Chapter Text
The vault doors scraped closed behind them with a metallic screech and a hiss, sealing Clarke and Wells from everything they had ever known. Everything had happened so quickly it was hard to piece it all together. One moment Clarke had been sleeping in her quarters, the next Wells was thrusting a gun in her hand saying her dad had left the vault and the Overseer, his father, was calling for her to be shot on sight. After that it was all a blur of gun shots, blood and fear, ending only when she careened through the stiff metal door to the massive vault entrance.
Just the sight of the massive door that sealed them away from the radiation soaked world outside caught Clarke’s attention, enough so that she nearly took Wells’ head off with her bat when he came through the same door behind her.
‘Jesus, Wells! Do you want to die?’
Wells, apparently wasn’t interested in living or dying, as he was staring with the same awe at the massive vault door just like Clarke had been.
For a moment they stood in silence, Wells staring at the door in awe and Clarke staring in apprehension. She didn’t want to leave the Vault, she really didn’t, but it just wasn’t safe for her anymore. All because her father had chosen to leave.
What had he done? And why the hell did that mean Clarke too had to be punished? Just as Clarke turned to ask Wells, shouting caught both their attentions.
‘Shit… Clarke, you gotta get out of here, now.’
‘But Wells--’
‘No, Clarke, they’ll kill you. You need to go.’
Lightly Wells pushed Clarke towards the door controls and Clarke let him, wordlessly punching the code in and watching as the massive Vault door open with a deafening screech. It all felt so surreal, standing here, watching a door that shouldn’t ever have been opened, open, and staring into a world that everyone thought was gone.
Out there somewhere was Clarke’s father. Somewhere in the irradiated wasteland that used to be Washington DC was the most important man in Clarke’s life and she had to find him.
‘C’mon, Clarke, you need to go. The guards’ll be here any second now isn--’
Almost on cue the door behind them (that lead to the atrium that was locked tightly) opened and revealed two very angry looking guards, with very painful looking batons in their hands.
‘You! Stop right there!’ One shouts, running at Wells and Clarke.
Now, this is the part that Clarke can remember in vivid detail. As the guard swung his baton at Clarke, a deafening crack split the air and the guard fell in a heap on the floor and gasping before going still. However, this didn’t seem to perturb the second guard who had his head clobbered by the bat that had slipped from Clarke’s hands when the door opened.
An eerie calm settled over the pair as they both came to terms with what they had just done. Two dead guards lied at their feet, one slowing forming a pool of blood on the floor. The bat hung limply in Wells’ hands before he regained his senses, tightening his grip on the weapon and gently tugging an unresponsive Clarke towards the vault door, the gun clattering to the cool steel floor.
‘I… He’s…’
‘He is. You did, but we need to go. If we’re still here when the rest of the guards get here we’ll end up like they have. C’mon…’
With the care of an almost brother Wells wrapped Clarke in his arm and guided her over the threshold and into the world. The actual, real, very much alive, world and punched in the code to close the door behind them.
And so here they were, two teenagers, one with a bloody bat and one with a gun, facing an entire world they had no idea about. First things first though. Gently Wells set Clarke down against the rough stone wall and began to brush her hair away from her face.
‘Hey, Clarke. Can you look at me?’
Clarke did, but very slowly and with a look of adulterated anguish in her eyes.
‘I shot him. I killed a man and left him. He’s dead, Wells, he’s dead because of me, because I shot him and--’
‘Hey, hey, its okay. He may be dead but at least you’re alive,’ Wells tried, bringing his hand down to cup her cheek, ‘you’re alive, I’m alive and he was gonna kill us if he hadn’t been stopped. We killed them, but we’re okay. We’re alive and we’re outside, Clarke. We made it.’
That seemed to get Clarke’s attention. Once Clarke was back on her feet the pair made their way to the rickety old door that separated them from the world. In an unspoken agreement they both placed their hand on the door and pushed, taking the first steps together.
The first thing was the sun. So bright and warm in the sky and momentarily obscured their vision but cleared to show the most beautiful sight the pair had ever seen.
An actual sky, and trees, and rocks. All very real and very in front of them and real and just. It was extraordinary and everything Clarke hoped it to be and more. The colours were so much more vibrant than the dull grey of the vault, and the rays on sun hitting her sun felt so much better than the artificial heating. It was all so real and amazing and impossible if she didn’t know any better she’d think she were dead.
Wells was in the same state of awe, staring out over the land. Breathing in the fresh, tree made air, rather than the stale air of the vault, and crunching the dirt under his feet.
For a good few minutes the pair just stood and took in their surroundings before snapping out of it and slowly picking their way down the hill and onto the bitumen of a real road that existed before the bombs and survived.
‘Can you believe it?’ Clarke said, marvelling at how the ground crunched under her feet as she walked to lean against the metal road barrier. ‘We’re outside. How many people can say they’ve been outside? If the others where here they’d flip.’
She watched as Wells walked up to a dead tree and ran his hand over the bark, ‘I know, although I wish it were under better circumstances. But we need to keep moving. If we can survive out here without having melted into a radioactive puddle then that means people have survived, maybe we can find someone.’
‘Spoilsport, but yeah, lets go. Maybe this road goes somewhere.’
They followed the road for maybe a minute or so, up a very steep hill, before coming across a crudely made sign with the word “MEGATON” and an arrow pointing to the left.
Clarke and Wells shared a look and decided to follow the sign, hoping that maybe this Megaton place would be able to give them some answers. And it sure did.
Breaking over the hill they’re met with a gigantic metal wall. Its a patchwork of different metals in various states of decay and a gate that looks very much the same. Even the Protectron looks in better shape than the wall.
‘Head on in, pardner. Y’all enjoy your stay now.’
A decrepit Protectron that speaks with a Southern accent. Wells and Clarke both share an incredulous look before Clarke just starts laughing.
‘Welcome to the outside.’ She giggles, making Wells chuckle a bit, too.
‘Okay, come on. These people might actually be able to give us some answers.’