A/N: Oh my Lord, I haven't updated in weeks. I forgot and then I was too busy, and yeah. Sorry about that. Hope you enjoy this chapter, I rpomise I'll post the next as soon as I finish it :)
"Stop it, Bellamy."
"Stop what? I'm not doing anything."
"Stop looking over your shoulder, grabbing onto that gun, being all paranoid. What do you think's going to happen? Someone will leap out from the shrubbery and attack us?"
Bellamy looked over at Arlo wearily. She shot him an apathetic glance in return.
"Well, the grounder who attacked us, he could be following us right now and we'd have no idea."
"I killed that man, so I doubt he's doing much of anything."
"What?" Bellamy frowned, giving Arlo a look of both concern and confusion. "You killed him?"
"He was trying to kill you. What does it matter?" Arlo countered, annoyed.
"It matters, Arlo." Bellamy muttered in response. Raising his voice, he repeated. "Killing people matters."
"Not to me."
They continued in silence. Bellamy figured it best to not attempt to challenge Arlo's convictions. Besides, he knew what grounders were like. Clarke told him a while ago they had warriors as young as twelve who'd killed in battle.
"Do you think that w-" Bellamy was cut off by a pained groan coming from behind him. Sterling.
Arlo had already pulled the horse to a stop and walked back to him. He was holding his head and squinting at her.
"Get away," he drawled. "Who are you? Stay back..."
"Sterling. Sterling," Bellamy said, holding Sterling's shoulder. "It's Bellamy. Can you hear me? Sterling?"
"Bellamy?" Sterling mumbled. He screwed his eyes shut and groaned in pain. He was still holding his head on his hands. He opened his eyes and leaned closer to Bellamy, attempting to whisper. "Bellamy, there's a grounder behind us."
"I know, Sterling," Bellamy responded gently. "Don't worry, she's helping us. Her name is Arlo."
"You trust her?" Sterling asked.
"Yes, I do." Bellamy answered.
"Okay," said Sterling. It was clear that settled it. Bellamy trusted the grounder, and he trusted Bellamy.
Bellamy looked over to Arlo. "We need to stop. He's clearly in pain."
"Fine," Arlo sighed. There was an edge of worry to her tone. "But we can't be too long."
Bellamy and Arlo helped Sterling off the horse as gently as they could. The manoeuvre took great difficulty considering Bellamy's leg was broken and he could barely hold himself up, let alone someone else. Sterling stood leaning on a tree and Bellamy walked the horse over to another tree and ties the reigns to it. Arlo was standing by Sterling as he stumbled forward, almost falling. Arlo reached forward in time and grabbed hold of his arms, steadying him.
"Woah there, Sammy, you're alright," she said, guiding him down to the ground. "How about we just sit down here for a bit, hmm?" Once he was sitting on the ground, Arlo brushed her hand over the back of his head, pulling it away coated in his blood. Making sure Sterling wouldn't see, she held it up to Bellamy.
"It's Sterling," Bellamy muttered unconsciously, rushing over to crouch next to the boy. "You feeling alright, Sterling?"
"Oh yeah, I'm fine," Sterling sighed.
Bellamy and Arlo looked at each other. Bellamy's face was plagued with concern. Arlo jerked her head, motioning for him to move off to the side.
"I'm no doctor, Bellamy," she told him. "He could have internal bleeding, we don't know."
"He's going to be fine." Arlo looked at Bellamy sympathetically. "Don't look at me like that, he's going to be fine. We're fighters, and we didn't make it this far just to die in the woods like animals." Not waiting on a reply, Bellamy turned around and held up two fingers in front of Sterling. "How many fingers am I holding up, Sterling?"
"Two?" Sterling responded carefully. Bellamy eyed him cautiously, considering his next move.
"You right to get back on this horse?" Sterling nodded and Bellamy turned around to Arlo, who was walking back to the horse. "We're going to find Finn then we're going home," he said. Too busy helping Sterling to his feet, Bellamy didn't hear Arlo's weary sigh.
After gathering themselves and hoisting Sterling onto the horse, they set off once more. At first, they walked in silence, but soon Arlo noticed Sterling's head hanging forward. She reached up and shook him, quite violently.
"Hey, Buddy, stay awake for me, okay?" She said as he came to.
"Yeah, okay," Sterling replied.
"We don't want you falling asleep again, that's all," Arlo continued. She lowered her voice and added, "you might not wake up if you do." Handing the reigns to Bellamy, who was limping quietly beside her, she stood back and walked alongside Sterling.
"Tell me about yourself, Sam," she said. Bellamy whipped his head around and shot her a warning glance, which she countered with a sly smile.
"Well..." Sterling began, apparently not noticing, or rather not acknowledging, Arlo's name swap. "I'm from Factory Station and my last name is Wilson and I have a friend called Monroe..." Trailing off, Sterling's eyes suddenly widened. "Monroe! Have you seen her? She has red hair and we got separated after we saw the Ark crash, and,"
"I saw her," Arlo interrupted. "She went back to the spaceship to wait for your people." Bellamy looked over and the two exchanged glances. That was a lie. Bellamy said nothing.
"No, Monroe wouldn't just leave..."
"She didn't, she just went to go find help," Arlo said. "Don't worry, we'll go get Finn and then we can go back to the spaceship and Monroe will be waiting for us."
"Right, yeah, of course," Sterling said. He closed his eyes for a moment.
"What was space like?" Asked Arlo suddenly.
"Oh, it was alright. The thing I miss the most is probably cake. There's nothing but nuts and berries down here. Do grounders have cake?" He responded lazily, looking down at Arlo.
"I'm not a-" Arlo began, trailing off to consider her response. "Yeah, grounders have cake. Probably not the cake you're used to though."
"Well, I'm used to cake made without egg or sugar or flavour, so it's probably better."
"Why do you miss that? It doesn't sound very nice," Arlo asked. She didn't really care that much, but wanted to keep the conversation going.
"You don't miss some things until they're gone, you know?"
"Yeah," Arlo responded quietly. "I know."
After another hour of meaningless conversation, Arlo rushed in front and held her hand up, indicating for Bellamy to stop.
"This is it," she said. Bellamy looked past her. He didn't see anything. He was about to vocalise that fact, when he noticed something reflecting the light through the trees. Then he looked harder in that spot and faintly saw some kind of wall, constructed from wood and scrap metal. Then he noticed the grounders standing guard on it.
"There's a wall," Bellamy muttered out loud.
"Yeah, there's a wall," Arlo responded. "Here's the plan. We'll trek up here," she continued, motioning uphill, to the left of the group, "to an elevated clearing where you two can wait and see into the village. I'll go in, find a gona, question him about Finn and find out where he is. Once we know where to find your friend we'll plan our next move. Okay?"
Arlo took the horse's reigns from Bellamy and headed off, but he reached out and pulled her arm back. She looked at him, confused.
"What if-" Bellamy began nervously. "What if he's not there? What if they killed him already?"
"They wouldn't," she answered. Bellamy didn't look convinced. "Listen, Bellamy, he has been brought here to answer to the Commander for the crimes of your people. The Commander isn't here yet and they won't start without her."
"How do you know this Commander's not here yet?" Bellamy countered.
"If the Commander were here, I would know about it. Trust me."
Arlo continued walking and Bellamy reluctantly followed. Why would she know? That didn't make any sense. He didn't even know whyhe was so quick to trust this strange girl. It was probably because she reminded him of Octavia. He hoped Octavia was okay, wherever she was.
They soon reached the place Arlo was referring to, and she tied the horse to a tree. Standing on her toes, she held Sterling's shoulder.
"Don't die while I'm gone, okay Sammy?"
"Where are you going?" Sterling replied, looking slightly concerned. Bellamy wondered why he was so quick to trust her also. Maybe it was just something about her.
"Just going to pop into town and get Finn," she told him. If this wasn't such a serious situation Bellamy would've laughed at that. Arlo turned to Bellamy and began talking. "You can't be seen, under any circumstances, okay? If they spot you up here, get on that horse and get the hell out of here. Don't wait for me." Bellamy didn't really like that idea, but said nothing. While she was talking, Arlo pulled a small knife out of her coat. Suddenly, without warning, she used it to cut open her hand.
"What the hell are you doing, Arlo!?" Bellamy yelled. Arlo shushed him with a frown. While she spoke, she used the fingers on her other hand to paint on her face with her own blood. Bellamy recoiled in the horror of it.
"Don't worry, I'm just blending in," she said nonchalantly as she dragged her blood-coated fingers from the middle of her forehead, over her nose down to her chin.
"Don't worry? Don't worry? I am worried. I am deeply worried. This is not normal."
Arlo rolled her eyes at him impatiently. "Just because you're not used to something Bellamy, doesn't mean it's not normal to someone else," she said monotonously. "Anyway, last thing: if someone kills me, run. Don't stand here with your mouth open like some sort of idiot, just get the hell out of here."
"What?" Bellamy croaked. He was beginning to wonder if this was at all a good idea. "Why would someone kill you?"
"You'd be surprised," is all Arlo said, before turning on her hell and heading down the hill toward the wall. Once she reached it, she looked back at Bellamy and gave him a smile, most likely trying to reassure him. It didn't work. Then she reached up and lifted herself over the wall effortlessly, and with a level of stealth that made Bellamy think this probably wasn't the first time she'd done it.
Once she was inside, she hid behind ramshackle buildings, peering around them and darting around like she was in a corny spy film. Bellamy wondered if she was just being stupid. Soon enough she spotted someone who got her attention and she stopped what she was doing. Before walking out to meet the grounder man, Arlo reached behind and adjusted the bow she had slung over her shoulder. By this point, Bellamy was beyond nervous.
Once the grounder saw Arlo, he stepped back apprehensively. Bellamy strained to hear what they were saying. The grounder was shaking his head and Arlo was pointing and gesturing with her arms. She seemed restless.
Something was wrong.
Please review! I'll update soon!
