Mara was usually a morning person; she didn't like staying in bed all day and once she was awake she had to be doing something to occupy her time. Mara, however, was not a morning person if she didn't wake up naturally on her own. So when Nathan took it upon himself to wake Mara up, she was far from happy. She rolled onto her front and gripped her head in her hands, hoping that if she couldn't see Nathan he couldn't see her. Luck was not on Mara's side as she hadn't developed the ability to turn invisible overnight and no matter how much she groaned at being awakened, Nathan would not leave her alone.
"Let me sleep," she mumbled into the crook of her elbow and desperately tried to fall back asleep.
"No," he laughed and nudged her shoulder with his cold hand. "I've got something for you."
That grabbed Mara's interest though she had no idea why Nathan would be giving her anything, let alone waking her up to give it was to her. She flipped onto her side and blew her hair out of her face to notice the small grin quirking at the edges of Nathan's mouth.
"Close your eyes," he rolled his eyes at her when she glanced at his closed fist suspiciously. "Just do it, Mara."
"It better not be a bug."
"Just close your damn eyes."
She glanced from his fist to his eyes once more before giving in to his request. She felt him pull her hand out towards him and flatten her palm. His fingers ghosted over hers as he placed a small object into her hand, leaving her more curious than ever but she waited for his command before she opened her eyes.
When he told her to open her eyes, she found that Nathan had placed a small pale green stone, about the size of the pad of her thumb, in her hand. It was cracked with lines of turquoise and gold and there was a small round hole pierced into the tip. As she rubbed her thumbs over the surface of the stone she expected to find rough patches where it was cracked but was surprised to find that it was completely smooth. She turned it over in her hand, discovering that the back was just as flawless as the front. It was one the most beautiful things Mara had seen since arriving on Earth.
"Happy birthday, Mara." Her eyes shot up at Nathan's whisper.
"It hasn't been two days, has it? It feels much longer than that," she whispered back as she continued to rub her thumbs in circles over the stone. "If we were still on The Ark I would have been floated today."
Nathan's face sobered at her words; the idea that if they hadn't been sent to Earth, his best friend would have been killed made his stomach churn.
"Thank you," she reached out and pulled him into a brief hug before moving away to examine her birthday present. "When did you get this?"
"You know, I don't just pause when you're not around, I do have a life," he joked, his smile quickly becoming infectious.
"Shut up," her eyes rolled as she nudged his shoulder, laughing when he pretended to be hurt.
"Bellamy and I went out scouting while you were sleeping last night, you know, trying to get familiar with the land. I found it next to a river and cleaned it up a bit."
"Really? You and Bellamy?" She couldn't stop the look of shock that passed over her face. She had noticed Nathan talking to Bellamy a few times but had never thought that Nathan would be one of his followers.
"He's not that bad once you get to know him," he defended.
"I'll believe that when I see it."
"He helped me put the hole in that," he gestured to the stone still cradled in Mara's palm.
"Why?" Her eyebrows wrinkled in confusion, Bellamy didn't seem like the type to help anyone other than himself and his sister.
"Because I asked him to," Nathan said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
The idea that Bellamy had helped Nathan just because he asked was confusing to Mara. From the little she had seen of the man, he only ever seemed to do what was best for himself. She hadn't seen him do a single selfless task. Nathan had taken his wristband off the day before so Bellamy couldn't have used that as payment for his help. As Mara tried to wrack her brain as to why he would help Nathan, she slowly reached behind her neck and unclasped her mother's necklace. She lined the hole up with the chain and breathed a sigh of relief when she found that the chain would easily slip through the stone. Before she could fasten the necklace around her neck again, Nathan's hand reached out and stopped her movements.
"You don't have to do that. I shouldn't have put the hole in it; you don't have to put the stone on your necklace. I know how much it means to you," he looked away from her sheepishly, uncertainty flickering in his brown eyes.
"I want to," she reassured him and moved his hand off of hers.
She fastened the necklace and let it dangle down over her heart. The added weight was unfamiliar but not uncomfortable; it made her smile to know that two of the most important people were so close to her heart. She knew that the necklace was just an inanimate object, but it represented so much more to her. It meant that, even if she was physically separated from the people she loved, a part of them would still be with her. She only wished that she could have something of her father's to add to it.
"What do you think?" She struck a pose, her hands on her hips and flipped her hair behind her shoulders.
"Looking good," he mocked as he picked a leaf out of her dishevelled hair.
"It's my birthday! You have to be nice to me!"
"Sure thing," he rolled his eyes and rubbed her head to mess up her hair even more.
She ducked away from him before he could make her hair even wilder than it already was. She hadn't been able to wash since they landed on Earth, and the rain they had on the first night hadn't really cleaned her at all. One of the few things she missed about The Ark was the running water and the ability to take a shower that wasn't freezing cold rain.
"A couple of us are going hunting today, do you want to come? I'd rather you get your recklessness out while I was there so I don't have to spend the whole day worrying again." He tried to pass his remark off as a joke but Mara could hear the seriousness underlying his tone. She instantly felt guilty again for the worry she had put him through and knew that her running off wasn't the best idea she had ever had. Anything could have happened to her in the forest and Nathan would have never known; she never wanted to put him in that situation again.
"Yeah, I might as well, it's not like I –"Her response was cut off by a pain filled groan sounding outside of their tent. "What was that?"
"That kid they found yesterday," He grit his teeth together as the groan sounded again. "He was speared through the chest or something. He hasn't shut up all night." The groan turned into an agonised scream, making Mara flinch and Nathan huff in annoyance. "I'm surprised he managed to stay quiet for as long as he did there."
The boy's screaming worsened, dragging out for an impossibly long length of time. Mara hadn't even thought about the boy that had gone missing from the search party the day before and, even though his screams filled the air, she couldn't imagine the level of pain he was going through. She winced again as his screams only seemed to grow louder and more tormented as if he were in some unimaginable torture. Mutters of annoyance sounded from outside the tents with a few people shouting for the boy to shut up, the delinquents seeming just as annoyed with the boy as Nathan was.
"Meet me at the dropship when you're ready. We're leaving in a bit."
He leaned down and pulled her into a hug once more; whispering a happy birthday into her ear before he stiffened when another screamed punctured the silence. The scream was cut off abruptly as if the boy had passed out from the pain, and Mara noticed Nathan glance warily at the dropship before the tent flap fluttered close behind him.
She rubbed her eyes tiredly and tried to run a hand through her hair but she was stopped by a large knot before she could reach the end. She yelped as she yanked her hand through the knot, separating the worst of it. She felt the rest of her hair, finding that all of it was in a similarly tangled mess, and decided that she was going to have to attempt to wash it somehow.
She slipped the jacket she had been using as a pillow over her shoulders and rubbed the rest of the sleep out of her eyes as she left her tent. The majority of the camp was awake but Mara suspected that that wasn't through their own choice when she noticed the glares some were sending in the direction of the dropship even though the screaming boy had fallen silent. Mara dodged around a few of the delinquents, who had started fighting in her path, and headed straight for the water tank. She greedily gulped the water she filled into one of the metal cups and allowed herself to enjoy the feeling of the water slipping down her throat. She knew that she wasn't drinking enough but given that their water supply was somewhat limited, she couldn't indulge her thirst every time she wanted a drink. That being so, she glanced around guiltily to see if anyone was watching as she filled her cup again and headed back towards her tent.
She fastened the tent as securely as she could, hoping that no one would see what she was about to do. A sense of guilt swept over her but she pushed it aside. Nathan had mentioned that he had found a river, meaning that they should have a steady water supply and she wouldn't truly be wasting any by washing her hair. She hastily pulled her jacket and sweater over her head and flipped all of her hair to one side. She dipped her fingers into the cup of water and began working at untangling the knots, wincing when she pulled some of the hair from their roots. She repeated the process until all of the tangles had been undone but her hand was coated in hair when she pulled it away from her head. As she began removing the loose hair from her hand, the tent was flung open and the one person Mara didn't want to see her wasting water sauntered in.
"Miller! We're wait-" his voice cut off as he noticed that standing before him wasn't Nathan Miller like he had expected but a half-naked Mara instead.
She shrieked at the intrusion into her tent and grabbed her sweater from her bed and yanked it over her head. Her cheeks were burning red and she looked anywhere in the tent other than at Bellamy. Bellamy spluttered slightly as he realised that he had been staring at her exposed chest and hurriedly averted his eyes. The two stood in an uncomfortable silence for a moment as Mara tried to calm the blush spreading through her cheeks and Bellamy tried not to make a suggestive remark.
"What are you…what are you doing here?" Mara cringed at the waver in her voice that only made her cheeks flush harder.
"I'm looking for Miller," his voice gave nothing away but his eyes were still firmly planted on Mara's feet despite her having fully covered herself.
"He's, uh, he's not here." Mara cursed herself that she couldn't keep her voice as steady as Bellamy who seemed to be having no trouble at all.
"Obviously," Mara could practically hear his eyes roll and narrowed her own at him.
"I'm meeting him at the dropship, he'll be there now," her voice was harsher than she had intended but noticed that, once again, Bellamy didn't react other than to raise his stare from the ground and train it on Mara.
"You're not coming with us."
"What? Yes, I am, Nathan asked me to go, so I'm going."
"Do you even have a weapon?" He knew he had her trapped there; she had no way of defending herself if something were to happen, nor did she have any means of actually being a useful hunter. The idea of needing a weapon hadn't even entered her mind.
"I can stay at the back," she held his gaze defiantly as there was no way she was going to back down.
"Fine, you can have this," he pulled a handmade knife from his back pocket and reached out for Mara to take it from him. When she hesitated slightly he let out a huff of annoyance. "It's a spare."
"Thanks," she mumbled and grasped the knife in her hand.
He shot her one last sceptical look before heading out of the tent and holding the fabric back to allow her to exit with him. Silence descended upon the two as they made their way to the dropship where the hunting party was gathered. Mara tried to think of something to say to Bellamy but nothing came to mind and, by the way he wasn't even acknowledging her presence, she decided that he probably didn't want to talk to her.
Once they reached the small hunting party, they began trekking into the forest in search of their "prey" as Bellamy called it, though Mara suspected that he had no idea what they were actually looking for. Nathan walked by Mara's side as he scanned the ground for any sign of animal tracks; Mara had tried to help him but she didn't know what she should look out for so opted to just look at the world around her. She still hadn't gotten used to the difference between The Ark and the ground, there was so much vibrant life on Earth and she knew that it would take her a long time before she could look at the Earth without any sense of amazement.
It took Bellamy all of five minutes to convince the hunting party to keep quiet so that they wouldn't scare the animals away but Mara had no idea if they were going in the right direction or if they were just walking blindly into the forest.
She tried not to grumble about how long they had been walking for without catching anything. Bellamy had been reluctant enough to let her join them and she didn't want to give him an excuse to send her back to camp. She also didn't want to ruin the form of friendship that was growing between Bellamy and Nathan, though she wasn't sure if their relationship could be described as a friendship, it appeared more like Bellamy was making Nathan into his second in command. Nathan had pulled Mara along with him and Bellamy as Bellamy seemed to be training Nathan. It was weird for Mara to watch, she knew that Nathan didn't trust easily – it had taken her almost a week for him to open up to her in the Sky Box – but Nathan seemed to already trust Bellamy. As she watched the two interacting with one another she thought that she would have to give Bellamy another chance to prove that he wasn't just looking out for himself.
Mara slowed with the rest of the hunters when Bellamy raised his hand in the air to stop them. Mara peaked over Nathan's shoulder and spotted a small black animal snuffling in the dirt; it was a stout little creature and Mara doubted it would feed all of the delinquents but if there was one nearby then there was a chance there was more of them. The group crept closer to the animal, careful not to make any sound. Bellamy hushed them further the closer they got but luckily the animal hadn't noticed them creeping up on it. Mara almost felt bad for the unsuspecting animal but then she remembered the hunger in her stomach before she had eaten the meat the night before and no longer felt so bad.
Bellamy removed the axe that was hanging from his belt and carefully stepped in front of the group and began aiming for the animal. 'Pig' registered somewhere in Mara's mind but she wasn't sure if that was the right word given that she had never seen a pig in real life. Mara held her breath as Bellamy drew his arm back, preparing to through his axe. She had never seen anything be killed and she briefly contemplated looking away from what was about to happen.
Twigs snapped behind the group and Bellamy spun around and threw his axe in the direction of the noise. Mara heard the sound of the axe whizzing by her head and her eyes widened in shock at how close Bellamy had come to landing the axe in her head. His eyes flashed to hers almost as if he were reassuring her that he knew that he wouldn't have hit her but Mara found it difficult to believe that his accuracy was that good when he was spinning around.
The pig was startled by the sudden commotion and began running away from the hunting party, the majority of whom ran after it. Nathan shot Mara a wink before running off after the animal, a small knife in hand and shouting about how the animal was his.
Mara wanted to run after him and the other hunters but she was still rooted to the ground, her heart pumping in her chest. She had heard the sound of the axe flying through the air, she had felt it move her hair as it flew by, and if she had moved an inch she would have been struck by it. She felt a hand squeezing her upper arm slightly and her head shot up to find Bellamy's concerned eyes locked onto hers. He nodded his head slightly in reassurance and waited for her to return the gesture before he moved around her to search for the cause of the twigs snapping.
"Who the hell are you?" His deep voice broke the silence of the forest as the shouts of the hunting party and the squeals of the pig had died out.
"Charlotte," the voice Mara had become familiar with spoke up and Mara whipped around to find the little girl standing very close to where Bellamy's axe had stuck into a tree.
"Charlotte! What are you doing out here?" Mara's legs were freed from her fear and she rushed to the girl, gripping her hands in her shoulders and checking her over for any harm. She knew that the axe hadn't hit Charlotte but a part of her needed to be reassured nevertheless.
"I almost killed you," Bellamy scolded as he yanked his axe out of the tree trunk.
"What are you doing out here?" Mara repeated again, talking over Bellamy.
Charlotte shifted nervously on her feet and avoided looking into Mara's eyes. The girl glanced between Mara, Bellamy and a third boy who had joined them. Atom, Mara thought, remembering that when she had heard his name she had hoped that his parents hadn't named him after the bombs that had decimated the Earth ninety-seven years previously.
"With the guy who was dying, I just…" Charlotte finally spoke but her cheeks flushed a light pink as if she was embarrassed by her reasoning for leaving camp. "I just couldn't listen anymore."
Mara remembered the harrowing sound of the boy's screams penetrating the camp. She had only heard it for a short amount of time but that was enough to set her on edge, she couldn't begin to imagine the horror of having to listen to his screams for longer than she had.
"Did you come here by yourself?" Mara steadily rose from her crouch in front of Charlotte and found that Bellamy and Atom had walked forwards so that she was now sandwiched between the two. Charlotte nodded her head and Mara felt Bellamy shift slightly beside her as he crossed his arms over his chest.
"There are grounders out here, it's too dangerous for a little girl," Atom spoke for the first time.
"I'm not little."
Mara smiled at the defiance in the girl's voice and the strong look in her eyes. Bellamy chuckled softly beside Mara before he turned his focus back to Charlotte who was watching him carefully after he had laughed.
"Okay, but you can't hunt without a weapon." He began rummaging around in his jacket pocket and Mara was startled by the look of affection he was giving Charlotte, almost as if he was proud that she had stood up to Atom. Mara remembered that he had been the one to help his mother raise and hide his little sister for sixteen years and, as she glanced between Charlotte and Bellamy, she saw how Bellamy would be able to see a reflection of his sister in the little girl. He finally found his other spare knife and handed it to Charlotte who took it from him without hesitation. "Ever killed something before?" Charlotte quickly shook her head, gaining confidence when she realised that neither Bellamy nor Mara were planning on sending her back to camp. "Who knows, maybe you're good at it."
As Mara watched the interaction between Bellamy and Charlotte, she knew that she was going to have to reconsider her opinions of the man. This was the first time she had seen him doing something that wasn't for himself and then she recalled that he had given her his first spare knife so that she wouldn't be defenceless and Nathan had told her that Bellamy had helped him with her birthday present. Maybe Bellamy Blake wasn't as bad as she had thought he was.
"Are you okay?" Mara asked Charlotte as Bellamy and Atom headed in the direction of the rest of the hunting party. Charlotte nodded her head and smiled up at Mara, happy that she had been accepted into the group of older delinquents. "Come on then."
The two began following after Bellamy and Atom and Mara noticed for the first time the braids that Charlotte had put into her hair. She was used to the girl having her hair down and Mara had no idea how Charlotte had managed to do the intricate braids at the back of her head. Mara remembered the state her hair had been in when she woke up that morning and knew that her hair would be a mess once they got back to camp. Maybe keeping it braided out of the way would stop little leaves and twigs being caught in it.
"I like your hair, did you do it yourself?"
"Yeah," Charlotte smiled proudly and ran her hand over the braids.
"Can you show me how you did it when we get back to camp?"
Charlotte nodded excitedly, glad that she was going to be able to repay Mara in some way for all of the help Mara had given her since landing on the ground. The two girls had become unexplainably close after Mara tried to comfort Charlotte on the dropship, so close that Nathan had started calling Charlotte Mara's 'little shadow'.
Charlotte jumped as a loud noise, like a horn, blasted through the forest. The two girls glanced at each other warily and Mara noticed that Bellamy had stopped walking while Atom continued as if nothing odd had happened.
"What was that?" Mara called to Bellamy who looked over his shoulder at Mara and Charlotte before scanning the trees for any sign of danger. Mara copied his motions and placed her hand on Charlotte's shoulder in case they had to run from whatever had made the sound.
Bellamy had spun in a full circle and was now facing towards the two girls, his eyebrows quirked in confusion. Out of the corner of her eye, Mara noticed a faint dirty yellow glow seeping through the tree line; muting the colours of the forest and making everything look sickly.
"Bellamy!" His head snapped up at her shout and he spun to look at what she was gaping at. "What the hell is that?" She almost shrieked as the glow crept closer towards them and she realised that it was not some weird reflection of the sun's light, but a moving force, like fog.
Bellamy began inching away from the fog, Atom just behind him, and Mara gripped Charlotte a little tighter. Screams were thrust towards the group of four and Mara wasted no time grabbing Charlotte's hand and pulling her away from the fog. The two broke into a sprint, with Bellamy and Atom close behind them, as they tried to get as far away from the fog as possible. Mara had no idea why the fog looked the way it did, from what she had read in school fog was supposed to be grey or white, not a nauseating yellow. Mara's breaths came out in pants as she pulled Charlotte along, the little girl quickly getting tired from running. Atom was lagging behind them but Bellamy ran up to the two girls and grabbed onto Charlotte's free hand and helped Mara pull her forward.
The rest of the hunting party burst through the edges of the fog, coughing and spluttering, and stumbling over one another in their attempt to run from whatever it was that was chasing them. Mara looked frantically for Nathan's face amongst the hunters but when she couldn't see him, the pit of worry that had grown in her stomach grew larger. Please don't let that have been him, please don't let that have been him, she prayed to whoever was listening that the screams she had heard hadn't been Nathan's
"There are caves this way!" Bellamy hollered to his people, trying to lead them from danger. Mara was thankful that he and Nathan had gone on a scouting mission the night before if it meant they had a chance of finding safety.
The fog was catching up to them, moving at an alarmingly fast rate. Mara could feel a strange heat that prickled her skin and knew that they were far too close to it. This spurred her on further and she caught up to Bellamy, one step ahead of her, and the two pulled Charlotte into a sprint. They dodged around the trees that blocked their path and began to run up a small hill. She heard something falling behind her but didn't dare slow down to see what it was. Pain erupted in her lungs as she continued to run and she began coughing violently but she would not allow herself to stop. She had breathed in only a small part of the fog but it was enough for her to never want to find out what being stuck in the middle of it was like.
The horn that had warned of the arrival of the fog continued to blast through the forest accompanied by the coughs and frenzied shrieks of the hunting party.
"In here!" Bellamy demanded as he stumbled upon the entrance of one the caves he had found the night before.
Mara pushed Charlotte in front of her and ushered the girl into the cave, hoping that Bellamy was right and that the caves would keep them safe. She felt Bellamy's hand on the small of her back as he pushed the two girls further into the cave but he stopped moving when someone screamed his name.
"Bellamy!" The scream was filled with sheer agony and terror. Mara's stomach dropped when she realised that the voice belonged to Atom. He's what fell, Mara clamped a hand over her mouth as she realised that she had heard Atom falling and hadn't stopped to help him.
Bellamy rushed to the entrance of the cave and Mara felt Charlotte clutch onto her a little tighter. Bellamy stepped out of the cave as Atom shouted his name again but the fog had already reached the cave entrance and Bellamy had to stumble back into the security of the cave. He locked eyes with Mara and a silent understanding passed between the two. There was nothing they could for him other than hope he managed to find safety on his own.
The cave they stumbled into was almost entirely drenched in darkness and Mara momentarily froze when she realised she hadn't been enclosed anywhere since the Sky Box. She didn't like the sense of being trapped the cave gave her but she rid herself of such thoughts when she felt Bellamy's hand on her lower back as he gently led her and Charlotte further into the cave.
It took a moment for their eyes to adjust to the darkness, but when they could finally see properly they noticed that nothing about the cave screamed homely. The walls were jagged and rough, the ground was strewn with small rocks and foliage and water dripped steadily from one point on the ceiling of the cave. There was a small flat ledge that jutted out from the far wall of the cave and Charlotte plopped herself down on it, claiming it as her space for the time they had to remain in the cave. Neither Mara nor Bellamy objected to this and they both glanced warily at the ground before sitting down. Mara had assumed that the ground would be wet so was surprised to find it pleasantly dry.
"Do you think we'll be safe in here?" She asked hesitantly.
He shrugged his shoulders and looked at the entrance, a soft frown gracing his features. His jaw clenched as he watched the entrance intently, waiting for one of his people to come rushing through safe from the yellow fog. He never answered her question, but she hadn't been expecting him to. She desperately hoped that the fog wouldn't seep into the cave; she couldn't imagine how horrific being surrounded by it would be given that breathing a small portion of it had been painful enough.
"They'll be okay," she could hear the waver of uncertainty in her voice but she needed to offer Bellamy what little comfort she could. She had never seen the man look as vulnerable as he did as he stared at the cave entrance, his confident bravado was gone and a spark of worry was igniting in his eyes. The nod he gave in response was so small that Mara thought she had imagined it but when his eyes flashed to hers, she knew that he wanted her words to be true just as much as she did. His eyes slid down to the necklace Mara was playing with and lingered on the small green stone next to the star.
"Miller's smart, he'll have found somewhere to wait out the fog," he jerked his head towards Mara's hand.
"I hope so," Mara breathed out and shut her eyes.
Her foot began tapping on the floor in her nervousness. She needed for Nathan to be okay, she couldn't imagine losing him. She was only just beginning to get a taste of the torment Nathan had gone through the day before when she had run off. They had been on the ground for such a short amount of time but it seemed like the Earth was conspiring to ruin their friendship by tearing them apart.
She tried to stop the movements of her foot when she noticed Bellamy's eyes following it and saw the way his jaw was clenched. She knew that it must have been grating on his already frayed nerves but no matter what she did she couldn't seem to control it. He must have noticed that the rhythm of her tapping had become sporadic as his eyes snapped to hers and seemed to soften when he noticed the thinly veiled worry in them and the way she bit her bottom lip.
"Mara," it was Charlotte who broke the tense silence of the cave. "I can show you how to do your hair now if you want."
Mara slid over to the ledge Charlotte was sitting on and leaned her back against Charlotte's dangling legs. The girl began running her fingers through Mara's thick almost black hair and pulled away the knots that had appeared since she had washed it that morning. The longer that Charlotte played with Mara's hair, the more relaxed she became. Slowly her foot came to rest motionless on the ground and she felt some of her worries begin to ebb away, though the majority of it remained in the pit of her stomach. Mara couldn't help but think about how she and Charlotte's roles had reversed for a moment and found that she was happy that they were both able to comfort each other. She noticed that Charlotte's hands were no longer shaking as she raked her fingers through Mara's hair and began braiding it away from her face.
Mara's eyes fluttered open when she felt soft vibrations running up her leg from the ground. She glanced over to Bellamy and noticed that he had taken over the foot tapping Mara had abandoned and, though his head was bowed, she noticed his eyes flickering to the cave entrance every so often. She watched him for a while, noticing how tense his shoulders were and that his hands were clenched on his lap. When his foot began tapping at a quicker pace, Mara interrupted the gentle silence of the cave.
"Bellamy," her voice was soft as she spoke his name. She felt Charlotte's hand pause on her hair before they resumed their motions and Bellamy shifted his attention from the cave entrance to the two girls. "Come here," she gently ordered and patted the soft ground next to her.
He glanced at her cautiously before standing and crossing the small cave. He sat down beside her with a soft huff and leaned his back against the ledge Charlotte was sitting on.
"Everything will be okay," she tried to reassure him and turned her head to the side slightly to see him watching her. She attempted to smile at him but they both knew that it was forced. Still, Bellamy returned his own attempt at a smile before the allowed silence to engulf the cave once more.
Charlotte had finished braiding Mara's hair and had laid down to try and get what little sleep she could. Bellamy had removed his jack and was using it as a pillow as he lay down near Charlotte's feet, the tips of his boot brushing against Mara's thigh. Mara remained seated; knowing that even if she did lie down that sleep would not come to her. She knew that Bellamy wasn't asleep either but neither spoke to the other, not wanting to wake Charlotte up.
Mara fiddled with the stone Nathan had given her, she desperately needed for him to be safe after everything that he had done for her. He was her best friend. She had lost enough people in her life and she was not prepared to lose him too.
"Bellamy," she whispered into the air.
"Yeah?" his response was just as soft and quiet as hers had been as he propped himself up on his elbows to look at her.
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"For helping me get Charlotte to safety and for helping Nathan with this," she raised the stone from where it was laying on her chest and began playing with it in her fingers.
"He really cares about you."
"Yeah," she paused, gathering her breath and desperately tried to believe that Nathan had found safety from the yellow fog. "He's my best friend. He's all I had when we were in the Sky Box, I don't know how I would have coped without him."
A pensive silence reigned in the enclosed space as Bellamy returned to lie on the ground. His deep breathing soon filled the air alerting Mara that he had fallen asleep. She lay down and tried to join him in sleep but she found it difficult without Nathan's snores or the sound of him thrashing around. Just as her eyes grew heavy and sleep threatened to take over, a soft whimper reverberated around the small cave and quickly grew into muttered no's. Mara sat up from her position on the ground and looked to Charlotte whose face was contorted in terror.
"No!" The little girl screamed and Mara gently shook her arm, trying to gradually bring her out of her nightmare.
"It's okay, Charlotte, you're okay," Mara whispered to the whimpering girl and shook her arm with a little more force.
"No!" Charlotte screamed again and Bellamy shot up from his sleep and searched frantically around the cave before his eyes settled on Mara and Charlotte, the latter of whom was continuing to shout.
"It's okay, you're okay," Mara repeated though worry was settling in her chest. When Charlotte had nightmares, Mara was usually able to wake her up instantly, but this nightmare had sunk its claws into the girl and was refusing to let go.
"Charlotte, come one Charlotte, wake up," Bellamy placed his hand on her calf and followed Mara's motions of gently releasing the girl from her nightmare.
Charlotte jolted awake and eased herself into a sitting position, her eyes blinking rapidly as she tried to remember where she was. Her eyes flickered from Mara to Bellamy and when she noted the concerned looks on their faces, her confusion cleared but there were still the remnants of terror in her eyes.
"Sorry," she winced as she fully righted herself.
"It's okay, you're okay," Mara rubbed her hand lightly on circles over Charlotte's back, knowing that that was one of the most effective ways to calm the girl down.
"Does that happen often?" Bellamy asked, his concern filled eyes locked on Charlotte. Charlotte glanced at Mara who allowed a small smile to grace her lips. "What are you scared of?" Mara shot him a look from behind Charlotte's back. Charlotte didn't like talking about what her nightmares were filled with and Mara didn't push the girl, knowing that she would tell her when she was ready. Bellamy caught the look Mara was sending him and nodded his head subtly, understanding that that was not the best approach to take.
"You know what?" he continued, shaking his head slightly. "It doesn't matter. What matters is what you do about it."
"But…I'm asleep," Charlotte's eyebrows furrowed in sleepy confusion as she looked over her shoulder at Mara.
"He's right," Mara whispered, catching Bellamy's eye and nodding at him to continue.
"Fears are fears. If you slay your demons when you're awake they won't be able to get you when you sleep."
"Yeah, but how?"
"You can't afford to be weak, down here weakness if death," Mara wrapped her arm around Charlotte's shoulder and pulled the little girl into her side as Bellamy spoke. Charlotte was still trembling slightly but with every word that Bellamy spoke, Mara could feel Charlotte relax. "Fear is death."
"He's right, Charlotte. If we're going to survive down here we need to be strong," Mara could feel Bellamy's eyes on her as she reinforced what he had said but she kept her eyes focused on Charlotte, who was soaking in every word Mara and Bellamy were saying to her. "Don't get me wrong, everyone has nightmares from time to time. It's impossible not to get them but we need to learn to fight them. To not let them control us; to not let the fear win because once fear takes over, you've already lost."
Silence hung in the air once more. Mara hugged Charlotte a little tighter and she noticed that Bellamy was watching the two girls intently. The worry he had for Charlotte showed just how much of his little sister he saw in the trembling girl. Mara suspected that he had talked his sister down from many nightmares throughout her life. There was an ease to which he spoke to Charlotte, despite the clear worry etched into his face, which Mara admired. He was being an example of how to be strong, of how to not let the fear win.
"Do you have nightmares?" Charlotte shifted to look at Mara who took a shallow breath, remembering all of the times she had jerked awake in a cold sweat while in the Sky Box.
"Yeah," she nodded her head. "Got them all the time after my mom was floated." Mara didn't like showing vulnerability in front of Bellamy but she knew that Charlotte needed the reassurance that she wasn't the only one to have nightmares. "I still get them sometimes, but no more than anyone else."
"How did you stop them?"
"I had Nathan to talk me down from them, you know, calm me down. Eventually, I just told myself that I couldn't always rely on Nathan to chase them away. My mom was in so much pain before she was floated so I just had to tell myself over and over again that she was no longer hurting, that wherever she went the pain couldn't follow her. That's how I slayed my demons." She looked into Bellamy's eyes as she repeated his words to him; he smiled sadly at her, an understanding passing between the two.
"Let me see that knife I gave you," Bellamy grabbed Charlotte's as she carefully handed him the makeshift knife. "Now when you feel afraid, you hold tight to that knife and you say: screw you, I'm not afraid."
He handed the knife back to Charlotte, who gripped it in her small hands. She stared at the knife as she contemplated Bellamy's words. Mara could see it etched on Charlotte's face that she had listened to everything Bellamy had said. There was a look of determination in her eyes that was tinged with the remaining fear her nightmares had left in their wake.
Mara's attention moved from Charlotte to Bellamy and offered him a small smile, seeing him in a new light. As he returned the gesture, Charlotte took a shaky breath and held the knife out in front of her.
"Screw you, I'm not afraid," Charlotte spoke, her eyes staring at the knife, but there was a wavering in her voice that let Mara and Bellamy know that she didn't truly believe what she was saying.
Mara squeezed her shoulder reassuringly as Bellamy pursed his lips and tilted his head to the side, urging Charlotte to repeat the phrase.
"Screw you. I'm not afraid." Her voice was filled with conviction and there was a fiery determination in her eyes, she was not going to be controlled by her nightmares.
"Slay your demons, kid, then you'll be able to sleep."
"You should try to get some rest," Mara whispered into the top of Charlotte's head as she hugged the girl to her side.
She felt Charlotte nod her head before she slowly pulled away and allowed the girl to turn on her side, her back to the rest of the cave. Mara remained seated on the ledge for a moment longer until she heard Charlotte's deep breathing and knew that the girl had fallen back asleep. Mara slid onto the ground and lay down next to Bellamy, their shoulders just brushing each other. She rolled her head to the side and nudged his side slightly. He rolled his head to face her and she silently mouthed a soft 'thank you'. His lips quirked into a hint of a smile and mouthed 'no problem' back. He rested his head back on the jacket he was using as a pillow and soon both his and Charlotte's steady breaths were filling the cave.
Mara stared at the roof of the cave and willed her body to allow the tiredness clawing at her head to take over. She tried to clear her mind of everything that was worrying her: whether or not Nathan was safe, if Atom had made it into one of the other caves, if Charlotte would ever be able to truly slay her demons. Gradually, Mara filtered all of her worries from the surface of her mind and buried them deep within her head for her to return to later but, at that moment, all Mara wanted to do was sleep. She felt her eyes growing warm and heavy and she allowed them to flutter closed, exhaling deeply and embracing the warmth of the sleep she desperately craved.