The End of the World (Bellamy Blake x Reader)

II - Heavy Lies the Crown

It felt good to be back in Arkadia, a normal Arkadia that wasn't tainted by Alie or people possessed by Alie. As soon as I saw my friends, I hugged them tighter than I ever had before. Part of me feared I would never see any of them again. But as we stood in the Chancellor's chambers, that fear felt like a dream. At least, until six months from now.

Thunder rumbled outside, and rain pattered against the metal walls. I knew that soon that rain would turn acidic, would kill us. I longed to stand outside, relish in the beauty of the rain before it became destructive. But we had to find a way to save ourselves before I could indulge in things like that.

"We've been at this for two days," Bellamy huffed. "There must be something we're not thinking of. What if we could reach the nearest nuclear reactor?"

Raven sighed. "I told you. The meltdown started months ago. There's no magic button to turn them off. Today, this isn't black rain. But it will be soon. That's why we have to focus on riding out the radiation. Finding someplace safe and big enough to hold all five hundred of us."

"This isn't about saving just us," Clarke argued. "I made a promise to Roan. It's about saving everyone."

"And that's why we need to tell everyone," Raven said. I agreed, even if it was going to incite chaos. If people knew they were working to save their lives, they'd work hard. We'd find a way to save everyone. At least, that was the hope.

I nodded. "Crowd-source it. If there's another Mount Weather out there, the Grounders will know about it."

"And you think they're gonna tell us just like that?" Bellamy countered, crossing his arms. I knew we'd get opposition on this, but it was the only effective way. He'd get that eventually. "If we tell everyone they're gonna die, the coalition is over, Roan falls, and the Grounders will be at our gate."

Fair, but we had a timer on our problem here. If we didn't find another Mount Weather, we were all gonna die in six months anyway. Wasn't it better to try every option?

"Then just tell our people," I offered, trying to keep my voice steady. Adding anger to the already tense situation would not do any good. "We need more minds on this problem."

Raven added, "On the Ark, people volunteered for the culling because they were told the truth and given a choice." Then she turned to Clarke. "A choice your dad died for."

Clarke scoffed. "You think I've forgotten that?"

"Okay," Bellamy stepped in, clearly trying to defuse a fight before it starts. "We'll tell everybody the truth as soon as we have a viable solution. Without one it'll start a panic."

"You don't know that!" Raven said.

Monty finally joined the conversation after staring into a basin of water for a while. "That's it!"

I startled, and turned in his direction. "What are you talking about?"

"Think," Monty said, his eyes alight with an idea. "Alpha station survived for ninety-seven years in space through elevated radiation levels and extreme temperature fluctuations. Sound familiar? All we have to do is patch up the ship. We're standing in our viable solution."

A small, astounded smile tugged at my lips. Thank god for Monty. Where would we be without him? That was an incredibly ingenious idea. We already had our means of salvation. For our people, anyway. Not sure we could help all the Grounders. But that was a problem for another day. For now, I was going to bask in the fact that we finally had some hope for survival.

The next day, the sun was shining. I smiled and let its warm rays wash over me. It had been a while since I'd had the chance to bask in the sun. We'd figured out a plan to save us; patch up the Ark, retrieve a hydro-generator from Farm station, and we'd have enough food and water to sustain ourselves while we rode out the radiation. Bellamy was relaying the plan to Miller and Bryan, giving me a chance to catch my breath.