atomic man, john murphy.

What Came After

46 DAYS AFTER PRAIMFAYA 

Clove watched as Octavia elbowed Miller's back, knocking him to the ground, then held her sword to his throat. "Okay," Miller sighed. "You win. Again." 

Octavia chuckled then pulled Miller up off the ground before fixating her gaze on Clove. "You're up." 

"Yay," Clove drawled and stood up off the ground. 

"Hey, you asked for this," Octavia reminded her. 

It was true. Only a few days after praimfaya had hit, Clove had approached their new leader asking if she could train in her close-quarters combat. When Octavia asked why she wanted to learn now, all Clove had to say was, "What the hell else am I gonna do for five years?" 

"Yeah," Clove gripped the black handle of her new sword and got into a fighting stance. She tilted her head as she bounced on her toes. "Don't remind me." 

Octavia smirked and shouted as she came at Clove with her blade. Octavia brought the sword down above Clove, who blocked the sword. With Clove's arms raised above her head to block the blow, Octavia took advantage of the her vulnerability and jammed her knee into Clove's abdomen. Clove groaned and stumbled backwards but remained standing. Octavia threw a punch in Clove's direction, but the girl raised her arm to block it. Clove then tried to swing her sword at Octavia's side. Instead of making doing that, however, Octavia kicked Clove's feet out from under her. Clove groaned again as she fell to her back on the lightly padded concrete. Similar to Miller's sparring session with Octavia, Clove's ended with her on her back and Octavia's sword at her throat. 

"Yeah, we get it," Clove said. "None of us are as good as skairipa, the champion of the conclave." 

"That's right," Octavia laughed and offered her hand to help the girl up. 

"Leave me here. I'm still recovering." 

"Get up, crybaby," Miller teased, stepping onto the practice mat. He wrapped his hands around both of her arms and pulled her up despite her protests. 

"Octavia," Indra interrupted, standing in the doorway with clothes in her arms. "The delegates have assembled."

Octavia looked over and sighed. "Dressing me up won't fool anyone. My blood is red and it always will be."

Indra paused and looked over to Clove and Miller. Miller nodded, acknowledging that Indra wanted to talk to Octavia alone. He grabbed Clove by the wrist and dragged her out. "Want to go to the cafeteria with Jackson and I?" Miller offered as they walked away from the training room. 

"Nah. Gonna clean up and then go to sleep probably." Miller sent her a concerned glance. "Dude, I'm fine. My exhaustion just outweighs my hunger. Octavia has been consistently beating the shit out of me, in case you haven't noticed." 

"I've noticed," Miller responded. "Skaikru won't have any more time in the cafeteria by the time you wake up." 

"So I'll chow down next to a grounder then," Clove said. "What's the worst they can do? Kill me?" The two stopped at the intersection of the hallway. The cafeteria was the opposite of the way of the restrooms and the bunks so Clove tilted her head in the direction she was going. "See ya," She muttered before walking off. 

 Clove stopped at the restroom first to clean the dried sweat off of her. When she was clean, Clove stood in front of the mirror with a small towel draped loosely over her body. She examined the black and purple discoloration that littered her legs and torso and sighed as she raked a hand through her damp hair. Clove dressed her self quickly after that, wincing slightly at the aching in her body. Once she was decent, the girl made the short walk to her top bunk and climbed up onto it.