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At breakfast, Clarke had gone to speak to Dante. Aleta sat at a table next to Nathan and Monty. The two talked animatedly about something Aleta didn't really care about. She picked at her food, her mind staying on the fact that that man was shot by a gun. That meant her people were alive out there. Bellamy could still be alive.

Nathan nudged her arm and she broke out of her daze. She looked over at him and he glanced down at her in concern. "What?" She asked.

"You need to eat," Monty stated. Aleta looked over at him.

"I am eating," she began before lifting up her bowl a little to show him her food. "See?"

"All I see is you picking at your food," Nathan said. Aleta rolled her eyes before getting a spoonful of oatmeal and shoving it into her mouth.

"Happy?" She asked between chews.

"We'll be happy when you finish the entire bowl," Monty informed.

"You can't blame her for not wanting to eat the oatmeal," Harper began, "it's not that good."

Aleta smiled at her before looking at them. Monty slid a plate of fruit over to her. "Okay then eat the fruit," he said.

"I don't have to listen to you. I am older than you after all," she responded as she picked up a fork. She stabbed the fork into a piece of pineapple before putting it into her mouth.

"Eat the whole bowl," Nathan said.

"Yes, dad," she joked. They all began to talk again and Aleta contributed to the conversation this time around.

Again, she felt as though she was being watched and looked around. She didn't see anyone looking at her or in her general vicinity.

"You okay?" Harper asked her. Aleta put on a smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She looked around the room again before continuing to eat her fruit.

••••

A little while later, Clarke entered the the residence hall. Aleta and Jasper looked at each other before approaching the blonde. "What did president Wallace say?" Jasper asked her.

"He showed me Shaw's body. It looked like an arrow wound," Clarke answered. And just like that, any hope that Aleta felt had been dissipated. Again.

They stopped walking and stood by the bed that Nathan was sitting in. "Well, maybe because it is an arrow wound," Jasper said.

"Or that's what they want us to think," Clarke retorted and Aleta sighed.

"Clarke..." she trailed off.

"What? They could have doctored it," the blonde said. Aleta only closed her eyes.

"Clarke, you sound like a crazy person," Jasper told her. She opened her eyes.

"Why do you want to screw this up for us?" He continued.

"I don't know what this is," the blonde responded.

"This is safe. This is food, a real bed, clothes, and my personal favorite not getting speared by Grounders. How long do you think they'll let us stay here if you keep this up?" Jasper went on.

Clarke took a step closer to him. "Did someone threaten you?" She asked him. Aleta looked at her in surprise. Clarke was unhinged. Jasper let out an incredulous breath.

"No. No. It's common sense. Look. We're guests here, not prisoners. What would you do with a guest who kept calling you a liar and generally acted like an ungrateful ass?" Jasper said.

"Kick the ungrateful ass out," Nathan spoke, not looking up from what he was reading. Aleta sent him a look.

"Right now, biggest threat to us is you," Jasper concluded before walking away. Aleta looked at Clarke for a moment and shrugged slightly before walking back to her bed. She picked up the discarded book and tried to go back to reading it again.

But she couldn't.

She could only think about her dead friends. Elijah was dead, that she knew. She watched him die, right in front of her face. He had saved her and then died. Died because of her. She killed him. Bellamy too had saved her, making sure she got to the dropship. And he was probably dead too. Because of her. And Raven was probably dead. And Finn. And Octavia.

Everyone was dead. Everyone was dead.

Aleta pushed the book away from her and crawled underneath the blanket. So many people that she cared about were dead. Tears began to fall from her eyes and slid down her cheeks. They were dead. They were all dead and she couldn't save them.

She began to cry silently in the bed, curling her body into itself. It was all starting to come to her, slowly. The grief. She had still believed that there was a possibility that they'd be alive. Just a smidge of hope. But that was gone now. That was a dream and this was reality.

Her cries got louder and she tried her best to silence them. But the others heard. The chatter seemed to die down and they all looked at her, unable to think of what to do. They had never seen her cry. She was always the strong one. She was one of the oldest in the camp and felt as though she had to be strong for them. But she couldn't be strong anymore. She couldn't keep it in anymore.

Aleta felt arms wrap around her and rub her back comfortingly. She kept her eyes shut, not bothering to see who it was. She didn't really care.

She felt more arms wrap around her. Felt more people touch her in order to comfort her as well as each other. Aleta could hear other people beginning to cry too. They all realized then that they were lucky. They were the lucky ones to have gotten out. To have survived. Many of their friends were not lucky.

It was time for them all to grieve.

••••

Aleta smiled as she saw Nathan win the arm wrestling game. Everyone in the room was so happy and seemed to be enjoying themselves. Normally, it would have made her happy to see them happy. But she was still in mourning and couldn't bring herself to feel happy. She hoped to feel as happy as they all were feeling right now some day. Her eyes flitted back down to The Crucible.

She still hadn't finished the play as it was a long one. But she had been trying her best to do so. It was interesting, even though many of the characters pissed her off. As she briefly looked up from the book, she spotted Clarke following somebody out of the room. Aleta's eyes narrowed as she watched Clarke before closing her book and following after her.

She lost sight of the blonde for a few minutes. When she saw her again, she was walking into the residence hall. Aleta followed her.

"Clarke!" She called. The blonde whipped her head around before walking further into the room. "What are you doing? You're acting suspicious," Aleta said as the last delinquent left the hall.

"That guard. Langston. The one with all the burns. I saw him, just now. And almost all of the burns were gone. Healed," Clarke explained.

Aleta grew confused. "What? How is that possible?" She questioned.

"That's what I'm gonna find out," Clarke answered before walking over to a bed. She took the bandage on her arm off.

"What are you doing?" Aleta asked slowly.

"Only patients are allowed in medical," Clarke replied. She put her stitched arm under a sharp part of the top bunk bed.

"Clarke, this is a little extreme," Aleta pointed out.

"I have to get into medical and figure out what's happening," Clarke responded before she cut open her stitches using the bed. Blood pooled from the wound and Clarke whimpered in pain.

Aleta looked away and closed her eyes. She took a breath and then looked at Clarke. She began to pull the bandage off of her own arm.

"What're you doing?" The blonde asked.

"What, you think I'm gonna let you do this alone?" Aleta asked back. She looked around the room for something sharp to cut open her own stitches.

There was nothing else she could use so she went to the other end of the bed. She felt the sharp edge before moving her upper arm under it. She was in an uncomfortable position as she pressed her arm to the edge. She dug it into the sharp edge and moved her arm laterally to cut it open, biting her lip at the pain. The black liquid dripped down her arm as she moved away from the bed.

"I'm gonna regret this," she commented.

••••

As soon as Dr. Tsing left the medical bay, Aleta and Clarke were up and out of bed. They moved over to the guard, Langston's, bed and Clarke began to try to wake him up.

"Langston," she shook him. "Langston." He didn't wake and the two looked at each other briefly.

Clarke looked back down at him and began to examine him. There was a circular object attached to his upper chest with two tubes attached to it. Blood flowed through both tubes and the two girls looked to see where it led. It connected to a pipe that led to a different room. The two follow the pipe to the wall and Clarke tried to get the door open to no avail.

Aleta stepped back and looked around. She saw an air vent. "Clarke," she called. Clarke moved to stand next to her and saw the vent. The two looked at each other before going to open the vent. Clarke climbed through first, followed by Aleta. They entered a darkened room and the first thing they spotted were two people hanging by their feet from the ceiling. All sorts of tubes were connected to them, drawing out their blood and most likely taking it to the two patients in medical.

Her eyes widened in shock. What the hell? Of course this mountain was too good to be true. As she stepped closer to the two, she saw strange symbols tattooed onto their skin. Lincoln had similar tattoos.

"Grounders," she whispered. She then heard whimpers and turned around. Behind the two were cages, each one filled with people, most likely grounders. "Oh my God," Aleta said.

She and Clarke walked to the cages cautiously. The grounders continued to whimper and cry out. Some of them reached their arms out of their cages to try to grab them. Aleta moved out of their grasp. Clarke lowered herself down and looked into a cage.

"Anya?" She questioned. Aleta looked over at her and crouched down as well. It was Anya. There was a lock on the door of the cage.

"We're gonna get you out of here," Clarke promised before going to find something to break the lock. She came back once she found a pipe and Aleta stood as Clarke began to use it to break the lock. The lock broke and Clarke removed it, opening the cage. Anya began to get out of the cage when the door to the room opened. Clarke ushered Anya back into the cage and entered it as well whilst Aleta ran to hide behind one of the further cages.

The grounder in one of the cages looked at her, his eyes dead. She pushed herself against the wall, hoping that she was hidden from whoever came in. Aleta practically held her breath as she waited. The other grounders began to shake and bang on their cages, making noise. Aleta wasn't sure if it was because they were angry and wanted out or if it were for another reason.

Once the person was gone, Clarke opened the cage's door and Aleta stepped out from her hiding place. "We have to go, now," Clarke announced.

"What about the rest of them?" Aleta asked. Clarke looked around at the cages.

"We'll have to come back for them," she said. The three women began to go, with Clarke and Aleta practically dragging a weak Anya out.

The two pulled open a door and took Anya through it. The door closed behind them and Clarke went to try to open it. Alarms began to blare and Aleta looked up.

"What is that?" Anya asked.

"I don't know," Clarke responded. The floor gave out beneath them and Aleta let out a shout of surprise as she fell.

The three went down some sort of slide and landed inside of a large container. Aleta let out a pained breath before taking in her surroundings. Around her were many dead bodies. She shot up in horror, having seeing that she landed on one of them.

"What? Oh, my God. Oh, my God," Clarke said, equally as horrified. Anya was looking around, grabbing faces and trying to wake them up. They were her people. Aleta felt a wave of sorrow wash over her.

"Anya! Take my hand," Clarke said. Aleta stood and went to the edge of the container. Anya took Clarke's hand and the blonde helped pull her out whilst Aleta got herself out. Aleta looked at her surroundings. They were in some kind of tunnel.

"We're out," the blonde said. Anya was breathing heavily as Clarke began to move.

"Hey. Come on. Get dressed. We can't cover any ground like this," she said.

Aleta looked over to see a pile of clothes. She began to move over and rummage through the pile for something that looked like it would fit.

"I won't leave my people behind," Anya informed. Clarke looked over at her and stood.

"Anya, now, listen to me. My people are still inside that place, too, but they have guards. They have weapons. Once we get out of here, we can find help. We can come back," she told her as she moved in front of her.

"There is no 'we'," Anya spat back. Commotion drew the three's attention. "Someone's coming," Anya said.

"Not just someone, Reapers," Clarke responded. Anya moved to the wall and tried to pick up a rock.

"Hey. Anya, you can't fight. You can hardly stand. I got a better idea. Come on," Clarke said. She helped Anya back into the cart.

"Get in," she told Aleta before grabbing clothes and shoes and throwing it in after Aleta was inside. Clarke climbed into the cart just as the Reapers turned the corner. The three remained silent. A body was thrown into the cart. Followed by another and then one more. Aleta moved slightly so that none of them fell on top of her.

The cart began moving as a Reaper pushed it down the tunnel.

°°°°

This chapter was all over the place but I hope you all enjoyed it. Please vote, it literally takes less than a second.