It's been three days since the bomb destroyed the bridge and there was still no sign of grounders coming. Everyone knew that it was too good to be true, that the bomb only made the declaration of war more obvious. That's why Bellamy insisted he and Miller thought more delinquents how to use guns.
The grounders were coming, and they needed to be ready when they do.
"First watch is over. Go relieve Monroe on the south wall. Keep your eyes open."
The Griffin tore her eyes from the forest she was looking at when she was spacing out and turned around to see Bellamy giving a delinquent a gun and dismissing him.
When the kid walked away, Bellamy flickered his eyes up and to where Clarke was standing. A ghost of a smile appeared on his face and he swiftly made his way by her side, he looked in the same direction she was looking at before.
"Anything?" he asked curiously.
"No sign of grounders." Clarke huffed. "It's been three days. Maybe the bomb on the bridge scared them off for good."
"You seriously believe that?" The male leader asked with a raised eyebrow.
Clarke sighed with the shook of her head. "No, they're coming. A lot of them."
Bellamy stared at the side of her face before snapping out of and tugging at her elbow as a signal to follow him further into camp.
"Jasper thinks he can cook up some more gunpowder, if he gets some sulfur and Raven says she can turn that into landmines." Bellamy said, before a teasing smirk appeared on his face." So uh, careful where you step."
"Ha. Funny." Clarke deadpanned sarcastically and watched as Bellamy spun around a tree he almost ran into with a wide grin.
"What I really need is a thousand more of her tin can bombs I can roll into their village and blow those assholes to hell." Bellamy sighed almost wistfully. "That's what they want to do to us."
She shook her head at him. "Can't believe we survived a three-hundred years just so we could slaughter each other. There has to be another way."
Bellamy sighed, staring at her thoughtfully before huffing and changing the subject "Any word from The Ark?"
Clarke shook her head, "Radio silence."
"Finally ran out of air." Bellamy muttered, mostly to himself but Clarke still heard him and flinched at the thought of the people up there dying because there's no oxygen left.
"Maybe my mom was lucky being on the Exodus ship. At least it was quick." The weight of her grief drew her eyes to the ground as her toes kicked the leaf litter around. "No one is coming down to save us."
"Clarke." He shrugged his arm over her shoulder. "I'm sorry about your mom."
She sniffled a little but refused to let the tears fall from her eyes. She stepped out of his embrace just before the sound of a fire roaring behind them reached her ears as electrified shouts of the kids rose up. She and Bellamy took off towards the fire.
Her eyes widened at the sight of the smoke-house on fire as she noticed Murphy carrying Octavia out of it.
Bellamy rushed past Clarke and to his sisters aid, scrunching down in front of her with concern written all over his face "Are you okay?"
Octavia coughed, trying to catch her breath but managed a small nod.
"This is all your fault." Murphy shouted at another kid named Del, both of them covered in soot and coughing. Murphy stormed over to him, angrily with a murderous glare, gripping Del's jacket "We told you it was too much fucking wood!"
"Get the hell away from me."
Murphy ignored him and threw a punch to his jaw. He quickly fights back with a slight upper hand. Wells moved from the crowd circled around the burning smokehouse stepping between the two delinquents. He muster the strength to yank Murphy away from Del and sliding between the two
"Hey, stop!" he ordered, putting a hand on each of the boy's chest. Murphy remembering how Wells absolutely beaten the crap out him, he quickly stops and backs away as Del tried to fight back as Wells shoved him. He dared not to try another round with him. "Save it for the grounders."
"Well, now what the hell are we gonna do? That was all our food!" Octavia said, her question directed towards all three leaders but her eyes mainly set on her big brother.
The camp grows silent, watching as the food burns to ash. Wells shared a look with Bellamy and Clarke, who's face falls before turning to a few delinquents who were watching them. "Okay everyone, we can't get enough water on this to put it out. Clear everything flammable away from it and I need some people to keep watch on it to make sure it doesn't spread. I'll figure out what to do next later."
When the fire was out, Clarke slowly approached Bellamy and Wells who was staring intently at the burned down smoke-house.
"Any idea what happened?" Clarke asked, looking down at the two.
"Murphy says that Del kept feeding the fire." Wells explained.
"Mostly because Octavia told him it was a bad idea." Bellamy added, anger and annoyance dripping from his tone obvious.
Clarke crossed her arms over her chest, tilting her head, sounding skeptical, "And we believe Murphy?"
"I do, yeah." Bellamy said.
"I don't." Wells disagreed.
Bellamy turned his confused expression towards him. "And I thought you trusted Murphy."
"Never said I did. I only wanted him here for any information about the grounders. Wells said. "Didn't really get much of that, now did we? That's it."
"Why's that?" Bellamy asked.
"He tried to burn a girl's face off. Wells responded. "He even wanted to kill me. And in case you forgot, he even tried to fight me. We all know how that turned out. If anything, Murphy deserved that beating and you know it." What Wells had said was true. He and Murphy never got along, ever, for a lot of reasons. When Bellamy banished him from camp, he thought that would be the end of him. There's no way Murphy would've survived the woods alone by himself. But now that he's back, he has a feeling Murphy wood try and get back at them for what they did. Hopefully, that won't happen.
"Well," Bellamy sniffed, "I trust him. And that's the end of it."
"Trust me, you're gonna regret it." Wells said.
"I guess we're gonna have to see for ourselves huh, Chancellor?"
"We have some wild onions and nuts in the dropship." Clarke stated, switching the topic back to the food. "And that's only enough to last us maybe one or two weeks."
Clarke looked over at the burning remains of the small building before looking back at Bellamy. "Anything good left here?"
"Nope." he sighed as he stood up. "It all burned."
"Then we have to hunt." Clarke decided "Anyone we can spare goes out."
Wells quickly stood up and grabbed her forearm. "Yeah, like that's a fantastic idea." Wells scoffed, "Are you crazy?"
"With the whole grounder army out there?" Bellamy asked in agreement.
Clarke sighed "Look, we can't defend ourselves if we're starving."
With the muscle in Bellamy's jaw clenching, He offers her a nod.
Within hours, they had a plan in place and Bellamy was debriefing the rest of delinquents. "Each group takes someone with a gun, and they're for killing Grounders, not food. We don't have the ammo. Use the spears for hunting. Get what you can. Be back by nightfall. No one stays out after dark."
Everyone was nodding but many of them looked nervous and Clarke was hoping that wouldn't keep them from finding food. Clarke made her way to the pile of weapons that were sitting in the middle of camp, when a dark haired boy that were almost the same height as Clarke named Myles approached her looking very much like a puppy she'd seen on the vids on the Ark. "Hey Clarke. You alone? You maybe want to go together?"
She couldn't suppress her smile as she agreed. "Sure. I'll get some gear."
He turned and bound away from her to grab a gun as Wells approached her with a rifle in her hands.
"Hey." He said. "You ready to go?"
"I'm sorry Wells, but You're not going." Clarke said.
"What?" he asked, taken aback by the command.
"As much as I'd love for you and I to go hunting together, and I'd hate to say this but you have to help Raven and Jasper with the gunpowder." Clarke started. "And as much as I hate to admit it you were smart, right next to me at the top of our chemistry class which means they could use the help."
Wells said nothing in return.
"Please, Wells."
Wells let out a huff of defeat before giving her a hesitant nod "Fine. I'll stay. Just, be safe. Don't be out too long."
The blonde nodded in satisfaction as Wells took one more glance at her, before brushing past the other delinquents and out of the dropship.
She laughed, slightly shaking her head as she tested the weight of the spear in her hands. A soft scuffle of boots behind her alerted her to the presence of a person before she heard Finn's voice. "You ready to go?"
Shaking her head Clarke turned to look at him. "Yeah, I don't think so."
His lips turned up in a quick flash of a smile as he looked her up and down. "Come on. I'm a good tracker. You're lousy with a spear, but you're sneaky. We'd make a good team."
Finn brushed a few fingers against her wrist before Myles bound back up to her. "Hey, partner, we're wasting daylight." Myles turned at the quick laugh that burst from Finn. "Oh, Finn, you're joining the band?"
"Sure." Finn's grin grew larger as he turned to meet Clarke's eye.
"Awesome. Haven't really got a chance to hang with you guys much." Myles turned to follow Finn and Clarke toward the gate. His bouncing voice never stopping, even as Clarke and Finn snickered at each other. "Hey, do you even know how I got arrested on the Ark?"
Finn shook his head as he ran his hands through his long hair. "I'm dying to hear about it."
Raven quickly shoved supplies into her pack in preparation for the trip. She was still fuming from her vision of Finn standing with Clarke. She had assured her ex that they were good, and that there was no bad blood. Yet, Raven was still pissed.
The thought of Finn running around with another woman was still enraging, despite the breakup. Raven took her rage out by shoving objects violently into her bag. She was going to go on that hunt. For some reason she needed to be with Clarke and Finn, just to make sure he didn't go any further.
"We need more bullets," Wells said, entering her tent without permission.
"That's all we have until Jasper gets back" Raven dropped four bullets Wells' hand without even looking. "Now get the hell out of my tent." She really didn't want to deal with anyone right now.
"Well, I can help you." Wells said.
"Don't need to." Raven responded with her back turned towards the Jaha kid.
"Where you going?" Wells asked, concerned. Ever since the bridge, Raven had been acting really strange. And he has a feeling it's because of Finn.
"The hell out of here," Raven replied like it was obvious. She shoved a bag of rations into her pack with much more force than was necessary.
"No way," Wells refused to let her do something so stupid. "You're not leaving."
Raven stood up and turned towards Wells with the pack over her shoulder "Really?" Raven asked lowly but threateningly. "And what the hell makes you think you can tell me what to do?"
"Shouldn't you be babysitting Clarke?" Raven asked condescendingly.
"Well, one, she's not here." Wells said. "And even if she was I'm more worried about you. Ever since Finn-"
"Don't!" Raven shouted, lifting her hand up. "It's already bad enough that I keep seeing him with Clarke. I don't want to hear it name ever again."
"Where are you even gonna go?" Wells asked pointedly. He tried to calm her down, but obviously, it wasn't working.
"Into these damn woods," Raven answered. "Don't worry about it. I'll find some place safe."
She moved to bull past him, but a strong arm held her back.
"Just wait," Wells said calmly. "Come on, Rae. Don't be an idiot."
She turned her head to Wells, more receptive to his thoughts now.
"You go alone, you're either dead, or worse." Wells rationalized.
Raven stepped back from the exit, starting to concede to Wells' argument.
"So, what's your plan, Jr?" Raven asked. "Sit here until you run out of bullets?"
"I mean," Wells said after a short paused. "Unless you can come up with something better."
Raven looked at him like he had sprouted a second head. What the hell was he talking about?
"C'mon Rae," Wells chuckled seriously unable to understand her confusion. "You came down here in a pod you rebuilt yourself. You made a bomb out of a tin can. What else you got in that smart brain of yours?"
Raven was shocked by the flattery. She wasn't sure what to think. The fact that someone insisted that she was this important boggled her mind.
"Radios," Raven shared an idea she had thought of yesterday. "We can't defend ourselves if we can't communicate. If we can build radios, walkie-talkies-"
"Then we can fight together as a team," Wells finished her statement. "We'd have at least a chance."
Raven nodded in agreement.
"See," Wells smirked lightly. "We need you. You may be a huge pain in the ass, well, not to me at least, but you're smart."
Wells left her tent with a smile on his face. Though she didn't want it too, a smile crept onto her face as well.
After several hours Myles voice still filled the air around them. Finn managed to keep the air around them light, even though they needed quiet to actually find the animal; the animal that they had finally caught the tracks of.
"Hope it's not one of those scaly panther things, is it?" Myles queried.
Finn shook his head as he traced the tracks in the dirt. "Boar"
Myles scoffed with excitement. "Good, because that panther meat is nasty, but I could eat a whole boar by myself, no joke. You know what the best part is of the boar? It's gonna sound gross."
Clarke noticed Finn's intense scrutinization of the dirt around the tracks, moving on to the next set quickly. "Myles, quiet for a second. Finn, what is it?"
Finn looked up to meet her eyes. "These tracks." He gestured to the tracks on the ground with perfect pattern, outlining one set before pointing out the next two set of tracks.
"They're perfect." She breathed out as she watched his fingers trace the outside of the tracks he knelt next to.
"Too perfect." Finn nodded at her. "We're the ones being hunted."
Myles brought the gun up to scan the area around them. "I don't see anythin -"
Myles screamed as two arrows hit him in the chest in quick succession. He teetered down to the ground. Clarke moved down to hover her hands over his shoulders, calling his name hoping that he'd open his eyes and look at her.
Finn grabbed at her arm and tried to pull her away from Myles. "Clarke, come on. We got to leave him."
But before he could yank her away from Myles a grounder came up behind her and swung a club down across the back of her head. She teetered forward as her vision started to fade to the darkness. The last thing she heard was Finn calling her name.
Clarke came-to over the shoulder of someone she probably didn't know, if the bag over her head and the rope chafing against her skin told her anything. She could hear several more sets of feet trudging along next to the person who was currently carrying her. The dull spikes of his clothing digging in the soft flesh of her stomach. When the person carrying her took a large step over some obstacle, she let out a soft grunt when her own body weight worked against her and pressed her harder on to the metal clad shoulder.
At the sound of her wakefulness the grounder dropped her unceremoniously on the ground before yanking her back to her feet by the rope that bound her hands together. Clarke was barely able to keep from falling forward as her feet ran underneath her to try and keep her upright.
Staggering slightly as she tried to get her bearings she bumped into a warm body next to her. Whoever it was grasped her elbow. The awkward hold with two hands could only mean that they were similarly bound. Clarke whispered in the direction of the other person, hoping not to draw attention to herself. "Finn?"
He swiped his thumb over the fabric of her arm in conformation; she felt him lean towards her as he whispered back to her. "We walked for about three miles after crossing a creek. Another two or so before we exited the forest."
The sound of their footfalls changed as the floor beneath them became harder. Not moments after the change in sound were, they pushed down to their knees and the bags ripped off their head. Clarke blinked rapidly trying to refocus her eyes to the brightness of the room they found themselves in.
"Finn, I don't think that matters now." She looked over to meet his eyes. "We aren't blindfolded anymore. They are probably going to kill us."
He stared at her; his gaze tracing her face tenderly. The sound of two new sets of boots came striding into the room pulling both of their eyes to the newcomer as they walked in. One stopped in front of them as the other carried a young girl who was struggling to breath over to the table in front of them. The one who had stopped in front of them shrugged off her hood, revealing a familiar face.
"Anya?" Clarke's eyes narrowed and her voice hardened. "What do you want from us?"
The unimpressed look was ever present as she pointed to the young blonde on the table. "Help her. If she dies," She pointed her hand at Finn. "he dies."
Clarke turned her terrified eyes towards the young girl again. Her breath, shallowing more and more as the seconds ticked by. From the corner of her eye she saw Anya's face softened as she looked at the girl. "Her name is Tris."
Clarke moved closer to the young girl holding her bound hands out to the grounders; the tall man with the wool mask covering his face. When Anya nodded, he cut her ties. Clarke's hand fluttered over the girl as her eyes roved the room for anything she could use to help ease the girl's suffering. "I can't do this. I don't have any equipment."
As if expecting her denial Anya moved closer. "We'll provide you with what we can."
"I don't understand." Clarke turned on Anya, "Why do you think I can save her?"
Before Anya could respond, Finn's surprised voice filtered to her ears. "Lincoln told her."
"Yes." Anya nodded as she stepped to the other side of the table running her fingers tenderly down Tris' arm. Her hawk eyes flipping up to meet Clarke's. "Our healer is gone to the capital. There's nothing we can do for her. For his sake, I hope you can."
Finn's voice softened as he encouraged her. Though when she met his eyes, they were still terrified. The tremble in his still bound hands matched hers with equal fervor.
Nodding to herself, she pulled in a deep breath to steady her racing heart. "How did she get hurt?"
The ice in Anya's voice sliced open Clark's heart. "She was on the bridge when your bomb exploded. You did this to her." Anya turned to leave with one last passing look at her men. "Get her what she needs
Three hours later - a little bit after dawn, the hunters had came back, but Wells had noticed Finn and Clarke aren't back yet.
"The hunters are back?" Wells asked. "Where's Clarke?"
"There not here yet." Murphy said, who were carving a fish at his table.
Wells sighed of frustration with worry filling his body as he passes Murphy.
"Hey relax Jaha." Murphy said. "I'm sure Finn's keeping her out of trouble."
Wells gave Murphy a small glare, who's eyes were focusing the fish. Wells sighed and decided to wait a couple more minutes for the as he walked towards his tent.
When he pushed the flap aside, a supervised expression came across his face as he noticed Raven standing in his tent, hands in her pocket with her back to me. She turned around when she noticed Wells.
"Uh, hey." He said awkwardly. "What're you doing here?"
"It's been a day and they're still out there." Raven said. "They don't waste time I'll give them that."
At first, he had no idea what she was talking about. He held the same confused expression he had just moments ago as he searched for the meaning of her words until he realized she was talking about Finn and Clarke.
"Rae," He tried to find the right words to say. "I'm sorry."
Raven looked away then moved to his cot, sat down, and began unlacing her boots. Wells watched with confusion as she removed her jacket and tossed it across the tent. His eyes tracked it to where it landed in a heap on the floor. When he looked back Raven was standing and removing her pants.
He had no idea what was going on, or what to say about it.
Raven looked at him and pulled her hair tie out, letting her hair hang down her back. Raven's eyes met Wells' showing something he had never seen in her before.
"I've never been with anyone but Finn," She said lowly.
"Just slow down for a second." He finally managed to stammer out.
"Take off your clothes," Raven ordered huskily.
"Stop," He said. "Just stop." He wanted to explain further, but was totally enamored by Raven, and as a result was unable to do anything but say no don't.
"Fine," Raven sighed lightly. "I'll go first."
She took off her sleeveless top, exposing her breasts. She hadn't even been wearing a bra.
She's so close her breaths land on his chin, and he feels his heart stop.
And he knows it's selfish, knows there are so many other, better things to wish for—like safety for the camp, and the people on the Ark, and enough food to go around, and actual bathrooms, but. All he can really think is how much he would give, if he could just kiss her.
And then she kisses him, instead.
He reaches a hand up to her neck, thumb tracing her jaw, and for one mind-numbing second, everything is perfect. But then it's not. It's too rough, and too rushed, and it's nothing like what he wanted, nothing how it should be. Raven bites his lip so hard he flinches, and snakes a hand down to palm his crotch, and Wells pulls away.
Her mouth chases him a little bit, before she realizes, and when she opens her eyes, it's in a glare.
"What the fuck," she hisses, and Wells's stomach sinks. She doesn't want him—she wants to make Finn jealous, or maybe try to make herself forget him for the night. And she thought Wells was her best option, because Wells is too nice to say no, and he likes her, and she knew about it.
"You're upset about Finn," Wells says, taking his hand back.
"No I'm not," She snaps, and when he just looks at her, she sinks on herself. "Fine, I am. Ever since we broke up, I keep telling him it's okay, we're cool, but we're not cool. I still feel jealous and whenever I see him with Clarke I just-" Raven stopped herself.
"The moment Finn landed on the ground, he already started flirting with another girl, Clarke." Raven said. Wells eyes met the floor. "And then he was already fucking Clarke while I was risking my ass down here to meet him. One day. He said he thought he'd never see me again, but." She worries her lip a little, and Wells has to clench his fists not to reach out and hold her. It would be nothing but comfort, but, all things considered, it might be the wrong approach. "One fucking day."
"He's a dick," Wells says, and she gives a sharp laugh.
"I figured, you saved my life," Raven explains, pragmatic as usual. "So it's the least I could do."
Wells does his best to keep his voice even, unstrained. "It's really not," he sighs.
Her arms hugged herself as she tried to fight the chills she was getting from standing around naked, looking chastened, staring hard at the cot. "I thought you wanted this."
Wells isn't sure he's ever hated anything as much as he hates the people who have trained Raven Reyes to think that love means doing whatever it is they want her to.
"I don't want you to pay me back for helping you," he says, choosing his words carefully, worried she might get spooked. "I don't—I don't want just one night, some obligatory hand job. I want you, and I don't want anything you don't want to give. I want you to be happy, and. I'd like it, if you were happy with me."
There's a very long moment, where Raven studies him intently, and Wells tries not to fidget, or play with his hands. Finally, she says, "This isn't about Finn," and leans forward.
The second time Raven kisses him, it's not exactly how he'd pictured. It's a little messier; she clearly knows what she's doing, but he doesn't, and it shows. Still, she just hums a little, amused, and moves her mouth until his becomes its mirror.
Their hands ran over each other's bodies, trying to learn every inch of skin available. Raven's hands worked under his shirt and pushed it over his head. They broke contact for a moment as she tossed his shirt over with her jacket, and then it was right back to it.
He lifted her up, holding her weight entirely in my arms. Their lips stayed locked together as he carried Raven over to his cot. He placed her down gently, his lips going to her neck as he removed her underwear.
She really was the most beautiful thing Wells had ever seen.
To be continued