Day 21

CHAPTER 9 Clarke

“You sure you’ll be okay for a few hours?” Bellamy asked, examining Clarke’s still-swollen arm with a frown. “I’ll try not to go far, in case—”

“I’m sure,” she interrupted. “Go hunting. It’s fine, I promise.” They were low on food, and when Wells had returned that afternoon to check on Molly and Felix, he’d swallowed his pride and asked Bellamy for help replenishing their supplies.

Bellamy jerked his head toward the sleeping girl on the other side of the cabin. “Promise me you won’t talk to her,” he said. “I don’t trust her alone with you.”

“I’m not alone,” Clarke said. “Molly and Felix are here.”

“Unconscious people don’t count. Just keep your distance, okay? And try to get some rest.”

“I will. I promise.” Clarke tried to keep her voice steady so Bellamy wouldn’t suspect how eager she was for him to leave. But the moment he was gone, she rose onto her knees to peer over at the Earthborn girl.

She was wearing all black, but Clarke didn’t recognize most of the materials. The pants were tight and made out of something smooth and slightly shiny—maybe animal skin?—while the fabric draped over the top of her body looked softer. What was woven animal hair called? Wool? The bulky wrap around her shoulders was unmistakably animal fur. Clarke was desperate to find out what sort of creature it came from. So far, the only mammal she’d seen was a deer; the fur on the girl’s wrap was much thicker and darker.

Across the room, Felix moaned in his sleep. Clarke hurried over and placed her hand against his forehead. His fever was also getting worse. She bit her lip as she thought about what she’d told Wells. It was true that radiation poisoning presented differently; after the nausea and fever came sores, bleeding gums, and hair loss. That’s what had made watching Lilly so terrible. Clarke had known what was in store for her friend before each new wave of suffering.

As she headed back to her own cot, Clarke thought about the pills in the medicine chest. If Felix and Molly’s illness had nothing to do with radiation, the drug would kill them. But if Clarke was wrong, she’d be sentencing them to a long and painful death. The pills had to be administered in the early stages of radiation poisoning.

She sat down and placed her head in her hands, wondering for the umpteenth time why the Council hadn’t bothered talking to her before they sent the hundred to Earth. Yes, she’d been a convicted criminal, but she was also the only person intimately acquainted with her parents’ research.

“So who’s Lilly?” an unfamiliar voice called from the other side of the cabin.

Clarke gasped and jerked her head toward the Earthborn girl, shocked into silence. So she did speak English. She was sitting up now, facing Clarke. Her long black hair was matted but still shiny, and her skin had a warm glow to it that made her eyes appear startlingly green.

“What—what do you—?” Clarke stammered. Then she took a deep breath and forced herself to regain some semblance of composure. “Why do you want to know about Lilly?”

The girl shrugged. “You said that name in your sleep, when you were having the fever dreams.” Her accent and cadence were different from what Clarke was used to, slightly more musical. Hearing it was thrilling, like the first time she had listened to a heartbeat during her medical training. “And then that boy acted so strange when you mentioned her,” the girl added.

“Lilly was a friend of mine, back on the ship,” Clarke said slowly. Did the Earthborns even know about the Colony? A million questions jostled for dominance in Clarke’s brain, one rising to the surface quicker than the others. She decided to start small. “How many of you are there?”

The girl looked thoughtful. “Right now, three hundred and fifty-four. Maybe three hundred and fifty-five if Delphine had her baby. She’s due any day.”

A baby. Would it be born in a hospital? Was it possible they had any functioning equipment from before the Cataclysm? Had the Earthborns rebuilt any of the major cities? “Where do you live?” Clarke asked eagerly.

The girl’s face darkened, and Clarke regretted her lack of tact. She was being kept prisoner; of course she didn’t want to tell Clarke where her friends and family were. “What’s your name?” she asked instead.

“Sasha.”

“I’m Clarke,” she replied, though she had a feeling the girl already knew that. She smiled and rose slowly to her feet. “This is insane. I can’t believe I’m talking to someone from Earth.” Clarke walked across the cabin and sat down next to Sasha. “Did you know there were people living in space? What did you think when you saw us?”

Sasha stared at Clarke for a long moment, as if unsure whether she was being serious. “Well, I didn’t expect you to be so young,” she finally said. “The last ones were much older.”

The words knocked the breath out of Clarke’s chest. The last ones? It couldn’t be. She must have misunderstood. “What do you mean?” she asked. “Are you saying you’ve already met people from the Colony?”

Sasha nodded, sending Clarke’s heart into overdrive. “A group came down about a year ago. We’d always known that people were living in space, but it was still a shock, meeting them face-to-face. Their ship landed badly, just like yours did.” She paused, apparently debating how much to share with Clarke. “The first time, we didn’t know any better, and we tried to help them. We brought them into our—we let them stay with us. We gave them food and shelter, even though their ancestors left ours behind during the Forsakening. My people were willing to put the past behind us in the name of peace and friendship.” An edge had crept into her voice, and she raised her chin slightly, as if defying Clarke to challenge her.

Clarke fought the urge to defend the Colonists, or to ask more questions. In this case, the best way to gain the girl’s trust was probably to remain silent. Sure enough, after a long pause, Sasha continued. “We were foolish to trust them. There was… an incident.” Her face contorted in pain at the memory.

“What happened?” Clarke asked softly.

“It doesn’t matter,” Sasha snapped. “They’re all gone now.”

Clarke sat back, struggling to sort through the staggering information.

Could there really have been a mission to Earth last year? She thought of the debris she had found, the TG logo, and it suddenly seemed possible. But who were these older Colonists on the mission? Why had they sent the hundred, if another mission had already gone before them?

“Do you know… do you know anything about them?” Clarke asked, doing her best to keep her voice neutral. “Did they volunteer to come, or were they forced to?”

“I have no idea,” Sasha said dismissively. “We weren’t exactly spending a lot of time having personal conversations. Not after they…” She trailed off.

Clarke frowned as her brain raced to fill in the rest of the sentence. She couldn’t imagine what the Colonists had done to offend the Earthborns so badly. But it didn’t sound like Sasha was going to tell her much more, and she couldn’t keep this news to herself for another minute.

“I’ll be back,” Clarke said, rising to her feet. “Don’t go anywhere.”

Sasha lifted an eyebrow, extending her legs so that Clarke could see her bound ankles.

Clarke’s cheeks burned with shame. She hurried over to Sasha, knelt down, and began untying the rope. Wells had made the knot extremely complicated—something he’d learned in officer training, no doubt—but she’d spent enough time tying off stitches to figure it out. Sasha flinched when Clarke’s hand first brushed against her, but she didn’t protest.

Clarke unwrapped the final loop and threw it to the ground. “Come on,” she said, offering her hand to Sasha. “Come with me. They’ll never believe me otherwise.”

Sasha stared at Clarke’s hand warily, then stood up unaided. She shook one foot, then the other, wincing as the circulation returned to her feet.

“Let’s go,” Clarke said as she took Sasha’s elbow and guided her outside.