Author's Note: Hellooooo everybody! Sorry it's been so long since the last chapter, but real life has been fairly hectic. But hopefully the length makes up for it? The chapter is just shy of 6000 words! I think it's my second longest chapter? Something like that anyways.

Holy you guys, this story has reached over 50 favs, and 93 follows! I honestly can't even begin to expresses how grateful and happy that truly makes me. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I could write a story that people would actually want to read. The entire thing blows my mind.

So I just wanted to say thank you, from the very bottom of my heart. You guys are amazing!

Thanks to A, Kerite, Anna becker and SharkswillruledaWORLD (x2!) for your awesome reviews!

Enjoy!

Chapter Nine

Forcing the point of her knife through a large sections of the parachute, Alex roughly tore through, easily ripping the material to a size that would be decent enough to make some form of stretcher. From what Clarke had said, Jasper wouldn't be walking back on his own. They would need it.

Wells had given it back to her not long after the fight with Murphy had come to an end. Surprisingly, things had settled down pretty quickly when Clarke and the rest arrived back at the drop ship, although the momentary peace hadn't lasted very long, not when Clarke had noticed the missing wristbands. Alex sighed, remembering the scene, which had involved an awful lot of finger pointing and 'you're an idiot' comments.

And now we're going for Jasper.

The thought left a sour taste in her mouth. Clarke and the rest had returned bearing an abundance of bad news. Not only had they not made it to Mount Weather - which meant no food and no supplies - they'd also arrived with one less member than the number they'd originally set out with.

Jemma and Charlotte sat not too far away from her, both alternating between watching her work and whispering to each other.

Alex had finally come to fetch them from Harper, who'd been grateful to have them off her hands, but had whispered to her quietly that she'd managed to keep them away from the commotion with Murphy. Harper told her she'd seen her help save the other girl, her friend - whose name turned out to be Fox - and was glad she'd had the balls to step up to Murphy when no one else did. Harper had given her a smile and a small squeeze on the shoulder leaving Alex perplexed to the other girl's change in attitude. The other girl had always been fairly friendly, but the usual wariness under her expression was gone.

The repeated motion of pulling and tearing soothed her mind, calming her thoughts. Staring blankly at the material in her hands, she rolled the rough material through her fingertips, trying to avoid thinking about the fact that Jasper could possibly be lying somewhere out in the forest, bleeding out, maybe already dead.

Her fists clenched at the thought. She hadn't know the other teen any longer than she'd known most of the other delinquents, but he'd been the first person she'd talked to on the dropship. Although their conversation had been short, she'd known he'd meant well, showing concern for Jemma when she was scared, and risking his life to help the others go the Mount Weather to get food for the group.

He meant well, and look where it got him.

No, don't think about it. One step at a time. Clarke said they heard him cry out, there's still a chance that he's alive. We just need to get our shit together and get this search party going. We need to get him back.

"Alex?" The tentative question interrupted her thoughts, and she glanced up, meeting Jemma and Charlotte's worried gazes. Apparently they'd moved closer while she'd been distracted by her thoughts.

"Yeah, what's up?"

Jemma shuffled forwards, hands clasped firmly in front of her. "Is Jasper going to be okay?" The question came out tentative, like she wasn't quite sure she wanted to know the answer.

Alex hesitated, studying them for a second. What could she tell them? What should she tell them? They were easily the youngest in the entire group of delinquents - still children - but they were no longer living in a world where they were protected, where they were safe. She could tell them white lies - tell them that Jasper would be okay, that he'd be fine- but she knew it wouldn't help them. They needed to be wary; they needed to know the truth if they were going help keep themselves alive.

So she settled for a better option.

"Honestly, I don't know," Alex replied softly with a sigh. When Jemma and Charlotte exchanged a worried glance, she hurried to continue. "But we're going to go find out. Clarke and some of the other are planning to go find him - bring him back."

When Jemma said nothing in return, Alex frowned. "What's wrong?"

"It's just...I'm scared. What if the Grounders come here, what if they attack us again? What if they aren't people, what if they're monsters. They could come…" Jemma continued to ramble on, and Alex could see she was working herself up into a panic, tears filling her eyes.

Standing up she knelt in front of the younger girl, pulling her into a quick hug. "Hey, hey. None of that." She met Charlotte's worried look over Jemma's shoulder and motioned her over with a hand. When Charlotte came close enough, she tugged her towards her other side, throwing her arm over her shoulders.

Running her hands over their braided hair soothingly, as she vaguely remembered her mother doing for her when she was younger and afraid and hoped it would provide the younger girls some form of comfort.

"I know you guys are scared, but remember what I said before, about fear?

Charlotte nodded, face serious. "That fear is good, as long as it doesn't control us." Jemma shook her head in agreement, wiping the tears from her eyes.

Alex nodded with a small smile. "That's right. And I know it's tough to not be scared, especially right now, but we have to be brave. And we have to stay busy. We have things we need to do right now. We don't know how Jasper is going to be when we get back. So we have to be prepared for anything."

Jemma took a deep breath, and Alex could see her putting on her brave face, features hardening, though her bottom lip still quivered a bit.

"Besides," Alex continued giving them a comforting smile, "If something happens, I'll protect you guys. So you don't have to worry."

Jemma and Charlotte both looked startled at her admission. "You promise?" Charlotte asked her

She gave them a reassuring squeeze "Promise!"

"Is there anything we can do to help...for Jasper, when he gets back?" Charlotte asked her.

Alex thought for a second. "Hmm. Well, maybe you could clean out an area in the drop ship where we can put him when we get back. See if you can make it comfortable, Harper should probably be able to help you-"

"Alex!"

Turning, Alex glanced over her shoulder to see who had called for her, and found Wells marching around the trees towards them.

She frowned when she felt Charlotte clearly tense up underneath her arm, her little body going stiff and wary.

This was the second time Charlotte reacted oddly to Wells. There was something about the guy that set the younger girl on edge. But for the life of her she just couldn't figure out what it was. As far as she knew, they'd hadn't known each other up on the Ark and Wells had never given any indication that he knew the younger girl. She didn't know what to make of it.

As he approached, Charlotte quickly ducked out from under her arm, stuttering out an excuse about going to help Harper, quickly grabbing Jemma's arm, and scurried out of sight.

Weird.

She would have to ask her about it when she got back.

Pushing herself to her feet, she brushed her pants off and looked up to meet Wells gaze. She nearly rolled her eyes at the irritated look on his face. Clarke had been back for just over an hour, and they'd clearly already had some sort of argument. She knew that they'd been the best of friends back on the Ark, and not for the first time she wondered what had happened to change their friendship.

Seeing her amused expression, Wells grimaced, running a hand over his head in frustration. "She doesn't want me to go."

Giving him a sympathetic grimace, she was about to ask him if he planned on going to go or not, but he quickly continued before she could voice her thoughts.

"Not only that, she's invited Blake along for the rescue."

She blinked, the words taking a moment to sink in. When they did, it felt like a slap to the face. "What? Why would she-"

"And not only that, but he's dragging Murphy along with him." He barrelled on with a moan.

"Is she insane?" She demanded, wondering what the hell Clarke was thinking. "That's basically asking for trouble. And let me guess, Blake graciously agreed to come along?"

Wells nodded in reply, looking like his world was coming to an end.

"Of course he would." Alex groaned, "This would be the perfect time for him to do something." Bending down, she quickly folded up the piece of parachute she'd been cutting up into a tight ball before wedging it under her arm. "Come on," she motioned for him to follow her, "Let's go try and talk some sense into that girl."

Dodging their way through camp, they quickly found Clarke standing with Finn, Blake and Murphy. Octavia sat not too far away, pant leg pulled up above the wound on her thigh, which she was pressing a fairly clean cloth onto.

Clarke glanced over at them when they arrived, her face darkening momentarily as her gaze settled on Wells. When she turned to Alex, she quirked an eyebrow. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah," Alex nodded, "But...can I talk to you for a second?" When Blake and Murphy turned to give them interested looks, she scowled before meeting Clarke's perplexed look. "Alone."

"Sure," the other blonde replied, motioning her to follow her a short distance away from the rest. "What's up?"

"You invited Blake and Murphy?" Alex demanded struggling to keeping her voice low. "Doesn't that seem like a terribly bad idea to you?"

Clarke looked torn between scowling and sighing. "I know it's a bad idea. But right now we are desperately lacking on manpower."

"Lacking manpower? Are you kidding me." Alex hissed back, throwing out her arms in frustration, "You could have picked any other two guys in the camp if you needed more manpower, but you picked them - why?"

Clarke seemed to debate on how to answer her question before finally sighing, "Blake has a gun."

A gun?

A lead weight seemed to drop into her stomach as she recalled Wells mentioning to her that Blake had a gun, back when she'd found out that he'd forcefully removed Wells' wristband. At the time she'd been so mad, too angry to care.

She'd forgotten all about it. Stupid.

"Right." Alex said, rubbing her hands over her face in frustration. "And you want him there in case we run into the Grounders." It came out more as a statement than a question. "And he's the only one that can use it. Wait, can he use it?"

Clarke shrugged, "I overheard someone say that he was part of the Cadets back on the Ark, so I'd assume so."

Biting her lip, Alex studied Clarke for a moment, and she could see that the other girl didn't like this as much as she did.

"Look, I don't like this." Alex told her, worry clear in her voice. "I don't trust him at all. He has an agenda of some sort - he's pretty much desperate to get everyone's wristbands off since the moment we got here. I mean, he even forced Wells to take his off."

"He did?" Clarke asked looking momentarily stunned.

"Yeah," Alex said dryly. "He definitely didn't take it off willingly."

"Oh," Clarke mumbled, glancing back to where Wells stood.

Alex was tempted to tell her to talk to Wells, that they needed to figure out what was going on between them. It was clear when she talked to either of them that they still cared for one another, although Clarke was putting on a good show of denying it. But she knew that it wasn't her place to say anything. They'd been friends for a long time, so whatever had happened between them must have been damaging. Maybe similar to what had happened between her and Nate.

Instead she focused on the more imminent issue.

"We're going to need to be careful out there." She needlessly informed the other girl, who nodded in agreement. "The Grounders will be out there, probably watching us, so we need to keep an eye out, make sure we don't walk into anything."

Clarke grimaced, the flash of guilt crossing her features. Alex knew instantly that she was thinking about Jasper.

Stepping forwards, she placed a hand on the other girl's shoulder. "Hey, it's not your fault. There no way you could have known," she told her firmly.

"But I got him to come. And now Jasper might be...He might be…" Clarke trailed off, taking a deep shuddering breath.

"But he's not," she replied soothingly, "You said it yourself, you heard him cry out. Dead people don't do that," she told her rationally. "Now let's get this show on the road and go find him, yeah?"

Clarke took another deep breath, this time nodding her head firmly. "Yeah, you're right. Let's go."

Turning they both headed back towards where the rest were waiting. Although it was pretty clear that some were pretty impatient to get going.

"Finished your girly moment?" Murphy sneered from where he stood, arms folded cockily across his chest.

"Shut your mouth, Murphy." Alex snapped back.

"Ohhh," He leaned towards her, purposely getting in her space. "Touchy!"

Alex forced herself to keep calm, knowing he was purposely trying to rile her up. "Want me to re-break that nose?" She asked him dryly. "I could fix it for you. It probably just needs to be broken in the other direction to straighten out again. Shouldn't be too hard." She reached a hand out towards his face.

Jerking back and away from her, he smacked her hand. "Keep your hands to yourself, Evans."

Turning away, she rolled her eyes. "Shouldn't be a problem." She grumbled.

As they headed out on the long hike to find Jasper, there was only on thing on her mind.

Blake had had a gun this entire time. And he hadn't used it.

Why?

It bothered her, it really did. Blake had a weapon on him that at any time he could have started waving around, forcefully demanding that everyone take off their wristband, or lose their life. But he hadn't.

Instead he'd kept the knowledge quiet, keeping it to himself. And other than scaring Wells into taking his wristband off, he hadn't threatened anyone else into doing so.

That, or he only has a few bullets left and doesn't want to waste them, she thought wryly.

Ahead of her, Clarke and Wells led the group quietly bickering as they walked along, while Blake and Murphy trailed behind her. She could hear the two behind her whispering to each other, but she couldn't make out any words from here.

When Clarke snapped at Wells to leave her alone, Wells slinked back to walk beside her like a dog with his tail between his legs. He was quiet for a moment before he glanced at her.

"You think Jasper's alive?"

She didn't have a chance to answer before Murphy shoved his way between them, nearly forcing her into a tree, and giving them that smirk that she was growing annoyingly accustomed to.

"The guy's probably long dead," he stated cheerily. "Spear to the chest? Not a chance. If you ask me, I think this entire thing is a waste of time."

"Good thing nobody asked you," Alex said, rolling her eyes.

"Get lost, Murphy," snapped Wells, venom clear in his voice.

Murphy seemed to make the right decision this time, and wisely decided to back down, throwing his hands up in front of him as if meaning no harm, giving them a cocky smirk before speeding up to move in front of them. She wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that when they'd fought earlier, Wells had clearly had the upper hand.

Everyone seemed to quiet down after that, the group walking single file, weaving around trees, through bushed and sloshing through creeks. The scenery and vegetation were still incredible, and she drank up all the new sights they came across. But after a few more hours, and everything looking the same, she sighed, wiping sweat off her brow. She wasn't used to having to hike like this. There was nothing on the Ark that was even remotely similar.

After a while she became aware of the distinct sound of boots landing on the dry leaves behind her and she realized that as one of the last people in the line, there was only one person behind her: Blake.

After their earlier confrontation, she was wary of him being at her back, especially now that she remembered he had a gun.

Casually glancing back at him over her shoulder, she found him studying the forest around them, sharp dark eyes carefully examining everything as they walked. It was clear he was on high alert, the potentially threat of Grounders being out here with them kept him cautious.

Sighing to herself, she decided that this was as good a time as any to ask him about what had been bothering her.

Slowing her pace, she let Blake catch up to her so that they were walking nearly side by side. She could see him glance at her out of the corner of her eye, probably wondering why she had slowed down, although his face stayed carefully neutral.

When she didn't immediately say anything, Blake gave a long suffering sigh, "What?"

She glanced up at him briefly, before returning her gaze in front of her, keeping a careful eye on where she was placing her feet.

"I'm curious," she began, ducking under a branch, "how is it that you've had a gun this entire time, and never thought of using it. I mean - you do know how to use one, don't you?"

He shot her an exasperated glare, knowing she was mocking him. "Yes, Evans, I know how to use a gun." Was his simple reply.

"Well, then why not use it?" She continued, ignoring his glare.

"Ever think that I might be a little restricted on how many bullets I have?" He asked dryly.

"Well, obviously," she shot him an unamused glance. "You can't have more than twelve shots. At least, not unless you stole another cartridge from someone."

He glanced at her, amusement flashing across his features. "You think I stole it?"

"How else would you get a gun?" She quipped back.

He smirked, but refrained from answering. After a moment he shook his head and turned to her. "You think you'd be grateful I have one."

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise and she snorted a laugh. "Grateful? Why the hell would I be grateful that you have a gun?"

"Because, right now, I'm the only one with a weapon that can protect us from the grounders."

Pursing her lips, she glanced away from him, stepping over a fallen tree. As much as she didn't like it, she had to admit that he was right. As far as they knew the Grounders lacked in much of the technology they'd had access to on the Ark, and that included weapons. So far, they had only been given indication that they used more primitive forms of weaponry: spears, bows and arrows. Probably knives and swords. Nothing that would be super effective against guns. Bellamy's gun gave them a slight advantage over them.

Or at least until we run out of the few bullets we have, after that we'll be on the same playing field as everyone else. Also, it's not like we are all walking around with guns. Only one of us has any sort of useful weapon, and I don't trust him with it in the least.

"Protect us?" She scoffed a laugh, turning around to face him, and shoving her hand against his chest, halting their walk. She tried to ignore the firm chest under her hand. "Please, Blake. I'm not stupid. Sorry to remind you, but weren't you the one earlier threatening us for our wristbands?" She shook her head. "You've been after everyone's bands the moment we landed. I just don't get why you haven't started waving the gun around in everyone's faces and forcing them to do it."

He stared down at her briefly, dark eyes searching her face and for a second a different expression crossed his face, before he smiled, and for a second she thought he looked slightly sinister.

Reaching behind himself, he lifted the edge of his shirt and grabbed the gun, bringing it around and holding it in front of him.

A flicked of doubt washed through her, but she stayed where she was, not letting him see how much the threat of the gun really bothered her. Tucked away and hidden was one thing, but held out in front of her was a whole different matter.

He held the gun carefully in front of him, his hands cradling it carefully as he glanced down at it. Sliding his finger over the trigger, he looked amused as she shifted slightly on her feet.

"As you said, only a few bullets. But now that you mention it, you've given me a good idea." With that, he turned to look up ahead where Clarke, Wells and Murphy had kept walking. "After all, there is one wristband that would be worth one of these bullets."

Clarke.

As he began marching away, gun held tightly in hand, she felt a flare of panic as he headed towards Clarke and the others.

"Wait!" She called out after him and she rushed to catch up, but he ignored her entirely as he moved.

"Hey, hold up," Blake snapped, as he caught up with the rest. Clarke and Wells hardly gave him a glance, but she saw them tense up at the sight of the gun in his hand. "So, what's the rush? You don't survive a spear to the heart."

As Blake eyed Clarke, Wells stepped up between them, Alex joining them when she finally caught up.

"Put the gun away, Bellamy," Wells ordered him.

Murphy was quick to jump in, shoving Wells away from Bellamy. "Well, why don't you do anything about it, huh?"

Alex groaned in frustration, fed up with their constant posing. "Seriously, back off. Both of you," she said, shoving them apart.

Clarke seemed to have enough their bickering as well, stepping towards Bellamy despite the gun he held in hand. "Jasper screamed when they moved him. If he'd taken a spear to the heart, he'd have died instantly. It doesn't mean we have time to waste," she told him in a matter-of-fact tone that left no room for argument.

Sending him one last aggravated look, Clarke went to turn away but Blake was quick to react, snatching up her wrist with his only free hand, and yanking her back towards him. "As soon as you take the wristband off, we can get moving."

Leaping towards him, Alex was quick to draw her knife, pressing it against the tender flesh of his neck. "Let her go," she spat.

Blake shot her a glare before sighing."Stop pushing your luck, Evans. Or I might decide you are worth one of these bullets." She clenched her jaw at the comment, but didn't budge.

Clarke bravely stepped towards him with a glare, drawing his eyes back to her. "The only way the Ark is going to think I'm dead is if I'm actually dead. Got it?"

Blake seemed amused by her answer, looking like he couldn't decide if she was stupid or not for standing up to him. "Brave, princess." Was all he said as he stared down at her.

"Hey, why don't you find your own nickname?" Came another voice from behind them, and everyone turned to find Finn marching towards them. Alex nearly sighed in relief, grateful that he'd shown up at the right time.

"You call this a search party?" Finn commented, looking thoroughly unimpressed as he forced his way between Clarke, Alex and Bellamy, forcing Bellamy to drop his hold on Clarke.

When Alex didn't immediately pull her knife away from Blake's neck, Finn gave her a meaningful look, reaching out and grasping her wrist, pulling her away, before beckoning Clarke to follow. "C'mon, got to split up. Cover more ground. Clarke, Alex, you're with me."

Reluctantly, Alex turned to follow them, shooting one last glare back at Blake. He returned her look with a dark glare of his own.

As they walked away, Clarke gave a big sigh of relief. "Better late than never."

Finn gave a breathy laugh. "I'd like to think so."

As she stepped over a log and scurried down the side of small slope she listened to the other two, who were walking a few meters behind her discussing the fact that Jasper had only been attacked after he'd crossed the river.

"...the river is a boundary of some sort." Clarke said, sounding perplexed as to why it was so, "which means that Mount weather is off limits." She finished with a scoff.

Alex frowned. "If we can't get to Mount Weather, we're going to be in a lot of trouble. We have no supplies - no food. The group's not going to last very long without it."

Clarke hummed in agreement, looking lost in thought as she sidestepped some bushes.

The more Alex thought about it, the stranger she found the entire situation. The river was a division line of some sort, a clear barrier between one side and the other, and Jasper getting speared was a definite warning that they had crossed over to the wrong side.

It also made sense that if there were survivors on Earth, that they would be located around Mount Weather. It was the only known cache of resources in the immediate area, and humans would have needed those resources to stay alive. Who's to say that the resources hadn't all been used right after the war started. Maybe there weren't any left?

A sudden thought crossed her mind. "Which direction did you say the spear came from?"

Finn frowned as he thought back. "You know," he began slowly, "now that you mention it, the spear hit him while he was facing us. It must have come from our side of the river." He met her eyes. "Why? What're you thinking?"

As Clarke turned to face her, Alex shrugged. "It just struck me as odd that the spear came from this side of the river. If they were trying to warn you guys away, then why didn't it come from that side, the Mount Weather side?"

Clarke narrowed her eyes, "You think that someone is trying to warn us away from Mount Weather, but they're not from Mount Weather?"

She shrugged again. "Well...maybe it's not about Mount Weather at all? It's been a hundred years, for all we know, Mount Weather is long gone, and all we did was walk into the middle of some territory showdown."

After that they quieted down, each lost in their own thoughts, wondering if there was more than one group out there in the forest with them, wondering if they were going to encounter any of them today, wondering if at the end of the day, they would have Jasper back, safe and alive.

Soon Alex could hear the sound of rushing water, and knew by the way Finn and Clarke tensed up, that they were getting close.

As they rounded a small grove of trees, the river came into sight.

Coming to a stop, she stared out at the scene before her in awe, vaguely wondering when the scenery on Earth would stop leaving her staring like a blubbering idiot.

"Wow," Finn said, as he came up beside her.

"Well, on the bright side," Clarke said dryly, although she was clearly amazed at the site in front of them, "we won't have to worry about water."

The clear, turquoise water cascaded down the embankment, moving swiftly over large boulders before reaching a pool of extremely inviting and equally clear water. The pleasant sound of trickling water filled the air. Surrounding the pool were bed like flats of moss covered rocks, all lying in the sun, the area set up perfectly for a quick nap.

If only… Alex thought longingly with a sigh, as she stared out at the beautiful scene.

Finn glanced back at her and Clarke with a mischievous smirk before heading down towards the water. Clarke was quick to follow, splashing through the shallow water behind them. Alex followed at a slower pace, keeping to the edges, preferring to keep her feet dry.

Once he was waist deep in the water, Finn was quick to start splashing himself, hands bringing water up to his face and hair. Clarke stepped in the water after him, pulling out a water bottle - one of the few supplies that had been sent down with them - and crouched down, refilling the bottle to the brim.

Alex walked around the edge of the pool, almost rolling her eyes as Finn sent Clarke a flirty grin before sending a wave of water in her direction. Clarke was quick to leap, mouth open in outrage as she stared down at her now wet shirt.

Alex had to shake her head at the two; it was clear to anyone with eyes that the two fancied each other. As they began to squabble over whether it was time for them to care a break or not and Finn tugged Clarke into the pool, Alex turned away, meandering towards the creek that ran from the pool. With a couple of quick steps she was over on the other side, her boots still thankfully dry.

As she studied the embankment, she frowned curiously when a group of rocks looked different from the area around them. Making her way carefully over towards them, mindful of the slippery rocks, Alex felt her heart drop when she realized what it was.

Blood.

The boulders were covered in it.

Scrambling forwards, she desperately studied the site. The boulders were covered in the crimson fluid, but it was the bloodied handprint of the rock surface that took the breath from her lungs.

Jasper was here, he'd been here!

Looking back at Clarke and Finn, she quickly called out waving them over. "Hey! Guys, over here!"

Clarke seemed to hear the urgency in her voice because she was quick to make her way over, Finn at her heals. Both looked alarmed at the sight of blood, and Clarke crouched down, hand hovering over the area like she was imagining Jasper lying there.

"He was here." Alex mumbled worriedly staring at the blood stains.

Clarke nodded, expression unchanging. "Someone moved him."

Finn looked worried at the thought, glancing up into the foliage above them, as if whoever had moved him could be hiding right in front of them.

It's possible. She thought warily, thinking back to how easily the guy at the river had blended in with his surroundings.

Clarke reached forward, pulling something out of the bush to the side before pushing herself to her feet. Alex swallowed when she realized it was Jasper's goggles.

When the blonde girl turned to meet their worried looks, she nodded to herself. "We need to go get the others," she glanced up into the trees, "we're close."

After they'd doubled back to meet up the Blake, Murphy and Wells, they all trailed behind Finn, who was scampering from blood patch to blood patch. The amount of blood they were following was started to make her queasy - Jasper had lost a lot of blood.

"Hey, how do you know this is the right way?" Wells asked curiously, the suddenness of the question making her jump. Rolling her shoulders, she tried to relax, not having realized how tense she'd actually become. The question was hardly challenging, if anything, Wells was asking how the other boy managed to find the next blood patches so easily.

Bellamy scoffed from behind her. "We don't. Spacewalker thinks he's a tracker."

Alex rolled her eyes. "Hardly. But he was top of our fourth year 'Earth Skills' class. Which is clearly more than we can say for you." While she hadn't been close to Finn on the Ark, they had shared a few classes in school, Earth Skills being one of them. Alex was grateful that at least one of them knew what they were doing.

"You guys want to keep it down back there or should I paint a target on all our backs." Finn drawled sarcastically from where he was crouched by a bush, the leaves painted in still tacky blood splatters.

"Sorry." Alex grimaced, feeling chagrinned, and everyone fell quiet again, letting Finn work in peace, while they kept an eye out for potential dangers.

When a distant moan broke through the silence, everyone in the group tensed up, sharing confused and worried looks.

Finn slowly rose to his feet. "What the hell was that?" He asked slowly, warily as he looked around trying to discern where the sound had come from.

Clarke turned to Bellamy, her expression worried. "Now would be a good time to take out your gun." And he was quick to agree, eyes alert as he pulled out their only weapon.

We really, really should have better thought out the weapon situation. Alex thought, wiping her suddenly sweaty hands on her pant leg, before withdrawing her own knife.

When another low moan broke through the air, they all snapped to, facing the same direction.

Clarke stepped closer to her until they stood shoulder to shoulder. "Do you - do you think it's grounders?" She whispered to her. Alex could only shake her head uncertainly. She didn't know what the sound was. And she had a feel she didn't want to know.

At her question, Finn and Wells stepped closer to them, while Bellamy took a hesitant step forwards, gun held up in front of him, moving cautiously towards the sound, Murphy close at his heels.

After sharing a glance with Clarke, Alex took the initiative and stepped up to follow them, slowly pushing through the bushes to catch up.

It didn't take her more than a couple of steps to get to them, both boys frozen in front of her, back and shoulders tense.

Frowning, Alex came up behind them, peering around their shoulders warily, "What're you…" The words died on her lips as she caught sight of what they were staring at.

With a gasp, her heart leapt to her throat, before plummeting deep down into her stomach, horror washing through her as she stared at the scene in front of them.

They'd found Jasper.

To the Reviewers:

A: Thanks for you're review! I'm really glad you think Alex is so badass, I'm definitely on the same page! As for Alex's relationship with Miller...things will get explained as the story goes along, they've definitely had an interesting relationship in the past. :) And I looooove the tension between Bellamy and Alex!

Karite: Thank you so much! XD I hope this chapter was what you were looking for!

Please review! Feedback of any kind is welcome. Let me know what you think of Alex!

I have a question for everyone: What's your prediction for what's going to happen in Season 3? Let me know!

Thanks for reading! :)