kalopsia, the 100

018 death sentence

"Damn, you're as good a tracker as Spacewalker." Monroe smiled, glancing in interest from behind her.

"Okay, but why does that mean grounders are near?" Diggs inquired in confusion.

"They wear this fur, and this glue is fresh, still wet." she informed them, revisiting the image of what she had seen that night near the cliff in her mind.

Her ebony eyes darted urgently up to the earth once again, her hand as clean as she would get it without water; searching the woods for signs of life as her heartbeat began to increase. No one was taking this as seriously as she was yet.

"How would you know what they we-"

"Hey, where's John?" Roma's nervous voice cut through Bellamy's question; the air growing suddenly thick around them.

Now they were taking it seriously.

Dakota sprung to her feet, everyone's heads birling around in detailed alertness; their gazes flickering rapidly throughout the pines in desperate hopes of spotting him.

"I just saw him a second ago." Jasper breathed, swaying anxiously on his feet where he tensely stood; gripping tightly to the weapon in his hand.

"Spread out. He couldn't have gotten that far." Bellamy directed, remaining composed and calm to keep the group from allowing panic to override their logic; knowing the hazardous results of that scenario.

They began to do as they were told, Dakota only managing to take a few steps before an unexpected weight came crashing down on top of her without warning; her legs buckling helplessly as the heavy object pummeled her unforgivingly into the earth. A sharp pain ricocheted through her skull as her head was slammed directly into the jagged end of a twisting tree root, face shoved into the dirt while her whole body instantly ached from the massive blow; the girl feeling her skin split against the stem. Whatever had fallen on top of her was still sprawled across her body; something warm and stout.

"Ah, that's a concussion." she croaked hoarsely, a couple weak coughs following as she took a rugged gasp for oxygen; the breath having been entirely knocked from her lungs at the astounding impact. While her statement was truthful- her eyes squeezed tightly shut in discomfort- she had spoken the words in attempts of a joke; but the breathless and immensely pained sound of her rasping voice did not set everyone else at ease like she had wanted it to.

Immediately, Bellamy, Finn, and Monroe were dragging the mystery object off of her as Jasper fell to her side; Dakota's gasps still occurring as she felt the mass lifted from her body, only then able to breathe freely again.

"Kota, Kota, Kota, hey are you okay?" the Jordan boy's loud and panic-stricken words were slightly distorted in her ears; the girl cautiously peeking one eye open to stare up at his mildly blurred image, the sun's light seeming much harsher than before.

"Yeah, I'm good." she softly groaned, relying heavily on the help of him pulling her up into a sitting position as she winced sharply.

"You sure?"

"Positive." she insisted in a strained tone, taking the step to fully open both of her eyes; Finn and Bellamy crouching down in front of her. The Blake boy placed a thumb on her chin and ever-so-slightly moved her face to the side, all of them studying a specific point on her head; Dakota ignoring the way it made her almost blush.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Jasper continued in alarm, Dakota swatting his hand away, though in actuality she genuinely could not discern the number of fingers he was flashing; not a great sign.

"What was-" she slowly turned her head to the side to see what immobile object had attacked her, and though blood usually did the opposite, right now it caused her to become immediately awake; now lucid as ever as her eyes widened in horror.