Chapter 29 - Exodus

"The grounders said no weapons! Why did you have to bring Bellamy and a team with guns there?"

"In order to save our lives, princess. Otherwise, those grounders on that bridge would have killed us! And, as much as I would like to continue this meaningless fight, we must prepare. War is on the way."

Bellamy, who had remained silent until now, abruptly intervenes between me and Clarke, successfully preventing us from yelling at each other over something that had saved the rest of our people, who were at the bridge.

"Do you have something to say, princess?" Say that to me. I was the one who brought the guns, not Leon. By the way, those guns just saved your life."

"Those guns are the reason we're at war!"

"I kept telling you that the grounders are untrustworthy, but Leon tried to placate them and establish a deal with them so that we might live in peace. But look where it got us. We were attacked first by grounders, and we simply fought back."

"If we hadn't brought the weapons..."

As she began to grasp what had transpired back there, it was my turn to eventually break her naive thinking and make her know that the grounders are not the same as the people that live on the Ark.

"Clarke, we did what we had to do so that we all can live in peace, not fearing that one day a spear would just kill us from god's know where. Bellamy and his team were there just in case the grounders would go back on their words and attack us. Thank god they were there or else, all four of us would have been killed by them. "

Raven had just arrived at the gate when she heard that we were returned. She was concerned that something bad had occurred to us because we were late, and it shouldn't have taken us so long to go back home from the bridge. She realized the meeting didn't go as planned when she saw the person in a body bag and the tattered looks on all of our faces, as well as the pretty intense mood between Clarke, Bellamy, and me. She quickly went to us as soon as the gates opened.

Before she could reach the rest of the group, I walked toward her, signaling her with my eyes to follow me a little further away from them.

"What happened, Leon?"

"Hey, Raven …the meeting was a trap. The grounders attacked us and we fought back the whole way back home. How are you? And how many bullets do we have now?"

"I had better days, but I'm getting better."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"As for the bullets, we have plenty of them, especially lethal ammunition. I even made a few dummy ones in case the grounders try to kite our ammo."

"That's my girl. They would definitely try to make us consume our ammo on scouts, but thanks to you, their plan will fail."

"Told you, Leon, today's the best Unity Day."

"After all the shit that happened in the last two days, I need a drink."

"You and me, both. My treat."

Before Raven and I could follow the rest of the people back inside the camp, an explosion caused everyone to stop what they were doing and turn around to look at the sky. Something that resembled a falling star was rapidly making its way towards Earth, and if I'd learned anything about the Ark from Markus, it was about the Exodus ship, the one that was intended to transport the people from the Ark back to Earth, but it was too soon and too unexpected for the ship to leave the Ark, especially today when it was supposed to be a holiday for our people.

"Something's not right about this."

"Do you believe that something happened up there?"

"Smells like a revolt, given how abruptly the ship left the Ark. Besides, do you think Jaha wouldn't have told us if they were sending a ship down to us?"

"Now that you mention it, Abby showed me some things about the exodus ship when the two of us were fixing the drop pod. Leon, look!"

The white light decreased in intensity and was replaced by a dim crimson glow that seemed to burn the sky, but that wasn't supposed to happen, even for an old ship like Exodus. When the ship did not release a parachute or take any other action to slow its descent, I knew that my fears were answered and aboard the Ark, a rebellion had just started, taking the ship and leaving the rest of the people up there to die.

The teenagers that were looking at the ship started freaking out when they saw the ship speeding up towards the ground. The ship continued to fall until it collided with the far side of some nearby mountains. The following explosion made everyone take a step back in fear, and Clarke, who until now didn't know how to react, collapsed to her knees, sobbing uncontrollably when she saw the ship explode. Her mother was meant to be on that ship, but even I felt sad for the poor girl, especially since I knew the pain of losing your parents. There was no way I could have changed anything even if I would have been up there, so at least I'll do everything in my power to honor the dead by keeping their children alive for as long as I drew breath.

While Clarke and I couldn't really be called best friends, I still see her as a friend, more so ever when she and Harper saved my life. She had just lost her mother and she needed comfort more than anything right now seeing as everyone else wasn't able to move due to how shocking the explosion was, I walked forward and knelt down by Clarke, putting my arms around her shoulders.

"I'm so sorry, Clarke."

Clarke grabbed my hand and began crying on my shoulder as soon as I whispered to her. Finn, who was on his way to comfort her, looked at me how I was trying to calm Clarke down. Before things got any worse between us, I gently let Finn take my spot before turning to face Bellamy and Miller.

"In an hour or so, we will not be able to get there."

"Tomorrow, at first light, will gather a team and check the crash site for survivors."

While we could have risked going there, everyone knew that this would only give the grounders a chance to ambush us outside of our walls. Thankfully Clarke nodded her head while Finn and Octavia helped her up. Finn then helped guide her back into camp while Octavia followed behind, just in case Finn would need another person to help him carry Clarke back to their tent. I saw Finn how he help Clarke sit down inside their tent before I went searching for some alcohol while I let Bellamy explain to the rest of our friends what just happened and what exactly the crash of the Exodus ship meant.

No matter how I look at it, the only method that would definitely take Clarke's mind off the crash was getting her drunk, and knowing her, she would definitely tag along with us in the morning. I'd rather have a Clarke with a slight hangover rather than a total mess when we are going to venture towards the crash site.

After leaving Finn to take care of Clarke, I went over to Raven, who stood outside of my tent with two bottles of moonshine in her hands.

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