Underneath the Sand

[Clarke Griffin]

Monty Green

Clarke had never seen anything like it. One moment the desert was almost beautiful, warm, but also deadly. The next the lethal part of the desert caught up with them. Clarke only noticed the sandstorm when the tiny pieces of sand scratched across her skin with their force. She had never expected something so small to have so much power. But two elements combined truly were a force of nature. Her horse was soon in full panic. She couldn’t hold onto her, though in her struggle to keep hold of the reins, the horse kicked. It was enough to knock her backwards. A flash of pain and then nothing.

When Clarke came to, the storm was still raging, making her think she couldn’t have been out for long. The second thing she noticed was the pain. It was quite a lot of it, rolling over she could make out a shadow in the storm, not too far from her. “We have to take shelter!” she screamed to the person. It was the only truth she knew. But where could shelter be found? She reached, to find leverage to pull herself up, but her fingers found no grip in the sand. Trying her other one, she screamed in pain that shot up her side. She needed help. But if the others were clever, they would have long gone to find shelter. Maybe the shadow she saw was a hallucination, a flicker in the sand nothing more. But as she reached out once more, fingers digging into the sand, she felt something –a shoe perhaps? Someone was there. 

[Monty Green]

Monty had known that their journey would be dangerous, but he’d expected the danger to come in the form of nomadic grounders and mutated animals, he hadn’t expected the desert itself to attack them. His horse had panicked at the approaching storm and he’d had trouble holding onto its reigns, he’d soon lost visual on the other members of his group and after realising that he risked being yanked off of feet by the panicking animal, he released his hold on the reigns and watched as the horse disappeared into the storm. The sand was painful against his skin as it whipped up to scratch at his face and the other parts of his clothing that weren’t covered by clothing.

He was forced to close his eyes as he risked the sand blinding him, he raised a hand to shield his eyes as he forced them open a fraction to look around. His heart rate accelerated as he realised that he couldn’t see anything, the horses were gone and so were their riders as far as he could see. Suddenly he heard a sound, it sounded like a voice calling to him, the sound was muffled by the storm but as he looked in the direction that he thought it had come from, he noticed a dark shadow lying on the ground. Slowly he started to walk in the direction of the figure, stumbling a few times as he wasn’t used to walking on sand, especially in the current conditions.

Hearing whoever it was scream, he quickened his pace, almost losing his foot in his haste to reach whichever of his companions that had landed themselves in trouble. Eventually reaching the figure, he looked down as their fingers brushed his shoe and he recognised the girl immediately, despite the dusty conditions of the storm disturbing his vision. “Clarke?!” he called to her, raising his voice to be heard over the roaring of the storm. Dropping into a crouch beside the girl, his hands hovered over her cautiously “What’s wrong?! You’re hurt?” he questioned her as he made to grab her good arm to pull her to her feet.

Clarke Griffin

[Clarke Griffin]

Monty, it was Monty. Thank god. Him speaking, being moving, it meant he would be okay, probably. It wasn't as likely as otherwise that they lost the one that could actually save them. Monty knew technology. His brain was valuable. His knowledge could save humanity. Clarke looked up at him. She was still unable to really see him. But she knew he was close and thus safe. They had to keep it that way. The pain and the storm brought tears to her eyes. They tried to get rid of the sand, tried to react to the pain she felt, that made it disorienting even to try and look up at where she knew Monty to be now.

And then he helped her up, reaching for the arm that was not injured - did he see her injury or was it his instinct? Both was possible as she knew Monty. Once standing, Clarke found herself swaying, her head not feeling right. She guessed she hit it somewhere. The blonde looked around for any place of shelter. There was a dune, not far from them. That would provide at least some shelter. Maybe there was even something to crawl underneath. "I'll be fine. We need shelter. The dune, Monty! We have to get there." She tried to motion to it, but it wasn't possible. Her injured arm didn't allow for big movements. And the good one was holding on to Monty as either the world was swaying or the sandstorm was doing it. "We got to take shelter. Now!" He needed to be protected.

Monty Green

[Monty Green]

When Clarke was on her feet, Monty felt a little better as it confirmed that she could at least stand near enough on her own, even if she was still holding onto him. He knew that it was dangerous for them to remain outside with nothing to shield them from the storm that continued to pelt them with sand. He repositioned his hold on his companion, hooking his arm around her back to give her some extra support, he was aware that she’d had trouble getting to her feet on her own and took from that, that she was injured. What he didn’t know was how bad her injuries were.

The roaring of the wind in his ears from the storm affected his hearing and he could barely hear what she was trying to say to him, he only caught snatches of what she was trying to communicate to him. Through the roaring of the storm, he definitely heard the words ‘dune’ and ‘shelter’ and he tried to look around, keeping his hand up to his face in an attempt to keep the majority of the sand from getting into his eyes, the method that he’d adopted wasn’t proving to be effective. Catching sight of the sand dune that he assumed Clarke was speaking about, he gave a small nod of his head even if he couldn’t be sure that she’d see it. “That could work!” he tried to shout to her, but his voice was lost in the wind and before they could lose anymore time, he took a step towards the dune, then another and another. Forcing himself to put one foot in front of the other in an attempt to reach safety, all the while he was dragging Clarke with him, unwilling to let go of her in case she fell again or they managed to get separated by the sand storm.

Monty wasn’t used to such extreme conditions and the strength of the storm made him stumble every couple of steps. The sand moved beneath his feet, making it hard to walk without the risk of falling over, but eventually he reached the dune that could be their salvation. Stumbling forwards, his foot suddenly landed upon something firm, the sensation of standing on something solid came as a surprise to Monty and he almost lost his footing before he regained his balance and stared at the ground beneath his feet. Lifting a foot, he kicked at the ground and heard a faint thudding sound. Immediately, he let go of Clarke and dropped to his knees, his suspicions confirmed as he didn’t immediately sink into the sand and his knees hit against a solid surface. “There’s something down here!” he called to Clarke as he started to brush away the sand that was hiding whatever lay beneath their feet, his hands scraping away the sand. Suddenly his hands brushed against the cool hard surface of whatever lay hidden underneath the sand and he sat back to look at the partially concealed metal surface.

Clarke Griffin

[Clarke Griffin]

Clarke was surprised at the strength Monty displayed as he struggled against the sandstorm. He pulled her with him in a way Clarke had never expected. Monty was thin and seemingly not strong. But she guessed his mental strength made up for it any day. Without him, she might have fallen again. He brought them to safety, but as it turned out, his luck did more than that. Clarke stood shakily as Monty dropped to his knees, dusting off what he found. The more he revealed, the more she felt she knew what this was. The shape, the way it seemed so solid. This was a door similar to more than one she had seen before. Large enough to fit supplies. Maybe what lay underneath was big enough to hold them for a while. Maybe it was even the soultion. Hope flared up in her. She hoped, this might even already be a solution.


"Can you open it?" She called as she struggled to her knees. That way, kneeling on the ground, she felt much better. The world was swaying less. That was good - but not a good sign per say. There was no way she was going to let it stop her. THis mission was way too important - for al of them. Clarke would easily give her life for this mission. It was to protect them after all. She reached out for the handle, twisting it softly with one hand. It gave in easily, but it took a while to be spun far enough to let the door open. Lifting it was not possible one handed. "Can I get a hand?" She asked her old friend.



Monty Green

[Monty Green]

Monty watched Clarke with evident curiosity as she dropped to her knees beside him and began to twist the handle, by now he'd guessed what it was that they had found. Whether or not it would be suitable to offer them shelter until the storm passed was another matter all together, it depended upon what they found there. When Clarke asked him for a hand, Monty reacted quickly, seizing the handle with both hands and pulling, the door was stiff and heavy and it was immediately obvious that nobody had opened it in quite a while but eventually it gave and Monty was able to ease it slowly open. When the door to the bunker was open completely, Monty stared down into the hole, he could see the first couple of rungs of a ladder leading down into the bunker, but it was too dark to see anything more.

Turning to Clarke, Monty gestured towards himself and then at the hole in case she couldn't hear him over the sounds of the storm "I'll go down first, then you follow" with her shoulder, he was worried about how she was going to climb down the ladder into the bunker and if she slipped and fell then she wouldn't be able to catch herself with one arm. This way, if she fell then there was a chance that he'd be able to catch her, or more likely, cushion her fall. If she couldn't close the door then he was willing to climb the ladder again to get it closed, he didn't know how far down the ladder went and he definitely didn't want Clarke making the journey down in her condition without him having checked it out first. 

Shuffling over to the edge he placed his feet on the first rung of the ladder and started his descent, making sure to test each rung with one foot first to make sure that it could hold his weight. The ladder was old, he didn't want to take any chances, especially as he didn't know how far down it went. When he reached the bottom of the ladder, he stared up at the light that was being let in from the open door "Clarke! Come on down! It's safe" the ladder was strong enough to hold his weight, so he was confident that it would also hold hers and there couldn't be anything that posed a threat to them down in the bunker, the door was definitely too stiff to have been opened recently.

Clarke Griffin

[Clarke Griffin]

She was glad Monty was going down first. It was easier to focus on something, if she had a goal, even though her head felt bad. She could get down there. It was still hard. To balance herself on a wounded arm while pulling the hatch closed was hard enough in itself. Then climbing down with only one functioning hand was not easy either. The last steps, she jumped, her feet almost giving in, but it was her head that troubled her the most with this. Focussing on Monty as she tried to straighten herself, was hard. He seemed to sway, but Clarke knew it was not him that swayed, it was her. Down here, she could hear him. She heard movement, almost to well. This was not a good sign, she thought. This was, in fact a bad sign, but she couldn't let Monty know that. She had to stay awake now. 

"I think... I think my shoulder is dislocated." She told him, hoping it would be enough for now. She didn't want to admit to having hit her head. But then she noticed it. This thing was not small. The darkness at the end of the room suggested that there could be more room after this. They could have just stumbled upon a bunker that might be suitable for what they needed. Clarke couldn't help a smile. "Is this... Monty... is this a proper bunker?"

Monty Green

[Monty Green]

Monty waited anxiously at the bottom of the ladder for Clarke, watching her carefully in case she fell. He was worried about her injuries, he didn't know exactly what was wrong with her, only that she'd seriously injured her arm, he had no idea if she had any further injuries and he wasn't a doctor, he doubted that he could be of any help to her at all. He wished that they hadn't been separated from the rest of their group, having a healer with them that could actually tend to Clarke's injuries would have been a lot of help. When Clarke jumped the last couple of steps, Monty reached out to steady her "You okay?" he asked seeing how she struggled to stand upright.

They were now out of immediate danger and could hear each other clearly, his eyes flew to her shoulder as she voiced her concern about how it could be dislocated. He didn't know what he was looking for, he didn't know what a dislocated shoulder looked like, but it was evident that it was too painful for her to use that arm. Her words about the bunker drew Monty's gaze from her and he looked around properly for the first time since entering the bunker. "It could be..." he muttered in reply as he risked leaving her side to walk slowly away from the ladder, the place was big, if they had some source of light then maybe they'd be able to look around more effectively and see just how big the bunker was. "I think so..." he finally added after thinking about it for a while, they'd have to explore it more, see how much room there was and what was inside, but it definitely looked like they could use it.

Clarke Griffin

[Clarke Griffin]

Was she okay? That was a good question. She was hurt. She was in pain. But they had a mission. During every other mission she had to put herself last. And she would continue to do that. She needed to do that if she wanted to see her family safe after the nuclear powerplants burned through. And her family had grown very small again. She knew she had to talk to Monty eventually, but she was actually too scared to do it. After everything, they hadn't even really gotten to speak about her leaving, Polis and what happened with Alie.  There was a lot to talk about. And none of it was something nice.

"We should check it out." She wanted to go with him, but she knew it would not be easy for her to walk at all. She would try however. She had to try. "Maybe this is already... the solution for all of this." At least there was hope. "Maybe everything is intact and nobody had time to come here." But what if it wasn't? Could this be dangerous? Could this bunker be lost for a reason? Clarke knew not to expect good things here, now. Not on the Ground, not in this time. "What does the radiation say?"



Monty Green

[Monty Green]

Monty knew that the bunker might not be safe and it was their responsibility to make sure that it was before they even thought about bringing their people to shelter down there from the radiation. He expected the bunker to need some repairs, but hopefully any damage that it had sustained would be easily fixable. Dropping to his knees, he removed his pack from his back and took out the radiation detector, pursing his lips he examined the device "the radiation levels down here are normal... At least, the reading down here is practically the same as it was the last time I checked above ground" he informed his companion, holding the device carefully in his hands "it could be just what we're looking for, but we should probably explore a little more, we don't want any surprises" the last thing they needed was to get injured checking the place out, that wouldn't help anybody.

"You could wait here..." he suggested, leaving it up to her to decide what she wants to do "You're hurt, at the very least this place will give you a chance to rest until the storm passes" as soon as the storm passed they'd need to locate the rest of their group, if they couldn't find them then they could be in real trouble. They definitely couldn't leave until the storm had passed, it would be too dangerous, the storm gave them time to search the bunker and see if they could actually use it or if it was too good to be true. Monty couldn't help thinking that this mission had been too easy, they weren't expected back for four weeks, this victory was a little premature.

Clarke Griffin

[Clarke Griffin]

He was right. There might be other nasty surprises in here. That thing existed for almost a century. That there was no radiation was a small victory in a long, drawn out war they had to fight and Clarke did not know if they could do this. But they had to have hope somehow. Without hope they might as well give up. Some with their group had lost it already. They were going down the dangerous road of giving up and deciding that nothing they would find would help. Maybe they were right and their approach – to party without a second thought – was exactly right. But Clarke couldn’t do that. She wanted to try – until the very last moment. She had to. Part of it felt like her fault and this injury? It sucked. 

“Before you go, Monty, let’s think this through, please.” She didn’t want him to run into danger all alone there or for them to not go in there with their head straight. They needed to go about this as calculated and efficiently as possible. “What else could be wrong with this place, Monty? We should identify the possible faults and check them out first thing. Everything else can wait. So what else can be wrong? It has good radiation levels. Will it hold? Or could it spike when the radiation outside spikes?”

Monty Green