Responsible for survival

Drinking

Octavia's POV:

I hobble over the threshold of TonDc, splaying fingers against dusky columns if a waning light. The grass is trampled in rows, each veering off towards tilted wooden sheds, many glowing from slight windows with flickering light. A tall flaming bonfire looms in the centre, flames licking the dark sky. Lincoln squeezes my hand and leads me toward a shack in the middle, set back slightly. A penned fence of goats bleat at us, some ramming the gate. Warm metal clangs round the village. Someone, a small someone, looks up at us from stoking the fire. They drop the armful of wood to the ground and leap over it, running to us. A girl wraps her arms round Lincoln. "Lincoln!" she giggles, pushing him back, hands still on his shoulders, warm brown eyes flecked with golden firelight burn. "You should've said you were bringing your girlfriend home." She grins at me, before holding out a small, soft hand. Uncalloused, like all the others here I've seen. "I'm Gaia." I swipe my clammy palm on my jeans before grasping hers. "Octavia." Little dimples shimmer on her cheeks. Her hair is twisted into thick braids, a few streaked white, but most black. She grins again, and pearly teeth shine against her skin. "We know, Lincoln's always talking about you." He coughs, lightly flushing.
"Erm, Gaia, can we go in and talk to Indra?" He asks, talking fast. She looks at him, eyebrows twisting in confusion, head tilted to the side.
"Don't you want everyone to meet Octavia?"
"That's not the concern right now... Please?" He looks at her, gently smiling, pleading almost. She nods, striding quickly towards the shack in the middle. Power radiates from her, grass leaning away to cut a clean path. She pops out again a moment later, a worried Indra behind her. "Lincoln!" she calls, "Octavia!"

We're hurried to a building different to the others, metallic and tall, with narrow doors and frosted port hole windows. "What's wrong?" she asks, sitting me down on a table, pointing at Lincoln to sit next to me.
"We were contacted by Mount Weather." Indra's chin juts down, eyebrows knitting together. "On the radio." She nods, clinging tightly to the table next to me. Her breathing ragged. "They somehow thought we were... one of them... Someone called Sally. The guy got really upset... And then he spoke about a treatment. A treatment that you'd kill this Sally for using." She nods, hands shaking slightly on the table. She stares at me. I don't know how to say the next part. "The treatments used your blood. Your blood in their veins." Indra is properly shaking now, and turning paler by the second. I grab her upper arms as she sways alarmingly.
"They tried to take Gaia." She whispered, "They took Lincoln's father..." I rub my thumb up and down her arm, trying to keep her calm. "For their blood." She frowns, eyes flaming. "We must tell Heda. Lincoln, get Circe to get three horses ready." He nods, casting a lingering glance at me before running out. Indra sits on the table next to me. "I want you to come with us." She says. I blink.
"What?"
"To Polis. I know Lincoln, you didn't let him carry you, even though this walk is 7 hours to your camp. You marched in pain, to tell us something about the maunon. I want you to come with us. You fit in well with our people, Octavia, I would like you truly experience them." She smiles at me. I grin back, unable to keep the excitement from spilling out. I nod, unsure of how to verbalise it.

Lincoln kisses my head when I tell him. "I'll show you everything." He grins, although it fades suddenly. "Someone will need to tell Bellamy." A sharp twist of guilt cuts through my joy. Bellamy. I nod. If I wasn't here when he came looking...
"I'll sort it." Indra smiles, before lifting me onto a horse.

ABBY'S POV:

Thelonius storms back and forth through the office. "The hell are they playing at!?" He yells, I flinch. "They'll kill us all!" I put down the pen, and look at him, words left unfinished for the kit list
"With all due respect, Thelonius, you weren't particularly tactful on how you told them."
"They're criminals Abby!"
"Debatable." I mutter, picking up the pen again, and adding another zero to the amount of blankets needed.
"They don't need to be coddled Abby."
"They're KIDS, Thelonius. WE sent down an EIGHT year old." I deadpan. Thelonius opens and closes his mouth a few times. The door slams against the wall.
"Give the kids a bloody medal." Says Kane, passing me his tablet. "Read it." His eyes glow with a sense of frenzied hope. "SIXTEEN potential ideas already. It's been 20 mintues." He grins widely. I scroll through them. He's sorted them onto a table. Many just remind us of the Exodus ship, and who deserves to go on it. I click the list, scanning through the groupings. Children, young people, doctors, engineers, mechanics, Pike, then all the way at the bottom is the chancellor, below the terminally ill and over 50's is the chancellor. Other ideas involve murder, murder of the terminally ill, the young, the old, the council. Some are good in theory, using the arks reverse propulsion to send us to the ground. Others are single people savers, missiles and a spare two man dropship, the one we'd already used on Raven. I smile at Kane. "We might actually live." I whisper. He hugs me, gently kissing the top of my head.
"You'll see Clarke again."