Sleeping in the middle of the forest sucks. It sucks even more when Jasper won't shut the hell up. It's not really his fault, considering the whole spear to the chest thing must be horribly painful, but seriously. Everyone complaining about it is only making it worse. I barely get 15 minutes of rest before the sun comes up. There's no food either and the water tastes like plastic. So basically, I'm running purely on anger and spite.
I have a plan to get Jasper to shut up though. And it's not a murder plan or anything. That's growth. I mean… he could die, but he probably won't. See, I know a lot about berries. Mostly which berries can kill someone, but also which berries will make your body go numb, or your blood pressure to get dangerously low, or even make you hallucinate. I'm looking for the numbing ones. They can kill you but you have to eat a lot so Jasper will probably be fine.
The berries are surprisingly easy to find. There are all kinds in the forest around the camp. Lots of boring berries that don't do anything too that I could eat. It only takes me a few minutes to gather enough for Jasper. And a few more minutes to force myself back to the stupid dropship. I can hear Jasper screaming before I go in and hear everyone else shouting at each other too. If they get the radio working I'm going to have to talk to Abby about sending us some sedatives.
"We didn't drag him through miles of woods just to let him die." Clarke, Monty, and Finn are holding Jasper down.
"Kids a goner. If you can't see that, you're deluded. He's making people crazy." Bellamy tells them.
"Sorry if Jasper's an inconvenience to you, but this isn't the Ark. Down here, every life matters." Debatable. But, I like Jasper.
"Take a look at him. He's a lost cause." Bellamy says. Clarke and Octavia look sadly at Jasper.
"Octavia, I've spent my whole life watching my mother heal people. If I say there's hope, there's hope." Clarke tries to reassure her but it doesn't really work.
"This isn't about hope, it's about guts. You don't have the guts to make the hard choices. I do. He's been like this for three days. If he's not better by tomorrow, I'll kill him myself." Bellamy really is an asshole when he's on Earth.
"Can you get his mouth open?" I ask Clarke, joining them around the table.
"Why?"
"Pain relief." I pull out the berries I found but Bellamy grabs onto my wrist before I can hand them over nearly making me smash the berries in my palm.
"What are you doing?" He asks.
"Helping." He glares at the berries before shifting his glare to me.
"Well, don't." Bellamy storms off.
"Power-hungry, self-serving jackass. He doesn't care about anyone but himself." Monty says bitterly. Octavia flinches. "No offense." She shrugs.
"Yeah. Bellamy is all that. But he also happens to be right." Finn says quietly. I walk over to Jasper and try to give him the berries but Clarke stops me again.
"What are those? Monty?" Monty looks at the berries.
"Where'd you find those?" Monty asks, turning his attention from the berries back to me.
"Outside." I tell him. He thinks for a moment before nodding, and I take that as an okay to feed them to Jasper. It takes a little coercion to get him to swallow them but he does.
"I thought you didn't take Earth Skills." Clarke says.
"I didn't." She looks back at Jasper, now sleeping. Or maybe he's passed out, it's kind of hard to tell.
Jasper's finally stopped moaning and everyone relaxes a little.
"He still needs medicine. His wounds are getting infected." I remember the package Abby gave me and pull it out, handing it to Clarke.
"Would this help?" I ask her. She yanks it out of my hands and pulls out a vial of medicine.
"Where did you get this?"
"Your mom gave it to me."
"And you've just kept it to yourself the whole time?" She accuses.
"I gave it to you now, didn't I?" I ask with a shrug. Octavia glares at me while Clarke looks through all four vials. "Will they help?" She shakes her head no dejectedly.
"They're all heart medication, but nothing that will help Jasper." She sets them on the table, just out of my reach. Monty goes back to working on the wristbands and Clarke and Finn go outside. I sit across from Octavia, looking at Jasper. It's nice and quiet for a few minutes before everyone starts pouring into the dropship.
"What's going on?" Octavia asks.
"Air got thick. Everybody's skin starting burning." Some girl tells us. Octavia looks scared.
"My brother is out there."
"He'll be fine. We'll all be fine." Monty is weirdly optimistic.
After a few hours stuck in the dropship, people start falling asleep. Trying to, at least. Jasper woke back up and started groaning again and I can't get any berries without getting my skin burned off. Sorry, Jasper but it's not worth it. We closed the hatch to try and block out the sound but I don't think it's working. Octavia is petting Jasper's hair away from his face when Monty comes running up the ladder.
"Murphy's gonna kill Jasper!" He tries to close the hatch while Murphy tries to push through the other side. Monty sits on the hatch but it's not doing a lot. He's pretty small. Octavia rips a chunk of pipe off the wall and the two of them get the hatch closed without Murphy getting in.
"We can't let them kill Jasper." Monty tells her and she agrees.
"I could kill Murphy." I offer. Octavia looks like she's considering it but Monty glares at me. "Just an idea." I go back to trying to calm Jasper.
Once they're sure Murphy can't break through Octavia joins me at his bedside and Monty goes back to the wristbands.
I cannot spend another night sleeping outside. It's gross and uncomfortable and for some reason makes Connor think that it's okay to talk to me when it is definitely NOT okay for Connor to talk to me. I know Bellamy will get me my own tent, mostly because if he doesn't I'll complain constantly until he does. I can be very persuasive. He's sitting by the fire, alone for the first time all morning.
"Bellamy!" I greet, sitting next to him. He glances over at me but focuses on the fire. "Good morning."
"Not really. Wells got killed by Grounders." I didn't expect that. I didn't know Wells much, just that he was the Chancellor's son and had a crush on Clarke, but it sucks that he died.
"That blows." I hope Bellamy doesn't want to be comforted. Sympathy isn't my strong suit. He just glances at me again, this time with a small smile.
"You've been accused of a lot of things, Gemma, but being too nice is not one of them."
"I can live with that." He gives me a full smirk this time and I smile back at him. "I came over here for a reason." He frowns.
"You didn't murder Wells, did you?" I roll my eyes and his frown fades.
"No. I need a tent."
"Why?"
"Because I can't keep sleeping on the dirt, out in the open. It's gross."
"We're low on tents, you can build your own." I scoff.
"We both know I can't. Can't you just give me one?" Bellamy shakes his head and sighs loudly.
"I can't just give you a tent. Everyone else earned them."
"Okay, well, my skills aren't exactly helpful. Unless you want me to use my skills?" He glares at me. "See, not helpful."
"Everyone already thinks I let you do whatever you want. Giving you a tent would make it worse." He tells me. I sigh loudly. He ignores it so I sigh again, louder this time.
"Bellamy!"
"No."
"Bellamy, please."
"Cut it out."
"But the Grounders!"
"Won't get to you before I kill you myself." I sigh again and Bellamy rolls his eyes. I'm about to begin Phase Two when Connor and Murphy walk over. Connor sits annoyingly close to me and grins.
"Don't worry. Whatever Bellamy won't give you, I will." Gross.
"I don't think you have what I need, Connor." Murphy smirks and Bellamy rolls his eyes again. Connor just grins and puts his hand on my knee. What's with people thinking they can touch me? Maybe I should bite him. Instead I just glare at his hand. He doesn't move it so I glare at Bellamy instead.
"Fine." Bellamy finally gives in. HA. I win again. "I'll deal with it. Just get out of here." I grin and shove Connor's hand off my knee. "You should all be working on the wall." Bellamy says before standing up and walking away. I stand up too, but there's no way I'm building a stupid wall.