The Calm

Elara and Nova sat in silence at the West wall, watching for grounders. After about ten minutes, Elara decides to speak to her friend. "Are you sure you're ok? With your dad dying?"

Nova sighs, "Lara, I'm fine. He sent me down here to die anyway. Why should I be upset that he's gone? My concern is not my father's death. It's making sure the rest of us survive and the Grounders are taken care of."

"Taken care of? You mean killed."

"Well yeah, if that's what it comes to. I'd rather have them die then us."

Elara shakes her head, "We're not warriors, Nov."

"And we're not negotiators either, yet we were just trying that the other day."

"There is absolutely no arguing with you, is there?"

"I'm not trying to argue, I'm stating the truth."

"You say that you're stating facts and you're not a negotiator but you don't know all of the sides, and you literally studied to become leader on the Ark. I'm pretty sure that takes some negotiating and learning both sides."

Nova glances at Elara, "Do you mean to talk with the Grounders again to try and see their side of things? Because I don't think that will work considering they kept trying to put all the blame on us last time."

Nova pauses as she looks out to the forest before her. "Look," She continues, "I get that we're not perfect either and we made mistakes that if we didn't we may have been better off now. But we can't change what we did in the past. The Grounders killed our friends. And they weren't taking any of the blame. We need to do whatever it takes to survive. Warriors or not."

Before either of them can say more, one of the guys in camp calls out, "Woah! Guys, fire!"

"Go see what it is. I'll stay on post." Elara says.

Nova gives a quick nod before taking off to the commotion. "This is all your fault! We told you it was too much wood." Murphy yells, running towards Del and throwing a punch.

"Woah, woah, woah! Back up both of you!" Nova screams, running in between the two delinquents.

"Seriously, save it for the Grounders." Bellamy says, stepping up beside Nova.

"Well, now what the hell are we gonna do? That was all the food." Octavia announces.

*_*_*_*_*_*

Clarke, Bellamy, and Nova step into the charred remains of the smokehouse. "Any idea what happened?" Clarke asks.

"Murphy says that Del kept feeding the fire, mostly because Octavia told him it was a bad idea." Bellamy answers.

"And we believe Murphy?"

"I do."

"The only reason I believe him is because Octavia said the same thing." Nova replies.

"We have some wild onions and nuts in the dropship." Clarke begins, "It's only enough to last us maybe one or two weeks. What's left here?"

"Nothing. It all burned." Bellamy states.

"We're going to have to hunt. We won't be able to defend ourselves if we're starving." Nova immediately says.

"Anyone we can spare goes out." Clarke continues, agreeing with Nova.

Once the three step out they call for the attention of their fellow delinquents. "Each group takes someone with a gun, and they're for killing Grounders, not food. We don't have the ammo. Use the spears for hunting. Get what you can. Be back by nightfall. No one stays out after dark." Bellamy announces to the group.

"Miller, want to go out with Lara and I?" Nova asks the boy.

"Are you the one carrying a gun?" Miller asks.

"If you want me to, I can, but I figured you could use the gun and Lara and I could use our bows for hunting."

Miller nods, "Give me a minute to get my pack."

*_*_*_*_*_*

Once outside the walls the group of three stayed quiet as they tried to track some animals, any animal.

"I always hated learning tracking in Earth Skills. Now I wish I paid more attention." Nova mumbled quietly, squatting down to look in the dirt.

"Let me. I was actually pretty decent at Earth Skills. I mean, I'm no Finn, but I can track an animal or two." Miller says as he squats beside Nova.

After a brief moment Miller nods his head to the left, "That way." The three delinquents keep an eye out for Grounders and animals as they follow the tracks down to a river.

"Looks like we're getting two headed deer. I really hope this is safe to eat." Elara says as she raises her bow and shoots.

The deer falls with a quiet thud. "Good tracking, Miller. That will feed us for a bit. Especially if the other groups come back with good finds." Nova nods to the boy.

"Let's see if we can find any fish while we're by the river. Maybe we can bring back some more food." Miller replies.

"Good thinking." The group, plus the dead deer, move to a slightly deeper part of the river.

Miller keeps his eyes and ears peeled for Grounders while Nova and Elara stand still in the water, waiting for fish to swim closely by. After about 25 minutes the girls have collected about five fish each.

"This should be good for today. It will be dark soon, let's head back." Nova says.

The other two nod in agreement as they collect their kills and start their journey back to camp.

*_*_*_*_*_*

Walking back into camp and placing their kills in the new smokehouse, Elara walks out to check around camp for any possible injuries that occurred while she was away.

While Elara makes her rounds, Miller and Nova move to find Bellamy. "Bell! We just got back, and found a deer and ten fish." Miller informs.

"Ok, good. You guys were cutting it close to curfew. Had me a bit worried." Bellamy replies.

"Please, I think we were the most capable group out there. It was the others you should have worried about. Everyone's back, right?" Nova asks the older boy.

"We're still waiting for Clarke, Finn, and Myles." Bellamy answers.

"The sun just went down. They're not back yet?"

"No. Miller, go take over watch on the South wall." Miller nods and walks away. "I think I'm going to get a small group together to look for them."

Nova bites her lip, "You sure you want to risk it in the dark?"

"We don't have much of a choice. Clarke isn't just one of our medics, she's taken over a bit of a leadership role too. And Finn is our best tracker, we need him."

"Plus Myles is one of the few guys with decent aim. Yeah, I get it, I just don't like it."

"Me either. But we need to look out for ourselves."

"Take Elara, they may need medical attention." Nova says.

"You're not coming?" Bellamy asks, shocked that the girl is offering to stay behind.

"I promised I would continue some combat and weapons training. With the Grounders possibly striking any day now I need everyone to be at the top of their game. "

"You want to do that at night?" Bellamy raises an eyebrow.

"We don't know when they are planning on attacking, it could benefit us to train with low light."

"Makes sense. I'll let you get to it then."

Nova nods, "And Bellamy? If anything happens to Elara, I'm killing you."

*_*_*_*_*_*

"Hey, I feel like we haven't gotten the chance to talk recently." Atlas calls out to Elara.

"Sorry, with everything going on..." She trails off.

"Nah, I get it. Are you busy now?"

"Um, no. Everything seems to be alright around here."

"Great, could we talk then?"

Elara gives him a weird look, "Yeah, sure. What did you want to talk about?"

"Well, I don't remember much, but I vaguely remember asking about us when I was high on those Jobi nuts. I guess I just wanted to talk to you about it." Atlas rubs the back of his neck, clearly unsure of how to start this conversation.

"Oh, well. I didn't realize there was more that we had to talk about. I mean, I didn't really think much of it. You were high after all."

"Yeah, but after being down here with you I realized how much I miss you. I know we broke up because I got arrested, it was definitely the right thing to do considering I thought I was going to die but..."

Atlas sighs before he continues, "I kinda regret breaking up with you. You're an amazing person Elara. I was so lucky to be able to call you mine and I never stopped loving you. I guess I'm just wondering if I'll ever have a chance with you again?"

Elara bites her lip, looking up to the stars as she thinks. "Everything feels so different down here. I honestly don't know what's going to happen tomorrow or hell even within the next hour."

She takes a breath and turns to look Atlas in the eye, "What I do know is that I never stopped loving you either. You always meant so much to me, but you also hurt me when you broke up with me. I understand why you did it, but that doesn't mean I had an easy time with the break up."

"I can see us possibly working out in the future, but for now I think it's best that we stay friends.

Atlas nods and opens his mouth to respond, but before any words come out, a new voice is heard. "Elara! We need your help."

"Be right there!" Elara calls then turns back to Atlas, "I gotta go, we can talk more later." She smiles before standing up and making her way to the group gathered by the gates.

"What did you need?" Elara asks Bellamy, taking note of her bow and arrows in his hand.

Bellamy hands her the weapon, "Clarke, Finn, and Myles still aren't back yet. We're going out to look for them and Nova said to bring you incase they need a medic."

"Alright, then let's go."

*_*_*_*_*_*

Nova stood to the side, watching as three delinquents practiced knife throwing. Whenever she felt like someone needed help, she went over and gave them tips on adjusting their throw and balance.

She was happy with the improvements the group has made with the thought that maybe we will survive running through her head.

After watching them practice for a while and slowly not being able to find any more mistakes, she moved on to the next group. This group, one of which was Harper, were practicing with spears.

"Good shot Harper, just watch your balance. You want to make sure your footing is even so you don't tip over with the power of the throw." Nova says as she walks over to adjust the girl's footing.

"Thanks, I felt like something was off." Harper replies, smiling at Nova.

Nova nods, "How are you feeling about a possible war?"

"Nervous, I know a war means we'll lose more people. I don't want to lose anyone. I don't want to die."

Nova gives her a sad smile, "We're just going to have to come up with a plan so we keep as many of our people alive as possible." Harper smiles then turns back to practicing with the spear.

*_*_*_*_*_*

"Where are they?" Raven asks Octavia and Elara.

"We'll find them." Octavia replies without hesitation.

Through the radio, Monty's voice can be heard, "I thought you said you were heading west. Where are you?"

"Just keep the moon to your left, and you'll find us." Bellamy answers.

"This morning, all I could think about was how much easier this would all be if Finn was just gone." Raven sighs.

"Don't blame yourself, Raven. It isn't your fault." Elara says, resting a comforting hand on the older girl's shoulder.

Monty's voice is heard once more, "Is anyone else hearing this signal? I think it's the same thing we heard in the black box."

"Damn it, Monty, pay attention." Bellamy scolds, "Do you see anything? Report."

Monty doesn't answer, instead Raven does, "Oh my God. There's someone in the bushes."

"Myles?" Octavia and Elara say when they see the boy on the ground.

"Hey, what happened? Where's Clarke and Finn?" Elara asks the injured boy. She's more focused on his wounds then his answer though.

"Grounders took them." Myles replies.

"Take it easy." Bellamy tells Myles, "We have to get him back to camp."

"Bell, what about Clarke and Finn?" Raven asks.

"Raven, I'm sorry."

"We need to make a stretcher, we can't carry him back with his injuries." Elara says.

The girls nod as they start gathering supplies for a stretcher. Elara stays behind to make sure Myles isn't bleeding too bad. She listens in as Bellamy radios Monty, "Monty, we're heading home. You copy?"

There's a brief pause before he continues, "Monty, can you hear me?" Again, no answer. "Monty, where the hell are you?"

The group looks at each other in shock, concerned that the Grounders may have captured another one of their group.