Ashes of the FutureChapter 7 – Into the Unknown
The forest was dense, green, and endlessly alive, filled with the sounds of birds, bugs, and distant howls that might have belonged to wolves or something far less familiar. Kira tightened the straps of her pack as she led the group forward, machete in hand, carving through the thick undergrowth. Behind her, Bellamy trudged with restless energy, Raven fiddled with a salvaged receiver, and Clarke checked a paper map that was quickly becoming useless the deeper they traveled.
"You sure this is the right way?" Bellamy asked, brushing a low-hanging branch out of the path.
"According to the signal pings, yes," Raven muttered. "But don't ask me to give GPS coordinates. This isn't exactly the Google Earth era anymore."
Kira paused, checking the rough compass she'd crafted herself. It wasn't ideal, but it worked. "Northeast is still northeast. Signal strength has been steady, right?"
Raven nodded. "If it is a station, it's not broadcasting like a regular Ark beacon. More like... an emergency responder. Manual activation."
"So maybe someone is alive," Clarke added, hopeful.
Bellamy sighed. "Or maybe someone wants us to think that. Could be Grounders. Could be Reapers. Could be some weird radioactive bear that learned Morse code."
Kira gave him a dry look. "We'll handle it. We've dealt with worse."
They'd left early in the morning, and now the sun had crested overhead, turning the forest into a patchwork of blinding rays and deep shadows. Sweat slicked the back of Kira's neck, and her tank top clung to her torso, the effort of the hike draining but invigorating. Every step away from camp, away from the politics and tension, felt like a breath of clarity. She knew how to move in wild terrain. She knew how to fight, how to plan, how to survive.
But she also knew the script was long gone. The moment Lexa had looked her in the eye and asked, "What are you?" she'd realized that this world was shifting faster than she could track.
They reached a ridge by late afternoon. From the summit, the tree canopy gave way to a narrow valley below, half-choked by vines and scattered with what looked like rusted metal structures.
Raven dropped to one knee, pulling out the receiver. The antenna snapped upward. It beeped. Once. Then again.
"We're close," she said. "I'd say half a kilometer, maybe less."
Kira scanned the valley. Her eyes narrowed on the shapes beneath the green.
"That's not just a building," she said. "It's part of a drop shuttle. Ark model. Could be a secondary supply module."
Clarke leaned forward. "Then it might still have intact rations, water, even medical supplies."
Bellamy wasn't convinced. "Unless it has company."
Kira crouched. "Let's circle wide, check the perimeter. Bellamy, flank left with me. Clarke, you and Raven go right. No heroics."
Bellamy raised a brow. "You giving orders now?"
Kira didn't flinch. "You want to walk straight into an ambush, be my guest."
He frowned, then relented with a nod. "Fine. But if anything jumps out of that thing, I'm not sharing my bullets."
The valley was swampy in places, thick with old roots and standing pools of brackish water. As Kira and Bellamy moved through the left flank, she kept her eyes on the strange metal glinting under moss and vines.
"You ever think about how insane this is?" Bellamy asked quietly. "One day we're prisoners in space, the next we're hunting signals in the jungle."
Kira didn't smile. "I think about it every day."
"You don't talk about before," he said.
"Neither do you."
"Yeah, but I didn't show up out of nowhere, with a knife in each boot and the reflexes of a ninja."
Kira paused, scanning the treeline. "Everyone has secrets. Mine just aren't worth sharing."
They didn't speak again until they regrouped with Clarke and Raven at the base of the drop shuttle. It was tilted at a sharp angle, one side buried in dirt. The hatch was partially open, barely a crack.
Raven tapped the signal reader again. It beeped loud.
"This is it," she said. "Source confirmed."
Kira took the lead, crouching low, slipping up to the hatch. She pressed a hand against it. Cold. Silent. Then, with one practiced motion, she slipped inside.
The interior was stale and dark. Dust motes floated in the light slicing through the ruined ceiling. Broken consoles sparked faintly. Something had hit the module hard.
Kira signaled the others to follow. Raven entered next, flashlight cutting arcs across the walls.
"Power's dead," she muttered. "No solar connection. Manual battery must be fried."
Clarke opened a locker on the side. "Some of the food packs are intact. Water purification tablets too."
Bellamy checked the back. "Clear. No bodies. No movement. Just a grave."
Then Kira saw it. The transmitter.
It had been manually rewired, the panel yanked open. Someone had sent a distress signal all right.
But it had been weeks ago.
She turned to Clarke. "This isn't a trap. It's a message. Someone tried to survive here. They didn't make it."
Clarke looked grim. "So what now?"
Raven knelt beside the signal dish. "I can pull data from the black box, maybe. It'll take a few hours. We should camp."
Bellamy groaned. "Camp here? In the haunted murder pod?"
"Grow up," Kira said. "We'll set up outside. Keep watch in shifts."
Night came fast. A fire crackled just outside the pod, throwing flickers of light against the wreckage. Kira sat on a stump, sharpening her blade again. The sounds of the forest changed—softer, stranger.
Clarke sat down beside her. "You're always on guard."
"Bad things happen when you're not."
"Still, it must be exhausting."
Kira didn't respond. Instead, she glanced at the dark trees. "I think Lexa meant for me to find something here."
Clarke raised an eyebrow. "You think she knew about the signal?"
"I think she knows more than she lets on. She's playing five steps ahead. She always is."
Clarke was quiet for a while. "Do you trust her?"
Kira looked into the fire. "I don't know. But I understand her. That might be more important."
At midnight, Kira took second watch. She walked the perimeter, eyes sharp. Her inventory—still hidden in her subconscious space—flashed images before her mind's eye. Stored tools. Emergency rations. A stun baton she'd lifted from a Mount Weather raid.
She stopped short.
A faint rustle.
She turned slowly.
Nothing. Just forest.
She drew her blade, crouched low.
Then, a whisper. Not sound. A flicker. A presence.
And then it was gone.
She didn't sleep after that.
By dawn, Raven had recovered some of the black box data. She sat cross-legged, screen cracked but legible.
"One survivor. Female. Mid-twenties. Injured in crash. Tried to set up camp. Made it ten days. Then the signal stops."
Clarke looked up. "Where did she go?"
Raven tapped the map overlay. "Northwest. Into Grounder territory."
Bellamy groaned. "Of course."
Kira stood. "We follow."
"Why?" Bellamy asked. "She's probably dead."
Kira looked at him. "And if she's not?"
He hesitated.
Raven closed the data pad. "We pack in twenty."
They moved fast, silent. The stakes had shifted again. There was someone out there. Someone who might know more. Someone who might change the game.
Kira moved at the front, machete slicing through the brush. She didn't look back.
Because this world was no longer the one she remembered.
And the future was unwritten.
End of Chapter 7
patreon.com/KyJo_