Kingdom of Life - The 100 [4]

Chapter 9

Venus's POV

The bunker existed, it was real after all. For the first time in three months, I finally believed that we would survive the coming radiation. I dreamed that night of the bunker. My mind conjured up many images of what the bunker may look like, and what life in the bunker might be like. Would it be similar to the Ark? I feared for a second it might be; I had enjoyed the openness that the ground offered a little too much. But then again, it would only be for five years. What was five years out of a whole life? And, best yet, while our people took safety in the bunker, the radiation would kill off all of the Grounders, leaving the ground safer when we came back out.

With my father gone to Polis, Jaha returned and took his typical role of leader over everyone. At least he was good at it. Jaha had a way of calming people down even when there seemed no way for the situation to be calmed down. He instilled hope when there seemed to be none, and he could organize a large group of people with only a few words.

The majority of Arkadia was using their last few hours in the camp before dawn packing up both their personal items, and essentials from storage, farm, medical, and whatever else we might need underground. Only a small group seemed to be more focused on something other than packing.

The group seemed to be led by Jasper; most of them had been part of the 100 that were originally sent to the ground. They didn't seem to do much except drink moonshine and play loud music. Once or twice I thought about joining them, but that was before the bunker, before hope. We could live, all of us, so why then did they still not pack and prepare to march for Polis?

"I'm tired of surviving." I overheard one of them saying as they passed me in the halls. "I want to live." Until that moment, I thought of 'living' and 'surviving' as one of the same. To me, both meant not dying. Maybe those two words meant something different to them...

I gently placed my hands over my bulging abdomen. Whatever the reason, I had more than just myself to think about. It wasn't just me I needed to get into that bunker. I thought about the baby and Apollon, and my heart leapt. I hadn't seen him for two months now – the longest we had gone without each other since...well, since forever. On the Ark, the space we all lived in was so confined compared to the ground, you'd worry about someone if you hadn't seen them after a few days, even if the only thing you knew about them was their name.

My thoughts turned again to the bunker. It would be just like that again: seeing the same people day in and day out, being confined to a space probably no bigger than the Ark was. Would the bunker have windows? The Ark did, and the moon rises from them never got old, just like the sunrises and sunsets here on the ground – I could watch them forever. The bunker probably wouldn't have windows...

I had been pacing around Arkadia for a while now, letting my feet move on their own as my mind was absorbed by my thoughts. I hadn't even noticed that Bellamy had started to walk beside me until he spoke.

"Nervous about the bunker?" I looked up at him, his words quickly pulling me back to reality.

I looked at Bellamy – really looked at him. Since I had only known him in passing back up on the Ark, he seemed to have changed so much, and yet so little. Before, he had shot the Chancellor at the time, Jaha. He defied any rule set before him, and he seemed to cause more problems than he solved. Now, he was a member of the guard, a leader among our people, and solving problems created by both people and circumstances beyond our control – like the coming radiation. Yet, through it all, his motivation never wavered – his sister. No one had seen her since the black rain came, I wondered how Bellamy was holding up.

"No." I responded to his initial question. "I guess a little." I stopped walking and looked around at the empty hallways. These halls used to be all I ever knew in the sky. Even after we landed on the ground with all its unfamiliarity, these walls remained as a source of comfort. Now we were about to go somewhere in which the only familiarity would be each other.