Chapter 8 - Day Trip

                                    

                                          
Myles doesn't know why Clarke insisted she be here for this. Why the blonde and Bellamy continue to persist with making the red haired girl a leader with them. The redhead currently sits beside Clarke in the newly built communications tent, staring at Chancellor Jaha as the council talks to the girls through a video chat. Clarke's mum has been removed from the council, and former chancellor Sydney sits in her place. Clarke has been catching up the council on what has happened the fifteen days they've been on the ground and Myles inputs very little.
                          
It's been two days since she was stabbed by the grounder and they've kept the man in the dropship, Bellamy doesn't want to kill him but feels stuck. The camp has been repaired, the teens having bounced back quickly now they know what they're doing. A new threat plagues the delinquents as winter steadily approaches. 
                          
"Tell me about the grounder," Jaha instructs, his voice smoothly flowing through the headsets the two girls are wearing. "Can he provide any insight on how to survive the winter?"
                          
Blue eyes snap to hazel before the blonde responds, "we're doing everything we can to prepare here. We're gathering nuts and berries, curing meats, digging for roots, using every method we can think of to stock up on food."
                          
"The truth is," Myles speaks lowly, "we'll freeze before we starve."
                          
"There's good news on that front," Councilor Kane informs the two, "according to civil defence plans from before the war, there's an old emergency aid depot not far from the landing site. Here are the coordinates."
                          
Marcus holds up a tablet with the coordinates on it, and the redhead quickly uses her boot to mark out the numbers in the dirt underneath them. Hazel eyes scanning the numbers over and over, trying to memorise it. It's a good thing Clarke is here, the Chancellor continues to talk in the background while the red haired girl ingrains the numbers to her memory. Once Myles is sure she knows it by heart, she swipes over it with her boot to make sure it's unreadable to whoever else may look at it. 
                          
"And what makes you think it's intact?" Clarke asks from beside her, glancing at Myles and the redhead raises her eyebrows. 
                          
"It was designed to withstand nuclear warfare," Marcus explains, leaning forward onto his arms on the table.
                          
Blue eyes meet hazel again as the blonde sighs out, "all right. It's worth a shot."
                          
"Chancellor, I have to object," former Chancellor Sydney calls out and Myles rapidly knocks her boot against Clarke's. The older woman gives the redhead an unsettling feeling in her gut and she tries to silently convey her distrust for the woman to Clarke, "project Exodus is under way. The kids should sit tight in their camp until the first dropship launches."
                          
Confused blue eyes meet alarmed hazel as the Chancellor responds, "even if everything goes without a hitch, the hundred would die from exposure before relief arrives."
                          
The girls look at each other again as the Chancellors words relax them slightly. 
                          
"I'd like a moment with Clarke alone, please," Jaha requests, "and I know there's a line-"
                          
Myles doesn't hear what else Jaha has to say as she places a hand on the blondes shoulder, slipping off the headset and slinking out of the tent. The redhead is restless, and quickly makes her way to the dropship where she knows Bellamy was the last time she saw him. As she passes through the camp, she spies delinquents shaving off ice from the water that's frozen over the seats around camp, their breaths fogging in the cold air in front of them. Her stitches pull uncomfortably at the redheads fast movements, but she doesn't slow down until she walks to the ramp. 
                          
Bellamy is still in the dropship, she can hear him and Octavia arguing on the bottom level. 
                          
"Whatever twisted connection you think you have with that animal," Bellamy spits out, "forget it. You don't get to see him. End of conversation."