Author's Note: Hi guys! I'm back with another installment of this lovely fic! I see that I have some follows and favorites - THANK YOU. Now let's just get some comments going ;) This chapter's song is by Voxhaul Broadcast and is featured in The Walking Dead tv show. The pure grittiness of the song is what really set the tone for chapter 3. I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter's flashback through Monty's POV. Chapter 4 will be Jasper's story of how he met the gang!

If you're excited for the following chapters and what I have planned, feel free to leave a review of the chapter and story! As always favorite and follow it as well. I absolutely love writing for other people and love their feedback. ~Hint, hint.~ Enjoy the story everyone! :)

Chapter 3: You Are the Wilderness

Monty POV (Flashback):

It had been three days and three nights since we had left Arkadia.

It had been three days and three nights since my mother had been killed. On the inside, I knew this was true; I could admit this in my head and was brutally reminded of it each day and night since it did happen. On the outside, I couldn't bring myself to say it.

It had been three days and three nights, and I could not admit out loud that my mother was dead. The only indication I received that it had actually happened was my dad's constant sullen eyes.

On the first night when we were miles and miles into the woods, hoping that no Guards or Progressives would come find us, we cried for the loss of Hannah – beloved mother and wife – as well as the loss of our home.

I was only a few years old when we landed on Earth and I couldn't remember our home on the Ark beforehand. Arkadia was the first home I remember, and after a decade and a half, it was taken from me.

On the second night, I questioned my father why we had to leave Arkadia and why mom couldn't come with. He answered me with the truth that I did not want. The man I once called Professor Pike and teacher wanted me to kill innocent lives. How could I support that? How could anyone support that? How could mom support that monster? I felt such disrespect for my mother. If this were a trial for a common murderer, she would be charged as an accessory; but when she was an accessory to a murder at the hand of our Chancellor, she was rewarded. Hell, our family was rewarded!

But now, I didn't want anything to do with Chancellor Pike. I only wanted my vengeance on him and then I wanted to be done. My mother's fate was his fault.

The third night came and went. Luckily, we didn't have to use any of the weapons my mother practically shoved in our hands, but our food and water count was running low. We didn't want to travel along the river so close to Arkadia for fear that the Progressives would spot us. Those damn robots couldn't just remain as maintenance droids. No, they had to be hunters too! We currently only had one can of beans left to share between the two of us. We could make it last until the next day, but then we would need to start hunting for game.

What were we going to do?

"Dad," I said over the crackle of our barely-there fire. "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know son, I don't know," he said without looking at me.

That night we slept in front of the dying fire and woke up to the bitter cold morning air. It was barely light outside, but the sun was beginning to make its appearance from behind the clouds.

That was not the reason why I woke up though. I woke to the sound of my father talking under his breath to a man holding a gun to my dad's head. The man looked no older than his mid-twenties, with brown eyes and hair, and a lean build. He looked recognizable, but from where? He was definitely from Arkadia; that much I could tell. Maybe he was an officer? Oh god, I can't lose my dad, he's all that I have left.

My dad saw that I was awake and said, "Monty, just stay down. Okay?"

The only thing I could do was nod my head and watch the calm man's hand. His finger was nowhere near the trigger, but all it takes is one second for that to change.

"Now, I'll ask you one more time," the seething man said while pressing the gun further into my father's temple. "Why are you here?"

"And I will tell you once again, that I don't have to answer to you," my dad stated calmly, but in a firm tone.

With that, my dad turned the tables and was able to smack the gun across the clearing we were in. He then tackled the unknown man to the ground and the two began to wrestle for the upper hand.

Both were eager to get to the gun, but also tried to knock the other one out so as not to follow. As they rolled around the dirt and brush, I finally got the senses to get the unknown assailant's gun. Go, run. Now!

I sprinted towards the gun and picked it up right as he sent a hard punch to my father's jaw, knocking him to the ground; he seemed like he had fighting experience. I would have to tread carefully with this man. "Stop!" I yelled, pointing the gun at the man. "Do not move, or I swear to God, I will shoot you."

I was not going to lose both of my parents.

The man immediately backed up from my father and put his hands up. "Don't do anything you won't regret, man" the man said. Once again, he looked calm as ever.

Suddenly, there was a rustling in the bushes next to him. I kept the hand gun trained on his silhouette, but moved my eyes to see two figures appear from the trees at a running pace. Dammit, we were outnumbered.

"Bell?" one of them nearly screamed.

"Dammit O," the man called Bell rolled his eyes. "I told you to stay at camp."

"We heard noises," said the other woman. "Thought you were in trouble. Guess we were right."

"Not now, Princess," said the man.

By now, my father was off of the forest floor, a red bruise beginning to form on his chin. I didn't know who to train the gun at, so I just kept it on the man who tried to kill my father in the first place.

"Monty?" one of the women questioned. "Is that you?"

I took my eyes off of Bell and gazed at the blonde woman with ice blue eyes. She was breathing heavily from trekking the thick forest. Next to her stood another woman, maybe a few years younger with dark brown hair and dark eyes. "Clarke?" I asked.

I lowered the gun; a warrant for Clarke's arrest was buzzing through Arkadia. The headlines regarding her claimed that she was to be taken into custody under alleged treason after her father revealed the true intent of the Progressives all over the media. In a way, I knew that she was running from the same thing I was. I wasn't expecting it, but she came up to me boldly and hugged me close. "It's so good to see you."

Clarke and I weren't really friends, but we shared classes with each other two or so years ago. We were different ages, but my teachers moved me up in all my science classes, so we shared biology and chemistry together. We even did a project together once! She was more the type to do the field work, whereas I was perfectly comfortable taking down the data and computing it. Needless to say, we made a pretty good team.

Finally, I hugged her back and said, "It's good to see you too, Clarke."

When we broke apart, she looked to my father and stuck out her hand a little bit reluctantly. Did she trust us? "Clarke Griffin, pleasure to meet you…?"

"Benjamin, but everyone calls me Ben. Your parents are Jake and Abby, right?" my dad should her hand back.

"Yes sir, they are," Clarke answered a little stiffly.

The two other people who looked to be brother and sister stood a little ways away as Clarke attempted to form a bond with my dad.

"Please, no need to call me 'sir,' Ben will be just fine. I actually worked with your dad a few times back on the Ark. You were just a little tike back then," my dad smiled.

I wasn't even friends with Clarke, but this felt so embarrassing to hear my dad say 'little tike.'

"Do you two know Bellamy and Octavia?" Clarke then asked, gesturing for the two people behind her to come forward.

I gladly shook Octavia's hand, but refused to take Bellamy's. He didn't look like the type to shake hands anyway. My dad did the same, exchanging a polite hello with the younger sister.

I gave my dad a sideways glance as we all stood there in relative silence. "Dad, your lip is bleeding!" Man, I hated blood. I hated seeing people bleed, especially a loved one.

"I can clean that up for you if you want sir…. Ben. Sorry," Clarke stuttered. "We have supplies – food, water, some meds. My mom taught me a few things before we left."

"I wouldn't mind that Clarke," my dad said.

"So what are you two even doing out here anyway?" asked Bellamy.

God, this man was nosy. "They killed my mother," I finally admitted. My dad put a reassuring hand on my shoulder and all eyes were on me, but I held my ground against Bellamy who looked neither sad nor surprised. From that moment, I could feel a bond of respect between us.

At that, Octavia came up and engulfed me in a warm embrace, "Same here," was all she whispered as she offered me all the comfort she could muster up. I could sense that her brother was uncomfortable with this, but I all I could feel was relief that I could live with my mother's death and be able to say it out loud.

Clarke POV (Present):

"Alright, hold it steady… Pull back the drawstring as far as you can… Good! Now, move your drawing hand to the far corner of your mouth, aim and shoot!" I instructed.

Unfortunately, Monty didn't quite hit the moving target. He actually ended up scaring it off. Again.

"Oh forget it, Clarke!" Monty shouted. "I'm never gonna be able to do this. I give up already! Bows and arrows are clearly not my calling."

"Why?" I simply asked. "You got pretty good with a gun somehow, didn't you?"

I mean, it's not like my archery skills just came to me. It took nearly two years to perfect my kill shot on a stagnant target, and nearly two and a half more years to even hit a moving target.

"Because… I don't know. I just – I just… can't. I'm not like you or Bellamy," Monty said.

All of a suddenly, I felt a pang of sadness and guilt course through my veins. Am I being too hard on him? He does seem a bit irascible today…

"I'm sorry," I said with a defeated tone. "It's probably my fault. I've never been a really good teacher."

"It's fine, Clarke. It's not you," said Monty. "I'm just… ugh."

"Didn't I tell you not to drink last night?" I snickered.

"Yesssssss, but that's not it."

"C'mon, sit down. Let's take a break. Do you wanna talk about it?" I asked.

He handed me my beautiful sixty-two inch recurve bow and sat down up against a nearby tree.

I slung the arrow quiver across my back and laid the bow across my lap. I then handed Monty a bottle of lukewarm water and an apple that I grabbed before leaving camp this morning.

I recalled this morning vividly. When I went to go wake up Monty, I had passed Bellamy on the way, who looked to be staring at nothing with deep circles under his eyes. Poor guy needs some sleep. To break his concentration, I had lightly set my hand on his shoulder and told him to go to bed with a soft smile. Granted, he said no being as how it was already somewhat light outside and because he is as stubborn as a mule. With that, I made the bold mood to give him a light kiss on the cheek, much like the one he gave me on my temple. He didn't smile at me, but I could see his eyes light up for a brief second.

As a precaution, I woke up both Monty and Ben, so that Ben could possibly persuade Bellamy to get some sleep.

We had been away from camp for about four hours. We checked all of the traps and was lucky enough to get a couple rabbits and squirrels and so far, I've shot nearly three rabbits. We're in luck today, even though it would be nice to have more; our luck has still been better than other days, that's for sure.

After taking a bite of the apple myself, I said, "Talk."

"I heard you and Octavia talking last night," he simply stated.

"What about it?"

"Well, what if something bad does happen to you or dad?" he asked.

Oh, not this again. "Monty, I'm not going anywhere. I'll be with you guys until the end. And your dad is a survivor, he will be absolutely fine. I promise. In fact," I stated while holding out my little finger. "I pinky promise."

"Aren't we a little old to be doing pinky promises?" he asked with the playfulness returning to his voice.

"Just do it and we can leave," I said with a smirk.

Right before he was about to bring his hand up to mine to do the childish act, there was a crashing noise in the trees near us.

And then it happened again.

And again.

It was consistent and as it neared closer and closer, it sounded less like crashing and more like trudging.

In this moment, I realized that the noises were coming from the Progressives.

Monty must've noticed my change in mood for he mirrored my actions as sudden realization came crashing down on him.

I panicked for a split second. Okay, calm down. They're still a ways away. Too close to risk running from, though. We could just hide it out, but they'll find the others.

"Oh good lord. Thought we were gonna be done with these bastards for a while. But, no! Of course we aren't" I turned my worry into frustration.

Monty just stared at me with obvious confusion etched in his face.

"Never mind. Just switch me," I said, handing him bow and quiver as he gave me a set of throwing knives. "I don't remember giving these to you."

"That's cause Bellamy kinda gave them to me," Monty said with guilt for selling out his friend.

"Bellamy gave you MY throwing knives? Oh hell no!" I was going to have a long talk with Bellamy after this. "Just get in the tree and stay out of sight. I promise this won't take long. You're a better judge than I am, so how many do you suppose there are?" I asked as I gave Monty a boost to climb the tree.

Thankfully, he didn't argue and just said, "Sounds like maybe ten, probably less. But definitely more than six."

"Good. If you catch something that I don't, use the bow. But be cautious. I know you know how to use it, but for God's sake, please do NOT hit me!"

"Wouldn't dream of it," he said. "Just be careful, ya hear?"

"You know me."

"Exactly, that's why I have to remind you!" He said while positioning himself in the tree.

I smirked and rushed to hide behind another tree a couple of feet away from the one Monty was situated in.

As I awaited the upcoming threat, I began to think about what surprises they'd bring this lovely morning! The Progressives usually carried some type of modified hand gun that's usually set to stun. I have witnessed a few accounts of when it has been set to kill though, so there was never a time I wasn't careful around them.

They were in my line of sight now. There were about eight of them. It was an okay number. I've taken more down by myself before, but it was still enough to make me feel a tad bit on edge.

They came closer.

Let them come to me. Stay out of sight. Attack from behind. Good, plan of action is set in motion… now!

I hopped out from behind the tree and started chucking knife after knife.

All five knives hit their targets, right in the eye. Five down, three to go.

The remaining Progressives simultaneously turned around and began to shoot. One of them was using actual bullets and I hoped that it wouldn't attract more of them or something much worse, like humans. I had no problem dismantling robots, but killing a human was still a foreign concept to me.

I dodged their bullets and waves of electricity that came my way. I was able to run up to one of them who was reloading and did my signature roundhouse kick to the head. As its head flew from the rest of its body, I swiftly grabbed one of the knives and threw it at the farthest one from me.

It was at this point in time that I heard two things – the sound of a gunshot and the noise an arrow makes when being shot from a bow.

Still slightly bent down on the ground, I saw the metallic arrow enter the robot's head. Atta boy.

As I attempted to get up, I could feel something warm beginning to pull me back to reality. To stop myself from collapsing on the ground right then and there, I put my hands on my knees and began to take deep breaths as to look like I was just catching my breath and not trying to keep myself upright. The damn robot shot me in the side; it was no 'shoot to kill' shot but it didn't draw blood.

Don't let him know. I'll fix it when we get back to camp. I know how he is with blood. I mean, if I'm going to pass out, I don't need him to do the same. Picked a mighty good day to actually wear this jacket, maybe he won't see the blood. Fingers crossed.

"C'mon," I said, trying to sound as normal as possible with a bullet lodged into my side. "We need to go and warn the others before more show up."

"You're right. Hey, you okay?" he asked.

To prove my point of 'being okay,' I stood up all the way and smiled as best as I could. "Course! Let's just hurry back, ya know? By the way, nice shot! Proud of you," I said, attempting to steer the conversation away from myself. God, just standing up hurt like a bitch!

"Thanks!"

Finally, after about an hour of walking and discreetly holding my side, we arrives back at the camp. For the majority of the trip back, there was hardly any talking, and when I started slowing down, I told Monty to just trail ahead but to keep within earshot.

To my pure luck, he didn't seem to notice a thing.

As I got closer to camp, I could hear the voices of my peers, assuming that Monty was already there.

"Where's Clarke?" someone asked. Not surprisingly at all, this someone sounded much like Bellamy.

"Here!" I shouted while walking into the camp ground.

It didn't take long at all until I was engulfed into a bone-crushing embrace by Octavia.

Had I not been as exhausted as I was, I would've shoved her away quick as lightning, but circumstances had changed. And even though her hug hurt like hell, it was much appreciated.

"Hey," started Octavia. "You okay? You look paler than usual.

Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit shaken, and hungry. There'll be time for that later, though. We gotta move. Now."

"What? Why?" piped in Jasper.

"The Progressives. They were on their way here and one of them fired off a round, so there's no doubt that more will be coming," I said.

"Luckily, we were far enough from here to where they can't immediately find a trail to us," said Monty ever so strategically.

"So what do we do? Where're we headed?" asked Jasper.

"We're sticking with the same plan; go to Raven's Inn. Should only be a few days' journey if we stick to a schedule," I tactfully said. "But we're just gonna travel down by the river until we hit another town. Does that sound good to you all?"

Everyone nodded in agreement and we all got to packing.

Thankfully, it didn't take long to pack all the essentials, so we were off within thirty minutes.

It also seemed like no one seemed to notice the wound in my side. Granted, I still hadn't been able to tend to it, but I wasn't passed out or dead yet, so it couldn't have been that bad, right? Thankfully, the blood wasn't visible under my jacket yet, so people just kept assuming that I was dehydrated or tired, which was fine.

Hopefully, I could just breeze by what was left of today and drop the bomb on them later when we were out of harm's way. Preferably, if my plan goes right – which it usually doesn't – Jasper will end up being the only one to know of my little injury. Him and his damn "extensive" medical knowledge. Ugh.

"Hey Bell?" I asked. "Take the front? You know where we're going, right?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," he stated with a hint of questioning in it. "You okay, Princess?"

"Yeah, just a little distracted," I said back while trying to form a smile.

"Why were you trailing so far behind Monty when you guys got back?" he interrogated, while crossing his muscle-y arms across his chest. If it were any other time, I would've spent more time starring at his biceps, but didn't want his wandering gaze to decipher what I was hiding.

Instead of answering, I gave him a look that said in itself that we would talk later.

Aside from running into our second biggest threat and getting shot, this is turning out to be a pretty decent and lucky day.

"Have your weapons ready, just in case," I said loudly enough for everyone to here.

Giving a nod to Bellamy, we began our trek to God-knows-where for the night. Just a couple more hours and I could rest.

It had been two hours and I was tired and frustrated. I guess the pain finally decided to sink in after all the adrenaline wore off because it was making itself plain and clear to me now. Thankfully, Bellamy was staying in his respectable position and not playing detective with me. There was only a few times that he looked back and silently asked if I needed a break.

Ben had, no doubt, been by Monty's side the majority of the time, considering he could've lost his son today in the ten percent chance that we couldn't hold our own.

Jasper and Octavia were talking, but as they seemed to get further into depth with their conversation, they had inched so close together where they were now holding hands. I smiled at the thought of something better than good actually happening today. I don't quite know what happened to cause it, but she sounded happy, and he did as well from what little snippets I caught.

In my absent-mindedness, I hadn't realized that Octavia dropped back to come and talk to me.

"Hey!" She happily exclaimed.

"Hi O," I said, definitely lacking all enthusiasm.

"You okay? You seem a bit down since you've gotten back," she said.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired. Really tired," I muttered.

"No, it can't be that. Even when you're tired, you're in a better mood," she sassed. "And you can't be hungover because you barely drank last night…"

And of course, she had to be right. "O, really," I began. "I'm fine." I even threw in a little smile to aid in the act. "Talk to me. I saw you two holding hands and y'all definitely seem happier now. Something happen last night?"

"Well," she started. "We just kinda talked and he admitted his feelings for me, so I did the same. Please don't tell Bell though, I don't even want to think about how he'll react."

"I'm glad that you two decided to stop fooling yourselves!" I exclaimed. "And don't worry, I won't tell Bellamy, but you have to do it sometime soon."

"Well, yeah," she giggled. "I just need to figure out a way to word it to where he won't overreact and get mad."

"Since when has that ever worked out?" I asked, thinking of all the boys Octavia and I would hang out with. I'm positive that he hated them all and did everything in his power to steer them away from us.

"Ain't that the damn truth," Octavia sighed.

After that, she dove into the things her and Jasper talked about between last night to about an hour ago and I couldn't be anymore annoyed with it. After listening about their lovey-dovey conversations for what felt like an hour, I held little interest in hearing anymore of it. And to make matters worse, I could feel myself begin to stumble over my own two feet and began to sweat. By the time she turned back to me, at least a thin coat of sweat was now fully covering my body.

"So, where did you go?" Octavia asked me, obviously inviting me back into the conversation we were having. "I mean, last night? You didn't come back into the tent."

"Oh," I said, my voice a bit shaky. God, it felt like my side was burning a hole through me. "Bell relieved me of watch and told me to go lay down in their tent."

"Aww, how nice of him!" She all but yelled.

"Yeah… Look, I'm not really in the mood for talking right now, so just go back to Jasper or something please." I curtly said. I mean, I love Octavia, but she can talk for forever and not even notice if the other person had totally checked out of the conversation or not. Plus, my current physical state wasn't helping my blunt mood.

"Well, fine. Ms. Cranky ass," Octavia huffed. I kind of had it coming.

She started to walk away from me like there was no tomorrow. Me being me, I figured that I shouldn't have acted the way I did and planned on telling her that. Damn empathy! "O, wait up," I said while trying to catch up to her as soon as I could before she got too close to everyone else.

When coming up with my revelation, I hadn't anticipated the root sticking up from the ground. Before I could keep myself from doing so, I fell. And to make matters worse, it was on my wounded side. The impact of the fall had increased the pain in my side tenfold as I could now hear myself letting out a screech of pain and felt tears brewing in my eyes.

I had never felt pain as bad as this in my entire life. I tried keeping my eyes shut, hoping that this was all just some messed up dream.

I could now feel all eyes go to me rather than see them. My chest tightened up with each ragged breathe I took and I could now feel the warm blood begin to seep through my jacket.

"Clarke, what happened?" someone asked in a concerned tone.

I finally got enough strength in me to roll off my side, causing a whole new wave of pain to crash over me that made me feel light-headed.

The person standing above seemed to have finally noticed this and said, "Oh my- GUYS, get over here, now! Something's happened!"

Ben, I think.

"Ben…" I muttered.

"Shh," He said. "Don't talk. Just hold my hand and stay awake, okay?"

The next thing I knew, I was surrounded by the rest of the group. I couldn't make out distinct features or voices as they all seemed to topple over me. Someone else tried grabbing my other hand and I recognized the calloused and tanned hands of Bellamy.

"O, get her jacket off. I would do it, but if she remembers this, then she might think I'm some kinda perv and hit me again" said Jasper, trying to make a joke even though I could hear him going into doctor mode.

"Not a good time to joke around, Jasper," Octavia said. Seeing as how she was the only other girl in the group, it was easy to tell her from the rest. Suddenly, I felt something being lifted from my front top half. My jacket.

I can't let them see!

"Wait, guys. It's cool. I'm fine," I tried to coax them, but I couldn't even convince myself as Octavia was able to get the zipper fully off.

"Oh, no," piped in Monty.

Secret's out, I guess.

"Well, it looks like the bullet went all the way through, which is good, but she's losing a lot of blood," said Jasper. To me, his voice started to slur and his words seemed to be mush in my ears. "We need to get to higher ground and get her fixed up, fast."

"Can you walk?" Asked a concerned Ben.

"Whaaaa-," I said, confused by what he was asking of me.

"I'll carry her," a distinct voice in the crowd said. Bellamy.

"The sooner we settle this, the better. Let's go!" said Monty.

I felt strong, warm arms go around my lower torso and the back of my knee. "Bell…" I began.

"It's gonna be okay, Princess. Everything's gonna be okay," he reassured while holding me close.

"Okay…" I said as I rested my head against the crook of his neck and shoulder. With that, I felt darkness finally consume me. All the warmth that wafted from his body now felt very distant as the cold set in.

As always, please leave me some comments on my story! Thank you all for reading! :)