Chapter Text
Clarke was facing sensory overload. Her hands skimmed over the drawings and calculations that littered the table in Becca’s laboratory. Her ears were filled with Raven’s constant stream of thought, determining just how much time they had and laying out impossible problem after impossible problem. Her mouth tasted blood, but that was from chewing her bottom lip until it was nearly raw. Faintly, she noted that nightblood tasted no different from regular blood.
She might have found that interesting if she had had the energy to focus on anything other than their very impending doom.
Her eyes fought to keep up with everything moving and whirring around them and kept dashing between the people, the computer monitors, and the large doors that shielded them from the increasingly radioactive world outside.
The situation was dire.
They had 24 hours until Praimfaya hit. When it did, it would wipe out all life on the surface of the earth. The planet would be unlivable for five years. So that left two options, really: living below the earth or above it.
As for below the earth, well, there was a bunker, but there wasn’t room for all of them. Clarke counted their number as her eyes skimmed the room. Raven and Monty were hunched over a tablet. Murphy and Emori hung back to themselves, whispering and making contingency plans upon contingency plans. Bellamy was pacing, his hand running through his constantly-messy hair. Harper was keeping an eye on Jasper. Monty had talked both of them into leaving the suicide pact in Arkadia, but they all could tell Jasper didn’t really want to be here. And, finally, there were Roan and Echo, standing guard at the main doors, always alert. Clarke didn’t know if they viewed the people outside or inside the lab as a greater threat.
Clarke, Bellamy, and Raven had been assured spots in the bunker, and Clarke was pretty sure Octavia would let Roan in as well. Everyone had counted him dead during the conclave, but Abby Griffin had performed yet another medical miracle in the eleventh hour. Octavia had already been declared the winner by the time Roan breathed again, but she would not easily forget their temporary alliance. The other six people in Becca’s lab had no chance of survival in Octavia’s bunker, though.
It was also questionable whether they could even make it back to the bunker in time. Polis was to the west and Praimfaya would hit it first. Clarke was almost sure they would seal the doors before she, Bellamy, Roan, and Raven could return in time.
That left space. Raven was currently working on plans to get all ten of them up to the ring, but it seemed like those plans were falling apart by the minute.
“We’ll never be able to grow enough food,” Harper pointed out, leaving Jasper to join Monty and Raven.
“But Monty is going to get the algae farm going,” Clarke added.
“Can it feed ten people?” Raven asked quietly.
Monty gave them a doubtful look.
“I’m not sure if it would, and I’m not sure we would have enough rations to live until it did.” They had lots of ration packs, but could only fit a few cases of them into the rocket, especially with ten people.
There was another pause.
“Will the rocket even hold all of us?” Harper asked quietly.
Clarke looked back to the door. Roan and Echo stared at her warily.
“It’s going to have to,” Raven replied.
“We could always use the lighthouse bunker,” Murphy called over. Raven just rolled her eyes. Murphy had suggested this at least a dozen times, but no one really wanted to starve to death in the murder hole that had trapped Murphy for 86 days. They had no idea if it would even survive Praimfaya; there were too many unknowns for them to pursue it as a serious option.
Clarke went back to looking for additional ration packs, even though they had already scoured the lab. They already had more than they could carry in the rocket, anyway. She was really just killing time – she knew that.
A few minutes later, Raven called everyone over to the table, ready to lay out the situation.
“We have 24 hours until Praimfaya hits, but if we want to get to space, we only have thirty minutes to get off the ground. After that point, the radiation levels will be too high for the rocket to take off.”
She proceeded to explain how the radiation would affect all of the different chemicals and systems, but Clarke was no longer paying attention.
Thirty minutes. So much to do in thirty minutes.
Raven assigned them all tasks and headed back to the rocket to initiate the launch sequence. Several people started to load supplies. Bellamy, Monty, and Murphy were sent outside in suits to get some exterior door open that they would need for the rocket to take off.
Clarke volunteered for the most dangerous mission – she needed to take a box Raven gave her and plug it into a tower. There was, of course, a much more sophisticated explanation for what she was doing, but she was too tired to absorb it.
Plug in box. Press button. Run like hell back to rocket.
She did the first two things.
She made it to the tower. She plugged in the box. She pressed the button.
And nothing happened. She felt her adrenaline flare with panic.
Ok, she thought to herself, work the problem.
The box seemed to be having trouble connecting because of a signal issue. She did some more quick reading and discovered she had to climb the tower.
Sure. She’d just climb a fucking tower fifteen minutes before they needed to leave to escape the end of the world.
As she climbed, she realized what that meant. She needed ten minutes to make it back to the rocket. She probably wasn’t going to make it back now. But she needed to keep going if she wanted her friends to have any chance of survival. That was motivation enough to keep her moving.
Slowly, agonizingly, she pulled herself up the tower. She was proud of how her body had strengthened since her landing on earth, but this radiation was a bitch. She kept climbing, though, pushing through the pain and frustration.
Finally, she reached the top. The watch on her wrist was already counting down past nine minutes.
Plug in box. Press button. Run like hell back to rocket.
She plugged in the box. She pressed the button.
Still nothing.
She let out every curse word she knew in English and in Trig. She looked at her wrist. Eight minutes left. They needed her. She climbed to the satellite dish and wrenched it to the left. Nothing. To the right. Nothing. Finally, she angled it one more time and heard a faint click.
She looked back to the box, and finally noted that the red text had turned to green.
She had done it.
She looked in the sky for their rocket, but didn’t see it. The sky was too bright for her to look for long. She started to climb down, knowing she needed to make it back to Becca’s lab and figure out some sort of contingency plan for herself. Maybe she could make it back to Polis. Maybe the lab would withstand the flames. That was probably her best shot at this point.
She didn’t run back to the lab – there was no point now. She didn’t have the energy to run, anyway. She mostly hobbled and staggered back, panting and gasping in her cumbersome suit. She wished she could have brought a rover, but the terrain and the forest would have made driving impossible. Every moment, she expected to hear the rocket take off, but she never did. She assumed that the sounds of the fire and wind – of the world’s impending doom – had drowned it out.
Faintly, she registered that she was sad she didn’t even get to hear or see her friends leave. She thought that might have given her a bit of closure.
She continued to stumble and stagger her way back to the lab, wondering in the back of her mind if it was even worth it. She kept going, however, and soon she could see it in the distance.
When Clarke reached the doors, she entered the code and staggered in in relief, pulling off her helmet as soon as the doors were sealed again.
She took several deep breaths and turned to face the empty lab.
Except, it wasn’t empty.
Nine faces stared at her from the floor.
“Why are you still here?” Clarke asked in a panic. “I aligned the satellite! It turned green! It dinged! You should have still had at least five minutes left! Was I too late? Oh god, I was too late. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what to do.” She started pouring out the story of the box and the tower and the satellite dish, but Raven interrupted her.
“You did it in time, Griffin. We were good to go.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
“Because you weren’t back,” Bellamy answered firmly.
Clarke shook her head in disbelief. “That wasn’t the plan,” she protested. “You were supposed to go. Supposed to live!”
“You really think we were going to leave without you?” Bellamy asked quietly. Harper gave a small smile behind him.
Clarke sunk to her knees and Harper walked forward, giving her a deep hug.
“To be fair, I was willing to go, but the pilot wouldn’t take me,” Roan added with a smirk. Raven rolled her eyes at him.
“What do we do now?” Clarke whispered.
“That’s what we were just talking about,” Raven said. “You’re not going to like it.”
Clarke looked up, surveying their faces. Everyone sported a frown except for one: Murphy. He was grinning like a cat who had just found a canary.
“The lighthouse bunker?” she asked.
“The lighthouse bunker,” Murphy confirmed.
Twenty minutes later, all ten of them stood at the base of the lighthouse, watching as Murphy located the entrance.
“Home, sweet home,” he told them with a sweep of his arm.
Raven took a deep breath before leading the group down the spiral staircase. Echo stayed at the top, keeping guard.
They were surveying the bunker now to see if it was survivable. Clarke hoped it was, seeing as this really was their only plan left. The spiral staircase ended at a large metal door. Through that door was a small chamber in which they could stow their suits and boots. The only other thing in the space was a door to the main living part of the bunker. After they had all removed their gear, they quickly entered the residential part of the bunker and shut the door, limiting their exposure to the radiation they were sure had slipped in with them.
When they stepped inside, they found themselves in a large living room type space. It was dark, but lamps along the walls provided a dim, spooky kind of light. The first thing they all noticed was that it was a mess. Empty wrappers from ration packs littered the furniture and floor. Chairs were tipped over, detritus scattered everywhere. It looked like someone had set out to rob the place. It smelled even worse – a combination of old food, body odor, and maybe a touch of vomit.
“God, Murphy,” Harper muttered, holding her nose.
“Couldn’t have cleaned up a little bit? You were down here for like three months, right?” Raven asked.
“I thought I was trapped in here to die. Cleaning wasn’t exactly a priority.”
“Couldn’t you have least showered, though?”
Even Emori looked disgusted.
“Ok, ok, let’s look past the mess,” Bellamy advised, ever the voice of practicality.
The large living room space held three couches surrounding a fireplace and a large television. Directly through the living room was a sizable kitchen. Clarke recognized appliances from before the first bombs went off – a large refrigerator, a nice stove – similar to the kitchen in Becca’s mansion. Raven walked quickly into the kitchen to test the appliances and the water. Monty followed her and the two of them discussed the mechanics of how everything was operating. Monty had brought a chemical test kit with him and started pouring samples of water. Behind the kitchen, Raven located a central control panel and she and Monty started poking and prodding.
Harper started opening cupboards. There was cooking equipment – pots, pans, and the like – but no food.
“I ate everything I could find,” Murphy reminded them.
Clarke wandered back to the living room, trying to put the sofas back together and find all of the scattered cushions. She could live here. She could make this work. The living room was packed with gaudy trappings of wealth, including a giant ugly sculpture and a couple of chairs that looked like they were somehow made explicitly to not be sat on.
She walked back towards the main door they had entered. To the left was another public living space, this one featuring a large pool table, a dart board, a bar, and other paraphernalia. Murphy’s mess seemed to dissipate the farther she got from the main living room, which was a relief. There were two motorcycles against the wall across from the pool table and Clarke absently wondered what the hell someone needed a motorcycle for in a bunker. There was also a statue of a dog that the artist in her admired, but the survivalist in her knew she could live without. There was one bedroom off of the pool table room and Clarke found five more off of the central living room. Six bedrooms (and each with its own bathroom!) would be more than enough for them – it would be practically luxurious, she realized. Best of all, they seemed basically untouched by Murphy.
Also off of the pool table room she found a small gym. Emori and Jasper had wandered over with her.
“What are these?” Emori asked.
“Treadmills,” Jasper explained. “We had them on the Arc. Hard to maintain fitness without any space to run. I assume the team that built this bunker had the same thought.”
There were two treadmills, some sort of machine for lifting weights, and, best of all, a small pool Clarke recognized as a swimming treadmill with a current that let the user actually get exercise swimming. It was empty, but when Emori pressed a small blue button, it started to fill with water.
“Cool,” she announced, her eyes gleaming. Clarke couldn’t help but agree.
Clarke opened a door in the back of the gym and squealed out loud when she saw two washing machines and two electric dryers. She hadn’t seen laundry equipment since the Ark and ached for the feeling of clothes that were actually clean. On a shelf above the machines, Clarke noted several boxes of laundry detergent as well.
They made their way back to the main living room and Clarke prayed that Raven would have good news for her. This was feeling more real by the moment – they could DO this.
Roan and Harper came out of a room off the kitchen that Clarke hadn’t explored yet and explained that it was a large dining room. Clarke thought that that was probably unnecessary, but she wouldn’t turn down more space when trapped in this bunker for the next five years with nine other people.
Raven and Monty looked like they were finishing up with their inspection, so everyone gathered near the couches, though no one sat down. Clarke wasn’t sure if it was due to the urgency of the moment or the disgusting state of the furniture.
“Please tell me this is livable,” Clarke begged.
Raven took a deep breath.
“From what we’re seeing, it looks like it should be.”
Clarke could tell Raven was trying not to smile. She had her giddy engineer face on.
“The air scrubbers are in great shape and the fact that we’re breathing fine in here now tells us that they should work even after Praimfaya. The electricity is still running and the grid looks to be powered by a combination of solar and wind, so it should theoretically survive praimfaya, if the lighthouse itself survives.”
“It survived the first wave of bombs,” Bellamy said.
“That’s why we’re hopeful,” Monty agreed. “It was clearly built to last through this kind of thing.”
“And clearly built for people to survive in style,” Harper added. “I can’t believe how much useless crap they piled in here.”
“We can get rid of a lot of it to clear some space and bring in more useful stuff,” Clarke suggested.
“Yeah, a lot of this could go,” Raven agreed, turning to survey the bunker. She counted off things they could get rid of, including the giant ugly sculptures, but just as she was about to name the pool table, Jasper squawked in protest.
“I’ve wanted to learn how to play pool my whole life,” he told them. “It looks so cool in movies.”
Raven rolled her eyes, but conceded. “We probably don’t have time to disassemble and carry out that whole pool table anyway. That can stay.”
Jasper whooped in victory. Clarke and Raven exchanged a small smile – it was good to hear their friend happy again, even over something as stupid as a pool table.
“There is also a great water system here,” Raven told them, getting back to the important business. “We’re guessing it’s tapped into an underground aquifer. There’s a strong filtration system in place that is specifically meant to filter out radiation, so we shouldn’t even have to recycle our own pee!”
All nine people in the bunker gasped in relief. Clarke imagined that Echo would too if she could hear them.
“So what’s the catch?” Roan asked.
“Food,” Raven announced, her face falling into a frown. “We have enough ration packs to last a couple of months, since we can bring them all with us in this large of a space. But after that, we would need some kind of farming equipment if we wanted to make it five years.”
“There’s nothing like that at the mansion?” Clarke asked.
Raven and Emori shook their heads. Everyone was silent for a moment, thinking.
“I have an idea,” Monty finally announced quietly. “It’s not a good idea, but it might be all we have.”
Everyone looked at him expectantly.
“When we were walking through what’s left of Farm Station, I noticed some hydrofarming equipment. The Arkadians didn’t take it with them to the bunker because it wasn’t nearly enough to feed everyone there. It was just enough to feed eight or ten people.”
“Let’s go with ten,” Jasper added, eyes skimming the room.
Monty flashed him a tight-lipped smile.
“If we can get to Farm Station and back, we can bring it with us and set it up here in one of the bedrooms. There’s already a mostly functional compost system in place, and I think we can get it going, especially if we can find the enzymes we need in Becca’s lab.”
“Do you know that the hydrofarm equipment will work?” Clarke asked.
“No, but it’s our only option at this point. Even if we’re able to briefly go up to the surface in suits a few years from now, we definitely won’t be able to grow food or anything up there. And I don’t think it will be safe to even briefly return to the surface for at least three years, if not longer.”
“How long of a drive is it to Farm Station?” Bellamy asked.
“Six hours each way at least,” Raven answered. “And that’s with nothing going wrong.”
“How much time do we have until Praimfaya?”
Raven looked at her watch.
“22 hours. But we can’t be positive it won’t speed up… we should be in this bunker locked and sealed in 18 hours, 20 tops.”
“So we need to leave now,” Bellamy decided.
“Who is ‘we’?” Murphy asked.
Bellamy thought for a moment.
“Well take two rovers,” Bellamy announced. They had three total. “That way, if something goes wrong, we have a backup vehicle. We’ll take five people total. Two in one car, three in the other. That will leave plenty of extra drivers if we need it and fighters if we need that too. And we’ll need people to cover us while we search for the equipment.”
Everyone nodded, following his logic. Bellamy’s eyes surveyed the group. Clarke knew he was doing calculations in his head – who could drive, who would be good at defense, who was needed here on the island…
“I’ll take Monty and Jasper, since they know Farm Station best,” he began.
“I’ll come too,” Harper immediately volunteered. Bellamy nodded.
“I’ll join you,” Roan added. “I know the territory and the clans.”
That made five people. Clarke swallowed. She didn’t like being separated from Bellamy, but meeting his eyes she knew this was the best way forward – the only way forward.
“Then it’s settled,” Raven told them. “Get there, get the equipment and any other food or useful things you find laying around, and get back as soon as you can. Keep your radios on the whole time. Check in every hour. If you start to lose signal, let us know as quickly as you can.”
Bellamy agreed and the group moved into action, pulling their suits back on in the chamber at the bottom of the stairwell. When they emerged from the external door, Roan stayed behind for a moment to fill Echo in and Clarke walked with Bellamy to the rovers.
It was awkward between them. She knew he was still mad at her for trying to seal Octavia out of the bunker and for nearly shooting him. In another life, these were the kinds of offenses that could break a friendship or at least lead to a prolonged period of refusing to talk to each other.
They didn’t have that luxury, however – there was too much to be done. So they set the anger and the awkwardness aside as best as they could and focused on the tasks at hand.
“We’ll strip Becca’s mansion of anything useful while you’re gone and try to get the bunker as clean and prepared as we can,” she told him.
Bellamy nodded. “Good idea. Any kind of food, medicine, soap – anything like that would go a long way. I’ll see what I can grab at Farm Station too.”
“No unnecessary risks, though,” Clarke pressed.
Bellamy nodded. “No unnecessary risks.”
They continued talking like that, making plans and avoiding the fact of their separation until they got to the vehicles.
They really were terrible at goodbyes.
“I’ll be back soon,” Bellamy promised quietly.
“Hurry,” Clarke told him, echoing the words he had used earlier before she left for the tower. She only hoped that he had better luck with his task than she had had with hers. Bellamy gave her a tight-lipped smile in response.
Clarke nodded softly at him and started to back away. At the last minute, Bellamy reached out and pulled her into a deep, desperate hug.
“We’re going to survive this,” he told her.
“Together?”
“Together.”
Bellamy’s team left shortly after saying goodbye. Clarke, Echo, Raven, Murphy, and Emori regrouped in Becca’s lab.
“We have a lot of time, but we also have a lot to do,” Raven announced. “I want to spend as much time here as I can, keeping an eye on the monitors and an ear on the radio. I also want to try to save whatever useful tech I can and synthesize the enzymes Monty will need for the compost.”
“I’ll volunteer Murphy and myself to work on cleaning out the bunker,” Emori voiced, glaring at her partner. “Since he made most of the mess, he should be the one to do the dirty work.” Murphy rolled his eyes, but didn’t disagree.
“Try to get rid of anything we don’t need – the garbage, statues, etc.,” Raven told her and everyone nodded in agreement. “Save everything we could use – anything tech, any clothing items or sheets, soap, anything edible, stuff like that.”
“Got it, boss,” Murphy replied sarcastically. Raven leveled her eyes at him and he backed off.
“I’ll go through the mansion,” Clarke told them. “I’ll start a big collection of stuff in the front entryway and then I’ll use the last rover to take it to the bunker in trips. Hopefully you guys are done by then and can help with unloading and everything.”
The group turned to Echo.
“I think the island is pretty safe,” Raven told her. “But it couldn’t hurt to have someone on foot, keeping an eye on everything. When Murphy and Emori are in the bunker and Clarke is at the mansion, we can turn the drones on again, but whenever someone is on the move, it would be good to have you for safety.”
Echo liked her role and offered to help Raven in the lab while the drones were running.
“Let me know if you need help carrying out anything heavy,” Echo added, talking to Murphy and Emori.
Clarke could tell they were all exhausted, but somehow still were finding the energy to move forward with this. After figuring out the last few details, they separated. Murphy and Emori headed for the bunker, Clarke took off for the mansion, and Echo left to do a quick lap before they enabled the drones again. Raven was the only one with a radio connection to Bellamy’s team, but both Clarke and Emori took a local radio they could use to talk to each other and to Raven.
Clarke trudged up the hill to the mansion, grateful for her radiation suit but cursing it all the same. She took it off after making sure the front door was securely closed and locked, but kept it nearby – she didn’t know how well the house would do at keeping out the radiation. She hoped it did alright: she really didn’t want to wear that cumbersome thing through the entire house for the next eighteen hours.
She took a deep breath, looking at the giant mansion surrounding her.
Priorities: Food. Medicine and first aid supplies. Cleaning supplies and toiletries. Clothing. Maybe even some entertainment items, like games and books. It was going to be a long five years, after all.
She headed into the kitchen, remembering watching Murphy cook for Emori here. She smiled a bit without meaning to. It was amazing how much that woman had changed him. She was looking forward to getting to know Emori better in the bunker.
The kitchen had a large pantry. In it, Clarke found six unopened cases of ration-packs. They were expired, of course, but still safe to eat. She carried them to the front entryway and started her pile. She also found cases of old canned goods and microwave meals. She silently thanked the person who invented the better way of storing non-perishables in 2045: these foods were, unbelievably, still safe to eat. There weren’t many of them and Clarke knew they wouldn’t go far with ten people, but it would still be a nice break from ration packs once in a while.
She found a few other staples that appeared to still be ok: spices, baking supplies, and a lot of salt.
She found the leftovers of the meal Murphy had cooked in the fridge. It wasn’t worth taking to the bunker, but it could make a great meal for her here. She was starving and couldn’t remember the last time she had sat down for a few minutes to eat. She set a portion to cook in the microwave, which gave her an idea.
“Emori,” she called over the radio.
“Yup?” she heard back.
“Does the bunker have a microwave?”
There was a moment’s pause.
“Yes, I’m seeing one here.”
“Can you check to make sure that it works?”
“Good idea. Let me fill a mug with water, give me a sec.”
There was another pause.
“Yup, works well.”
“Perfect.”
By now, her own food was warm, and Clarke sat down to eat a quick bite. She was again shocked by the quality of Murphy’s cooking after taking the first bite.
I’m so glad we didn’t hang him after all, she thought to herself.
She continued to chat with Emori over the radio as she ate. Murphy tried to chime in, but it was clear that his girlfriend was in charge. Emori was taking stock of the kitchen in the bunker and Clarke was jotting down notes on a scrap of paper she found.
“Ew, Clarke, bring the knife block from the mansion. John, what the fuck did you do to these?”
Clarke chuckled as she heard Murphy try to defend himself. The dishes and silverware were basically untouched (apparently Murphy hadn’t felt the need to use them while he was there) and the pots and pans were still in great shape.
Murphy had thrown all of the drinking glasses at the wall in the dining room during one particularly dark moment of rage and despair, so Clarke took some time to wrap up the glasses from Becca’s house and load them carefully into a box. She also luckily found some less breakable drinkware (plastic tumblers) and packed that up too. She didn’t envy Murphy and Emori’s job of cleaning up that bunker – she only hoped they would be able to make it livable again.
Thinking of the broken glass, Clarke also lugged the vacuum cleaner she found in Becca’s mansion to the front door. She had a feeling they’d be needing that.
She admired her growing pile by the front door. She was exhausted, but somehow this work was making her feel more confident. They could do this.
Over the next few hours, she continued building her collection. She started by going through the whole house and assembling a large pile of empty boxes, bins, baskets, and anything she could use for packing and carrying things. She also found more useful things in the kitchen, like garbage bags, aluminum foil, and a good stash of booze that had her very excited. She lugged two cases of wine to the front door, not totally sure how they would have aged, but optimistic.
Emori let her know that the bunker had plenty of sheets, blankets, and pillows for the beds, but that Murphy had destroyed most of the towels (apparently while trying to clean up other messes?), so Clarke gathered big stacks of towels and washcloths from the bathrooms. She also found a good stock of shampoo, soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and other toiletries and happily packed those up.
And maybe she took a good long shower and enjoyed herself for a minute. She had time.
Her biggest surprise was clothing. After finding empty dressers and closets in most of the bedrooms, she had basically given up hope, but in one random bedroom she found the motherlode. Drawers of shirts, leggings, soft pants, jeans, socks, underwear, bras – she was in shock. In the closet she found even more, including sundresses and evening gowns.
Though she briefly thought the evening gowns would be a hilarious thing to pack (she couldn’t stop picturing one on Murphy), practicality ruled the day. She grabbed a few of the garbage bags she had found in the kitchen and stuffed them with everything that she thought would fit herself or her friends that they could reasonably wear in a bunker. She knew that she was also preparing for life after the bunker, so also grabbed the few pieces of outerwear she found as well.
For a moment, it seemed ridiculous to pack this much clothing, but then she remembered that she was packing for ten people for the foreseeable future and crammed all of the socks she could find into a bag.
As she packed, Raven checked in with her and Emori, giving them updates on Bellamy and her own packing. Bellamy’s group was making good time. Their pace was a little slower than normal because they were being extra cautious, but they were still on track to make it back in time. Raven had disassembled a lot of Becca’s tech and gleefully described the various pieces she had packed while Clarke offered a casual “cool” and “sounds great” every fifteen seconds or so.
Emori called for Echo’s help in lugging the two motorcycles out of the bunker, but Raven quickly jumped in.
“No!” she cried quickly. “We might be able to use those.”
“What in the world can we use a motorcycle for in a bunker, Reyes?” came Murphy’s drawl.
“The parts might be useful for other stuff,” she suggested.
“You just want to ride them around when we can return to the surface in five years, don’t you. You just want to look like a badass,” Clarke shot back.
“First of all, Griffin, I am a badass,” Raven replied. “And yes, maybe I want to explore our new world from the back of a motorcycle. So sue me.”
It was weird – Clarke found herself floating between moments of panic, staring down at her watch and freaking out over how few hours they had until Praimfaya, and moments of absolute calm and normalcy, like when she was sorting through the clothing she found. Still, she kept an eye on the clock and kept thinking about her priorities.
She didn’t find much medicine (and almost all of it was insanely expired), but she did find some basic first aid supplies and packed those. Luckily, they shouldn’t be dealing with too many medical issues in the bunker, but she figured someone would break something in that five-year span, so she packed all of the bandages, rubbing alcohol, and equipment she could find.
She found a sewing machine and a small box of needles and thread, which she thought was maybe her most useful find of the day in the long run. Though Emori had let her know the bunker was well-stocked with sheets and linens, Clarke packed up the extra stacks she found in the mansion’s many linen closets anyway, knowing they could turn them into clothing if they had to or use them for anything else – she knew that spun cloth was going to be impossible to find after the death wave hit and she couldn’t let all of this go to waste.
She found a good number of gardening implements in a greenhouse-like space attached to the back of the house. Obviously they would have no need for them in the bunker, but if they hoped to survive on Earth after praimfaya, they would probably come in handy. Until then, they could store them in the airlock with their radiation suits. Clarke packed all that she could carry.
A few hours in, it occurred to her that she wasn’t just packing things for them to use during their time in the bunker and afterwards; she was also potentially deciding what items from this house survived. The mansion had withstood the first set of bombs, but Clarke had no idea if it would still be standing after Praimfaya. It killed her to walk past beautiful paintings and statues, comfortable, well-made furniture, and other remnants of human habitation and just… leave them there. She knew they only had a finite amount of space, though, and sacrifices had to be made.
Clarke did take the time to gather things they would want for entertainment and fun, though. In a closet in the study she found a collection of old board and card games and puzzles and she packed every single one. She also found a good store of office supplies, including three boxes of copy paper, a few boxes of pens, pencils, and markers, and a good stack of empty lined notebooks. She packed all of these. She also found a box of Becca’s old files and added that to the stack, thinking there might be something useful in there that Raven would be grateful for. At the very least, it would occupy her mind for a while.
Finally, she stopped outside a room that she supposed served as a library in the mansion. It was covered with floor-to-ceiling bookcases and each shelf was simply packed with books. Clarke stepped in and wondered what the hell she was supposed to do with this. Books would be a great thing to pack, but how did she decide which ones to bring?
What would Bellamy do? She wondered. But then she rolled her eyes because he would obviously pack all of them. She went back downstairs and considered her piles. She had found a lot, but it still would probably fit in three or four trips in the rover. She wouldn’t be taking up much space in the bunker. Her eyes turned upwards, thinking of the library above her. She decided on a compromise, grabbed two empty storage bins, and filled them with books.
That would have to do.
Roughly six hours after she had left Raven’s lab, Clarke heard her friend’s voice on the radio. They hadn’t checked in in an hour or so, and Clarke could tell they were all getting tired.
“How’s it going out there?”
“Pretty good,” Clarke replied. “I think I’ve just about collected everything we’ll need from here. Should be a few rover-loads.”
“Mostly done here too,” Emori added. “Miraculously.”
Clarke could practically hear Murphy roll his eyes at that.
“Why don’t you all come to the lab for a break? Bellamy and his team should be reaching Farm Station soon and it would be nice to have everyone here for a check-in. We might also need everyone here if we have to problem-solve anything.”
“Good idea,” Clarke said. Emori agreed.
“I’ll have Echo turn off the drones. Wait five minutes and then head down here.”
Thirty minutes later, Clarke, Emori, Murphy, Raven, and Echo stood nervously around the radio in Becca’s lab. Bellamy had checked in about twenty minutes earlier, letting them know they were getting close. The group knew the dangers would be higher the closer they got to the station because surely some grounders were hoping to use it as shelter from the coming storm.
Their two rovers had, so far, done ok during the trip. All five members of their party were still doing ok, though everyone could tell the radiation was increasing. No one said it, but it was clear they were all hoping to make it back as quickly as they could. There would be no lingering when they didn’t need to.
Clarke looked at the timer on her watch. 15:11 until Praimfaya.
The radio burst with static and everyone in the lab jumped. Finally, Clarke heard her best friend’s voice.
“We’re here.”
“Any sign of anyone?” Raven asked.
“They’re gone now.”
“Do we want to know?”
“Nope.”
There was a pause.
“Ok, what’s the plan now?” Raven asked.
“I’m going with Monty and Jasper to find and carry the equipment. Roan and Harper are standing guard. I’m giving Harper the radio.”
Clarke gulped, not liking Bellamy leaving the radio, but she knew it had to be done.
Raven caught up with Harper over the next ten minutes, explaining all that they had collected and made ready for the group. Harper said that their group was tense, but focused.
“Ok, they’re back,” Harper said a few minutes later. “Let me go help them with the rover.”
A few minutes later, Harper was back on the radio.
“Did you get it?” Raven asked.
“Yes,” Harper said excitedly. “It’s all here!”
“Have Monty take a second look and make sure all of the pieces are there.”
“I’ve already looked three times, Reyes,” Clarke heard Monty’s voice reply.
“We all want to get out of here,” it was Bellamy’s voice now, “but we’re going to spend another ten or fifteen minutes looking for anything else salvageable, especially since we have the Rover space.”
Clarke grabbed the radio. “We said no unnecessary risks!”
“We’re fine, Princess,” Bellamy assured her. “There’s no one here and the radiation is manageable. It’s worth it.”
She didn’t like it, but she swallowed her protestations. She paced through the lab as Raven continued to talk to Harper, hearing about what they were finding. Monty found more farming equipment, some of which would be usable in the bunker and some of which would be helpful after they returned to the surface. They luckily found jars and jars of seeds – Raven told them to grab them all. Jasper found some dried meat and fruit, probably left there by grounders who had temporarily taken up residence.
They had just agreed to head back to the rover when Clarke heard a shout on the radio. They all ran to it.
“What was that? What happened?” Raven demanded. “What’s going on?”
“We found Monty’s old still, y’all!” Jasper called. Everyone in the lab let out a deep breath.
“You scared us to death,” Raven chastised.
“Sorry about that,” came Harper’s voice. “Jasper’s very excited.”
“Well load it up and get out of there.”
“Will do.”
A few minutes later, Bellamy’s group was back on the move, this time returning to the lighthouse bunker. So far, everything was going according to plan. Clarke just wondered how long their luck would last…
She looked at her watch. 14 hours and 32 minutes until Praimfaya. They could do this.
Clarke spent the next several hours with Murphy and Emori transporting all of the things she had collected down to the bunker. She had underestimated the number of rover-trips it would take, but they still had plenty of time and she suspected they were all grateful for something to do. They didn’t take the time now to fully put things away in the bunker, knowing that they would obviously have all of the time in the world for that in the coming days and weeks. For now, they tried to quickly place everything in an area relative to where it would be useful and relatively out of the way – clothing in bedrooms, food and kitchen equipment in the dining room, etc.
It was exhausting, carrying everything in their radiation suits from the mansion to the rover, then from the rover down the steps to the bunker. Clarke tried to savor it, though, knowing that she would soon miss the opportunity to exercise this much and walk this freely. As much as she could, she tried to soak in this freedom.
Clarke was just loading a box of paper into the rover for what was hopefully their second-to-last trip when Raven’s voice crackled over the radio.
“Can you guys get down here? We have a situation.”
“What’s going on?” asked Murphy, since he was the closest to the radio.
“Everyone’s ok, but Bellamy’s team has reached an obstacle. We’d really like to troubleshoot as a team. Drones are off.”
Clarke felt her heart drop to her feet. She, Murphy, and Emori hurried to the lab. She glanced at her wrist on the way there – 12:04 until Praimfaya.
The two rovers were driving on the same roads they had used to reach Farm Station, but apparently some of the forest they needed to drive through was now on fire. They had backtracked and pulled over somewhere safe to reevaluate.
“How thick is the fire?” Echo asked.
“Too thick to drive through, especially when we don’t know how far the blaze extends,” Roan replied.
Clarke paced. She knew they would never make it back on foot if they abandoned the rovers, and definitely never make it back with the equipment they all needed to survive.
“We need to find an alternate route,” Raven announced.
“We have no time, Raven,” Bellamy protested.
“What do want me to do, Blake?” Raven snapped. “I can’t just let you all die there. And if you die, we die, remember. We’ve come too far to give up now. We still have a little under twelve hours. We can figure this out.”
There was a sound that Clarke guessed was Bellamy handing the radio to someone else in frustration. Sure enough, she heard Monty’s voice next.
“We need to find some way to get you our coordinates,” he told Raven.
Raven held the radio to her forehead and clenched her eyes shut tightly.
“Is there any kind of GPS feature on the rover?” Harper asked.
Raven shook her head no before realizing they couldn’t see her, then vocalized it into the radio.
“Anything with their watches? Their suits?” Clarke asked Raven, who again shook her head no.
Finally, Echo spoke up.
“Put Roan on the radio again.”
“What are you thinking, Echo?” came the voice of the former Azgeda prince.
“I’m thinking I know our territory better than anyone else in Azgeda. Describe what you see.”
Roan was quiet for a moment.
“We’re on an old road – it’s mostly dust now. We’re about 100, no 110 miles southwest of the Farm Station wreckage.”
Clarke watched Echo think as Roan talked. She tried to hand Echo some paper and a pen in case she wanted to sketch it out, but Echo pushed it away, choosing instead to rely on the picture she was creating in her mind.
“What kind of trees are around you?” she asked after a moment.
“Mostly pine. A few birch, actually.”
At the mention of the birch trees, Echo perked up.
“Where are you in relation to the birch trees.”
“We’re parked in a grove of them.”
“Is there a stream near you? One that briefly forks into two before rejoining itself?”
There was a pause.
“Holy fuck, yes.”
Echo nodded.
“I know where you are. Where is the fire in relation to you?”
“Mostly to the west, somewhat to the southwest.”
“Ok, I know an alternate route you’re going to take. It’s not going to be as easy. It’s going to add at least two hours to your trip and you’re going to have to cross some water – you’ll probably have to unload some things from the rover and carry them across the water so they don’t get flooded. But it will get you here.”
Clarke felt a moment of relief, but she knew things were still tense. Echo relayed instructions to the rest of Roan’s team.”
“Got it,” Roan told her finally. “Thank you Ec-”
Suddenly the radio was filled with static.
“What’s going on?” Raven demanded.
“Losing signal… think the fire… can barely hear… getting worse.”
“Do you understand where you’re going?” Echo shouted into the radio carefully, making sure to annunciate every word carefully.
“Yes… will call back… further from… on our way.”
Raven and Clarke locked eyes. They now had no radio contact with their friends and with the rovers filled with equipment that they desperately needed in order to survive.
“What now?” Murphy asked, breaking Raven and Clarke’s intense starefest.
“We keep moving forward,” Raven announced.
Clarke nodded her agreement. “We trust our friends to make it back.”
“And if they don’t?” Murphy asked.
“Then we find out how long ration-packs last and pray for a miracle,” Clarke told them.
They agreed. Murphy, Emori, and Clarke headed back to the mansion to finish packing the rover. Echo agreed to stay in the lab with Raven now, in case Bellamy’s team was able to radio in and needed directions. She worked on sketching out a map that she could reference quickly if they called.
Clarke had trouble concentrating on the rest of the work – she could tell they all were facing that challenge – but they did it anyway. She helped Murphy and Emori unload the last two rover loads of stuff from Becca’s mansion into the bunker. The three then stopped by the lab and took four rover loads of things Raven had collected to the bunker as well. That went faster because the lab was much closer to the bunker and, by now, they had built a good system for loading and unloading. Clarke looked at her watch – 10:16 left.
“What are we supposed to do now?” Emori asked. They were standing in the living room of the lighthouse bunker, hands on hips. Clarke was impressed with how well the place had cleaned up. Emori had told her that most of the carnage was, luckily, superficial, and that most of the cleaning had just involved carrying loads of trash to the surface. Clarke had seen the huge pile on the beach and rolled her eyes for the hundredth time at Murphy’s grossness.
“Check in with the boss?” Murphy suggested. Clarke grabbed her radio from her hip.
“How’s it going, Raven?”
“Well we have a huge death wave descending on us in a little over ten hours.”
“That’s bad news,” Murphy shot back, leaning into the radio. In spite of everything, Clarke felt a corner of her mouth tug up.
“Any word from the others?” Clarke asked.
“Not yet.”
“Anything else you need us to do?”
There was a pause.
“Honestly? Not really. My only suggestion is to do another lap or two through the mansion. Take a shower if you want – there’s not much else for us to do now.”
“Sounds good to me,” Murphy responded. He threw the radio back to Clarke and headed for the exit. Clarke and Emori exchanged eye rolls and ran to catch up with him.
Clarke wasn’t sure which was a worse feeling: worrying that there wouldn’t be enough time for Bellamy and their friends to make it back or trying to kill time while they wandered the mansion. She just felt so useless.
“We’re going to feel like idiots if this mansion survives Praimfaya and we spend five years stuck together in that bunker,” Murphy told them with a grin.
Clarke agreed, but she didn’t think the mansion would survive what was coming. The bunker was definitely their safest option.
The three tore through the kitchen, but didn’t find much that Clarke hadn’t already packed. Murphy found a few more bottles of liquor and Emori discovered another bucket of cleaning supplies. They finished off Murphy’s leftovers in the fridge, starving after all of their carrying and packing. They wandered the rest of the mansion, debating whether to save anything else.
Murphy did make one incredibly useful discovery – two whole boxes of small video file discs.
“The television in the bunker plays these,” he told them. “They must be from before the bombs.”
“Does it still work?” Clarke asked.
“Yes, but I only had the one disc – if I have to watch that maniac’s monologue one more time I’m going to lose my mind.”
They lugged the two boxes of discs to the front door. Murphy added an old ipod he found in the desk that Clarke was sure even Raven wouldn’t be able to save, but he was optimistic.
They did take showers, enjoying the heat and pressure of the water, as well as the soft towels. They changed into their old clothes because Clarke had packed all of the clean ones in the mansion, but nobody (save Murphy) complained too much.
In a closet downstairs, they also found a few more heavy jackets and packed those, not knowing what the climate would be like five years from now.
When they reached the library, they all stopped short.
“I packed two tubs of books,” Clarke explained. You couldn’t even tell that she had, though, because there were still so many left on the shelves.
“There have to be hundreds here,” Emori said in disbelief.
“Where would we even put them?” Clarke asked.
“Two of the bedrooms have walls lined with empty bookshelves,” said Murphy.
The three looked at each other and then back to the walls of books. Clarke looked at her watch – they still had over eight hours to go. Emori went out to the hallway and brought in the stack of empty storage bins and boxes that remained.
“Are we really doing this?” Murphy asked.
“You know he’d want us to,” Clarke told him.
“Fucking nerd,” Murphy muttered before grabbing a tote and taking books off the shelves.
Clarke wasn’t sure why they were packing the books. Perhaps it was to save them for all humankind – for whatever came after this. It was quite possible that this was the largest remaining collection of physical books on Earth. Perhaps it was for Bellamy, who they were all feeling a bit more affectionate towards in his absence. Perhaps it was to kill time and take their minds off of their missing friends.
Either way, the books made it into the rover (taking three whole trips, which Murphy grumbled endlessly about, as if they had anything better to do) and into the lighthouse bunker. Towards the end, they started to feel the radiation seeping into the house, probably through the windows, and they packed the last tubs of books with their suits on. Clarke was grateful they hadn’t planned to survive in the mansion, because it was becoming clearer by the minute that it was not going to survive the Death Wave. The three walked through the house one more time and agreed there was nothing else worth salvaging. As a kind of parting farewell, Emori grabbed a soft throw blanket from one of the sofas on their way out. They didn’t need it, but maybe for once they could have something that they didn’t explicitly need.
The three headed back to the lab, knowing that this was their last stop before entering the bunker for the next five years. Clarke’s wrist monitor read 5:37, but the best thing they could do now was wait for their friends and get to safety.
As they trudged into the lab, they saw Raven on the radio and heard her excited voice. They raced for the work station.
Clarke heard Bellamy’s voice and let go of a breath she felt like she had been holding for hours.
“Where are they?” Emori asked.
“Three hours away,” Raven told them. “They had to drop down to one rover – the smaller one ran out of power.”
“But weren’t they both fully charged? Does this mean the other one will die soon too?” Clarke pressed anxiously.
“Yes but the larger one has more solar panels and charges as it drives. They should be able to make it back if nothing else happens.”
“Did they lose anything or anyone in the transfer?” Murphy asked.
“Everyone’s fine. They fit everything into the larger rover, though Harper says it’s a tight squeeze.”
“Tell them to drop the still,” Clarke suggested.
“Tell them to drop Jasper and keep the still,” Murphy shot back. Clarke narrowed her eyes at him and was grateful Raven didn’t have the radio on for that.
Raven now did turn it back on, though, and continued to check in with the group. They signed off after a few minutes, promising to check back in more frequently now that they had radio reception again.
“The rest of their journey should be smooth,” Echo assured them. “They’re in empty, flat territory now.”
“Still, they’ll be cutting it close. We’ll have to unload everything and get into the bunker as quickly as we can, especially since we can’t trust our timers to be exactly accurate.”
Raven nodded.
The group turned to look at the digital map of Praimfaya projected on the monitor. Clarke swallowed, noticing that both Arkadia and Polis were now on fire.
“Any word from the bunker?” she asked quietly.
“No, but I was just about to try something when Harper finally got through to me. I was thinking if I just switched this frequency, maybe the new currents in the air will-”
She was cut off when they heard a voice – a familiar voice – coming through their speakers.
“If anyone can hear me, this is Octavia Blake in the Second Dawn Bunker,” she said in a bored voice, as if she had been repeating it for hours. “Calling out pointlessly to ask if anyone is still out there and hoping against hope that my idiot of a brother is still alive.”
Raven scrambled for the receiver.
“Octavia!”
“Raven?!” Octavia’s voice instantly burst with excitement.
“How is everyone? How’s the bunker? Are you safe?”
“We’re safe. We survived the blaze and everything seems secure. The mood is definitely tense, for sure, but we’re all here and we’re safe. Where’s Bell? Put him on – I want to tell him about how his little sister is the one giving orders now.”
Raven paused for a moment.
“He’s not here right now,” she said quietly.
“Where is he?”
“He’s on a trip back from Farm Station to pick up the equipment we need to farm in the lighthouse bunker for the next five years.”
“The lighthouse bunker? I thought you were going to space!”
“That was the plan the last time we checked in, but it didn’t work out.”
Clarke felt guilty, but Raven shot her a look that told her she better not be blaming herself.
Raven filled Octavia in on the rest of the details and the pair promised to check in for as long as they could.
And now, with literally nothing on Earth left to do, it became a true waiting game.
Three hours later, Echo, Raven, Emori, Murphy, and Clarke stood at the base of the lighthouse. They had parked the rover inside the lab and walked to the bunker on foot, in case there was a chance the lab would survive Praimfaya or at least shield the rover from most of the damage. Raven had said goodbye to Octavia before they left the lab for the last time, giving her a final update and promising to try to contact her from the lighthouse bunker. She couldn’t set up a new communication network there, though, without first severing the one they had open with Bellamy, so they were waiting until he returned. His team had checked in twenty minutes earlier, letting them know they had loaded the rover onto the barge and were headed to the island.
Clarke felt her pulse race as the barge finally came into view. Ten minutes later, the rover was driving onto the island and towards the bunker. They still technically had a little over two hours until Praimfaya hit, but it was clear that the air was becoming increasingly radioactive and even their suits weren’t keeping all of it out.
Bellamy and the others clearly knew this too. As soon as they parked, they jumped out and all ten friends immediately started scrambling to carry everything into the bunker.
“Carefully!” Monty shouted, and everyone did take a moment to pause. Yes, they were in a rush, but if they messed this up they were screwed.
The unloading was quick – they didn’t have a lot and they had nine very eager carriers (Raven was already trying to set up a communication line to Octavia). Clarke took one last load down and returned to the surface, where she found Harper. Everyone else was settling into the bunker.
“Where’s Bellamy?” she asked.
“He wanted to drive the rover to the lab – Murphy told him how you parked the other one.”
“That idiot! We don’t have time for that.”
“I know. I told him not to.”
A few minutes later, she saw Bellamy charging down the hill.
“I know, I know, I’m an idiot,” he told her, cutting off her complaints. Clarke rolled her eyes.
Harper headed into the bunker, her helmet disappearing down the stairs. Bellamy started to move towards the door, but noticed that Clarke was still outside.
They looked at each other and instantly Clarke knew they were both thinking of another time she had stopped as he had headed inside to somewhere safe.
“Clarke,” he started in a pleading voice.
“I’m coming this time, I promise,” she assured him. “I just wanted one final moment. One last look. One last breath.”
Bellamy walked towards her and they looked out on the planet they had only gotten to enjoy for a few months. And “enjoy” was putting it kindly.
Clarke felt tears drip down her cheeks and knew Bellamy could see them, even through her cloudy helmet.
“We’ll be back,” he assured her quietly. She nodded and shook the tears away.
Another moment passed – a quiet moment.
“Let’s head in then,” she said decisively.
“Together?”
“Together.”
They walked through the doorway, Bellamy holding it open for Clarke. She wondered if he was being a gentleman or just trying to make sure she really came with him this time. Either way, he followed her in and the two secured the door firmly in place and locked it from the inside.
Their watches showed ninety minutes until Praimfaya, but they all knew it could hit more quickly than that. Once they were all in the living room, they stood together for a final check.
“Is there anything we’re forgetting from outside this bunker?” Raven asked.
Clarke, Emori, and Murphy quickly ran through the general list of what they had packed and recovered from the mansion.
“Did you grab Becca’s laptop from her office upstairs in the lab?” Monty asked Raven. She answered in the affirmative and caught them up on everything she had packed. No one could think of anything else they were missing.
“Is the door upstairs sealed?” Raven asked. Bellamy and Clarke nodded.
“And the one to the airlock chamber where we stashed the suits?”
“All of the doors are secure and locked,” Bellamy replied firmly.
There was a moment of collective silence.
“Then I think that’s it,” Raven said quietly. Before they could react, though, they all heard a noise coming from the dining room, where Raven had set up the communication unit.
“Hello? Raven? Are you there?”
It was Octavia! They all ran to the dining room.
The connection was crackly and got worse by the minute, but the line held for fifteen minutes. Bellamy got to say goodbye to his sister and the two caught each other up on their adventures over the last 24 hours. Clarke got to say goodbye to Abby and promised her she would see her again soon. Echo and Roan hung back, not really having anyone to talk to, but everyone else got on the radio at least briefly to check in or say hello to someone.
They could tell the connection was dying by the end, so they said their final farewells for the next five years.
“I’ll see you soon, O,” Bellamy promised.
“I love you, big brother.”
“I love you too, O.”
After the radio died, they all wandered back to the living room. They knew that they should pick bedrooms and get some rest. The five who had traveled to Farm Station probably wanted showers. Still, though, they found that they couldn’t leave each other just yet. They watched the countdown on Becca’s laptop and listened outside. When there were 47 minutes left on the counter, they started to hear noises above them. Powerful winds, the sound of debris crashing into trees – it was really the sound of doom.
They held their breath, unsure of what would happen next.
A moment passed. And another. And their bunker held. The death wave outside still raged, but their bunker was safe.
They collectively exhaled and found themselves smiling and laughing – even Echo.
“We’re gonna be ok,” Monty said in disbelief.
“I told you this bunker was solid,” Murphy fired back.
Clarke and Emori made their way to the kitchen, stepping over piles of boxes and bags. There would be a lot of unpacking to do over the next few days, but Clarke was pretty confident they’d somehow find the time to do it. She and Emori had had an idea earlier that day and now they fetched one of the bottles of liquor they had saved from the mansion and ten glasses.
They brought them to the table in the living room and poured everyone an inch of the dark brown liquid.
“To the end of the world,” Emori announced, raising her glass.
“And to surviving it together,” Bellamy added.
The group lifted their glasses in a toast, clinked them, and threw back the alcohol.
Five years to go.