Gina's lungs burn and ache and scream for her to stop, but she wills her legs to keep moving. Low hanging tree branches whip across her cheeks and thorn-covered vines scratch her arms. These small, annoying pains are but a tiny blip on her radar in comparison to the cold sting spreading across her chest.
Gina races forward, her body being tested like never before. She has no idea how long it's been since she left Bellamy and her crew. Usually she wears a watch on her left arm, but today it sits on her bedside table. A whole lot of good that's doing. On the ark, in Earth skills class, there was a lesson on using the sun's position in the sky to tell time, but that's sort of hard to do when fleeing for your life. So, Gina's only unit of measure is the things she's left behind.
For the first twenty or so feet she could still make out the individual voices of her team, but they soon blended together, grounders and Arkadians alike, into a low garbled roar. A couple hundred feet more and that melted away too and all she was left with the pop, pop, pop of guns. One riverbed and two hills later, even the comforting echo of gunfire was swallowed by the woods and the lonely thud of her shoes has taken its place.
Her feet stumble and slide over moss covered rocks, decaying leaves, and damp roots.
Keep going, don't stop, keep going, don't stop, she chants in her head.
The muscles in her legs tremble. Keep going. Sweat slips down her back. Don't stop. Nausea coils inside her stomach. A stitch seizes in her side and she doubles over, her footsteps stuttering, throwing her off balance. Her arms swing out in wide arcs, but it's not enough to stop gravity's grip on her and she topples down an embankment, landing ass first into the creek below.
Gina doesn't get up immediately, stealing a few precious seconds to get her bearings and catch her breath. She leans forward, resting her elbows on her knees as the cool, clear water trickles by. It soaks into her pants and wets the bottom of her shirt, soothing the exhausted muscles beneath them. Gina splashes her face, shivering when the water slips down her chest and between her breasts.
If she could erase the past and skip all the death and destruction, all the battles and loss, and start her new life on Earth right here, right now she would. This is what she imagined life on Earth to be like. She used to dream of running her fingers over the bark of a tree instead of a glossy picture in a book. She'd wonder what it would be like to feel the grass tickling her toes instead of the Ark's bolted, hard, metal floors. She'd picture herself staring up at the stars and the moon, trying to pick out the constellations instead of being trapped among them. She'd created a world she couldn't wait to be apart of and now that she's here, she would give it up in a heartbeat just to get back those peaceful imaginations.
What's the point when life won't stop long enough to enjoy any of it? It's not only today, but its every day since the crash landing. There's always an impending attack. A life on the line. Some new threat lurking around the corner. It's a never ending maze and all Gina wants to do is to find a secret door to escape through.
A rabbit hops along the creek, at the water's edge, towards Gina. She's spent too long sulking and should really start moving again, but she can't bring herself to do it yet. She blames it on the rabbit, not wanting to scare him off. The small animal looks up at her, his nose wiggling up and down, one brown foot hovering over the ground in case he has to make a quick escape. His ears twitch and his little body stiffens. Gina's on alert too. The rabbit darts off, disappearing into a thicket and Gina's on her feet.
Two grounders emerge from behind the trees, blocking the path back to Arkadia. Gina spins around, racing off in the opposite direction. She zigs and zags between the trees, trying to make her body as difficult a target as possible. The grounders split up, one taking the left side and the other persuing her on the right. She tries to trick them, making split second decisions to her trajectory, but they stick with her.
Gina realizes too late their plan. They've been funneling her towards something and as the edge of the woods opens up, giving way to dirt and rock, she sees what that something is.
A cliff.
She skids to a stop, whirling around, her eyes searching for an escape route but the ledge of the cliff that Gina stands on has narrowed out and they've got her cornered. Gina knows they've won. They know they've won, though you'd never know it by the stone cold look on there faces.
At least show a little emotion, Gina thinks.
It's the wrong time to be focusing on something so moot, but it keeps her mind off the jagged ledge of the cliff she's inching towards and the calm, glasslike lake below.
"Teik the fall frag em op" the grounder with the bushy red beard on Gina's left says.
His companion, who is much younger than he, nods. They press forward, spears pointed towards Gina's abdomen. She inches backwards, the heels of her shoes scrubbing against dirt and rock.
"Please, don't do this," Gina begs. Her hands tremble as she stretches them out in front of her.
The young one jabs his spear at her.
Should she fight? Should she jump? Should she try to make a break for it? Gina's mind kicks into gear, working the odds of each plan of action. Taking on the two in hand-to-hand combat would be a death sentence. Trying to run for it would end in hand-to-hand combat and thus a death sentence. But, jumping…jumping may be her best chance at survival. That is, if lucks on her side and the lake below is deeper than a few feet.
Gina jumps. She's flying and falling, sailing through the sky, the wind grasping at her hair, her coat, grazing her ankles. Tears slide across her temples, the rush of the air forcing them out. She plunges into the water, sinking deeper and deeper. She kicks and claws her way to the surface, sputtering as she gulps down air.
Hell of a first swim, she says to herself.
Gina paddles to the lake's edge and drags herself out. She rolls onto her back her eyes fixed on the cliff above. Two tiny specks peer over. One of them launches something through the air and a few seconds later a spear lodges itself into the ground beside Gina. She rolls to the left and pulls herself to her feet, running for cover. A boulder the size of the rover hides her from the grounders above. The sky blazes orange and red, the setting sun igniting fire to the clouds. It'll be night soon and the risk of trekking through the woods, through grounder territory, isn't one she's willing to take.
A waterfall feeds into the lake and, behind a curtain of water, Gina spots the edge of what looks like a cave. She follows the curve of the rocks until she can feel the splash of the water against her face. Her fingers brush the rough surface until they curve over the lip of the cave's opening.
"Home sweet home," she whispers to herself as she steps into the mouth of the cave.
It's dark and damp, smelling like wet moss and not much larger than her old room on the ark. She hugs herself, attempting to keep out the cold working it's way through her wet clothes. She listens to the water as fatigue takes her over. Her eyes drift shut, her body no longer possessing the strength to keep them open, and sleep takes her over.
Gina's hot. Too hot compared to the cold she'd fallen asleep to. Her eyes snap open and she squints against the brightness of the fire snapping and popping at the back of the cave. She blinks quickly, trying to clear the spots from her vision, taking inventory of the things she knows for sure. The muscles in her back ache. Her feet are still soaked and her toes are probably shriveled and water logged. There's something soft under her head and it smells of mint soap and gunpowder.
She cracks open her eyes again. A figure sits hunched over on the opposite side of the cave. Dark curly hair. Lean, muscular torso. Gina lays in shock. No as much shock as if she'd woken up to the grounders dragging her off to who knows where, but shock all the same. He came back for her.
Not that I needed him to, she thinks immediately, but then the more mentally stable part of her brain kicks in and says, thank goodness.
"Are you hurt?" Bellamy asks.
"How'd you know I was awake?"
"You stopped snoring."
"I do not snore."
"Are you hurt?" he asks again, holding a bandage to his abdomen. He sucks in a breath as he pours water over the gash.
"I'm fine." Gina says, shifting to her side. "But you look like you've seen better days."
"Better is a matter of opinion."
Shadows dance on the walls of the cave, their music the crackling of the fire. Gina glances from the flames to the waterfall and back.
"Should we put out the fire?" she asks.
"No point," Bellamy says. "They already know where we are. The fire doesn't change that."
"Good to know we're sitting ducks."
Gina holds up her hands and turns her eyes towards the sheet of water. She watches as her shadow puppet bird flaps across the glass like surface. Her fingers twist and intertwine and dog pops up on her makeshift wall.
"O and I used to do that."
"Yea?"
"When we were little, I'd get a flashlight and we'd sit on the floor making shadow puppets all day. All night too sometimes." He watches as Gina transforms the dog in to a rabbit. He smiles. A genuine, perfect smile. "My favorite was the elephant."
"I don't know that one."
"Here," he scoots forward, sliding in beside Gina. He takes her hands in his and moves her fingers, forming the trunk and the tusk. "Like that."
He lifts her hands up to the light and an elephant's shape appears on the water. But Gina isn't looking at the image, she's looking at Bellamy. She's watching the way the fire lights up his eyes, the way his jaw moves when he smiles, the way his breathing quickens when she rubs her thumb against his.
"Why are you here?" Gina asks.
"You weren't at the camp and I sent you off into the woods. I felt responsible." He releases her hands. "I didn't want your death on my shoulders."
Gina's heart sinks and she's not sure why. She's got not attachments to him. Sure, he's nice to look at and he's got that badass way about him, but he's also crass and he likes to keep himself isolated.
Especially since Clarke left.
Gina tells herself she's not attracted to him, but even the thought feels like a lie. A lie she wouldn't mind believing.
*** Teik the fall frag em op = let the fall kill her