Chapter 19: Chaper 19: The 100 Wrinkle

'System how will the flashbacks in the series affect me?'

[User will be unaffected by flashbacks for there will be no flashbacks.]

'I'm pretty sure The 100 had a few episodes that involve some flashbacks.'

[There will be no flashbacks for user to experience, those are for shows and entertainment. User is in the story experiencing things in real time.]

'So what do those episodes that had flashbacks mean then?'

[They are memory windows for the audience to see what decisions in the past led to main characters current motivation or reason for making a decision right now. It can also be to reveal a secret from the past that affects the present in some way.]

'OK I think I'm getting it, no flashbacks because in reality it's just a person remembering something as they make decisions. Any other time is to reveal things to an audience, which in reality doesn't happen although it would be convenient to use flashbacks like that to reveal any secrets people wanted to find out.'

[User is correct. Although if they were part of the Transcendence all memories would be flashback capable.]

'Wait so would that mean that every flashback we see in the 100 is the memories of all the Transcendent people being reviewed while everyone was busy trying to survive? That would be all kinds of messed up if that were the case.'

[As higher level beings the Transcendent cannot interfere until summoned and only at the point of summoning and only to fulfill the requirement of the summoning. Nothing else otherwise this reality would them into oblivion.]

'Yikes, good to know, better get back to work, I will ask more questions later.'

-Earth The Camp-

  Clarke had been checking on Murphy's condition periodically for hours and as she became exhausted she was remembering the last few good moments with her dad. As she traced the details of when it started to go wrong she heard Murphy begin to moan once more. She got up and headed to the makeshift cot they had set him up in, in the dropship and checked his pulse, it was three eighty as she notified her assistant the other delinquents began to express their displeasure at being disturbed from their slumber. Comments such as, "Go back to sleep! Quiet!" and, "Can't he just die already?" were being yelled by some of the more irritated campers." Clarke using the last of the water in her bucket wiped Murphy's brow and murmured, "Don't listen to them. You're gonna make it through this, okay? Promise."  She then turned to Mbege and said, "I'm gonna get clean water. Keep an eye on him."

  As she exited the dropship Murphy began to moan once more. As Clarke made her way to get the water, she heard one of the younger delinquents loudly crying, "No! No! No!" Clarke approached the girl in one of the new makeshift dwellings and gently tried to wake her, "Hey, wake up. It's okay. It's okay. It's just a dream. You're Charlotte, right? I'm Clarke. It's okay to be scared. Do you want to talk about it?" Charlotte is preteen girl with a slim physique, a pale complexion, dark blonde hair,  brown eyes, and her height was close to 5' (1.52 m). She woke up at Clarke's touch and murmured, "It's… my parents. They were floated and they… and I see it in my dreams and I just…"

  Hearing how distraught Charlotte was caused Clarke to relive the trauma once more and with her eyes starting to tear, she gently said, "I understand. My dad was floated, too. So, how did you end up here?" Hearing that they shared similar pain Charlotte murmured, "Well… we were taking my parents' things to the redistribution center and… I kind of lost it. They said I assaulted a guard." Clarke winced and replied, "I can't say I blame you. See that bright star up there? That's The Ark orbiting above us. I think whatever happened up there, you know, the pain… maybe we can move past that now. Maybe being on the ground is our second chance." Charlotte hugs Clarke and asks, "Do you really believe that?" Clarke thinks about how she has been acting with Wells, with Finn, with everyone else, and thinking of what Bellamy had gone through and his effort to change for the better and replies. "It's been hard living with the pain, but if I let this pain define me then I'll lose the good moments that I shared with him, and so I'm trying to." Clarke then holds Charlotte closer and tries to comfort her, while they stare up at the Ark.

  While Clarke had been taking care of Murphy and then comforting Charlotte, while beginning to face her own pain, Bellamy had taken stock of the camp and updated the two member that had just been found, having gone missing the previous day. They were Trina, a girl who has a pale complexion, long brown hair, brown eyes, and a thin build, and Pascal, a boy with short brown hair, blue eyes, and an average build. Apparently they had wandered off to enjoy some alone time, Bellamy had wanted to give them some privacy, but they had been missing for a day. He realized that it was unsafe for the group to be separated for too long, so he set up a coordinated search and found them within a day about a mile away from the campsite, it turned out that neither of them were very good at navigation. Once everyone was back at the campsite Bellamy's first order of the day was to require shifts of small groups to take Pike's Earth Skills course.

  Bellamy split the rest of the camp to a few different tasks, those tasks included, continuing to build their defenses using what tools they could make from Pike's instructions, clearing the nearby area of brush, gathering various berries and nuts, and setting up a watch. Bellamy also made sure that there were rest shifts for everyone, so the could de-stress and enjoy being on the surface. Atom went up to Bellamy and said, "I've inventoried what we could, now we just need to head over to the cache site Councilor Kane told us about. things are looking pretty good, except for Murphy's constant moaning, it's really hurting morale."

  As Bellamy began to reply Murphy's moaning could be heard throughout the camp, "Look, Clarke will be questioning her mother in a little bit, it's just that the materials to treat him on the surface are unknown, once something is figured out we can rest easy. In the meantime, we'll do a hunting expedition to help ease people's worries." Mbege who had walked up chimed in, "Let's go kill something." Bellamy turned to him and said, "Mbege, I need you to stay here and help set up the watches, you've already brought in big game twice, so give some other people a shot okay." Mbege replied sardonically, "Aye aye captain, can't beat my record of bringing in a kill on every big trip I've gone on, right?"

  As they laughed Clarke was busy in the dropship checking Murphy's wound. As she removed the grounder bandages she noticed the details and told Finn who was assisting, "The Grounders cauterized the wound, it saved his life." Finn wrinkling his brow replied, "Saved his life so they could string him up as live bait. Garden of Eden this ain't." Looking closer, she saw inflammation in the wound and said, "This is infected. He could be septic, Finn has my mother gotten out of that meeting yet?" Before Finn could reply Wells walked into her eyesight and replied, "Yes, she's currently asking for you." Clarke feeling a sharp burst of anger breathes in, attempting to calm down and replies, "Thank you, please take over watching Murphy, I will talk with my mother right now, hopefully she has some advice I can use to help Murphy with."

  Wells feeling hopeful at her response, nods and takes her spot in observing Murphy's condition as Clarke moves to the communication panel. As she gets there the screen shows that Abby looks cheerful, sighing at the contrast of situations Clarke says, "Hi mom, it looks like you're having a better day than I'm having. As much as I want to know what's got you in a good mood, I'd like to know what I can do to help Murphy?" Abby's expression turns serious and she replies, "Oh I was just happy that you were alright and to report that so far barring Murphy's condition that no one is suffering any ill effects from being on the Earth's surface. Meaning that if things hold true I will be coming down with the next set of dropships."

  After spending a few moments thinking about reconnecting, Abby continued, "On to Murphy, I'd say, based on the relayed information, that he needs some antibiotics, which, even if you had access to Mount Weather's ancient stores, would be difficult to get. Clarke, do you still have the poultice the grounders applied to Murphy's wound? With that we can figure something out."

  Before Clarke could go, Abby added, "This is going to be painful to say, but before you remove the poultice, depending on the severity of the inflammation, you may have to use primitive means to relieve his status, can he be moved to here?" Clarke nodded, and with the assistance of Wells and Finn, moved Murphy into the range of the camera for Abby to examine, throughout all this Murphy was moaning. Once Abby was able to see the wound in question she said, "That's not good, Clarke you're gonna have to take some drastic actions." Clarke knowing what her mother meant, nodded and turned to Wells and Finn saying, "I'm gonna need one if not both of you to hold Murphy down once I start, I'm also going to need the other person to begin heating up some metal." Finn paled, "I'm not gonna like this, am I?" Clarke nodded, "Nope, this is gonna suck, let's do this so that Murphy can survive."

  While this was occurring Octavia whose leg had almost fully healed walked up to Bellamy and asked, "Hey bro, as you can see by my walking up to you, my leg is doing loads better. I heard that you guys hunting, can I come? Or were you lying to me about respecting my freedom?" Bellamy who had been in the process of checking the new bows and arrows, turned to her frowning, "What did I say about respecting your freedom? hmmm... let me think." He made a thinking pose and then smiled, "As long as you're sure that you can keep up, you can come, just one big thing though..." As he dramatically paused once more, Octavia moved closer and poked him while glaring said, "What?" Bellamy knowing he was pushing it gave in, grinned and continued, "How good are you at using a bow or a knife, and do you know how to track?" Octavia retorted, "You know where I've been my entire childhood, I didn't really get a full education like you."

  Bellamy's smile fell and he replied, "Octavia, that's not what I meant, I only wanted to know your current skill level so as to group you with someone with more experience. As much as I want to be the one to teach you how to hunt, I thought you might want some space from your overbearing brother." Octavia realizing that her words had hurt him replied, "Oh, so that's what you meant I thought you were going back on your word, sorry for snapping at you. I'd love for you to teach me the ways of the hunt." As Bellamy, smiling widely now, was about to reply, the seemingly ever present background moaning of Murphy, turned into a shout of pain, Octavia responded first and rushed to the dropship, with Bellamy trailing behind.

  As Murphy began to scream louder, Octavia burst into the dropship seeing Finn and Wells holding down Murphy, while Clarke was hovering over Murphy's wound with a dagger saying, "Hold him still. I need to cut away the infected flesh." Octavia shouted, "Stop it! You're killing him." Finn struggling to hold Murphy in place said, "She's trying to save his life." Bellamy entering at that moment said, "It would have been better if she had at least told someone in the camp what she was about to do, I thought there was an attack." Wells replied apologetically, "Sorry about that, Abby just examined him and told us that we needed to act right away. Bellamy nodded and said, "Alright, so what do you guys need? Also Octavia, I know this is annoying, but could you let the rest of the campers know that this isn't an attack, just that Murphy's getting treated." Octavia frowned and replied, "I will, but as soon as I'm done, I'll be right back to help."

  As Octavia left to calm the rest of the camp, Clarke directed Bellamy to assist Wells in holding Murphy's legs down, Having already cut away the infected flesh she grabbed the heated rod and applied it to the wound. Murphy shouted and bucked even harder, with the three men holding him down, Clarke was able to seal the wound and with a sigh of relief pulled the brand away putting it into the makeshift bucket of water causing a bout of steam. Now that he wasn't being treated, Murphy ceased shouting and passed out once more.

  With the emergency treatment completed Abby spoke up, "That was wonderfully done Clark, I'm sorry that you had to do that, but now you have more time to search for those antibiotics." Clarke applied a new bandage to Murphy's chest and then opened up the poultice that had been applied to his wound revealing a red substance, and asked, "Whatever this stuff is, it has to have had antibiotic properties." Abby using the zoom function of the camera, looks at it, pondering what it is. Wells having taken the makeshift bucket out and dumped the contents, refilled it, and brought it back inside, looked at the substance and said, "Let me take a look. Before you refuse my help, remember who aced botany in Earth Skills."

  As Clarke handed it over she said, "The Grounders used it as a poultice. I'm thinking a tea might be even more effective if we can figure out what it is." Wells after a cursory examination recognized what it was and spoke up, "I know what it is. Seaweed. Look… no root structure." Abby with a grin interjected, "Looks right, I'm in agreement with his assessment, now that a solution is in sight I unfortunately have to go, if things turn for the worse call for me." With that Abby signed off and left to continue her medical duties on the Ark. Clarke nodding in concentration replied, "Thank you mom, we'll talk more later when Monty finishes the array, goodbye." After the screen turned dark, she turned to the others and said, "Right. Well, then there must be a water source nearby." Wells continued. "Yeah, it would have to have a slow current, lots of rocks. The water would probably be more red than green." Finn snapped his fingers and stated, "I know just the place."

  Clarke began grabbing her bag and a container to hold the seaweed and said, "All right. Let's go." Wells grabbing a bag as well said, "Hey. I know what this stuff looks like. Do you?" Before they could leave, Bellamy intercepted them and said, "It looks like you guys have this handled, I'm gonna catch up with Octavia and appraise the camp of the situation, just know that the grounders are particular about their borders, and be careful, okay?" Feeling touched at his words Clarke smiled and replied, "We'll be careful and get the seaweed, thank you for your concern." Bellamy then smiled as they left, turned away and joined his sister in appraising the camp on Murphy's status, saying that once he recovers some more, the moaning will cease, he also had Mbege take over in caring for Murphy since Clarke had gone to retrieve the possible remedy ingredient.

  Once Bellamy had completed that task, he assembled the hunting party, alongside his sister, Charlotte walked up and requested if she could join as well. Bellamy asked, "Who are you and do you have any experience?" Charlotte looking sad said, "Charlotte, and no I don't have any experience." As he was hesitating to add yet another inexperienced person to the hunt, Octavia elbowed him in the side, grunting in acknowledgement he called over one of the people staying behind and requested to borrow a knife. Once he had it in hand he turned to Charlotte, handed her the knife, and said, "Can't go hunting without a weapon, now can we?" As she began to smile taking the knife and holding it reverently, Bellamy made a stern expression and added, "A knife is a dangerous tool, now I'm trusting you with this responsibility, can you use this in hunting to feed the camp? If not, I'm afraid you'll have to stay behind." Nodding vigorously, Bellamy grinned and said, "Good, welcome to the first big training hunt, you'll be with me and Octavia. Just watch how I move and be as quiet as possible, once you're more comfortable moving in the forest, we'll work on tracking, weapon handling skills, and other things. Let's go."

  As Bellamy's hunt was underway, Clarke's group had gone in the direction of the seaweed as they walked along in somber silence, Wells attempted to talk to Clarke awkwardly, "You know, you should, uh, really rethink this whole hating me thing. It's not just the Grounders. We're surrounded by criminals. We need each other. We're gonna be friends again." Clarke had been reminiscing about the last civil conversation she had with Wells in the Ark snapped, "You got my dad killed. Not possible." As she started to rush away Wells replied desperately, "This is Earth, Clarke. Anything's possible." Hearing words similar to what she had used to calm Charlotte down got Clarke thinking, slowing down she turned, "You're right Wells anything is possible, even me forgiving you, but I need a good reason for that, until you give me one, I need some space alright? If you can't respect that then you're not really my friend, saying that she turned and began to head in the direction Finn had indicated.

  Finn casually slowed down and said to Wells, "I'd let it go." Wells feeling stung at Clarke's rejection snarled at Finn, "Yeah. Well, I've known Clarke her whole life better than you ever will, so, I'll decide when to let it go." Finn slowed and replied, "That's not what I meant, you heard what she said, respect her a bit and give her space. Can't you see she's wrestling with her grief right now?" Before Finn could continue he stepped on something that makes a loud bang. Startled all three stopped and Finn stepped on it again and gets a loud bang, he then starts to uncover the object. Clarke called out, "What is it?" Finn finished clearing away the dirt and leaves revealing a door, he replied, "Uhh… Ha! It's an automobile." As he began to open the door to see what's inside Clarke interrupted, "Come on, guys. This thing's been here a hundred years. All right? It can wait. Murphy can't." Clarke turned away from the automobile and the boys, continuing on, sighing Finn closed the door and the two boys followed after.

  A while later having made it to the riverbank, Clarke turned to Wells and asked, "So, what does this seaweed look like?" Wells points out the red seaweed floating in the water, said, "Like that. Hey, that thing that bit Octavia, how big was it?" Finn spotting the large shadow as well replied, "Big. We could rig this into some kind of a net. Find something to lower it into the water..." Clarke walks straight into the water, Fin continued, "Or we could just do that." She grabs the red seaweed and then walks back to shore with it. Once on shore a large flock of birds squawk in the distance and comes flying right for the group, they duck to avoid injury, Wells shouts, "Let's get out of here." A horn bellows in the distance, Clarke looks in the direction of the sound and worriedly asks, "Grounders?" Wells replies, "It could be a war cry." Finn adds, "Or a warning." A brief silence and they see a a large cloud of yellow fog rolling towards them. Finn shouts, "What the hell is that?" Clarke grabs both Finn's and Well's arms, pulling them shouting, "Run. Run!"

  Having run as fast as they could into the woods they begin to stumble as visibility begins to worsen. As the horn Bellows in the distance they begin to start coughing. Finn seeing the automobile door opens it and motions for them to hop in. Once everyone is inside, Clarke notices that it was seeping in and shouts, "It's getting inside." Coughing Finn replies, "Seal any openings." They continue coughing as they use anything they had on hand to seal the cracks desperately. As they succeed finally breathing easy once more, they hear the horn continuing to bellow in the distance.

  Bellamy's hunting party had caught a boar, so he had most of the group carry it back to camp. Bellamy had slowed down to show Octavia, Atom, and Charlotte how to silently move through the woods when they had heard the horn blowing. As they turned towards the sound they saw the yellow fog and began to run in the opposite direction. Bellamy figuring that they weren't going to make it back to camp yelled, "Come on! There are caves this way." As the other three followed, a horn continued to bellow in the distance. Bellamy grabs a hold of Charlotte and continues forward towards the caves, Atom tripped and almost fell prone, Octavia intercepted his fall and helped to turn it into a stumble, catching his balance they were able to catch up with Bellamy with only some minor coughing. They enter the cave as the yellow fog thickens and heading further in Bellamy mutters, "What the hell was that?"

  At the campsite everyone fled into the dropship, trying to escape the fog, leaving everything that couldn't be easily grabbed outside. The hunting party carrying the boar barely made it into the dropship as the doors were closed. Mbege asked Jones, a young black with dark brown eyes, short black hair, and average height with broad shoulders, who had been one of the hunters, "Where's Bellamy and the others?" Jones shrugged, "Bellamy was doing a bit of hunting education. I wouldn't worry yet, there was a cave system close to where they were practicing. Once this stew clears up we'll check to see if they survived." With Murphy groaning in the background, Mbege smiled and sighed, "I sure hope they did, cause being in charge sucks." John laughed and said, "Tell me about it, I can almost see why the adults in the Ark always acted like a stick was up their b*tts. Almost." They both lose their smiles as Murphy groans in the background accompanied by the hiss of the fog.

  In the automobile, Finn cleans off the window and sees the fog outside, so he turns down and say, "It's still out there." Clarke feeling impatient said, "Look, we should just make a run for it. Murphy can't wait much longer." Finn gently says, "Us dying in a cloud of acid fog isn't gonna help Murphy." He then proceeds to jimmy the glove compartment on the automobile, it opens and a bottle rolls into his hand, as he looks closer Clarke squinting asks, "Is that…" Finn smiling interrupts, "Booze. Hooch. Rotgut." He then proceeds to open it and take a swig, Clarke warning, "Well, careful. Finn, it could be…" Finn loudly coughs, sighs and says, "Whiskey, I think. Better than the moonshine on agro station."

  He proceeds to offer the bottle to Wells who refuses, "Alcohol's toxic." Finn sarcastically, "This is Earth. Everything's toxic. Plus, it's a time-honored rite of passage." Wells standing firm said, "We'll pass."  Clarke looked over at Wells, angry that he spoke for her, reaches over and grabs the bottle from Finn, saying, "Far be it for me to stand in the way of tradition." Taking a swig of the whiskey she coughs and sighs deeply.

-Hours Later-

  In the cave system Bellamy, Octavia, and Atom are laying on the ground sleeping while Charlotte is having a nightmare, "No!" she shouts waking Bellamy up. He reaches over and gently shakes her awake, blinking awake she shivers murmuring, "I'm sorry." Bellamy asks kindly, "Does it happen often?" Charlotte sighs, giving Bellamy his answer, Bellamy ponders what to say when Octavia replies, "You know what she's crying about, we've lived through it. In fact I imagine most of the 100 has experienced the loss, one way or the other." Bellamy pales at the thought and gently hugging Charlotte said, "During these dreams do you relive the moment over and over again?"

  Charlotte shivering in response nods mutely, Bellamy sighs and said, "We all have those dreams, it's what we do in the waking world that helps us in the dreams. What you need to do, is make yourself stronger than the fears that plague you and figure out a way to protect anyone else that's close to you. Do you have someone close to you that you want to protect?" Charlotte shakes her head no, before Bellamy can say anything, Octavia interrupts, "Look, there's more than becoming strong to protect someone, there's also the goal of being free from your fear. Now for me my fear is being confined, not being able to move or make my own choices. If you want to be free from the fear you have to admit what makes you scared and confront it. Now tell me Charlotte, what are you afraid of? Once you state your fear, you can confront it." With a grin, Octavia moved to Charlotte's other side and hugged her as well, adding, "Besides, with us to hear your fear, maybe we can face it together."

  Charlotte, crying at their words, started to mumble, and after clearing her throat, said, "My nightmare happens every night, it's Wells' father, every night I see him killing my parents and… and I see his face and… and I wake up and I see Wells face. And the nightmare never ends." After stating that, she begins to sob once more, with Bellamy looking at Octavia with wide eyes and her looking back. Atom coughs and says, "They're not the same person though, as far as I've seen, all Wells does is try to help, no killing as far as I've seen, in fact, I haven't even seen him pick up a weapon, which is kinda stupid on this dangerous surface..." Realizing what he was saying wasn't helping he trailed off, Bellamy struck by inspiration said, "Have you ever talked to Wells?" Charlotte shook her head no, Bellamy continued, "There you have it, what you need to do, as the first step to facing your fear of Wells' father, is to confront Wells and learn who he is as a person. After all, you aren't your parents, right Charlotte?" Eyes staring she shakes her head, that no, she isn't her parents.

  After a pause Octavia said, "We'll be with you when you confront Wells about what his father did and you can learn the difference between Wells and his father. Then we can work on making you strong enough to face the Chancellor if he ever comes down here, after all if you're too weak, then next time he might hurt someone else you care for, right?" Charlotte nodded and asked, "Will you make me strong? I want to be free of the nightmare. I'll do anything to be free of it." Bellamy hugs her tighter and saying, "We'll teach you all we can, the getting stronger is up to you, I didn't get this manly overnight it took me a few years of hard work to become this strong. You can be even stronger all you need to do is try." Octavia bopped Bellamy and said, "Not too hard, if you don't have fun too, then you'll miss the fun you could have along the way. OK?" Charlotte grinned shyly, nodded, and proceeded to fall asleep. Bellamy traded glances with Octavia who nodded in response, knowing that Charlotte would need to be watched for the foreseeable future.

  In the automobile Clark took another sip of the whiskey, "It's been hours. Murphy…" Finn interjected, "Is in good hands. Mbege will take care of him." Clarke now drunk turns to Finn and asks, "How do you remain so upbeat? I mean you do some stupid things and people die, but you bounce back. I try to save lives and am miserable." Finn pauses and says, "It's not that I bounce back it's that I push forward, if I let all my mistakes pull me down, I'd stop and never move again." Wells asks Finn, "Where did you learn to do that?" Finn takes a sip from the bottle and stares at it in contemplation, then replies, "From living on the Ark with my best friend Raven. She's a genius who's always striving to be the best in her dream. I didn't have her dream, but she inspires me to reach towards something, anything that can be better than what we had going on."

  Hearing the passion in his words the other two paused and reflected on his words for a small while, then Clarke drunkenly asked, "Then how did you end up here?" Finn smiling sadly said, "You said it yourself, I committed the crime of endangering everyone on the Ark by doing an illegal spacewalk." Wells protested, "But you were successful in patching the breach preventing the loss in oxygen, surely you would be exonerated?" Clarke wincing at the memory of her father's death and exclaimed, "Just like my father was exonerated for trying to warn the people?" Wells grimacing responded, "That's not what I meant." Clarke close to tears shouted, "I know, it just hurts so much and you still won't tell me why. So I'm asking you one more time, why did you betray me? Just why?" Now crying heavily she curled up and hugged her knees closely.

  Wells responded woodenly reaching out, "I made a mistake, Clarke." Clarke unsatisfied with his answer glared sharply at him tears still streaming, "Made a mistake? That's not good enough, in fact that's not even an answer." Wells stung brings back his arm and asks angrily, "What do you want me to say?!" Clarke snarls, "I want an explanation." Wells shrugs sadly, "I can't give you one. I thought I could trust him." Clarke sniffles, no longer crying and murmurs, "Well, I thought I could trust my best friend. Guess we were both wrong." Wells replies sadly, "I'm still your friend." Clarke replied hollowly, "No, you're not. If you were my friend, you would give me a good enough reason, until then we can never be friends again." Finn tries to calm the situation down before worse things can be said, "Okay, how about we just… take it easy." Finn then takes the whiskey from Clarke and she croaks, "I have no idea how to do that." Wells takes the bottle from Finn, sniffs and then drinks, a somber silence befalls the three, each one lost in their own thoughts and memories.

-The Next Day-

  Noticing that the sun was shining and any traces of the fog had cleared Clarke is the first one out of the automobile, opening the door she called back, "The fog's cleared. Come on. Let's go. Murphy's waiting." She grabs the pack with the seaweed and heads off in the direction of the camp, not pausing a moment or waiting to see if the other two were catching up. After helping Wells get out of the vehicle, Finn commented, "Last night was pretty intense. You and Clarke ever…" Wells hurriedly replied, "No. Not like that." Hearing that with a quizzical expression Finn asks, "So, help me out. Your best friend tells you something fairly explosive. You seem like the type of guy that'd keep it to yourself." Wells glares and brushing Finn off, begins to follow Clarke, "You don't know me."

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  Finn pauses a moment thinking, gets an enlightened expression, then jogs to catch up with Wells and asks, "Why'd you do it?" Wells harrumphing, "I don't know. Why do you care?" Finn grimaced and continued, "You knew what the rules were on The Ark. You had to know her dad would get floated." Wells paused, and staring in the direction Clarke was walking replied, "I made a choice. If she hates me for the rest of my life, I made the right choice, and that's all you have to know." With that Wells continued following Clarke's figure in the distance. Finn nodded satisfied and the conclusion he reached and saddened at its implications hurries to catch up.

  Finn soon passed Wells and caught up to Clarke and starts talking, "Trapped in a hundred-year-old car by toxic fog. Whew. Last night was pretty… What's the word? Intense." Clarke glares and says, "It wasn't that intense. It was irresponsible. We should've left the second the fog cleared." Finn replied gravely, "Even if the fog cleared, we'd never make it back through these woods at night. You were kind of rough on Wells." Clarke rolled her eyes and sighed, "Hardly.

  As she attempted to speed up further Finn caught up easily and continued, "He's a pretty straight-up guy. And he loves you. You know that, right? But every time your dad comes up, he won't give you a straight answer. Makes me think he's hiding something. So, I gotta ask you. How sure are you that Wells is the one who turned in your dad?" Clarke stops and glares at Finn, "A hundred percent. All right? He's the only one I told." Finn gets closer and whispers, "Is he the only one who knew?" Clarke gasps at his words and begins to hurry away towards the Camp, away from Wells and his clear gaze, and away from Finn and his words, memories swirling, pieces starting to coalesce.

  In her haste she didn't notice the rustling of the brush until she walked right into Bellamy's arms. He grinned catching her before she fell and said, "What's the rush princess, happy to see that I'm okay?" Frowning and blushing she barked, "Not exactly, just in a rush to the camp, to make the medicine for Murphy. The fog has delayed us a whole day." Octavia joined in smiling, "Glad to see that you're okay too, let's get to camp and see how everyone is doing." As Finn and Wells came into view, Charlotte and Atom made their way out of the bushes as well. On seeing Wells, Charlotte tensed up and began to grip her borrowed knife, while hiding behind Bellamy and using her free hand to grab his shirt.

  On seeing that, Bellamy frowned slightly and turned to Atom, and ordered, "You should join the princess and Finn in taking the medicine to Murphy alright. We have something to discuss with Wells here, and that needs to happen for the safety of the camp. With a nod Atom walked up to Clarke and asked if he could carry her bag, she refused and asked, "What's going on?" Octavia sighed and said, "Nothing much hopefully, all Bellamy and I want to do, is help Charlotte face her fears before something bad happens. Now, unless you can help more than one person at a time, I suggest you head on over to help Murphy."

  Only pausing a moment to think, Clarke moves to Charlotte and asks, "What's wrong, I thought we talked this through last time." Charlotte shakes her head, replying, "We talked, but it's still happening, every night still." Wells steps forward and asks, "What's still happening?" Charlotte glares at him and cries, "Every night, I see him. Your father. He kills my parents and… and I see his face and… and I wake up and I see yours. And the nightmare never ends. I just want to be free of it." Before she can do anything with the knife she was gripping, Octavia hugs her arm and croons into her ear, "It's okay he's not the monster, look closer at him, what do you see in his face?" Wells face had grown pale and his face had crumpled in realization at the fact that his mere presence was traumatizing to a child.

  Wells asked weakly, "Bellamy is this how the rest of the camp sees me? The death of their loved ones. I would never do that, never." He screamed the last part loudly, causing everyone to flinch. Bellamy replied coolly, "Only some of the camp see you in that light the rest can differentiate between you and your father. All you need to do is keep helping people around the camp and be yourself, almost everybody sees how much you're trying to help. Just be more mindful about what everyone else has gone through before you make any judgement calls. OK." Seeing him crying at her words the face Wells was making no longer reminded Charlotte of the Chancellor, she dropped the dagger and shook off Octavia's hug. Walking past Clarke, who had turned and had been shocked to see the devastated face of Wells who had stoically taken her verbal abuse for the past few days collapse at the words from this little girl.

  Charlotte walked up to the kneeling Wells who with tears streaming from his eyes exclaimed to her, "I'm sorry, I'm so, so, so, sorry. I didn't do anything to your parents." As he cried in anguish Charlotte wrapped his head in her arms and whispered, "There, there, you're not the Chancellor. I see that now, you're like me filled with pain and fear. You just hid it better." As his tears subsided, Charlotte let him go went back and picked up the dagger and hugging Octavia murmured, "I think we can go back to camp now." Bellamy smiling barked out, "You heard her, let's go, we have things to do, let's move it people."

  As they started to head back to camp Clarke and Finn helped Wells up and she murmurs to him, "Wells? I know I probably don't deserve it, but I need to know the truth. It was my mom. Wasn't it? She's the one who told your dad. I didn't want to believe it. I… I couldn't. I blamed you because my father's dead and it's my mother's fault. Isn't it? Wells… Please." Wells with their help nodded with tears still dripping replied, "I knew how you would feel. I wanted to…" Clarke continued, "To protect me. So, you let me hate you?" Wells drying his eyes said, "What are friends for?" Clarke with renewed tears cried, "How can you forgive me?" Wells drying to dry her tears now said, "There's nothing to forgive."

  As they quietly gazed into each others eyes Finn cleared his throat, "As touching as this moment is we are in the forest right now surrounded by however many watching grounders, and you have the important medicine that Murphy needs." Blushing they turn towards the camp and hurry to catch up with Bellamy's group.

-Many Hours Later at Camp-

  As they come through the gate, they see that the camp had fared pretty well in their absence. It looks like the acid fog only hurts animals since nothing else was harmed by it. Bellamy turned to the group and said, "Guess we are not as irreplaceable as I thought."As he finished his words Jones from the hunting party ran up to them and exclaimed, "Thank god you're back, what are your orders Captain Bellamy?" Octavia laughed and retorted with an arched eyebrow, "You were saying?" Bellamy chuckled and said, "I stand corrected, alright Jones, report what happened while we were gone?" Jones saluted sloppily and replied, "Nothing much, we arrived just in time to make it to safety from the burning stew and spent the past day and night in the dropship. There were no injuries from the fog. There was a brief scuffle over Murphy's continued moaning, but Mbege and I handled it." Bellamy clapped Jones on the shoulder and said, "Good to hear that everything is going well. Check if anything was damaged by the fog. I'll walk around the camp with Atom here and catch up with everyone."

  Bellamy turned to Octavia and gave her a quizzical look, she nodded back and hugging Charlotte went to the dropship to see how Murphy was doing. Clarke, Wells and Finn had already headed into the dropship to brew the tea and serve it to Murphy. As Octavia brushed aside the curtain, Clarke was already feeding the tea into Murphy, murmuring, "This should work, come on Murphy you can do it." Murphy coughed a bit and began to drink slowly even though he was still unconscious.

  Finn in the ensuing silence asked, "Now what?" Clarke smiled and said, "I change his bandages and then we wait to see if he recovers." Octavia bringing in a shy Charlotte said brightly, "How about we share embarrassing stories and get to know each other better?" Finn grins and replies brandishing the bottle of alcohol, "I can get behind that, as long as I can share this fine vintage with some of these fellows here." Octavia grabs the bottle and takes a swig, swallows and coughing says, "Disgusting. Love it." As they spend some time sharing stories getting to know each other, Monty and Jasper make their way and join in the silly festive atmosphere, sharing in some of the libations.

  Murphy wakes up and moans, "Can I, uh, get a hit of that?" Octavia gasps out, "Murphy!" and hugs him lightly. Clarke coughs and says apologetically, "I'm afraid you'll have to stay on the soft stuff for the moment." Finn clasps Murphy on the shoulder and said, "Welcome back, buddy."

  Murphy head clearing murmured, "Was that a dream or did I get speared?" Clarke smiling points at the bandage on his chest, replied, "You'll have a very impressive scar to prove it." Murphy gazed into Clarke's eyes deeply and whispered, "My savior." Clarke blushing said, "I didn't do it alone, almost everyone in this room helped." Murphy looking at everyone in the room said haltingly, "No one has worked this hard to help me this way before, thank you." The room goes into another bout of embarrassing stories and only begins to quiet down when Charlotte yawns and curls up.

  Octavia picks her up and asks Clarke for assistance in heading for the tents. Monty and Jasper leave sharing ideas on how to use some of the dropship parts to brew some rocket fuel, giggling they exit, leaving the last bit of alcohol for Murphy to enjoy once he can. Finn left to use the facilities, leaving Wells to continue monitoring Murphy. As Wells hands Murphy another cup of the medicinal tea, Murphy said in a soft tone, "Your old man floated mine, you know that?" Wells sadly responded, "I've been hearing that a lot now."

  Murphy took a sip of the tea and replied, "Screw that, you're not your old man. Things have changed and we should change with them. From now on we're friends and with that we need to work on our skills. You on your people skills since apparently your face causes nightmares, and me on my fighting skills, seeing as a piece of metal and wood took me out instantly." Smiling Murphy reached out with his right arm, Wells reached out and clasped his arm saying, "Deal, although I think you need to work on your communication skills as well, your bedside manner is atrocious." Murphy grinned, "Well, seeing as this is my bed currently, I'd say my manners are just fine."

-On the Ark-

  Jacapo had spent the last few days bouncing from one meeting to another, with some engineering work in between. He was looking forward to less of them when the dropships went down. He was making his way to bed when he heard a ding.

[Ding! For indirectly preventing the deaths of Trina, Pascal and Atom +3 Charisma and Luck, +15 Karma. For indirectly preventing the supposedly inevitable death of Wells, user gains the Achievement Guardian Angel +3 in all stats, the Perk Bodyguard which increases stats of the user by 5% when guarding someone and reduces the damage taken by 5% when guarding someone, gain the knowledge and skills of Atticus Kodiak from Kodiak series, gain skills, First Aid I, Fatigue Resistance I, and Teamwork I, Increase skills Body Language, CQC, Driving, Investigation, Poison Resistance, Shooting, and Tracking. +25 Karma. For indirectly bringing Murphy closer to the group and eliminating his animosity to Wells +3 Charisma and Luck, +10 Karma. Further rewards will become available as the story develops.]

[First Aid I is absorbed into Surgery F+>E. Intelligence has has gone passed threshold gain the Perk Comprehension +5% bonus to skill collection through reading specific skill related books and 5% speed increase in learning skills. Absorbed into Memory Palace bringing it closer to evolution.]

'Nice, Status'

User 01010111

Age 46 Level 47 (exp 100/47000)

Condition: Normal

Stats

Strength 56H>60H

Dexterity 82H>88H

Constitution 105G>112G

Intelligence 95H>102G

Wisdom 91H>98H

Charisma 60H>69H

Luck 30H>39H

Skills

Acting E+, Astronaut H, Basic Blades I, Basic Languages A, Basic Science F, Body Language C+>B, Camping H+, Car Mechanics F, Cleaning E, Cold Resistance D, Cooking E, CQC D+, Disease Resistance H+, Dive B, Driving E+, Enhanced Hearing C+, Enhanced Smell B+, Enhanced Swimming A, Enhanced Touch E+, Enhanced Vision D+, Fire Resistance H+, Heat Resistance F+, Investigation I+, Night Vision G+, Maintenance D, Mathematics D+, Medicine C+, Mining F+, Parallel Thinking E+, Poison Resistance H+>G, Rad Resistance H, Sailing G, Shooting E+, Stealth D, Surgery F+>E, Taming H+, Teaching G, Tracking I+, Volleyball F+, Woodcraft G, Writing G+, New Skills (Fatigue Resistance I and Teamwork I)

Perks

Ambidextrous, Bodyguard, Chief Engineer, Contortionist, Entomorph: (Fall Armyworm), Explorer's Map, Fashion Sense, Lachrymose Leech, Leadership, Medusoid Mycelium, Memory Palace+, Mentor, Plantamorph: (Birch, Elm, Evergreen, Maple), Pupa, Secret Smasher, Snow Gnat, Stoic, Toughness, Uncommon Physical Growth, Zoomorph: (Anchovy, Bass, Blue Wildebeest, Camel, Carp, Chicken, Cod, Crow, Cow, Crab, Deer, Eel, Goat, Goose, Hare, Horse, Impala, Kangaroo, Llama, Lobster, Mackerel, Mole, Mouse, Mussel, Nile Tilapia, Octopus, Oyster, Pig, Pigeon, Pollock, Possom, Prawn, Rabbit, Raccoon, Rat, Red Mullet, Reindeer, Salmon, Sardine, Seagull, Sheep, Shrimp, Squid, Trout, Tuna, Turkey, Vole, Zebra), World Compass

Sealed(Nightblood, Flame Implant)

Corpse Absorption Progress

Ant (.08932), Aphid (.01257), Bedbug (.00174), Bee (.00605), Centipede (.00115), Cockroach (.01725), Dandelion (.00127), Earwigs (.00186), Flea (.00146), Fly (.11812), Ivy (.169), Jellyfish (.00122), Lice (.00155), Mosquito (.08904), Moth (.00669), Pill Bug (.00689), Slug (.01504), Spider (.00259), Wasp (.01411), Worm (.00265)

Abilities:Tutorial Pocket(100 Karma Coupon)

Limited(Diagnose F)

Sealed (Flight G+, Ink Squirt, Mild Poison Bite, Rally, Photosynthesis)

Achievements: A Sailors Life For Me, Family Man, For The Family!, Fungicide, Globetrotter, Guardian Angel, Happily Ever After, No Stone Unturned, Survivor

Karma: 528 Total Positive

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