Chapter 7
We have now been out on our own for a little over two months. We had actually done a pretty good job at taking care of ourselves. A lot better than I had initially thought was possible but with everyone's skillset, we were actually doing alright.
I don't know when it was actually decided but my house ended up becoming all of our house and I was glad that I was able to help out in another way. We actually converted one of the rooms in the basement into a medical type room, so anyone needing checked out could do so in privacy. And of course I was now the local doctor, but it's not like I really had any competition.
In the last two months we have come across a few survivors, only inviting the ones back that we thought was trustworthy. We've learned the hard way that not everyone can be trusted. Most of our group have been reunited with their loved ones, well except for Bellamy and myself. I knew finding my dad would be a long shot anyway since he had moved prior to the whole zombie outbreak. We decided that it was better to stay locally as long as we could, so staying locally meant no finding my dad.
Bellamy was certain that his sister was somewhere around this area. He went out every day searching but every night he came back empty handed and I couldn't help but notice that it was taking a toll on him. Many of us offered to go out with him to help him look for her but he wouldn't have it, he knew we needed to get ready for winter and the only way to do that is if enough of us went out for supplies.
I always thought the fireplaces that my mom had to have throughout the house was a waste of money but now I had to admit I'm glad she put them in. They would really help out throughout the winter months, since they didn't need electricity they would the perfect heat source. A bunch of the guys decided they were going to go on a wood hunt but of course Bellamy stayed behind getting ready to once again go out and look for his sister. I didn't want to say anything but I was starting to get a feeling that either she moved on from the area or she didn't make it.
I knocked then walked into Bellamy's room. He was just slipping his jacket over his shirt. "Hey I might have not been decent."
"It's not like it's something I haven't seen before." I smirked.
He turned and looked at me "just because you've seen one doesn't mean you've seen all."
"Ah, it's all the same to me." I said playfully.
He shook his head and his curls moved back and forth, I didn't miss the smile that crossed his lips.
"So where we headed today?" I said knowing he wouldn't miss how I said we.
"We aren't going anywhere." He turned and faced me to make sure I understood it.
"Look I get it, you've been kind of a loner but I have nothing to do here today and I think maybe I could help you out there." I whined just a little.
"All you'll do is distract me." He said without hesitation.
"Well you distract to easily then." I showed a big toothy grin.
"No you just seem to get yourself in trouble out there." He told me knowingly.
"Hey that only happened once." I protested.
"Yea and you'd have been zombie food if I wouldn't have come around the corner when I did."
"You are correct but you don't have to worry about anything like that anymore. And if I'm ever stupid enough to take my eyes off my surroundings, just let me die." I turned and headed toward his door. "I'm getting my gear, if I get back here and your gone, I will go out on my own. So I suggest you just wait and let me tag along."
I didn't wait for a response I just headed out his room, down the hall to my room. Grabbed my jacket and my bag that had everything I could possibly need to defend myself in it. Then I headed back down to Bellamy's room half expecting to see him gone already but to my surprise he was standing there waiting on me. I couldn't help but smile. "Let's go."
After my little breakdown a couple months back it took me a little bit to get back to normal. If it wasn't for Raven and Wells I honestly didn't know what I would have done. They helped me get through the breakup, Murphy kept trying to get me to take him back but I knew it would never work out so to avoid the heartache once again I stood my ground. He finally seemed to understand that, I hoped one day we could get back on friendly terms but so far that day hasn't come.
I was pretty sure that Raven and Wells had gotten a lot closer than either of them intended to but neither would admit it, especially not after we found Finn, Raven's boyfriend. I noticed the distance they put between them which was what let me know I had been right all along.
"You coming?" Bellamy was halfway up the street.
"Yep sorry." I jogged to catch back up with him.
"You know if you can't handle it, you can always go back." Bellamy said almost seriously.
"Oh I can handle it and I'll never go back." I winked at him.
This made him smile "you only think you can."
"Oh no I'm pretty damn positive that I can."
We always seemed to play around like this but that's all it was, nothing had happened and I honestly had no idea if anything ever would. I knew early on that we had an attraction but neither of us thought it was a good idea to act on it.
We walked for hours and it was the same as every other time. We found nothing. No trace of anyone being around. Since we were close to the hospital, I thought maybe it would be a good idea to go and restock on the items we needed back at the house.
"This was your plan all along wasn't it? You just needed some help and you're too proud to ask so you suckered me into letting you come along so you could just casually bring it up." I couldn't help but laugh at his act to sound serious.
"You know me so well." I pushed him slightly back "So what is it Blake, will you help or send me in there all by myself?"
He chuckled "you know I'll help."
"That I do." I said right before I took off running toward the hospital.
I heard Bellamy behind me and he was catching me quickly but I kept on as fast as I could. I heard him just as he was about to pass me and I had the bright idea to step out in front of him to stop him. Not thinking that putting myself in front of him while he was running might have been a bad idea. When we collided we both hit the ground and hard, I got the worse part of it since I hit the ground directly where he fell on top of me so he only got bit of the ground.
I got the wind knocked out of me but when I was finally feeling like I could breathe normally again I opened my eyes which connected with Bellamy's immediately. He looked worried "You ok?"
I nodded.
At least I was until it hit me just how intimate the whole situation was. I was already starting to struggle to breathe when he gently brushed my hair from my face. I felt my breath hitch. I couldn't take my eyes from his. Then I did something that I knew probably wasn't the most appropriate thing, I lifted my hand and started running it through his messy curls. I don't know why but that was something that I had wanted to do for far too long.
When my name escaped his mouth I knew there was no going back. I grabbed a handful of his curls and pulled his head toward mine, he didn't fight me. Everything was moving in slow motion, his lips were right there but then we heard it, it was faint but we knew we weren't alone. Bellamy jumped up quickly pulling me up with him. What we hadn't expected was to see a group of people, not zombies, but actual people, living people, survivors.
"Bell?" I heard before I saw the person the voice belonged to.
"O" He ran all the way to her and had her in his arms within a blink of an eye.
I heard whispering coming from all the people around them. I just stood there looking like an idiot. I just hoped that this was his sister and that Bellamy didn't have some secret girlfriend as well.
The first clear thing that I could make out was when O asked "are you going to introduce me to your girlfriend?"
"Oh her, She's not my girlfriend." Just the way he said hurt. I mean hell I knew I wasn't his girlfriend but he didn't have to say it like that.
I stepped forward. "I'm Clarke, Bellamy's friend. At least I hope so anyway." I rolled my eyes.
"I'm Octavia." She pulled me into a hug which surprised me I didn't take the Blake family for huggers. "Well I've never known of my brother going around kissing his friends so you must be a special one."
"Actually there was no kissing, that was the first almost and you guys kind of interrupted it." I laughed.
"I told you guys to be quiet." Octavia turned around and looked at her group. "But we could always go back into the shadows and let you finish."
I looked at Bellamy and couldn't help but notice his face was actually flushed, which was odd because I don't think I've ever saw him blush.
"You don't have to worry about that, it shouldn't have happened anyway." I turned and looked at him again "Right Bellamy."
He cleared his throat "right."
I turned back around to his sister and said barley more than a whisper "I'm too much drama for him, he couldn't deal with this."
Octavia laughed "I like this one, you should really think about keeping her around."
So I got back to seriousness "so have you been staying somewhere locally? We've actually been crashing at my old house the last couple months."
She shrugged her shoulders "we've been here and there, I guess it's been difficult to find a place to stay more than a week or so."
"Well you're all more than welcome to come back with us." I told Octavia and her group "I actually have a guesthouse behind the main house if you're not comfortable blending with the others."
Octavia just looked at me in awe "you had a guesthouse, before all this?"
I just nodded.
"Wait till you see it O, the guesthouse is probably the size of all the homes we've lived in put together." Bellamy finally got in on the conversation.
She looked back at me "so you were rich before huh? Must suck to lose all that."
I shrugged my shoulders "honestly, it doesn't bother me. I know it sounds stupid but I feel like I've gotten to know myself better. It sucks that we have to defend our lives everyday but at least it's shown me that I'm actually pretty damn strong."
I knew I was probably grinning like an idiot but no one seemed to mind.
"You actually have no idea how true her statement is. We all bet on how long she would make it out here. Let's just say I lost." After he said that he looked at me and winked.
"I would have lost to." I couldn't help but laugh.
I couldn't help but notice Octavia looking back and forth between her brother and I. She didn't say anything but I couldn't help but wonder what was going through her mind.
Finally she turned around and looked at her group and said "let me talk to them and see what they think about coming back with you."
"What do you mean you need to talk to them, why wouldn't you want to come?" I could hear it in Bellamy's voice he wasn't very happy.
I walked over to him pulling him back "Bellamy I understand she's your little sister but she has been on her own for the last 8 months and I'm guessing those people are the reason that she is still alive. I get it that you're her biological family but they're her family to."
He looked from me over to them and then nodded "I didn't think about it that way."
"I know that everything you've done was to get back to her but you need to respect her wishes, whatever they may be." I really hoped he understood.
When Octavia walked back over to us Bellamy stopped her before she started to say anything. "I'm sorry about before, I understand that the decisions you make now aren't just for yourself. In my head I still see the scared little girl that always needed her older brother."
A small smile crossed Octavia's face "it doesn't matter how old I am, I'll always need you big bro. But no worries they're actually pretty excited to have somewhere to go. They can't believe you've actually been able to stay in a single place for two solid months."
"It's because we've had a lot of help. I don't think we could have done it without everyone." I couldn't help but smile at Bellamy's remark, it's nice to hear him say nice things about our group.
"They won't mind you bringing in more people?" One of the girls with Octavia asked.
We both shook our heads. Then Bellamy said "that's what we've been doing since we got set up. To be honest we usually have a meeting and we let our group decide but because you all are Octavia's people that means you're our people as well."
If I was being honest I wasn't too fond about the way she was looking at Bellamy. I knew he wasn't mine to claim but I didn't want to watch some other girl come in and sweep him up either.
She nodded then stepped closer to the both of us but of course she approached Bellamy first "names Echo."
"You military?" Bellamy asked as he took her hand in his.
She nodded "obvious?"
"Name kind of gave it away." Even though I tried to look away I couldn't and the way he smiled at her made my heart hurt.
"I was a military brat growing up and the day I turned 18 I enlisted. Wanted to follow in my old man's footsteps." She stated proudly.
"Our dad died overseas right after O was born. I hated him for a long time for leaving us with our mom but when I finally grew up I realized he had no choice in the matter and I was being selfish for blaming him all those years." I hadn't known that about Bellamy.
"O was telling me about it and how your mom spend every last penny she got and ended up killing herself with it." She had a sad expression on her face.
Bellamy just nodded, I knew he didn't like to speak about his mom but I didn't know why until right then.
Finally after giving Bellamy one more small smile she turned and faced me, she also extended her hand to me "Clarke right?"
I tried to muster up the realest smile I could and said "yea."
"Well I want to thank you on behalf of all of us for showing us all hospitality." I really wanted to not like this girl but I was finding it hard.
"Your welcome, I wouldn't have it any other way. Like I was telling Octavia being out here has really shown me a completely different side of myself and that has to do with the people we've surrounded ourselves with. And I trust Bellamy with my life and since Octavia is his family than that makes her mine as well which extends to all of you." I told Echo and the rest honestly.
"It's nice to see that there are still some good people out there, we've ran into quite a few that haven't been so kind. I hate what this world has done to the one who have survived, it's made them vultures." Echo shook her head.
"I know exactly what you mean." I completely agreed with her.
"Ok I think we need to start making our way back, it's starting to get dark already." Bellamy broke up our conversation.
Since we wasn't able to make a round through the hospital I figured I'd come back the next day and see what I could find. I didn't want to interrupt Bellamy's reunion with his sister and honestly I would have preferred to not have so many people know about the secret area that I'm able to collect our medical supplies from.
By the time we made it back to my house, our home base it was already dark. I knew they were probably worried, no one was supposed to stay out past dark. When we reached the gates I saw a few people waiting on the lawn.
"We were starting to worry." Raven was the first to speak up.
"No need to worry." I smiled at her "but we brought reinforcements."
"Octavia is it really you?" I heard Miller's voice.
"Miller?" Octavia ran through the now open gate and was in Miller's arms. "I'm so glad you made it. What about Bryan."
Just as she was asking about him he started walking up. "You know he's stuck with me for the rest of our lives."
Octavia released Miller and ran to Bryan. I couldn't help but watch the scene with a huge smile on my face. At least everyone was able to get some sort of happiness in this messed up world. I may not have found the one person that I missed more than anything but looking around I knew I made a new family. It was nothing traditional but I wouldn't change it either.
