Responsible for survival

Voting

CLARKE'S POV

Bellamy's face floats in the shadows of the bed above me. The beds to cold, to big, without him. Steady breath cloaks the room, but mine doesn't. I turn to the right, and stare at the fan, silently spinning round and round. Bellamy's name goes round and round my head.

Monty sees instantly I didn't sleep. He crosses his arms. "Bed. Now." I shake my head, forcing myself to keep going.
"I have to turn up to breakfast, it'd be suspicious if I didn't." He purses his lips, but begrudgingly nods. He scoops an arm under my right. He helps me out the room, taking tiny steps with me. I thought I'd be okay by now. Harper runs after us, and slides next to Monty. She's wearing the pretty skirt. It suits her, the blue. It goes with her eyes. Monty practically tears his eyes from her. I smirk. At least this mountain might make them finally accept that they love each other. Only good that'll come out of it. Her eyes are bloodshot, and red. We slide in the side entrance to the canteen. We search for our friends. Murphy's not here, but Miller is, with Amaya and the other little kids. Harper grins, and hurries us over to them. Jasper and Maya are sat alone on a small circular table, partially obscured by a column. Monty pulls out a chair for Harper, who laughs and gently pushes him into it. I walk round the table to the empty chair next to Miller. "Clarke!" Someone calls. I look wildly around. Maya waves, and I shuffle over. "We'll pull that table over, and we can all sit together." She grins, but there's something to it. The others come over, Amaya clutching Harper's hand and toast. Maya shuffles closer to Jasper, and whispers something in his ear. He swallows, and then fakely grins, shovelling a spoonful of porridge, before whispering something to Monty. The message rapidly meets me. The tannoys off. They don't want us to know when our people are contacting us. I whisper it to Murphy, who'd just joined us. He barks out a laugh. Harper turns the conversation quickly to fashion, asking Maya about how they've been able to keep the clothes in such a good condition. "We didn't keep them?" Maya tilts her head. "Some of them are from before the war obviously, but the majority are what we've made. We make fabrics and then people make clothes out of them." I look at Harper, thinking of how on the Ark everything was made before the cataclysm. And most of it was slowly breaking beyond repair, excluding guard jackets. We'd been sent in mixtures of our own clothes and the ark's spares. The less quality material and pretty ones. But practical. Unless you were Monroe, with a tank top and two jackets. Tank tops aren't that practical in winter. Harper's eyes flood with excitement. "You make clothes?" Maya looks to the boys like we've gone mad.
"Really? But Mr Jaha said it was impossible." Amaya's voice floats. I bite my lip to stop myself laughing at Mr Jaha.
"Impossible in space, where we didn't have the machinery." Murphy explains to her.
"Oh no, we do it mainly by hand." Maya looks confused.
"We had artificial gravity that liked to fail..." Monty laughs, "Any fibres would get caught in the ventilation." Maya nods. A guard looms over Charlotte's shoulder.
"Maya, please can we borrow you for some a hospital briefing. You're going to be late." Maya frowns.
"Why wasn't there an announcement?" she feigns ignorance, as if she didn't know the tannoy was dead.
"Erm.." the guard stutters, looking at us. "A problems been discovered in some of the speakers, faulty wiring, so we've shut he system down to prevent any accidents." Maya stands up, and squeezes Jasper's shoulder as she hurries off. He turns beet red.

ABBY'S POV

"Citizens of the ark." Jaha voice calls over the intercom, five minutes before curfew. "Please hastily return to your rooms. Guards included." People hurry, searching for children and families. When the corridors empty, precisely on curfew, Jaha flicks the switch that locks all the doors. The hammering of hands against doors echoes through the corridors. I roll my eyes. Why did we let him be chancellor? I snatch the head for the intercom.
"My friends," I call, "Calm. We're not killing you. We're saving you." I pause, looking at Kane, who gives me a thumbs up. "The council can't decide the saving of our people alone. We know this isn't something we can chose as a minority, and must instead be chosen by the masses." I pause again. "For that reason we are putting the seats in the dropship to a vote. There are 700 seats on that dropship. Everyone over 10 has their votes to make. You have until the end of curfew to decide. There is no cornea messaging, and anyone seen in the corridors will automatically be removed from the dropship list, and all their votes will be voided." I flick the radio off, and stumble away from it, like it's a monster. Kane grabs me easily, and hugs me, resting his chin on my shoulder. The first few votes flash in.

"Run it again." Amanda commands, eyeing the list in horror.
"We've run it four times."
"We still have to include our votes..." She's desperate now. Her kid made it, she has, but none of her friends and not her husband. Not many of the delinquents are getting their parents either. "Plus, the thirty seats extra if we put the youngest kids on laps..."
"Your husband would make it and so would15 of the delinquent's parents." I nod.
"And we could kick Diana Sydney's supporters off and make it 18." Jaha suggests. His names got three votes. He's not going. There are disabled people with more, old people with more. "Or we could still try the ark it's self?" I share a look with the others.
"We can't. 5% of the population is about 130 people. Out of over 2000." I hiss. "At least if we do it like this it's about 30%."
"And leave the remaining delinquents as Orphans?"
"YOU ALREADY DID THAT!" Amanda bursts out. "20 of them have both parents. 20 have one. The rest are alone. They have no one. But I'll be dammed if I go down without my best friend to be a mum to her kid."

Even with our votes securing some of the delinquents parents, and Amanda's best friend, and kicking Diana Sydney's supporters off, the list still breaks my heart. "Someone's got to radio the kids." Kane says. "They need to know." I nod, the hospital can wait.

"Come in ground station, come in ground station." I call. Come on Raven, Clarke, Bell, anyone.
"Hello?" A deep voice comes through the radio. Bellamy.
"Hi Bellamy, it's Abby. I have bad news." He breathes in sharply.