The 103 | COMPLETE

Chapter 10

17 weeks 5 days

September 23, 2149

"Okay, everyone all set?" Clarke stands at the gate of our camp – which we should really get around to naming – a pack slung over one shoulder, a gun on the other. A small crowd has gathered in front of her including myself, Bellamy, Raven, Monty, and Harper. The trip to Mount Weather will be a day's journey, possibly more depending on how long it takes to gather the supplies and check the integrity of the mountain. We give her our confirmation. "Then we're off."

Seven hours of hiking and about the same number of blisters on my feet later and I've fallen a bit behind the rest of the group, exhausted. Bellamy falls behind as well, keeping pace with me.

"You keep tugging at your shirt," he comments.

I pull my shirt down again, the pressure of my growing stomach and constant movement of walking making it ride up. "Yeah, well, nothing fits anymore. Not my jeans, not my shirts, not my jacket."

"Do we have anything else? From, you know, the others?"

"Gee, why didn't I think of taking the slightly bigger clothes of our dead comrades?" I roll my eyes. "Sorry, but I just can't bring myself to do that yet."

"You'll have to do it eventually."

I gasp in mock surprise. "You mean I'm going to get bigger than this?"

"Look, I get that you're still mad at me. But if we're going to make this work, if we're going to sell this, you're going to have to lighten up a bit."

"I still think it's ridiculous," I mumble. "How are we supposed to sell this anyway? We've been down here four months and other than that one night – which I'm sure no one else was paying attention to since they were all off doing the same – we've basically just been acquaintances. And now we're suddenly in love overnight?"

"Well, I've been gone for three weeks, so let's hope everyone has forgotten about the actual nature of our relationship," Bellamy says. "As far as how we sell this, we could just do little touches maybe? I could hold your hand?" He holds out his hand.

I take it begrudgingly.

"You could smile at me once in a while," he offers.

"You could not be a dick once in a while," I counter. "And while you're at it, keep yours far away from me."

He cracks a smile, and then suddenly, I do too.

"A little late but duly noted," he laughs.

"Come on you two," Clarke calls back. "We're almost there. We need to stay together."

"Coming," I answer, jogging to catch up to the rest of them.

The others stand at the edge of the woods, a clearing in front of us.

"So, this is it, huh?" Monty says, taking in the view of the massive arch of the door of Mount Weather.

I turn to Raven. "So how does it open?"

"What're you looking at me for? I just got here too."

"Well, you're the engineer."

"No," she corrects me. "I'm a mechanic."

"Mm, same thing," I shrug.

She rolls her eyes. "It's really not."

I lift an eyebrow. "So, you're telling me you can't figure out how to open the door?"