Chapter 11

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Without so much as saying a word to anyone about leaving, the five of them disappeared, on a hunt for something Wells has only learned and seen in books. Addison just hopes he's right about this stuff being seaweed and they're not on some wild goose chase. Her feet had started to ache long ago, and her legs have quickly become sore and tired from all the hiking and running around she's been doing lately.

She trails quietly behind Clarke, bored out of her mind, with the three boys behind her. Every once in a while, she'll bend down and grab a rock or something and throw it at a tree, or pull leaves off passing ferns and other plants that have stained her hands green from picking at the leaves until there's nothing left.

"You know, you should, uh, really rethink this whole hating me thing." Wells casually states from behind her. Addison scoffs inaudibly at the fact they've barely made it 15 minutes without Wells attempt of striking a conversation with Clarke. For once, she just wishes they could have a nice, quiet walk in the woods without conversation. "It's not just the Grounders. We're surrounded by criminals. We need each other." Addison steps over a log with a heavy sigh, knowing full well that Wells is delusional if he thinks his and Clarke's friendship will ever return to how it used to be, before all that stuff happened to her and her father. "We're gonna be friends again."

"Pffft...doubt it." Addison mumbles under her breath with a roll of her eyes.

"You got my dad killed. Not possible." Clarke proves her point with a stern voice, keeping her eyes on the trail in front of her.

Wells disagrees with a heavy sigh, "This is Earth, Clarke. Anything's possible."

Addison climbs up the steep slope, gripping onto a tree for support. She looks over her shoulder just as Finn jogs up the slope behind Wells and passes him, quietly speaking to him as he does so, "I'd let it go." Finn gets in front of Wells and comes to her side, with Dawson on her other side.

They exchange knowing looks, both irritated at the banter they're in the middle of. "Yeah." Wells pauses and meets Addison's eyes at her comment.

She averts them to Clarke's back, listening to their conversation. "Well, I've known Clarke her whole life better than you ever will, so, I'll decide when to let it go."

"I'd let it go," Dawson tells him simply.

Finn agrees, "Yeah, I can tell you guys are close." As soon as the words roll off his tongue, a thud comes from under his foot.

He stops, as well as Addison and Dawson, looking down. "Do it again," she kneels next to his foot as he steps on it a couple times.

"What is it?" She glances at Clarke with a small shrug before turning her attention back to whatever it is.

Finn's adventurous brown eyes look down into Addison's, "Stand back. Just in case," he tells her softly.

"Finn's right." Dawson agrees, watching as her lips part to protest.

Addison reluctantly nods and stands up in sight confusion, taking a couple steps back next to Wells. She didn't know why Finn's all of a sudden acting like, 'big brother'. Every since their exchange in the woods when looking for Mount Weather, he's been acting weird towards her.

Her and Wells glance at each other as Finn begins to move the vegetation off it. Whatever it is, it sounds like metal. Finn uncovers enough for Addison to finally make out an old, red metal door of some kind that's seen better days.

Finn grabs onto something and tries yanking it, but it won't budge. "Dawson, Addison, come help me with this." He grunts, trying again.

"What happened to me staying back?" His eyes shift to hers with a 'really' look. She lifts her up in surrender, "Okay, okay. I'm coming," She moves between him Dawson, digging her fingers under the once shiny handle next to his and Dawson's. "Ready, go."

They grunt, lifting it up with all our might. Finally, it moves and lifts up. Finn and Dawson takes over and hold it above their heads as they peer into what Addison makes out is an old car. "Ha!"

She stares down into it in amazement, Wells finally joining them. "It's an automobile." He says just as astonished as the rest of the group is. From what Addison can see, besides the dirt and dust that littered inside of it, it wasn't in bad shape. The black, what looks to be, leather seats are still in fairly good condition which surprises her since the car's a hundred years old, if not older before the bombs.

"Come on, guys." Clarke ruins the moment, "This thing's been here a hundred years, alright?"

"Way to kill the moment, Clarke." Addison rocks her head to the side with a raised eyebrow and looks at her with pressed lips.

Clarke's blue eyes move to Addison's, "It can wait. Jasper can't," she finishes softly, now meeting all of their eyes.

She hurries off as Addison looks back down into the old car with a sigh, knowing she's right. They should be trying to find this Seaweed as fast as possible for Jasper, not exploring old Earth history. She puts her hands on her knees and stands up, glancing at the boys one last time before catching up to Clarke.

They walk side by side in silence, enjoying the sounds of nature. "Do you really think you can save Jasper?" Addison asks her quietly, flickering her eyes to Clarke.

She doesn't hesitant to nod, "I do. If we can find this, Seaweed, I will be able to save him." Her voice was strong and determined, anyone would want to believe her, and Addison truly does.

Addison nods, falling silent by her side again. The wind begins to blow softly, rustling the tops of the huge trees. Birds begin to chirp, drowning out our silence and footsteps. As if it's instinctive of her to do, she looks up and smiles all around the forest, her heart warming at the familiar sounds.

"Hey, Addison."

She stops and looks over her shoulder at Finn, waiting for him to catch up. Once he does, she resumes her walk, flickering her eyes to him, "What's up?"

"What did you say you got arrested for, again?" He questions slowly in a soft voice, meeting her eyes.

She averts them to the forest floor, sticking her hands in her jacket pockets. "Someone set me up, but the Ark never said what I apparently did to get arrested. I assumed it was for theft, but they would've said that."

She sees him nod out of the corner of her eye, putting his head down. "I'm sorry for asking."

Addison softly smiles at him and shakes her head, "It's okay, Finn."

He presses his lips together and returns it, before silence engulfs the five of them once again. Finn had moved up to Clarke while Dawson and Addison wakes by one another again. No one says a thing until they reach a slow moving river. An island of small, white rocks litter most of the river as a bank from the tree line to the water. Logs lay in some parts of the water and bank, with the water almost clear all the way to the bottom on the deeper parts, being able to see its' rocky bottom.

Finn's the first to step out of the safety of the woods, then Wells Clarke, Dawson and Addison last. With each step they take towards the water, the rocks shift into one another under their boots. She stops by Finn and closes her eyes, finding the sound of the water flowing against the rocks very relaxing, and peaceful.

"So, what does this Seaweed look like?" Clarke questions, causing her eyes to open.

Addison crosses her arms and looks down stream, hearing someone shift up stream more. "Like that." She turns around and sees Wells looking at a few bright reddish, pink spots floating somewhat near the bank. "Hey, that thing that bit Octavia, how-how big was it?" Wells questions, his eyes landing on Addison.

"Uh, big." She responds, shuddering at the memories.

Finn unclips the small bag from around his shoulders, kneeling into the rocks while messing with the bag, "We could rig this into some kind of a net." Addison walks up to him, stopping next to him as he continues fiddling with it, "Find something to lower it into the water."

"I'll find something," Dawson says, beginning to walk towards the woods again.

Clarke then moves forward and walks straight into the water, without a care of a serpent thing attacking her. Addison crosses her arms in slight shock with raised eyebrows, "No need too, Dawson. Clarke's method works too..." she trails off, looking at Dawson.

"Or we could just do that." He says blankly.

Dawson shrugs, "Yeah, that...definitely works too." He walks back over, standing by Addison as they all avert their eyes to Clarke.

Clarke grabs a large bundle of Seaweed then begins to come back to shore. She makes it about halfway when all of a sudden, birds begin to randomly start squawking. Addison turns her attention away from Clarke and to the sky behind them, hearing Clarke hurry out of the water. A large flock of black birds fly from above the trees on the other side of the stream and fly straight towards them, fast. She ducks down, holding her arms above her head as they fly over the small group.

As quick as they came, they were gone. "Let's get out of here." Wells hurriedly says as they all stand up in confusion.

"You don't have to tell me twice," Addison whispers out, looking at Clarke, "Come on."

She steps forward and begins to shove the Seaweed in the bag Finn has. A deep bellow is then heard, echoing throughout the forest—a bellow Addison doesn't like this one bit. Their heads snap to where the sound's coming from, which is in the same direction as the birds.

Clarke finishes shoving it in her bag and looks at the group, "Grounders?"

"It could be a war cry?" Wells hypothesizes.

"Or a warning." Finn slings the bag over his shoulder.

The horn blows again just as a loud, rumbling sound comes from the same direction the birds came from, drowning out the bellow. Addison's eyes widen in fear—a very large, thick orangish yellow cloud quickly advances towards them, sounding like thunder with small strikes of lighting in the mix.

"What the hell is that?" Wells questions quickly.

"That's a warning blow. Definitely a warning blow!" Addison rushes out, taking steps back just as the cloud thing reaches them and spreads onto the rocks in a fog.

"Run. Run!"

Finn's the first to run, then Wells and Dawson trailing behind him. She pushes Clarke in front of herself, quickly looking over her shoulder as the fog begins to reach her heels, causing her to cough uncontrollably and slow down. "Addison, come on! Faster!" Clarke yells, slowing down.

"N-no!" Addison reaches her and shoves her forward, "Don't stop! Keep going!"

Clarke stumbles forward and glances over her shoulder at Addison, beginning to run once more. The boys and Clarke rush up the bank quickly, disappearing over it. Her heart begins racing in fear that she won't make it as the fog gets up and around her ankles and her coughing fits begin to worsen, slowing her down.

"Addison!"

She blindly runs, searching for where Dawson's voice is coming from until his body collides with hers. He grabs her arm and directs her deeper into the woods, stopping at an opened door. The door to the car they'd found.

"Dawson, hurry!" Clarke's shouts were barely audible, the fog storm being much louder than her.

Dawson drags her in front of him as Wells and Finn continue to hold the door for Addison and Dawson. She jumps into the car and practically falls into Clarke just as the door shuts.

Clarke awkwardly catches her and helps her stand, continuing to cough as she begins to slowly start catching her breath. "It's getting inside." She hurriedly states, leaving Addison's side.

"We need to seal it!" Dawson shouts over the commotion, coughing as well.

Ignoring her screaming lungs and itchy throat, Addison strips off her jacket and shoves it into the crack of the door where they entered. She looks around as everyone begins doing the same. Once all the cracks were sealed, they settled down on the ground, catching their breaths. Addison leans against the metal siding on Clarke's left and close her eyes, still coughing, but not as bad as before. Her ankles begin to burn, a soft groan escaping her lips.

"You okay?" Clarke asks, looking at her worriedly.

Addison nods ever so slightly, swallowing the dryness in her throat. "Yeah—" the word tickles her throat, causing her to release a dry cough that burns her throat.

Clarke sighs softly, "Try not to talk." Addison nods and leans her head against the metal wall with a soft thud.

The exhaustion finally sinks in, her body wanting nothing more than to just shut out the rest of the world and their problems. She opens her eyes, fighting to stay awake and listens to the fog beating down on the car. With a heavy sigh, she bends her neck down and gathers up her hair, putting it in a ponytail before bringing her knees to her chest. Addison rests an arm over them and begins to draw random shapes and symbols into the dust next to her.

Her mind wonders to their new home, wondering if this deadly fog stuff made it that far. If it did, she hopes and prays Liam, Octavia, Monty and Jasper are safe and were able to lock themselves in the dropship on time.

"Clarke..." she groans, the blonde's attention immediately moving to her. "Can you check my ankles? I think the fog burned them."

Clarke nods and carefully unlaced her boots and takes them off, then her socks. She rolls her pant leg up and small burns cover her ankles. "They're small. You'll be ok," she tells the girl softly.

Addison nods and rests her head back against the dropship, feeling Clarke ever so gently put her socks and shoes back in for her. Her head then snaps up as Finn begins to move to the front of the car, stepping over Dawson's legs. Finn looks around it then finds something to pry some compartment open up. He begins working on that for a while, trying to make the time pass just as fast as we want it too. Addison looks back down and scratches out what she had previously drawn, beginning a new one.

Out of boredom, she begins to hum a tune her parents used to sing all the time under her breath. "It's still out there." Finn states, stopping his actions at prying the compartment open.

Addison's eyes flicker up to him, his eyes peering up through a window above his head. She looks back down and continues humming and drawing, hearing him go back to work on the compartment. "Look, we should just make a run for it. Jasper can't wait much longer." Clarke rushes out.

"Us dying in a cloud of acid fog isn't gonna help Jasper." Finn replies softly, stopping his movements for a brief second then goes back to prying it. Addison's head snaps up when Finn gets the compartment open.

"Is that—"

"Booze." Finn looks it and spins the bottle around, reading it. "Hooch. Rotgut."

"Sounds intriguing." Addison rasps out and leans forward, "I want some." Her hands reach for the bottle, catching Clarke's attention.

"No." She moves Addison's hand away from the bottle, "You need water, not booze." She scolds her like a child. Addison narrows her eyes at her as she sightly tilts her head to the side in annoyance.

"Well this is the next best thing." Finn says, stepping over Dawson's legs once again and steps around Clarke and Addison. He sits down across from Wells and next to Addison, breaking open the bottle.

"Smells better than the stuff back on the Ark," Dawson eyes the bottle in Finn's hands across from Addison.

Addison's lips curl into a small smile at his comment, her eyes flickering between the bottle of booze in Finn's hand and Clarke, "It's a liquid. Just like water, Clarke." She states dryly, her eyes stopping on the bottle before rolling her head to the side to look at Clarke once more.

Her lips part, ready to scold Addison again, but her eyes widen and quickly flicker to Finn. "Careful. Finn, it could be—"

He looks at her and cuts her off, his face scrunched up from the alochol, "Whiskey, I think." Addison releases an amused laugh, along with Dawson, at Finn's reaction as she crosses her arms, "Dawson's right. Better than the moonshine on Agro Station."

"I'll be the judge of that." Before anyone, specifically Clarke, can say anything, Addison swipes the bottle out of Finn's hands and takes a long sip. Her face scrunches up like Finn's did as she looks at the bottle with raised eyebrows, "This ain't half bad, actually." She looks between Finn and Dawson, raising the bottle up to him, "They're right."

Dawson smiles and nudging her with his foot, "Told ya."

She smirks and rocks her head back to take another drink, but the bottle gets swiped from her hand. "Give me that."

Addison sighs heavily and narrows her eyes at Clarke, giving her a 'really' look. "Alcohol's toxic." Her eyes drift to Wells, who looks at the bottle in distaste.

"This is Earth. Everything's toxic." Finn states, "Plus, it's a time-honoured rite of passage." He humoursly laughs out.

Addison joins his soft laughter with a smirk as Wells responds, not missing a beat, "We'll pass." He answers for himself and Clarke.

Dawson sarcastically chuckles, crossing his arms, "Clarke's her own person. She can do whatever she wants," he defends her.

Addison looks over at Clarke, who gives him a dirty look in annoyance. "Far be it from me to stand in the way of tradition." She rocks her head back and takes a longer sip than both Finn and Addison did, coughing slightly then sighs, looking at Wells with an unreadable expression.

Addison scoffs softly with laugh, "You should stop making decisions for her," her eyes meet Wells' as she gestures to Clarke with her eyes, "She's a big girl."

He clenches his jaw and leans his head against the side, ignoring her comment and stares up at the metal roof above their heads. "On that note...." Addison drawled out, turning her attention away from Wells and to Clarke. More specifically to the bottle in her hands. She extends her arm out, her hand reaching for the bottle, "Give me that—" her hand stops mere inches away from the bottle, giving Clarke a look as she points her index finger at her, "—and don't be a hypocrite, Griffin."

She scoffs softly, rolling her eyes and basically puts the bottle in her hands. Addison's lips curl into a playful smirk she usually keeps reserved, for Liam and recently Octavia, as she swirls the liquid around in the bottle before taking a long drink. She looks at Dawson, lifting it up as a gesture if he wanted any. He leans forward and takes the bottle, taking a sip too as Addison begin to relax more, already feeling the affects of the whiskey.