Homecoming

by Kass Morgan

  Glass shook her head, her cheeks burning with embarrassment. “No, sorry. I was just going to ask someone…”

  Clarke gave her patient a few instructions, then grabbed an armful of metal bins and followed Glass. “I’ll show you,” Clarke said. “I could use some air.”

  The girls stepped into the sunlight together, squinting and taking in big gulps of cool air that seemed almost refreshing after the stuffy cabin.

  As she and Clarke walked toward the fire pit at the center of camp, Glass caught a quick flash of movement from the corner of her eye. She whipped her head toward the tree line and squinted. Back in the shadows, about ten feet into the woods, a tall, dark-haired boy stood halfway behind a tree. He was staring at them. Glass sucked in her breath, startled, and stopped walking.

  “What is it?” Clarke asked. She followed Glass’s gaze and spotted the boy.

  “Should we tell someone?” Glass asked nervously. “Is that—is that one of the Earthborns who want to hurt us?”

  Clarke shook her head. “No, that’s Bellamy. He’s one of us, but he’s not supposed to be here right now.”

  Glass heard something in Clarke’s voice—was it worry? Fear? Much to Glass’s surprise, Clarke furrowed her brow and shot Bellamy a strange look—almost like a warning. But the boy just met Clarke’s eyes and grinned, unruffled by her serious expression.

  Bellamy took a few bouncing steps forward, as if he were heading into camp. Clarke shook her head firmly this time. He stopped, though he didn’t look happy about it. Clarke mouthed a few words and gestured toward him, as if waving him away. He shrugged, and just before he stepped farther back, he gave a little mocking salute before disappearing into the trees.

  Glass turned to look at Clarke, who was blushing slightly. She knew Wells was with Sasha, but it hadn’t occurred to her that Clarke could also have met someone new so quickly. Things certainly moved fast down on Earth.

  “So, why are you keeping Bellamy in the woods?” Glass teased. “Do you want to make sure you get him all to yourself?” She meant it as an icebreaker, an attempt to tell Clarke that she knew she and Wells had moved on. As soon as Glass uttered the words, though, she realized it hadn’t come out that way.

  “I’m not keeping him anywhere,” Clarke said, shooting Glass the same look she used to give her when she said something ditzy during tutorial.

  Glass flinched. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

  Clarke must have realized how harsh she’d sounded. Her face softened. “No, I’m sorry,” she said, exhaling. “That wasn’t fair. There’s just… there’s just a lot going on that we haven’t told you about yet.”

  Glass let out a small laugh. “Yeah, I’m starting to figure that out.”

  “Does that mean you know about Wells?”

  “About him and…” Glass trailed off, not sure whether Wells’s secret was hers to share.

  “… and Sasha,” Clarke finished for her.

  Glass nodded, relieved that Clarke knew as well. “So, you’re okay with all that?” she asked hesitantly.

  Before Clarke could respond, a boy with red hair and freckles dashed over. “Clarke, one of the new people says he can’t breathe and he needs a shot of something.”

  She let out a small sigh. “He said all that?” The boy nodded. “If he can talk, he’s fine. It’s probably just a mild panic attack. Tell him I’ll be there in a second.” The boy nodded again and ran off.

  “Yes, I’m definitely happy for Wells and Sasha. Things with Bellamy are… I mean, I know it hasn’t been that long, but it almost feels like—”

  “It’s okay,” Glass said, cutting her off with a smile. Clarke might be all composed and in control when in doctor mode, but talking about boys made her endearingly flustered.

  Clarke looked like she was weighing whether to speak or not. “Did Wells tell you anything about Bellamy yet?”

  Glass shook her head.

  “I’d better let him talk to you first, then.”

  Glass scanned the bustling camp and turned back to Clarke. “I think it’s going to be a while before Wells has time to gossip with me. What’s going on?”

  Clarke hesitated, biting her lip.

  “Come on, Clarke,” Glass cajoled, slightly amused by the fact that although she’d known Clarke for most of her life, they were having their first proper chat on Earth. “I’m sure Wells won’t care if you’re talking about your own boyfriend.”

  “It’s a little more complicated than that.” She looked from side to side to make sure no one else was in earshot, then turned back to Glass with a small smile. “So, this is crazy, but what do you think the odds are that the second guy I fell for would turn out to be the secret half brother of the first guy I fell for?”

  Glass stared at Clarke, certain she’d misunderstood. “Wells has a brother?” she said slowly, bracing for Clarke to burst out laughing and correct her.

  But to her amazement, Clarke nodded. “The Chancellor and Bellamy’s mother had a secret affair before he married Wells’s mother.”

  Glass had heard a lot of confusing things come out of Clarke Griffin’s mouth over the years, especially during math tutorial, but nothing as mind-blowing as this. “I can’t believe it.”

  “I couldn’t either at first, but it seems to be true. And that’s only the beginning.” In a surprisingly calm voice, she told Glass about what Bellamy had done to get on the dropship with his sister, Octavia, how he’d taken the Chancellor hostage before knowing that he was his father. Clarke’s face grew even more serious when she told Glass her biggest fear, her worries about what the guards would do to Bellamy when they discovered that he was responsible for the Chancellor’s shooting. “I’ve been trying to get him to leave camp, but he refuses,” she said in a tone Glass couldn’t quite read, a strange mixture of frustration and pride.

  Glass struggled to take it all in and made a mental note to talk to Luke. Maybe there was something he could do to throw the other guards off Bellamy’s scent. “Wow,” she said, shaking her head. “That’s even crazier than my spacewalk.”

  “You spacewalked?” Clarke’s eyes widened in astonishment.

  “I spacewalked,” Glass said, a tiny hint of pleasure sneaking into her voice. “It was the only way to get to Phoenix. Otherwise my boyfriend Luke and I plus a whole lot of other people would have died on Walden.”

  The girls stood in silence for a moment, each struggling to process the momentous news the other had just shared. Then the door to the hospital cabin opened behind them, and Octavia stepped out.

  “Clarke,” she called. “We need you in here for a sec.”

  “Coming,” Clarke replied. She turned to Glass. “I’m glad you’re here, Glass.”

  “Me too,” Glass said with a smile. It was true that she was pleased to see Clarke. Whether she was happy to be on Earth was another matter entirely, but at least it wasn’t quite as cold and lonely as she’d always imagined, staring down at the thick shroud of gray clouds from the ship. Especially now that it seemed like she might have a friend.

  CHAPTER 6

  Bellamy

  “Screw this,” Bellamy grumbled to himself, kicking a clump of dirt into the air. He watched it sail in a smooth arc between two trees before landing with a plop a few meters away. Footsteps pierced the silence of the woods, where he lurked behind a cluster of tall trees, keeping himself out of sight. He peered through the foliage into the clearing, watching three of the new arrivals—a man and two women—wrinkle their noses at the deer roasting over the fire. The deer Bellamy had killed that morning and had passed to Antonio to take back to the camp. They could either learn to eat meat or starve to death. Or, better yet, let them find their own food.

  When the hundred landed, there was no one there to greet them or show them the ropes. No one taught Bellamy how to track animals, use a bow and arrow, or skin a two-headed deer. He’d figured it out himself, the way Clarke had figured out how to treat injuries and illnesses she’d never seen before. The way W
ells figured out how to build a cabin. Even Graham, that otherwise useless slimeball, had figured out how to make a spear. If Graham could do it, these helpless fools could do it too.

  Bellamy would have given his best bow to strut right into the middle of camp, his head held high, and defy the bastards out there to just try to arrest him. He knew that once the smoke cleared and the Colonists’ ears stopped ringing, one of them would recognize him as the boy who had held the Chancellor hostage on the launch deck. It didn’t matter that Bellamy hadn’t pulled the trigger—he was the reason the Chancellor got shot. He hadn’t had a chance to ask Wells if there had been any news on his father… correction: their father. Would he ever get used to that idea? He certainly wasn’t going to find out if the man had lived or died by standing out in the woods by himself.

  This camp was Bellamy’s home. He had helped build it with his bare hands, side by side with the rest of the hundred. He’d carried logs from the woods and laid them down to build a foundation. He had single-handedly kept the group alive with the animals he hunted. He wasn’t going to leave it all behind just because he’d had the audacity to try to protect his sister. It wasn’t his fault the Colony had some stupid population rule that made Octavia a freak of nature and gave other people permission to treat her like a criminal.

  A branch snapped, and Bellamy spun around with his fist raised, then lowered it bashfully when he saw a little boy staring up at him. “What are you doing out here?” Bellamy asked, looking around to make sure he wasn’t being trailed by anyone else. It was bizarre seeing adults in the camp, but it was even stranger seeing little kids.

  “I wanted to see the fishes,” he said, though his lisp made the word sound like fithith.

  Bellamy crouched down so he was eye level with the boy, who looked to be about three or four. “Sorry, buddy. The fish live in the lake. That’s a long way from here. But look.” He pointed toward the trees. “There are birds up there. Want to see some birds?”

  The boy nodded. Bellamy stood up and craned his head back. “There,” he said, pointing to a spot where the leaves were rustling. “You see?”

  The boy shook his head. “No.”

  “Let me help you get a closer look.” Bellamy reached down, scooped the boy into his arms, and lifted him onto his shoulders, making the toddler squeal with delight. “Keep it down, okay? No one’s supposed to know I’m out here. Now, look, there’s the bird. See the birdie?” Bellamy couldn’t see the boy’s face, so he took the silence as a yes. “So where are your parents? Do they know where you went?”

  Bellamy crouched down so the boy could slide off his back, then turned to face him. “What’s your name?”

  “Leo?” a girl’s voice called. “Where’d you go?”

  “Shit,” Bellamy said under his breath, but before he had time to move, a girl with long dark hair hurried into sight. He exhaled. It was just Octavia.

  She cocked her head to the side and smiled. “Already luring children into the woods like a real creepy hermit, are we? That didn’t take long.”

  Bellamy rolled his eyes, but he was secretly glad to see Octavia in such good spirits. She’d had a tough few weeks, and just when she’d returned to camp, the rest of the Colony had suddenly arrived. If nothing else, Octavia was adaptable. She had spent her first five years living in a freaking closet, and the rest of her life proving she deserved to be alive.

  “You know this kid?” Bellamy asked.

  “That’s Leo.”

  “Where are his parents?”

  Octavia shot a glance at Leo, then shook her head sadly.

  Bellamy let out a long breath and looked at Leo, who was busy tugging at a large vine encircling a nearby tree. “So he’s all on his own?”

  Octavia nodded. “I think so. There are a bunch of them. I guess their parents didn’t make it onto the dropships, or else…” She didn’t have to finish the sentence. He knew they were both thinking of the freshly dug, still unmarked graves down by the lake. “I’ve been looking after them all, until we can figure out what to do.”

  “That’s really sweet of you, O,” Bellamy said.

  She shrugged. “No big deal. The little kids aren’t the ones we should be pissed at. It’s their parents who locked us up.” She was trying to sound blasé, but Bellamy knew that growing up in the Colony’s care center had given her a soft spot for orphaned kids. “Come on, Leo,” she said, reaching out for his hand. “I’ll show you where the bunny lives.” She looked at Bellamy. “You going to be okay out here?” she asked.

  Bellamy nodded. “It’s just for today. Once things settle down, we’ll come up with a plan.”

  “Okay… be careful.” She smiled and turned to Leo. “Let’s go, kiddo.”

  Bellamy stared after them and felt something in his chest twinge as he watched Octavia hop down the slope, pretending to be a rabbit in order to make Leo laugh.

  She had always been on the outside looking in. No one but Bellamy had ever treated her fairly, or even kindly. Until now. She had finally been given the chance to be a normal teenager, with friends and crushes and, if he was being totally honest, a seriously smart mouth. He wasn’t going to leave her behind, obviously. And he wasn’t going to take her away. So what choice did that leave him? She deserved the chance to stay here, where she had made her first real home. Their first real home.

  Bellamy had a sudden flash of the expression on Clarke’s face as she urged him to hide, and his stomach balled up into a knot. It took a lot to frighten that girl—a brilliant doctor with a warrior’s spirit who just happened to be breathtakingly beautiful, especially when the light hit her blond hair—but the thought of the guards aiming their guns at him had been enough to fill her luminous green eyes with fear.

  Bellamy exhaled slowly, trying to calm himself. Clarke was just looking out for his best interests. Keeping him alive was a pretty basic one. But her frantic pleas for him to stay safe and out of sight kindled more anger in him than anything else. Not at Clarke, but at this whole messed-up situation. It was getting dark. Was he going to spend the entire night in the forest?

  He was just about to walk back into the clearing and resume his rightful place when he saw Wells enter from the other side of the tree line, leading another group of stunned survivors. Bellamy studied Wells’s upright bearing, his brisk pace, and the confident way he addressed the shambling group as if he were their leader, not a convicted criminal half their age. It was hard for Bellamy to get his head around the fact that mini-Chancellor was his actual, real-life brother.… It wasn’t every day that you not only realized that you’d gotten your father shot but also that you had not one, but two illegal siblings.

  Everyone in the clearing suddenly fell silent, and all heads snapped toward the spot from which Wells had just emerged. Bellamy followed their gaze and saw Vice Chancellor Rhodes striding through the trees and into the camp. He moved silently among the hundred and the other survivors with his shoulders thrown back, wearing the slightly bored expression that always made him look like a douche back on the ship. Here it just made him look like a moron. He’d narrowly escaped death less than twenty-four hours ago and now he was on the ground for the first time in his entire life. Would it kill him to show the slightest bit of relief or, hell, excitement?

  No one dared speak to the Vice Chancellor as he walked around the clearing in a slow circle, flanked by four guards, surveying the camp they had worked so hard to build. Dozens of people held their breath at once, waiting for him to do or say something. After a long moment, the Vice Chancellor stepped inside the nearest cabin. He was out of sight for a moment, then came back into the sunlight, one corner of his mouth twitching with amusement.

  Bellamy wanted to fly across the clearing and punch the sadistic little power grubber right in the face. But one look at the guards who followed him at a short distance, forming a half circle around Rhodes at all times, was enough to keep Bellamy’s feet in place. Not only were there a lot more guards than he’d expected—at least twenty, not
counting the ones who were injured and still making their way back from the crash site—they all seemed to have guns. Bellamy swallowed hard. The abstract threat of guards with orders to shoot him was one thing. Staring down the barrel of a real gun here on Earth was another. Bellamy wasn’t exactly more afraid than he had been before the newcomers got here. He was just more certain than ever that he and Octavia had to look out for themselves, because no one else would do it for them.

  Eventually, Rhodes made his way into the center of the clearing and turned to address the group that had gathered around him. He paused, keeping his audience waiting. Octavia stood in the front of the group, eyeing the Vice Chancellor skeptically. Wells moved off to one side, his arms crossed over his chest, his expression unreadable. Clarke remained at the very back of the crowd, leaning against the wall of the hospital cabin. She looked exhausted, which made Bellamy all the more furious. He’d give anything to be able to put his arm around her and tell her that she’d done an amazing job.

  The people gathered around looked at Rhodes, their dirt-smeared faces filled with expectation—and, Bellamy realized with some surprise, relief. Most of the hundred seemed glad Rhodes and his minions were here. They actually thought he was here to help them.

  Finally, Rhodes began. “My fellow citizens, this is a sad day, a day we will mourn for generations, but it is also a great day. I am so honored to stand here with you, at long last, on the soil of Earth. The contributions of those of you who came down on the first dropship will not soon be forgotten. You have bravely forged ahead where none of our people have set foot in hundreds of years.”

  Bellamy studied Clarke’s face. She betrayed no reaction, but he knew they were thinking exactly the same thing. There were plenty of humans who had set foot here, not all of them Earthborns. Clarke’s parents, for example, and the others who had come to Earth with them. So far, though, none of the hundred knew Clarke’s parents were alive besides Bellamy and Wells.

  “You have proven that human life can, indeed, exist again on Earth. That is magnificent. But our lives do not depend solely on safe water or clean air.” He paused for dramatic effect and looked around the crowd, locking eyes with one person after another. “Our lives depend on each other,” he continued. Several people in the crowd nodded emphatically, and Bellamy wanted to gag.