Chapter Eleven
**Todd's POV**
Todd was tired of this life or maybe just life in general.
The only thing keeping him from losing the last of his sanity a promise he had made to himself that he would at least make his death count for something in this rotten world, and earn the right to be with his family again.
His world had ended four years ago when those jackals that were once men, those Reapers, took his wife and young daughter from him when he was on his yearly trek to guard a shipment his village was sending to the Capital for the yearly festival where preserved food were stored and kept for the citizens of the Capital and the soldiers.
He knew their deaths had not been swift, and that above all drew out his hate. He had become the most fear berserker even thou Tristan named him his second both knew why it was really done, to control his hate and bloodlust.
But he was tired of hate, tired of killing to save, tired of killing to avenge, hell he was just tired.
He just wanted to be with his family in Valhalla, he yearned for the day he would hear his daughters voice welcoming him home once again.
Tristan had told him much from the stories of old. How when you die, if you make it count and die to protect the living, you can see your family again in heaven. That was what Valhalla was to those who believed as Tristan did.
So Todd chose to believe.
Because he needed to, otherwise, there really was no point in living, and that voice he kept at bay would win.
That was when Todd saw the young Sky girl, for the first time.
His breath caught when he saw her, he almost ran to her and wrapped his arms around her, but he held himself still fearing to move.
She reminded him so much of his Becca, named for the First Commander, as many had done over the decades, in tribute. Thou no one seemed to use the name Logan anymore almost as if the name were to sacred for mortals to use.
His daughter would be around her age if she had lived, she was so bright and full of light.
The hair was of a similar shade, the sky girls was a bit lighter and more yellow, and the face, while a bit fuller than his daughter's, looked so very close, only the eyes were so completely different. He knew she was not his daughter but she did have her spirit and he could not help but compare the two girl, part of his brain hoping for a miracle but the greater logic winning understanding the truth.
He had chosen to stand guard for her, she seemed to be a leader of these kids. Becca would have done the same, taken charge and kept everyone safe.
As the day wore on, he later found himself stopped by Tristan.
"Todd..." Tristan began. "I can see it too. But she is not Becca, my friend."
Todd stared at him for a minute before, just snorted at him, indicating he knew very much who this girl was and was not, and didn't need his stupid opinion on the matter.
But before walking away, he looked Tristan in the eyes, gave a half-smile, and nodded.
Tristan just looked sad but resigned, and nodded back.
Both knew Todd had no intention of coming out of this battle alive if he could help it.
But he would do his duty and keep these kids safe.
---
Tristan came up with a plan.
They would bottleneck the Reapers into going through the gate, where there were two walls of sharpened wooden stakes sticking inward, creating a kill box.
Then, once that couldn't hold, they would form a U around the entrance of the drop ship, where the few kids with weapons could aid in the defense while the wounded and the rest of the kids were secured.
Then they would try to make a break for it through one of the tunnels the kids had made.
Once they were away, Tristan or Todd was to flip the switch and burn the rest.
If neither of them were alive, then it fell to Triss, Anya's second, but still a child. She would stay with the other youngsters in the drop pod, waiting for the signal.
Then whoever survived would secure the camp until the Sage or other reinforcements arrived.
Now, one might wonder why not just hide in the drop ship and burn them from inside.
Two reasons.
Reason one: If the Reapers skipped them and went after the Sage's group, they would be even more exposed and have less manpower. Even with the Sage, the only one who'd come back alive would be him.
Reason two: They needed to draw the Reapers into the correct kill box and retreat in the correct order to lessen the risk to the kids and hopefully cut down on casualties.
With in a handful of minutes the scouts reported sighting the army.
They would be on them within the hour.
The news was worse than expected.
Four hundred strong. All Reapers. Charging like rabid beasts.
Todd grabbed his spear and shield and made sure his hatchets were secure on his belt before heading toward the gate.
He was met by Clarke and Tristan.
Tristan just nodded. Nothing further needed to be said.
Either Todd did his job and led the enemy right to the gate, or he failed and died.
At least the wagon train was heading the opposite direction—toward the Sage's Roost, where even those accursed Mountain Men feared to walk.
Todd was stopped when a gentle hand rested on his wrist.
He looked over and saw sadness in Clarke's eyes, and fear, oh, so much fear, and she was right to be afraid, in fact all the kids but especially the girls maybe a few of the boys, but she was right to be afraid.
He simply rested his left hand on her shoulder with a gentle squeeze, then poked her forehead gently with his right index finger, making sure not to accidentally bop her on the forehead with shaft of the spear.
He gave her a real smile.
Then he walked away to find the two who had decided to help.
---
**Clarke's POV**
Clarke watched Todd and the two other Grounders leave.
Their job was the hardest.
They needed to attack a few of the Reapers and lead them around, attracting as many as they could, forcing the main force to follow.
Their job was easier: stay behind the last standpoint, shoot any Reaper that came close, the irony being the few rifles and weapons were found by me and Finn right after we had our fling, were in fact owned by Lincoln and stored at that bunker to help keep them from rusting, guess the phrase small world really did mean something back then, we also were asked to help the injured get to safety in the drop pod. Then if we could, to get anyone who couldn't reach safety in time from the flames into the drop pod.
Not fifteen minutes later, one of the men came back with a wide gash on his arm, making it impossible for him to fight any longer, let alone hold a weapon.
Clarke ran up to him as soon as he got clear of the spike trap.
Her medical training immediately kicked in as she grabbed his arm and applied what pressure she could to slow the bleeding, then Appling a tourniquet .
There was another commotion.
Todd was coming, practically dragging the other man back through the gates.
But just as he cleared the gates, Clarke made eye contact.
A short arrow sprouted from behind him, striking him in the neck from behind.
He stumbled a few steps before both men fell.
Clarke's hand flew to her mouth as she gasped in shock.
The other man didn't even bother to try to help him. He just frantically tried crawling out of the trap area.
Clarke could see the Reapers coming in what looked like an endless wave.
The man wasn't going to make it. That much was clear.
Then something impossible happened.
Todd started to get up.
But Clarke was pulled away by Tristan.
"Get to the drop pod and get everyone ready. They must be ready by the time we retreat, or we all die."
He gave her an encouraging little shove not hard, but full of meaning.
*We don't have time to fuck around. *
Clarke raced to the pod, Todd no longer in her thoughts, only those she could help.
She made it to the pod in just a few seconds, having to run through the traps laid out to slow the advance and herd the Reapers so they couldn't attack in full mass at the last stand.
She came upon a shouting match between Raven and Triss.
"You broke the switch up here, which caused a cascade effect, blowing out half the relays in the pod!" Raven took a breath, holding up one finger to quiet the other girl from talking. "Now someone has to trigger the boosters down below, which is on the other side of the pod. Since only Monty and I can fix it, one of us will have to stay here, and the other will have to try not to die."
Seeing the moment escalating, Clarke remembered what Tristan had said to her after Todd left.
---
*Flashback*
Clarke had been standing still, looking confused, when Tristan spoke up.
"The hand on the shoulder means when you face a difficult decision that weighs on your shoulders, use your head instead of your heart. For your heart will falter if the right pressure is applied, but the mind can push that aside and decide to do the hard thing to save the most people even if it hurts them in the end."
He paused.
"The smile was because to truly live that way is a lonely life."
---
*End Flashback*
Clarke made up her mind in a second and asked Raven a question.
"Which one will be the most difficult to fix?"
Raven thought about it for a second and said, "The booster."
Clarke nodded. "Then we need you to do it. You're the better mechanic and can get it done quickly."
---
**Raven's POV**
Raven sighed but nodded, clearly not happy, but finding no fault in the logic.
Any idiot could bypass the switch and touch the leads until the door closed fully and the automatic locks kicked in.
But working with highly flammable and potentially explosive materials? She felt far better doing it herself.
"I'm on it. And tell the little Grounder princess to stop touching things she doesn't understand."
Raven left without looking back. Classic power move.
She quickly passed by the battle and noticed that they had already started to pull back.
"Shit, it's too early."
She looked over in a panic, her brain stopped, and
HOLY SHIT.
Todd was cutting down the Reapers like they had personally pissed in his morning gruel.
He had three arrows sticking in him. One in the leg. Another in the stomach.
And is that through his fucking neck!?!?
How was this guy still alive? I mean, he was slowing down and coughing blood, but he was putting them down.
A backhanded sword strike. A guy lost his head.
A tiny axe embedded in one guy's skull, only for Todd to rip it out and throw it into another's skull twenty paces away.
Then he killed another with the man's own weapon and was back to dual-wielding.
*Holy God in heaven above, don't ever piss that man off,* Raven kept thinking to herself as she made her way to the plate covering the maintenance hole.
She put the plate back on, hoping to keep idiots from going in there and blowing everyone up.
*The one time I actually practice some of that safety bullshit, it's probably the thing that's gonna get me killed.*
The irony was not lost on her as she quickly started loosening the bolts.
The battle was getting closer. Shit, almost out of time.
She was down to the last two bolts now.
The wrench slipped from her fingers as an arrow struck the panel right next to her head, causing her to flinch.
"Shit," she cursed as she reached down and grabbed the wrench, only for a boot to step on her hand.
She cried out as she felt the bones in her hand protest the added weight.
Just as she started screaming, his hand wrapped around her throat and lifted her, pinning her to the outer drop pod wall.
Her vision started going blurry as she saw him leering at her, groping.
She sure as shit was not going to take that lying down.
She started clawing and punching, but he only laughed until she kicked out as hard as she could, right between his legs.
They both fell onto the ground, out of breath, but for two completely different reasons.
Raven's adrenaline surged.
She was not going to be raped, eaten, and then killed by this fucking pig.
She grabbed her wrench and started hitting him, in the head, face, shoulder, chest, back, anywhere he had exposure, she was swinging.
She finally caught her breath and stumbled over to the last bolt and started turning.
Finally, the plate was off. She slid the plate away, and just as she reached for the entrance, she felt a hand grab her by the back of the head and slam her face into the wall.
Once.
Twice.
On the third, her nose cracked, and she was seeing stars.
She lay crumpled, looking up, and saw her same attacker with a bloody face grinning down at her with a few missing teeth.
The next feeling she got as her mind started to clear was her legs being lifted. She felt a yanking sensation.
She looked down and saw the Reaper was trying to remove her pants but couldn't figure out the belt.
*Thank God for my father's old belt. No one else but me could even figure out how to get the damn thing loose. *
Otherwise, she felt they'd be onto the being, eaten alive part of this personal hell. Now top number one on the list of ways she did not want to die.
She started fighting back once again, kicking, screaming, throwing dirt, biting anything.
She even got one of his fingers in her mouth and bit the fucker off, spitting it back into his face.
Then she received a strong backhand that left the fight completely out of her.
She just lay there, trying not to hurt anymore, but that was getting more difficult by the minute.
She saw her attacker get fed up with the belt and just grab a knife and cut it.
*Shit, they can learn.*
*Well,* Raven thought to herself, *as far as deaths go, this is just about the worst way I could have ever hoped to die.*
*Fuck you, Earth. One star. Would not visit again. The locals are a bit bitey and absolutely insane.*
Her vision started to blur as the thoughts in her head made no sense to her for how bad the situation was.
Just as the attacker was about to finally tug the annoying pants off, a sword edge emerged from the inside of his mouth, killing him instantly.
---
**Tristan's POV**
Tristan was glad he was not too late to save Raven and hopefully accomplish the mission, at least salvage what was left of the plan after finding out they were not only not ready but had yet another problem to fix.
He had lost track of Todd after he'd seen the man take a spear to the side and fight half, dead.
Thanks to a timely throw of Todd's hatchet, Tristan had been saved from being stabbed from behind, which in turn saved Raven.
Tristan had been dismayed that Raven had gone to fix the problem, but what irritated him was that she'd gone alone and didn't even ask for help.
He had arrived just in time to stop the unspeakable act, but not in time to stop the girl from harm. She looked concussed.
"You will not thank me in the morning," Tristan said to the passed out young girl.
He needed her awake and alert.
Most times he would never give a person this, but times were desperate.
He pulled out a black-looking tube of wax and broke it, then blew the contents into Raven's nose and mouth, scattering the black sparkling dust all around her face.
Some of it even got into Tristan's face, but he was well used to the side effects of the black flower that grew in Logan's yard. A strange flower with very interesting properties.
Less than three seconds went by when Raven sat bolt upright, pain in her head forgotten.
She saw Tristan and the dead Grounder and the fact that her pants were still on, and she immediately hugged onto Tristan and started crying.
Tristan patted her back, but she could feel the urgency in the air.
She took a deep breath, then got up.
Tristan told her, "As soon as I lock the plate on with the temp lock, you activate the booster. Don't wait. Just as you get in, activate it."
She nodded.
Tristan turned to grab the plate when he felt the arrow hit low at the center of his back.
He fell to his knees as a sharp, almost electric pulse ran up his body. His back arched, and he fell forward.
His eyes looked forward toward Raven as she locked eyes with him.
He knew what she was going to do.
And he couldn't stop her.