A year and two months ago...

"I'm not gonna get caught." Avery said firmly, sweeping back her hair and hiding it in the hood of her jacket.

She was making herself as invisible as she possibly could. In front of her laid a map of where she had to go, drawn so wonderfully by an mechanic she didn't know the name of, but who seemed happy enough to help her cause.

"You don't know that." Her dad wheezed, breaking into body-wracking coughs that made the girl wince in upset and worry.

She turned back towards him. His skin was deathly, and his eyes were hollow and tired. He looked sicker than before. It wasn't improving.

"I'll grab it quickly, and get back here."

He couldn't reply, just coughed instead, and Avery couldn't bear to watch for much longer. She hesitated a moment, glanced over the map, and then disappeared through her front door.

She didn't know the area well, only having been to the Ark Station Medical a handful of times, but she had studied that map for days. It felt like she knew it like the back of her hand.

Getting there was the easy part. She could make it look casual; as if she was going in to get something for a minor injury.

It was the actual action that would be difficult.

She didn't even really know what she was looking for. Her dad's illness was sort of a mystery to her. She found it hard to go to medical appointments with him, although she did, and she hardly understood what Abby Griffin was talking about.

She had no idea what medicines could help him.

But soon enough, she was there. Abby Griffin was nowhere to be seen, and so she had the perfect opportunity to get it done. 

She didn't know this room well, her dad having always been in another for his appointments. There were a few patient beds, a desk, and dozens of empty shelves. Rummaging through the supply cupboards, she felt a small sense of guilt, but the overwhelming sense of wanting to help her dad overpowered it.

They may not be close, but he was the only person she had. She couldn't lose him.

She grabbed a few bottles, reading over what they said on the labels as if she would know what any of it meant. Opening them, she looked over the pills, and then just decided to pocket them.

She didn't have much time.

A cluttering from the other end of the room made her startle, and stumble back into open view. She had been caught in the act: her hands holding several bottles of medicine.

She came face to face with Abby Griffin. The woman's eyes flashed with upset and confusion, but she made no moves forward.

"Avery,"

"I have to save him." Her voice wobbled, her hands holding up the medicines defensively.

"You need to leave." She said firmly, but the girl made no moves to do so.

She was challenging Abby, staring directly at her, daring her to do something about all of the stolen supplies in her hands. But Abby wouldn't.

"You have to return the stuff, and leave before someone else sees you."

"And if I don't?"

Abby let out a harsh laugh, her expression genuinely painted in fear for the girl. Avery didn't seem to understand this.

"You'll get put in the Sky Box. You can't help your father in there."

This made Avery fall silent for a few long moments. But then, she realised something.

"I'm just as helpless if I can't give him any medicine."

Pocketing all of the bottles, she made towards Abby and the exit. The woman went to stop her, as predicted, but Avery pulled out of her grasp and shoved her far away enough to make an escape.

Racing through the station, she could feel her heart pounding with the fear of being caught by someone. She really didn't want to be put in the Sky Box.

"Hey! You! Stop there!" A Guard's voice sounded from her path ahead, and so she found herself slowing to a stop.

There was no way he would know what she had done. Abby didn't sound an alarm to let people know medicine had been stolen, and the Guard was coming from the opposite direction. It would just look suspicious if she continued to run.

"What?" She asked, trying to remain patient but failing miserably.

The Guard looked her over in suspicion, clearly thinking her guilty of something. She could only wish he wouldn't discover what she was guilty of. But then,

"What's that in your pockets?"

~

Present day...

Avery positioned herself at the back of the group, letting Clarke lead the way towards Mount Weather, with Finn close behind her, and the rest of the group following. She trailed after them all, taking every moment she could to admire the beauty of Earth.

If it was all going to be over soon - if they couldn't get to Mount Weather and they ended up starving - she wanted to savour it for the moment.

They came across a selection of purple flowers, and Finn took a moment to slide one into Octavia's hair. Avery found herself besides Monty and Jasper in watching them, tilting her head in amusement for how cliché it all was.

"That, my friends," Jasper pointed to the couple, jealousy flashing in his eyes. "is game." 

Avery let out a laugh, shaking her head in disagreement, knowing that Octavia was only entertaining the idea. Finn didn't seem serious either, which would be to Jasper's delight; if he realised it.

"That, my friends," Monty picked up a flower himself, inspecting it thoughtfully. "is poison sumac." 

Avery's laugh was louder then as she watched Octavia brush the flower from her hair in a panic. She could tell Monty was teasing, otherwise he wouldn't have grabbed one himself, and so took one in her own fingers just as they were passing the last of the purple petals.

"It is?" Octavia asked worriedly, and then she saw one between Monty's fingertips.

"They're not. They're medicinal. Calming actually."

"Smart ass." Avery muttered, and the boy couldn't stop himself from smiling at the comment.

He met Avery's eyes as he put it in his mouth, and then the girl offered out her own. He furrowed his eyebrows as if to ask her what she was doing, and without explaining, she reached up to lace it in his hair. Finn's method of flirting seemed effective because when she pulled back, she could easily see the red blush on his cheeks.

"His family grow all the pharmaceuticals on the Ark." Jasper explained, glancing to the flower in Monty's hair but choosing to say nothing. 

"Hey, guys, would you try to keep up?" Clarke called out, and Avery let out a groan of frustration.

"You gotta lighten up princess! We're on Earth." She replied, throwing out her arms and sending Clarke a cheesy wink.

She was finding the girl's nickname far too hilarious, and the girl's face only made it more enjoyable to say. Clarke said nothing in reply, instead only rolling her eyes.

"Come on Clarke, how do you block all this out?" Finn asked cluelessly.

"Well, it's simple. Why haven't we seen any animals? Maybe it's because there are none. Maybe we've already been exposed to enough radiation to kill us."

Clarke's pessimism was putting a damper on the whole mood. Avery wasn't the usual person to be optimistic, which is why her reply wasn't the happiest thing in the world either.

"And if that's true, there's nothing we can do about it anyway."

Clarke paused for a minute, realising she was right, and then turned away to move on. She hurried them along with her, and they were forced to speed up a little to keep up to the girl's quick pace.

"Someone should slip her some poison sumac." Octavia murmured, making Jasper laugh - a little too hard.

Avery and Monty shared a glance, knowing exactly how badly Jasper had a crush on the girl already. Octavia seemed blissfully unaware, skipping ahead with Finn.

"I got to know what you two did to get busted." Finn asked the other boys as they bounded up a hill after Clarke.

Avery knew the topic was going to come up soon, and couldn't help but find herself planning her own answer in advance. Her exact reasoning for being there was a little too heavy for her liking to spill out to a bunch of people she just met.

"Sumac is not the only herb in the garden, if you know what I mean." Monty replied, glancing to Avery cleverly.

"Sounds like a perk of being from Farm Station." She commented, and the boy grinned.

"Someone forget to replace what we took." Jasper responded pointedly, and Monty rolled his eyes.

"Someone has apologized, like, 1,000 times."

Avery chose to ignore their bickering and address Finn instead. He was somewhat of a legend around the Sky Box, considering the fact he wasted a month's worth of oxygen.

"We all know why you're here, spacewalker." She teased, and Finn shook his head with a smile threatening his lips.

"And you?" He asked in return, rising his eyebrows expectantly.

"I assaulted a Guard." She said simply, hearing Jasper's amused exhale of breath from close behind her. "Hence the whole 'psycho' thing with Wells. I guess his dad told him about it."

"He was out of order."

Unexpectedly, the sentence came from Clarke. Avery nearly tripped over her feet in surprise, but styled it off easily, simply just nodding. Wells was out of order after all.

"Was it unprovoked?" Octavia questioned, and the other girl could tell she meant no harm by it, despite how the words could've come off. 

"I had my reasons." 

She didn't say anything else, and everyone was smart enough to figure that she didn't want to talk about it. She was assured of this when no one pressed the topic further.

"How about you, Octavia?" Jasper said then, making Avery feel grateful for the attention being taken off her. "What'd they get you for?"

Bad question.

Avery winced as she watched Octavia falter for a moment, before answering bluntly. "Being born." The girl raced off ahead to where Clarke was beckoning them over, crouched on the ground.

"That is so not game." Monty commented slyly, leading Jasper to push him.

He pushed him back, and the two boys went back and forth for a few moments until Avery turned to stop in front of them. As though they were kids being told off by a teacher, they straightened up, and the girl looked between them in hidden amusement.

"Monty's right, you know." She said finally, making Jasper sigh in annoyance, and letting the play fighting start up again.

Finn hurried them along towards Octavia and Clarke, and the four of them joined the two girls in crouching down low to avoid attracting attention. It took a second for Avery to figure out why they were doing it before she saw it.

A deer.

It was gently grazing on the grass, peacefully oblivious to their watching eyes. Its antlers almost dragged along the ground as it tilted its head down to the ground; side on from where they were watching.

"No animals, huh?" Finn posed the question triumphantly.

It did seem to be a win. If animals were able to stay alive, then maybe they could too.

He crept forwards then, trying to go unnoticed, but managing to snap a twig with the weight of a footstep. The deer startled, glancing towards them, and shocking them backwards at the sight of its two mutated heads.

As it pranced away into the forest, Avery got back to her feet with a slight wobble. No one really seemed to know what to say.

"Maybe the radiation has a little effect on things." 

They continued on through the woods, deciding that they couldn't let a small set back like a disfigured deer put them off their goal. Getting to Mount Weather seemed too necessary in their survival.

"Hey, you know what I'd like to know?" Finn called out, his voice projecting through the sparse forest. "Why send us down today after 97 years? What changed?"

This was a question to which they could only speculate the answer. At least, that's what they thought. No one would've guessed that Clarke was clued in to one of the most well kept secrets of the Ark; and the most important one by far.

"Who cares? I'm just glad they did." Octavia jogged ahead, grabbing onto a tree with one arm and spinning around it. "I woke up rotting in a cell, and now I'm spinning in a forest."

"Here's to that!" Avery responded, raising her hand in the air like a toast. Octavia laughed, choosing to meet her hand with a high five.

"Maybe they found something on a satellite, you know," Monty wondered, shrugging. "Like an old weather satellite or-"

"-It wasn't a satellite. The Ark is dying."

Clarke had fallen behind, but at her bombshell, everyone was stopped in her tracks. She walked through the group of them, her face emotionless; as if it meant nothing to her now.

"At the current population level, there's roughly 3 months left of life support, maybe 4 now that we're gone."

"They wanted to see if we could live on Earth so we didn't all die." Avery realised, quietly.

"So that was the secret they locked you up to keep, why they kept you in solitary, floated your old man?" Finn's questions made Clarke wince, but he didn't seem to notice.
 
"My father was the engineer who discovered the flaw. He thought the people had a right to know."

"Who else knew about it?" Avery asked, her eyes running over the trees but her words piercing into Clarke fiercely.

It was pretty obvious what she was trying to get at, but Clarke couldn't avoid it even if she knew this. She avoided the other's eyes as she responded reluctantly, already awaiting the inevitable slandering to come.

"The Council all knew. Jaha, my mom..."

"Your mom sucks." There was an awkward pause. "No offence."

Clarke chose to ignore this, instead continuing to explain. She told them how Wells turned in her father before they had a chance to tell everyone what was happening. Her hostility towards him suddenly made a whole lot more sense.

It was his fault her dad was dead.

"Anyway, that's why today. That's why it was worth the risk. Even if we all die, at least they bought themselves more time."

"They're gonna kill more people, aren't they?" Monty questioned, his tone edging on terror, despite not being at risk for that.

Clarke didn't respond; either because she didn't know, or because the answer was devastating. 

"Good." Octavia said bluntly. "After what they did to me, I say, float them all."

Jasper scoffed lightly as she stalked away, calling after her. "You don't mean that." He trailed behind her as she wandered ahead, and Avery found herself hanging back with Monty for a moment.

"Oh, I think she does." She said to him, watching as he cracked a smile.

The sound of running water caught the girl's attention then, and as she looked on the path ahead, she spotted the flowing river peeking out from a gathering of rocks. The trees around them were hanging over the river bank, but the sun peered through the middle of it, granting them light.

Avery narrowly avoided bumping into Jasper as he stopped, dumbfounded, staring at something ahead. She followed his eyeline to where Octavia was beside the river.

"I love Earth." He said in a dozy voice, smiling like an idiot.

Octavia was taking off her clothes. Not completely, of course. She had wriggled out of her jeans and taken off her jacket, leaving her in only a top and her underwear.

Avery chuckled, shaking her head for a moment, and then turning to whack each of the staring boys over the heads playfully. She muttered quietly about them ogling her, and then found herself jogging towards the girl as Clarke yelled out to ask what the hell she was doing.

Avery couldn't reach Octavia in time. She wasn't sure what she would've been able to do to stop her anyway, but she watched helplessly as Octavia leapt into the river, disappearing under the surface for a moment.

The rest of the group joined her at the riverbank then, and they peered in to look at her in disbelief. It was hard to tell how deep the water was, and if they'd have to rescue Octavia from drowning.

The girl resurfaced, her eyes just above the water level as she looked out at them. Monty was nervous as he called out to her.

"Octavia! We can't swim!"

Of course, there were no swimming pools on the Ark. They only heard of oceans, and rivers, and lakes, and dreamed of what it would be like to swim in any of them. 

"I know." She suddenly stood up in the water then, showing that the water only just rose above her waist. "But we can stand."

Avery joined her laughter, feeling ecstatic at the thought of joining her in the river. For some reason, it had always been a desire of hers; to swim in some form of water.

"Wait. There's not supposed to be a river here." Clarke's eyebrows furrowed in worry, but the other's had already begun ripping off their layers of clothing.

"Well, there is. So take off your damn clothes."

Avery was halfway through taking off her boots, looking up to see Jasper enthusiastically ripping off his jacket to reveal his interesting t-shirt underneath. She found it too funny not to mention.

"Does that say Earth day?" She asked, pointing to it casually.

He looked down to where she was pointing, seeming to forget what she was talking about for a moment, and then realising with a grin. He nodded to confirm.

"It is Earth day after all, is it not?"

Avery was nearly ready to jump in when Jasper's voice sounded out again, this time in worry for Octavia. He sounded deadly serious, his eyes transfixed on something behind her.

The other girl saw it then, something floating through the water silently, creeping up on Octavia. As it came closer into view, she could see it was a river snake; but so much bigger than any of the ones they ever read about.

"Octavia, get out!" Avery yelled out in fear, but it came a moment too late.

She let out a yelp, and then she had been dragged under the water. The others watched on helplessly as she got drawn down the river a little, surfacing every few moments with a scream. The snake only got more agitated every time it happened.

Studying it carefully, Avery came to realise something. Octavia's panic was causing the snake to become more violent. Maybe - just maybe - if they created a louder distraction, it would leave her alone.

"What the hell is that?" 

"What are you gonna do?"

"Try not to get eaten." Finn replied, nearing the edge of the water.

"Stop!" Avery yelled out, her eyes fixing on some loose rocks right by the edge of the water. "Someone help."

She scrambled over to the edge, crouching there and beginning to try and shove the rocks into the river to create a diversion. Monty and Clarke caught onto her plan, aiding her in plunging the rocks into the water.

The snake heard it. It turned sharply in the water, letting Octavia go and barrelling towards the source of the noise. The girl only had a narrow window to escape; but she couldn't swim, and she seemed to be injured.

Jasper acted before anyone else could. He leapt into the water, grabbing Octavia, and hauling her onto the side of the rocks. Their voices all sounded over one another as they pulled their friends further up onto the stones, out of reach of the river snake.

When they finally seemed to be safe, they could relax a little. Octavia threw her arms over Jasper, thanking him over and over, as the boy struggled to catch his breath.

Avery couldn't help but chuckle at Jasper's wide eyes upon seeing that Octavia was hugging him. Her eyes fell to the wound on her leg, where Clarke was patching it up, and she frowned a little.

We don't have the medical supplies to treat that properly.

"Note to self..." Monty began, patting Jasper's shoulder. "Next time, save the girl."

Avery fell asleep wedged between Octavia and Monty. The three of them and Jasper had all huddled close together when trying to get to sleep on the forest floor; finding it was a lot more warm to have people laying beside you as you did so.

She had woken suddenly in the night, not knowing the sound of Clarke and Finn's return from a late night wander had been the cause. She cautiously moved from her positioning on the ground, sitting up and being careful to not wake those beside her. Finn and Clarke were now close by, slumped against a tree together with a large out of place leaf laying besides Clarke's feet.

Looking up from the ground, she realised why everything was lit up. The trees were coated in bioluminescent fungi. They crawled up the side of the bark, causing the surroundings to be lit in a soft blue glow.

Earth is really cool.

Avery started to think about what it would be like for the rest of the Ark to come down to the Earth. And she started to think about what Clarke said about their wristbands earlier.

When she caught Finn trying to prise his off, she told him it was their only way of communication with the Ark. It was the only way they knew they could survive down there, and if they took them off, they'd think they were dying, and they wouldn't bother coming down after them.

Thinking about this, and how she got locked up in the Sky Box, Avery decided she didn't want the Ark to come down after them. The Chancellor sure as hell wasn't going to forget the crimes committed by some of the kids on Earth. She knew exactly what would happen: the Council would take over, and everything would go back to how it was on the Ark - awful for those not born into luxury.

Right now, they had freedom. And that's what seemed fair to her.

Shuffling further away from the others sleeping, Avery picked up a blade from the ground and turned away to get a better look into the light. She held up her wrist to get the glow to fall over her wristband, so she had the best view on how to get it off. 

Hooking the blade under the wristband, she tried to pull away from her skin to force it off her wrist. She pulled on it desperately, almost nicking her skin with the blade, but to no success.

"What are you doing?"

She nearly sliced her hand off when she heard the voice behind her. Jumping from fright, she whirled around with the blade now free in her hand and the wristband still as tight on her wrist.

Monty looked just as scared, his hands flying up defensively upon spotting the blade in her hand. She sighed in exhaustion, putting down the blade at her feet and shaking her head.

"I wasn't going to hurt you, you know. I'm not that much of a psycho."

"I don't think you're a psycho." Monty said softly.

He said it so quietly that Avery almost missed it. And she would've, if she wasn't awaiting what his reply would be with every fibre of her being.

"But when someone's holding a knife at you, it's a little scary."

She chuckled then, flopping down onto the ground and leaning back against a tree. Monty remained still for a moment, his eyes flickering to the spot beside her, before he decided to move and sit there.

"Were you trying to take your wristband off?"

She looked to her wrist then, guiltily. Running her hand over it, she could feel Monty watching her expectantly, and she knew he wasn't going to be a fan of her answer.

"Yeah."

Monty didn't reply, and for a moment, Avery thought he had fallen asleep. Looking up, she could see that he was deep in thought. She couldn't read him well, and it made her a little nervous. 

"I know that you didn't have the best life up on the Ark, but we need a lot of the people from there: for food, and medical, and technology. As much as we want to believe it, we can't survive down here alone forever." 

Monty paused then, and Avery watched as he fidgeted with his sleeve for a second. Then he stopped, and met her eye with a shrug.

"And some of us have families we want to see again."

She felt really guilty then. The thing was, because she didn't have anyone up on the Ark that she missed, she didn't feel any conflictions about trying to remove her wristband. She hadn't thought about anyone else.

She couldn't find the right words to say in reply. She wanted to tell him that she knew he was right, but her ego was too large of an obstacle to get over. 

It seemed like he had realised this. Monty's expression had changed, and now a soft knowing smile was resting on his lips as they sat quietly for a moment.

"Hey, where's your flower?"

Avery had just noticed that the purple flower she threaded into his hair had disappeared from the top of his head. She felt a little bad that she hadn't noticed when it happened, and frowned at the thought he took it out.

Of course, it wasn't practical, but it was cute.

Monty put up his index finger, telling her to wait for a moment, as he stuffed his other hand into his pocket to pull out the flower. It was a little crumpled, and looked very close to dying, but it was still intact for the moment.

"Trying to keep it safe." He paused for a moment, letting it lay flat in his palm. "It's not working very well."

Avery giggled at this, trying to straighten out the flower on his palm, but failing miserably. She chose to then close his fist around it gently, patting his hand.

"I trust that you can keep it alive."

"Don't put too much trust in that." Monty said with a grin, moving so his pocket was more accessible, and sliding it in again. 

Yeah, it was definitely going to be dead by the morning.

"You should get some sleep." She said then, remembering that it was dark, and they'd have to carry enough food for a hundred the following day.

"You should too." He fired back.

This made her laugh, but still, she followed him back towards where they were sleeping soundly before. Settling back into her spot besides Octavia, she let his words about the wristbands circle her head.

He did have some good points, and she was letting her personal issues with the Ark get in the way of that. It was time she stopped thinking about herself, and looked at the full picture.

She really thought she couldn't think differently about any of it, but Monty proved her wrong. And she wasn't mad about it.