CHAPTER 14

THE WORST FEELING WAS NOT BEING LONELY, it was being forgotten by someone you would never forget. The darkness of the night had fully settled over them, torches coming to life with orange sparks as their flickers dotted the camp like ghost lights. Jinny had been carving a spear from a long branch she'd found earlier when Bellamy came up to her. His eyes were deep with unfathomable fear, sparkling with panic under the flames of the torch he carried with him.

"Octavia is missing," he informed.

Her eyebrows furrowed as she felt her heart was pricked with concern. She swallowed, getting up from the ground and racking her brain for a reasonable explanation. "It's Octavia, she likes to wander," she told him.

"I've checked the entire camp, she's not here," he said.

"Have you checked the dropship? She could just be outside the walls—"

"Jin." He stopped her. "Clarke and I have checked every inch of the camp. I'm going to get some people, go out and look for her."

She nodded. "Okay. I'll go too, then."

He nodded back before hurrying off to somewhere. Jinny grabbed the spear she had just made and touched its tip, satisfied that it was sharp enough to cause harm. Bellamy came back not more than ten minutes later with some weapons he had scavenged, placing them on the ground in the middle of camp.

"Hey, everybody, gather around and grab a weapon," he called loudly. "My sister's been out there alone for more than twelve hours. Arm up. We're not coming back without her."

Monroe was the first to bend down and pick up a crudely made axe from the stockpile. Other kids went to follow suit and Jinny busied herself with grabbing more gear from her tent. She came out with a coil of rope and a small bag of medical supplies from Clarke- just in case. Jasper was just walking forward to pick up a weapon when she stopped next to Bellamy.

"We need a tracker," he said, glancing at Clarke who nodded, then raised his voice. "Finn! Get out here!"

"The last time we saw her was on the way to the river," Jinny said. "Bellamy, what if she was caught?"

She saw the muscle in his jaw contract dangerously, his eyes downcast and heated. He looked like he was trying his hardest not to run off into the woods on his own to look for his sister. Jinny had always doted on Octavia, but Bellamy loved her like only a brother would.

"Then we need to go now," he told her, making his way to the wall. "Finn, we're leaving!"

"Alright, I'm coming!" they heard the boy call from inside his tent.

Jinny followed after Bellamy closely with their search party right behind her. They made it halfway across the site when John started pointing towards the sky and making a huge fuss. She turned around to look out at the vast gloom when she saw a cluster of stray sparks showering down on them from space. The spray of glittering brilliance looked ethereal from the ground, like a cascade of constellations crashing down into an abyss from the heavens. It looked like the stars themselves were revolting against their own existence.

"What is that? It's so bright," Jasper said.

"It's so beautiful." Jones stared in awe.

"They didn't work." Raven emerged from her tent, joining them in their circle as they gazed off into the sky. "They didn't see the flares."

"A meteor shower tells you that?" Bellamy asked.

"That's not a meteor shower, Bellamy." Jinny looked at him in dismay.

Clarke turned to face them. "It's a funeral. Hundreds of bodies being returned to the earth from the Ark. This is what it looks like from the other side." She shook her head and looked to Raven. "They didn't get our message."

Raven's eyes locked onto Bellamy, and she started forwards angrily. "This is all because of you!"

Finn held her back as Bellamy raised a hand in protest. "I helped you find the radio!" he defended himself.

"Yeah, after you jacked it from my pod and trashed it!" the girl spat.

Clarke placed a hand on her shoulder and there was an edge in her voice when she spoke, "He knows. Now he has to live with it."

Bellamy took one more glance at the shooting stars before regarding them seriously. "All I know is that my sister is out there and I'm gonna find her. You coming or what?" There was a beat of silence. "Then what are we waiting for?" He raised his voice. "Move out!"

Jinny exchanged a look of annoyance with Raven, the both of them rolling their eyes in exasperation. Jasper stood by the side and looked at them uncertainly as he waited for Finn. She just noticed that the boy was now sporting shorter locks than she remembered.

"We have to talk to them," Clarke said. "Three hundred won't be enough. The oxygen level will just keep dropping. And if we don't tell them that we can survive down here, they'll kill more people. They have to."

Jinny shifted uncomfortably at the choice of topic, turning around agitatedly. Bellamy had already disappeared into the woods with the other delinquents, their torches flickering in and out through the ghostly pale trunks.

"Guys, they're leaving. We gotta go," Jasper said.

"We tried making use of the wristbands to build a telegraph, you could use the parts we have and the ones from your pod," Jinny told Raven stiffly.

Finn held the girl's hand. "I gotta do this. And you should stay and fix the radio, okay?"

"Fix it?" Raven repeated incredulously. "The transmitter's smashed. Unless there's a parts depot down here, we're not talking to the Ark."

"Art supply store," Clarke said suddenly. Raven looked between them questioningly. "I might know a place where you can get a transmitter."

"Finn, hurry up, I'm going ahead," Jinny snapped before heading towards the gate without waiting for a response. She quickly caught up with the group, making her way to the front and walking alongside Bellamy. He glanced at her as she let her eyes roam the dense foliage, illuminated only by the flames of their torches and a couple of flashlights.

"Took you long enough," he said gruffly. "Thought you decided to stay back."

"I care about Octavia as much as you do," she said tensely. "Besides, Raven is the best mechanic we've had for like fifty years or something. She'll fix the radio."

He didn't speak after that as they continued to search the woods. They trekked to a point not that far away from their campsite, along a ravine that led towards the river. Finn had stopped them for a moment to pick up a trail, but it didn't make much sense. The footsteps that he had found were too large to be Octavia's—they were the size of a man.

"Grounder," Bellamy said, his voice laced with fury.

Finn started, darting forwards a few feet to the right. He crouched down and shone his flashlight at the ground. "These are Octavia's tracks," he said. The beam of light followed the path of her boots until they took a sharp turn into a section of dense shrubs.

"The Grounder was following her." Jinny walked over, her face drawn with fear. "He must have kidnapped her."

"Look! Over here!" John called loudly from the other side of the thicket.

Bellamy took off quickly towards the source of his voice, with Jinny right behind him. They stopped in front of a steep rocky incline where the boy was pointing into. "Right there, you see it?" he asked. "Is that Octavia's?"

"Rope," the man ordered. Jinny grabbed the coil slung around her shoulder. She bent down and tied one end of it to the sturdy stem of a small tree behind them. Bellamy took hold of the other end once she was done knotting it securely.

"What are you doing?" Finn asked.

"We need the rope to get back up," Bellamy replied, throwing the cord down into the ravine. "Flashlight." He nodded to John, who handed it to him, and pocketed the article before making his way down the line at a sideway clamber. Jinny fidgeted impatiently as he reached the bush and grabbed hold of the silver object hanging amongst its leaves.

"It's hers!" he announced. "I'm going all the way down!"

She sighed, readjusting the strap of the bag over her shoulder and securing her spear around it, before bending down to pick up the rope. "Are you serious?" someone asked as she started to descend the small hill to join Bellamy at the bottom. She glanced back up and saw that Jasper was next to go after her.

The girl landed on level ground with a soft grunt, looking around to find Bellamy crouched over some rocks with his searchlight out. She went over to him and saw blood spilled across the rocks in a thick sanguine trail. Jinny felt her stomach churn uncomfortably at the sight of the crimson liquid that was still somewhat fresh. Octavia was injured, defenceless, and possibly in the hands of a madman.

"Maybe she fell," she suggested, crouching next to him to look for more clues. "Hit her head right here."

"Seems that way," Bellamy agreed. "And she wasn't alone."

Jasper joined them, followed shortly by Finn who was carrying a torch. "Prints are deeper going that way," he pointed out. There was a moment as they tried to process the insinuation behind his observation. "He was carrying her."

"They took her, she's alive," Jasper said hopefully, before adding, "Like they took me."

"More bait?" Jinny frowned deeply, lowering her voice to a hiss. "Are we walking into a goddamn trap?"

Bellamy shook his head. "I need to find her."

He got up and hurried further down the ravine, following the footsteps in the muddy ground closely. She could practically see the worry on his brows, like he was wearing a heavy crown over his head. Finn sighed wearily from somewhere behind her as they continued on the path. The undergrowth started to grow thicker the longer they walked, large fronds and trees bearing various nuts surrounding them. Jinny felt a chill creep up her spine as the air felt colder in these parts.

After some time of trekking, she could see that there was something peeking out of the foliage. Bellamy stopped in his tracks, his face draining slightly of colour. Jinny could feel her own heart stop as she unconsciously held a breath, eyes widening in mute horror at the display in front of them. She exhaled sharply in disbelief, taking in the details of the decaying skeletons that were strung up from the branches or sitting high on top of pikes. Their forms were contorted, some of them in pain or twisted in various unnatural ways.

Shit. What had they just walked in to?

"I don't speak Grounder," Finn said. "But I'm pretty sure this means keep out."

"This is crazy." The delinquents started murmuring to each other.

"I'm outta here."

"Yeah, me too."

"Go back if you want," Bellamy told them. "My sister, my responsibility."

He walked forwards, ignoring the stained and brittle bones that greeted him. It felt like a death trap was just waiting for them on the other side. Jinny squared her shoulders, with a determined glint in her eyes.

"Let's go, don't waste time," she said before going after him.