Defender of Man

Chapter 2: Bioluminescence

We walked a little into the woods before we came across a patch of beautiful purple flowers. I paused and examined them before giggling. "Monty, you see this?" I whispered and he saw what I was pointing at and smiled. Monty and Jasper introduced themselves to me when we first started this little adventure. Monty's parents were gardeners. "That my friend, is game." Jasper said nudging Monty. I looked up and had to hold in my laughter. Finn had put one of the purple flowers in Octavia's hair. "That my friend is Poison Sumac." Monty stated plucking the flower I had been looking at. "What? It is?" I laughed out loud as Octavia began quickly brushing the flower from her hair. "The flowers aren't poisonous, they're medicinal. Calming actually." I stated and Monty hummed in agreement as he bit into one of the flowers. I laughed. "Monty's parents grew all the pharmaceuticals on the Ark. I think Leda is just a nerd." Jasper explained our weird knowledge. "Hey, guys, would you try to keep up?" I looked forward so fast I actually stumbled a little. Luckily, Monty was able to catch me. "Come on, Clarke! How do you block all this out?" Finn asked as Monty and Jasper pulled me back to my feet. "Well, it's simple. I wonder, 'Why haven't we seen any animals?' Maybe it's because there are none. Maybe we've already been exposed to enough radiation to kill us. It sure is pretty though. Come, on." I felt my heart skip a beat in worry about Aleksy. This was a stupid idea. I was stupid to get caught. If she's right he will die before he can even live.

"Someone should slip her some Poison Sumac." Octavia muttered. The boys all snorted but, I was still worried about Aleksy. "Hey, Leda, Bell won't let anything happen to him." I looked up to see everyone had moved on but me and Octavia. "How do you know that?" I asked kicking the dirt as I started walking. She snorted. "Because he didn't let anything happen to me." She stated a I grinned my thanks as we ran to catch up. She joined Finn while I hung back with Monty and Jasper. "I gotta know what you two did to get busted." Finn stated looking back at the boys flanking me. "Sumac is not the only herb in the garden, if you know what I mean. Someone forgot to replace what we took." Jasper stated as him and Monty stopped me from tripping, again. "Someone has apologized like 1,000 times." Monty answered and I snorted. "How about you Octavia, what did they get you for?" Jasper asked. I sighed knowing this story. "Being born." She stated then jogged quietly up to where Clarke had squatted down. "That is so not game." Monty stated and soon he and Jasper where in a small slap fight. I stepped forward quietly as all my studies on earth crossed my mind. She pointed and I looked out to see a buck grazing in a small clearing. "Watch this." I whispered and before they could stop me I stood and treaded softly towards the creature.

"No animals huh?" I heard Finn tease as I carefully closed in on the creature. I was so close that my fingers brushed it's fur when it suddenly jerked up. Someone had stepped on a stick behind me but, that's not what left me jumping backwards and onto the ground. The buck had another face growing from the other side of it's head. We all gasped as it ran away. I shared a terrified look with the others and Monty and Jasper rushed to help me up. "Damn." I muttered to myself more than anyone. We all clambered to our feet and started walking again. It was relatively quiet aside from birds and insects, That is until Finn broke the silence again, "You know what I'd like to know? Why send us down now. Why today ninety years later? What changed?" I started to repond but, Octavia beat me to it. "Who cares? I'm glad they did. I woke up rotting in a cell and now I'm spinning in a forest." She stated looping a hand around a tree and spinning from it. I sighed, I wish it was that simple. "Maybe they found something on a satellite." Jasper offered. "You know like an old weather satellite or-" I decided I had enough of the guesses. "It wasn't a satellite. The Ark is dying." Me and Clarke shared a surprised look as we had said the exact same thing.

"With the current population, there's maybe three months left of life support. Maybe four now that we are gone." She stated as she passed all of us to be in the front again. Finn's head followed her. "So that's the secret, they locked you up to keep. Why they kept you in solitary, floated your old man?" I sighed. Not a good topic Finn. "My father was the engineer who discovered the flaw. He thought the people had a right to know." Clarke stated and I trailed the group not really listening. I swear, it sounds like there is something following us. I listened to the sounds all around us. Birds, insects, the wind. The crunching and slight shaking of branchs I had heard was gone. "They're going to kill more people aren't they?" I tuned in when Monty spoke because he was right in front of me. "Good." We all turned to see Octavia cheerfully jump from a nearby stump. "After what they did to me and what they were going to do to Aleksy I say float them all." She stated sending me a look. My face fell a little. They were going to kill Aleksy for just being born. Just like Octavia.