Warriors

Chapter One

Survival.

It's the only thing that I have ever known.

I survived eleven years in solitary confinement.

I survived seven more years in the Sky Box, losing every cellmate that ever came in.

I survived crash landing on Earth that was said to be uninhabitable.

I survived war with the Grounders and with the Mountain Men and with my own people and with ALIE.

I survived losing Adam, Charlotte, Roma, Sterling, Monroe, and Finn.

I survived falling in love.

All I have ever done is survive.

I went into the City of Light and shut down ALIE with the hope that everyone would be done with surviving, that we could all begin to live, but, when I learned that all the remaining nuclear power plants have begun to melt down and a fiery wave of death is going to sweep over us in six months, I'm not so sure any of us will survive.

I step around the piles of bodies and the puddles of blood that now liter the streets of Polis. Cries of pain and loss ring in my ears as I scan the faces for familiar ones. An arm brushes against mine as I come to a stop in the heart of the city, and I turn to see Bellamy with a worried look on his face as he too scans the people around us.

"She'll be okay," I say, reaching for his hand and giving it as comforting of a squeeze as I could muster in all of this death. "Octavia can take care of herself."

"That's not what I'm worried about," he says, his eyes still racing around.

"Everybody will say that Pike had it coming."

Bellamy finally takes his eyes away from the crowd and meets my gaze. My heart breaks a little bit more as I see all the hope and fight gone from him.

"Maybe we all do."

He squeezes my hand before dropping it as we continue walking.

"How do we tell these people that the world is ending again after everything they've been through?" My voice cracks as I watch a woman place a young boy on the top of a pile of bodies.

"We don't," he says, causing me to stop in place again and look at him with wide eyes. "Not until we know ALIE was telling you the truth."

I take a small step closer to him, trying to keep my voice down.

"It was the truth, Bellamy."

There's a small pause as we stare at each other.

"Still, we keep it to ourselves until we know what we're dealing with and how to stop it," he says, and I raise my eyebrows at him as he looks away and mutters something under his breath.

"You're afraid of how people will react."

This situation seems familiar.

"Yes," he affirms, not hesitating for a second.

"Besides," a small smirk falls onto his face. "I could use a break from keeping you alive."

I roll my eyes and look away from him and back out to the suffering people around us.

"You gave them back their pain, Carter, let's not add to it by telling them they're gonna die in six months."

Familiar but slightly different.

My father was the one who discovered the failure in the oxygen system up on the Ark. He wanted to go public with it, so everyone could work together to solve the problem and save what we thought was the last of the human race. My mother, and Jaha, thought that notifying everyone would cause a panic and riots would break out and end up costing lives.