Lightning Only Strikes Once - Clexa

Chapter 105: Worst Hike Ever

Clarke's first trip across the ice was like a hazy nightmare. Weak from blood loss, numb from not enough layers, trapped and blinded by heavy snow, very little of the first time felt real.

This time she sweats under her layers and she almost thinks she can feel every bead of it. Her injuries from the shrapnel sting and ache with cold. The faces of the others seem almost unbearably vivid. Even the ground under her feet seems more solid than it did last time.

Sadly, this enhanced sense of reality doesn't make the journey any more pleasant.

She wishes Gus was here to help again. Due to the wide and flat shape of the lake, though, he's probably further away than the gona are. A position they originally had him and Zion take deliberately because it was far away from them, to keep them safe Gustus and Zion lured the gonakru across the lake. Clarke's not sure if that's ironic or merely another example of life kicking them while they're down.

She and Raven help each other along as fast as they can, leaning against each other, but with an injured calf and a weak ankle they're not nearly as fast as Clarke would like. Still, their head start is considerable, and the gona are being very careful and therefore reasonably slow – understandable, since by the sheer number of them, they're risking breaking through the ice even without the help of the bombs. Clarke concentrates on moving and breathing, moving and breathing, moving and breathing. She doesn't allow panic in, although she can feel it pressing at the edges of her mind.

They're about a hundred feet from the northern shore of the lake when the first gona reaches her.

He grabs at her arm roughly and makes her stumble and nearly fall. Then he releases her with a cry of pained shock, slumping to the ground, an arrow in his chest. Clarke looks over to see Lexa wielding Costia's bow. Lexa must have restrung it at some point, perhaps before she started carrying Lincoln or perhaps right before starting to shoot. She's let go of Lincoln's stretcher to do it, though, and as Clarke watches she shoots twice more, taking the next two gona in the thigh and stomach respectively.

"Raven," Clarke says hurriedly, "Can you walk yourself, can you -"

"Sure thing," Raven says, face pale and sweaty as she tries to force a smile. "No problem." She pulls away from Clarke and stumbles forwards, smacking to the ground on her hands and knees and crawling instead of walking.

Clarke's ankle aches as she moves back towards the others. She stabs a man about to slice into the prone Lincoln with his sword, then picks up the side of the stretcher Lexa was carrying. "Keep shooting," she yells at Lexa, because there are enough gona now that she has to yell to be heard over the roar of them, and she pulls the stretcher along. After a moment Assan, who put it down to see off a female gona with a berserker roar and a sword to the face, notices what she's doing and picks up his side.

They move as fast as they can. People manage to grab hold of Clarke twice more, and several times she hears Assan's furious roar as he's attacked, but Lexa shoots mechanically as she backs away – arrow after arrow after arrow – and they fall before they can do any damage. They're probably still afraid of killing Clarke and crossing the Azplana, anyway. With their numbers the gona probably think they can easily wear down the party. And Lexa's shots aren't as well-placed as they would be with a knife – she aims for the legs and lower body, injuring more gona than she kills, perhaps worried she'll hit armour if she aims for their chests and miss if she aims for their throats.

Lexa has seven arrows left. Four. Two. They're at the edge of the lake, just. One.

And then the whole world lurches. It's not like the grenade going off, a sharp slash of noise and pain, and it's not like the Mountain's fierce but contained explosion of heat and finality. It's more like Clarke imagines an earthquake would be, except started off with a series of 'bang' noises that seem strangely distant and tinny, like firecrackers going off, gradually getting louder. Then there's sharp cracking noises echoing around the place, the ice giving up against the explosions and the warmth and the weight of people on it.