CLARKE WAS QUICK TO DRAIN ALL THE FUN OUT OF OUR excitement and amazement the moment she exited the dropship. She pushed by me and my star-struck figure, taking a mere moment to bask in the beauty before she seemed to stiffen. It was weird and somewhat-predatory to stare so heatedly after her, but I truly found her behavior odd. That was the only reason for my sudden need to follow her with more than just my eyes—and so action shadowed such needless stalking.

Clarke had out a charter, something I assumed that Chancellor Dickhead provided as a navigator through Mount Weather. However, Clarke seemed troubled. If the notorious know-it-all was troubled, then surely, there was something terribly amiss. Well, usually that was the case; sometimes Clarke was just melodramatic and made mountains out of teensy, tiny molehills. I hoped to God that was the case for this unfortunate expression and frantic routing of hers.

Finn, the ever-so-vigilant Spacewalker, came up to Clarke and popped his head around her shoulder. His eyes scanned the map with disinterest before he smiled at Clarke. "Why so serious, Princess? It's not like we died in a fiery explosion."

Clarke's expression was entirely deadpan. "Try telling that to the two guys who tried to follow you out of their seats." Ice-cold, right there. If she continued to insult and hurt everyone that showed interest in her, then she was on the right track of being completely alone!

Finn laughed and slowly, he retraced his steps and moved away his head. I seen the flicker of hurt in his eyes, though; he wasn't fooling anyone with his brushing-off. "You don't like being called Princess, do you, Princess?"

Clarke deliberately ignored him and whipped around to face the expanse of woods. She pointed at a mountain somewhere in the distance. "Do you see that peak over there?"

Finn nodded, not seeing the big picture. In all honesty, I didn't either. "Yeah."

Clarke scowled, but the scowl wasn't directed at him. Frustration was evident in the purse of her lips and the creasing of her eyes. That was the moment I realized that melodrama wouldn't begin to describe this predicament of expressions and verbal banter. "Mount Weather," Clarke said bitterly. "There's a radiation-soaked forest between us and our next meal. They dropped us on the wrong damn mountain."

I took that moment to approach. As it just so happened, Wells decided to come forth with a bowl of intelligent chitchat. I usually just assumed that Wells would break into a soliloquy on why he deserved her terrible treatment but still wanted to be forefront in her list of "Love Interests." But surprisingly, Wells didn't just live and breathe Clarke; he was rather intelligent, for someone so negligent, ambivalent, and self-righteous. "We got problems," said Wells, his brow furrowed together. "The communications system is dead... I went to the roof. A dozen panels are missing. Heat fried the wires."

Clarke barely spared the guy a glance. "Well, all that matters right now is getting to Mount Weather. See? Look. This is us. This is where we need to get to if we want to survive."

"Where'd you learn to do that?" At the look Clarke was wearing, Wells dropped his voice into a low, baritone whisper: "Your father..."

I smiled at the three, looking between Finn and Wells with a raised-brow, smug-eye look, then drawled out, "Seems like you all have found yourselves in a little pickle. Well, a big pickle. Tell me, when will we go hiking? I'm sure there's a bunker around here with some beer." I read about bunkers back at the Ark; any type of alcohol sounded good, even if the kind down here was over nine decades old.

Clarke rubbed her hand over her face while the boys rolled their eyes at me. "Please, Eowyn. Now is not the time," Clarke said nastily.

I raised my hands in defense as a duo of boys came up to us, one of Asian descent and another with goggles. The boy with goggles—Jasper, maybe—smiled cheekily at us, then glanced down at the map. His eyes came alight, filled with excitement. "Ah, cool, a map!" he exclaimed, then put his arm around Clarke. "They got a bar in this town? I'll buy you a beer."

Wells, wearing an annoyed expression, came forward and shoved Goggle Boy. "You mind?" he snapped, the jealousy made extremely obvious. He had always been overprotective of Clarke, and she never appreciated it—especially when it came to nice guys like this dude. If the irritation on her face was anything to go by, then she was not happy with him.

Goggles stumbled backwards, holding his hands up high. "W-Whoa!"

Suddenly, a band of arrogant jerk-offs came up. The one in front was someone I instantly recognized—someone I loathed, yet found myself sympathetic and amused towards: John Murphy. "Hey, hey, hey," he said, coming up with his hands up in a gesture of faux peace, "hands off of him. He's with us."

Wells recognized the criminal stances and fight-picking about to go down, so he took about five steps back. "Relax. We're just trying to figure out where we are," he said, attempting to sound calm.

I had to hold my excitement when a familiar brother-sister duo came up, the two of them in similar postures with identical expressions. "We're on the ground," Bellamy said loudly, attracting the attention of everyone around us. When he caught my gaze, he gave a genuine smile that turned instantly into a smirk when he seen everybody looking at him. "That not good enough for you?"

"We need to find Mount Weather. You heard my father's message. That has to be our first priority," Wells stated.

Octavia scoffed and put herself front and center. "Screw your father. What, you think you're in charge here, you and your little Princess?"

I smirked and laughed, loudly saying, "Of course they do. They aren't Mini-Griffin and Mini-Jaha for nothing!"

Clarke shot me a glare that basically read, Stop instigating trouble, Kane. "Do you think we care who's in charge? We need to get to Mount Weather not because the Chancellor said so, but because the longer we wait, the hungrier we'll get and the harder this'll be. How long do you think we'll last without those supplies? We're looking at a twenty-mile trek, okay? So if we want to get there before dark, we need to leave now."

Did she really think they were listening? In all technicality, I was considered a "Privileged" too, but I didn't care a single bit for what she was saying. Truthfully, this forest seemed pretty vast and healthy to me; living food awaited us in the leaves. All we had to do was make some knives and learn how to kill without crying over a carcass. We didn't need to bother with Mount Weather.

Bellamy came forward with his loud, beautiful voice again. Did I say "beautiful?" I meant gorgeous, awestriking, breathtaking. "I got a better idea. You two go, find it for us. Let the privileged do the hard work for a change!" Delinquents cheered in agreement—basically the equivalent of the term "raising their glasses."

Emilie, still cupping her swollen nose, stood at the front of the circle that had surrounded us. She pointed at me accusingly, seeming to want to start trouble. "What about her? She's privileged too!"

Bellamy looked ready to jump to my defense, if his flaring eyes were anything to go by, but I shut Emilie down with a solid, "Do you need matching purple eyes to keep that damn mouth of yours shut?"

Wells raised his hands in a friendly, we-mean-no-harm stance, shuffling forward. "You're not listening. We all need to go."

Murphy, the little shit, came to meet Wells and pushed him—hard. "Look at this, everybody... The Chancellor of Earth."

Wells scowled. "Think that's funny?"

The two of them began to fight, and Clarke let out a snappish, "Wells!" Even when his life was on the line, Clarke seemed intent on being as bitchy and negligent as possible. I wasn't paying much attention to the fight until Murphy suddenly swiped Wells's leg from under him, leaving him injured and defenseless.

Wells let out a cry of pain. "Ah!"

Murphy smirked, seeming very proud of himself, as Wells struggled to his feet. "No, but that was. All right." Then he approached. "Come on! Come on!" Deadly intent was evident by the malicious look on his face, but the sudden appearance of Finn made him stop short in his tracks.

Finn looked at Murphy with his eyebrows raised, daring him to come a single inch forward. "Kid's got one leg. How about you wait until it's a fair fight?"

And that was the end of the fight. Murphy sulked from the scene with his tail between his legs, his lapdogs following behind, while the crowd went back to frolicking around the radioactive clearing.

Bellamy stood there, looking intimidating as hell in his swiped guard suit, while Octavia skipped close to Finn and wiggled her fingers at him. "Hey Spacewalker!" she called. "Rescue me next." Finn smiled at her and waved back.

Octavia turned back to her brother and stopped smiling. "What? He's cute."

"He's a criminal," Bellamy said with a frown, and I decided it was my cue to reunite.

I popped up in front of the siblings and laughed. "I'm a criminal, Freckles; does that mean you don't like me?"

Bellamy blinked in surprise at my sudden appearance while Octavia let out a loud squeal and barreled into me. She wrapped me into a big hug and jumped, bringing me up and down with her. "Oh my God, I knew I seen you! I knew it. But when you didn't come up and talk to Bells and me, I thought you weren't... you!" She pulled back and looked me from head to toe. "How'd you get caught, E? I thought you had mastered the art of... well... not getting caught!"

I shrugged. "Shit happens. I got caught in the vents. Dad didn't want to bust me out because he thought I was tainting his image. And well, here I am!"

"Here you are," Bells cut in softly, giving me a warm look from over his sister's shoulder. He pushed her aside and pulled me into a bear-hug, one that was full of warmth and care. I returned it eagerly, burying my head into his chest.

"I missed you, Freckled-Ass," I said with a cheeky grin, pulling back to grin up at him.

He rolled his eyes at the nickname and laughed. "I missed you, too, Short-Stack," he teased, and I playfully shoved him.

Octavia looked between us with a smug look on her face before she bit her lip and lightly poked at Bellamy's shoulder. "So... I can't date a criminal?"

Bellamy sighed in exasperation and gently pulled back from me. A determined look on his angular features, he turned and looked at his sister. ""Look, O. I came down here to protect you."

"I don't need protecting," Octavia burst out. "I have been locked up one way or another all my life. I am done following orders. I need to have fun, Bell. I need to just do something crazy just because I can, and no one, including you, is gonna stop me."

I came to stand between the two as Bellamy's features softened. "I can't stay with them, O," he said.

My face dropped, and so did Octavia's; we both stared at him in bemusement. "Now what are you talking about?" Octavia asked.

Bellamy's voice dropped a tone, and he looked around, as if watching for an eavesdropper. "I did something, okay, to get on the drop ship, something that they will kill me for when they come down. I can't say what it is just yet, but you have to trust me. You do still trust me, don't you?"

Octavia nodded. "Yeah."

He looked at me expectantly, and it took a moment for me to realize he wanted my affirmation that I trusted him, too. I smiled and gave a thumbs-up. "Of course, Hells-Bells!"

Bellamy's eyes narrowed, but his chocolate-brown irises glinted with amusement. "Good," he murmured, his warm, gentle hand reaching forward and squeezing my shoulder. I wanted to say something more, but my conscience and my larynx didn't get the chance...

Over by the dropship, Clarke and the boys were suiting up for their food-getting extravaganza. Finn jerked Greenie and Googly-Brow into their group, and Clarke seemed to justify her cause for not wanting Jaha Junior on Mount-Weather-duty. "Four of us! Can we go now?" Finn said, in a rush.

Octavia, her expression bubbly and mischievous, skipped up to the group and chirped, "Sounds like a party! Make it five."

Bellamy's entire torso stiffened, and he jerked his head to the side. He slowly released my shoulder blade and started forward. He hissed, "Hey, what the hell are you doing?"

"I hate to agree with Freckles," I drawled, walking up to the siblings, "but indeed. What the hell, Tavia?

"I'm just going for a walk," Octavia said innocently, flashing us her pearly-whites. Part of me believed her only reason for joining was to be near Spacewalker.

I wasn't going to allow her to go on an adventure without a supervisor who wasn't a douchebag, stranger, or space-walking imbecile. I aimlessly yelled out, "Sign me up!" Was it smart to join a group of young amateurs? Was it right to so readily leave Bellamy, just when we were about to talk? Truthfully, I wasn't paying any real attention to the things that left my mouth; I was positive my comrades and enemies alike had noticed. Bells sure as hell did.

Bellamy gently tugged me back by the cloth of my jacket. "Eowyn," he said lowly, eying me like I was clinically insane. Maybe I was. He tugged me closer than he ever had, and clasped his strong hand on the nape of my neck, forcing my eyes to directly meet his with a tug and twist. "Wouldn't it be best to stay here?" he asked softly.

I looked over at the criminals as they readied up and gathered the appropriate gear for our mission. I didn't stray my vision from Octavia as she skipped over to them. "It would," I said quietly. I was being quick-to-the-draw and unreasonable. My eyes flickered away from O, and I looked into Bellamy's strong, chocolate gaze. Against my will, a small smile quirked against my lips. "But somebody's got to look out for O."

"But who's going to look out for you, Eowyn?" Bellamy wasn't ready to let this go. And honestly, I was hanging onto my last hair of stubborn resilience.

Before I could drop my head and submit to Bellamy's concerns, Octavia came up to us. "It's time to go, E," she said with an eager smile.

Bellamy's face dropped, and his grip loosened on my shoulder. "Go on," he said, voice no higher than a sigh.

O's hand replaced Bell's, and she gave her brother a mock-kiss. "Mwah!"

"We'll be careful," I swore to him, O's arm looped through my elbow. My stomach weighted down with guilt, and it took all of my self-restraint not to fall away from Octavia's grip and run into Bell's arms. I couldn't stand to see him worry; it was one of my weaknesses.

But Bellamy seemed a lot stronger than I gave him credit for. His worry-wrenched brow had dropped into a soft smile, and his eyes gleamed with an emotion I couldn't place. "You better!" he called to me playfully.

Octavia and I nearly disappeared into the chlorophyll-green shrubbery, but O pulled us to an abrupt stop next to Clarke. "Before you get any ideas, Finn is mine," she said to her.

Clarke, a scowl on her lips, threw O a tired reply: "Before you get any ideas, I don't care."

Anyone could catch the "We'll see"-reminiscent gleam in O's eyes. I most certainly did. And she dragged me through the green and down to where our group was, more determined than I'd ever seen her in my entire life. I didn't doubt that she'd pick a bone with Clarke at least one more time while we were retrieving the food.

We'd been walking for maybe thirty minutes, Clarke in front with the rest of us walking a leisurely place, when a conversation decided to arise. Finn had just placed a pretty-looking flower in Octavia's hair, Octavia was looking up at him with affection, and Goggles was lapping at the mouth in jealousy.

Goggles muttered to the Asian boy—Monty, I think his name was— "Now that, my friend, is game."

Monty gazed at the flower contemplatively for a moment before saying, "That, my friend, is poison sumac."

Octavia's face went blank and she quickly tore away the flower from her hair. "What?! It is?"

We all had dropped to a less-brisk pace. "The flowers aren't poisonous. They're medicinal—calming, actually," Monty briefly explained, twiddling with a flower.

I looked at Monty with surprise and a little bit of suspicion, which Goggles seemed to have caught. "His family grows all the pharmaceuticals on The Ark," he told me.

"Why does that not surprise me?" I asked sarcastically.

Clarke turned to us, and it suddenly registered to me how slackened our pace had become. "Hey, guys, would you try to keep up?"

Spacewalker turned to look at her, a cheeky smile on his face. "Come on, Clarke. How do you block all this out?"

I let out an exaggerated yawn when I noticed the self-righteous look that crossed her features. Clarke took a brief moment to scowl at me before she gestured to the trees above. ""Well, it's simple. I wonder, 'Why haven't we seen any animals?' Maybe it's because there are none. Maybe we've already been exposed to enough radiation to kill us. Sure is pretty, though. Come on." She resumed walking, brisk and impatient.

Octavia leaned towards us. "Someone should slip her some poison sumac," she muttered.

Goggles snorted, Spacewalker grinned, Monty held back a laugh, and I giggled behind my palm. Leave it to Octavia to unconsciously become my spirit animal.

We started walking again, like a group of friends left in a comfortable science. Then Spacewalker pointed his finger between Goggles and Monty. "I got to know what you two did to get busted."

The duo exchanged looks. They seemed a bit pleased with themselves, to be quite frank. "Sumac is not the only herb in the garden, if you know what I mean."

Goggles threw his friend a look of accusation. "Someone forgot to replace what we took."

"Someone has apologized, like, a thousand times."

The boys turned to look at me, curiosity on their faces. "What about you, Kane?" Spacewalker asked.

Of course, they had to ask. An unenthused look on my face, I begrudgingly uttered, "I accidentally set half of Mecha Station on fire. And, you know, I stole a bunch of shit I shouldn't have."

Spacewalker looked like he wanted to ask questions, but Jasper quickly said, "How about you, Octavia? What'd they get you for?"

If I didn't have any dignity, I would have face-palmed. Someone's little crush blinded him from the obvious.

Octavia threw everyone near her—including me, actually—a disgruntled scowl. "Being born," she grunted. She stomped forward, then, looking like she preferred Clarke's company over Goggles's. Who could honestly blame her?

Monty disapprovingly said, "That is so not game."

"Agreed," I mumbled, tossing Goggles a frown. There was a certain feature of guilt in his face, but I denied myself time to contemplate such a matter; instead of caring, I jogged forward. I didn't get too far, however, because the sight of Clarke crouched by a tree halted me in my tracks.

I approached the two with soft footsteps echoing behind me. Clarke put a finger to her mouth and shushed us, before she pointed at a sight just yards away from us. There was a beautiful deer right there, standing and breathing and living. It was gnawing at the ground, its throat moving as vesicles of tissue moved in the process of eating; no amount of realness in the tapes they had on the Ark could add up to the beauty it was seeing something like that in real life.

Finn's breath was hot on my left ear. "No animals, huh?" he muttered smugly to Clarke.

There was a moment of silence. Then, a collective gasp came from the group of us as the deer turned to face us; a second head appeared, conjoined with the abnormality's neck. We all watched with hitched breath and wide eyes as it ran into the shrubbery, then took turns glancing at each other as we wondered what the hell we just saw. Earth was nothing like it was described in our stories.

It was minutes after we began walking again. Finn kept glancing at Clarke, then he suddenly said, "Hey, you know what I'd like to know? Why send us down today after ninety-seven years? What changed?"

Clarke's expression turned void of emotion, but there were several shreds of remorse and betrayal laced between her facial features.

Octavia scoffed. ""Who cares? I'm just glad they did. I woke up rotting in a cell, and now I'm spinning in a forest!" She gripped the bark on a nearby tree and spun around it, sneaking unsubtle glances at Finn to see if he was looking.

"Maybe they found something on a satellite—you know, like an old weather satellite, or it wasn't a satellite," Monty suggested.

A muscle flickered in Clarke's jaw. "The Ark is dying," the blonde girl said bluntly. "At the current population level, there's roughly three months left of life support, maybe four now that we're gone."

My father never mentioned why Jake was executed. He didn't bother to explain anything that happened during his hours as Councilman Kane, least of all to his worthless engineer of a daughter. I frowned silently to myself.

Finn took this opportunity to play on his knowledge of the shit that went down to send Clarke to the Sky-Box. "So that was the secret they locked you up to keep—why they kept you in solitary, and floated your old man?"

Clarke frowned but nodded. "My father was the engineer who discovered the flaw. He thought the people had a right to know. The Council disagreed. My mother disagreed. They were afraid it would cause a panic. We were going to go public, anyway... when Wells..." She couldn't finish the statement, so she instead trailed off. I began to deeply regret the cruelty of my words to her earlier.

Monty's expression shifted to one of confusion. He blinked. "What, turned in your dad?"

Clarke brushed aside his words. "Anyway, the guard showed up before we could. That's why today. That's why it was worth the risk. Even if we all die, at least they bought themselves more time."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "That is utter bullshit," I said loudly, my arms crossed indignantly.

Finn looked frightened. Did he have family up there? "They're gonna kill more people, aren't they?"

Octavia brushed past the boys lagging in the back, and she provided Clarke her signature expression of disinterest and disdain. "Good. After what they did to me, I say, 'Float them all.'"

"You don't mean that," Goggles said. But she did; I could hear it in the way she spat out the words so unremorsefully.

Finn stood beside Clarke, looking at her like she was the only intelligent individual in a five-mile radius. "We have to warn them."

"That's what my father said," Clarke whispered. The two shared a moment, and Finn seemed to nod in encouragement. Truthfully I did not care for what happened to the people living on the Ark, but there were innocents and I prayed they wouldn't suffer the consequences of living life in a metal boat.

I hadn't noticed that we'd come upon a bed of water until I heard Jasper whisper, "Oh, damn, I love Earth." I turned from watching Finn and Clarke to see Octavia stripping down into a plain tank and granny-panties.

Goggles elbowed Monty over and over again until he looked in the same direction. The smaller boy's eyes widened almost comically, and he burst out, "Oh! Holy..."

Finn smiled. "Ha ha!"

"Hoo hoo hoo," said Jasper, a large grin now situated on his lips.

Clarke was the only one against our fun and games. "Octavia! What the hell are you doing?"

Octavia gave Blondie a short-lived smile before turning and jumping into the water. A large splash emitted from where she fell in.

"Yo, Octavia, they didn't have swimming lessons during Earth Skills," I called out to her. "And even if they did, you sure as hell didn't attend them!"

Octavia giggled. "I know, E. But we can stand... Ha ha ha!"

Clarke kept glancing from her map to the bed of water. "Wait. There's not supposed to be a river here."

Finn smirked at her, that flirtatious sort of smile that has girls weak at the knees. "Well, there is. So, take off your damn clothes."

Jasper's smile went from happy and content to deathly tense. His expression lit up with fear. "Oh...," he whispered. "Octavia, get out of the water! Get out of the water now!"

I glanced at where Jasper was staring at excessively, and I gasped at the sight of a lizard-like creature approaching O with alarming speed. It jerked her under the water, then knocked her to the surface in one swift tail-swing and jaw-bite. "AAH!"

"Octavia! Octavia!" I shrieked out, throwing off my coat before running towards the edge of the river. However, before I could hop in and save my sister, Finn yanked me back by the cloth of my collar.

"You'll get killed too!" he said sternly, but I wasn't listening. Before I could think reasonably, I whacked Finn across the face.

"She's going to die!" I yelled at him, my brow furrowing into a panicked state of wrinkles as I watched Clarke push rocks into the river and Jasper shed his own jacket. Finn released me, a hand reaching up to grip his swollen cheek, but I was too frantic to care or notice. I jerked away from his grip and flew again at the edge of the rocks, pushing Jasper away and barely sparing a glance at any of the people who yelled for me to think reasonably; I couldn't think reasonably, not with Octavia nearly drowning and O's blood sprinkling the surface from the monster's teeth, not with a life on the line and everyone else fearing drowning.

I hit the water with a loud crash-and-burn effect. I ignored the feeling of adrenaline rushing through my veins and I quickly took course along to where bubbles and shadows appeared at the surface; then I dove down in the water, hands fighting against the current as I mindlessly felt for the devil hurting Octavia.

"Octavia! Eowyn!" came from the ground, a jumble of syllables barely legible over the sound of gushing water.

My hand grasped a leathery-feeling tail, and I quickly yanked, feeling the jowls loosen on Octavia's limb. Octavia completely broke loose, and she jumped to the surface, coughing and spewing; but I was not at the surface, instead taking the tail of the monster and sinking my fingers into its leathery-skin. I jumbled and fumbled with my fingers in the water, not having any weapons to defend myself, so I instead kicked and punched at the devil. I cried out into the water, feeling it enter my lungs through the stupidity of my own actions. It wasn't until the monster bite down on my hand and wrist, igniting a furnace of severe pain, that I realized I was fighting a losing battle.

I kicked at the monster one final time, then broke the surface. I gasped for air, coughing and sputtering, then kicked up a storm at the monster. I aimlessly—like an untrained lapdog, full of fear and needless abandon—paddled at the water, bringing myself closer to the edge where a wet Jasper cradled a bleeding Octavia, where Clarke and Monty and Finn were yelling out for me to swim as fast as I could to avoid the fate of death.

I went faster, harder, with more energy and more determination then ever; just as the monster was gaining on me, I reached the pebbles and rocks of waterless air. Clarke and Finn were there to pull me further in, and I gasped out as I felt myself free and safe from the monster.

"Wha—what was that?" I choked out. No one could answer me; none of us knew, or had a clue. I looked to Finn, whose cheek was red and sore. "I'm—I'm so sorry, Finn."

Finn smiled lopsidedly. "Just a scratch," he muttered.

Octavia threw her arms around both mine and Jasper's necks. "Thank you... thank you," she cried out with gratitude, looking at Jasper with newfound adoration and me with a sisterly gratitude.

"Note to self... next time, save the girl," Monty said from the sideline.

I used my hand, which was sore and bleeding, to give Monty a well-needed middle finger. "Not the time, Greenie," I said drily, and a bitter, half-hearted laugh escaped us all.

"You wanted to go first. Now quit stalling."

Finn was holding the rope to lead us to Mount Weather. It was a big jump to the other side, and certainly, Finn wanted to play Tarzan. He gave Clarke a nervous, yet cocky smile, as though to assure her that he was just testing the grip.

Octavia smiled with giddy excitement. "Mount Weather awaits!"

Came a clapping sound on Finn's back, courtesy of Jasper. He grinned toothily at him. "Just hang on till the apogee, and you'll be fine," he reassured.

"The apogee... like the Indians, right?" Finn feigned confusion, and my expression fell into one of amusement.

Jasper rolled his eyes. "Apogee, not apache."

Clarke caught onto his ploy and rolled her eyes. "He knows. Today, Finn," she called.

With a cheeky smile on his face, Finn saluted her. "Aye, aye, captain. See you on the other side." He got ready for his send-off, but a quick, spastic jerk from Jasper stopped him in his tracks.

"Wait," said Jasper.

"What?" Finn asked.

"Let me. I can do it," Jasper said, glancing at a smiling Octavia.

Finn stepped away, and I seen relief in the way he automatically disentangled himself from the rope. "Knew there was a badass in there somewhere."

Jasper laughed nervously. "Heh heh..." But he wanted to do it for Octavia; so, he puffed out his lean chest with determination.

Finn smiled. "Hey, it's okay to be afraid, Jasper. The trick is not fighting it," he said assuringly.

Jasper nodded. See you on the other side," said Goggle Boy. He gripped hard on the rope, sparing us a wide birth of nervous scrutinizing. Then, he gave the jump a running go... and went right to the other side. "Ha ha! Whoo! Whoo! Whoo! Yeah! We are apogee! Yeah!"

"Yeah!"

"Yes! Whoo!"

"Yeah! Whoo!"

"You did it, Jasper!"

I felt very apprehensive, and I tightened my uninjured hand into a fist. A short prayer left my lips...

Finn turned to Clarke, and he grinned at her. "Let's go, Princess. You're up."

Jasper was still reveling in his excitement. "Come on, Clarke! You got this! Whoo! Apogee! We did it! Mount Weather! Whoo! Whoo!" he shouted, over and over.

I felt my body tense with anxiousness and I stepped away from the edge. I swallowed hard, not even willing to shout in glee for Goggles and his achievement.

"We are apogee! Woo!"

Then, there was a swift sound. A swift feeling. A swift cut. Clarke was at the ropes, readying to make the path towards Jasper, but she stopped and gasped. So did Monty, and Finn, and Octavia. A burning sensation ignited on my ear, and I stumbled away, a squeak of terror escaping from my throat. I blinked repeatedly, slowly looking up to find my eyesight directed towards a barely-conscious Jasper speared into a cliff's edge.

Clarke shouted, "Jasper! No. Come on."

Finn ushered us away, barely pausing to look at my ear in horror before gripping my arm and dragging me to the nearest cover. "Get down. Get down."

Clarke stared at us with newfound fear. "We're not alone," she whispered.