chapter 40

Maya had turned around at the sound of the bed creaking and she grabbed the medical frock Clarke was wearing before pushing it down a chute in the wall.

Maya looked at Clarke and said,"Let's go, President Wallace has probably been expecting you for a while."

Clarke didn't really respond, but she followed after Maya as the girl guided her out of Medical. They walked towards the elevator and Clarke followed after Maya as the girl pressed a button and the elevator began to move towards it's destination.

Finally, the elevator stopped and Clarke followed after Maya as she began to walk down a winding path of corridors. Clarke knew that she was running out of time for her plan.

Clarke knew that she had to leave it to the lat minute and once they'd made one last turn, they were outside the office of Dante. The wooden door was closed and there was a large eagle in flight emblazoned on the wall. There was a plaque that said Commander-in-chief below that in uppercase letters.

"If his door is closed at this time then President Wallace is probably in a meeting at the moment so we should sit here and wait while he wraps up his meeting,"said Maya as she gestured towards the chairs in the corridor that were lined up opposite the door.

Clarke knew now was the time to act so she turned towards Maya and gave her a hug saying,"Thank you so much for everything, Maya. It's been hard to adjust, but you've made it bearable. I feel so...alone..."

Maya was shell shocked to say the least and she did practically nothing as Clarke hugged her tightly. In the end, she decided to return the hug and said,"You know what? I know this cool place that I think you'll like. I've already taken Jasper there and he said you would like what was there. How's that sound?"

Clarke slowly stepped away from Maya. Tears were streaming down her eyes and she said,"I'm sorry. It's just been a lot. Bellamy's death and the reapers and just everything."

Maya looked like she was going to console Clarke, but she stopped when Clarke said,"It's fine I can wait out here by myself. I just need some time to think and process everything on my own before I go inside for my meeting. Haven't had much time to do that."

Maya nodded sympathetically and she gave Clarke a small hug before stepping around the other girl and walking away from the office. Clarke sat down on one of the chairs in the corridor and she allowed the tears to fall until Maya finally turned the corner.

Immediately, Clarke's face changed from one of sadness to one of sheer confusion. The acclimatisation period appeared to be over and the tears that Clarke had pulled from her tears ducts using her water control were wiped away quickly.

Insight was an amazing gift. It gave her a clear understanding of the makeup of whatever she used it on. She had used it for the most part to check for the powers people had, but that was simply scratching the surface.

The Mountain Men had gotten the short straw when it came to evolution. That's what Insight had shown her while she had been hugging Maya. Maya's body couldn't process radiation at all and it wasn't a disease or anything. Her scan had shown her that Maya was perfectly healthy. This was probably a result of the Mountain Men presumably staying in the Mountain since the war.

This was why they hadn't expanded their territory. They couldn't leave the Mountain for fear of dying from exposure to the ambient radiation on Earth.

The other strange thing was that Maya had Nanobots in her system despite being amazed by the images of Clarke's own powers, but they were completely inert. It was almost as if they had been shut down completely from an external force similar to what the Ark had done after the Blight with gene editing machines.

That was what confused Clarke the most however. If they had access to gene editing methods, why haven't the Mountain Men used them to cure them of their extreme weakness to radiation. Surely they had a way to counteract such a debilitating condition.

The door to the office opened and Clarke's eyes were drawn to see Dante along with a young man with pale skin and brown man exit the room. Their conversation was cut short as Dante looked away from the other man and saw Clarke looking at him expectantly.

The other man had fallen silent too and he followed the gaze of Dante to see him looking at Clarke.

"Ah, Clarke,"said Dante before he gestured to the man next to him,"This is Cage, my son. Cage, this is–"

"Clarke Griffin, "said Cage as he held out his hand for Clarke to shake,"It's nice to finally meet you. I've heard a lot about you."

Cage seemed like a very charming and articulate man. He smiled disarmingly and Clarke returned his smile as she reached out to shake his hand. His gaze held curiosity, but unlike Dr Tsing it didn't put Clarke on edge.

Quite the opposite actually. It actually reminded her more of Maya than anything.

The thought of Maya made Clarke remember what she had learned about the genetic makeup of the inhabitants of Mount Weather and she decided to use Insight on Cage. Her suspicions were confirmed as she detected the Mountain Men's weakness to radiation, but it also told her something else she didn't quite understand when she contrasted it to Maya.

Clarke let go and after Cage bade her and Dante farewell and she followed after Dante into his office. They were traces of something in Cage's system that somehow boosted the activity of the nanobots in him.

She hadn't had the time to detect how many or even what powers he had, but Clarke was certain that his powers, however many he may have, were active.

Clarke put those thoughts out of her mind as she sat down opposite Dante. The office had many paintings in it and they all drew her eye as she looked over the intricate sketches and paintings.

"We have quite the collection of paintings in Mount Weather, "said Dante after he allowed Clarke to admire the paintings, "Centuries ago, this facility had been built as a bunker for the president in case of war and also to protect various paintings in national museums. "

Clarke didn't say anything in response, but she had turned to Dante to indicate that she was giving him her full attention.

"This was just one of various bunkers across the USA that the president was meant to occupy,"said Dante as he looked around the office,"Unfortunately, the president and the vast majority of high-ranking government officials had not made it here on time. The people that are here today are a mix of the descendants of Mount Weather's staff at the time of the bombings and also those that were lucky enough to be let in."

It went unsaid that there were people who had been turned away from the Mountain.

Dante seemed to have noticed the look on Clarke's face as he said, "It was harsh of them, yes, however we weren't even sure if the resources we had were sufficient for those already inside Mount Weather. We only took in people that gave us a chance to survive. Engineers, mechanics, doctors... anything that would allow the human race to thrive even once the radiation dialled down."

Dante paused before he looked at a picture of a landscape,"That had been painted by my 5th grandmother. She had been President at the time when we had begun to suspect there were people who had survived the radiation. "

Clarke paid rapt attention as Dante continued the story of Mount Weather's past. There had been barely any mention of the Grounders and Clarke had been constantly fighting to remind herself to not ask about Anya. The fact that she had only seen delinquents and locals of Mount Weather didn't exactly ease her worries.

"She had thought that the ground had finally become habitable, "said Dante and he sighed before continuing on to say,"We were wrong. Ironically, the very same people who had been rejected by Mount Weather ended up developing immunity to the ambient radiation of the Earth now. The doors were opened and many of our people had died as our bodies had not adjusted to the radiation levels of the Earth thanks to us being sequestered in here."