regain some kind of composure. She wiped the back of her hand across her face, she sniffled and she tucked strands of hair back into place before she forced herself to stare at the map on the tablet's screen.
Mount Weather was only a short distance away. She'd probably make it by sunset if she didn't turn back to the drop pod. She looked back the way she came and chewed her lip only to wince. Part of her was eager to get this first part of her mission done, in whatever way she could. She knew she'd probably have to make camp near Mount Weather's entrance if she continued forward. She had her tent with her and she knew the basics.
But still, she was worried. Worried about what she'd find. Worried that she wouldn't be able to get in. Worried about so many things that could have gone wrong in the last hundred years and worried about so many things that could still go wrong in the next few hours.
But Clarke wanted to be done with the apprehension.
She grit her teeth and ignored the aches and pains in her body as she forced herself to stand. Her fingers gripped into the moss and bark and she steadied herself as she hefted her supplies over one shoulder and took sight of the tablet again.
Not long, now.
Clarke thought.
It took Clarke a while before she realised just what she was hearing as she continued to walk through the forest. At first her mind refused to register the sounds. But then those sounds wriggled into her mind and they started to linger.
Clarke stood still for a moment and just listened.
She felt a smile pulling at the corners of her lips as she stared up at a bird that flit from branch to branch high up above her. It looked carefree, unafraid of the unfamiliar beast that she was traipsing through its domain trapped on the forest floor.
She had never heard a bird in real life before. That was an obvious thought, but it was a thought that made her marvel at what she was experiencing. She had never heard a bird's call echo through the forest to be met by another a stone's throw away.
And though it was a small moment in time, now she had seen, she had heard, she had experienced more than anyone had in generations.
Eventually, though, she shook those thoughts free and pushed forward. The tablet was tucked into her backpack now, in its place a bar of compressed nutrients grown on one of the Ark's many hydroponics bays. The taste wasn't bad, at least by the Ark's standards. It was serviceable, barely noticeable. Enough to keep her alive.
Clarke had enough supplies to last her more than two weeks. She had enough information stored on the tablet and in an old weathered book to give her a fighting chance to survive while she waited for everyone else to come down to the ground and meet her at Mount Weather.
The worst thing, though, was that she couldn't talk to anyone for the next twenty-four hours.
That part was hard, it weighed down on her and made her more stressed than she wished. There were people relying on her now, at least those that hadn't wanted to execute her. There were friends she wanted to see, to tell them she was ok.
But Clarke would need to wait.
Clarke stood rooted to the spot. Her eyes were wide, her mouth slightly agape at what she saw.
Before her was a flowing creek with a riverbed of pebbles that stretched out to her left and right. The river itself was calm and quiet, the water bubbled and trickled downstream. Sunlight glinted off the wet stone, it seemed to sparkle against the water's surface and it seemed so charming, it seemed so alive with movement that barely drifted back and forth before her.
Clarke slowly walked forward, her footing careful lest she roll an ankle atop the pebbles. She had never dreamt of seeing flowing water in such quantities. Or rather, shehaddreamt of it. But she had never imagined her dreams would ever come true.
Water had been such a luxury on the Ark. Everything aboutwaterhad revolved around how little of it could be used, how much of it could be recycled. How much of it could be reclaimed.
Clarke came a stop just a few paces from the water's edge. She glanced down at the watch on her wrist and she knew she could spare a few quick minutes to just take in what she saw.
She let her backpack, the netted supplies and her rifle down onto the ground and she slowly lowered herself. Her legs protested the change in height and she sighed a contented sound as she slowly came to sit. Her legs were kicked out in front of her as she watched the water flow before her.
If she squinted hard enough she could spot the flash of movement of something below the surface, a fish, an animal, an aquatic beast she couldn't quite place.
Clarke imagined what it would be like to swim unburdened by weight. She imagined what it would be like to float as aimlessly as the leaves she saw floating upon the river's surface. She hoped it not anything like being floated. She hoped it kinder. Gentler. Not like what she had feared, not like her nightmares had told her it would be.
And Clarke didn't mean to let her mind wander to those memories. She didn't mean to let herself recall her father's face, her father's body, her father's life being extinguished right before her.
But she did and she hated that it came at times that should have been beautiful.
Clarke had thought she had cried all the tears she could cry when she had been locked up alone but just like earlier, she felt more beginning to come.
She let them fall, she didn't let herself shy away from them. She didn't let herself feel ashamed.
Not anymore.
Perhaps she thought that feeling the pain let her feel closer to her father in some way. She knew it was a silly, foolish, childish wish or hope. But for the time being it felt real and that was enough for her.
Clarke let her tears flow until they did no more. She let her body shake quietly until it shook no more and eventually her tears ran dry, eventually her quiet sobs faded into steady breathing and then she remained quiet.
Clarke took a deep breath. She held it until her lungs burnt and then she exhaled. Her breath was steady, her mind was calmer.
Perhaps she hadn't really taken time to really understand where she was now. Things had been happening too quickly for her to grasp or come to terms with. Shewasthe first human to set foot on the Earth since the bombs fell and yet she had no one to celebrate that fact with.
She was alone.
Perhaps more alone than anyone on Earth had ever been before.
But it wasn't so bad.
Not when it was calm. Not when there was beauty in the solitude, beauty in the fact her father would be proud of her.
Or she hoped he would be proud of her, at least.
The sounds of something rustling, something moving broke her thoughts and Clarke's head shot up. Across the river she saw movement at the opposite tree line. She started reaching for her rifle before the murky silhouette she could just barely see broke through the thickest of the greens and browns.
An animal, perhaps a deer from what Clarke could see, cautiously peered out from the dark. She watched as it looked around, she watched as it clearly eyed her and then she watched and she smiled a small smile as it stepped forward.
Each step it took was slow, measured, careful. Its fur was a rusty red-brown. Dappled spots of warmer, richer colour caught the light and made it look so very charming.
Clarke let her rifle lower down onto her lap as she watched the animal slowly come to the water's edge. She dared not breathe, make a sound lest she disturb it. She had never seen an animal in the flesh before. She had never dared imagine she would ever get to see one in her life.
And yet right now she was sat just a short distance away from one that drank from the river. She thought the animal skittish, afraid, more careful in stance, action, then she would expect. But perhaps that didn't surprise her simply because she must seem an unfamiliar thing to it.
She wondered what it thought of her. She wondered if there were things it feared that perhaps she should fear too.
But for now she knew its thirst outweighed its wariness.
And for that Clarke was thankful for it gave her the chance to look and gaze upon something she had once thought available to her in dream only.
But whatever spell had settled upon the lands was broken as the animal paused for just a fraction of a second before its head shot up, looked up the river and then darted away without a sound.
Clarke's own gaze turned the way the animal had stared and she saw it. It was a ripple slowly moving through the water. She couldn't tell what it was, not across the distance, but she could see the wake it was leaving and she knew whatever it was must be large, fearsome and at home underwater.
Clarke might not know what it was but she knew enough that she should put distance between her and the water.
She didn't take her eyes off whatever it was that swam slowly towards where the animal had been as she picked her backpack and supplies up off the ground. She didn't take her eyes off the animal as she slowly moved back away from the river and she felt her hands gripping the rifle more tightly as she watched the ripples slow, still and pause as the creature seemed to sense her presence too.
But just as quickly as it appeared, so too did it fade and disappear.
Clarke didn't realise she had been holding her breath until she let out a loud sigh as nervousness flooded her system. Adrenaline had also begun to flow through her veins and made her feel keyed up, tight, too on edge and Clarke didn't much care for that.
And so, with that thought, Clarke simply shook her head and turned away from the river. She needed to get to Mount Weather and she didn't have time to waste.
She'd have time to really marvel at the Earth, at the animals she was seeing, at the fact she was alive. But they could wait until her people knew it was safe to come back home.
The sun was already beginning to set by the time Clarke started the slow ascent up the mountain's side and towards Mount Weather's entrance. She had thought walking through the forest was hard, she had thought fighting through bushes and against large trees had been difficult. But she was wrong. Walkingupa mountain side, even if it wasn't that big of a mountain was hard.
Her calves burned. Her lungs struggled to take in air and she kept stumbling, kept struggling not to lose her footing. Every now and then a bird would call out to the world, perhaps the sound of a small critter somewhere she couldn't see bounced off tree trunks and Clarke was sure these animals were laughing at her in some kind of way.
She hadn't come across many more animals since the riverbed. In fact she didn't think she had really heard anything larger than those small critters underfoot and she was thankful. Or she was wary. She knew not which one she should feel just yet.
Clarke paused for a moment as she looked down at the tablet held in her hands. She winced as she shifted the tablet a bit only for her knuckles to protest the motion. She ignored the pain, she ignored the aches and burning in her muscles and she squinted in the fading light.
The map told her she was close. In fact it told her she should be seeing the entrance any moment now and though Clarke couldn't really see it just yet she would trust her tablet. It hadn't led her astray yet.
Clarke pushed on, she winced at a blister bursting on her heel but she ignored the pain. Clarke's feet were heavy with each step she took. Her eyes were slowly struggling to stay awake with each second that past but she continued to fight onwards.
She hadn't got this far to give up right at the end.
She hadn't suffered so much in the last year to not see things through to the end.
Her father hadn't died for her to give in to timidness and fear and aches and pains and Clarke wouldn't let him down.
She couldn't.
And so Clarke took one last forceful step and stride and covered the last of the distance and then she broke through the tree line and onto a small clearing.
The setting sun's light peered into her eyes. It made her squint and hold her hand up to shield her vision as she looked through her fingers.
Before Clarke was a rocky outcrop, perhaps a small cliff face of sorts. Trees were scarcely brave enough to linger in the open. Those that were appeared smaller, gentler, less sure of their place in the world.
Clarke's gaze settled on the cliff face though. She eyed the structure that lay before her and she didn't know what to think. She didn't know what to say or what to even truly believe.
Clarke's heart dropped at the same time realisation dawned on her. Pain etched itself into her soul at the same time she began to realise what everything must mean and she felt the anger, the fear, the frustration and the desperation beginning to take hold.
Clarke's lips began to tremble as she stared at the entrance to Mount Weather. Its blast doors were rusted open, vines and moss and plant life covered most of the metal structure and from what she could see of Mount Weather's interior it too was in just as much disarray and abandon as the entrance that should have been shut, that should have been protecting what could give her people a fighting chance on the ground.
And so Clarke stood frozen to the forest floor as she stared at the last hope her people ever had of surviving life on the ground.