Becoming Air (The 100)

Chapter Nineteen

The world stopped.

"Alrean?"

That voice. His voice. Those eyes. His eyes. His face. His arms. Holding her.

"Carter?" Arlean whispered.

They stared at eachother, lost in the faces of one another.

Lovers, ripped apart. Broken. Shattered. Back together.

"No," Arlean backed away, no longer aware of anything happening in the clearing around them. "You're dead. I saw you die! I watched you die! They told me you died!"

"Arlean," was all Carter could say. "I though I was never going to see you again."

"Me too." She whispered.

He took a step closer and she stayed rooted to the spot.

Then as if an unseen bell had gone off, they both closed the gap between each other and embraced.

"It really is you," Arlean muttered into his shoulder. "All this time, all those years."

"What did they do to you? Why are you here?" Carter pulled back to look at her face.

"I-" she hesitated. "I could ask you the same thing."

Carter started to answer but whistle of a spear, filled his ears and he ducked, dragging Arlean down with him.

"Whose side are you on?" Arlean yelled, facing the camp.

"Now, your's." He answered yanking the spear out of the dirt and turning around. Arlean nodded before she remembered Bellamy. She whirled around, trying to find him and his sister.

Suddenly the drop ship rumbled, which Arlean thought impossible for there was no way for it to take off and the explosion from the rockets beneath would kill them all...

And then it clicked.

They did intend to kill them all, by pulsing the rockets beneath the ship.

"Run!" She screamed at Carter, diving to the side and praying he followed. He did and Arlean raced away from the ship; diving behind the wall and throwing herself down. She pressed her arms over her head and waited.

And she didn't have to wait long.

With a roar, the drop ship shot up a fifteen feet in the air, unleashing a torrent of fire across the clearing. The heat hit Arlean like a lead brick, but she didn't move.

Then the drop ship sank back down, and all was silent.

Arlean slowly stood up, finding Carter beside her. "You good?" He asked and she nodded, staring at the scene that had unfolded before them.

Bodies. Everywhere, lay in ashes, cinders, dead. The remains burnt to a crisp.

Carter followed her gaze. "No," he whispered, walking towards them. "They're dead. They're all dead."

Arlean was confused until she remembered Carter had been living with the grounders. He must've had some kind of connection with them for the two years he was there.

"I'm sorry." She murmured as he stood up from his crouched position.

"They gave me food, shelter and a life for a short period of time. But they weren't my family." Carter met Arlean's eyes. "My family was still on the Ark. My family was you. And now you've come back to me."