Last One Standing ➣ Bellamy Blake [Book 1]

11.0 I Will Follow You Into the Dark

Andromeda heard a thud and looked to the entrance of the cave. A shadow emerged and rounding the corner came a Grounder. His skin was dark, war painted, and tattooed. He was covered in various furs and armor. He stalked towards her with a hot iron in his hand. So, she was to be tortured to death. Andromeda tried to scurry back to a corner of the cave but cried out when she tried to move. He vision was darkening again from the blood loss and her head was feeling woozy.

            "Andromeda, don't," Octavia tried but Andromeda didn't listen.

            The grounder grabbed one of Andromeda's legs and pulled her to him. He pulled up her shirt to the bottom of her chest to expose her wound. Andromeda screamed and cried but the pain was getting worse. The Grounder lifted up the iron and jabbed it into her side. She bellowed in pain and blacked out once more.

Bellamy POV

"Everyone gather round and grab a weapon," Bellamy ordered the camp. They did as he ordered. After checking the camp for what seemed the hundredth time he called a search party.

"My sister's been missing for twelve hours," he began. He couldn't bring himself to mention Andromeda's name. "Arm up! I'm not coming back without her." Without either of them.

He turned to Clarke who stood by him, "Since Andromeda's not here, we need a tracker." She nodded in response. "Finn, get out here."

Bellamy paced for a few steps before he started playing with his knife. He was anxious to leave and to find them. He needed to apologize to Octavia and he had to just find Andromeda. His musings were interrupted by the cry of the others. He looked up to the sky to see hundreds of lights fire off into the sky and rain down in a steady shower.

"They didn't work. They didn't see the flares," Raven spoke softly.

"A meteor shower tells you that," Bellamy mocked.

"It's not a meteor shower, it's a funeral," Clarke explained, "Hundreds of bodies being returned to the Earth from the Ark. This is what it looks like from the other side. They didn't get our message."

A wave of guilt and regret washed over Bellamy. Suddenly, Raven charged him but Bellamy was ready. He was hurt and he was angry so he welcomed the fight.

"This is all because of you," Raven screamed.

"I helped you find the radio," he challenged.

"Yea, after you jacked it from my pod and trashed it."

Clarke intervened before he could retort, "Yea, he knows. Now he has to live with it."

He would be angry and grieve later, "Look all I know is that they're out there and I'm going to find them. You coming or what?"

"Them?" Finn questioned.

He ignored him and stormed off into the night with his search party at his back.

Andromeda POV

When Andromeda came too again, she jolted upright ready to fight for her life. She was half surprised she was alive.

"Calm down, he's not here," Octavia whispered soothingly in the dark.

Andromeda sank down into the dirt, her side still painful.

"Why am I alive?"

Octavia sighed, "He cauterized our wounds. He stitched your side up and patched my leg. I don't know why."

"Maybe he wants to torture us for information," Andromeda reckoned.

"Probably," she tried to stand up, "We need to leave. I've been waiting for you to get up."

"How are we going to get out of here?"

Octavia didn't answer but shakily got to her feet. Andromeda tried to shuffle up again but it was no use. She wasn't strong enough to get up yet.

"Octavia, listen to me," Andromeda commanded.

Octavia turned around to look at her friend.

"Go. I can't let you die because of me. I can't walk, now go!" Andromeda croaked.

"No..."

"Dammit, just go!" Andromeda cried, "And tell your brother 'I'm sorry'."

Octavia tried to walk toward her, "You can tell him yourself."

"O, one of us is going to die or both of us. Your brother couldn't bear to lose you. No one will miss me. Now go before he comes back."

Octavia paused for a moment and nodded before turning around and limping off to the mouth of the cave. Andromeda sunk further into the ground and tried to once again, come to terms with death.

Bellamy POV

"Look, over here!" a kid shouted. Bellamy sprinted toward the sound of the voice hoping that he had found them alive. The idea that they could be dead was something he refused to think about. Even if they were, he would return with their bodies for a proper burial. When he broke through the trees he saw several people gathered around the top of a hill.

            "Isn't that Octavia's," a kid with a lantern and it's light was reflected off of a dark red substance on bush branches.

            They're hurt. They were attacked. Bellamy felt both angry and scared. With a rope, Bellamy made his way down the hill. He inspected the branch with the blood. He found more blood on rocks when he made it to the bottom of the hill. There was not too much to alarm him for his sister's health however. The light from the flashlight caught something else. A few feet away was a discarded jacket and this one was soaked in blood. Bellamy picked it up cautiously and felt his heart sink to his feet. It was Andromeda's jacket covered in her blood.

"Someone else was here," he announced to Finn and Jasper who came up beside him. Next to her jacket, was a large footprint too big to be either of theirs.

Finn examined them, "The prints are deeper going that way. Look there's drag marks."

Finn moved a little further on and turned back to Bellamy, "My guess: he carried Octavia, and dragged Andromeda." Bellamy figured Clarke had told him she was missing too. Bellamy raced forward to see the prints.

"If he took them, then they're alive. Like when they took me," Jasper reasoned. Bellamy set off again with the faintest of hopes that they were alive.

The search party had made its way farther in the forest than they had ever gone before. Hours had dragged on and the tracks did not waiver. They emerged from a thick clump of trees and were met with a grisly sight of old skeletons strung up in the trees. Bellamy felt somewhat sick to his stomach and hoping that this wouldn't happen to Octavia and Andromeda.

"I don't speak Grounder but I'm pretty sure this means keep out," Finn joked.

The search party started breaking off at the sight, many of them returning to the camp.

"Go back if you want," he called to the others, "My sister, my responsibility," he muttered to himself before walking into hell.