Prisoner 138; Till the End of the Earth {The 100} [5]

Chapter 19: Legacy

Bellamy, Clarke, Madi, Raven, Miller and I along with the others were gathered on the bridge, ready to the discus the fate of the human race...again.

"It's gone guys," Bellamy said as Monty and Harper looked out the window at the planet that we once knew as Earth. Bell crossed his arms and turned to face the group. "Like our ancestors on the Ark, we're the last of the human race." 

"Our ancestors were wrong. We're not," Clarke corrected him.

"412 people on this ship. Thanks to Madi, we saved who could be saved. Now it's our job to keep them alive. How do we do that?" Bell asked the room.

Monty came up from behind him and held out a glass container filled with green gew.

"Algae?" I sighed. There is no way I was going back to eating algae three times a day, I think I would rather starve

Murphy expressed most of what we were thinking  when he said, "Oh, float me now."

Shaw, the pilot of the ship and someone who Raven had come pretty close with, raised his hand. "May I?" Bellamy gave him a nod of approval. "From what we know about the half-life of hythylodium, it'll be at least 10 years before the valley comes back. This ship does have a small water recycler and a few weeks' worths of rations but that's it. Cryo is the only option."

Shaw was talking about Cryo-Sleep, which basically means we will all be frozen in these pods where we don't age and it feels like we only took a short nap when in reality it will have been years.

"There are 500 pods," Shaw continued, "which is more than enough for what we need."

"I agree with Shaw," Raven stated, "The tech is amazing, we go to sleep, we don't age, we wake the next morning, it's 10 years later."

The room grew quiet as we all looked to the commander for answers. 

"It's up to you Madi." 

She thought for a minute for nodding slightly. "Okay, guess it's time for bed."

With that, we all headed to the long hallway where the pods were held, changing into a simple pair of black pants and a white shirt. As I sat on a top pod, alone with my thoughts, letting my legs dangle over the side, Bellamy came up to me with a soft expression.

"Hey, kid. How are you doing?" 

I gave him a shrug. "I'm okay I guess." I barely made eye contact as I played with my hands.

"It will get better." He laced our fingers together and pulled my arm close to him. "I know you're in a lot of pain but with time it will go away."

"How do you know that though?" I asked as a few tears fell from my eyes. "I loved him. Like I really really loved him. I know it sounds stupid but I kinda thought Caleb and I were going to be together forever. I know I said hated him and that I never wanted to speak to him again but I kinda figured eventually he would apologize tell me why he did what he did. Why he left in the fighting pit or why he pushed away." I rubbed my nose on the back of my hand.

"Ari, Miller told me about Caleb." I turned my head at starred at Bellamy. "The only reason he did all of that was to protect you. Octavia was threating to kill you, she didn't like how you stood up to her that time in the hall and she was ready to kill you right then but Caleb talked her out of it. As long as you and he stayed apart she would honor the deal."

My heart broke even more as he explained it all to me. "So, I choose to tell the one person in the world that I loved more than anything that I hated him and never wanted him to talk to me again because he was trying to protect me?" I couldn't bear the pain I felt in my chest. It all felt so much worse now. "I'm sorry Bellamy I just don't see how this will ever get better."