Life Without You

When You're Ready

         

Okay it took me forever to write this because I was so conflicted on how to write it and whether I should follow through with the fluff or not. I really hope you guys like this because you know it was really hard for me to write this chapter. Leave lots of comments I read them all and I love knowing what you liked and what you didn't like. Enjoy. xx

Octavia:

I've never felt like a stronger leader than standing up here in front of Wonkru right now. We're finally getting everything together. No more threats, no more living in constant fear, no more doubting our abilities. We're finally in a good place. I know we are here today because of me and my family. Bellamy, Indra, Azuma, Clarke, Abby, Jackson, Raven, Monty, Miller, Kane, Harper, Murphy, and Emori. We've all come so far. It's nice to have them all by my side. I still feel like I can't trust Echo, everyone else may trust her but I don't. I don't think I ever will, but she's a good fighter and I guess she can be useful.

Kane took a few steps towards me, pulling me from my thoughts, a slight smile on his face. "Bellamy and Clarke are here, we'll do a quick brief and then we can start." He gave me shoulder a nice squeeze.

Kane and I may have had our differences over the past few years, but he has helped me a lot. He's made me a better leader. I rested my hand on top of his hand briefly smiling at him. "Thank you."

He nodded before turning towards Bellamy who was carrying Clarke through the crowd. I made my way on the platform in the front of the room. Azuma stood to my left and Indra stood to my right. The echoes of conversations and laughter around the room slowly came to an end as everyone's attention focused on me.

"Today we go back to being us. We have survived, now we will thrive." Smiles filled the faces of everyone around the room. "Some of you will learn new things, some of you will go back to doing what you're best at but all of you will be given the chance to live a new life." People let out cheers around the room. I looked around at Clarke, Bellamy, Raven sitting in front of me large smiles on their faces.

"Now we get to work. We need to prepare for the winter. We need to build our homes. Gather our food. These next few months will not be easy. But nothing about life on the ground has ever been easy." I folded my arms in front of me as I stared out at the crowd of people exchanging glances and minor comments. "You've all been assigned to different sections and different shifts all lead by our best."

Slowly everyone joined me on the platform. Bellamy, Clarke, Kane, Abby, Jackson, Raven, Monty, Miller, Harper, Murphy, Emori, and Echo made their way up. Bellamy sat Clarke down on a chair placed at the end of the platform. "Azuma and Miller will be leading hunting parties every day."

Miller made his way towards Azuma giving each other reassuring nods. Azuma took a step forward. "We will divide you all into groups between the both of us. We will leave every morning at first light and return by sundown. Today we will go over the rules and techniques to make sure you all are prepared, but the actual hunting will not begin until tomorrow."

He stepped back into line with the others. "Bellamy and Murphy will be in charge of the groups building the cabins."

Bellamy stepped forward beside me. "We will have the biggest group because we have the biggest job. Construction of the cabins will be continuous. Today we will be assigning everyone with different shifts. I know we have the ship, but we all did not spend the past 6 years locked up only to stay that way." Everyone let out loud cheers throughout the crowd. The echoes of happy people filling the air.

Bellamy's head was held high as he stepped back in line with everyone else. He was a history nerd back on the Ark. I blame my mom for it, she always read old literature to us. Bellamy loved it. He read all about life before the apocalypse. He loved reading about old architecture before the first apocalypse and now he was going to be able to put all that knowledge to work. I guess it wasn't all as useless as I used to call it.