Third Person's POV
The group had only been walking for a few minutes and Julia ended up walking in the area between where Clarke and Wells were walking side-by-side ahead of her and where Bellamy and Murphy were walking side-by-side behind her.
Clarke and Wells were walking really fast, but her brother and best friend were taking their good old time.
"Hey, hold up. What's the rush? You don't survive a spear through the heart." Bellamy spoke after a few minutes as he and Murphy caught up. He was waving his gun around as he spoke.
"Put the gun away, Bellamy." Wells said and Murphy immediately shoved him. "Well, why don't you do something about it, huh?"
"Jasper screamed when they moved him. If the spear struck his heart, he'd have died instantly. It doesn't mean we have time to waste." Clarke explained, interrupting the conflict between Wells and Murphy.
"As soon as you take this wristband off, we can go." Bellamy said, grabbing Clarke's wrist. She yanked her arm out of his grasp. "The only way the Ark is gonna think I'm dead is if I'm dead. Got it?" Clarke got up in Bellamy's face.
"Brave princess." Bellamy spoke mockingly, but before he could think of doing anything else to get her wristband, Finn appeared and walked up to the group.
"Hey, why don't you find your own nickname? You call this a rescue party? Got to split up, cover more ground. Clarke, come with me." Finn told them and Clarke quickly walked off with him.
Then Bellamy walked with Wells while Murphy and Julia walked together. All three pairs were within seeing distance of each other.
Julia was taking in all the sights as she and Murphy walked along. As worried as she was for Jasper, she couldn't help but still be amazed by everything they saw.
"I still can't believe we're actually here, Murphy. Earth. I still sometimes think I'm gonna wake up in my cell back on the Ark. That this is all a dream." Julia admitted to him.
"Believe it, Jules. We're here and we're not under the control of the chancellor or the council anymore. We're free." Murphy said, glancing over at the girl to find her smiling sadly at the ground.
"Yeah." Julia's voice was sad, thinking of what Clarke told them about the Ark.
"Hey," Murphy stopped walking and grabbed the side of her shoulder, squeezing it lightly, which made her stop walking and look up at him.
"That's a good thing." He spoke softer than he normally would, trying to convince her.
"My whole life, I've been locked up one way or another. Being here – being on Earth – it's a dream come true because, like you said, we're free. I'm absolutely ecstatic to be here, and I know it's a good thing. I do." Julia told him.
Although Murphy could see she meant every word she said, he could also see there was something she wasn't saying. Something that was saddening her. He just didn't know what.
Julia didn't want to bring up the fact that she regretted taking off her wristband. That she felt guilty and absolutely horrible for doing so because of what it meant for the Ark.
She knew that Murphy was a big supporter of taking off the wristbands and that he wouldn't understand, so she chose not to tell him.
And Murphy decided not to question whatever it was that he knew she wasn't telling him, because he knew that when or if she wanted to, she would, so there was no use pushing for it now.
Even if he had questioned her, she wouldn't have had time to answer because suddenly Clarke and Finn were calling for the rest of the group. They found something.
Julia and Murphy glanced at each other before heading over to see what they had found. Turns out, they had found Jasper's goggles along with a lot of blood stained on rocks. But not all the blood was dried yet, which meant it happened fairly recently. So the group headed in that direction.
"Hey, how do we know this is the right way?" Murphy questioned after another little bit of walking. "We don't. Spacewalker thinks he's a tracker." Bellamy answered.
"It's called 'cutting sign.' Fourth-year Earth skills. He's good." Wells told them.
"You want to keep it down or should I paint a target on your backs?" Finn said in a hushed tone. Julia watched as he then found a broken branch and a blood stained stone.
Then there was a moan in the distance. "What the hell was that?" Murphy questioned. "Now would be a good time to take out that gun." Clarke suggested before the group headed towards the noise.
"Hey, Julia. Stay close to Murphy or I, okay?" Bellamy spoke quietly to her. She nodded in response.
The group jogged towards the noise, keeping low, until they came to a clearing. In the clearing was Jasper, tied up in a tree.
The tree only had large branches and there were no leaves, so they could see Jasper very clearly. He was shirtless and had blood stains on his chest and pants.
"Jasper." Julia breathed out, worried for her friend but relieved to have found him. Then she and the group hurried forward towards him. "What the hell is this?" Bellamy questioned, looking at Jasper.
Julia didn't realize that she had gotten very slightly ahead of the group, until she took a step and suddenly fell through the ground.
She let out a scream, Bellamy just barely managing to catch onto her arm, keeping her from falling down into the pit that was lined with spikes. Instead, she hung from his arm.
She was lucky she had been standing so close to him, as she promised she would, or else he wouldn't have been able to grab onto her arm to keep her from falling onto the spikes.
"Julia! Get her up!" Finn shouted, but Bellamy didn't have to be told. He was already holding onto her arm as tightly as he could while hauling her up.
"Pull her up!" Murphy shouted, his panic clear in his voice. Julia was about three fourths of the way up when the rest of the group reached the two.
Murphy, Finn, and Clarke each grabbed onto either Julia's arm or her jacket to pull the rest of her body up onto the ground while Wells grabbed onto Bellamy's body to support him as he was the main one pulling her up.
Julia fell against her brother as they both tried to catch their breath. Bellamy from having pulled her up most of the way until the reinforcements came, while Julia took deep breaths, trying to calm her body back down after the fright it had just been through.
"Are you okay?" Bellamy asked her, scanning her face and body for any sign of injuries. "I'm fine." Julia answered as Bellamy wrapped an arm around her and pulled her tightly against his body. He couldn't believe he was that close to losing his youngest sister.
After just a couple seconds, Julia pulled back and the siblings stood up. As soon as she was on her feet, Murphy pulled her into his arms.
He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and was hugging her just as tightly as Bellamy had. Julia wrapped her arms around his back.
"I'm fine, Murphy. Really, I am." Julia reassured him quietly before pulling back. She appreciated the concern, but Jasper was the priority here.
"We need to get him down." Julia said and Clarke nodded in agreement. "I'll climb up there and cut the vines." Finn said and took a few steps forward.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm with you." Wells spoke and was about to follow Finn when he stopped and turned around.
"No. Stay with Clarke. And watch him." Finn told him, referring to Bellamy since he knew Bellamy wanted to get Clarke's wristband off and wasn't afraid of using force to do so.
"You. Let's go." Finn told Murphy, who glanced at Julia for a moment before following Finn up to help Jasper.
"There's a poultice on his wound." Clarke observed, which confused them all. "Medicine? Why would they save his life just to string him up as live bait?" Wells questioned.
"Maybe what they're trying to catch likes its dinner to be breathing." Bellamy suggested. "Maybe what they're trying to catch is us." Finn continued.
"That's a comforting thought." Julia muttered sarcastically and Bellamy looked down her. "Hey, I'm not gonna let anything happen to you, Jules." He told her and she nodded.
Julia already knew her brother would do anything in his power to protect her. She'd always known that.
"Hey, be careful." Clarke told Finn and Murphy, who were now up in the tree and cutting the vines. That's when the group heard a distant growling.
"What the fuck was that?" Murphy questioned and they all looked around. "Grounders?" Bellamy spoke before they found out what it actually was when a black panther came into view.
It snarled for a moment before starting to rush towards them. "Bell, gun!" Julia shouted as she moved to stand behind him, as she knew he would want her to.
Bellamy reached back to his waistband to find his gun wasn't there. The sound of gunfire made him look up. Wells had the gun and was shooting the panther.
It was hit, but just grazed. It went into the long grass and the group could hear it snarling as it moved through it. But they couldn't see it, so the sound of it snarling was the only indicator of where it was.
It was silent for a moment before it roared and pounced towards Bellamy and Julia. Bellamy instinctively moved to cover Julia, so the strike would hit him instead of her, but the strike never came. Wells had shot it out of the air.
The panther landed on the ground in front of the siblings, and Bellamy panted from adrenaline. Julia peeked out from behind her brother to see the creature.
The sound of the gun clicking was heard as Wells continued to pull the trigger, despite the fact that it ran out of bullets. Julia looked over at him to see him drop the gun on the ground.
"Now she sees you." Bellamy told Wells, referring to Clarke who was watching Wells with wide eyes.
~~~
It was dark by the time the group returned to the camp. Finn and Wells were carrying Jasper while Murphy and Bellamy carried the panther's dead body.
"Who's hungry?" Bellamy called out to the crowd after they dropped it onto the ground.
"Yeah!" The crowd cheered, and Julia had to agree with them. Since she hadn't eaten since breakfast the day before, she was getting pretty hungry.
Julia stood next to Murphy and Bellamy, and Octavia ran over to join them. Bellamy wrapped his arms around his sisters' shoulders and pulled them into his sides.
He was thankful that Julia hadn't gotten hurt on the mission, but the trip just reaffirmed that it was too dangerous for her to do stuff like that yet. She was too young.
Though, if Bellamy was being honest, he didn't think there'd ever be an age where he would want her or Octavia going into dangerous situations knowingly.
~~~
It was a bit later in the night and Bellamy had cooked the panther meat. Julia stood outside the drop ship next to Finn and watched as Bellamy traded the food for people taking off their wristbands.
She had been inside to see Jasper earlier, but now was waiting for Clarke to come out to tell them how he was doing. And that's exactly what she did.
"He's stable for now, but without medicine. . ." Clarke trailed off before realizing what was happening.
"They're taking off their wristbands for food? No way. I-I won't do it." Clarke stuttered and Julia looked up at her. "Then don't." She responded.
Clarke looked at her questioningly before Julia walked over to the fire, grabbing three sticks with meat on them.
"Whoa, Julia. That's a lot of meat. Don't suppose you're planning to give these to your friends over there?" Murphy nodded his head towards Clarke and Finn.
"And if I am?" Julia questioned, raising an eyebrow. "Sorry, Jules. They have to play by the same rules as everyone else." Murphy spoke but Julia didn't move to put the meat back.
"I thought there were no rules. What was the expression my brother used? Oh, yeah, 'whatever the hell we want.' So what are you gonna do? Are you gonna stop me?" Julia challenged.
She and Murphy locked eyes for a few moments before she broke it, turning away and walking back to Finn and Clarke. She handed them both a stick and kept the third one for herself.
"Thank you." Clarke spoke and Julia nodded. Then Clarke and Finn walked off. Julia chose not the follow them and instead looked back at the fire.
Both Bellamy and Murphy were looking her way. Bellamy with a disapproving stare while Murphy just looked at her with a look she couldn't decipher.
She and Murphy hadn't ever really had a confrontation before, so she imagined this would affect their relationship. But she didn't regret what she did because it was what was right.
But her eyes widened slightly in shock when Bellamy punched and roughed up a guy who tried to follow in her lead and take meat without taking off his wristband.
Julia knew Bellamy did this as a show of power. He used him as an example to show the crowd that people couldn't just get away with breaking his rules.
Julia had, but that was different. She was his sister and neither he or Murphy were going to use her as an example. But Bellamy had to make sure the group knew who was in charge now.