"You are damaged and broken and unhinged.
But so are the shooting stars and the comets."
( the 100 ) ( season 1 ) ( book 1 of the hazel hudson series )
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THE INTENSE GREEN of the forest was overwhelming, causing Hazel to stumble slightly as she jogged through the tangled roots and branches to catch up to Finn and the rest of the group. As she emerged from the dense trees into a large clearing, she found the teens paused in a field of wildflowers.
"Hey!" Finn shouted when he noticed his friend standing off in the distance, "look who decided to show up."
"You're picking flowers?" Hazel raised an eyebrow as she made it to the clumps of mauve blossoms sprouting up from the ground, "Just saying, I don't think these are the supplies we need."
Her comment was blatantly ignored. Finn simply stooped down to pluck a single flower out of the ground, then stood up and pushed it gently behind Octavia's ear. She returned the gesture with a flirtatious smirk.
"Hey guys! Would you try to keep up?"
Clarke was waiting up ahead of them all, an impatient frown weighing down on her lips.
"C'mon Clarke," Finn called back, as the rest of the group began to trudge towards her, "how do you block this all out?"
"Well, it's simple. I wonder, 'why haven't we seen any animals?' Maybe it's because there are none. Maybe we've already been exposed to enough radiation to kill us," she stopped abruptly, before sarcastically adding, "sure is pretty, though."
"If there's so much radiation, how come we're all fine?" Finn asked. Clarke merely rolled her eyes.
"It takes time, which is something we don't have. Come on, let's get moving."
"That's an idea I can get behind," Hazel muttered.
They continued forwards, Octavia babbling to the two other boys who had tagged along, and Clarke leading up in the front. Finn took off towards her, but was stopped by Hazel. She grabbed onto his jacket, narrowing her eyes at him before hissing, "what the hell were you doing back there? You have a girlfriend, Finn."
He stared at her briefly, and she caught a glimpse of hollowness in his eyes.
"Hazel, odds are we're going to die down here before the Ark comes down. I'm just making the best of the time I have left."
He tugged his arm out of her grip, leaving her standing motionless. Within a couple seconds, the other teens had caught up to her. The wiry boy put his hand on Hazel's shoulder, peering at her stunned expression.
"Hey, you okay?"
"Yeah," she nodded quickly and shrugged off her shock. What Finn said hadn't surprised her. It was the fact that he had said it. Hazel had known him for as long as she could remember, and not once had she ever seen him lose hope. Usually, it practically oozed out of him.
