the world as we know it -- bellarke au

chapter one - the 48

*small disclaimer - the beginning follows the same story as the show, so this is basically a book version of the first episode showcasing clarke's time at mount weather! the storyline derives from the plot at the end of this chapter, so you can see how it'll be changed very soon*

c l a r k e   g r i f f i n

I awoke in a white room. For a moment, I thought I was dead --- or, more accurately, that I was dying, and the white surrounding me was the light you were supposed to go into. 

But then the smell hit my nose. Clean, like the hospital on the Ark. Bleach, soap, a faint smell of something metallic. Surely, dying wouldn't smell so horrid. I would think it wouldn't smell like anything at all. 

I could feel someone watching me. 

My eyes scanned across the room --- over a painting hung across the wall, to the white door with a small circular window. 

It was starting to come back. I had seen Monty through there, hadn't I? Across the hall. 

His room was now empty. A person in a hazmat suit sprayed the room with something I couldn't see, and my panic set it. 

I screamed, at first for Monty, and then I was just screaming, hitting the door and trying not to remember. Remember the fire, the grounders, Bellamy's face in the distance, Finn chasing after him. Were they alive?

I needed to get out of the room. I needed answers. 

I grabbed a metal IV pole and forced it through the little window, the glass shattering around me. Reaching my arm through the window, I found the lock and freed myself, but as the door swung open, I felt a sharp and unwielding pain across my arm. My blood dripped onto the pearly floor, but I ignored it. I had a job to do. 

I clung to a piece of shattered glass and let myself into Monty's room, breath shaking. 

"Where's my friend?" I demanded, pulling off the top of the hazmat suit. It was a girl, wearing a pair of earphones and a terrified expression. 

"He's fine, you don't understand, okay?" she said. "He's---" 

I grabbed her by the shoulder and pressed the shard of glass to her throat. "Take me to him."

I nudged her towards the door, hands shaking. What if they weren't alright? What if everyone was gone?

The girl led me through long, dingy corridors, to a little elevator tucked into one of the walls. "Clarke, you're bleeding," she said. 

"How do you know my name?"

"It was on your chart." 

"How do they know my name?"

The girl exhaled on a shaky breath. "I don't know. Please don't hurt me." 

"You want to live? Do exactly what I say."

The girl tried to reach for her pocket, but I pushed her into a wall and held the glass closer. "I don't think so," I said. 

"Key card," she said shakily. "I just need my key card."

She used the card to open the door to an elevator. 

"Which level?"

She pushed a number I didn't see, and the elevator started to rise. 

"Who are you people?" I demanded. "Answer me. How many of us are here? Where are they? Say something."

A calm voice spoke from the elevator. "Arrived. Level 5."