The Original 100

16

They decide finally, and against Clarke's better instincts, to open a vent in the bunker.

"I won't be there to sentence those people to death. There are children in there that had nothing to do with any of this. There are innocent, scared people in there and I won't condemn them to this," she had said and stormed out of the mountain.

...

Clarke is already halfway down to meet up with the people in the tunnels when Bellamy catches up with her, breath heavy.

"You didn't see the people in that room, Clarke," he says softly. "You would've wanted to push that button personally if you had." She turns a steely glare on him that pulls him up short.

"If you really believe that, after everything we've been through, then you don't know me as well as you think you do." Her voice is hard, dismissive. And he knows the conversation is over. For now.

Major Byrne is waiting for them, the groups that had headed down into the tunnels look more worn then those that went straight into the heart of the mountain.

"Any casualties?" Clarke is moving from person to person, checking wounds and clearing most of the people with just minor injuries. Bellamy stands back and watches her as Byrne speaks. Notes the concern etched across her face as she busies herself to forget her own inner turmoil.

"Not on our side. The Mountain People however..." her voice trails off and she glances around the dark tunnel at the bodies littering the floor. Bellamy nods and moves through the crowd towards Clarke, stepping carefully over the fallen bodies of the Mountain People.

"So what's the verdict, doc?"

"Minor stuff, mostly. Thomas was shot in the shoulder and is bleeding kind of heavily, but he'll live." She barely glances up at him, her eyes glued to the bodies on the ground.

"Clarke," he starts.

"I know, Bellamy. 'This is war.' It doesn't make it any better." She shakes her head and finally looks up at him, her eyes giving her away. "We left Finn out there."

"I know," he nods once. "We'll take the body back to camp." Bellamy's words sound more cold than he intends them.

"Finn," she corrects. "We'll take Finn back to camp."

But before they can leave to grab Finn, Bellamy leads Lexa and Indra towards the room holding their people captive. Clarke trails behind them, not wanting to revisit her time here.

...

Bellamy is the first one to find Finn's body in the trees. Coming out this way in the dark and from the opposite direction has most of them turned around. Even the original 100 didn't explore this side of the river after what had happened to Jasper. Before calling the others over to him, he reaches down and closes Finn's eyes that stare at nothing. His eyes are a pale, grey color and his skin is destroyed from where the fog touched it. The imagery calls to mind the way they found Atom, burning to death slowly, painfully, and asking to be killed. Bellamy briefly wonders if Finn had the same terrible fate as Atom, if he had been begging for mercy and death until his last seconds on earth. He decides it's best not to dwell on those thoughts and finally shouts for the others. He stands slowly when he hears footsteps and wishes he could shield Clarke from this, knowing that she wouldn't let up until she could see for herself.

"Finn," she chokes out at the sight of his badly abused body. Her hand moves to her mouth and tears quickly fall down her cheeks, creating a line of clean skin through the dirt. No matter how much she pretended she didn't care for him, no matter how many times she denied him more than a curt conversation, she still loved him. Would probably always love him. He places a hand on her shoulder and watches as the others make a pseudo stretcher out of a piece of wood.

...

The next few days are spent mostly gathering food and sending out crews to search the surrounding area. With the threat of Mount Weather gone and the peace with the Grounders still holding the people of the Ark come alive. No longer are they scared of the dangers of the world, instead they have a fierce curiosity that needs to be quenched.

Raven has spent the last three days in her tent, barely getting out of bed. The news of Finn's death hit her hard, Wick can barely coax food into her.

"Clarke," Bellamy approaches her, she's sitting alone, her head down at a table. "I think we should talk about our next move."

"Our next move? Bellamy, I'm so tired of this. Why can't we just pretend to be normal for two seconds?"

"I think we should leave. Abby is already taking the reigns back and you know as well as I do that none of the delinquents are going to be okay with the way things are going to be. It's going to be just like on the Ark. We know how to handle ourselves out here and none of the kids are going to want to be told what to do with a bunch of the adults strong arming them with rifles."

"So what? We just leave? Maybe the kids need to get over it and accept that this is how it's going to be."

"Do you want to stay here and live by the laws of the Ark? Or would you rather live by our laws? Come with me, I've already talked to the others, even Raven and Wick are going. I need a co-leader, after all. I can't keep these people under control without you. We saw how well that went."

"Yeah," Murphy appears at the seat beside Clarke. "I got hung, remember?" It's meant as a joke and Clarke actually smiles.

"What a simple life we led before." She sighs and straightens up, pushing back away from the table. "When do we leave? Wait.. where do we go?"

"Actually, O and Lincoln are going to take us east. Towards the sea." He smiles sheepishly at her.

"You even got Octavia and Lincoln to agree?" He nods.

"Bellamy here has been working behind your back hoping to guilt you into going by taking everyone with him."

"Are you going, Murphy?"

"Absolutely. I'm not sticking around here with these people. They don't care what happens to me. At least I know where I stand with most of you guys." He raps the table with his knuckles and then walks off.

"So, princess, when can you be ready?"