"Are you sure it's ready for tasting?"
Monty didn't notice her reluctance to drink the new batch of moonshine he had made - or he just ignored it - and continued to slosh around the barrel in which it was being brewed.
"Oh it's ready alright." There was a mischievous glimmer in his eyes that made Avery's heart leap. "Now come on, you gotta be the first one to try it."
He poured a small quantity of the liquid into a cup, which Avery took whilst holding back a grimace. Monty was watching her expectantly, a bright smile on his face that made it impossible for the girl to turn the offer down.
Raising it hesitantly to her lips, she took a gulp of the moonshine, letting the liquid burn her throat and wrestle her urge to gag. Taking another sip, she was ready for the foul taste, and so it wasn't so bad; it tasted slightly sweet even.
"Well?"
Avery put down the cup, pretending to think it over as if she was some sort of moonshine expert, when in reality the only alcohol she had drunk was the whiskey Finn found and some rum she had dug out of her dad's belongings one time. Monty was clearly getting impatient, biting back the fond grin that threatened his lips, and tapping his foot against the floor.
"It'll certainly get you drunk, that's for sure."
"And that's our aim." Jasper interjected, appearing through the tent and taking a hold of the barrel Monty had brewed the moonshine in, dragging it over to his feet. "What are we calling it?"
Monty shrugged nonchalantly, picking up Avery's cup and taking his own sip of the stuff to see what it tasted like. He grimaced, wrinkling his nose in disgust, but then laughed softly.
"It really doesn't taste great."
He offered it out to Jasper, who chugged the rest of it, before exhaling loudly with a cough. He rested his hands on Monty's shoulders, shaking him enthusiastically, clearly overexcited about it all.
"It's perfect, my man." He lifted the barrel from the floor proudly, beaming at them both. "And everyone's going to appreciate this Unity Juice, just as much as me."
He disappeared from the tent, his shouts of Monty's Unity Juice echoing across the camp, followed by people's cheers and shouts. Monty and Avery exchanged an amused glance, neither one of them bothered by missing the Unity Day speech or the alcohol they could easily get more of.
Avery never cared for Unity Day, finding herself drawing a blank whenever she attempted to think about reasons she should feel unified with the rest of the Ark. And whilst she now feels unified with her fellow Delinquents, she still just associates Unity Day with her life on the Ark. As for Monty, the boy just never understood everyone's obsession with it, or why they should celebrate a place that 'had' to resort to locking up kids for crimes such as stealing medicine for sick family members.
"Unity Juice? That's what we're calling it?"
Monty just shrugged in turn, clearly finding the whole thing funny. "The name works." He said simply.
Avery rolled her eyes, unimpressed by the ordeal. It was then that she recalled only a day prior, which the boy had mainly spent attempting to perfect his moonshine recipe, Monty got the chance to speak to his parents on the radio. He hadn't mentioned a word of it to Avery yet, but the girl couldn't care less about her own family then, she wanted to hear about his.
"How were your parents? You spoke to them yesterday?"
He startled as if it had slipped his mind, and the girl stifled a laugh. "They're relieved I'm alive, apparently."
"Apparently?"
Monty gave her a look and she clamped her lips shut, hiding her teasing smile. He settled down on the edge of a crate they had earlier drawn into the tent from outside.
"They wanted to know if I had spent time with Jasper, which was weird, cause my mom hated Jasper." His face lit up in realisation. "Maybe it's because my mom hated Jasper."
"She can't have hated him that much."
Monty shot her a glance that told her otherwise.
"I told them I'd seen Jasper but I'd also made some new friends."
And the way he avoided eye contact told Avery that he was talking about her. She felt her stomach twisting nervously, something about the fact he had mentioned her to his parents made her feel important and terrified at the same time.
"Aw look at you Monty, making new friends!" She darted forwards and playfully pinched his cheeks. "I'm so proud!" He blushed, swatting her hands away.
"You're so mean to me." He said with a pout.
"You love it."
Avery spent her day with Monty, avoiding Unity Day and helping the boy make more moonshine for the alcohol deprived group of teenagers. Although she managed to miss Jaha's boring speech, she couldn't possibly elude the news of the Exodus ship arriving from the Ark in two days.
Only two days until their freedom from the shackles of Ark life came to an end. And so, Avery was determined to make the most of it.
That night was possibly one of the best nights of her life.
At first.
With Monty's moonshine being shared around the camp, inhibitions were low and spirits were high. Soon enough, drunken games and terrible dancing was taking place, and Avery found herself right in the midst of it all.
For a short while, Harper was by her side, belting out the words to some old school song she had never heard of, and the pair of them were dancing like there was nothing else left in the world. They were both clutching cups of moonshine - neither one being on their first drink - which were spilling when the girls waved them up in the air and swayed their hands as if their lives depended on it.
It wasn't long until they found themselves roped into a makeshift game of beer pong, in which a carved wooden ball acted as their ping pong ball, and cups of moonshine acted as their beer. Avery managed to get Monty on her team, whereas Harper teamed up with Miller, and it was competitive to say the least.
And considering how affectionate Monty was being whether they were winning or losing, it was really a win-win situation.
Whenever Avery sunk the ball into one of the opposition's cups, Monty would pull her into a messy, drunk, affectionate hug that made her head swirl far more than the moonshine did. And whenever Harper or Miller sunk one of their cups, Monty would begin loudly booing and slinging his arm around Avery in an attempt to get her to join it.
Harper and Miller only had one cup left on their side, and it was Avery's turn to throw the ball. Monty was attempting - and failing - to start up a chant of her name with the small crowd of Delinquents watching their intense game. She was milking the moment, purposely taking her time in lining up the shot and angling the way in which she would throw it.
It was when Harper whined, "Oh, hurry up!" that Avery finally took the shot.
She watched in anticipation as the wooden ball bounced once, twice, on the table before brushing the edge of the cup and landing clear inside of it. Avery and Monty erupted into cheers, colliding in what felt like the hundredth hug of the night, as Harper and Miller complained of their apparently undeserved win.
But the only thing Avery could focus on was the way Monty's lips brushed her cheek as he pulled away from the hug.
"You guys are such cheats!" Miller roared playfully across the table,
"Excuse me?" Monty gasped in mock offence, clutching his chest.
"Cheats? We're pros, Miller! You're embarrassed you're not on our level!" Avery retorted.
"Look, I'm gonna come round here," Miller walked around the table to their side, clutching the ping pong ball. "I'm sure it's gotta be easier on this side, there's no other explanation."
He attempted to throw the ball into one of the leftover empty cups. And he failed miserably.
"The explanation is that we're better than you." Avery said smugly, and the boy rolled his eyes.
"Impossible."
"Hey!" A different voice came from behind then, and two hands landed on Avery's shoulders and a body collided with her back as someone attempted to jump on her.
Jasper's overenthusiastic action nearly sent her flying to the ground, but she only found herself laughing as he steadied himself next to her, the light buzzing in her mind making her irritability disappear.
"Come on, I need help getting Raven to join my game!" He whined, tugging on Avery's hand like a needy kid.
Avery exchanged a bemused expression with Monty, who just held up his hands to say, he's all yours, and turned away to talk to Miller. The girl decided to just go along with Jasper, letting him drag her to grab a few drinks and promise Monroe that he was going to win their game of drunkball - whatever that was.
"And why didn't you want me on your team?" She challenged the boy.
Jasper froze, trying to think of an excuse to come up with. His mind was blank. He opened his mouth to begin saying something, and the only thing he could think to say was the truth.
"Cause I thought you'd be shit."
"Jasper!" She grumbled as he trailed into the tent Raven was inside. "I'll have you know that I won beer pong for my team."
Jasper waved off a dismissive hand and turned instead to greet Raven. The girl was invested in the gunpowder and bullets on the table in front of her, making Avery's stomach flip with a sense of nausea that she tried to play off as an effect of the alcohol.
"Hey, hey! There you are!" Jasper's voice slurred in his ever so drunk state, leading Raven to glance over his shoulder to Avery who just rolled her eyes in return. "Alright just listen. We're playing drunkball. I bet Monroe my team's gonna win the Unity Day title."
He dropped a cup of moonshine into her hand and clinked the side of it with his own. Avery nudged him in the rib with her elbow so she could sidle past and lean on the table Raven was working at.
"Basically, he asked me first but I said no because I just won this game of beer pong and I'm too good for Jasper's measly drunkball team-"
"-That is not true! I knew Avs was going to be shit at drunkball so-"
"-I think you guys got a little off topic." Raven said loudly, drowning out the sounds of the bickering teens.
Jasper angled himself so he couldn't get lured into Avery's attempts to distract him, and he found himself able to actually pitch to Raven why he needs her on the team.
"I know you Zero-G Mechs have crazy hand-eye skills, so? Eh? It's gotta be more fun than whatever you're doing."
With a small laugh and a slight shake of her head, Raven put down the cup of moonshine and turned back to the bullets she was previous working on.
"I'm checking the gunpowder in these rounds so that if the Grounders try to kill us all, maybe we can get a few shots off beforehand." She waved a pair of pliers as she explained, before moving it to a bullet to try and pry it open.
"Hmm, that's intense." Jasper murmured. "Sure you know what you're doing?"
"Why does everyone keep asking me-"
Raven was cut off by the bullet in her hand popping in a mini explosion. She dropped it down on the table, shaking out her hand.
"Damn!"
"You okay, Raven?" Avery asked in alarm, earning a small smile from the girl in response.
"You need a hand now that, you know, you almost blew one off?" Jasper teased.
Raven shook her head, her hand making her wince. "I got this."
"Hey, no one's a better mechanic, all right, but this stuff requires a chemist. How'd you do in chemistry class?"
The lack of an answer from Raven made Jasper hum with satisfaction. He whirled around to ask Avery the same thing, the girl just giving him the same expression as Raven.
"Well, the fates are smiling upon you, my friends." Jasper continued. "I was great in chemistry."
"Explains the goggles." Avery gestured up to the pair sitting on his head.
From the amount of times Avery had seen him wearing them, they seemed inseparable from his body. He reached up to pat them twice, nodding to confirm.
"Of course. Can't do any experiments without a trusty pair of goggles."
He took the bullet from Raven's hand, lifting it up towards his face and tapping a small amount of the gunpowder out onto his other hand. He took a whiff of it, immediately backing away in disgust.
"Ooh! Nope. Oh, it's gassed off. Pretty sure the acidic smell means that the gunpowder's degraded."
"Better start a dud pile."
"You know, when my parents get here, they can mix us up some new gunpowder." Avery watched as her friend's eyes shone in mentioning his family. "My dad's gonna flip for this scrap metal. 'My kingdom for a soda can.' That's what he always used to say."
Avery and Raven both smiled at the sentiment, unable to imagine anything of the sort for themselves. But still, it was nice to know that Jasper had a caring family, like he deserved.
"How about you? Got any family?"
Raven's smile faded and her body stiffened up as she adverted her eyes from the boy. "Nope. Just Finn."
"Well, we all got each other now, right?"
And as Jasper met Avery's gaze, she reached out and squeezed his hand.
Of course, it was up to Bellamy to ruin the sweet moment. He burst into the tent, hands equipped with too many guns for one person.
"Jasper, you're coming with me."
"I am?"
"Here to join the party Bellamy?" Avery asked teasingly, which the boy chose to ignore entirely.
"You handled yourself well in the cave with the grounder." Bellamy explained, pushing one of the guns into Jasper's chest and forcing him to take it.
"I mean, I hit him in the head."
Avery would've laughed at that, if she wasn't so preoccupied with whatever Bellamy needed to do with those guns or with Jasper. He leaned over towards the table, reaching out to take rounds of Raven's bullets, but the girl put out her arm to prevent him.
"If you're planning on shooting anything, you better think twice. I haven't checked those yet."
"Give me some bullets that work."
By now, Avery was majorly confused about whatever was going on. Bellamy's entire body was tensed up, his hand clenching the gun in his grasp so tightly that she was sure it would fire just from the pressure of him holding it.
"What's going on Bellamy?" She asked sternly.
"What do you need them for?"
The boy focused his gaze on Raven, simply answering, "Your boyfriend's being an idiot."
Raven turned back to the table, scooping up a few rounds of bullets that she had already checked. It took less than a second for her to decide she was going too.
"If Raven's going, I'm going." Avery said, holding her hands up.
Bellamy looked like he wanted to murder her after she said that, but instead he just grimaced and said nothing to protest. She smiled triumphantly, finding something inexplicably entertaining about irritating the boy.
"We should get Clarke." Jasper suggested.
Bellamy looked to him warily, going to disappear from the tent. Avery winced in realisation, and Raven said the words that only made it even more awkward. "Clarke's with Finn, isn't she?"
She was the next to leave the tent, letting Avery and Jasper stare at each other for a few long minutes. Neither of them even knew what they had got themselves into, but one thing was for sure: they were probably not drunk enough for it.
They made the smart decision of chugging the rest of their moonshine before following Bellamy and Raven outside.
As they began to traipse through the woods, Avery stuck by Bellamy's side, intent on drawing out the truth from him. They had a strange friendship. Well, a strange dynamic.
Bellamy certainly wouldn't say they had a friendship, and Avery would only say it to get on his nerves.
It seemed that no matter what she did lately, she ended up pissing him off. She didn't know why, only that it was hilarious. She didn't know - and she never would know - that she reminded Bellamy of Murphy, and how they casted him out.
"Sorry about bringing up Clarke earlier, that was awkward." Avery could hear Jasper sheepishly apologising from behind, clearly imagining Raven's pained expression.
"Shut up."
"Both of you shut up." Bellamy interjected forcefully. "Keep your eyes open."
As he drove the group onwards, Avery found an opening in which she could try and pry the truth from the boy. She decided it was worth his small burst of rage in return for knowing whatever shit was going on with Finn and Clarke.
"So, where are we actually going?"
Bellamy glanced quickly to her, tensing his jaw. "Finn set up a meeting with the Grounders."
"What?" She was dumbfounded.
How did he even get in a situation where that was possible?
"Him and Clarke are going to meet them, and Clarke wanted me to come as backup with guns." He gestured to the gun slung across his back, making her uneasy. "Finn doesn't know, and it'll stay that way, unless we need to use them. We don't know what the Grounders are planning."
"Maybe the Grounders are planning nothing." Avery suggested, choosing to ignore the looks shot at her from all three walking with her. "Maybe, they're just coming here to talk, like Finn set it up."
Bellamy laughed harshly, causing a sting in her chest. "You're being naïve. The Grounders are probably here to kill Finn, and we're gonna have to stop them."
"I don't think it's smart to go into things so pessimistically, Bellamy. How are you going to get anywhere in life with that attitude?"
The boy whirled around to face her, stopping her abruptly in her tracks. She narrowly avoided tripping over, recovering less than smoothly, and she was suddenly quite frightened of the boy who was squaring up to her.
"Says little miss sunshine, the girl who holds a grudge against Abby Griffin for something she couldn't control. And don't get me started on how you've treated Clarke. What did she even do?"
Every inch of Avery's reformed mind was telling her not to get worked up, not to respond to Bellamy's anger. But every inch of the rest of her mind was telling her the opposite. Bellamy had gotten really personal, and would she really forgive herself if she didn't stick up for herself?
"How the fuck do you know any of that?"
The hot headed side of her had won, and she found the girl she was on the Ark returning.
Bellamy chuckled, knowing he had riled her up just as much as she did to him. The thing was, she was doing it out of playfulness, and he was doing it out of pure spite.
"Word travels fast through the Guard."
"Oh, the Guard? Didn't you fail that training?"
Avery tilted her head, mock innocently, and Bellamy's face turned bright red.
"Alright, I swear if you-"
"-The pair of you, shut it!"
It took Raven's yelling to get them to both stop bickering. Avery was heaving for breath, worked up out of pure anger that Bellamy made things personal in the first place, but ever so satisfied in the way she had irritated him.
"Bellamy, just be useful and get us there, okay?"
He hesitated, looking as though he wanted to continue arguing, before the slightest nod. He breezed past both the girls, leading them through the woods in what was then an entirely silent duration of a trip.
By the time they arrived at the bridge, it was daylight. Avery could feel herself sobering up, somehow making her feel ten times more queasy. She wondered what it was like for everyone back at camp.
The four of them were sheltered by surrounding trees, staring up at the sturdy bridge out in the open. It was difficult for them to properly see people stood on the bridge, considering the rusted, moth covered railings were tall enough to cut out large chunks of people from their view.
However, it was clear enough to see Clarke, Finn and Octavia all gathered together. And as Clarke had been expecting them, she had spotted them within moments and nodded subtly to confirm they should be keeping an eye out for Grounders hidden with weapons.
Which was ironic, considering they were hiding with weapons.
"What's Octavia doing here?" Jasper questioned, his eyebrows furrowing at the sight of the dark haired girl with Finn and Clarke.
The four of them watched as she darted across the bridge towards a tall Grounder - Lincoln - who swooped her up into his embrace. Avery couldn't help but smile at the affection between them, missing Jasper's disappointed expression and Raven's amusement.
"I guess we know how he got away."
"Oh yeah," Avery mumbled, the tiniest smirk tugging at her lips. "I wonder how that happened."
Bellamy, already furious with his little sister being up close and personal with anyone, let alone a Grounder, side eyed the girl. She was seriously testing his patience on a day that was really not going his way. He lifted his gun, pointing it in the direction of Lincoln and Octavia, and staring at the pair of them.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Avery hissed.
"Wait," Raven's hand latched out onto Bellamy's arm. "Look."
From the far side of the bridge, the Grounders emerged. Two dark horses with riders disguised in masks came first, parting the way for one that seemed to clearly be the leader. A set of bow and arrows sat on each of their laps, their hands not hovering close by. A woman rode in on another horse, her identity not concealed by a mask, which Avery was extremely appreciative of upon realising she was rather attractive.
Her hair was done intricately in an array of braids and she had the same dark makeup streaked across her face, like Lincoln had on the day Avery bumped into him in the woods, although hers was painted across her eyelids and down towards her nose. She dismounted her horse, striding across the bridge to meet Clarke.
It was then that Avery realised the railings didn't stretch the whole length of the bridge. When the Grounder and Clarke met in the middle, they were both entirely visible to where they were hiding out in the trees. This meant that Bellamy could get a perfect shot of the Grounder.
Panic coursed through Avery's system, the girl instantly beginning to fidget with nerves as she thought of all the possible outcomes if Bellamy screwed it up for them. It pretty much ended up with all of them dead every single time.
"Guys," She whispered to where each of her friends was pointing a gun in the direction of the Grounder. "I don't think the guns are a good idea."
Bellamy lowered his, only to berate the girl for distracting them, before turning back to the scene. She watched impatiently as the Grounder talked passionately at Clarke, clearly ranting about something.
"Grounder princess looks pissed." Raven commented.
"Our princess has that effect." Bellamy retorted.
A few more moments passed, spent watching Clarke and the Grounder converse, most likely talking about the endless attacks made on both sides. Avery wasn't sure if they would be able to make peace - considering the look on Lincoln's face, the other Grounders weren't as accepting of the Sky People as he was. But she knew it was well worth the risk of trying.
She was so focused on the scene unfolding on the bridge that she hadn't noticed Jasper's sudden engagement with the other trees surrounding the area, his eyes wild and his nerves suddenly spiking. He sucked in a breath, shaking his head erratically.
"Oh no. No, this is bad."
"What's wrong Jasper?" Avery asked in concern, eyes darting away from Clarke and the Grounder for one moment to look at her friend.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Bellamy snapped.
Jasper raised his gun, his suspicion clear in the way his eyes scanned across the trees. He lowered it again, his expression drawn in fear.
"There's Grounders in the trees."
"What?"
Avery suddenly felt rather helpless. As Bellamy and Raven both looked down their guns, she had nothing to help her get a closer look, and so she was stuck with peering into the distance in an attempt to spot the Grounders.
"Where?"
"Are you sure?"
Her curiosity grew when neither Bellamy nor Raven had seen the figures either, and Avery began to wonder if it was all simply a figment of Jasper's imagination. The spearing on their first day on Earth - which now felt like years ago - obviously hit him hard; but no one truly knew how hard.
"I don't see anything."
"Me neither." Avery murmured, unable to see any shifting or movement in the direction Jasper was staring at intently.
"They're gonna shoot!" Jasper's voice flew out at an uncomfortable volume. But before Avery could scold him for it, he had run out into the open in a freight of panic. "Clarke, run! Run!"
After Jasper's initial shot was fired, the whole thing turned into carnage.
Grounders were firing their own arrows at the Sky People on the bridge and those now clearly under the shelter of a few trees. Jasper had shot two Grounders dead, and Avery assumed that Bellamy and Raven had to have been the culprits of a few more murders considering how many shots they had both fired.
Avery found herself stumbling back into a tree, wanting nothing more than to crawl up into a ball in that moment, back in her tent at camp. She wanted to hear Harper's silly jokes and cringe at how awful they were. She didn't want to be a bystander to the situation unfolding and cringe at the bloodshed she was witnessing.
But she didn't have the power to do a single thing.
Raven was the first to run out of rounds. She reached for Avery's arm, gripping the girl's jacket slightly tighter than normal as if in search of comfort, and then pulled her in the direction of their camp.
"Come on, we gotta go!"
Bellamy and Jasper both hit blanks too. As they turned away from the battle they created, they yanked Avery along with them - the girl in horror of the scene that was forged simply from the yell that left Jasper's lips.
As they disappeared into the woods, Avery took once last look back at the bridge, spotting the same three Sky People as before, along with Lincoln. And during that last glimpse, she could've sworn that Lincoln had been hit by an arrow.
A few minutes into running through the woods, Avery found her path crossing with that of Octavia, Finn and Clarke. The girl immediately weaved her way over to the dark haired girl, trying to win her attention from the overwhelming desire to not die.
"Is Lincoln okay?"
"He got hit."
Shit.
Avery knew the man could take care of himself, but she was sure he'd still need medical attention if he were an Ark citizen. The Ark sure didn't care about the kids health, but they'd fix the issue just enough so they could get back to work. Lincoln didn't have anyone to fix it for him.
It felt like the group had been running for hours until they finally got in sight of their camp once again. Avery's legs felt like they were about to give way, and her lungs were barely keeping up with how fast she was taking breaths, almost begging her to take a break - which she gladly did at that moment.
She rested herself against a tree, leaning her head back until it hit the bark, and letting her eyes flutter closed in exhaustion. All that was audible for a long few moments was the tired panting of the teens who had run what had to have been a few miles with the belief that people chasing them were aiming to kill them.
Luckily, as they regained their breath outside their camp, they came to realise no Grounders had traced them all the way there, and they could relax for the time being. But with what had happened back at the bridge, it was clear they wouldn't be relaxing for very long.
"You got something to say?" Bellamy demanded, glaring back at Finn's disgusted expression on him.
"Yeah, I told you no guns!" Finn yelled, frustration taking over every emotion.
As much as Avery agreed with Finn, it wasn't just Bellamy angry with him. Within a moment, he had furious remarks from both Clarke and Raven too.
"I told you we couldn't trust the Grounders, I was right!"
"Why didn't you tell me what you were up to?"
The boy chose to answer Raven's question, shoving Clarke's comment away for the moment. Avery caught eyes with the blonde, shrugging, to which she sighed tiredly.
"I tried to, but you were too busy making bullets for your gun."
"You're lucky she brought that!" Bellamy jumped in. "They came there to kill you Finn."
"You don't know that! Jasper fired the first shot!" Finn exclaimed, gesturing to the boy who scoffed in return.
"You can't blame Finn when he's not the one who started shooting up the place." Avery scolded Bellamy, and out of the corner of her eye she noticed upset briefly passing over Jasper's expression. "We could've made peace with the Grounders!"
"You ruined everything."
Octavia's voice was hollow as she spoke to Jasper. Any trace of emotion had vanished from her tone, but it was all visible in her eyes. Especially how tired she was of it all.
She turned to leave, not bothering to look back, even after Avery called after her to see if she was okay.
"I saved you!" Jasper yelled after her. "You're welcome." He mumbled, before stalking away from the group too.
The rest of them were left in an awkward quiet they didn't know how to fill. Everyone there - except from Avery - was still angry with Finn. And Finn was angry with them in return. Avery was just there.
"Well I'm choosing to blame Bellamy for all this, cause I didn't even know what the fuck was going on until we got to the bridge, and I'd like to think it was his fault instead of mine."
Avery had mumbled at what she thought was a volume no one would've heard, but in the silence it was deafening. She made it even more awkward. It took a beat of silence for Bellamy to send her the middle finger.
"Well if we weren't at war already, we sure as hell are now." Finn said defeatedly.
Clarke and Bellamy both looked exasperated. No matter how they had disagreed with him before, they couldn't disagree with him on this. It was an undeniable fact.
"You didn't have to trust the Grounders, you just had to trust me." Finn directed at Clarke, finally acknowledging what she had first said to him.
Clarke's face said it all. How was she supposed to trust him when he had lied to her before?
Bellamy and Avery exchanged a look then, the awkward tension between the other two becoming almost unbearable. As Clarke didn't respond, Finn turned and left, and Raven did the same only a few moments later.
"Like I said, best Unity Day ever."
Bellamy's voice was thick with sarcasm, his exhaustion clear in the way he spoke in a heavy sigh. And Avery couldn't help but feel the same way with all that had happened.
"I agree with you there."
She turned to leave too, but found herself stopped by the sound of something booming in the sky. Above them, like a shooting star, a ship was heading for the Earth.
"The Exodus ship? Your mom's early." Bellamy said to Clarke.
The girl laughed softly, obviously putting whatever happened with her mom to the back of her mind, and instead rejoicing at the fact she would be reunited with her. But all traces of happiness left when the ship didn't start to slow.
They could see the flames lighting the sides like a meteorite. And the lack of a parachute to slow the fall became apparent. They would have no way to soften the impact.
"Wait. Too fast, no parachute." Clarke's voice wobbled as she began to put the pieces together. "Something's wrong."
"It's not slowing down." Avery murmured in horror.
They watched helplessly as the ship fell behind a mountain in the near distance. The sound of a crash followed, and Avery winced in anticipation. The sky above the mountain lit up in a blaze of reds and oranges, and then a mushroom cloud of smoke and fire billowed up into the air.
Avery's hand clamped over her mouth, disbelief, horror, and nausea filling her senses and overwhelming her. There was no way someone could survive a crash like that. Beside her, Clarke crumpled to the ground, in utter shock and distress.
And it was as if she didn't realise she was doing it, but Avery found herself a few moments later with an arm around Clarke, comforting the girl as she cried. A few moments later, Bellamy had joined her to do the same, and the three of them were huddled in an awkward half hug on the forest floor.
Avery always thought she'd rejoice at the day Abby died, but all she felt in her heart was heavy.