I Am The Last Nightblood (the 100)

What's Inside

Clarke's POV

"The end is coming. Hear me as I say it this time. The end is coming, and it's coming soon."

"He gave this speech two weeks before the bombs dropped." Monty cuts in. I nod, attempting to keep my eyes on the screen-the rover bouncing over the landscape doesn't help.

"The world is dark, and getting darker all the time. Everything we once trusted has turned on us-government, religion. Even technology has become a weapon in their hands used to poison our minds. I know you're in pain. I know you're afraid. But it doesn't have to be like this. There is a way out of the darkness. I can show it to you. You can be saved. Join me. Join us, and together when the horsemen come, from the ashes we will rise." I roll my eyes. This is what we're basing all of our information on? A crazy cult leader who coincidentally predicted alie's destruction? I hand the tablet back to Monty, sighing.

"Please tell me you have more then this." I beg.

"In the two years before the bombs, Cadogan sold off most of the Second Dawn's real estate holdings, generating tens of millions of dollars, but there was one thing he didn't sell." Monty hands back the tablet, a new screen up. I skim over the passage as he continues talking. "I found this in his autobiography. It's his childhood home. His father built a bunker there to save his family. I think Cadogan used the church's money to expand it."

"He grew up there. Maybe he kept it for sentimental value." Bellamy crosses.

"I doubt it. His father beat him daily in that house. Not the way something is made sentimental."

"Why keep it if your liquidating everything else?" I wonder. There are too many holes, too much information missing. And too good to be true. How does there just happen to be a bunker made by a cult leader that is within a reasonable distance to us? It doesn't feel real. This feels fake. But we have to try. Just in case.

"Because that bunker is there. It has to be." Monty insists. It better be.

"This guy Cadogan sounds like a religious fanatic to me." Bellamy crosses his arms.

"Maybe," Monty looks up at me, "Or maybe he was just a leader willing to do whatever it took to save his people." I open my mouth to speak, but promptly shut it.

♾

The terrain changes as the sun moves down, and after about an hour of driving through the forest, we come across the ruins of something that looks of a home.

"Cadogan learned how to survive from his father. They hunted in these woods." Monty looks out the window, his brows furrowing. "This has to be it."

"Well if anyone is entitled to a lucky break, we are." I roll my eyes at Bellamy and throw my bag over my shoulder, opening the back door of the rover. I step out into the dusk, the only sound is the trees rustling. It's quiet. too quiet.

"You hear that?" I ask, turning to Monty and Bellamy. They stop, listening, their questioning eyes on me. "No insects. Raven said fish and insects are the first to die off first." They nod, looking around.

"What are the things that eat fish and bugs gonna eat now?" Bellamy asks. I shrug. Not sure I want to know and or find out.

"Monty, what are we looking for?" I ask, slightly annoyed. I want to get this over with and get back.

"The bunker would have been at the lowest point."

"Anything structural." Bellamy concludes. "Be careful." I nod. Bellamy turns and walks over to the ruins of what must be the house, and Monty and I wander closer to the tree line, using our flashlights to look around, specifically on the ground.

Minutes tick by, Monty and I search the ground in silence. His step echos on something solid, and he looks up to me. I jog over to him and kneel, clawing mud and moss away, revealing a symbol. 'From the ashes we will rise' I'm still examining the symbol when Monty calls out to me from far away. I was so focused on the seal I didn't even realize he moved away.

"It's over here." He shouts to me.

"Bellamy! Come here!" I call in the direction of the house. He arrives quickly, running through the brush. Monty waits, standing next to a stone man made opening of some sort in the side of a hill.

"Stay behind me." Bellamy steps in first, shining his flashlight on the walls, clearing the foliage that had grown overtime. There are steps leading down to a big metal door. We make our way down the damp stone slowly, swatting cobwebs and plants as we walk down. Finally we reach the bottom. I dust myself off and shiver. 'I'm gonna be finding cobwebs for the rest of the week.' I think bitterly.

Next to the door, a decomposing skeleton lies, a metal circle with the symbol in his hand. I cringe as Bellamy reaches down and tears it from the skeletons fingers, a loud crack echoing as the bone gives away and breaks. He shines his flashlight on the medallion, reading it. I lean in, curious.

"From the ashes we will rise...not this guy." He lightly jokes. We don't laugh. Monty steps forward, looking at it in Bellamy's hand. It's the same seal as the one Monty stepped on.

"The 11th seal. Their faith was based on 12 seals. Followers could level up by unlocking them one at a time. Only those who reached level 12 could achieve salvation."

"Huh." I huff. "Maybe that's why they didn't let him in."

"I was right." Monty breathes in amazement. He wipes off more cobwebs off of the huge metal door.

"What if they're still in there?" I ask, slightly worried. Bellamy pounds on the door with his fist. We pause, waiting. No one comes to the door. He shines his flashlight on the door, searching.

"There isn't a handle. It's designed to be opened from the inside." I knew it was too good to be true.

"Or by someone with a Rover from the outside." I look to Bellamy, a smirk on his lips.

♾

The rover reves from above, I can hear the tires squealing in protest to the pull. I watch the rope pull against the door. 'This isn't gonna work.' I sigh to myself. Bellamy continues to pull with the rover. Monty's eyes meet mine from the other side of the stone room. I shake my head slowly, looking down, upset.

I knew it was a long shot, but I couldn't help but have hope.

A loud creak from the door sends me as far away from it as I can, watching in astonishment as the door pulls open. I smile, relieved. Bellamy rushes down the stairs-almost slipping-and we all gather around the now open door, peering into the pitch dark. I pull a flare from my backpack and light it, stepping inside.

The red flare was bright enough to see all we needed to.

Hundreds upon hundreds of remains of people lay throughout the room, some hugging each other, some cringing against the walls. My smile drops, and my stomach lurches. I might be sick.

"It wasn't sealed. The radiation would have killed them in days. This won't save anyone."