The original title was a quote from George Pratt Shultz (American economist, elder statesman and businessman), "He who rides the middle of the road gets hit from both ends" but sadly FF doesn't allow long titles.
Once in their camp Clarke led them to a secluded corner, her primary goal was to avoid drawing unnecessary attention because if Bellamy was anything like before, chaos was sure to start anytime soon.
She was a hardened warrior but not even her extensive hand to hand combat training would be enough to overpower all the remaining delinquents, if they suddenly decided to turn on them for one reason or another, so the best course of action was to lay low and wait.
After they had sat on the floor, to rest for a little while, Bellamy spotted them and wasted no time to approach them. Inwardly cursing her bad luck, Clarke got up and faced the man, she wouldn't let him intimidate her.
"Do you need something?"
"As a matter of fact I do blondie" Bellamy sneered "you know, it's fitting that as one of the privileged ones you finally did the hard work for a change" He added as an after-thought and everyone who was listening cheered at that, Clarke just smirked at his predictableness, he had said something along those lines before.
"Well, we weren't given any food and I don't plan to starve so it was either go out there and try to find something or stay here and laze around like you seem to be doing"
The brunette boy ignored her taunts and pursed his lips in annoyance "as the leader of this camp I'm here to confiscate that meat"
"You must have hit your head pretty hard on the fall to say something stupid like that. First a deer won't feed almost 100 people and second, it's not really my problem that you and the idiots that seemed intent on following you are lazy jerks. This food and water are ours and truthfully I have no plans to share"
At a sign from Bellamy, Mbege went to grab the food but Finn approached him from behind "You should take a few steps back."
Clarke just looked at him in annoyance. "I don't need a savior. I can take care of idiots like him myself. Thank you very much." She said, bodily checking Mbege and effectively stopping him.
"Hey, spacewalker. You can rescue me next, I promise I will like it." Octavia said as Finn sighed dejectedly.
Bellamy grabbed the gun from his belt and pointed it at Clarke, by this time everyone was in close hearing range waiting with bated breath to see how things develop. Most were stunned, eyes big as saucers, but a few started whispering among themselves.
"Are you really stupid enough to shoot me?" The mocking tone in her voice was evident to everyone, including Bellamy.
The boy was dumbfounded by her careless attitude, most people panicked when facing the end of a gun yet Clarke dismissed it as a mere inconvenience.
"I will. You don't want to test me"
He tried to project an aura of confidence, which fooled almost everyone, but to her, the false bravado in his voice was easily discernable. This Bellamy was all posture, arrogant and a bully at heart but not a killer, if he shoots her it would be by accident and not design. Besides she knew him enough to know he was lying; his left eyebrow raised and fall steadily and his hands were shaking a little while holding the gun.
"If you do you are a bigger idiot than what I thought. I'm the only chance any of you have at surviving"
"We don't need you. What makes you think you are so special? You may have gotten lucky hunting but any of us can do it princess" it was Mbege this time who spoke, always a mindless follower she mused in irritation. At least Murphy had been a little pro-active in his bullying, Mbege, on the other hand, couldn't even think for himself.
"I'm the only one who has any kind of medical knowledge" she retorted with barely concealed exasperation "I'm sure Monty can identify useful plants but what good would that do if no one really knows what to do with them?"
"Green?" asked Connor in barely concealed surprise, like it didn't even cross his mind to think the guy could be useful. From his point of view only strong people like him, Bellamy and Mbege had a chance to survive, nerds like Monty Green would do nothing but slowed them down in the long run.
"His family grows all the pharmaceuticals in the Ark" Jasper supplied and Monty elbow him slightly at that, he really didn't want Bellamy and his little gang to focus on him too much.
"I could force you to help, I have a gun after all" by this point Bellamy was just trying to assert some kind of superiority over her, he needed her to back down and accept his leadership without questions or his plans to seize control of the camp would never come to fruition.
He had no plans to shoot her, her medical expertise was invaluable to their survival, but he also realized that if he didn't do something about her defiance he would lose the respect most of the others delinquents had for him.
He could see that his leadership was starting to crumble, loyalties that seemed unbreakable were starting to waver and the tides were not exactly in his favor.
"You only have 13 bullets. Would you really consider losing some ammo for a petty squabble like this?"
"Well, I could always beat you in submission if I had to" Bellamy smiled condescendingly, she had given him a perfect opportunity to re-establish his dominance over their little group. He was confident that he could beat her, he had been a guard cadet after all.
"Bellamy there is no point in fighting each other, what would we accomplish?. The council dropped us into a shitty situation, they practically sent us to our death but I know that if we work together we will find a way to survive"
"The only thing I'm hearing is that you are too scared to fight me, princess"
"You can't solve every problem with brute force or a gun"
"This isn't the ark, you can't hide behind the laws that favored the privileged ones like you anymore, the faster you accept that the easiest it will be for everyone"
She felt a familiar pressure behind her eyelids and instinctively looked down, avoiding eye contact with Bellamy or anyone else. If she were to look in a mirror she would see her eyes briefly flashing red.
"How dare this insolent little boy challenge us like that?. We will never vow to him or anyone we deem unworthy!"
"Fine. You want a fight, you will get one"
The blonde fervently hoped that acquiescing to this worthless fight wouldn't cost her the chance of making the remaining delinquents trust her. She wanted to gain their loyalty but to achieve that she knew she needed to earn their respect first, making them terrified of her wouldn't achieve anything.
Only authoritarian and dogmatic leaders surround themselves with people eager to blindly accept them and their choices, people, ready to say whatever the person in power will find most acceptable, even if it's glaringly obvious that in the long run, those choices could be detrimental to their common goal.
Clarke knows she is nowhere near perfect, that she will make many mistakes thus she need people willing to point out her blunders and help her see her faults. Sometimes what a leader needs most is to hear the truth, before they say or do something that will bring harm to themselves and others.
If they feared her; they would fear doing or saying anything that might suggest dissension; fear exercising individual freedom to think and speak and if that were to happen they were doomed before they could even begin.