02. the one where we're all going to die

9K 169 129
                                    

I felt myself shiver as another crack of thunder sounded from outside of the Ark, the sky momentarily illuminating under another sheet of lightning. 

"We've been at this for two days." Bellamy announced to the group of us sat in the technology room, "There must be something we're not thinking of."

Two days ago, after mine and Bellamy's blissful reunion, he had unwillingly revealed to me the thing that had Raven so preoccupied the last few days...we were all going to die. 

Nuclear reactor plants were currently melting down, and within six months the Earth would be so riddled by radiation, it would be uninhabitable. 

Thus, here we were, once again trying to figure out a way that prevented all of us from dying. 

"What if we could reach the nearest reactor?" he questioned, his eyes scanning one of the many planning boards set up across the room.

"I told you," Raven sighed from where she sat, propped up against one of the tables. "The meltdown started months ago, there's no magic button to turn them off." She pushed herself up, looking down at one of the screens in front of her. "Today, this isn't black rain, but it will be soon. That's why we have to focus on riding out the radiation, finding someplace safe and big enough to hold all 500 of us."

"What about all the Grounders?" I questioned, looking up at the group from the chair I had been confined to. "Is there a way we can save everyone?"

Clarke turned around, her eyes no longer focused on the outside where they had been for the past five minutes. "Avery's right." she agreed. "This isn't just about saving us. I made a promise to Roan, a promise that we would save everyone."

Raven let out an exasperated sigh. "That's why we need to tell everyone. Crowdsource it....If there's another Mount Weather out there, the Grounders will know about it."

"You think they're just going to tell us? Just like that?" Bellamy voiced the obvious concern. "We tell everyone they're all going to die, the coalition is over, Roan falls, and the Grounders will be at our gate."

"Then just tell out people. We need more minds on this." Raven suggested. "On the Ark, people volunteered for the Culling because they were told the truth and given a choice." She then turned to Clarke. "A choice your dad died for."

Clarke took an angry step forward, "You think I've forgotten that."

"Okay," I interceded, pushing myself from the chair in an attempt to stop this conversation from getting ugly. "We'll tell everyone the truth as soon as we have a viable solution. If we tell them without one, all hell breaks loose."

"You don't know that." Raven argued. 

"That's it!" Monty exclaimed, speaking for the first time in a while. He had a manic look on his face, like his mind was racing a million miles a minute.

Clarke scowled. "What are you talking about?"

"Think!" he prodded, "Alpha station survived for 97 years in space through elevated radiation levels and extreme temperature fluctuations. Sound familiar? All we have to do is patch up the ship." he looked to all of us with an excited smile. "We're standing in our viable solution."

A huge smile broke onto my face as we all glanced around. "Monty, you genius!"

---

An hour later, a group of us stood in the hangar bay, prepping for one of the first tasks in creating our viable solution. 

The first step was retrieving the hydro-generator from Farm Station. Evidently, I was not going to be partaking in this retrieval, much to my dismay. My task would instead be to stay back in Arkadia and help Raven with beginning to prepare the ship.

𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍─𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐤𝐞²Where stories live. Discover now