somewhere | b.blake ✔️

1x11✔️

"Cause they say the bigger the love, the harder the fall
Well, I'm crashing through the floor"

- Stay Awake, Dean Lewis

Warning: There are implications of sexual encounters in this chapter. If this bothers you, skip the section where ' +++++ ' appears.

*****

The days following the sickness are rough and filled with many coughs and piles of blood that people play rock-paper-scissors on who has to clean up.

But now, everyone is back in time and schedule.

The threat of the Grounders is far from gone, a fact that looms over camp and keeps them all inside the locked gates, but everyone is trying to stay positive.

Currently, Ash, Octavia, and John are all working in the meat tent. Octavia is separating the meat from the bones, Ash is cutting it, and John is hanging it before they'll cook it for dinner tonight.

They're doing great until a boy adds far too much wood to the fire. The meat will scorch in seconds if they were to put it on their now.

"You don't want the fire to be too big." Octavia tells the boy. "So maybe just try to knock it down with some wet leaves." She suggests sweetly.

The boy rolls his eyes defiantly, "You learn that from your boyfriend, Grounder Pounder?"

"She's right. A hot fire isn't gonna preserve the meat well." Ash retorts, quick to Octavia's defense.

"You can't take the heat, get out of the smokehouse. Keep working." He sneers at them both before leaving.

"Bellamy couldn't get you two better jobs?" John asks curiously while the three of them resume working.

"With the Ark going radio silent, there's not much else for me to do." Ash replies with a shrug.

"And if we did, it's just mean someone else would have to do it," Octavia adds.

John nods, seeming to understand while the three work in peace for about fifteen minutes.

Then, everything goes wrong.

It starts with the temperature in the hut climbing fast. Ash chalks it up to her being hot because of the exertion of working and doesn't say anything.

But once it reaches a level where sweat is beading on her forehead, she can't hold back her complain. "Is it hot in here or is that just me?"

Octavia is fanning herself with her hand when she answers, "I thought it was just me at first, but I'm not sure."

And then Ash sees it.

Fire on the roof from the pile of wood being too high.

It spreads fast, pretty much reaching all of the walls of the hut by the time Ash can even shape her mouth to tell John and Octavia.

Smoke fills the hut quickly and makes its way into Ash's lungs, her vision dotting when she inhaled too much.

John grabs both Octavia and her arms to pull them out of the hut while shouting begins from outside. They all collapse on the ground and begin coughing violently.