Of the Night: A Story From the 100

{2} Feeling the Ground

"Hey, you know what I'd like to know?" Finn asked randomly. We had been walking along and observing the scenes around us. Clarke had gotten irritated an hour before when they stop to admire some flowers that Monty had known a lot about. "Why send us down today after ninety seven years? What changed?"

"Who cares?" Octavia sniffed. "I'm just glad they did. I woke up rotting in a cell, and now I'm spinning in a forest." She did a twirl and I smiled.

"Maybe they found something on a satellite, you know, like an old weather satellite or it wasn't a satellite," Monty suggested. He and Jasper were nice guys. Jasper had been the shaggy-haired guy from before and his best friend Monty was a sweet smaller boy with kind eyes.

"The Ark is dying. At the current population level, there's roughly three months left of life support, maybe four now that we're gone," Clarke said. Her voice was bland.

"So that was the secret they locked you up to keep, why they kept you in solitary, floated your old man?" Finn asked without any sympathy.

"My father was the engineer who discovered the flaw." Clarke shot him a look. "He thought the people had a right to know. The Council disagreed. My mother disagreed. They were afraid it would cause a panic. We were gonna go public, anyway, when Wells..."

"What, turned in your dad?" Monty guessed.

Clarke looked down at the path as she walked. "Anyway, the guard showed up before we could. That's why today. That's why it was worth the risk. Even if we all die, at least they bought themselves more time."

Monty sighed. "They're gonna kill more people, aren't they?"

"Good," Octavia snorted. "After what they did to me, I say, float them all."

Jasper gasped. "You don't mean that!"

"Not every person up there is vile," I told her gently. "What about the children up there? They are innocent."

She frowned. "I suppose..."

"We have to warn them." Finn blinked.

Clarke sighed heavily. "That's what my father said.'

"Oh, damn, I love Earth," Jasper said suddenly.

I glanced upwards to see a flowing river, weaving across the ground.

"Oh! Holy..." Monty breathed out. Finn laughed, standing beside him as Jasper was cheering.

Octavia let out a shout and started taking off her clothes.

"Octavia, what the hell are you doing?" Clarke asked, exchanging a look with me.

She ignored the blond and jumped into the water.

"Octavia! We can't swim!" Monty exclaimed as she resurfaced.

She smiled. "I know, but we can stand." She laughed as she stood up, the water line at her waist.

"Wait. There's not supposed to be a river here," Clarke commented as she studied the map.

"Well, there is. So take off your damn clothes," Finn told her, taking his shirt off. "You too Layla!"

"No," I told him, crouching down and sticking my hand in the water.

Suddenly I saw something large moving under the water.

"Octavia, get out of the water!" Jasper shouted before I could. "Get out of the water now!"

She left out a scream almost instantly and was roughly yanked across the water.