Gosh, I am so sorry it's taken me this long to update! I've been in kind of a slump since my finals started, but now that they're done I finally have the motivation to write! Enjoy!
The blizzard had all but wiped out their food supply, destroyed most of their tents, and muted the world in a thick white haze. Clarke's stomach growled and she tried not to think about their lack of food and the obvious lack of game tracks out in the forest. If they couldn't find anything to eat in the next few days, all of the kids were going to be screwed. The weight of the world rested on Clarke's shoulders, especially with Bellamy down and out with the worst cold Clarke had seen. Octavia was taking care of him while Clarke handled the rest of the camp.
"Clarke!" Jake, a boy who'd been imprisoned for petty theft on the Ark, approached the blonde girl as she turned away from what meager berries and nuts the last hunting party had returned. "Anna found something she thought you might be interested in. Follow me." Clarke glanced over her shoulder, nodding at Raven across the camp as she followed the boy out of camp.
"What exactly are you taking me to see?" Clarke asked curiously as the two of them waded through the snow. Jake barely turned his head, a cocky grin on his face. Clarke suddenly felt deeply unsettled.
"We found some food." He answered, snorting as though he knew some joke that Clarke didn't. Something stirred in the pit of her stomach and she swallowed harshly. Even though Jake had only been arrested for petty theft, Anna had murdered her mother in cold blood and tried to kill her father before a neighbor had heard the commotion and called the guards. Clarke knew that all of the kids on the ground were criminals, but that didn't mean she trusted all of them. In fact, she only trusted a few of them. Jake and Anna were not among that list.
"Check it out." Clarke was pulled from her thoughts at Anna's voice. Looking up from the white ground and immediately freezing at the sight in front of her. "I shot him while he was following us." In front of her was an injured grounder, covered in furs, but definitely human. An arrow protruded from his side and he was breathing shallowly.
"Absolutely not." Clarke shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest. The arrogant smirk on Anna's face dropped and her eyes narrowed. Clarke felt a flutter of fear in her chest, but tried not to let it show on her face. "We are not EATING another human being." She snapped.
"Why not?!" Jake exclaimed in exasperation. "We're going to starve to death if we don't find something to eat! There's no animals anywhere, not in this weather, and any plant we can eat is going to freeze soon." He stated, taking a step closer to the leader of the camp.
"No. There's got to be another way. I'm not going to take another human being's life, and I'm certainly not going to eat them." Clarke shouldered past the two of them and crouched next to the grounder, lifting his furs so that she could see his face and breaking the arrow. The grounder stared up at her with bared teeth and angry green eyes. "Get out of here." She helped the grounder to his feet, watching him scurry through the trees before turning away and storming through the undergrowth.
"Clarke come on! What are we going to eat now?!" Jake called after her as the two hunters chased her through the forest. Clarke turned to answer, but suddenly the ground fell from under her. A gasp escaped her lips as she tried to grasp at the edge of the hole, to no avail. Something pierced her thigh, tearing through her jeans, and a scream tore from her throat and echoed through the air.
"Clarke!" Anna screamed, peering over the edge to the leader of the camp. Luckily, the grounder trap was pretty old, so most of the spikes had eroded and collapsed, but Clarke had managed to catch one of the spikes still standing. What felt like flames licked at her thigh and tears made salty tracks down her cheeks.
"Hold on! We're going to go get Bellamy! Just hang on a little bit, okay?!" Jake exclaimed before the two faces disappeared. Clarke threw her head back to the cold ground, sniffling slightly and closing her eyes.
"Dammit." She sighed, sitting up and squeezing the wound. Another scream wound from her chest and a sob erupted from her mouth followed by several curses and profanities. They'd better hurry up with help, or Clarke was toast.