ONE DAY LATER.
Madi was bored.
No, scratch that. She was slowly and painfully dying from the sheer boredom that was glancing over the stuff from the storage, sorting them out into categories, and leaving them in a pile for Lexa to move into the truck later.
It was tiring enough that she hadn't gotten to go out and stretch her legs ever since she arrived at the laboratory yet. Even if it hadn't been a long while since she managed to go out, staying in a stuffed laboratory for what was a few hours were a lot less fun than she'd first imagined being in a laboratory would be like. Clarke had supervised her for most of the time, but 20 minutes ago she had said she had to leave, which, okay, was fine by Madi. But Madi was left with 20 minutes of staring at the unsorted storage piles and sulking, which wasn't exactly the definition of fun in Madi's book.
And to add insult to injury, Clarke and Lexa were probably outside, in the dead-but-still-there forests, probably scavenging and having fun (because, thanks to Praimfaya, which was a weird thing to do because Madi didn't have much of Praimfaya to thank, the grounds were pretty smooth) and generally doing things that were infinitely more interesting than sorting out stuff into categories. Madi felt miffed at the thought, and her gaze returned to the pile of spare parts that were left by the side of the storage room.
For some reason, there were a lot of them everywhere. Pieces of machinery, wires and gears and metals and sensors, scattered all over the island. She remembered how rare resources had been in Shallow Valley (particularly springs—for some reason, no-one in Louwoda Kiliron Kru ever used them)—and Becca's Island was practically a heaven compared to Shallow Valley. And just by the thought of it made Madi want to rush out of Becca's Lab this very instant and just go around collecting gears and parts like there was no tomorrow.
Sadly, no such thing could've been possible, not when Clarke and Lexa were in the forests as well—and though Madi didn't doubt her hiding skills, she really didn't need the ever-distracting thought of accidentally bumping into Clarke and Lexa in the forests while she was on a gleeful hunt for parts and gears. Especially not after what happened the last time.
Nah, it's fine, the irritating voice which Madi had listened to more than she cared to admit nagged. Just sneak out, get deep into the forests where they can't ever find or follow you, collect the parts to your heart's content and get back before they even know you're gone. Doesn't that sound good?
Yes it does, Madi thought, mournfully as she gazed longingly at the parts in the corner. Too good to be true.
Aw, come on, Madi. Just give yourself ten minutes. It'll be more than enough time to gather what you need.
''... okay then,'' Madi muttered, getting up from the floor. ''I-I guess ten minutes isn't that bad...''
...
Notebook - 777 days since Praimfaya
(Translated from Trigedasleng)
THERE WERE SO MANY RESOURCES.
AT FIRST, AFTER SEEING THE AMOUNT OF GEARS AND BOLTS, I DIDN'T THINK IT COULD GET BETTER. BUT THEN I SAW SENSORS AND BATTERIES AND SPRINGS AND BLINKERS AND I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!
WHY DON'T WE HAVE THIS AT SHALLOW VALLEY?!
THIS ISLAND IS AMAZING AND I LOVE IT.
I DON'T REGRET THIS AT ALL.
...
After placing down the notebook by her side, her gaze returned to the spare parts she'd managed to collect. There was a lot, all types of bolts and gears and springs at all sizes, and Madi had gone from rushing through the forests, picking up everything and anything she could to hand-picking each and every sensor and battery, making sure they were at the highest quality, before returning to the Lab with an armful of them.
