❝prayers are promises, too. and these are the days of broken promises.❞

-ringer, the 5th wave

♛

AS SOON AS WE come close to the camp, an alarm starts going off in my mind. Something's not right. Bodies of the fallen, both Grounders and Sky People alike, are strewn carelessly everywhere- over logs, slumped on the ground, and against trees. The stench is rancid and makes my stomach churn as the awful scent invades my senses. A few flies are beginning to buzz around the corpses.

I immediately copy Finn's actions in getting low, crouching down as I climb the slope that leads to camp. Stray strands of hair hang in my face but I don't want to use dirt-coated hands to brush them away. Bellamy's hand brushes my shoulder as he leans over me, mouth close to my ear.

"It's too quiet," he comments in a whisper. I nod in agreement. Usually constant chatter could be heard from half a mile away. But now, it's so silent that I'm sure we're the only ones making noise.

Just as Bellamy starts forward, Kane suddenly grabs his arm and forces him back. "We'll take it from here." He turns around to the group of guards that came with us. "Banks, Scanlan. You stay with them. We'll signal once we're sure it's safe."

I pucker my lips in distaste as the adults rush past us into camp. Finn, Bellamy, and I all share annoyed looks with each other. We're the ones who know this place like the back of our hands. Why didn't they trust us enough to let us in?

Bellamy paces back and forth restlessly while I spend time playing tic-tac-toe in the dirt with Finn. It seems like a morally wrong thing to do with the bodies of our friends displayed around us, but it's something to pass the time.

"What is that?" Finn asks, pointing his stick at the letter I had just drawn with my own.

"That's an 'O'," I reply in a confused tone, wondering what he could have mistaken it for.

"It looks like a 'C'."

I roll my eyes and dig my stick firmly into the ground, repeatedly drawing a circle until the shape is firmly set into the soil. One eyebrow raises at Finn. "Better?"

He places an 'X' in the top left corner without looking at me. "Yes."

"We need a stretcher!" one of the guards calls from inside the camp. My head snaps up at the urgency in his voice- he'd found someone in there. I immediately drop my stick and dart towards the camp, only to be stopped by Banks and Scanlan.

"Woah, woah, woah, woah." Banks' muscled arm shoots out into my bath just as I run by, making me bounce back into Bellamy, who steadies me on my feet with a dirty look at the guard. The three of us exchange glances that may appear like defeat, but Bellamy's discreet nod starts it all.

I'm the fastest out of us three, so I make the first move. I spin around Bellamy and sprint as fast as I can toward the tunnel that leads to the inside of the camp. Ducking through the leaves and dirt, I squint to see in the darkness and am grateful when I finally break out into the light again.

Except what I see is not much light. Our entire camp is coated with grey ash that soaks up all the color, draining the once lively site into a wasteland. Charred remains of bodies lay sunken into the colorless grass, and we seem to be the only ones here.

"Where is everyone?" Bellamy wonders aloud, voice hollow with both shock and fear. I shake my head and take a few steps forward to try and shake off the sickness brewing in my stomach. The slight wind that tampers the ashes moves across my face like the brush of a ghost. The atmosphere seems heavier, weighed down by the loss of life.

"It was awful." Murphy's voice catches my attention, and I turn to see him being helped out of the dropship by Kane. He has a strong limp when he walks. "It was awful. There were hundreds of them. If it wasn't for Raven" - he grunts upon setting foot on the grass - "I don't know what would've happened."

Bellamy slowly walks toward Murphy with an unreadable expression on his face. I can feel hatred burning in my eyes, the bandages on my wrists becoming even more uncomfortable at the sight of the person who caused the injuries. Flashes of the gag in my mouth and Bellamy gasping for air stab my mind until all I can feel is pure loathing that makes my hands curl into fists at my sides. My jaw clenches so tightly that it begins to ache.

Murphy's eyes go slightly wide upon sight of us. "Bellamy, Fallon. You're - uh - you're alive."

It's not Bellamy who tackles Murphy- it's me. All I can see for a second is the swirl of the earth before he hits the ground and I'm on top of him, shaking his shoulders as hard as I can and feeling my insides burning as I do so. Everything is red and I feel so absolutely livid that it overpowers any other emotion inside of me.

"You son of a bitch!" I shout at the top of my lungs, the end of my ponytail getting in his face and causing him to sputter. "You complete asshole!"

My fists ache to punch him in his God-forsaken face, but someone hauls me off of him before I can give them what they crave. I thrash in Marcus Kane's arms, screaming in an attempt to release all of the pent-up anger in me. "Let me go! He deserves it! You don't know what he did! I - I'll kill him!"

I barely have time to suck in a breath until an electric baton is jammed into my side, making me convulse as the current runs through my nerves. Kane drops me to my hands and knees. My body shudders and I grit my teeth as my shirt becomes wet near my stomach. After getting at least to my knees and pulling up my shirt, I discover that the long cut from the Grounder on that night has ripped open. It's about halfway split with dried blood being the only thing holding the rest of it together. The skin around it is stained red.

"The hell is wrong with you?" Bellamy demands at the same time Finn shouts, "Does anyone know where the bandages are?"

"I - I'm fine," I manage to say through my clenched jaw. The cut sends stinging pain throughout my body, and that mixed with the electricity makes for an unpleasant sensation that makes me breathless. The truth is that I'm far from fine - in fact, any antonym in the world can pass for how I feel - but I can't exactly say that to a person who just had an electric baton stuck in me.

"Place her under arrest," Kane commands to the guards I haven't noticed are around until now. My heart nearly stops beating at this statement and I look up to meet Bellamy's alarmed gaze with my own widened eyes.

"Wait!" Finn exclaims desperately as the guards yank me up by my arms. "You don't understand. Murphy murdered two of our people. He shot another one. He tied Fallon down and tried to hang Bellamy right in front of her- she has the bandages to prove it!"

I don't have the time or thought capacity to thank Finn for standing up for me. I grunt in pain as the men drag me near a tree, where they slip a pair of handcuffs onto my bandaged wrists. The fact that I'm back in this position is enough to make me chuckle ironically through the tears that sting my eyes.

"You can't just do that!" Bellamy shouts angrily. His mouth is twisted in a scowl. "She is bleeding and you're just going to handcuff her?"

"There are rules," Kane replies flatly as he looks back at me, stepping forward and sending me a look that suggests I'm a pesky five-year-old. "Laws." He glares sharply. "You are not in control here anymore."

I glance up as Abby moves the dropship's cloth aside and a guard walks down the ramp, carrying a stretcher behind his back with one of my best friends lying on it in an almost lifeless manner. I jolt forward, momentarily forgetting about the handcuffs on my wrists and the men holding me back. They pull me backward immediately, resorting me to only be able to desperately shout, "Raven!"

Seeing her feels just like the blow to my chest that had knocked the air out of me. Her normally tanned skin is sickly pale, forehead shining with sweat and her hand bloody from where it was obviously pressing down on her bullet wound. There are purple rings around her closed eyes from lack of sleep accommodated with sickness.

"She's lost a lot of blood," Abby says to Finn, who ran up to her side the moment she appeared from behind the curtain. "It's a miracle that she's still alive." She pauses upon noticing Jasper's goggles strapped to Raven's arm, and how Finn is staring at them with despondency in his eyes. "There's no one else in there."

"What?" It comes out as a choked sound that barely even makes it to my own ears. Another blow to my chest. I close my eyes and let myself think back to all of the things that have gone wrong since the night the Grounders planned to attack, which feels like an endless void of ghosts and inky blackness. I briefly imagine the euphoria I felt when I had jumped off of the dropship upon our landing. Those smiling faces are buried in the ashy ground beneath my feet. They will never resurface.

How can the world turn upside down so suddenly within two days?

--

Bellamy hasn't left my side since the guards decided I'm not going anywhere and left me alone. He found a canteen with water in it and a relatively clean cloth, which he's now using to clean the wound on my stomach. I have no choice but to lie down uncomfortably on my back on a log as he dabs the cut with the rag. Since my arms have been moved to the front of me, it's a lot easier for me to actually lie down.

"Hold still," he commands when I flinch again. The wet towel hovers above my stomach where I'm holding my blood-soaked shirt up so he can see it. A few water droplets drip onto my skin from him pausing.

"Sorry," I breathe through clenched teeth. "It hurts." He nods in understanding before placing his free hand on my bare skin to hold me down. His touch on my hip sends a jolt of surprise through me. I swallow and look away in an attempt to stop the hammering of my heart. "When you're done, you should use that to clean your face. And Finn's."

Bellamy chuckles. "I think you're more important than mine and Finn's faces. However, I think we should stick together from now on. You know, for survival."

I return my gaze to him, digging my nails into my palm to give me something else to focus on than the scorching pain in my gut. I hope I look amused rather than pained. "Bellamy Blake, is this your own twisted way of asking me to be your girlfriend? In this situation?"

"Never know what's gonna happen. I may as well do it now."

"Well, then," I sigh and let my head fall back on the log. "I think we should stick together, too. For survival."

Bellamy sets the cloth aside and takes out the bandages he found. He quickly places them across my stomach and sticks them in place with more medical tape than I probably need. He pats my stomach once he's done and pulls me back up to a sitting position.

"I would kiss you, but your face is covered in shit," I tell him honestly.

"I guess I should clean my face, then."

Finn walks up to us then, completely oblivious to what just happened. "We're leaving."

"What?" Bellamy asks with widened eyes. "This is where they'll come back."

"I don't think they're coming back," Finn admits with all seriousness in his tone. It's enough to make my heart go cold. "The Grounders took them, and you know that." He crouches down in front of us. "Look. We go with Kane to Alpha Station. We get reinforcements. Weapons. Then we find our friends."

"One question," Bellamy cuts in. "How many more of us will be dead by then?"

Finn averts his gaze and looks down at the ground between us. He glances back at Raven, who has guards surrounding her as Abby attempts to do whatever she can to save her. "Abby says Raven needs surgery or she's gonna die. It's time to go."

I nod, not wanting to leave this place but at the same time wanting to run miles away. Grunting, I stand and let one of the stupid guards come and hold onto my arm like I'm going to try to run while handcuffed.

The walk to Alpha Station is long and hard on my already drained legs, but once I get there, shock drains out almost every other emotion. A large section of the Ark is lying in the ground, curled up toward the open sky like a scorpion's tail. Chunks of its exterior are missing and leave steel beams exposed to the clear sky. It's incredibly strange to see my old home almost demolished.

An electric fence is already being built around the Ark, which doesn't surprise me in the least. Of course the first thing they'd think to do is take every precaution against outsiders.

"Jackson!" Abby shouts to her trainee as she runs toward him, enveloping him in a brief hug. "Treat the critically wounded first. Everything else can wait. I'll be there in a second, but I have to deliver the news to Fallon."

My heart drops at this. Abby pushes through the crowd of people until she gets to me, glaring daggers at the handcuffs binding my wrists. She turns her gaze to the guard keeping hold of me. "Get these off of her."

"Can't, Abby." The guard shrugs indifferently. "Kane's orders."

Abby steps a bit closer with a fire blazing in her brown eyes. "Kane's orders? Fine. But I need her free for a few minutes and then you can put them back on her. It'd be nice if you'd hurry. This would take less time if you'd just do as I say now and ask questions later."

The guard sighs and reaches into his pocket for the key. He inserts it into the lock and the metal cuffs snap undone, releasing my arms and making me sigh in relief. Restraints of any kind make me uneasy.

"Thank you," Abby sneers with no amount of sincerity in her tone. She takes my hand in a motherly fashion and guides me toward the open door of the Ark. It's so weird being back in the hallways I thought I'd never see again, to be seeing people I'd never met but passed thousands of times. The lights flicker every so often, but other than that, the Ark seems almost completely stable.

Abby chooses the first door she sees. It's to an empty medical unit, ironically. She shuts the door and turns to me, her brain wracking itself for words to say. I can see the gears turning in her head. Finally, she tells me as it is.

"Fallon, your mother didn't make it."

Those words are ones I have been expecting, but to hear them out loud is enough to make me go completely still. I almost can't breathe because of how quickly my throat is closing up. A trickle of intense cold runs down my spine and causes my nerves to freeze. I feel like I have no control over my body as tears start rising in my eyes without permission, blurring Abby's figure in front of me. My voice shakes. "No. No."

Her brown eyes fill with sorrow when she watches my face twist in agony. I go to cover my mouth but a sob comes out anyway, and I can feel the weight of despair pulling down my heartstrings until I feel like they're going to detach themselves from the organ itself. My body doesn't know what to do; it wants to scream and break everything in the room, but it also wants to curl into a ball and never speak again. I can feel the walls closing in on me, compressing me into a tiny ball of matter until I almost cease to exist. It takes me a second to realize through intensely distorted vision that the room isn't shrinking.

"I'm sorry," Abby whispers as she pulls my trembling body into a hug. Her arms wrap around me, but I can't move my own arms because I don't even seem to be fully in control of my own body, and I can't move. I want to hug her back, to be able to feel something other than this amount of aching pain that's pounding into my heart. "I'm so sorry."

"What - what happened?" I manage to ask through broken sobs. The tears cascading down my face threaten to choke me from how rapidly they fall, and my voice rises so I can hear it above the ringing sound in my ears. "What happened?"

"It was Diana Sydney," Abby informs me as she continues to hold me close to her like I'm still the twelve-year-old girl who brought Clarke her birthday bracelet. "She took the Exodus Ship to Earth because it got out that she caused the explosion on Unity Day. She and a select group wanted to start a new colony on the ground. She took CeCe because she needed a doctor with her. The ship ended up crashing. Fallon, I'm so sorry."

My shoulders shudder with a heavy sob at the story. Both of my parents are gone now, and I'm certain of it. Both of them died when they didn't have to.

"If I didn't get caught that day, my dad wouldn't have taken the blame and maybe things would be different!" I exclaim, though not without gasps in between the words. Admitting this to myself gives another beating to my already sore heart. The vision of my father and his words reverberate in my head from eardrum to eardrum, stabbing my brain with the pain of what he had said. It's your fault. It's all your fault.

"Don't say that." Abby pulls away and brushes yet another flyaway strand from my face, something she often does as a means of comfort. Tears blur her own eyes. "Things happen for a reason, Fallon. Geoffrey chose to give himself up for you. And maybe your mother didn't choose, but none of this is your fault and I absolutely forbid you from saying it is, do you hear me?"

Through my tears, I manage a nod and wipe my face with my hands. At least the crying probably got most of the grime off. Who was I to say that Bellamy needs to clean his face when I do as well?

Abby pats my cheek fondly and starts to open the door again. "You should probably get back. I don't need you in those cuffs longer than they're already making you."

-------

sorry for the low-quality gif but i couldn't find a better one anywhere!! oh well

1. FALLAMY IS CANON AS OF MARCH 15, 2016 *AGGRESSIVE PTERODACTYL SCREECHING*

2. poor fallon am i right ):

-kristyn