Homecoming

“They won’t mind?” Bellamy asked, looking nervously from Clarke to Sasha.

Sasha shook her head. “As long as you’re with me, it’ll be fine,” she assured him.

“We shouldn’t stop for long,” Wells said, his voice strained. “Once they realize you’re missing, they’re going to come after us.”

“Bel, are you okay to keep moving?” Clarke asked gently.

“I’m good,” he said, though he wouldn’t meet Clarke’s eye.

They followed Sasha as she darted, quickly and quietly, through the darkening forest. “So are you all right?” Sasha asked when they were a few meters ahead of Clarke and Bellamy. With the rush to free Bellamy, he and Sasha had barely had time to talk about anything besides the actual logistics.

“I don’t know.” That was the truth. It’d all happened so quickly, he hadn’t had time to process the implications of disobeying Rhodes, of leaving the camp. Wells certainly wasn’t going to stand by and watch Rhodes execute his brother in cold blood. But it was still hard to fathom that they’d been forced to leave their new home behind—the home, the community, that they had built with their bare hands, from nothing.

“It won’t be forever. As soon as your father gets better, he’ll come down on one of the other dropships and everything will be okay.”

“No, it won’t. Sasha, my dad’s in a coma, and there aren’t extra dropships just lying around.” His tone was sharp and bitter, but he didn’t care. This wasn’t a situation he could count on anyone to fix. He’d been an idiot to trust Rhodes. He should’ve acted sooner, before everything spiraled out of control.

Another girl might’ve been hurt—or worse, apologized as if she’d done something wrong. But Sasha just took Wells’s hand and gave it a squeeze. It was deeply unfair. Bellamy had only been trying to save his sister. He hadn’t even been the one to pull the trigger—one of Rhodes’s own precious guards had done that. Besides, it was Wells’s father who had gotten shot, and if Wells didn’t think Bellamy should pay for that, then who was Rhodes to say otherwise?

Actually, Wells smiled grimly, it was Bellamy’s father too. If only Rhodes knew that, he’d probably have an aneurysm. Wells couldn’t deny that the image brought him some pleasure.

Sasha raised an eyebrow, clearly curious about what he was thinking. “I was just imagining what would happen if Rhodes found out that Bellamy and I were brothers,” Wells said.

Sasha laughed. “He’d probably have a heart attack. Actually, that might be the best plan. I’ll head back to your camp, shout the news, and wait for Rhodes to drop dead. Problem solved.”

Wells squeezed her hand back. “Your tactical mind never ceases to amaze me.”

They walked on, with Wells only half listening as Sasha pointed out various geographic features. At one point, Clarke began peppering Sasha with questions about different animal species, but Wells could tell she doing it more to distract Bellamy.

They walked for what seemed like hours. Finally Sasha pointed to a small rise in the ground, so subtle they would never have noticed it on their own.

“That way,” she said. They followed her, picking their way carefully among the branches. Wells felt the ground beneath him slowly sloping downward, and he adjusted his gait to keep from toppling forward. They rounded a curve and Wells’s breath caught in his chest as he took in the sight spread out before him. At the bottom of the hill, in a wide valley, was an entire town, just like he’d spent his entire life reading about. Just like he’d imagined building with the hundred on Earth.

Wells had never seen anything so remarkable since he’d arrived on the planet—not the endless trees reaching to the horizon, not the lake or the sky. Nature was beautiful in a way he’d never imagined, but this… this was life. Signs of vibrancy and energy were everywhere: light-filled windows with the shadows of families inside; animals stomping their hooves, harnesses jangling; smoke curling out of a dozen chimneys in a coordinated dance toward the sky; wheelbarrows tipped on their sides, as if they’d just been dropped moments ago; balls and toys at rest, the echoes of children’s laughter floating in the air around them.

Wells let out an astonished laugh. Clarke turned to him and smiled. “Pretty cool, right?” He was glad that she was here to share this moment. She was one of the only people in the solar system who knew how much this meant to him.

“It’s spectacular.”

Sasha slipped her hand into his and squeezed. “Let’s go.” She led them down the hill and onto the dirt road that ran through the center of her town. Wells breathed in the smell of roasting meat and something lighter and sweeter—was someone baking bread?