Not What It Seems | Octavia Blake [2]

Chapter 11

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    Liam

  Trekking through the woods, one hand gripping the strap of his bag while the other dangled at his side, Liam stepped quietly behind Finn and in front of Callie, while Monroe and Sterling followed behind Callie.

Liam worried for the safety of his friends and people. Their camp could be littered with their people's dead bodies, tortured and mutilated; some could be hanging from the branches of trees or tied to trees barely alive, as warning. Who knows what the Grounders have already done to them. As Liam and his faction of friends, acquaintances and Murphy searched the forest, the Grounders could be torturing one of their people.

In the blink of an eye —and catching Liam completely off guard— Murphy's grabbing and bringing Bellamy to the forest floor. "Everybody down, down. Get down," he snapped under his breath.

Liam joined the others and knelt behind a bright green, moss-covered log, surveying the equally mossy green semi-opened area in front of it. "This is it," Murphy informed, the Grounder's indistinct chatter reaching Liam's ears. "Told you I'd find it."

Confused, Liam's thick dark brows scrunched, his head tilting slightly. The Grounders' camp is nothing like he imagined.

Bellamy tucked the rifle Miller's father gave him into his shoulder and looked through the scope, "I see nothing but Grounders."

Finn —keeping his gaze on the Grounders— ripped Sterling's rifle from his hands, he too using the scope as binoculars. Callie shook her head, squinting her bright blue eyes, "I don't see any of our people here."

"That's because they aren't here," Bellamy said, disappointed.

"Wait a minute," Finn whispered, the barrel of Sterling's rifle swivelling around. "They've got stuff from our dropship."

"What?" Liam shifted from one foot to the other, "Can I see?" Bellamy happily gave the boy his rifle. Liam looked between the three black crosshairs in the circle, and sure enough, he could see some of their gear and a large section of red tarp. He opened his left eye and removed his cheek from the top of the stock, "I didn't think there was anything left," he muttered, handing back the rifle that now belonged to the brother of his best friend's girlfriend.

Bellamy immediately looked through the scope again, then lowered the rifle, "So maybe they know where our friends are."

"Yeah," Murphy said, "or maybe they killed them already."

Liam rolled his dark brown eyes and shook his head, meeting Callie's gaze. She merely shrugged, unsure of what to make of the Grounders rummaging through their things in their prison camp.

"Son of a bitch," Finn breathed in one breath.

"What?" Liam squinted and saw the three Grounders, but that's all.

"The guy with the one eye," Finn began, and Bellamy re-aimed his rifle, looking at the Grounder. "Around his neck."

Bellamy lowered his gun, confused and annoyed, "What am I looking at?"

Finn snapped his head to the older boy on the other side of Murphy, the look in his eye and the tone of his voice sending shivers up Liam's spine —and not in a good way. "He's got Clarke's watch." Finn then re-looked through the scope of the rifle in his hands, "It was her father's."