Chapter Three: It's Not His Fault

Murphy and Bellamy were passing the time by throwing knives into a tree trunk. Murphy couldn't for the life of him get it in the tree, but he always had an excuse. "That damn kid, always messing with my head." Murphy had had just about enough of Jasper's screaming during the night and so had everyone else.

"It's not his fault brother bear." Murphy looked back and me and raised his eyebrows. He hated when I called him his childhood name in front of other people. "He can't help it. He's in pain."

Bellamy took his axe off of his belt. "He's not gonna last much longer. Better think of a new excuse." He threw his axe and it landed deep within the trunk. He turned to Murphy. "That's how it's done."

Atom walked through the woods and began to talk. "We searched a half-mile all directions. No sign of Trina or Pascal."

Murphy cracked a joke. One that I knew instantly would put Bellamy in a sour mood. "Visit your special tree when you were out there?"

"Atom took his punishment. Let it go." Bellamy clearly looked angry.

Everyone ignored him. "Could be grounders."

"Yeah, or it could be pound town. Lot of that going around recently."

Bellamy looked over at Murphy and glared. I looked over at him. I knew exactly what he meant. We had some frisky kids in our camp. "Murphy, just because you're not getting anything doesn't mean rag on other people."

"Oh, I'm talking about certain people in particular." He looked over at Bellamy. "I don't appreciate it."

I sighed at him. "Murphy…."

Bellamy looked between the two of us and then realized what he was talking about. "We're grown adults Murphy. If you don't want to see it then don't wander through the woods"

I stopped. "See it?" I grabbed Bellamy's arm and spun him around. "You knew my brother saw and you didn't stop."

Murphy spoke up. "Why don't the two of you have this argument somewhere else?"

Bellamy wrapped his arm around my shoulder and whispered in my ear. "Later." He led us back to camp and everyone followed.

You could hear Jasper from outside the drop ship at the entrance of camp. Atom walked in front of Bellamy. "Look, Bellamy, people are scared, and that dying kid, he's not helping the morale around here."

"Morale will go up when I find them more food." He walked a little farther before he stopped him again.

"And what do we say when they ask about Trina and Pascal?"

"No? Nothing. It's possible they're just lost. We'll keep an eye out for them when we go hunting later."

My brother perked up when he heard hunt. "Let's go kill something!"

Bellamy killed his enthusiasm. "You're not going." Murphy tried to walk past him but he stopped him. "I need you to stay here. If the Grounders are circling, we can't leave this place unprotected."

Murphy walked away. "Fine."

I stopped Bellamy so we were alone. "If you're gonna have my brother here in charge you might wanna tell them to keep Jasper quiet. You know how testy he is."

Bellamy sighed. "I know, but he's the strongest one. I need him to stay calm."

Murphy and Bellamy sat in our tent and discussed their plan of attack when I saw a very pissed off Octavia head straight for the tent. I yelled to Bellamy to give him a heads up. "Here comes O, Bell!" I followed her in.

Octavia looked like she was going to push Bellamy. "What did you do to Atom?"

Murphy sighed and stood up, leaving the three of us in the tent.

"Atom's fine."

"Then why did he blow me off?"

"Maybe he's just not interested."

"You can't keep everyone away from me."

Bellamy stood up. "Atom had to learn. You disobey me, you pay the price. He paid the price. Now we're good."

"Now I'm paying the price. So, next time you decide to go on a power trip, leave me out of it."

Jasper screamed and Octavia ran out of the tent and toward the dropship. Bellamy and I exchanged glances and followed her. As we climbed up the ladder to the top half we heard Finn talking. "She's trying to save his life."

Bellamy scoffed. "She can't."

Wells stood up and got into Bellamy's face. "Back off.

Clarke spoke as she worked. "We didn't drag him through miles of woods just to let him die."

"Kids a goner. If you can't see that, you're deluded. He's making people crazy."

I looked over at him. "Bell-"

Clarke looked up and cut me off. "Sorry if Jasper is an inconvenience to you, but this isn't the Ark. Down here, every life matters."

"Take a look at him, he's a lost cause."

Octavia stopped patting his forehead with the washcloth and Clarke looked over at her. "Octavia, I've spent my whole life watching my mother heal people. If I say there's hope, there's hope."

Bellamy knew he had to get through to these guys. "This isn't about hope, it's about guts. You don't have the guts to make the hard choices. I do. He's been like this for three days. If he's not better by tomorrow, I'll kill him myself." He turned around to leave. "Skylar, Octavia, let's go."

I gave them all an apologetic look and walked toward Bellamy. Bellamy stopped in his tracks when Octavia spoke. "I'm staying here."

Bellamy grabbed my hand and we left the room.

As I stood outside the drop ship I watched everyone work. Suddenly a horn began to bellow and we knew exactly what was going on. The horn meant the fog was coming, the fog, we had learned, can kill us.

Everyone scrambled to get into the dropship and the tents. I stood outside of my brother's tent, frozen because I knew that Bellamy was out in the woods. Murphy grabbed my arm and pulled me into his tent, zipping it shut and sealing the windows.

Once I was in the tent I began to panic. "Murphy, Bellamy is out there. We have to go and look for him."

"Wait for the fog to pass, we'll go look after that."

When the fog had passed Murphy and I climbed out of the tent. I climbed into Bellamy and I's tent and grabbed the knife that he had given me. I climbed back out and looked at Murphy. "Let's go."

Murphy and I walked out into the woods. After about ten minutes of walking we heard a little girl screaming. We ran as fast as we could toward her. As we ran I found him. "Bellamy !"

Bellamy stopped running and turned around. "Skylar, what are you doing out here?" He looked over at Murphy. "And why are you not at camp?"

Murphy looked over. "She was leaving, I wasn't letting her go alone."

Bellamy started running again as we heard another scream. "Charlotte!"

I knew exactly who Charlotte was, she was the youngest girl in the sky box. When we finally got to where she stood we saw it. Atom laid on the ground, gasping for air.

Bellamy looked down at the ground. "Son of a bitch Atom." He ran over and knelt down next to him.

Atom begged him. His body was covered in what looked like lesions. "Kill me. Kill me. Kill… me."

The rest of his hunting group ran up behind him. Bellamy began to send people back to camp and the little girl handed Bellamy a knife. "Don't be afraid Bellamy." Charlotte walked back with one of the guys.

Clarke came running up behind us. "I heard screams."

Bellamy looked over. "Charlotte found him. I sent her back to camp."

Clarke bent down next to him, checking him over. She motioned toward me and I bent

down next to her. I looked over at Bellamy and shook my head.

Bellamy nodded and Clarke began to hum, taking the knife from him and piercing Atom's neck with it.

As we got back to the entrance of the camp the gates slowly opened, it was almost like the camp knew there was something wrong. They brought in Atom's body on a gurney. Clarke began to pull Octavia to the dropship and was ignored. Octavia fought back. Octavia ran over to where Bellamy was and he spoke to her. "Octavia, just stay there. Please stay back."

I ran over and tried to keep her put, but she pushed me along with her. "Why?"

Octavia broke free and moved the jacket off of Atom's face. Bellamy tried to calm her down. "There's nothing I could do."

"Don't." She started to cry and moved away from him.

"O...O… Please."

"Dont'."

Bellamy moved away from the crowd and spoke to Murphy. "Lost anyone here?"

"No." Murphy moved over to him.

"Jasper." He looked over at me.

"Still breathing. Barely."

Murphy spoke up. "I tried to take him out, but your psycho little sister…."

Bellamy shoved Murphy. I ran to grab him and Murphy held out his hand to tell me he was alright. Murphy spoke to him. "Bellamy…"

Bellamy grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him to him. "My what? My what?"

"Your little sister."

Murphy shoved Bellamy backwards.

"Yeah, that's right. My little sister. Got anything else you want to say about her?"

"Nothing. Sorry." Murphy knew better than to continue to argue with him. He knew it would only hurt me.

When they started to move Atom's body away Bellamy turned to look at me. I shoved him as hard as I could. "Don't ever touch my little brother again you son of a bitch." I ran after Murphy without even a second glance at Bellamy.