Responsible for survival

Talking

CLARKE'S POV:

"Heya. Osir souda shish in gonasleng op. Welcome skaikru." Lexa nods at us. "Trikru has formed an alliance with you." The other clans glare at Indra accusingly. "Against our deepest enemy, the mountain men. Your people were taken and we helped get them back. Now, you want to aid us in defeating them." A blonde haired man sighs. "Chit azgeda?" The man looks away. Lexa rolls her eyes. "What can you offer us?" Monroe almost groans at that question again.
"To defeat them?" I stutter. "Guns, warriors, kids. Kids who'll kill for their friends, kids who've played survival since birth. A lot of weapons, different battle tactics... um..." I glance at the group for help. Raven smiles at Lexa.
"We have radio communications, we have medicine and anti-biotics..." The blonde man laughs, and others try to hide it.
"You come from the sky and offer us nothing we don't already have or don't want." The blonde man laughs. I glance at the ground, unsure of how to say something that'll keep us alive.
"The sky is as big of a fight as the ground." Monroe hisses, turning towards him. "His," she nods at Bellamy, "Sister lived under the floor because you couldn't have more than one kid. She," she nods at Raven, "Spent her whole life eating off other people's plates because her dad left and her mum only wanted her ration points. He," she nods at Murphy, "lost his dad because he had the flu, and his dad stole the meds to get him better when he was refused treatment. They floated him, in front of his sick son. His mum turned to alcohol and abuse. He spent every day looking after his next door neighbour's kid. One night when he came home he found his mum in a pool of her own blood and vomit. She hissed it was his fault his dad died, then died herself. The little girl he was friends with saw her die. Her parents were arrested six weeks later, for smuggling water and food to feed the kids in the care centre. Floated, in front of a ten year old and a fifteen year old. Or, what about him," she looks at Miller, "Son of the head guard, surely he'd be privileged. No. Mum died from an outbreak of streps. Dad was never home. He was arrested for stealing food for his boyfriend. OR what about her?" she looks at me. I swallow, and meet the gaze of the blonde man. "Daughter of the highest ranking doctor and female council member on the ship... Dad got floated for knowing the ark was dying. She got arrested for it, and was marched to her father's execution at gun point. Or what about her?" she points and Harper, "Or him?" she points at Monty, "Or me?" The guy shuffles his feet. "Our life was just as hard as yours. We're all kids. There's an EIGHT year old in our camp." Gasps echo round the room. Lexa looks at Indra and smiles, nodding slightly. They've clearly discussed us already. Lexa turns back to us.
"We get it, skaikru. So, who ordered all these 'floatings'?"
"The chancellor." I say, "Father of the boy who died just before our alliance was forged. He's spent the last 3 terms as chancellor. Nine years. He's floated probably around 1500 people in that time. Friends, enemys, us if he could've."
"If he wants you dead, how do you have guns?"
"We were sent without them, without water, without food, without shelter. We were sent with a small bag of basic first aid, bandages and the like. That's it. Raven came down with food, water, the radio, proper medicine. The guns." Lexa tilts her head at Raven.
"You came down later?"
"Yeah." Raven nods. Lexa scans us again, then the 12 people. A thin ginger haired girl stands up.
"What did they teach you? Up there?" She sits down again, slender legs crossing one way, then the other.
"Which of us?" I ask, tilting my head, thinking of all the times Harper had to skip school to run her mum's stall in the exchange, or how Monty stopped going to English at 14, or how Monroe dropped school for the guards, or how Murphy was arrested at 15. The girl looks at me in confusion.
"All of you."
"Well... Other than Bellamy and Raven, we're all in the same year, so same classes until we're 14. Then we split off into what we wanted to do. I did medicine, earth skills, and art, Monty did the sciences and maths, Miller did history, maths, and art. Harper dropped out to help her mum. Bellamy and Monroe joined the guards and Murphy got arrested."
"Earth skills?" the girl leans forward, delicately placing a bony elbow onto her knee.
"Like how to make fires and grow plants and stuff." I shuffle with my shirt as her eyes bore into me. Her gaze flicks to Monroe.
"And the guards? What was that?"
"Peace keeping. Well... training for it... I got kicked out, then two weeks later I got arrested." Monroe twirls her braid round her finger, staring at the floor of the tent.
"What did you do?"
"To get arrested? Or kicked off the guards?" The girl pauses, staring at Monroe.
"Both." Indra calls, leaning forward.
"We trained, with guns and what was legal, and what wasn't. And we were taught how to fight, and how to pin people down, and hold people back. How to turn off our emotions, how to march, how to salute. How to drop and give 20 in a minute... I was kicked off the guards because I refused to fight a kid. Small kid, maybe... 10? At most? They'd been caught stealing from my group leader's stall. We weren't old enough or high ranking enough to write it down... but he wanted justice. I'd knocked the leader's front teeth out three days earlier in training. I got arrested for letting the air out of his room." The silence following her statement is deathly. No one dares breathe. I remember how tight she'd pinned me back, how I'd had bruises on my shoulders. I bet that kid's teeth bled for days. Indra smirks and nods quickly. A new person steps forward, hair silver streaked.
"You, the oldest boy. You are not a child prisoner. Why are you on earth?"
"They put the most important people in my life in a tin can to ground we thought was poisonous. I wasn't losing them all at once." The man arches an eyebrow, and sinks back into his chair.
"So." Lexa leans forward and all the other people sit smartly to attention. "You're all dangerous... We could use new blood in this war. For now, we have an alliance. Clans?" she points the dagger at a role of paper Titus holds up. Indra pulls a small blade from a pocket on her breast plate and slices the back of her finger, and she drips the blood onto the paper. Each of the other clans follow, and all walk out. We are alone, unsure.
"Heda..." Titus whispers, "Is this wise?" he glares at us, and we all know instantly we are meant to be hearing this.
"Sha." Lexa nods, "Skaikru are our allies." She turns to us, chin pointed. "You must all understand the terms of our alliance. For now we are united. When we have eradicated our common enemy, we will choose whethre or not the alliance remains." We nod. Raven raises her hand. Lexa raises an eyebrow and nods.
"How many of your laws can we follow whilst in the alliance?" Raven questions. Murphy snickers and Raven lightly hits him on the back of the head.
"What is funny?" Lexa glares at him.
"Well... Raven may have got very angry at the Chancellor, and said we'd no longer follow his rules, which we weren't doing anyway, if we're honest, and we'd follow yours instead." Murphy smirks.
"Mainly to piss him off." Harper adds, grinning. Lexa smiles slightly before shooing us out of the tent and into the bright sun light.

Octavia's laughter echoes round the clearing and Bellamy's eyes light up, he squeezes my wrist tightly, and I gaze with him, at the huge smile on Octavia's face, at the flow of life in her eyes. Sunlight sparkles on a sudden blush in her cheeks.
"Maybe earth was good for her." He whispers.
"Maybe earth was good for all of us." I murmur, squeezing his hand.

ABBY'S POV:

Jackson runs into the little doctors room as I try once again for a response in Reese Lemkin's left eye. The oxygen deprivation is getting worse by the hour. I wish the rationing wasn't so sharp. "Abby-"
"I'm busy. Okay Reese, can you open your right eye again?" the little girl obliges, opening an eye that instantly responds to the flourscent lights of the doctors surgery.
"It's an emergency council meeting."
"Tell them it's an emergency saving of our kids... Okay Reese, your eyes not going to get better easily. I'm sorry. I can give you an eye patch so you can be a cool pirate." I smile at her, holding out a tiny black patch with silver ribbon ties. She takes it. Tor's shoulder's sag and he squeezes her shoulder. "Are you sure there's nothing we can do?" his voice cracks. I nod.
"If I think of something, I'll tell you..." I smile. Jackson holds open the curtain for them. I am about to beckon the next person in, when he closes the curtains.
"Abby it's an emergency meeting, you're needed."
"I'm needed more here. Tell them if they want me, to bring the meeting here, because there's no way I'm leaving when my waiting room is this crazy." I stride outside, beckoning the next kid forward. Their fingers are purple and wrinkled, and lips are blue. I know before I check there's nothing I can do.

Kane marches into my room first, leading the other councillors. The mother gets very flustered, taking her child's hand to help them off the table. "It's fine." I smile at her. "I'm helping you before them." I squeeze her shoulder, and tilt my head at Kane to entertain the kid for a moment. I pull the woman away and whisper "We can't do anything at the moment, but this meeting should make that easier to find something." A tear dribbles down her cheek.
"I'm going to lose him, aren't I?" she whispers. I don't know what to say. I just pat her shoulder.
"I hope not." Kane flies the kid out like an aeroplane and I smile softly, beckoning in the next kid. Same symptoms, same problems, same answer.
"So, if you're going to do your meeting, get on with it." I call over my shoulder as I press a stethoscope against the kids chest. Their heart hammers, and the BPM is severely fast, desperately trying to pump blood around the body. The kid shuffles on the bench. "You stay. You're priority here." I grin at him.
"OK... Well... we don't have many options." Thelonius begins.
"You said you had a plan." Kane crosses his arms.
"I do. Three."
"Ok sweetheart," I whisper, taking the stethoscope away. "There's not much you can do beyond not do PE for a little while and just relax, yeah?" The kid nods, looking at the council. I press a sticker against his chest, and he runs out.
"Abby, wait a moment. We can't reveal all the options in front of people."
"They can guess what's going on, Thelonius. They're not stupid." I hiss.
"I know. But-" I'm already beckoning in my next patient. Same problems. "Option 1- We use Jake's video." I stop.
"WHAT?" I hiss. The kid recoils. I stride over to Thelonius. "You FLOAT my husband, and now want to use the thing he made to save us." The kid begins coughing and I hurry over.
"We need to tell everyone somehow."
"Using a dead person isn't the way to go about it." I growl. I shake my head at the father. This little kid, four years old, is too far gone. Not enough oxygen, again. I glance at Jackson as the dad begins to sob, before crouching with the kid. "You've a big brave boy today, well done." I pass him the sweets I save for the littlest kids, and give him a sticker. "Have a good day, yeah. Give your dad lots of hugs, yeah?" The kid nods, sucking on the sweet. The dad cries as he walks out. I turn around a glare at Thelonius.
"You FLOATED Jake for that video, and would've done the same to Clarke if she'd have been old enough. You're going nowhere near that video. Next option." The next kid comes in.
"A culling." The kid stops.
"Not you sweetie." I whisper, lifting the little girl up onto the bench. "YOU'RE here to get better. Open your eyes." My voice is bubbly, but inside I'm flaming. As if killing Jake and wanting to use him wasn't enough, not having the wherewithal to NOT mention mass murder in front of a dying six year old is a good quality to have. The kid obliges and I see the same problem, again. Lack of oxygen, the body is shutting down.
"Option 3 is to try and combine 1 and 2." As the kid walks out, I raise my eyebrows at him. A couple of the council members laugh awkwardly. "If you refuse-"
"Refuse to leave the citizens we're trying to protect?" I hiss. "Out. Get out. We will continue this in a few hours when I end my shift." I shoo them out and beckon the next kid in, already knowing the results.