Fate (The 100 Fanfiction)

Chapter One

Food resources on the Ark were always unpredictable. I'm not sure I want to know how they've kept it accessible all these years, but I can only imagine what went on during darker years. Come to think of it, I do not miss those stupid nutrition packets. Although they provided the right amount of nutrition, that mush never came digestible to me in the seventeen years I spent eating it. They sent some down with us, but unless we had no other option to eat it, it sat in the eerie spaceship that we crashed down in. I picked up hunting fairly quickly in the first year of being on Earth. A doctor in training named Clarke Griffin had warned us about radiation levels in the animals we hunted, but soon rested her case after we ate deer and rabbits for weeks with no symptoms of sickness.

Part of me wondered, 'How thoughtful of the Chancellor to send a doctor down with us'. But that thought soon died after I discovered she was in trial like the rest of us. She had knowledge of her parents performing radiation trials on young sick kids for research, and as I've learned the hard way, secrets always escape. There was no way my sister, Octavia could have lived her entire life on the Ark in our small unit. Confined like a sheep in a pin. I'm actually glad they sent us to Earth. The feeling of being free is nothing like I've felt before.

"Hey, a group of us just gathered some of those blankets we stored from last winter. Should we leave them in a pile near the fire?" A girl named Madisen snaps me out of my thinking.

For the time we've been here, Clarke and myself have been leader figures around camp. This was unintentional for me, but Clarke's always been a natural born leader.

"Yeah, that seems alright. Just have somebody keep an eye out to make sure each person only takes one blanket." I stand up from the log I was sitting on and throw my deer bones into the fire Madisen was referring to. I observe the camp carefully. Although it has been four years since we were sent down, we still have things to look out for. Not long after we landed, we encountered other living beings here. We call them Grounders, and they weren't very welcoming when we unknowingly moved in their territory.

———
Flashback to 2149

I'm panting. Running through the woods as fast as possible with Clarke to my left and Murphy to my right. I've got Octavia thrown over my shoulder. All I can think about is saving my sister, so that's what keeps me going as my desire for cold water progresses.

"They're not giving up!" Yells Murphy.

"They don't know what they're running into!" I shout back. I've got to be fearless for them all. The people we're running from are a group of survivalists from the nuclear bombings in 2052. They're barbaric, territorial, murder-driven beasts that kill anyone who's not a part of them instantly. They remind me of cavemen, something we read in books back on the Ark. And did I mention they kill? Brutally? They've got about a hundred different ways to kill somebody. But we've got something better. I reach my right arm back behind my head to hoist Octavia up over my back as we run a couple more feet into the trap they are unaware of.

"Now!" Clarke's the last to pass the line and signals the others in our camp to reveal themselves. While the walls we built don't seem defensive, just at the right time our people close the gates and begin firing the automatic weapons at anything that moves in front of our gates. Between the shooting and the loud ripples of gunfire, I can't tell if we're even hitting them. Then the first wave of Grounders fall to the ground. One by one, the Grounders take cover, making use of the trees in their vicinity. This doesn't do them any good though because our wall stretches about a fifty feet laterally. I set Octavia down and almost immediately Clarke and Octavia walk starts to work on her ankle. I grab a bow and set of arrows because although I was trained with guns on the ark, I'm more accurate and deadly with a bow. I quickly pull back the string with an arrow and scan for a target. There. A roughly 250 pound Grounder with long black hair and a cloth over the bottom half of his face. Within the same second it takes for me to release my finger I realize he's got a heavier, thick jacket. The angle at which I raised my arms satisfies me when I see the timing was perfect. The arrow hits him clean in his left eye and he falls to the ground dramatically. I shift my focus to another Grounder running up to the gate, unaware that she is being watched by a pair of eyes and a bow and arrow. I peer down right above her send an arrow into the crown of her skull and she falls onto her back, wide-eyed and staring up at me. I watch as her heart slows to a stop and take a few more Grounders down. After about ten minutes, the rest of the Grounders scatter into the woods and retreat almost in sync. I've gone through five arrows because I need to save the rest for hunting and surprisingly, we have plenty more firearms than we do bow and arrows. I quickly climb down the ladder of our watch tower and jump off the last few bars. I hand Lewis my bow and arrow and he puts it in the armory. I immediately run to the medical tent and as soon as I move the tarp I see Clarke's brows furrowed in concentration and follow her gaze to my sister's ankle. A sprained ankle shouldn't take nearly half an hour to clear. A cloth in my sister's mouth and two clenched fists confirm my analysis that Octavia's ankle is in fact broken.