Hey everyone, sorry this update has taken a while. Uni has been taking up most of my attention and i have writers block! :(
This chapter isn't my best but i put a little background in so that hopefully that will make up for it.
Thanks to all my new followers and reviewers :)

Chapter eight:

"I won't let him hurt you" Octavia whispered, running her hands through Jasper's damp hair, his head in her lap. In the hours since Bellamy's hunting party had left, Jasper's condition hadn't changed. Adria watched on as the younger girl whispered soothing things in Jasper's ear, as if he would be able to hear her.

Monty was occupying himself trying to get on one of the dead wristbands to work again, in hopes of contacting the Ark. Adria knew he was just trying to distract himself from the thought his friend might die from his wound or by one of their own. They all knew if Bellamy really did intend to kill the injured boy there would be little resistance from the other delinquents. It would be too easy.

Adria hadn't moved from her spot against the wall, where it was easier to keep an eye on her friend and the hatch to the lower level. No one would hurt Jasper if she had anything to do with it.

"Damn it!" Monty cried, slamming down the useless wristband in frustration. No matter what he did he just couldn't get the damn thing to work. Truth be told he was stressed, so stressed that he couldn't seem to do anything. Even doing something that seemed so natural to him was no so difficult.

"You okay?" Adria asked, rubbing her face tiredly.
Monty nodded putting down his tools, got up and plopped himself down next to her. They said nothing as they watched Octavia continue to run her hands through their friend's hair.

Adria observed the other girl closely, not having much of an opportunity before now. She could see the familial similarities that Octavia shared with Bellamy. Their eyes especially were a similar shade of brown. Sensing eyes on her Octavia looked up catching Adria's eyes. Neither looked away.
"You care about him."
It wasn't a question. Octavia broke eye contact to look back down at Jasper's head in her lap, her eyes softening.

"He saved my life" she replied, her attention now on Adria. Adria hoped that with Octavia on side Bellamy would not make a move to end Jasper. Adria could see the worry on the younger girls face and shuffled forwards to place a hand of comfort on her shoulder
"Jasper's strong, he'll make it."
Octavia didn't look completely convinced but offered a small smile. Truth be told Adria didn't know if she even believed her own words. Jasper was strong but was he strong enough?

All three of them jumped at the loud yells and cries from the lower level, Adria looked over at Monty with concern. What was going on down there?
Getting up, Adria opened the hatch and peered down, watching as everyone was piling into the drop ship, coughing and spluttering. Spotting Clarke, Adria climbed down the ladder pushing her way to the ramp where Clarke was stood hurrying people through the door.

"What's going on?" she asked as more people moved past her, each coughing harder than the first.
The last of the delinquents were in and Clarke closed the dropship door, sighing in relief.
"It came out of nowhere" Wells informed Adria, coming forward.
Adria frowned in confusion "What did?"
"A fog, the air got heavy…and then everyone's skin started burning."

Burning fog, great.

The sound of coughing was echoing around the dropship, everyone trying to get rid of the foul taste at the back of their throats.
"Is there any water?" Clarke asked, herself taking deep breaths. Seeing how everyone was reacting to the fog Adria was glad that she had opted to stay on the dropship with Jasper.
She shook her head "Any water we have is out there." Adria told her. The Blonde nodded in understanding before she began walking through the crowd of cough delinquents and headed up the ladder, Adria and Wells following behind her.

When the hatch opened Octavia and Monty looked up, worried expressions on their faces. With the hatch open the cries and moans from the others were louder.
"What's happening?" Octavia questioned.
"Some sort of skin burning fog" Adria told her as she appeared through the hatch after Clarke. Monty rose a questioning brow, the thought of burning fog didn't seem very likely. Although it could some after effect from the nuclear war, some kind of build-up in the atmosphere…

After a moment Octavia spoke
"Is my brother back?"
Adria cursed under her breath. She hadn't even thought about the hunting party that was still out there. That was almost eight more lives possibly lost to the earth. The ground was quickly starting to lose its appeal. Silence gave Octavia her answer, she placed Jasper's head down gently before getting to her feet "We have go, Bellamy's still out there!"
"It's too dangerous, Octavia" Clarke tried to reason "I'm sure he found cover…he'll be fine."
* * * *

Hours had passed and they were now well into the night. Still, the fog hadn't cleared up. Most of the delinquents had opted to sleep on the lower level, not wanting to see the 'dying boy' above.
Adria didn't mind as it gave her more room to stretch out. The only other people on the second floor were obviously Jasper, Finn, Wells, Monty and Clarke.
Octavia had disappeared earlier on in the night to wait by the dropship entrance, just in case her brother had somehow made it back.

They had gone hungry for another night, but eventually everyone stopped complaining and tried to settle down for the night. Adria hadn't realised how hungry she was until her stomach growled loudly. She hadn't eaten properly since they had come down from the Ark. With the hunters possibly dead, things were only going to get harder. After all they couldn't survive only on berries.

Jasper was silent which seemed unusual, given that for the past few days all he had done was groan in pain. Clarke had even checked that he was still breathing. While she was there she checked his wounds and was pleased to report he seemed to be healing. Adria smiled at the news, it seemed that she had helped after all. She just wished Jasper would wake up soon. Adria found herself missing him, Jasper was one of those people who always knew what to say. Adria remembered many times when she was growing up that Jasper had been always been there for her.

Flashback:

Adria was in trouble, and she knew it. She knew she wasn't supposed to touch it, she knew how much trouble she would be in if she did. But what did her father think she would do? Having told his 10 year old daughter not to do something, he practically handed her an invitation.

Now Adria was hiding, trying to get away from the lecture she was sure to get when her father found out what she had done. Perhaps the ventilation shafts hadn't been the best way to escape the greenhouse office, but it was the only way she could think of to get out unseen.
And now she was lost in the twisted tunnels that weaved throughout the entire Ark. Everything looked the same, all the tunnels cold and grey.

Despite her complete lack of direction the girl continued through the shafts, hoping that if she just kept going she would eventually find a way out. Left or right? Adria wondered, glancing in both directions. Both ways looked the same but obviously went to a different place. After a moment of contemplation Adria decided she would go right, because that was the hand that she wrote with.

After while Adria took note that there had been no more turnings and she had continued to go in a straight line for a while. Time passed slowly in the vent but after a while longer she noticed there seemed to be a growing light up ahead. Increasing her pace, the ten year old pushed forward, hoping to find an escape from the small space.

Finally she reached the grate that separated her from her escape on the other side.
She pushed on it, but the cool metal refused to budge. Pushing again and again she huffed in frustration finding that after her hard work it had barely shifted at all.

Adria bit her lip in thought.

A few moments of contemplation later she had an idea. Struggling, the girl managed to wriggle onto her back, her feet up against the grate. Taking a deep breath, she drew he legs back and slammed them forward on the grate. It groaned creaked and moved. She smiled to herself. Again and again her feet came down until after long arduous minutes of non-stop kicking, the grate came free, falling with a heavy metal thud.

Her feeling of accomplishment didn't last long. When she managed to push herself from the shaft she realised the room was not one she recognised. Boxes were piled one of top of the other all around the room, a work bench sat on the far corner of the room, a window looking out into space just above it.
"A door!" she exclaimed, spotting her exit. She ran towards it and waited for it to open like the other automatic door did on the Ark.

The door did not open. It had been welded shut!

Adria wanted to cry, she was still lost and now it seemed that she would be trapped in this room.
She began looking for another way out, pushing aside boxes as she went.

The girl sat in the centre of the floor, having given up – it seemed she would have to go back the way she had come. But the thought of being lost in the shafts again kept her firmly planted on the floor.

She sat there for what seemed like hours, eyes wondering aimlessly around the room. Suddenly there was a crackling noise that made her jump.
"Attention citizens of the Ark."
She looked up, seeing that the voice was coming from a small speaker attacked to the wall above the ventilation shaft opening.
" This is Chancellor Jaha speaking" it continued "The council has just been informed that Adria Harris from farming station is missing." Adria sat up straighter listening closely, her parents had reported her missing!

"Adria is ten years old, and has brown hair. She was last seen in the greenhouse offices 3 hours ago. If anyone has any information please bring it to the council."

After a few moments the crackling stopped and the room was once again silent.
Knowing that people were now looking for her, Adria was more determined to find her way back quickly. She searched the desk finding a few scrap pieces of paper, and discarded pens.
Picking up the only marker, she hoisted herself back into the vent took the lid off the pen and began crawling, leaving a trail of marker ink behind her.
* * * *

45 minutes later Adria had found her way out of the ventilation shafts, it turned out the sealed room she had found was in the old engineering section and wasn't too far away from the newer sections.
Now she had marked out a trail to find her way back to the sealed room with a pen marker.

Chancellor Jaha was making regular announcements over the speakers, reminding all citizens that the ten year old was still missing. Although she was now safely back in the open of the Ark, Adria still hadn't turned herself in to the security scads searching the different levels for her, afraid of how much trouble she would be in.

So now here she was creeping through the corridors hoping not to be spotted.
All she had to do was make it back to the sleeping quarters without being seen. This would be difficult as there was a search patrol every 10 minutes. She was currently on the 3
rd floor of the sleeping quarters, unfortunately hers happened to be another two floors above.

That is when she had an idea, instead of trying to get up another floor she could try and make it to her friend Jasper's room which was on this floor. Adria hurried down the hallway and sighed in relief at seeing her friend's front door. She knocked on the door bouncing on her toes anxiously. After a few seconds the door opened slowly revealing a tall lanky ten year old boy. He wore his pair of old oversized googles around his neck.

"Adria!" the boy sighed in relief pulling the shorter girl into a tight hug, he had heard the chancellor on the speaker and had been worried about her.
"Where have you been?" he asked pulling away from her "Everyone's been looking for you!"
"I know" she replied pushing them both into Jasper's quarters and shutting the door behind them, not wanting to get caught in the hallway.

Adria was relieved to see that Jasper's parents weren't home.
"What's going on?" Jasper asked in concern seeing the worried look on Adria's face.
"My dad is going to be so angry with me" the ten year old muttered, looking down at her feet. Jasper frowned in confusion
"Your dads been out looking for you" he told her. "He came round earlier, mum and dad went with him to look for you."
Adria frowned. Wasn't her dad angry with her?

After a few moments of silence Jasper spoke "You have to go to the council, everyone is looking for you."
Not waiting for an answer Jasper took hold of his friends hand and led her out into the hallway. Adria put up no resistance and allowed him to lead her. Sooner or later she would have to face her father.

Her father hadn't been angry when he was called to come and collect her from the council chamber, he was just happy that she was safe. Adria had told the council she had wanted to go exploring and had got lost in some of the lower levels of the Ark that weren't familiar to her. They accepted her explanation and allowed her to leave but not before warning her not to go off by herself again.
Jasper had been called a hero for finding her and Adria was all too happy to go along with it.

End Flashback

Adria smiled at the memory, remembering how Jasper had basked in the attention after being named a hero. Jasper had never been praised for much, and she remembered how proud he had been.
"What are you smiling about?" Adria's head snapped in the direction of the voice. There Jasper lay his eyes open, he shifted slightly and winced in pain. He reached up and ran his hand over the makeshift bandage tied around his chest.

"Jasper!" pushing herself off the wall she crawled over to where he lay and took his hand in hers. Looking around she noticed that she was the only one that had noticed the new development, or course that was most likely because they were asleep.
"What happened?" the boy asked weakly continuing to finger at his bandages, Adria squeezed the hand that she held.
"You got hit with a spear" she whispered.

Jasper took a moment to absorb the information.
"A spear?"
Adria nodded slowly "Turns out we're not as alone as we thought" she attempted to joke feeling her eyes starting to water. They were silent neither knowing what to say, both still gripping the others hand, trying to find some kind of comfort.