Chapter Six: A Storm's Coming

As night settled in and people became weary the fires were beginning to be put out and people were heading off to sleep. Bellamy sat on a log surrounded by Jones and a couple of other guys that followed Bellamy around like puppy dogs, and I sat between his legs. My eyes slowly got heavy and I began to drift off.

When I was just about to fall asleep I felt a light tap on my shoulder and something touch my head. Bellamy whispered to me. "Why don't we head to bed?" I stirred a little and nodded. "Head to the tent, i'll meet you in there." He spoke even lower with his next words. "Maybe we can mess around a little… it's not like anything else can happen."

I smiled at him and slowly stood up. My legs felt like jello from sitting on the ground for so long. As I walked away my fingers came untwined from his and the bed began to call my name.

Once I was settled in I heard a panicked voice from outside the tent. "Octavia!?" I brushed it off, thinking that I was hearing things, when I heard it again. It was coming closer. "Octavia!?" I realized who was calling and I jumped out of the bed, suddenly completely awake. I threw the doors open and looked around for him. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw him. He was holding a torch as he walked frantically around. "Bellamy!" I ran over to him. "What's going on?"

He continued to walk. "I can't find Octavia."

I swallowed and began to get anxious. "What do you need me to do?"

"Nothing, go get some rest. You shouldn't be stressing yourself out."

He began to walked around and open the doors to people's tents. I ignored him and followed. If Bellamy Blake thought that I was going to back down he really hadn't known my very well for the last six years.

Once we got to Clarke's tent he peeked in. "You're up?"

She looked up at him and climbed out so the other people around her wouldn't hear what she was saying. "Yea. Knowing that hundreds of people might be dying on the Ark makes it pretty hard to sleep."

"Raven's flares will work."

"Her radio would have worked better."

I sighed at her and she gave me an apologetic look, she knew that I knew that Bellamy had messed up, but she also knew that I would never do anything to go against him if that means jeopardizing our relationship.

Bellamy got tense. "Have you see Octavia?"

"No, it's Octavia. She's probably chasing butterflies." Clarke began to sound concerned.

"Clarke, we've checked the camp. She's not here."

"Okay, I'll help you find her." Clarke began to walk. She looked over at Bellamy. "You check the dropship, Skylar and I will check the rest of the tents."

Bellamy let a little weakness show towards her. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me. I'm not doing this for you, I'm going it for Octavia."

Bellamy walked to the dropship and Clarke stayed behind with me. I grabbed Clarke's arm to stop her. She stopped and looked startled. "He's really not a bad guy Clarke. When we were on the Ark he was the one that wanted to protect everyone. He's a whole different person down here. The only thing that hasn't changed with him is the way he feels about his family and me." I took a deep breath. "Just try to give him a chance… for me."

Clarke put her hand on my arm and rubbed it. "I'm trying, I promise."

Bellamy rounded everybody up and began to speak. We all listened intently to what he had to say. "Hey, everybody gather round and grab a weapon." He threw a pipe onto a pile. "My sister had been out there alone for 12 hours. Arm up." He looked around. "I'm not coming back without her."

Jasper began to walk toward the pile and Clarke and I stepped in front of him. "Jasper, you don't have to do this." I put my hand on his chest.

Clarke bit her lip. "You haven't left camp since we brought you back."

Jasper gave us a sympathetic look. "You guys, I need to do this."

Bellamy walked up behind us. "We need all the help we can get." Jasper grabbed another pipe off the pile and walked by us. Bellamy spoke again. "We need a tracker." He looked toward Finn and Raven's tent. "Finn, get out here!" There was no answer so Bellamy spoke up again. "Finn, we're leaving!"

Finally Finn emerged from the tent. "Alright, I'm coming."

Bellamy began to walk and I followed. "Woah, woah. Where the hell do you think you're going?"

"With you."

"Forget it." He began to move me backwards. "You're not going anywhere. What part of not stressing yourself out didn't you understand?"

"I'll be fine." I started to push by him, but he stood his ground. "You said you needed as many people as you can get." I folded my arms and stared at him. "I can help." He didn't say a word, just used his eyes to try to intimidate me. "I'll stay with you. I have my knife handy, if anything happens I won't try to be a hero. I'm worried about her too Bell, it's not just you."

Bellamy sighed. "If you come with us you have to swear to me that you won't get into any trouble. If something goes down you are behind me and no trying to be tough." He put his hand on my belly. "I don't want anything to happen."

"I promise."

Everyone suddenly began to look up at the sky and admire what looked like a meteor shower. Raven walked forward. "They didn't work. They didn't see the flares."

Bellamy turned around to look at everyone. "A meteor shower tells you that?"

I looked up at the sky. "It's not a meteor shower Bell, it's a funeral. Hundreds of bodies are being returned to the earth from the Ark."

Clarke spoke before I could continue, "This is what it looks like from the other side. They didn't get our message."

Raven ran forward at Bellamy and Clarke and Finn both grabbed her. "This is all because of you."

I glared at her and grabbed Bellamy's arm, keeping my free hand on my knife. Bellamy held us his hand "I helped you find the radio."

"Yea, after you jacked it from my pod and trashed it!" She struggled as they held her back.

Clarke put her hand on Raven's shoulder. "Yea, he knows. Now he has to live with it."

Bellamy got back to the task at hand. "All I know is that my sister if out there and I'm gonna find her. You coming or what?" The three of them stayed silent. "What are we waiting for?" He looked around at everyone, "Move out." He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and we all began to walk out.

As we walked we heard one of our group yelling. "Look! Over here!"

Bellamy ran over to the ledge that the young man, named John, was standing by. "Where is it?"

"Right there." He pointed to a bush. "You see it?" When we finally spotted it there was a belt hanging in the bush. "Is that Octavia's?"

"Rope."

A young guy handed Bellamy a thing of rope. He took the rope and tied it tightly around the stump of a tree. I walked over to him. "What are you doing?"

"We need the rope to get back up." He took the other end and threw it down the ledge. He looked to his right. "Flashlight." John handed him one. Before I could say anything to him Bellamy used the rope to climb down the ledge and grab the belt off the bush. I cringed as I watched him wander off. "It's hers! I'm going all the way down." With that he vanished some more. "Someone help Skylar get down, she falls and it's on your heads."

I looked around as they all stared at me. Sometimes being the "first lady" of the group didn't always have it's perks. No one messed with me, but sometimes they all hated me, or were scared of me, at this point I couldn't tell which.

We all made it down and Bellamy knelt near a small rock, running his fingers through what looked like a small amount of blood. "Someone else was here."

Finn, Jasper, and I knelt down next to him and looked. Finn studied the footprints around him. "The prints are deeper going that way. He was carrying her."

Jasper tried to lighten the mood a little. "If they took her she's alive, like when they took me."

Bellamy got up and began to walk forward faster, the group barely keeping up with him.

The group was exhausted, you could tell just by the looks on their face. I ran a little to catch up to Bellamy. We had been walking for hours with no break. I grabbed his arm to stop him. "Bell, we've been walking forever. We need a break."

"I'm not stopping. She's out there and I need to find her. I told you that you should have stayed behind. You could be helping Raven and Clarke right now instead of doing this."

"I'm doing this because I care about Octavia too. She may be your flesh and blood, but she's been like family to me for six years now and that doesn't mean that I don't have a right to worry about her and to want to try and find her as badly as you do or as badly as the next person does Bellamy. You're running us ragged. We'll find her. Just give us five minutes."

"Keep going." He broke his arm from my grip and continued to walk.

As we walked farther we went into a territory that had to have been off limits to us. Skeleton's were hung in the trees and everything seemed even darker than anywhere else we had been in this forest. Finn looked around. "I don't speak grounder, but I'm pretty sure this means keep out."

People around us began to murmur and everyone exchanged glances. "Go back if you want. My sister, my responsibility." Bellamy took off in front of us.

Jasper looked over at me. "I'd walk into hell to find her."

I roped my arm with his. "I think we just did."

Daylight began to break and we were still venturing on. At this point we were wandering around aimlessly in a place that we didn't know. Finn was beginning to get frustrated. He sighed. "I got nothing." He stared at the ground some more. "We lost the trail."

"Keep looking." Bellamy stared at the ground, he didn't exactly know what he was looking for, but he continues to look.

I walked faster and stopped in front of him. "Wandering around aimlessly isn't the way to find your sister. We should backtrack Bell."

"I'm not going back."

A young girl, Roma, spoke from behind us. "Hey guys, where's John?"

We all turned around. Jasper looked over at me. "I just saw him a second ago."

Everyone was frozen so I took charge. "Spread out, he couldn't have gotten that far."

As we all spread apart a loud thump sounded from behind us. We all turned to see John's body covered in blood, lying in the middle of the circle. My heart began to race and I walked backwards, bumping into Bellamy. Bellamy moved me sideways and Finn and him raced over to John's body. Finn looked over at Bellamy. "They use the trees." We all began to look in the trees. "We shouldn't have crossed the boundary.

I looked over at Bellamy. "Now can we go back?"

Jasper looked to his left and then quietly spoke. "There." He pointed. "Another one."

"Sky, we should run." Bellamy ran over to me and grabbed my waist with both of his hands, pushing me forward. As we began to run faster Bellamy took my hand and kept me with him. "Knife out!" I fumbled with my free hand to get my knife out of my belt loops.

As we ran more and more of them came out of everywhere. We all started to slow down. I looked around. "What are we gonna do? They keep heading us off."

Finn came up behind me and we all ran a little faster. "Keep running!"

Jasper was clearly out of breath. "I can't run much longer."

A young man, Diggs, kept running. "I'm not stopping for him.

Bellamy stopped the group. "I'm sick of running anyways.

"What are you doing Bellamy?" I held his arm.

"They know where she is."

Roma looked panicked. "Diggs, where are you." As she began to run again we all took off. I was right behind Roma when we came around a corner to see Diggs was impaled by something that looked like a bobby trapped spear. Roma screamed and ran around it.

I hadn't realized how far behind me the rest of them had gotten. As I saw Diggs body sitting there with blood dripping out of his mouth I froze in shock. When it all set in all I could muster was a scream. "Oh god!" I went to run around him when I was grabbed from behind and lowered to the ground. As I was picked up off the ground I let out another panicked scream and it was answering by the calming shushing of Bellamy. He kissed the top of me head. "I'm right here babe." He pulled me closer to him. "I've got you."

Jasper looked around. "They were leading us here. It's the only direction we could run.

Finn helped me stand up and spoke to Bellamy. "Where'd they go?"

He took my hand again. "After Roma." He looked at me and took my chin in his hands. "You don't let go of my hand, do you understand me." I couldn't speak. "Skylar, do you understand me!" I nodded and ran with him.

When we thought we were clear we all slowed down and began to look for Roma. As I searched around I finally spotted her. I looked behind me. "There she is!" Bellamy ran up beside me. "Roma!" I began to walk forward some. Bellamy ran in front of me and stopped dead in his tracks when he got close to her.

Finn followed him. "They're playing with us."

Bellamy let his head hang. He was feeling guilty. I walked over and put my hand on his back, keeping myself from looking at her body. "She only came because of me." He turned away from her.

"They can kill us whenever they want."

Jasper was getting panicked. I could read it all over his face. "Then they should just GET IT OVER WITH! COME ON! WE KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE!"

Bellamy and Finn ran over to Jasper and Bellamy began to panic. "Shut him up!" They began to come out of the woods slowly again. Bellamy ran over to me and threw me behind him. "Everyone around her!" They all began to look at each other, wondering why my life was more important than theirs. " I don't have time to explain this! Just do it!"

They all slowly backed up and put me in a circle.

Out of nowhere a horn began to blow. All of the grounders began to leave. Bellamy pulled me behind him again. "They're leaving."

"What does the horn mean?" I looked at everyone's faces.

The grim news was announced by Finn. "Acid fog."

"We have to run."

"There's no time."

Finn flung his backpack off and grabbed the tent out of it. The remaining people in our group all laid on the ground, taking cover under the tent. Bellamy tucker his free arm that wasn't holding the tent to the ground over my back to pull me too him and kissed the side of my head.

Minutes passed before Jasper broke the silence. "How long are we supposed to wait?"

I looked over at Bell. "Will this even work?"

"We'll find out." Finn sounded concerned.

Bellamy looked at me. "No we won't." He moved the tent off of us and started to stand up. "There's no fog."

"Maybe it was a false alarm.""

We all climbed out as Bellamy looked around. "They're coming back." We all watched as one lonely grounder was running through the forest. "I think he's alone."

I grabbed Bellamy's arm. "Now can we run?"

"He doesn't see us. I'm going after him."

He broke out of my grasp and I continued to talk to him. "And what? Kill him?"

"No. Catch him. Make him tell me where Octavia is, then kill him."

Finn was on my side. "How do we know he's not leading us to another trap?"

"We don't."

We followed the lonely grounder quite a ways before he went into a bunker. Bellamy motioned for all of us to slowly move forward, him taking the lead with me right behind him. As we went into the bunker we heard some fumbling and Bellamy got low and motioned for all of us too as well. We rounded the corner to see a young girl standing with the body of the grounder in front of her. The eyes of a terrified Octavia Blake stared back at us and you could hear the relief on her voice. "Bellamy?"

Bellamy took off at a run in the short space. "Octavia!"

Octavia looked at the ground and motioned toward something. "Get the key."

As Bellamy fumbled with the key he looked at all of us. "Monroe, watch the entrance." The young girl that had been with us walked away without another word and finally the chains came free and Octavia sailed into the arms of her brother. "It's okay, you're okay." He held her tight and I couldn't help but smile. Octavia looked over at me and gave me a weak but grateful smile.

Octavia hobbled her way over to me and wrapped her arms around me. "How did you guys find me?"

Jasper looked around. "We followed him." He pointed ot he grounder on the ground.

"We should go now. Before he wakes up."

Bellamy went to the wall and grabbed a spear. "He's not gonna wake up."

Octavia grabbed for the spear. "Bellamy stop. He didn't hurt me. Let's just go."

"They started this." Bellamy held up the spear and looked at Finn, who was crouched on the ground admiring something on the grounders jacket." "Finn, move."

What Finn had in his hand was something we had never expected. "Foghorn."

Suddenly the grounder grabbed for his knife, stabbing Finn deep in the stomach. Bellamy jumped for him with the spear and was pinned to the ground. I went to lunge forward for him, but Jasper grabbed onto both of my arms and held me back. "No!" I struggled. The grounder had the spear right up to Bellamy's neck. He struggled to hold the weight from coming down and piercing him. I began to panic more. "Bell!"

Octavia was crouched next to Finn and began to crawl toward the grounder. "Stop! That's my brother!" The grounder wouldn't give in.

Jasper let me go and grabbed a giant rock off of the ground, slamming it into the back of the grounders head and knocking him unconscious. Bellamy moved the spear away from himself and I crawled over to him, grabbing his face in my hands. I kissed his forehead and he looked over at Finn.

"I'm fine, go help Finn."

Reluctantly I crawled over to Finn and immediately started to bark orders to Octavia, Jasper, and Bellamy.

As we neared the gates of camp I began to shout along with Jasper. "Clarke! Someone get Clarke!"

As we entered the gates Clarke came running from where she was. "What's up. I'm right here." Jasper and Octavia entered first. I followed and cleared the way as Bellamy carried Finn through the gates. Clarke came running over. Instantly guys came pouring out of everywhere to help carry Finn. They took him out of his arms and Clarke checked for a pulse. I ran over closer to help her. "He's alive." She looked over at me and we exchanged worried glances.

Jasper chimed in behind us. "Skylar told me not to take out the knife."

"That was a good call."

I looked at the people holding him. "Get him into the dropship now. GO!"

Clarke looked over at me. "I can handle it for now. You don't need to stress yourself out. You did good." She put her arm on my shoulder. "If I need you I'll send someone to find you."

I ran over to Bellamy and Octavia. Bellamy grabbed Octavia's arm and spun her around. "Why were you defending him?"

"Because he saved my life. That spear that hit Roma was actually meant…."

Bellamy cut her off. "No, you're wrong. I saved your life." Bellamy was agitated. "For all you know he was keeping you alive to use as bait for one of their traps."

"No. I don't think so O!"

"You don't think, O! That's the problem." Bellamy looked over at me for some help. "You have anything to say."

"They killed three of our people today…"

Before I could get another word out Bellamy went off again. "And if you would've let me kill him when I had the chance, Finn wouldn't be in there dying right now."

"Stop blaming me for your mistakes! What happened to Finn is not my fault. I wanted to leave, so if Finn dies in there, that's on you." She slammed her finger onto Bellamy shoulder, causing him to stumble a little in shock.

I walked closer. "Octavia!"

"Don't!" She looked over at me with piercing eyes and then back at Bellamy. "He needs to hear this." She calmed down a little, not that it lasted long. "You got me locked up on the Ark, you wanted me to go to that stupid dance, you got mom killed!"

"Me?" Bellamy glanced over at me and then back to Octavia. "Mom was floated for having you. She's dead because you're alive. That was her choice. I didn't have a choice." Bellamy paused for a second and that words that came out of his mouth shocked not only Octavia, but me as well. "My life ended the day you were born." Octavia turned away from him and he grabbed her arm, pulling her back into the gate. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

She ripped her arm away. "You can't keep me locked up in here forever."

Bellamy walked slowly over to the gate and grabbed the door, looking at the people outside it. "Get inside." They slowly walked in and when they got close to him he hollered a little. "Go!"

I walked over next to him and he looked over at me. "A storm's coming." And with that he slammed the gates shut and locked them.