Chapter 6
Clarke looked Atom over and ordered cold water and any clothing not being used. She wiped him down while another delinquent went off to find him some clothing.
"How bad?" Atom gasped out. Clarke looked up to see Atom's eyes were open.
"I don't know, Atom. I'm doing everything I can for you."
"Bellamy threw me into a pool. It was agony."
"I know, but it was the right thing to do. This acid, whatever it is, was designed to burn. Most burns react to water. This one is slowed by the water."
"Will I be me again?"
"I think so. It may be that you have to slow down, or do another job, but you should make a good recovery."
"Good recovery? Not a full one?"
"It's too soon to say, Atom. Right now, this water is stopping you from being burned further. I need to check your mouth, throat, eyes, ears and the rest of you to see how far it's progressed. Did you breathe any in?" Atom nodded.
"Do you have trouble breathing?"
"Not much. I can still take a deep breath but I can feel the air in my lungs when I do."
"Does it hurt?"
"No, it's just a little uncomfortable."
"Good. That's good. What about your hands? Can you make a fist?" Atom brought his right hand up and slowly made a fist.
"That's good. Now the left one." Atom did the same with his left hand, but this one was much harder to do.
"It feels like the skin is tight over my knuckles."
"We'll soak that hand further," Clarke said. "I'll ask any of the farm kids if they know what plants could be used for a salve. We may have to slather you in it and leave it on. For now, you're my patient and not one of Bellamy's people, okay? You need to heal." Atom reluctantly nodded.
"Erm…" Atom said.
"What?" Clarke asked.
"I need a pi-, umm, I need to urinate." Clarke smiled.
"Do you think you could do the necessary yourself if I brought you something to use?" Atom thought about it.
"I hope so."
"Then I'll send Bellamy in here to help you, okay?" Atom blushed.
"That's a good sign, Atom. If you can blush, it means your blood vessels aren't compromised." Clarke gave one last wipe of his foot and then dropped the rag into the bowl and left to find something for Atom to use and to find Bellamy as well.
Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo
"She's doing very well with nothing," Abby said to Callie.
"Your daughter is very resourceful."
"She has to be. She's had to perform medical tasks that she hasn't been taught."
"She's coping, Abby. That's down to you and whatever you did teach her. She may have read some of it in your medical books."
"I never imagined this when we sent them down, Callie. I thought they'd find a settlement and use whatever they found near there. We thought the ground was empty and it isn't. We thought we were the last of us and we're not. How much else have we gotten wrong?"
"The kids," Callie said. "Those kids are considered criminals but every single one of them has done whatever it took to survive. They've built a wall around their ship, used the parachutes as tents, found water, learned to hunt for food and during it all, not one kid - well' maybe Murphy - has complained they didn't want to do it. If we'd gone down, do you think we'd be anywhere near as organised as them?" Abby shook her head.
"I know we wouldn't. We'd expect others to do the work. We'd expect others to just know how to do things on the ground. Clarke is taking over as the medic, but she's also leading some of them. I'm not sure I could do both at the same time."
"Good job you don't have to find out. Both jobs are full-time up here, but down there, she's only their medic when they need her."
"Which is everyday so far."
"True, but I don't think they'll do anything to her now. Even Bellamy looks up to her now."
"Clarke is more of an adult than I was at her age," Abby admitted.
"That's because she had to grow up fast. Her generation has to otherwise they die."
"I hope she's able to save them."
"She'll do everything she can, Abby. She's got your compassion. She'll be fine." Abby turned back to Jasper and the others with him, giving Atom some privacy.
Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo
"Smooth," Monty said, having taken a drink of the Whisky Finn had brought back. He was sitting with Finn and Octavia, waiting for Jasper to wake up. He passed the bottle to Octavia while coughing. Octavia took a swallow and screwed up her face.
"Disgusting," she said. "Love it." She passed it to Finn. Finn raised it to his lips, but another voice spoke and stopped him.
"Can I, uhh, get a hit of that?" Jasper said.
"Jasper!" Monty said, as all three quickly went over to him. Finn picked up a water bag.
"Let's start with the soft stuff," he said gently. He raised Jasper's head and Jasper drank some water. Octavia was smiling. Finn straightened up.
"Welcome back, buddy," he said. Jasper looked at Monty who moved to his side and clasped his hand. Both best friends were smiling.
"Was that a dream or did I get speared?" Jasper asked. Clarke climbed through the hatch before anyone could answer. She, too, was smiling widely.
"You'll have a very impressive scar to prove it." Jasper smiled.
"My saviour," he said, happily.
"Thank you, for not dying," Clarke told him sincerely. "I don't think I could have taken that today."
"I'll try not to die tomorrow too, if that's cool," Jasper joked. Everyone giggled. Jasper looked over to Octavia.
"Oh, hello," he said, slightly stoned. He'd had a crush on her since they'd come down. Octavia laughed with relief. With that, Jasper went back to sleep.
Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo
"Oh, thank God!" Jasper's parents said together.
"He's going to be okay," his dad said with relief. His mom was crying in her husband's arms. The rest of farm station were cheering and yelling in delight at Jasper's recovery.
It wasn't much quieter in Command Central either, with the technicians and even the council all celebrating Jasper's miraculous recovery.
"I did think he was going to die," Kane admitted to Abby.
"Me too," she said quietly.
"Whatever the Grounders used was effective."
"Yes, but Clarke made it better. She's the one who healed him. She only used the Grounders' medicines to do it."
"We need to find out what it is. Clarke can gather some more and store it so we have a stock when we go down." Abby nodded.
"Still taking our medicines down though."
"Yes, but eventually, they'll run out. We need to know what the Grounders use to stay healthy because we'll have to use it eventually." Abby nodded again, not really wanting to use primitive medicines.
Xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Wells was on guard duty. It was early morning, the sky was just starting to lighten. Charlotte walked up to him.
"Hi," she said when he turned towards her.
"Couldn't sleep?" he asked.
"I never can," she admitted. "You on watch?"
"Join me," Wells said. Charlotte sat down beside him.
"I had a nightmare," she said. "I-I have them every night. But…I think I found a way to stop them."
"I have them too. I dream about my mom all the time. She was floated by Sydney. I know I had nothing to do with it, but I keep thinking that I could have done something to stop it. Dad tried but he wasn't the Chancellor then, he was just a guard." Charlotte looked at him. An animal chirped and Wells turned towards it.
"I'm sorry," Charlotte said as she pulled her knife out and aimed it at his neck. Wells pulled back just in time and raised his arm. Charlotte sliced a deep gouge down his arm from wrist to elbow.
"AAARGH!" Wells cried out. Charlotte tried again.
"Charlotte stop!" Wells said as he dodged the next attack.
"I have to!" she said. "Every night I see him. Your father. He killed my parents and…and I see his face and…and I wake up and I see yours! The nightmare never ends." Several others ran over, alerted by the next sentry's call for help. "The only way to make it end is to slay my demons. I have to." She took another swing at Wells but she was stopped by several guys grabbing her arms.
"Stop, Charlotte!" Bellamy said.
"I have to. You told me to slay my demons. That's him!"
"No, I'm not. I'm his son. I didn't float your parents, Charlotte. My father did that."
"What's the difference?!" Charlotte said, still struggling against her captors.
"The difference is that I didn't do it. You can't blame me for what my father did, anymore than you can be blamed for whatever your parents were arrested for. If that was the case, then half these kids would have been arrested way before they were." Charlotte was sobbing hard.
"I just want them to stop! Make them stop!" Clarke came running up.
"What the hell happened?"
"Charlotte tried to kill Wells because his dad floated her parents."
"Charlotte, Wells is innocent. He didn't do it. It's like saying that anything your parents do, you're guilty of as well."
"I don't understand!" Charlotte wailed.
"Killing Wells won't make them stop, Charlotte, they'll only get worse."
"I need them to stop." Charlotte was limp and sobbing.
"Where did she get the knife from?" Clarke asked. "The one you gave her, she gave back to you and I used it to kill that deer. I still have it."
"It's mine. I left it outside last night," Murphy admitted.
"From now on, any knife you have, is kept with you. Don't leave them lying around. That goes for everyone. Any spares are to be kept out of reach or locked up somewhere. They are too dangerous to be left lying around," Clarke said. Bellamy nodded.
"What did she mean when she said you told her to slay her demons?" Wells asked, wincing as Clarke wrapped his arm and held it above his head.
"In the cave, on the night of the acid fog, she was having a nightmare. I told her she needed to slay her demons in the daytime and she wouldn't have them at night."
"Idiot!" Clarke said. "She's 13 and takes things literally! She thought you meant, kill Wells and the nightmares would stop."
"It's not what I meant!" Bellamy said.
"Then you need to word your advice more carefully! I need to get Wells's arm seen to," she said as she led Wells back to the dropship.
"What do we do with her?" Jones asked. Bellamy sighed.
"We need to find somewhere we can put her to be safe and so we're safe."
"Build a prison, you mean?" Jones asked, skeptically.
"More like a holding pen. She's too dangerous to let roam around and she'll probably try again."
"And what do we do with her? We can't just put her in there and leave her there. She needs counselling of some kind."
"You want to do that? None of us are in any state to be a counsellor. The nearest one is Clarke and I'll be damned if I let her get injured. She's our only medic."
"Well, for now, we'll tie her to a tree and keep a guard on her. It's nearly daytime," Murphy said.
"Alright, fine," Bellamy said. "Connor, you've got the first watch. Miller will spell you in a few hours." Connor nodded and they led a still sobbing Charlotte to the tree and tied vines around her waist and tied the knot at the back of the tree. She sat down and then they tied her hands together in front of her.
"Try to get some sleep, Charlotte," Bellamy said. "We'll talk in the morning." Charlotte said nothing but put her head on her chest and refused to look at Bellamy or the others. They all drifted away. Bellamy gave one last look at Charlotte before going to the dropship to check on Wells.
Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo
"Chancellor?" Kane said, looking at the man who floated Charlotte's parents. They were in Jaha's office with Kane standing and Jaha sitting behind his desk.
"What?" Jaha asked.
"You do realise what could have happened, don't you?"
"That girl could have killed my son? Of course I do."
"Good. Actions have consequences, even for you, sir," Kane said.
"Meaning?"
"Now we know the air on the ground is safe to breathe, and we'll be going down at some point, don't you think we should let up on floating people?"
"No, I don't."
"Why not? It's not like we are going to be here indefinitely. We are going to the ground, sir and if you'll pardon me for saying it, we need everyone we can get. We may have to fight the grounders and even with our guns, eventually the bullets will run out. People have been on the ground since the war, they've had a hundred years to multiply and organise and I can guarantee you that they are more used to warfare than we are. We may need the numbers sir." Jaha was quiet as he thought about it.
"What about those who commit violent crimes?"
"We put them in prison. On the ground, they can be the front line of any battles we need to fight. If they live, we pardon them," Kane said with a shrug. He hated saying that but he knew it was what Jaha would respond to. Jaha nodded slowly, thinking everything through.
"And the kids in lockup?"
"Depends on their crime. I don't mind reviewing the charges. We both know that there are some guards who deliberately set kids up. Shumway was one of them."
"I know," Jaha said, quietly.
"So why didn't you stop it?"
"Honestly? Resources."
"Resources? That's it? You were willing to kill adults and children for resources?" Kane was astonished.
"We need to eat, Kane."
"And we were keeping up with the rations from twenty years ago when there were a lot more people living on the Ark! With this one crime policy, we have killed people we didn't need to. Jake Griffin is one of them!"
"I did what was right at the time!" Jaha said forcefully, rising from his desk, fists planted on top of it.
"You panicked!" Kane shot back. "After that revelation of who told you about Jake's plans, we've all figured out why you did it. You imprisoned Clarke because she also knew. Clarke never committed a crime, did she? You said she was in for treason, but for that to stick, she would have had to tell someone about her father's plans and she didn't."
"You don't know that!"
"I was there! I was the one who actually arrested her - on the same day he was floated. She never had a chance to talk to anyone else!"
"I couldn't take the chance."
"And now it's out? What now? Everyone's talking about the compromised air supply and they are all terrified you'll just float people to save the resources for yourself!"
"Now we have to organise to go to the ground," Jaha said.
"How? We don't have enough ships."
"I know and that's something the council will need to discuss."
"Yes, Sir," Kane said. He'd have to figure out how to save as many people as possible. He knew Jaha would want to take his people down but he couldn't take everyone.
Xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Clarke led Wells back to the ship and up to the top deck where Jasper and Atom lay. Octavia, Monty and Finn had also taken to sleeping in there as well.
"Finn! Help Wells up!" Clarke called out. Finn went over and helped pull Wells through the hatch.
"What the hell happened?" Octavia said, staring at Wells's bloody arm.
"Charlotte decided to slay her demons. Your brother told her that if she slayed her demons in the daytime, she wouldn't dream of them at night. Jaha floated her parents, so she decided to kill Wells."
"How bad is Well's arm?"
"Sliced deep from wrist to elbow. I need to check to see if his hand has been compromised."
"What do you need?"
"Medicines, bandages, water and something to stitch him up." Clarke said, facetiously.
"I might be able to help with some of that," Finn said.
"Okay, can you get some water?"
"I'd need to do a water run first. You used up most of it dousing Atom down." Clarke looked at him.
"Sorry."
"You needed it, but I do need to go get some more."
"Go see Bellamy and ask for a team to go with you." Finn nodded and headed down the ladder.
"Wells, until he comes back, we need to elevate your arm. We'll leave the bandages on, but the longer we do, the more likely they'll stick to you as the blood dries."
"Whatever you need to do," he said breathlessly. Octavia brought the water bag over.
"Here, Wells, take a drink." She held the bag to his lips and he gulped down a couple of mouthfuls.
"Thank you," he said, leaning back and closing his eyes.
"Wells, stay awake!" Clarke said.
"I'm tired," he said.
"I know but you need to stay awake. It could be blood loss that's causing it."
Bellamy climbed up to the top deck.
"Hey, Finn's taken a team out for some water. Nick's bringing what's left up here."
"How much is there?" Clarke asked.
"Maybe a bucketful," Bellamy said.
"Then refill this water bag and save the rest for everyone else," Clarke said.
"You sure?"
"Yeah, people need to drink, Bellamy. We can hold off on treating Wells for a couple of hours." Bellamy nodded.
"Anything else you need?" he asked.
"Not at the moment," Clarke said. "But thanks for asking." Bellamy nodded, looked over at Octavia and then left.
"You gonna give him the cold shoulder forever?" Monty asked.
"Don't know yet. He wants to be the leader, but he's not protecting people. Atom should never have been out in that fog in the first place. He was supposed to be here at camp."
"I left because I didn't want to be in his bad books with you again," Atom said. Octavia scrambled to his side.
"Why?"
"Because spending a night in a tree is not a nice thing. I don't want to experience that again!"
"So you're keeping away from me because my brother said so?" Atom nodded.
"Stupid reason!" Octavia said. "Should I make rules that say he's not allowed to be with anyone? He's been with at least one woman a night since we landed. Why does he get to have fun and not me?"
"Because he's your brother and he doesn't want to think of anyone doing to you what he does to other women. It's a male ego thing - and possibly a big brother thing," Atom said.
"That's sexist as hell, Atom!" Octavia said.
"Humans aren't that enlightened yet," He said with a shrug, wincing a little.
"Meaning?" Octavia asked.
"Meaning that men seem to think they have a right to do what they want but a woman should know her place," Clarke replied.
"That's fucking wrong!" Octavia said loudly.
"Yup," Clarke said.
"I thought those ideas went out a couple of hundred years ago?"
"They did, mostly, but humans are slow to learn and men think with the wrong appendage. That thing rules men's thoughts. Women do actually make better thinkers and rulers but men's egos take a hit so they do whatever it takes to be in charge."
"Bellamy better not try that shit with us!" Octavia said.
"Don't worry, those women he's with know it's just fun. The rest of them would soon put any guy in his place if he tried anything. Remember, this is the ground and according to Bellamy there are no rules so if a guy tries it on and doesn't take no for an answer, a woman can just knee him in the balls or knock him out." Octavia smirked.
"Looking forward to it!" she said fiercely.
Jasper laughed.
"Go Octavia!" he said, cheering her on. Octavia laughed and went to his side.
"You, my hero, you get a free pass, but don't let Bellamy know!" she stage-whispered and everyone laughed.
Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo
"Any guy up here who tries that will get the same deal!" Callie said to the command centre in general. All of them knew she meant it.
Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo
Octavia was wiping Jasper down with a damp rag. She cleaned his face and his neck and then behind his ears. She felt a scar and rubbed it with her finger.
"What caused this?" she asked.
"Caused what?" Jasper asked.
"The scar behind your ear."
"I don't have a scar behind my ear," he said.
"Yes, you do," Octavia said, rubbing it again. Monty went over to look. He couldn't see it in the dim light but he, too, felt it.
"She's right, Jasper, you do have a scar there."
"I shouldn't," Jasper said. "I don't remember getting one."
"Could it be from when you were speared?" Clarke asked.
"Don't know," Jasper said, attempting to shrug.
"It's not that," Wells said. "I've got one behind that ear too," he said, rubbing his own ear. Clarke went to have a look. She felt his scar and then went over to Jasper and felt his.
"They're almost identical," she said.
"How?" Monty asked.
"No idea," Clarke said, moving her hand to her own ear. Her eyes went wide.
"Everyone, check your ears!" they all did.
"We've all got them."
"How? From what?" Monty asked.
"I don't know but if we've got them then the others will have them too and that's not a coincidence. They did something to us on the Ark," Clarke said.
"Those medical assessments before we were sent down. We were knocked out for them!" Octavia said. Clarke took a deep breath in through her nose.
"Bastards!" she said.
"Clarke, your mom…" Wells trailed off. Clarke closed her eyes.
"What the hell did they do to us?"
"Does anyone feel differently?" Octavia asked.
"No, I feel like myself," Monty said.
"Whatever they did was without our permission," Clarke said. "First the experiment on us and then they throw us away. We are definitely not going back to them!"
"Clarke, your mom…"
"Is the one who did this to us!" Clarke hissed. "First she betrays me and dad and now she's betrayed all of us prisoners. I don't know what they did, but I won't give them the chance to do it again!"
Xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx
Finn arrived back the next morning and all of his team were in spirits. That might have to do with the items they brought back. They all wore backpacks and held plastic water containers they never set off with.
"We found a bunker!" Finn said to Bellamy and Clarke. He handed the water to one of the other delinquents and took his backpack off. He opened it and pulled out a large first aid kit.
"Oh, thank God!" Clarke said, grabbing it and running towards the dropship. She hoped there were suture kits in it so she could finally fix up Wells' wound.
"What else?" Bellamy asked.
"There wasn't much there. I think it was a family bunker but it wasn't stocked with much. We have two pairs of binoculars, several electronic parts - maybe Monty can work his magic on them. We have some clothing, some cutlery, plates, cups and a few bowls. There's not much left other than kid's toys and normal crap that families accumulated in the past but weren't useful. I can take you there to see for yourself," Finn offered.
"Maybe later, Clarke told me something. I haven't told the others yet but do me a favour and check behind your right ear." Finn frowned but did as asked. His eyes widened. "Shh!" Bellamy said. "Everyone on the top deck has found the same thing. I don't have one because I'm not a prisoner. Everyone else is."
"They did something to us?"
"Must have. Clarke's got one as well. So has Wells."
"Shit! What does it mean?"
"We don't know. Come up to the top deck this evening and we can see if we can figure it out." Finn nodded and that evening, he followed Bellamy up the ladders to the top deck. Bellamy closed the hatch.
"Alright, does anyone have an idea what's going on?" Clarke shook her head even as she was washing the blood off Wells' arm. She had already sutured Wells' arm and Octavia was standing by to hand her whatever she asked for.
"Mom must have done the operations with Jackson's help," Clarke said.
"But what kind of operations?" Monty said.
"We don't know. I'm not going to open you up to have a look. Whatever they did was inside our skulls. That area is right by the hole our eardrums go through. It's the easiest hole to reach our brains and the inside of the skull," Clarke said.
"They did brain surgery?" Finn asked, amazed and scared.
"No, it's too risky, but they could have done something else," Clarke said, concentrating on cleaning Wells' arm.
"Well we'll have to leave this for another time. What are we going to do with Charlotte?" Bellamy asked. Clarke sighed and turned to Bellamy.
"We can't keep her locked up, Bellamy. It's not her fault her parents were killed and it is your fault she took your advice."
"I didn't mean for her to try to kill Wells."
"I know but telling her to slay her demons was stupid. Couldn't you have talked to her about it instead? Tell her about how you cope with what happened to your mother. I heard about what you said to Wells when we were heading to Mount Weather," Clarke said.
"I didn't think of that," Bellamy admitted. "I was just trying to get her to see that her nightmares wouldn't get her. It's what mom said to Octavia when she was scared."
"Mom did?" Octavia asked in surprise. Bellamy nodded. "I don't remember that." Bellamy shrugged, unsure what to do next.
"Well, whatever advice your mom gave you, I doubt she told you that so you could go out and kill someone and I bet you were older or more mature than Charlotte," Clarke said.
"True," Bellamy said with a sigh.
"So what do we do with the girl?" Jasper asked.
"We build a holding pen for her until we can figure out how to help her. We can't let her out, she'd probably go try and kill Wells again!" Bellamy said.
"I don't like it, but I can't think of anything else," Clarke said in a subdued tone.
"What about at night when she has her nightmares?" Wells asked.
"I don't know. If we could find some old world medicines, I'd be tempted to try a sedative on her, but I have no way of knowing if the old meds are usable or not, nor if they would kill her if we tried," Clarke said.
"Alright, first thing is to find some meds," Finn said. "I can look while I'm out exploring," he finished. Bellamy nodded.
"I'd probably need some syringes as well, Finn. Most of the sedatives were vials of liquid."
"Yep, got it," Finn said.
"Then set off tomorrow morning," Bellamy said. "I want you back by nightfall though. We have no way of knowing how many grounders there are, so keep an eye out for them." Finn nodded.
"What are we doing tomorrow?" Octavia asked.
"Making that holding pen, hunting, water collection and watcher duties. Jasper, Wells and Atom are excused work until Clarke says otherwise. The rest of you will have to pitch in to help."
"No problem," Monty said while Clarke and Octavia nodded.
"Then in that case, we'd better get some sleep. We have a lot to do in the morning," Bellamy said. The others nodded. Clarke and Octavia wrapped Wells' arm before bedding down for the night on the top deck.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
I don't have any medical training other than basic first aid about 30 years ago. Please take what you read here with a pinch of salt. It is not meant to be scientifically factual, but as part of a story. Samdagger.