archenemy | clexa

eight

The Arkers are able to keep the Grounders away for one week, but they're running low on ammo, food, water and medicine. Raven fixes the radio and Clarke and Kane have been having contact to another Ark station for the last two days, but connecting seems nearly impossible given the wall of an army that is now positioned far outside Arkadia's walls.

The station has gone largely unnoticed by the Grounders, or at least by their army. Not that it would have mattered, because with that station surviving, the Arkers hit an absolute jackpot; the Guard's weaponary with not only weapons but trained guards as well, farmers, walkie-talklies and Abby Griffin all in one station, more or less in one piece.

With food, weapons, the head doctor (and Clarke's presumed dead mother), radios and people, meeting is absolutely invaluable. So Clarke organizes guard shifts to note when the Grounder's army changes and moves and when they find a weak spot two days later, they make a plan to get the others to Arkadia too.

As soon as night falls, Abby Griffin leads her group through the dark forest towards the destinations given. They're loud on the unknown territory, stepping on every dry leaf and crispy twig, but their guns outweight them and no Grounder tries to attack, if anyone noticed them at all. A good distance away from the clearing that opens up to the field where Arkadia is located, they stay put until the signal reaches them per radio to move.

At the point they're meant to pass the army and sneak on to Arkadia, a change of warriors is undergoing and so the spot is without torches and light for a short while that should be enough for the two dozen people to pass.

Except, it's not.

Clarke is perched high on a watchtower with her rifle ready, focused sharply on the group in the blurry distance, and watches the disaster unfold.

One of them falls out of line, stumbles. The warriors around them notice, a scream fills the wide, plain land, and then. it gets messy. Everyone breaks into a run, Arkadia's gates open already far before anyone is close and the Grounders move. Out of roughly twenty people, eleven make it.

At least the eleven that do are all trained guards (and thus the fastest runners with stamina) that carry most of the weapons as well. Four were killed in the mess, the others are watched from the distance as they're taken prisoner.

Clarke doesn't sleep that night, like she hasn't slept the night she found out that her mother was supposedly dead. Now, she might as well be, there in the Grounder's camp. Who knows what they do to people. Who knows whether they are cannibals, perhaps. They do like torture, Clarke knows that.

She prays that her mother finds a solution, she prays that they don't get killed, and those prayers fill out an entire night.

-

In the meanwhile, Lexa is on a mission to Azgeda. Two bodyguards and two warriors accompany her, all heavily armed and on armored horses just as Lexa.

They're not going to attack in such weak number, but instead they're planning to search the Royal Castle for Costia. Firstly, because Lexa could not bear something happening to the girl and secondly because without leverage, Azgeda would lose a fair amount of power.

Lexa hates snow; it always makes sounds and it always leaves footprints, so they leave half of the horses tied further away from Azgeda's fortress and share the others. At least like that, it would seem like they're half their number if they were to be discovered.

The fortress has large, deep dungeons with small, thin windows just above the ground for meagre light. Ryder, one of Lexa's guards, saws through the thick iron of the bars within few minutes and with a lookout for Azgedan guards down in the dungeons, they let down a rope.