*Shout out to my Italian readers! I spent two months travelling Italy as part of my gap year and I'm taking a year out from Uni to live in beautiful Venice the year after next – thanks for reading! Please review*
The remaining 100 trekked solemnly through the forest, Octavia and Jasper up front, Bellamy and Clarke bringing up the rear, Finn carrying the injured Raven on a stretcher somewhere in the middle of the group. A stray bullet from Murphy's gun was still lodged by her spine and Clarke knew that they couldn't risk it moving any more, there was no telling the damage it could do.
Clarke could hear a few muffled conversations but mostly everybody was too focused on scanning the tree line for grounder movement. They had been walking for about ten minutes, Clarke praying the whole time that she had made the right decision, when she heard the frightened cries rippling through the group and then Jasper's shout. Grounders. Someone had been hit.
She turned to Bellamy by her side, terrified she had sentenced them all to death and saw the conflict in his dark eyes. She made a decision.
They returned to camp, bringing with them the body of the most recent member of the 100 to fall, the heavy blade still buried deep in his skull. 19 dead, and this one was on Clarke.
They closed the gates and Clarke's head whipped around searching for Bellamy, before following him up to the lookout post closest to the gate, where he stood scanning the forest for any more signs of grounders.
'We're too late,' she thought desperately, 'we're too late.'
Below them voices started to swell, Octavia and Finn wanted to go back out there and face the grounders head on. Lincoln had told them that the grounders would send scouts first, and they argued that they could take the scouts, looking to her to order them to go back out, to follow the original plan and head to the sea, but she couldn't. Lincoln had warned her and Finn about the grounder attack, he had hoped it would be enough to save them, but they were too late.
With everyone looking to them for guidance where they stood, side by side, light blue eyes met dark brown and Clarke felt the rest of the camp fade away until it was just the two of them. Bellamy's expression was calm, 'looking at you Princess,' he murmured, 'what's it gonna be? Run and get picked off out in the open, or stand and fight back?'
He was still calling her princess - he still trusted her. She felt her heart lift as she jumped down from the platform. Finn grabbed her arm and she turned to him, causing Bellamy to clench his jaw as he jumped down as well.
'Clarke, if we're still here when Tristan gets here...'
'Lincoln said scouts,' Clarke's voice was clear as she addressed him, 'more than one. He said to go before the scouts arrive. Finn they're already here.' Clarke had made her decision, Bellamy had been right, she should have trusted his judgement when it came to battle.
She turned to him now, 'looks like you've got your fight.' Bellamy looked at her carefully, reading her expression for a moment, before he turned to the rest of the camp, satisfied that Clarke had put her trust in him now, and began preparing the 81 for the attack.
After everyone had been armed and were ready to move, clear on their instructions, Clarke, Bellamy, Raven and Finn convened around a detailed model camp that Bellamy had constructed in the drop ship.
He stood, muscles taught, explaining the work that he and Raven had done whilst Clarke and Finn were held by the grounders, first pointing out the positions of the landmines Raven had built and he had buried in the valley between the forest and their camp. Raven explained that they didn't have many bullets thanks to Murphy using the last of their gunpowder to escape the camp after his failed revenge plot, but she and Monty had built radios so they could at least talk to each other, try and coordinate their attacks.
Bellamy had just moved on to telling the others about the grenades Raven had built using the left over gunpowder when Finn's voice filled the drop ship. 'There's not enough.'
'Again,' said Raven drily, 'thank you Murphy.'
'It just has to keep them out, send them back, bide us time.' Bellamy said tightly.
'That's all you ever do,' said Finn in frustration, 'push them back just enough.'
'If you have any other suggestions I'm all ears.' Snarled Bellamy, but before it could escalate a soft voice drew both of their attention.
'It can't be that simple…' Clarke's expression was distant as Bellamy's eyes slid to her face, finding her deep in concentration. He could almost hear her thinking, creating a plan, and had to hold back a grin as her eyes met his and he recognised the look in them. She had something.
'Raven, you said that there were gallons of rocket fuel under the drop ship, right? Enough to make a hundred bombs?'
'Yes, but we don't have enough gunpowder anymore.' Raven's tone was dejected.
'What if I don't want to make a bomb, what if I want to take off?' Clarke's whole body was practically humming with excitement as the plan came together.
'Draw them in close and create a ring of fire…' mused the mechanic, 'that just might work.'
'Barbecued Grounders, I like it.' Said Bellamy, half a smile on his tired face to match Clarke's grin. She could save them.
Just like that they had a plan - use the drop ship, fire the engines and burn the attacking grounders. It pained Clarke to orchestrate so much death, but if it saved their lives then it had to be worth it, no matter the cost.
Clarke felt Bellamy's warm palm against her lower back with a tingle. 'Come with me' he murmured, making her shiver. She followed him out of the drop ship and when they had put enough distance between them and the rest of the campmates Bellamy stopped abruptly, causing Clarke to knock into him. He tried to ignore the way her hands came up to brace herself, pressing against his back.
As he turned to face her Clarke saw the tension in his face and automatically reached for him, resting her small hand on the curve of his bicep, it was funny how quickly that had become natural to her.
'Hey, this is going to work.'
Bellamy almost smiled, here she was trying to comfort him, again. It was her strength that made him realise he had to do this.
'Clarke,' his voice was low and unsteady, his dark eyes intense 'I owe you an explanation.' She raised her eyebrows, surprised. 'Back on the Ark…I let prejudices get the better of me, I judged you unfairly based on what I thought I knew about you and your family and that was wrong, I was wrong. I'm sorry.'
'Bellamy.' Clarke's voice was heavy with emotion.
Bellamy reached out a hand and running a strand of her hair through his fingers, his tanned skin contrasting, making her hair look like it was spun from gold. He fixed his gaze on the sight, afraid to look at her. 'I should have trusted how I felt about you when you were patching me up.'
Clarke swallowed thickly, stomach fluttering, but she could ask him how he felt, a young boy, Newman, she thought he was called, ran up to them. Bellamy dropped his hand and they turned to look at the panting boy.
'The West fox hill just radioed,' he gasped breathlessly, 'they said there's movement in the trees, Jasper said to get you.'
Bellamy was torn as Clarke looked up at him, eyes shining with unshed tears. 'Go.' She said softly with a sad smile, 'I'll see you later.' But it was prayer, not a promise she uttered.
He pulled her into a tight hug and pressed a kiss to the top of her head so quickly and so gently she thought she might just have imagined it, and then he was gone and she was walking back to the drop ship to help Raven, slow tears falling silently down her face. Hesitating a moment outside to gain her composure, Clarke took a deep breath before steeling herself and pushing through the material at the entrance, letting it fall closed behind her as Raven glanced up with a grim smile.
'Let's do this.'
The battle was awful. Bloody, and terrifying, and as she closed the doors to drop ship, Miller pulling her further inside, the last thing she saw over her shoulder, blurry through the tears from the sobs that wracked her body, was Bellamy being attacked by Tristan, and Finn trying to help.
Just like that, she had lost the boy she loved.