Chapter 5 The Radio
Charlotte had fallen asleep a few hours into nightfall, and Clarke and Finn hadn't come back, so I guess at this point, they were both shaked up in the bunker. I was waiting for the dropship to come to earth with the radio in it. The night was too dark for normal humans to see anything, but for me, it was not much different to the day, and I can use magic to keep me on the right track with the point me spell so I will go at night.
This will allow me to stop the culling before it can happen. I know that I can change things due to Wells still being alive and Murphy still being in camp, so all I need to do is get their first so that nothing goes wrong. I know that Bellamy said he wouldn't try and stop them from coming down to the ground, but he could have just been waiting for this moment as I wouldn't allow him to remove the wristbands, or he thought they would all fry when we tried to use them to contact the ark.
The was a loud tump that seemed to echo everywhere. Looking up in the sky, I could see the dropship falling to earth in a fiery trail. I could also see things breaking off of the ship and falling to the ground. I woke Charlotte up.
"See, someone from the Ark has come to the ground no doubt due to all the wristbands going dead. I need you to stay in camp. I am going to the dropship now before anyone else can get to it. Promise me you will not leave camp at all. The grounders will no doubt be far more active and jumpy and could attack, so don't leave, okay?" I begged Charlotte.
"Okay, but will you be safe?" Charlotte asked me, worried.
"Yes, don't worry, I will be safe and back at camp in the morning, pinky promise," I said, holding out my pinky, and we shook on it.
"Oh, and if Clarke and Finn come to camp, tell them I have gone to the pod and to hurry up," I told Charlotte as I stood up. I sneaked out of camp, and I heard Bellamy getting some stuff after telling people not to go after it till sunrise. It seems I was right, and he was biding his time.
I ran towards where I saw it coming down, being careful to ensure that I wasn't running much faster than an average human could. I knew it would take me twoish hours to get there at this speed, but once I was away from camp and the grounders near the camp, I could really run and get there long before anyone else without them knowing about my vampire speed.
Running was something I had begun to love doing, which given in my old life I hated to go running is saying something, but I guess it the fact I don't get out of breath or tired, and my legs don't hurt after running made me like it. I had gotten far enough away from camp that I could no longer hear the heartbeats of any humans behind. I know that some grounders were trying to follow me, but at this point, they could no longer see me as I didn't take a torch or need one.
I decided to really run. I know that the grounders didn't go near the drop pod in the TV show, but I am learning that TV and real-life are entirely different.
Now, as for my max running speed, I don't really know how fast I can go. I am slower than normal vampires, but the fact they can run so fast they are not trackable by the human eye must mean they got hundreds of miles per hour at the max speed. I don't know if I hit hundreds of miles per hour, but I must at least hit around 150 mph. It had taken me less than ten minutes to run to the clearing where Raven had crash-landed.
Listening around, I couldn't hear anyone but Raven. Running over to the drop pod, I pulled the door open and smelled blood, but it wasn't a lot of it. I could see that she was somewhat conscious.
"Raven the radio. Where is it?" I asked, grabbing her head to make her focus. She pointed to a box with an old-fashioned mic that you would see on a radio that truckers would use.
"Do I just turn it on? Is it all set for the Ark to pick up?" I asked her, not sure what I would do if it weren't preset up. I saw her give a nod and try and mumble something out, but I ignored her as I reached over and pulled the radio next to me and flicked the switch to turn it on. I saw the red light come on. Grabbing the mic, I pressed the side button to transmit.
"Calling the Ark, I repeat Calling the Ark this is the ground do you read me," I asked in the mic before letting the button go. I got no response back.
"Calling the Ark, this is the ground. Does anyone read me?" I tried again.
"This is a restricted channel. Who is this? Please identify yourself." I heard someone from the radio call back.
Relief flooded through me. I was sure that 320 people would no longer have to be killed to make room for more air. I had got here before Bellamy or grounders or anyone else.
"Hello, this is Violet from the 100 on the ground. Are you reading me?" I asked
"The 100 are alive. Please, you need to get Dr Abby Griffin. Dr Abby Griffin. Now" I asked again. I didn't really trust anyone else as they had all thought the 100 were doomed to die from day 1.
"Hang on, Violet. We're trying to boost your signal. It's a little patchy." the person replied. I guessed it must be Sinclair.
"Get her off The Ark-wide channel. This room only. Copy?" I heard him say.
"Na, keep me on the Ark wide, nothing to hide," I said back, not expecting them to do as I asked.
"Violet, we are going to make it an open channel so we don't have to take turns speaking," Sinclair said to me.
"Okay," I said, letting go of the button. "Can you still hear me?" I asked to make sure it was working.
"We can hear you, Violet", Sinclair replied.
Excellent, is this still Ark wide?" If so, I will share a report I'm sure many of the 100s friends and families are worried about them.
"Ya, we are trying to make it this room only," Sinclair said.
"Well, while it is Ark wide, let me give a nice quick report. So it is currently nighttime on the ground, and for dinner, we all have had campfire roasted deer. Which I highly recommend when you all get down to the ground. It is fantastic, but if you are not in the mood for fire-roasted deer, then fire-roasted panther is quite good too far better than the food on the Ark.," I said, maybe torturing them a bit.
"We are in the command room only now; Violet the Ark maybe got to hear that it was nighttime on the ground and fire-roasted deer," Sinclair informed me.
"Oh well, I had more to tell. I'm sure cutting me off from the Ark wide channel won't make you look like your hiding anything. I'm sure no one will mind at all. You can't see, but I'm rolling my eyes." I snapped back.
"Violet, this is Chancellor Jaha. How are the 100 doing?" Jaha asked me, ignoring what I was saying before.
"Oh, one of my least favourite people on the ark, lucky me. Well, since you asked after sending us all here to die, we are doing fine. No, thank you to you lot, of course.
As for people that have died, we lost two people when the dropship crashed, and we have lost three more due to acid fog for a total of five dead people. Everyone else is still alive." I finished up.
"Hello Violet, this is Abby Griffin."
"Ah, one of the people I like slightly more. Well, did you hear the update? If not, I'm sure someone can tell you. Your daughter is still alive, and you can live down here, so don't go killing a load of innocent people. That was directed at you, Kane." I recapped.
"So just five people died," Abby asked me. While I heard others grumbling in the background.
"Yep, a total of five. As for the wristbands, it turns out you send a lot of kids to the ground to die. They get pissed at you and will get back at you however they can. Now it also turns out people have been living on the ground since the bombs. Now we have not had much contact with them as of yet."
"Well, not since we tried to go to Mount Weather we crossed the river, and they were not happy about that. We don't know why as yet; they have not made verbal contact yet. So we are taking a wait and see approach." I informed them.
"So they are hostile?" I heard Kane ask.
"Hostile well, seeing as I'm sure they are in clans and not one unified group, we don't know it could have been that Mount Weather was enemy land and going into it would spark a war. We won't know till we make contact or they make contact with us." I summarised.
"How is Raven?" Abby asked me.
"Well, I'm no doctor, but she has a nasty bump on her head and seemed to be out cold but seemed okay before passing out. I will wait till morning when other people get here before moving here," I replied.
"We need to warn you. You have an assassin in your group by the name of Bellamy Blake. You must be careful around him, do you understand." Jaha tried to warn me.
"Well, you're still alive, so he is not very good at being an assassin, is he, and I already knew he had been a great help. How he didn't kill you, I will never know oh well," I said, not bothered about his warning I can kill Bellamy with a single flick of a finger.
"Did you not hear me?" Jaha asked, confused.
"No, I heard you and let me be clear no one in the 100 likes you. You sent us down here to die while telling yourselves that it was a mission to see if the ground was livable, but you only did that to make yourselves feel better. You were like 90% sure we were all going to die. And let me asure you if any parents could have shot you to be with their kid on the dropship, lots of them would have done so." I replied coldly.
"Any other questions?" I asked.
"How long can you get food for?" Abby asked before a fight could start.
"Well, as long as we can hunt, then we can eat, and we are smoking meat to make it last longer. I hope that we can get some trade with the grounders in the future and learn about the land and the foods we can and can't eat. At the moment, we are not willing to risk eating anything in case we get poisoned. We know that red seaweed has antibiotic properties. Other than that, we have no real idea about the stuff we can or can't eat in terms of berries or nuts.
It seems the radiation has changed things unless deer always head two heads and the trees glowed in the dark, and I will guess they didn't.
As for if you send any more people down or when you come down yourselves, I would avoid landing near Mount Weather as that seems like a no go area to the grounders."
"It will be around a month before we can come to the ground. Do you know the kind of weapon the grounders use?" Jaha asked.
"Not really the one contact we had with them the grounder had thrown a spear from around 600 feet with pinpoint accuracy it could be they use swords and bows, or he could just be a hunter, and the warriors have guns for all we know. Not that we should be aiming to start a fight with them. They undoubtedly have 1000s in population. I am sure we can find a way to get along; they have not attacked since.
"That is something the council will decide at a later time. We will need to set up a radio schedule as the radio we sent down will only work when we are above the area you are in. It won't work when we are on the other side of the planet. Sinclair said that there would be a storm later today, and we will most likely not be able to contact each other, so tomorrow, leave the radio on.
"Will do. Can you check the old map and see if there are any bunkers on the maps that we can go to for real shelter and possible supplies as food isn't our biggest problem. It will be that we freeze to death before that happens.
"We will check over any maps and see what we can find. We are going to lose signal soon. We will be in contact later today, hopefully, or tomorrow. Jaha said.
"I want to ask if my son is still alive. You didn't mention who had died." Jaha asked nervously.
"Yes, both Wells and Clarke as still alive. It was stupid to send your son down with a group of people that hate you, however. And there were some close calls, but both of them are fine." I reassured them.
"I will talk more later today, hopefully, or tomorrow at the latest," I said, ending the chat and turning the radio off.
Well, now I wait for Bellamy and maybe punch him in the face for trying to screw me over. Listening around me other than the bugs, it was silent, no heartbeats around that sounded like human. I was sure at least one scout would check it out. I spent the next 4 hours waiting with Raven, the sun had started to come up, and I knew that Bellamy would be here so. Time to test him.
Looking at the radio, I cast the Gemino charm making a 2nd fake radio. I then cast the Bedazzling Hex to hide it from view before getting out of the drop pod and cast the Disillusionment Charm on myself. This was the first time I had tried it and saw that it wasn't invisibility but more chameleon hiding.
I decided to stand off to the side and wait. I was sure that the drop pod would draw all of Bellamy's attention, so he was unlikely to see me. Even when the spell wasn't done that well. I took another 15 minutes before Bellamy came into the clearing. He saw the dropship and opened the door, and started to look around.
"Where is the god damn radio!!" Bellamy shouted, frustrated he couldn't find it.
I let the Disillusionment Charm fade so that he would be able to see me when I called out to him.
"This radio, you mean?" I asked him, making him jump and look at the radio in my hand.
He looked me up and down before smirking. "Ya that radio hand it over. You don't have a gun to protect you. This time" he said, pulling out a knife.
"Nope, no gun, but I don't need one to deal with you. I thought we had an agreement," I said, letting out a deep sigh.
"Who are you kidding? Jaha will never let me live. Now hand it over!!" Bellamy shouted, walking up to me.
Once he was in arms, reach I punched him in the face making him stumble back. I leaned out of the way as he tried to swipe me with the knife. I grabbed his wrist as it missed me and twisted it, causing him to scream and drop the knife. Then throwing a punch into his stomach, knocking the wind out of him before laying one more punch into his face and knocking him out.
I felt bad for him. How could he know he was fighting a hybrid vampire? Add in my magic. He never stood a chance. I wondered if the Commander would be more fun to fight the Flame does augment her. Maybe it makes her a better fighter. Conjuring some rope, I tied his legs together and his arms behind his back. Moving back to the pod, I removed the Bedazzling Hex so the real radio was visible and used the finite charm to get rid of the magic copy I made.
Now I just need to wait for Clarke and Finn to show up, and then Clarke can make sure raven was okay. I did know some magic healing spells but none to check what injuries people had, and they were all minor healing spells and not made for potential brain injury. Best leave that to the expert.
Broken bones, minor wounds, deep wounds, and minor magical wounds, I can heal anything else. Well, I could have a good go at it via intent magic, but that is a last-ditch try. I didn't have the practice I needed with magic and did not have the time to do so.
I knew that Clarke and Finn would be a while, maybe thirty minutes or maybe more, so I decided to practice some magic while waiting.
The spell "Inanimatus Conjurus" will allow me to conjure small or medium items that are not too complex. It never said what complex meant, so I would have to start small and work my way up.
Thinking up something in my mind, I decided to start with a knife, a combat knife, something that I could use while fighting holding that image and focusing on it.
"Inanimatus Conjurus"
I felt something appear in my hand. I looked down and saw that the knife that I was thinking about was now in my hand. The blade felt just like real metal. The handle was comfy but sturdy; I tried stabbing it into a tree and the blade sunk into the bark. Closing my eyes again, I imagined a sheath for the knife.
"Inanimatus Conjurus"
And the sheath was in my hand with a clip to attach onto my belt just like I imagined. So simple items, and you can get more simple than a piece of metal and wood handle. It worked perfectly not sure how long it will last, though. I knew that gold was out of the possibilities, but silver can be conjured and maybe gemstones.
I decided to make two necklaces: a plain silver chain with a gemstone and another one with a complex and delicate chain with a few gems on the necklace. Thinking of the first necklace, I picked a simple chain with a teardrop ruby.
"Inanimatus Conjurus"
And the necklace appeared in my hand. Taking a good look at it with my vampire enhanced eyes, I couldn't pick up any flaws in the chain or the gemstone. I pulled the chain over my head to wear it.
Now the complex necklace, I thought of the main centrepiece. It would be a flower with each of the eight petals having three sapphires inside the petal and two diamonds on the outside of the petal. The centre stem will be a ruby, and the chain will be a rope twisting around its self keeping the design in my head clear.
"Inanimatus Conjurus"
I felt the necklace appear in my hand. I didn't think it would work, but it seems to be just as perfect as the first necklace. I just put the necklace in my pocket to give Charlotte when I get back to camp. I am sure she will love it. I decided to make another of the first necklace for Clarke, but this one had an emerald for the gemstone.
I could hear two people approaching. Took them long enough. I saw Clarke run into the clearing.
"Hey, your late good job. I got here first," I greeted Clarke while pointing at Bellamy, who was still out cold.
"He tried to get the radio?" Clarke asked.
"Ya, but I got here hours ago and had already talked to the ark; they said there is a storm going to hit us soon. Oh, there is someone in the pod who seem to have a head injury, so I waited for you in case they had neck damage, and I cripple them trying to help them. I hear Raven start to take her helmet off.
"Oh, speak of the devil. I think she has just woke up." I told Clarke, who ran to the pod and opened the door.
"Oh my god," Clarke said. Yep, that is how I want to be greeted on my first trip to earth.
"Hi?" Raven asked awkwardly. "I made it," She asked, looking confused or sceptical.
"Yep, welcome to earth perks include fresh air, unlimited water and food if you can hunt it." I welcomed Raven as she tried to get out of the pod. As she got out of the pod, she spread her arms and started to spin around while laughing to herself.
"I dreamed that it would smell like this. Is this rain?" She asked, amazed by everything around her.
"Hmm, it was rain the last time I checked," I told her with a smile on my face. Letting her bask in the moment.
"Oh, I used the radio to contact the ark earlier. They are out of range at the moment. They said it should be later tonight when they are back in range or tomorrow at the latest if the storm blocks the signal. But you could try and find stuff that boosts the range or something. I informed them both.
"So they are not going to do a culling?" They both asked me at the same time.
"Well, they didn't say that, but they have 4 months of air left and said they would be coming to the ground within the month, so I would guess they don't need to do a culling to make more air. I comforted both of them.
I heard Finn running into the clearing, and I knew at this point Clarke is going to get hurt, but I didn't think I could do anything about it. Not like I could walk up to her and say, don't sleep with Finn. Clarke would not take that well if I tried that.
I hear Finn run up and shout, "Raven." I watched as Raven looked at Finn before running up to him and giving Finn a hug. I saw Clarke's face fall as they embraced. I walked over to her and gave her a quick shoulder hug.
"Your bleeding," Finn told Raven worriedly.
"I don't care," Raven said, kissing Finn passionately.
"How did you get here?" Finn asked. Did he not see the massive escape pod behind Clarke and me…
"You know that big scrap hold, the one on K deck?" Raven told him.
"You built that from scrap?" Finn asked disbelievingly
"I kind of rebuilt it... It just needed a couple parts and some love." Raven told him.
"Well, while this reunion is nice, we need to get the radio and get back to camp and get it set up for tonight so we can contact them again." I jumped in.
"We also need to decide what we do with him," I said, pointing to Bellamy on the ground, who was no longer out cold.
I saw raven stumble, no doubt from the crash. "Come on, sit down. Sit down here." Finn said, worried.
"Let me get something for that." He said, running over to us as Clarke got a wet bandage to clean her head and a water bottle.
"I'm sorry." Finn tried to tell Clarke
"Let's not talk about this," Clarke whispered to him, still hurt. "She needs to put pressure on her wound," Clarke told Finn, trying to distract herself from the pain of seeing him with someone else.
"This is Clarke and Violet. They were on the dropship, too." Finn told Raven. No shit, we were on the dropship; how else would we get down here.
"Clarke? This was all because of your mom. This was all her plan." Raven said, standing up and looking at Clarke.
"My Mum?" Clarke asked, trying to piece everything together.
"We were trying to come down here together. If we waited... oh, my God. We couldn't wait because the council was voting whether to kill 300 people to save air." Raven informed them.
"We have to tell them you're alive," Raven said, starting to panic. I was a little more worried about the head injury now.
"Raven, calm down. I already talked to the Ark more than 2 hours ago; when you are cashed, they know we are alive." I told her, not wanting her to panic and hurt herself even more, I may not like Finn, but Raven I did like on the show.
"You sure it was the Ark you talked to?" Raven asked while calming down.
"Yep, I spoke to Abby Griffin, Jaha, Sinclair and Kane. They all know the ground is livable, and they said it would take maybe a month for the 1st dropship," I informed her as she was out of it when I told Clarke.
"Now, what to do with you," I asked Bellamy, turning around to face him.
"I thought we had an agreement, and now I see that it doesn't matter to you who you hurt as long as it is best for you. This leaves us with a problem what if it's best for you to kill Clarke or me." I said aloud, taking a pause.
Turning to look at Clarke, "What do you think we should do? I vote for killing him. He will turn on us at the drop of a hat," I asked her.
"We can't kill him!" Clarke replied, stunned. I saw Finn and Raven looking uneasy as well.
"Why if I wasn't here first, he would have destroyed the radio, and then 320 innocent people would have been killed because of this one backstabbing coward," I told her, remembering how many innocent people Bellamy killed in the show.
The count must have been over 1000 innocent lives. I know he killed around 400 people with Pike.
"No, we will let the Ark decide we will take him back to camp, and Jaha can decide his fate," Clarke said, with Finn and Raven nodding along.
"Fine, but I warn you he will stab you in the back the moment it's best for him to do so," I warned them.
"Why he wanted to destroy the radio, I have no idea. I'm sure Jaha would pardon him if he told him who asked to kill him and gave him the gun." I said
Looking back at Bellamy, "This is your last chance. If you stab us in the back again, I will kill you the moment I find out, and no one will stop me." I warned him, pulling out my knife. I cut the rope around his wrist.
"Right, let's get this radio and anything else that we can use and get back to camp. I am sure they are worried about where we are, and I know Charlotte wanted to practice archery with you, Clarke," I told everyone as Bellamy removed the rope from his ankles.
"I will get the radio. Nothing else is worth it in the pod, and there is still rocket fuel in the pod that could explode if we try to remove it," Raven warned us, standing up.
Finn and Raven went to salvage the radio from the pod and anything else that could come in hand like the cables and belts and tarp. Bellamy walked away from us but didn't leave the clearing waiting for everyone else. I guess walking alone with grounders possibly around didn't seem like a good idea to him.
"Here," I said to Clarke, passing her the necklace I made for her. She looked at it, amazed. I had to remember they probably didn't have stuff like this on the ark.
"Where," Clarke asked, looking at it.
"Hmm, I found it in a bunker under the ground along with the bows. There were three of them. I have one, you have one, and I saved one for Charlotte." I said, taking out the flower necklace and showing it to her.
"I think she will love it", Clarke said, slipping the necklace on.
"Thank you," Clarke said with a smile.
"Right, let's get back to camp. I am sure the grounders will be here soon, and I don't want a spear through my chest, and I doubt anyone else does either." I said, knowing it would take many hours to get back to camp at human walking speed. After all, Bellamy set off at night, and it took him about 5 hours to get here.
Clarke walked next to me the whole way back, not wanting to be near Finn or Bellamy. Both Raven and Finn were in a world of their own and wasn't really paying attention to anyone else around them and were catching up. I saw Clarke taking glances at Finn every now and again on the way back.
Bellamy was walking behind us and seemed to be in deep thought. I hope he was thinking about being part of the camp and help us all survive and not about his own skin. Maybe he was thinking that Jaha will pardon him for the information he has, or perhaps he was thinking about how to stab us in the back again. I wasn't sure, but I would not let him have a third chance if it isn't the first two.
It was late afternoon. By the time we got back to camp on the way back, there were far more grounders watching us than ever before, but the drop pod must have spooked them or made them take a much bigger interest in us. They still didn't attack or try and contact us.
By the time I got back, Charlotte ran up to me, jumped into my arms, and gave me a hug. I could tell me being gone for so long caused her to worry. I hugged her back.
"Hey, I told you that I would be back", I comforted her.
Looking at Clarke, "We need to give an announcement", I told her.
"EVERYONE GATHER UP!" I shouted, getting everyone's attention.
I watched as the entire group gathered up and sat down near the firepit we had made.
"The Ark sent someone down with a radio, and we have made contact. They said the first drop ship will take around a month to get here. We will be setting the radio up, and later tonight, we can hopefully get some of you to talk you your family and friends. The Ark did warn of a storm either tonight or tomorrow, so start moving things into the dropship so that we are ready." I announced to everyone.
This got cheers from most of the 100 who had friends and family on the Ark still and wanted to talk to them.
"Right, let's everyone get back to work. The wall is nearly done, so amazing work on that, everyone," I congratulated them.
Walking over to charlotte, who was practising with her bow, I tapped her on the shoulder.
"I have got you a gift," I told her as she turned around to look at me, pulling the necklace out and showing it to her.
"This is for me," She asked, disbelieving.
"Yep do you like it," I asked as I clipped the necklace around her neck.
She jumped on me with tears in her eyes. "Thank you, Thank you, Thank you", Charlotte sobbed into me as she hugged me.
Clarke and Wells walked up to us behinds us. "I told you she would like it", Clarke said.
"That you did. I guess you're here to try your hand at archery," I asked them.
I handed my bow over to Clarke. "Ladies first then."