Fallen

Chapter Thirty-Three: Survive

Everyone walks through the woods with Octavia leading the way. She uses Lincoln's journal to guide them. Ash stops as she listens to the world around them.

"Do you hear that?" she asks.

Bellamy looks up before looking at her. "Rushing water." 

The group takes off running in that direction. They soon break out of the woods and end up on the shore. And all that there is a stack of rocks. There should be people here, but there isn't anyone.

"This doesn't make sense," Octavia snaps. "They should be here."

Octavia lets out a scream of frustration. She collapses and starts to cry. The others look at each other, unsure what to do. Octavia deserves the right to cry and scream. The universe keeps dealing her the worst cards.

*****

Ash walks along the corridor with the rest of the other delinquents. Standing along the hallway is are multiple guards. By the door is Jaha, Abby, and Marcus. The group enter the room and Pike is standing in the front. There is a table with various items for Earth.

"Welcome to crash course Earth Skills," Pike states. Ash sits down by Octavia. Pike's eyes scan over the crowd. "We have a lot to learn. So lets begin."

He starts explaining how to start a fire. Once he realizes that no one, except for a couple of girls, are really paying attention. Murphy keeps on joking around.

"Perhaps you'd like to tell us the key to surviving on the ground," Pike challenges Murphy. The boy shrugs his shoulders.

"No, not really. No."

Pike looks around and sees a girl shrinking in her seat.

"Miss Blake, how about you? The key to survival on Earth, what is it?"

"Not dying?" she guesses. All but Ash laugh at her guess, making the young girl blush.

"You can laugh all you want," Pike continues, "but we've got a lot to learn here... making fire, tying knots, how to navigate using the stars, how to hunt. You have to learn which plants you can eat and which-"

"Which ones we can smoke?" Jasper jokes. Harper high fives him while a couple others joke. Ash actually laughed at that one.

"Mr. Jordan, that is precisely why we had to separate you and Mr. Green. Listen. The answer to my question. The key to surviving on the ground and on the Ark is to keep fighting at all costs against all odds." 

"So O wasn't wrong," Ash pipes up. "Key to surviving is to not die. Or in your words, 'to keep fighting'."

"That is true, Miss Kane," Pike responds. "The minute you give up, you're dead." He looks directly into the crowd. "Am I boring you, Mr. Murphy?"

"I'll survive," Murphy promises.

*****

Octavia blows on the small fire in front of her. The flames start to grow. Bellamy and Clarke walk down the shore some while Ash helps collect firewood. Bellamy still hates that Octavia won't talk to him. She told him that every time she looks at him, she is disgusted. So he walked away to give her space. Clarke followed since Ash was in the woods when the words were exchanged.

"I wish she would talk to me," he tells her.

"She just need time."

"I could never make it up to her."

The two walk so far in quiet. His eyes scanning the area around them.

"So you kissed Ash," Clarke points out, breaking the silence.

"I did."

She's trying to distract him. And he is okay with it.

"Where does that leave you two?"

"I don't know."

Clarke looks over her shoulder towards the others. Ash is laying the wood in a pile.

"You two seem to be drawn to each other every time one of you are close to death or in danger."

"I always care about her. No matter the situation."

"I didn't say you didn't. I'm just saying it seems you two tend to be together more often when you're going to die."

He rolls his eyes before turning around to head back. He could see Ash sitting by the fire, glancing towards them.

*****

Ash moves in her seat, ready to leave the room. This is just useless. Why would they need to worry about this? Most of them will probably floated when they turn eighteen either way.

"Murphy," Pike calls. "Help me with this lesson."

"Okay," Murphy chuckles, getting up. As soon as Murphy walks over to Pike, the teacher punches him.

"What the fuck?" Ash proclaims. Pike starts beating Murphy. People start yelling for him to stop while others try to pull him off. Ash leaps out of her chair, getting between Murphy and Pike. She punches Pike in the face, falling down some. The other students let go and let him fall. She kicks him in the face, causing his nose to bleed. She turns and help Murphy up. 

Jaha hurries in, taking in the scene. Pike stands up, wiping the blood away. The horror and anger on Jaha's face is clear. He looks at Ash and Murphy.

"I heard you down the hall," he snaps. "And the fact I come into see a fight had broken out. Now someone explain what is going on. Right now!"

"Graduation," Pike smiles.

*****

Octavia looks through Lincoln's journal when Clarke and Bellamy return. Jasper throws in some leaves, causing the fire turn burn green.

"What did you put in there?" Ash asks him. He holds up branch with some leaves.

"I just put some of this into the fire."

Octavia grabs it out of his hands before throwing it into the fire. The flames turn green once more as a smile grows on her face. She pulls out the same type of leaves out of the journal. She throws that in the fire as well. The green flames keep growing.

"It's a signal," Clarke points out. "We can signal Luna."

*****

Pike watches from the corner as his students get loaded onto the dropship. He notices how Ash quickly looks away from Kane, not wanting to acknowledge her father. Clarke is carried by on a stretcher. Hopefully his students will survive.

*****

A group of people in diving gear walk on the shore, ready to fight. Ash puts her hands in the air, showing she is unarmed. One of the people takes off their mask. He looks at all of them. 

"What do you want?" he asks them.

"Lincoln told us about you," she states.

"Where is he?" 

"Dead," Octavia states. The man nods his head before grabbing a bottle out of his pocket. He hands it to Octavia as someone opens a box with more vials in it.

"What is it?" Octavia asks.

"The key."

Bellamy goes to protest, but she just downs the content with no more questions. Ash follows suit and drinks from one of the other vials. Soon the others do the same and the world starts to rock. Ash falls down, hitting the ground hard. Her vision soon goes black, passing out.