xv. atomic fever
i am become death

SAWYER'S HEART thudded in her chest as she rushed through the entrance of the dropship. Clarke ran ahead, not too far from of her, while Derek and Connor hobbled in behind them. With the realization that Murphy possibly brought an illness into camp, they needed know the truth about what happened with him and the Grounders. After all, people do not start to bleed from their eyes and cough up blood for no reason.

At the sound of retching, Sawyer froze halfway across the lowest level. Her stare fell on Murphy, who rested on his hands and knees and vomited thick, red blood onto the floor. Not only did he bring an illness into camp, he contracted it himself.

Clarke moved over to the boy and knelt next to him. "Murphy, hey, look at me." Murphy coughed, pushing himself back to lean against the closest wall. "I need you to tell me exactly how you escaped from the Grounders? What happened?"

Murphy sniffed and looked toward the blonde. "I don't know. I woke up, and they forgot to lock my cage. There was no one there, so I took off."

Sawyer sighed as his statement reached her ears. "You didn't escaped," she said, drawing his attention.

Clarke fell back to sit down on the floor. "They let you go."

Their conversation halted when Bellamy shoved his way into the dropship. His rifle still hung at his side. He moved closer to the girls, but they both raised their arms.

"Bellamy, don't," Sawyer exclaimed at the same time as Clarke.

"Bellamy, stay back."

Bellamy stopped short and flicked his gaze between them with narrowed eyes. "Did he do something to you?" Both of them shook their heads. "What the hell is this?"

Sawyer huffed, lifting a hand to rub at her sweat covered forehead. "No idea."

"Biological warfare," Clarke stated as her breathing grew deeper. She looked to the eldest Blake. "You were waiting for the Grounders to retaliate for the bridge? This is it. Murphy is the weapon."

Bellamy snapped to Murphy. His expression hardened. "Is this your revenge, helping the Grounders kill us?"

Murphy shook his head and croaked out, "I didn't know about this, okay? I swear."

"Stop lying," Bellamy shouted. "When are they coming?"

Sawyer stepped forward to where Murphy sat. She did not kneel at his side like Clarke, but her movement forced his gaze to shift to her. "John, think. Do you remember anything that can help us? Did you hear anything? See anything?"

Tears gathered in Murphy's swollen eyes. "They are vicious – cruel."

"You want to see vicious?" Bellamy took a threatening step forward, only to be stopped by Sawyer.

"Don't," Sawyer told him. "You could catch this thing."

Clarke nodded. "Whatever this thing is, it spreads through contact."

Sawyer pursed her lips at that. She might not have touched Murphy directly, but she could have touched something Derek and Connor did. They were the ones who carried him into camp.

"Clarke?" Finn's voice erupted throughout the level as he ran into the dropship.

Clarke looked to the boy and held up a hand. "Finn, you shouldn't be in here. No one should."

Finn's brows furrowed in concern. "I heard you were sick." He glanced from Clarke to Murphy and to the two boys slumped on the floor across the space. "Clarke, what is this?"

Clarke shook her head. "I don't know. Some kind of hemorrhagic fever. We just need to contain it before..." she trailed off when Derek hunched over and began to cough in a violent manner.

Sawyer turned to watch the boy fall onto his hands and knees, vomiting blood onto the floor. He retched a large puddle of red, before he dropped onto his side as spasms rocked his body.

Clarke climbed up from beside Murphy to stand, wobbling a bit on her feet when she moved for Derek. Finn reached out to steady her, but she pushed him away. "Hey, don't touch me! You could get sick. Wash your hands, now."

Sawyer kept her stare on Derek, watching as he continued to shake violently. "What's happening to him?" she questioned.

"I don't know," Clarke said and crouched next to the boy.

Derek coughed and vomited more blood until his body stilled.

"Is he..." Bellamy started to ask.

Clarke held a hand to Derek's neck and then pulled back with a long breath. "He's dead."

Sawyer felt bile rise in the back of her throat. Of course she experienced death throughout her life, several times since they landed on Earth, but none of them were as horrific as what she just witnessed.

Clarke removed her hand from Derek and rocketed up to her feet. She rushed to where a canister of Monty's moonshine sat on a nearby table. "Here." She grabbed it, unscrewing the lid, and stepped toward Finn. "Alcohol. Hold out your hands."

Finn did as he was told, letting Clarke pour the alcohol onto his hands. "What do we do?" he asked when she finished.

"Quarantine," Clarke said as she set the moonshine canister down. "Round up everyone who had contact with Murphy. Bring them here."

"And everyone they had contact with?" Bellamy questioned.

"Well, we have to start somewhere," Clarke breathed, before she turned her sole attention to Sawyer. "Who was with you when you found him? Who carried him in?"

Sawyer thought back to almost ten hours earlier when they spotted Murphy outside the camp walls. "Uh, Derek and Connor carried him in, but Octavia and I were the first ones there."

Bellamy's eyes widened.

_______

As soon as his sister's name was mentioned, Bellamy fled the dropship in search of Octavia. With the discovery of the strange illness and its deadly repercussions, he wanted to find her and make sure she did not begin to exhibit symptoms. Symptoms Clarke identified as uncontrollable bleeding in the body. People could cough up blood, have nose bleeds, or even bleed from the eyes and ears. A kind of hemorrhagic fever, she called it.

To their dismay, the illness spread faster than they could imagine. People who were not even around when Murphy had been dragged into camp started to show symptoms. The outbreak forced Clarke to issue a quarantine for those who touched Murphy, those who touched them, and so on. All of them would have to stay inside the dropship until they figured out what the illness was and how to cure it.

And as much as she did not like it, that included Sawyer. So far, she failed to show any symptoms, except for a fever. She counted herself lucky. Some were laid out on mattresses made from animal furs and dropship insulation, vomiting blood by the bucketful. She hoped she did not progress that far.

Bellamy brought Octavia to the dropship shortly after the first influx of delinquents hobbled, or were even carried, inside. Clarke confirmed that the youngest Blake did not look to have the illness, but she needed to stay with all of those exposed. In truth, she wanted Octavia to sneak out of camp to see her Grounder boyfriend. (The same one who escaped, or was more so released, the day everyone hallucinated on bad nuts.) To ask him if there was a cure for the hemorrhagic fever.

Sawyer thought the task was a long shot, but she figured they needed all the help they could get. After Derek's death, several other delinquents collapsed in a pool of their own blood and their hearts stopped. If they did not think of something soon, she feared that more would follow.

A crowd formed outside the dropship as another person died. Sawyer stood on the structure's lowered hatch, watching as two boys carried the body of a girl out to the edge of camp. They would bury her beside the others who died in the last few hours. She hated every minute of it. Her people were dying, and she could not do anything to help them.

Clarke held an expression similar to her own as they observed the dark scene. Blank and emotionless.

"Alright," Bellamy shouted from where he stood in the center of camp, a gun still hung at his side. "Show's over. Get back to your posts."

Everyone jumped at the sound of his voice. Their stares turned away from the scene, and they started to leave to fulfill their tasks for the day.

Sawyer would have done the same, but her throat burned too much for her to yell.

Bellamy shifted his attention to the two girls still on the dropship hatch. "You got enough food in there? Water?"

"Yeah," Clarke breathed. Her skin paler than earlier, while dried blood coated her cheeks. "Some medicine might be nice," she quipped, forcing a light grin onto her lips.

Bellamy smiled in return. "I'll see what I can do." His voice rose as he called out, "Octavia, you okay?"

Silence answered him.

Sawyer winced. Octavia left hours earlier to talk with her Grounder, Lincoln, and had not come back. She knew that Bellamy would be pissed when he found out, but someone needed to tell him. If not, he would storm the dropship and expose himself to the illness.

As if on cue, Bellamy started for the entrance until Clarke stopped him.

"Bellamy, wait. She's not here," Clarke stated, bringing the eldest Blake to a stop. "I sent her to see Lincoln."

Bellamy's expression fell and his stare narrowed.

Sawyer sighed, before she said in a hoarse tone, "don't have a conniption. He might have a cure, and you weren't gonna let her go."

Bellamy clenched his jaw and raised a hand to pointed toward them. "If anything happens to her, both of you and me are gonna have problems."

Sawyer rolled her eyes, while Clarke released a long breath.

"Bellamy," Clarke shouted after the man, but he pivoted on his heel and strode off through camp. "Bellamy!"

"He's not gonna listen," Sawyer stated, lifting a hand to swipe at the sweat that began to build across her forehead. She followed Bellamy as he continued through camp, before he stopped in front of a boy. One whose eyes began to bleed.

"Get to the dropship. Now," Bellamy demanded.

When a commotion erupted a couple yards away from the man, Sawyer looked in time to see Fox collapse into a boy's arms. His heroics gained him blood coughed onto his face. All hell broke loose soon after. Everyone began to shout and scream, not wanting to catch the deadly illness, while others aimed their rifles, ready to shoot those infected if they got too close.

Sawyer scoffed at the pure chaos. She should have expected it sooner. Everyone was already on edge because of a potential war with the Grounders. Add an illness that could lead to a gruesome, bloody death, and they were poised to explode.

Clarke huffed, spinning on her heel to head into the dropship. Sawyer stared after her with furrowed brows until she returned with a rifle in hand. Clarke stepped down the hatch and aimed the barrel toward the sky. She squeezed the trigger. Loud bangs ripped through the air, causing the entire camp to fall quiet and turn to where they originated.

Sawyer hummed. Totally impressed.

"This is exactly what the Grounders want," Clarke told them all. "Don't you see that? They don't have to kill us if we kill each other, first."

Sawyer nodded. She had a point. The Grounders would not have to wipe them out if they did it to themselves.

A boy moved forward in the crowd with his gun held up, shifting it between Sawyer and Clarke. "They won't have to kill us if we all catch the virus. Get back in the damn dropship!"

Before he could say more, Bellamy stormed for the boy and snatched the gun from his hands. He slammed his elbow into the boy's chin, forcing him to stumble back and clutch his face. Bellamy looked to Clarke and said, "not to state the obvious, but your quarantine isn't working."

Sawyer would have given a sarcastic reply, but a cough rocketed up her throat and expelled through her lips. Her chest heaved as she raised a hand to her mouth. More coughs caused her body to shudder. She pulled her hand away when they calmed and found blood all over her palm and fingers.

Shit.

In the same moment, Clarke wavered on her feet. Her gun fell from her hand as her knees collapsed. Sawyer could not move fast enough to grab her, but Finn did.

"Finn, don't touch her!" Raven shouted from somewhere among the crowd.

Despite her warning, Finn caught Clarke before she hit the ground and lifted her into his arms.

Clarke breathed heavily as she rested against the Collins boy's chest. "Hey, let me go. I'm okay."

"No, you're not," Finn said.

Clarke huffed. "Octavia will come back with a cure."

"There is no cure."

Sawyer snapped to where Octavia shoved her way through the crowd. She lowered her arm, while blood remained on her lips.

"But the Grounders don't use the sickness to kill," Octavia voiced loud enough for everyone to hear.

Bellamy whirled to face his sister with a glare. "Really? Tell that to them." He pointed to where several bodies were laid beside the dropship, not yet moved outside their walls. "I warned you about seeing that Grounder, again."

Octavia stared at her brother and then retorted, "yeah? Well, I have a warning for you, too. The Grounders are coming – and they're attacking at first light."

Frightened murmurs and sharp gasps filled the camp. Sawyer wanted calm their worries about the Grounders, but she knew that would never happen. Not with war on the horizon, or more so the sunrise. Her people were scared. They had a right to be.

Octavia moved forward in the direction of the dropship, but she was stopped when Bellamy reached out and grabbed her arm. She shot him a narrowed look, before she tore out of his grasp and continued on her intended path. "Come on. I'll help you get Clarke into the dropship."

Sawyer turned to follow after them until her head grew light and her vision swirled. The next instant, her balance wavered and her legs buckled. She fell toward the angled hatch, banging her knees on the hard metal. "Damnit," she hissed, holding herself by her hands.

"Sawyer." Octavia rushed to the Wesley girl's side.

Sawyer coughed, splattering blood onto the hatch below her.

Octavia wrapped her arms around Sawyer and pulled her up under her arms. She heaved her up onto her feet and dragged her into the dropship. Sawyer's coughs deepened as her entire body shook. Her surroundings blurred together, but she could tell Octavia set her down onto one of the makeshift mattresses placed throughout the lowest level when she spotted the grey ceiling hung over her head.

Sawyer's throat burned as blood bubbled up from her stomach. She gagged, red liquid dribbling down her cheeks from the corners of her mouth. She felt herself rolled onto her side. It helped her expel the blood between her lips. Sawyer wheezed as her chest felt as though it weighted a thousand pounds. Her heart thudded too fast and everything hurt.

Sawyer could tell that Octavia knelt next to her, although she did not care. At least, not right then. Nothing mattered. Not when she felt like her body would dissolve into a pool of hot, sticky blood. She tried her hardest to keep her eyes open, staring up at the ceiling above her or Octavia at her side, but a sudden drowsiness took hold and dragged her into an empty, dreamless sleep.

_______

By the time Sawyer woke, the number of sick people in the dropship doubled. A sharp, metallic tinge filled the air, forcing her nose to scrunch when it wafted into her nose. She groaned, reaching out to push herself up from the blood-soaked mattress. Her head still felt light, but she ignored it and moved into a sitting position. Sawyer shifted her gaze around the level. Several delinquents were passed out, while others spewed blood all over themselves.

Bellamy's comment from earlier popped into her mind. Someone could get sick just by stepping foot in there.

"Here."

Sawyer turned when a voice sounded to her right. Anger flooded her system, spotting Murphy, whose face still looked terrible, crouched beside her with a cup in hand. He held it out toward her, but she simply stared at him in return.

Murphy sighed. "Sawyer, just take the water. You're sick. I'm just trying to help."

Sawyer's eyes narrowed. "Help? You don't help anyone but yourself," she exclaimed, but she reached out and snatched the cup from his hand. She raised the rim to her lips and downed the cool liquid, letting it soothe her raw throat.

"Believe me or not, but you need to stay hydrated," Murphy told her.

Sawyer lowered the cup and handed it back to him. "Don't think that just because you're helping around here that it changes anything. You still betrayed me."

Murphy nodded. "I know."

Sawyer stared at him for a long moment. She did not want to talk to Murphy. Not when she would have to force him to leave camp whenever he recovered from the Grounders' torture. More importantly, she did not want him to weasel his way back into her good graces. He managed to get her to forgive him a lot over the years, but now, it was different. Now, they were on Earth, fighting against an enemy they failed to understand. They could not afford to have him around with all of their lives at stake.

But if he really did help take care of everyone who got sick, then maybe Sawyer could find it in her heart to ease up on him. Let him try to earn a second chance.

Of course, not without speaking with Clarke and Bellamy.

"Thanks for the water," Sawyer grumbled. Her stare drifted across the level to where her co-leaders sat on a ruined mattress a few feet away. She guessed Bellamy contracted the illness. Sawyer did not give Murphy another glance as she stumbled up to her feet and over to the due. Her presence captured their attention. She could not help but notice their pale skin and the dried blood smeared around her lips and noses. "You both look like shit," she quipped and dropped down beside them.

Bellamy scoffed. "Like you look any better."

Sawyer pressed her lips together, while a small grin formed. "Touché."

"You feeling better?" Clarke questioned, glancing toward the brunette.

Sawyer shrugged. "At least I'm not throwing my guts up, anymore."

Clarke nodded. "That's good."

"Yeah."

After a beat, Bellamy voiced, "It's almost dawn. Better get everyone inside." The girls' gazes landed on him. "If we lock the doors, maybe the Grounders will think we're not home."

Sawyer almost groaned. She forgot that the Grounders were supposed to attack at sunrise.

"Not everyone is sick," Clarke said.

"Sick is better than dead," Bellamy replied.

Sawyer nodded in agreement. "Doubt it'll work, but it's worth a shot."

Clarke flicked her stare between them. "You don't think Finn and Jasper are gonna pull it off."

Sawyer's brows furrowed. "Pull what off? Did I miss something?"

Bellamy looked to her and said, "Raven put together a bomb with the rest of the gunpowder. Finn and Jasper are supposed to blow up the bridge so the Grounders can't reach us."

Sawyer's eyes widened and snapped from him to Clarke. "Are you two insane? You left Finn and Jasper in charge of blowing up a damn bridge?"

Both of them fell silent.

"I'll get everyone inside," Clarke stated and stood to her feet.

_______

All too soon, the sky lightened into a pale blue as the sun began to rise over the camp. Sawyer helped Clarke and Bellamy round up everyone and tell them to hunker down inside the dropship. She did not think the plan would work, especially if Finn and Jasper failed to blow up the bridge, but they needed to try.

Those who were still healthy tied large cloths around their noses and mouths in a way to not contract the illness. Sawyer hoped their efforts were successful. They already lost too many. They did not need to lose any more.

Sawyer stood next to the dropship's entrance with Clarke and Bellamy, making sure everyone shuffled inside before the Grounders attacked. She did not want to leave anyone to the mercy of the vicious people.

A massive explosion shot through camp before all of them could file into the dropship. Sawyer whirled in the direction of the sound and saw a dark mushroom cloud billowed toward the sky. At least, that was what they called it when they talked about war and how the world ended. Despite the bad connotation it held, Sawyer could not help the small grin the formed at the sight.

"They did it," Bellamy voiced, having turned to see the same scene.

Sawyer nodded as the plume rose and rose into the atmosphere. "Pleasant surprise."

Clarke spoke after a stretch of quiet. "'I am become death, destroyer of worlds.'" Sawyer and Bellamy looked to her when they heard. She met their gazes and continued, "it's Oppenheimer – the man who built the first..."

"...the first atomic bomb," Sawyer finished for the Griffin girl.

"We know who Oppenheimer is," Bellamy added with a slight upturn of his lips.

<January 5, 2020>

You guys are not ready for what I have planned for the next chapter ;)

Don't forget to vote and comment.

-Jordan

P.S. Unedited chapter.