Octavia, Wells, Finn and Monty returned from their trip to Mount Weather sooner than anyone would have expected, and much to Bellamy's anger Octavia returned with a wounded leg.
"Let me see that!" he barked out immediately, having her sit down, "I'm fine, Bell." she sighed, still shocked by the recent events "It's not me you should worry about." she whispered and he looked up at her while he made a poor excuse of a tourniquet around her leg. "What do you mean?" he asked curious, and she could tell he completely missed the fact they returned with one person less.
"Jasper…they…they took him." she muttered, the tears threatening to fall. "They?" Bellamy asked alarmed, standing up "There're people out there, we're not alone." she said and he wide opened his eyes for one second, before putting his facade right on once more.
"We have to get him back." she said, standing up and he stared at her with a mix of concern and anger "I know what you're thinking, and no. O, you're gonna stay here where I know you're safe." he said with a tone that to any other kid wouldn't have left no room for discussion, but with her it was a whole different story.
"You can either try to stop me, what will fail, or you can help me get him back. It's your choice." she said, walking past him to gather up things. "O, listen to me-" he started but she cut him off "You listen to me! You weren't there, you didn't see…it was me who invited him, he jumped first because of me, what happened to him, it's on me! I'm going after him and no one, not even you it's gonna stop me!" she ranted angrily as she shoved food and water into a bag.
"Count me in." Wells said, walking next to them and Bellamy turned furiously towards him "You better stay out of this! This is your fault! You and your stupid idea of going to Mount Weather!" Bellamy yelled at Wells, pushing him around "Looks like the Chancellor of the Earth already got his first person floated." Murphy taunted, walking towards them with a defiant look. "He should be the one to get floated!" another kid named John steeped in too, as a small crowd formed around them.
"He was just trying to help!" Finn defended Wells, pulling him away from Bellamy's reach "Maybe we don't want Chancellor Jr.'s help." Bellamy snapped back, with a cool glare. "While you two are busy fighting, Jasper might be out there dying." Octavia stepped in, pulling Bellamy away from Finn.
"I'll go, but you don't leave this camp under any circumstance. Understood?" Bellamy said, with a pointed look towards Octavia. "Atom! Make sure she stays in after we leave." the dark-haired ordered and grabbing the bag from Octavia as he started to walk away, being followed closely by Finn, Wells and Monty.
"Where do we even start?" Wells asked as they walked, "We should go back to the lake, see if we can track them." Finn suggested and Bellamy considered the idea a few seconds before nodding "Lead the way, Spacewalker." he said to Finn, better the spacewalker than the one who's brilliant idea put them in this situation in the first place.
The small group walked in an awkward silence, Monty's concern over his brother-in-all-but-name growing by the second. That wound didn't look good, Jasper wouldn't survive long without medical attention and he seriously doubted the grounders would provide him that.
If it wasn't for the screams they had heard he would have thought his friend dead. He just hoped they managed to find him in time, and hopefully without grounders guarding him.
"Let's split up, scream if you find anything." Bellamy said, already going on his own. Finn despite fearing for his own life, crossed the river just like Jasper had, and not surprisingly the rock had blood all over it.
What did catch his eye, was the trail the blood left "I found a trail." he yelled, hoping the others wouldn't be far enough to not hear him, but in the matter of minutes he already had Monty and Bellamy by his side.
"Wells!" he tried to scream, but it was of no use. "Should we look for him?" Finn asked but Bellamy shook his head "Jasper's life is in risk, we don't have time." with something that sounded very much like concern.
"I'm sure he'll find a way back to the camp." Monty assured and the three of them started following the trail, spotting a few drops here and there til they found themselves in front of a village.
"What is this?" Bellamy whispered as they hid behind the brushes "I guess we can be sure radiation won't kill us now." Finn whispered back, not quite answering the question. "We can't go in there, it'd be a suicide." Bellamy pointed out.
In the meantime, Wells had gotten distracted walking down the river, hoping to find a way to cross it that wouldn't get them killed, somewhere the grounders hopefully don't pass by.
But with his luck, it wasn't even 10 minutes after he started walking that he spotted a group of grounders carrying Jasper's unconscious body a few meters from him, and if he didn't hide fast, they would spot him too.
As fast as he could, he lied down, crawling towards some nearby brushes. "Beja, yu bans gon stegeda." one of the grounders said to another, a petite blonde girl. "Ai nou na teik em wan op." she answered back, while the other female grounder remained silent.
Trying to get a better view of them, Wells accidentally stepped over a dead branch, alerting the grounders of his presence. "Chit laik dei?" the grounder said, and by the tone Wells guessed he was asking something, probably along the lines of "what's that noise?".
"Ai na chek em au." the blonde grounder said, and the others two left while she walked directly towards him. If he moved even a muscle she would spot him, he considered trying to fight back but he had seen she was carrying a knife, certainly the odds weren't in his favor.
She circled the brushes he was in and he found himself face to face with deep blue eyes behind the war paint she was wearing. Could he beg for his life? Probably if he did, she wouldn't understand him anyway.
Silently she brought her index finger to her lips, telling him without words to be quiet as his fear turned into confusion. "Em klir!" she yelled to her companions, who continued walking apparently calm.
And just like she hadn't seen him, she continued walking too. He waited for minutes without daring to make a move till he was sure they would be pretty far away and then, like his life depended on it, he ran back to the lake. He had to find the others, he had to warn them the grounders were close.
Once he arrived, he found the three of them sitting, with defeated expressions. "We…have…to…run!" he said, between gasps and his companions looked at him with curiosity.
"Grounders!" he blurted out, pointing behind him and everyone tensed "Where?" Bellamy asked, reaching to his gun "They didn't see me, but they had Jasper." Wells said, choosing to leave the petite blonde grounder out of the conversation, he would tell them once things were calm.
Everyone's faces light up at the mention of their missing friend "Where were they going?" Monty asked, taking a step closer to Wells in interest. "South, it was just three of them." he informed them.
"We can get him back, four and a gun against three." Bellamy said, showing the others his gun. "Have you had that all along?" Finn asked, disliking the idea of someone as impulsive as Bellamy with something that could seriously hurt someone.
"We can't lose time. Wells lead the way." Monty said, not giving Bellamy the chance to answer and the four of them walked to the place Wells saw the grounders. "There are footprints to follow, they weren't really cautious." Finn pointed out, following the prints with his eyes.
"I doubt there's much in here to harm them, we haven't seen an animal yet." Wells said, already worrying of how they would keep a hundred mouths fed without as much as a rabbit running around.
"We better keep quiet from now, a surprise attack is our best shot." Bellamy said, and they followed the trail as silently as they could, watching out not to step in any dead branch that could sell them out.
Finally, they arrived to a clear and the first thing that caught his eyes was Jasper, tied shirtless to a tree with something green on his wound. "We have to get him down." Monty said already stepping forward, "Wait!" Bellamy said, putting a hand on his chest and pushing him back.
"It's too easy. We don't even know why they left him here, this could be a trap." Bellamy pointed out, eyeing the ground carefully, unaware they were being observed too.
Clarke moved between the trees silently, observing the Sky People with curiosity, a huge part of her hoped none of them would step in into any of the traps Drakon and Myrst had placed.
Although she couldn't hear their voices, she could tell they knew it wouldn't be that easy. She watched as they advanced carefully, making sure the ground was solid before stepping.
"We're almost there." Monty muttered, fighting the urge to send the traps to hell and run towards Jasper when they heard a loud roar from their right. "What the hell was that?" Bellamy asked, alarmed, pointing his gun towards the trees.
"We better get out of here fast." Wells said and they decided to focus on the task in hand, the sooner they got to the camp, the better. Suddenly a huge black beast appeared in front of them and they all froze in their tracks.
"No one move." Finn whispered, one sudden move and they'll be that thing's dinner. Bellamy, ignoring Finn's advice started to shot it, what angered the beast that was now running full speed towards them.
If they ran, they could step into a grounder trap…if they didn't move, they would become dinner. "You had to shot it, right?!" Finn yelled at Bellamy, who still was shooting at him but it seemed to be useless.
With a great jump, the beast hovered over them, ready to sink his fangs into fresh blood when out of nowhere a knife appeared, directed at the beast's heart and hitting the mark.
The little group looked at each other, before noticing it was none of their doing, but when they turned all they caught was a glimpse of blonde hair disappearing between the trees.
"Let's just get Jasper and go back to the drop ship." Bellamy muttered, confused as much as the others by what just had happened. He couldn't make sense out of it, why in hell would a grounder save them?
The four of them got to Jasper, who was unconscious, as fast as they could and in a joint effort carried not only him, but also the huge black beast back to the camp. Bellamy left Jasper under Monty and Octavia's care while the others dealt with the beast, before walking to the center of the camp.
"Everyone listen to me!" he yelled and instantly everyone shut up, turning their eyes towards him "I'm aware probably have been rumors around, and I'm afraid they're true! We are not alone on the ground! And we'll have to be cautious, but that doesn't mean we'll hide and run! Those who sent us here promised us freedom, and we're gonna have it!" he announced as more people was gathering around him by the second.
"Look who put himself on charge." Nike muttered to Wells, who like the rest of the camp had his eyes fixed on Bellamy "They listen to him, he's one of them." Wells muttered in answer and her head snapped towards her friend "So are we. We're criminals too, remember?" she reminded him, her eyes drifting back towards their apparent new leader.
"We'll build a barrier, we'll make weapons! We'll show those who sent us down here to die we don't need them, we are more than their lab rats! We are ourselves now, we answer to no one and we're gonna do whatever the hell we want!" he continued his speech as everyone cheered.
"I say screw them! These wristbands you wear, they make you prisoners! Why should we help them after everything they've done to us!? If they want the ground, they'll have to come down here and test it themselves! What do you say?!" he finished as he saw some kids trying to get rid of them, not as many as he would like...but it was a start.
Part of him could grow to care about some of these children, but he would always look after Octavia and himself first. He couldn't let the rest of the Ark come down, and as long as those kids were wearing the wristbands he was sure they would.
If that meant they would have to face the grounders by themselves, so be it. He meant it when he said they would make it through by themselves, he would make sure Octavia along with all the others were as safe as possible, he would get them weapons and he would share the little training he had as a guard. He would take care of the kids, the rest of the Ark…they could go to hell for all he cared.
Translations.
Beja, yu bans gon stegeda-de. - Please, go back to the vilage.
Ai nou na teik em wan op. - I'll not let him die.
Chit laik dei? - What is that?
Ai na chek em au. - I will check it out.
Em klir! - All clear!