Chapter 2

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All Addison and her mother talked about was Earth and what it would be like to live there. No rules to follow, have as many children and as big of a family as you wanted. No limits.

Addison never thought she'd live to be on the ground, but now that she's actually here, guilt and sadness drowned her happiness. Guilt that she's on Earth without her mother, like she promised. Sad that her mother's not experiencing this moment alongside her and that she unwillingly left behind her father; one  of the two most important people in her life that she cherished more than anything since her mother's passing.

Addison bowed her head in shame and found the dark soil that surrounded her dark brown boots more interesting. Her hair fell around her face, creating a curtain of brown that hid her face from everyone and every beautiful thing Earth had to offer.

The delinquent's happy cheers fell deaf to Addison's ears. All she could hear was the voice of her mother, saying those same words that have been haunting her for a year.

"When I die, please don't cry for me because I'm gone. Cry because this chapter has ended and your story is beginning. Think of this chapter as a prologue to a wonderful story. Find someone to love and settle down with for the rest of your life, someone you love wholeheartedly that you wouldn't be able to live without, whether it be on Earth or in the stars —but I do hope it is on Earth."

Those are the last words Addison remembered her mother saying. It's like she knew she was dying.

A tear slipped from Addison's eyes, down her cheek and dropped onto her boot with a soft drip. She sniffled and wiped the tear trail. Tilting her up, she rocked her shoulder backs and recomposed herself. Addison scanned her surroundings to get her mind off her mother and found Clarke.

Hunched over the dropship ramp, she stared intently at something between her hands. Addison stuck her hands in the jacket pockets of the jacket the guardsman gave her, and walked over, but still kept her eye out for Liam.

On the trek to Clarke, Addison tied her hair up in a loose ponytail, leaving the few stubborn strands hanging that won't simply stayed tied. She stopped next to Clarke and peered over her arm on her toes to see a map. Clarke drew lines all over it with a small chunk of charcoal from the crash, and a thin straight piece of metal from the dropship.

Addison kept her gaze on the map, "What are you doing?"

Clarke spared Addison a glance before she turned back to the map. "See this here?" she pointed to a spot in the map, and Addison nodded while mumbling a quiet 'yeah'. "That's where we are . . ." Clarke then trailed her index along the faint line she had drawn to another spot that read 'Mount Weather' in red letters, " . . . and this is Mount Weather."

Addison folded her arms across her chest and shifted her weight to one leg, "The Ark screwed us again." She sighed and met Clarke's gaze, "How far do you think Mount Weather is?"

Clarke shook her head, "Less than a hundred miles. Fifty at the most. I haven't finished mapping it yet."

Addison nodded, leaned her lower back against the ramp, and crossed one leg over the other that bared most of her weight on one leg again. She glanced over the map again as Clarke measure distances. "Ironic how the Ark sent a hundred of us here to only land less than a hundred miles southwest of our 'supposed'—" she air quoted, "—drop sight." Clarke cracked the smallest of smiles and looked in Addison's direction.

Addison's face dropped at the approaching delinquent. Wells stopped between her and Clarke, "We got problems," Addison briefly met Wells's gaze before he averted his attention back to Clarke. "The communications system is dead. I went to the roof, and a dozen panels are missing. Heat fried the wires," he informed.

A group of delinquents laughed and talked amongst themselves. Each of them showed one another a piece of Earth they've collected; one boy, that looked to be only 14-years-old, held up some kind of rock. Addison watched them, "Earth is just getting loads better," she muttered under her breath, her comment being ignored by the quarrelling ex-best friends.

"Well, all that matters right now is getting to Mount Weather. See? Look," Addison look. She knew the command wasn't for her, but she was curious. Clarke showed Wells what she showed Addison only minutes ago, "This is us," she marked it and drew over a connecting line that made it darker, "this is where we need to get if we want to survive."

Addison moved her gaze to Wells, to see if followed along, and he did. Wells's forehead creased, "Where'd you learn to do that?" Addison didn't fail to notice Clarke's change in expression as she shifted her blue-eyes to Addison. "Your father," Wells had said quietly. Clarke averted her gaze from Addison, and Addison's jaw clenched in aggravation from Wells's stupidity.

Everyone on the Ark knew of Clarke and Wells's friendship. Even a low class teenager like Addison knew.

Addison pushed herself off the ramp and moved to stand in front of Clarke. "You knew damn well where she learned it, so back off, Jaha. She doesn't need to go down memory lane," she defended Clarke, who she barely knew, all because of the familiar loss she and Clarke shared —the loss of a parent.

Before Wells could utter anything, another delinquent did. "Ah, cool, a map." Addison flickered her hard gaze.

A tall, slender boy stood by them. Thick brown locks that reminded her of Liam's hair, only this kid's shade of brown is lighter like her own, and goggles are on his head.

The kid flickered his matching brown eyes between the three, smiling, "They got a bar in this town?" he shifted his gaze to Clarke and Addison. "I'll buy you both a beer."

Flattered, Addison's face softened, and she smiled. Her shoulders relax, and for a moment, she wasn't angry, until Wells ruined the kid's flirting attempts. He grabbed his arm, "You mind?"

The brown-haired boy backed up from Wells pushing him, "Whoa .  .  ."

Addison grabbed Wells's and ripped his hand from the kid's, "You got a problem? He was being friendly." Wells scanned her in distaste, "A trait you should learn."

Wells clenched his jaw and moved to grab her arm, but his hand never reached. "Hey, hey, hey! Hands off them. They're with us."

Addison's gaze drifted to find none other than John Murphy. She groaned; he's worse than Wells Jaha. "Butt out, Murphy." She folded her arms in defence and glanced behind Murphy. A few male delinquents trailed him, "We don't need you or your goons."

Murphy smirked. "Relax." All eyes moved to Wells, who slowly put both hands up at his side, "We're just trying to figure out where we are."

"We're on the ground." Addison slowly turned and faced Bellamy Blake. "That not good enough for you?" his authoritative voice carried, and caught the attention of every single delinquent.

Addison found Octavia, who is by her brother's side, then caught Bellamy's angry gaze. He clenched his jaw, and that's when Addison averted her gaze elsewhere. Wells moved forward, "We need to find Mount Weather," he implored.

Clarke sighed from beside Addison, set her things on the ramp, and trailed after Wells. She abruptly stopped in her tracks and met Addison's gaze over her shoulder, to which Addison nodded in silent understanding.

She followed behind Clarke after Wells. "You heard my father's message," Wells said as Addison came up on Wells's right, while Clarke's on his left. "This has to be our first priority."

"Screw your father," Octavia said in anger, her green stare on Wells even angrier. "What, you think you're in charge here, you and .  .  ." she darted her gaze to Clarke and smirked, " .  .  . your little princess." She teased in an octave higher voice that had the gathered crowd in fits of soft laughter. Addison shifted her gaze to Octavia. She silently looked Addison up and down.

Clarke stepped up and caught everyone's attention, "Do you think we care who's in charge?" Octavia's smirk grew as she flickered her gaze back to Clarke, Addison doing the same. "We need to get to Mount Weather not because the Chancellor said so, but because the longer we wait, the hungrier we'll get and the harder this'll be. How long do you think we'll last without those supplies? We're looking at a 20 mile trek," she informed.

Addison then stepped up, surveying the delinquents, "Clarke's right." All pairs of eyes moved to her, "If we're going to get there before dark, we need to leave now."

"I got a better idea," Bellamy started, Addison shooting him all of her attention. "You three go and find it for us. Let the privileged do the hard work for a change."

The crowd agreed in unison, "Yeah."

Addison snorted and narrowed her doe eyes, "I'm not privileged."

Bellamy smirked, "You sure act privileged."

Addison's blood boiled, and her jaw clenched. Her slack hands balled in fists at her sides, knuckles turning bright white. Red started to cloud her vision as she started toward him, until a hand is placed on her forearm that ripped her back.

"Hey, don't," Clarke warned.

Addison ripped her arm from Clarke's grasp and grunted lowly, her angry gaze still on a smirking Bellamy. All she wanted to do was wipe that stupid smirk off his face.

Wells stepped forward again to draw the attention back to him, away from Addison and Bellamy. "You're not listening. We all need to go."

Murphy pushed through the crowd and shoved Wells back, "Look at this everybody —the Chancellor of Earth."

Clarke and Addison were the only ones that didn't laugh. Addison catch Clarke's worried gaze. Wells, angered, snapped his gaze to John Murphy, "Think that's funny?"

In the blink of an eye, Murphy kicked Wells to the dirt that earned more laughter. Clarke called after Wells and started toward him, but she's stopped by two boys.

Addison lurched forward and tried prying their hands off Clarke, "Hey, get your hands off her."

A blonde-headed boy shoved her backwards to the ground, and that's when the anger she kept buried took over. She scrambled to her feet and punched him, a loud crunch sounding as he staggered back, releasing Clarke. He held his now-broken-and-bloodied nose.

Addison stood straighter, "I said .  .  ." she inhaled a large breath of air, " .  .  . hands off."

She's roughly yanked backwards by her arm, stumbling and Wells. He now stood but favoured his leg, while Murphy smirked, lifted his fists, and readied himself to fight. Wells copied Murphy, but Addison didn't. She knew what Murphy wanted and decided to push his buttons.

Murphy faced her, "Come on, Anderson. You know you want to .  .  ." he drawled.

Addison snorted, and rolled her eyes, "Go float yourself, Murphy."

She spun on her heels and brushed past Octavia, leaving the delinquents to their childish behaviour. Not once did she spare any type of look to anyone as she left.

For as long as Addison could remember, John freaking Murphy's always been an ass. She's never been able to shake him since he bumped into her on Agro three years ago. Murphy had a tendency to flirt, then after rejection or snark comments from Addison, he'd try and fight. There was no in-between.

She and Murphy had only gotten warnings from the Guard when they started to brawl. But never had they be able to finish brawling. Luckily for them, neither had gotten locked up for it. At least to Addison's knowledge, he never got locked up for fights with her.

Addison broke into the forest. She breathed in the fresh air that smelt of moist soil and trees. A certain sweetness lingered in the air. She imagined it was flowers. She looked at her fist and started to cradle it as she felt it throbbing. While she cradle it, she repeatedly clenched and unclenched it, hoping the pain would go away.

Addison could the feel the throbbing in her head slightly, but both her head and throbbing fist faded when she heard a very distinct sound —the chirping of birds.

She smiled sadly. Their chirps created soft, echoed songs throughout the forest. Addison's mother definitely would've loved Earth. She never understood her mother's fascination for those feathery-winged creatures.

Separated laughs and footsteps caught Addison's attention. She glanced over her shoulder. Delinquents fanned into their own groups, no doubt gossiping. She wondered if Murphy had beat Wells up or bluffed, but she knew better; John Murphy's not a bluffer.

Addison stuck her hands in the pockets of her dark blue jacket and walked back toward the dropship. As soon as she broke out of the trees, she spotted Clarke.

Clarke knelt in front of Wells while he leaned against the ramp of the dropship, a look of discomfort on his features as Clarke messed wit his ankle. Addison slowed her pace when Finn walked over and mentioned something about leaving for Mount Weather.

"How are the two of you going to carry enough food for a hundred?" Wells asked as he glanced between Finn, Clarke and the other kids.

Finn looked around, grabbed the kid with goggles and grabbed another boy next to Goggles by the shoulders. He walked the to Clarke and Wells, "Four of us. Can we go now?" Finn glanced between he and Clarke, but talked to Clarke.

"Sounds like a party!" Octavia bounced toward them in excitement and eagerness. "Make it five."

Addison smiled, and quickened her pace once again. Bellamy grabbed his sister's shoulder," Hey, what the hell are you doing?"

Octavia ripped her shoulder from his grasp and replied in a duh tone, "Going for a walk."

"Make that to six," Addison made her presence and choice known, and stopped between Octavia and Clarke. Goggles grinned and reached in front of Finn, slapping his friend's shoulder.

Addison met Clarke's gaze and returned Clarke's grateful nod with a tight-lipped smile. She then met Octavia's green eyes. Octavia grinned and stepped toward Addison, only for her brother to grab her arm and stop her.

"You're definitely not going if she's gonna be there," Bellamy spat.

Addison's expression hardened. "What is your problem? I've done absolutely nothing to you, and before you say I'm 'one of the privileged'—" she air quoted using her fingers, "—I'm not." She grit her teeth and spat, "I made that perfectly clear, Blake."

Bellamy made a move to step forward but Octavia stopped him, and shook her head. "No, it's okay, Bel .  .  ." she shifted her gaze to Addison, " .  .  . she's a friend."

Bellamy scoffed, "A 'friend'? You don't even know her, Octavia. She's a criminal like the rest of them." He tried to get under Addison's skin, and before things could escalate for the worse, Clarke interrupted.

"Hey, were you trying to take this off?" she asked Finn. He looked down at his wristband, little to no care written on his face.

Clarke came to him and grabbed his wrist. "Yeah. So?"

Clarke protested, "So, this wristband transmits your vital signs to the Ark. Take it off, and they'll think you're dead."

"Should I care?"

"Well, I don't know. Do you want the people you love to think you're dead?" Those words seemed to stick in Finn's brain. Clarke noticed too, and continued, "Do you want them to follow you down here in two months? Because they won't if they think we're dying." Silence. Addison shifted her gaze to the Blake's and noticed Bellamy's face softened. Did he leave someone behind? A parent? Both? A girlfriend maybe? "Okay. Now, let's go."

Finn walked first, followed by Goggles and his friend, who for some reason looked eerily familiar to Addison, while she trailed behind the boys. Addison peeked over her shoulder and watched Clarke stop by Wells, while Octavia ran to catch Addison and the boys. Addison ignored them and stopped to examine the area one last time. Liam had to be here somewhere. Surely he saw her break that guys nose? It was strange that he never ran to her side.

"What are you doing?" Addison snapped her eyes to Octavia. She playfully nudged Addison's shoulder, an excited smile gracing her features, "Come on!"

Addison chuckled under her breath. She shook her head at Octavia's silliness and did one last sweep before she slowly turned, slamming directly into a hard surface.

"Looking for someone?"

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