“Don’t worry about them,” Sasha said cheerfully. “They’ll come around.”
Up ahead, a tall man was standing with two women, who were talking animatedly, clearly arguing. He listened to them both, nodding gravely and saying little. He had close-shaved hair and a gray beard, with pronounced hollows underneath his sharp cheekbones. Yet despite his somewhat gaunt appearance, he radiated strength. As his eyes fell on Sasha, Clarke, and Bellamy, he excused himself from the women and strode forward with powerful, purposeful steps.
“Dad.” Sasha stopped in front of him. “These are the Colonists I told you about.”
“I’m Clarke.” Clarke stepped forward, extending her hand without thinking about it. She still didn’t know whether she could trust these people, but something about the man compelled her to be polite. “And this is Bellamy.”
“Max Walgrove,” he said, shaking her hand firmly, then reaching over to do the same to Bellamy.
“I’m looking for my sister,” Bellamy said without preamble. “Do you know where she is?”
Max nodded, his brow furrowed. “A little over a year ago, a few members of our community broke off, believing that they’d be better off living by their own rules. They were the ones who took your sister—and most unfortunately, killed those two kids.”
Next to her, Clarke could sense Bellamy growing frustrated. He clenched and unclenched his fists, and when he spoke again, his face strained with the effort of keeping his voice steady. “Yeah, Sasha keeps mentioning this other ‘faction’ you have running around. But so far, no one’s been able to tell me how the hell I’m supposed to find my sister.” He crossed his arms and surveyed the Earthborn leader through narrowed eyes. “And how do I know you’re not the one who took her?”
Clarke tensed and tried to give Bellamy a warning look. But Sasha’s father seemed more amused than insulted by Bellamy’s accusatory tone. He turned to glance over his shoulder at a field enclosed by a wooden fence. On the far side, a group of children seemed to be playing tag. Max raised his hand in the air, and they all began running toward them.
As they came closer, Clarke realized that they weren’t all children. An older girl was with them, her long dark hair streaming behind her as she ran, laughing, across the field.
“Octavia!” Bellamy broke into a sprint, and in a flash, he’d swept her into his arms. He was too far away for Clarke to hear, but by the way his shoulders were moving, he was either laughing or sobbing. Possibly both at the same time.
A strange mix of feelings welled up in Clarke’s chest as she watched the reunion. She was overjoyed that Octavia was safe, but part of her ached thinking about the reunion that she might never get to have.
Blinking away tears, she turned back to Max and Sasha. “Thank you,” she said. “How did you find her?”
Max explained how he’d sent a team to keep watch on the rebels. When he learned that they had kidnapped a Colonist, they staged an attack to get her back. “We just rescued her last night,” he explained. “I was going to escort her to your camp myself today, but then you found us.” There was a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth, as though he was trying to keep from smiling.
“I don’t know how I can ever thank you enough,” Bellamy said, walking over with Octavia. “You saved her.”
“You can thank me by keeping your group in line this time, and by keeping to yourselves. Sasha’s told me that you’re good people and that you treated her well, but I can’t risk another tragedy.”
“What happened last time, exactly?” Clarke asked tentatively. She was desperate to ask about her parents, but she needed to hear the whole story first.
“A little over a year ago, one of your dropships crashed about ten kilometers from here. We’d always known about the Colony, but there’d never been any way to communicate, so coming across strangers from space was a bit… startling. But they were in bad shape, so we tried to help the survivors. We gave them food, shelter, access to our hospital—whatever they needed. They’d been sent to this location because they knew about Mount Weather, which they hoped would provide shelter and supplies. Of course, they hadn’t expected anyone to be living here.”
“Do you know what brought them to Earth?” Clarke asked. “The mission was secret. None of us knew anything about it until Sasha told us.”
Max nodded. “They’d been sent to test Earth’s radiation levels, to determine if the planet could support human life again. We made that part easy for them, of course.”
“Who were they?” Clarke cut in. “Were they volunteers, or scientists, or prisoners like us?”
Max frowned, but to his credit, he answered her question without pressing the point. “Most seemed hesitant to discuss their pasts, but I gathered that they weren’t exactly model citizens. Not criminals, exactly, or I suppose they would’ve been killed. Or floated—as I’ve heard it.” He grimaced slightly, then continued. “More like people who could disappear without causing much attention.”
Clarke nodded, taking the information in. “And after they arrived here?” she prompted.
“In the crash landing, they lost the ability to send messages back to the Colony. None of them had ever imagined they’d be separated from the ship indefinitely. So I suppose tensions started to run high. We hadn’t planned on making them permanent members of our community, and they certainly hadn’t counted on staying here forever.” He paused for a moment, and then his face hardened. “I still think it was an accident, what happened with the child. But not everyone saw it that way. All they knew was that one of our children—a little boy—had taken a few of the Colonists fishing. He volunteered to show them our best fishing hole, proud to be useful, but when they finally came home at dusk…” Max winced at the memory. “They were carrying his small body between them. He’d drowned, the poor boy.” He sighed. “I’ll never forget the sound of his mother’s screams when she saw him.”
“It was an accident,” Sasha said hollowly. “I know it was. Tommy slipped off that rock, but none of the Colonists knew how to swim. They tried to save him. Remember how wet they all were? They said that blond woman practically drowned herself trying to get to him.”
“Perhaps,” Max continued. “But they seemed more defensive than sorry. And that’s when the fighting started. A number of our people—the family of that boy, the same group who came after your group as soon as you landed—refused to give them any more food, said they needed to go fend for themselves. I suppose the Colonists got scared, but they went about it the wrong way. Started stealing, hoarding, even threatening people with violence. At the end, I didn’t have a choice. They had to be banished.
“It was a… difficult sentence to carry out. I knew most of them were good people. And I knew they didn’t stand much of a chance out there on their own. But I never thought that when I delivered the sentence, they would fight back. And of course, after that, I had to defend my people. I didn’t have a choice.”
“So they’re all dead?” Clarke asked quietly.
“Except for the couple, the doctors. They left before things got bad, said they disapproved of the way the other Colonists were behaving. They wanted to strike out on their own, see as much of the planet as possible.”
“Doctors?” Clarke repeated, forcing the word out as the air drained from her lungs. She reached out for something to grab on to and felt Bellamy at her side, steadying her with his strong arms.
“Clarke, are you okay?” he asked.
“Were they… do you remember their names?” She closed her eyes, suddenly afraid to see the look on Sasha’s father’s face when he heard the question. “Was it Griffin?”
But she had to look. When she opened her eyes, the Earthborn leader was nodding. “Yes. David and Mary Griffin, I remember.”
Clarke laughed, then gasped as the weight that had been pressed against her chest for the last six months broke apart. Her face was wet; she reached up a hand and realized that she was crying. She wasn’t alone on Earth.