CHAPTER TWO
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ONE THING THAT TRULY made the ground so real as compared to the Ark was the colors and sounds. Every hue of green, brown, and other oddly captivating shades surrounded Taylor in a whirlwind of exuberance. No longer did her boots make an unpleasant clunking reverberation on metal, instead they now made soft rustling sounds against the dirt and dry plants.

Those things alone made her realize that it wasn't just the prisoners that were trapped. Every person on the Ark had been trapped one way or the other, confined to space and unfair hierarchies. This was the first time that she had ever felt like she was unquestionably able to do whatever she wanted.

Beautiful purples screamed at her in the form of flowers on the ground as they passed through the bend that they were growing in. Finn picked one up and carefully placed it in Octavia's hair. She smiled and stared into his eyes longingly, which made Taylor roll her eyes quite obviously.

"Now that, my friend, is game," Jasper said, pointing to the two in envy.

"That, my friend, is poison sumac," Monty informed casually as he picked one and carried it with him. Octavia's face went from one of glee to one of absolute shock.

"What? It is?" she questioned as she ripped the flower from her hair and attempted to rub off any poison that could have still resided there. Jasper had a knowing smile on his face and Monty smirked.

"The flowers aren't poisonous," he clarified. "They're medicinal. Calming, actually." He popped the flower into his mouth cheerfully and Octavia exhaled in relief, casting a slight warning glance at Monty before facing forward.

"His family grows all of the pharmaceuticals on the Ark," Jasper explained. Taylor knew that would be useful. Even when they did find the supplies, it would be good to know what was edible and what would kill you in an instant.

"Hey, guys, would you try to keep up?" Clarke requested from the font of the line that they were walking in. She had been ahead the entire time, not saying a single word to the rest of them unless it was about Mount Weather or supplies.

"Come on, Clarke. How do you block all of this out?" Finn questioned as they caught up to her. They all came to a stop in front of her and she began to give her answer to Finn's question.

"Well, it's simple. I wonder, why haven't we seen any animals? Maybe it's because there are none," she told them all grimly, her voice becoming incredibly edgy. "Maybe we've already been exposed to enough radiation to kill us. Sure is pretty, though. Come on." Clarke turned the minute she had finished speaking and began to walk again.

"I appreciate that positive thinking of yours," Taylor said, not really sure if Clarke would hear her or not but saying it nonetheless.

"I'm thinking realistically. Positive gets you killed," Clarke snapped without even turning her head in the slightest to look at them when she spoke.

"Someone should slip her some poison sumac," Octavia joked with a smirk. Everyone laughed along and resumed the trek to the mountain, Octavia looking contented with herself.

"I got to know what you two did to get busted," Finn told Jasper and Monty, glancing back at the pair in curiosity.

"Sumac's not the only herb in the garden. If you know what I mean," Monty hinted, not necessarily needing to admit what they'd done in clearer terms.

"Someone forgot to replace what we took," Jasper added, shooting an accusatory glance back at Monty.

"Someone has apologized like a thousand times," Monty defended. Taylor laughed and shook her head.

"Now that I've actually met you, I can't say that's surprising," she admitted with a shrug. Jasper scoffed and looked at her with an more intrigued look.

"Why are you here?" he questioned smugly and Taylor's eyes casted themselves down to the ground and away from everyone else's glances.

"It's a long story," she answered. That seemed to be enough, the rest of the group not in the mood for a long story. She wouldn't be telling anyone how she had gotten there whether they wanted to hear it or not, that much was certain.

"How about you, Octavia? What'd they get you for?" Jasper interrogated casually, clearly enjoying the swapping of prison stories. This was a touchy subject for Octavia and Taylor knew it, grimacing when Jasper brought up the topic.

"Being born," she replied stonily before hurrying ahead of the group to meet Clarke further up, who was crouched down in front of a clearing. Finn, Jasper, Monty, and Taylor followed and gathered around Clarke and Octavia, both now kneeling quietly. Clarke put a finger on her lips, signalling the others to be silent as they settled.

Before them was a deer, nosing delicately through the grass as it ate. For Taylor, the full beauty of Earth had been encapsulated in that moment. The first real animal she had ever seen had caught her attention in all its grace and guileless tranquility.

"No animals, huh?" Finn said hushedly with a grin towards Clarke. She looked too shocked and amazed to even respond to Finn, which she didn't. Finn looked away from her and back towards the creature, stepping forward for a better look. A twig under his foot snapped, the cracking sound alerting the deer of their presence.

The animal's head snapped up and it looked directly at them. What Taylor saw made her want to take back everything that she had been thinking moments before. The deer's head looked like someone had tried to rip one head into two and failed miserably. Everyone gasped and jumped back in horror at the ghastly sight in front of them. The deer pranced away in unknowing peace.

After the initial feeling of alarm had left them, they started on their path once again. Nobody said much as they walked. Taylor's mind was racing, stumbling over itself to try and spin what she had seen into something more positive. It was possible that wasn't something that could happen to them and the radiation levels were completely fine. But she was getting a dawning feeling that ignorance about it wouldn't bring her any kind of bliss.

"Hey, you know what I'd like to know?" Finn asked in the silence.

"You'd like to know a lot of things, nosy," Taylor teased lightly, trying to leave her fearful and worried thoughts behind her. Finn rolled his eyes with a smile before proceeding.

"Why send us down today after ninety-seven years?" he prompted, looking back at the others as they trudged across the side of a hill. "What changed?"

"Who cares? I'm just glad they did," Octavia stated in the malice filled tone that she spoke about anything related to her imprisonment with. "I woke up rotting in a cell, now I'm spinning in a forest." Her tone shifted for the last part, her voice acquiring a dreamy quality. She wrapped her hand around a nearby tree and spun to face Finn with another winning smile.

He didn't stop and walked ahead of her with barely a glance. Octavia's face fell and when Taylor passed she grabbed her arm and lightly giggled, shaking her head. "Let's get a move on, ballerina," she told her, Octavia rolling her eyes. Taylor could see a hint of a smile on her face but could tell she was fairly dejected about Finn.

"Maybe they found something on a satellite, you know, like an old weather satellite or — " Monty suggested, not able to finish his speculations on account of Clarke cutting in.

"It wasn't a satellite. The Ark is dying," she announced concisely. Everyone stopped and looked at her in shock, but she kept walking like what she had said was not a big deal. "At the current population level there's roughly three months left of life support, maybe four now that we're gone."

The group trailed after her, hanging onto every word in astonishment. "So that was the secret they locked you up to keep, why they kept you in solitary, floated your old man?" Finn questioned rapidly, piecing everything together.

"My father was the engineer who discovered the flaw. He thought the people had a right to know," Clarke explained simply. "The council disagreed. My mother disagreed. They thought it would cause a panic. We were gonna go public anyway when Wells — "

"What, turned in your dad?" Monty asked, seeming to conclude what had happened at the end of Clarke's story.

"Anyway, the guard showed up before we could," Clarke continued, completely disregarding what Monty had asked her. She didn't need to answer, all of them already knew what had happened. "That's why today. That's why it was worth the risk. Even if we all die, at least they bought themselves some more time."

"They're gonna kill more people aren't they?" Monty questioned in dismay. Clarke ignored this question as well. Octavia jumped down from a tree stump that she was walking across without care.

"Good. After what they did to me, I say float 'em all," she snapped as she strode away with anger. Taylor was slightly shocked at what she had said, but knew that she didn't actually believe it. Not really. Worry washed over her when she thought of her mother back on the Ark, alone and unaware of what was happening. The only thing she knew was that Taylor was gone and wasn't coming back any time soon.

"You don't mean that!" Jasper called after her, scurrying behind the girl. Taylor didn't catch the small conversation that Finn and Clarke were having but her guilty thinking about her mother ceased when she bumped into Jasper from behind who was saying happily, "Oh, damn, I love Earth."

Octavia was taking off almost every piece of clothing she had on; leaving only a tank top and underwear. Her doing so was met with either shocked looks or pleased ones.

"Octavia, what the hell are you doing?" Clarke demanded with wide eyes as she took a step closer to Octavia, who was now balancing herself on the edge of a large rock.

"Put some pants on, Octavia!" Taylor called out, a protective kind of instinct triggering something inside of her. Octavia simply grinned and ran forward, jumping right into a large body of water in front of her. "Octavia!"

All five of them ran over the rocks to the water's edge and found Octavia entirely submerged in the water, only the upper part of her head showing. "Octavia, we can't swim!" Monty told her, stating the obvious fact. Octavia smiled and stood up in the water.

"I know, but we can stand," she laughed carelessly. Taylor let out a breath of relief and shook her head, a grin appearing on her own face.

"Wait, there's not supposed to be a river here," Clarke stated, looking around with her eyebrows furrowed in vexation.

"Well, there is, so take off your damn clothes," Finn replied with a smile as he began to take off his own clothes. Everyone followed suit, Taylor slipping off her shoes and pants with ease.

"Octavia, get out of the water," Jasper said in a loud voice, his expression getting increasingly worried. Taylor's head snapped up and saw a rippling in the water headed directly towards where Octavia was standing. Octavia turned around and watched the rippling come closer to her, not moving as much as she should've been. "Get out of the water, now!"

The mysterious creature somehow grabbed Octavia and began to drag her away from the shoreline, Octavia screaming the whole time. "Octavia!" Jasper shouted even louder than before. Taylor stood in shock as the whole thing happened, her own fear paralyzing her. The water ceased to move and there was no sign of Octavia.

"Octavia!" Taylor yelled with no response or movement from the water. Without another thought she jumped into the water herself, the jarring frigidness of it hitting her hard.

"Taylor, don't!" Finn warned much too late. Taylor's eyes scanned around the river, still catching no sign of Octavia. She moved slowly through the water to the right, not quite knowing where to go. Logic hadn't accompanied her into the water, only worry and the need to save Octavia.

Seconds later, almost right in front of her, Octavia popped up screaming bloody murder. The creature still had a hold on her and was swinging her around violently. Taylor lunged forward and tried to grab onto her. She succeeded, but then there was the small matter of what she would do after that.

With her grip firmly tightened around Octavia's arm, she too was swung around by the animal. She felt water enter and exit her mouth, never staying long but leaving a bitter taste on her tongue. The moving stopped and the next thing she knew, she was completely under the water.

The water that she had been flung to was deep and she was sinking. When she opened her eyes they stung and swelled as the water made a home around them. Her lungs were burning, begging for air and she knew that she was helpless in trying to give it to them. The bottom of the river was rough and muddy when she hit it.

Her entire body seemed to be shutting down, every movement taxing and difficult. Taylor tried to push forward and crawl to more shallow water, each movement engulfing her lungs in even more fire. She was finally able to push herself up to the surface for a moment and gasped in as much air as she could before going back down.

Taylor was trapped in a hopeless struggle against the water, trying to get closer to the shore each time. A sharp pain erupted in her leg causing her to yell out in distress and discomfort. She continued her desperate flailing towards the shore and eventually felt a few arms wrap around her and pull her from the river.

She snapped her eyes open and gasped for air, coughing up some water that had managed to enter her lungs. When she looked around her she realized that Finn and Monty had been the ones to pull her out. She sputtered out a thank you as best she could, her heavy breaths making it difficult to do so.

Instead of trying to speak when she clearly couldn't she instead engulfed the two in a tight hug, that being all she needed to express her silent thanks. When she released the two from the embrace, she was almost immediately tackled in another by Octavia. The two didn't need to say much, both very grateful that the other was okay.

"You're hurt," Clarke announced, breaking the silence of the exchanges. She kneeled down next to Taylor's leg and examined it. "This didn't come from the same thing that bit Octavia." Taylor raised her eyebrows and examined the mutilated flesh more closely.

Her injury wasn't nearly as bad as Octavia's, it seemed to have come from a smaller and similarly vicious creature. A ripped piece of cloth served as a bandage and the group all decided to move away from the water, some of its dangers still being hidden. Taylor could still walk perfectly fine on her leg, just a stinging soreness reminding her that she was bitten. Octavia, on the other hand, was struggling.

It was getting late and a clearing was determined to be their resting place for the night. The darkness passed in what seemed like an instant, Taylor not having any trouble sleeping since the day's events had exhausted her so greatly.

She was awoken by soft conversation and the plotting of where they were going to go next. Her eyes were heavy when she pried them open and she felt a balance between tired and rested that bothered her. Everyone awoke one by one and they continued their journey.

They had to figure out how to get across the river without being eaten or mauled to a pulp. Finn had come up with the idea to swing across on a vine that he had found and gallantly volunteered to go first. He stood above Clarke, Taylor, Monty, and Octavia on a ledge of rock with Jasper, pulling on the vine carefully to make sure that it was strong enough.

"You wanted to go first. Now quit stalling," Clarke hollered impatiently, but less uptight than she had appeared the day before. "Mount Weather awaits."

"Just hang on to the apogee and you'll be fine," Jasper assured him, nodding to the other side of the river encouragingly.

"The apogee like the Indians, right?" Finn asked.

"The apogee, not Apache," Jasper corrected.

"He knows. Today, Finn," Clarke egged on, the entire group trying their best to hurry Finn along. Taylor thought that it was ironic that the legendary Spacewalker was stalling on a trip across some river.

"Aye, aye, captain," he saluted, gripping onto the vine with both hands. He turned to Jasper and nodded. "See you on the other side." Finn pulled back on the vine and poised himself to jump, but Jasper interrupted him.

"Wait!" he halted. Finn looked at him in question.

"What?" he asked.

"Let me," Jasper said, glancing down at Octavia who happened to be looking up at him admiringly after he had volunteered in place of Finn. "I can do it." Finn nodded and handed Jasper the vine.

"Knew there was a badass in there somewhere," he smiled, patting Jasper on the arm. He laughed nervously and his hands took a better grip on the vine. He stalled a few seconds more, looking twice as nervous as Finn had been coming off.

"Hey, it's okay to be afraid, Jasper," Finn assured him. "The trick is not fighting it."

Jasper took on a more confident smile before uttering, "See you on the other side." And he jumped. Jasper soared through the air and let out yells of delight. He landed near a pile of wood and the group who was standing below the ledge scrambled up to get a better look at him.

"WE ARE APOGEE!" Jasper yelled in victory. Everyone else screamed along with him with nothing but jubilation and laughter. Taylor high fived both Octavia and Monty, the people who she was standing closest to.

"You did it Jasper!" Clarke called back with a lighthearted laugh. Finn pulled back the vine and looked at Clarke with a glint of mischief in his eyes.

"Let's go, princess," he said, that glint in his eyes apparent in his voice. "You're up." Clarke smiled at him and took hold of the vine.

"Come on, Clarke, you got this! Whoo! Apogee!" Jasper encouraged as he jumped up and down in excitement. Jasper took a few steps back and uncovered something that was laying on the ground beneath some twigs and leaves.

It was a fairly large metal sign and when Jasper held it up with a joyful shout, they were all able to discern what it said. Mount Weather. "We did it! Mount Weather! Whoo! Whoo!" Everyone joined in on Jasper's excitement.

The world seemed to stop and everything cut short when a spear lodged itself into the center of his chest. Clarke, Monty, Taylor, and Octavia all called out for Jasper while Finn told them all to get down.

They all crouched near some rocks, the trees and bushes around them rustling sinisterly. "We're not alone," Clarke stated in a shaky voice. Those words alone were enough to shock Taylor's entire being into trying to deny the impossibility that was playing out before her eyes.