After the End [ The 100 ]

4. A brand new hell hole

pilot

[bex]

It lands with a bump, and I'm squeezing my eyes shut at the impact, jumping in my seat, holding on for dear life to my seatbelt, and frowning when I finally open my eyes.

Not everyone's nearly as fucked, and I'd roll my eyes if I wasn't so delirious. Then Todd hisses beside me.

His blond eyebrows are furrowed, and he's holding his leg, clearly in worse shape than I am. It's then I notice that his harnesses have snapped, causing me to quickly unbuckle mine, ignoring the pain in my back.

"Todd," is all I say when I go over to him. People push past me, eager to get out of this... wherever we are. Yeah, they're lucky I'm helping out a friend or they'd be splayed out on this floor.

I don't ask before grabbing his leg, but he pulls it away and gives me a look. Shock, pain, and anger. Shaking my head slightly with a frown, I say, "Come on, everyone's leaving."

"Gosh, where're they all in a rush off to? The Chancellor's probably making us perform. Best act gets a bandaid and pardon."

"What happened?" I ask, ignoring the joke. His arm grabs my shoulders, and my legs struggle to walk while holding him up.

I accidentally glance at his wrist and catch sight of the object again. I remember mine and groan. "What's with these things?" I ask as we hobble out the drop ship.

"No idea. But I can probably get it off. Just need my trusty red handkerchief."

His face is still in pain, but I watch him reach into his back pocket as he limps, and he pulls out said cloth. I don't even want to call it what it is.

A few minutes pass with Todd and I just looking and pointing. He's joking, but I'm kind of just going with the flow. Not that anyone cares, but Jaha had a few things to say — the father, not the grandeur son. Something about Mount Weather and supplies and all that being life. Which... cool... but when did that become my fucking job?

My parents voted for Councilor Diana Sydney. She was already working on ways to improve life for the under-privileged. The only thing that makes sense to Jaha is the law. To hell with context.

Breaking from my thoughts, I join Todd on the ground. His leg's splinted, but he's got them both stretched out.

"Nobody really cares that Ross and Davey died today."

"I never really knew them." I might've been here the longest, but my intuition's the best part about me. I know who to mess with and who not to. "You alright, though?"

His eyes slide up, sitting just beneath his eyebrows. "I guess. Just sucks."

"I don't know why it wouldn't."

Todd looks at me a little longer before we both shrug (him first, then me).

Behind him, Alison's with a girl. She's got long and curly brown hair, she's black, but her skin's a lighter shade of brown. She's pretty, and she's smiling, and so's Alison, so something's definitely wrong there.

My eyes squint into a frown as they mess with a jacket. The taller black girl puts on her jacket like a cape and poses like a superhero and Alison actually laughs.

Then she puts it over Alison's shoulder, and Alison holds it in place, and there's just way too much smiling for a girl like her. She's really fucking happy, so the other girl's got to be a witch or something. Her loose curls flow in the wind a bunch, and she brings up her hand to push them away.

Rationally speaking, there's no way they've just met, but I've also never seen her before. Solitary, maybe? She'd be the third person. But Alison's never this tolerable. Unless it's some random boy she's flirting with. But it's clear those two are not flirting.

Why do I even care?

Right. Because it's shocking to see the girl act like a normal person.

[...]

"Did you know they were gonna do that to Warren?" Todd asks as I walk (and he hobbles) toward our group of friends.

I'm silently judging the other prisoners, watching how they conduct their work when I spot the four other kids. I plop down next to them, Todd following suit (slower, obviously).

They greet us with their eyes before conversation resumes as normal.

"No. I think Golde should be glad he's alive though," I answer a little late. "Though we won't know. He's probably in hiding."

"He'd always choose who his dad is." I look at Todd after catching Alison's eye as she walks with the same girl.

His words were random. "That means what?"

"People can't choose who their parents are. Warren probably did."

I smile at such an interesting thought. When Alison glares at me, it's gone.

Tilting my head, I give her the same look back. But she glances over her shoulder back at Clarke Griffin, Finn, that girl, and Wells Jaha. "Anyone else think what we're standing on definitely isn't a mountain?" Her hands are up in explanation.

"Hold on," blondie Clarkey says. "I've a map."

They keep walking until they're past us, and Alison only looks at me one more time.

"Okay, I'm officially questioning that exchange," Todd says with a light laugh.

I catch the grin still lingering on his face and roll my eyes. "Whatever. We were roommates, not best friends." Seems like she's got one or two of those now.

[...]

Time somehow moves faster here than on the Ark. Probably because we're only orbiting one thing unlike back on the space stations.

Clarke and her group have been moving all over camp, but she's determined. Her eyes are fixed in a straight line. She isn't interested in giving anyone the time of day.

"I think she might've enjoyed solitary," I think aloud as my eyes track Clarke. I'm comfy atop Todd's arm as we're leant against a boulder. Good thing we didn't land on it.

"Who, Clarke Griffin?"

"Who else but the Council's children would earn solitary," I drone rather than ask.

"We could join them. I am getting kinda hungry," he says and rubs his stomach on cue.

"Just enjoy the view. Like Bellamy said, the privileged get to work now."

I take my own advice and sink further into Todd, content as I watch her group regather in a circle.