The End of the World (Bellamy Blake x Reader)

III - The Four Horsemen

"Two meals a day for people working as hard as ours, we won't make any friends," Bellamy snorted, as we started unloading a cart of dried food onto shelves to store them properly. I agreed. Everyone was busting their asses to get the ship fixed, and they deserved to eat a little more, in my opinion. Especially since the majority of them won't make it onto the ship.

Clarke shrugged. "Well, if there's one thing our people understand, it's rationing. Besides, once we close those doors, it'll be one meal a day for the next five years."

Raven stopped her work to look down at us from the ladder. "Try one meal every other day. Hunting parties are coming back with less and less. Thanks to your friend Niylah, we're preserving more meat than ever, but it's still not enough. Without a way to make water, growing our own protein like we did on the Ark is not an option." She glared at Bellamy. "Remember that when we're starving."

"I won't be starving, because I won't be inside," Bellamy grunted.

I scoffed, and Bellamy rolled his eyes. "Like hell you won't. You're going to be in the ship. Isn't he, Clarke?"

Clarke nodded. "Yes. He will."

"Does that mean you made the list?" Raven inquired.

She pursed her lips. "No. What about drinking water?"

"Clarke, don't change the subject! We need to know who's going to be on the inside of these doors when the radiation comes."

Clarke shook her head. "We don't need to know now."

Before the argument could get worse, the PA crackled, and someone announced, "We need some medical help at the front gate. Looks like we got some sick people there."

All four of us rushed to the gate to see what was going on. A line of guards kept the crowd at bay, guns pointed at whoever was outside of the gate, but we pushed past them. My stomach turned over when I saw them. They were Grounders, coughing, sickly yellow, covered in burns. What the hell happened?

"What if it's a Grounder attack like they did with Murphy?" Miller whispered.

I shook my head. "I doubt it, Nate. This is so...different."

Though, I did remember that sickness and it sucked. I thought I was going to die, I thought Bellamy was going to die, and all I tasted was blood for a day. So, yeah, not my favorite memory, but I didn't think this was the same thing.

I stepped closer to Clarke, who'd been conversing with Nyko and Luna. "What happened?"

She shook her head in disbelief, which wasn't much of an answer. I wished I could help, but if Clarke didn't even know what was going on, I was more or less helpless.

"Please," Luna coughed. "Don't turn us away because of what I did to you."

"Out of my way!" Abby called, pushing through the guard line. "Please, let me through."

She crouched down beside the sickly Grounders, her face a mixture of concern and horror. Clarke knelt down beside her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Mom, what is this?"

She sighed. "Fever, lesions, vomiting. It's ARS."

"What's ARS?" I implored, fearing I wouldn't like the answer.

Abby glanced over at me. "Acute radiation sickness."

A lump formed in my throat, and shivers crawled up and down my spine. Not good.

"When did the symptoms start?" Abby asked Luna.

She shook her head. "Not sure. Right before the fish started dying."