"Everybody down, down. Get down." My brother rushed out in a hushed voice. He grabbed my arm and pulled me down behind a fallen tree before pretty much tackling Bellamy to the ground. Everyone else followed suit and crouched down behind the fallen tree. I stared out at an old building as I lifted the handgun Abby gave me, resting my arms on the tree; I pointed it at the camp. "This is it." I watched as my brother turned his head to Bellamy. "Told you I'd find it."
Bellamy turned his attention back on the Grounder camp and lifted his rifle to look through the scope. "I see nothing but Grounders." My eyes scoured the continuous motion in front of us. They all looked like Grounders — at first glance, it didn't look like our friends were here. "Our people aren't here."
To my left, Finn grabbed the rifle out of Sterling's hands and looked through the scope. He seemed to have seen something that none of us did. "Wait a minute. They've got stuff from our Dropship."
Bellamy lowered the gun in his hands. "So maybe they know where our friends are."
"Yeah, or maybe they killed them already." John piped up.
"Shut up, John." I was quick to reply before I sat my handgun down and took Bellamy's rifle from his grasp to look through the scope. I did, in fact, see the sheets we used for tents and some seat belts from the Dropship.
Finn spoke up again, but it was more of a mutter to himself. "Son of a bitch."
All our heads turned to Finn, who still looked through the scope of his gun. "What is it?" Bellamy questioned.
"The guy with the one eye." Finn replied before Bellamy took the gun back out of my hold and looked back through the scope. "Around his neck."
"What am I looking at?" Bellamy tilted the gun down slightly to look at Finn.
When Finn looked back at Bellamy, his eyes were as wide as saucers. "He's got Clarke's watch." Turning his head back to look through the scope, he further explained, "It was her Father's."
There was a mixture of horror and realization that came on Bellamy's face. "She wouldn't give that up without a fight."
I swallowed a limp in my throat at the fact at what they could possibly be doing to our friends. I couldn't even imagine what the Grounders were doing to them.
I looked back at Finn to see if I'd was going to say anything else, and he did. "Neither will we."
Raising his gun, Bellamy looked back through the scope of it to take another look at the one-eyed Grounder. After that, he wasted no time giving orders. "You three, stay here, out of sight." His eyes moved from Sterling to Monroe and then to me, but they lingered on me for a second longer. "If this thing goes south, take out the other Grounders. But don't shoot the Grounder with the watch. Copy?"
"What about Murphy?" Monroe asked with eyes on my brother.
"Yeah, do I get a gun now?" John remarked, causing me to roll my eyes.
Bellamy nodded. "Something like that."
When they went to move, I grabbed Bellamy's arm to stop him. My eyes glanced to John before they met Bellamy's. "What are you doing?"
Bellamy turned his head to look at John who's eyes were darting between Bellamy and me. "Don't worry. He'll be fine."
I gave Bellamy a slight nod, and with that, he grabbed hold of my brother. John, Bellamy, and Finn were off to catch the one-eyed Grounder. Once the three were out of sight, I turned back toward the Grounder camp and raised my gun. Giving Sterling and Monroe each a look, I mumbled, "He better be."
❣︎
Bellamy, Finn, and my brother had successfully kidnapped the one-eyed Grounder. We took him to some underground bunker Finn said he found when we first got to the ground. It was a small place, probably meant for a family that never got to use it. There was a couch, a small bunk bed, and a tiny little kitchen. A shelf was up against the wall containing canned food — all expired — and there was a small table in front of the couch, and toys were scattered on the table. It looked home-y — or a least it looked like it was trying to be home-y.
This place was definitely meant for a family. I knew this now because I noticed a small picture of a family on a nearby self. I picked it up, and held it in my hand like it was a piece of glass that could shatter at any moment. In the picture, there was a Mother and Father, two kids — one girl and one boy, looking to be about the same age. I smiled at the picture, the picture of a happy family before this world turned into hell. A small frown plagued my lips because it was a shame that they never got here.
"Where's the girl who was where this watch?" My thoughts were interrupted by Finn as my head snapped to him. His voice was filled with venom and hatred as he spoke, and his eyes were ablaze — you could practically see the fire in them as he held Clarke's watch up to the Grounder's face.
I carefully put the picture down back in its rightful spot on the shelf before walking back towards everyone. Through the interrogation Finn was holding, I must have subconsciously moved away from what was going on.
"I never saw a girl." The Grounder claimed with a bloody face. That was Finn. You wouldn't think it was Finn who had done the damage, but I was here, and I saw it with my own two eyes. Finn beat the Grounder, demanding that he tell him where Clarke was.
"Another lie." My brother spoke up from where he sat, with his forearms resting on his knees. "Maybe you should stop asking him nicely—"
"Shut up, Murphy." Bellamy hissed before turning to the Grounder. "Where are our friends? You took them. We know you did. Just tell us where."
The Grounder just rolled his eyes — well, the one good eye. It irked a nerve in me that he did that, like he didn't care. I knew he didn't, but it didn't make it any better when he openly displayed that.
Finn grabbed the handgun he had on him and spoke. "Murphy's right. We're wasting time." He took the butt of the gun and sent it into the Grounder's face — multiple times.
I sprung from my spot and started moving towards Finn. John got up just as quick and held an arm out that stopped my path, causing me to give him an annoyed look before pushing past.
By the time I got to Finn, Bellamy was already trying to hold him back. Finn kept letting out yells and demands that the Grounder tell him where Clarke was. "Hey. Finn, stop!" Bellamy still kept struggling to hold Finn back. "You don't want to do this. Trust me. There are some lines you can't uncross."
Bellamy got Finn to stop attacking the Grounder, and now he was calmer. Bellamy backed up and gave me a worried look. I nodded towards Finn, telling him nonverbally that I would try and talk to him. I walked up to Finn, steadying myself; I reached out my arm, trying to show Finn I didn't want to yell or have an outburst at him.
"Finn." I said softly. "This isn't you, Finn. You need to take a break and breathe."
Finn tilted his head up so his eyes could meet mine. When I looked into them, I didn't see the Finn Collins I knew at all. In his eyes, I saw fury, vengeance, wrath. Any word I could think of that meant anger was the emotions I saw in Finn's eyes.
For a split second, Finn's eyes turned soft and it seemed like I was actually getting to him, that my words were being processed in his mind. That was until he turned back around and started hitting the Grounder again. "Where's Clarke?!" Finn continued to yell and demand. "Where is she?!"
Bellamy came rushing past me in an attempt to stop Finn another time. "Finn!"
"Finn, stop!" I shouted, trying to get my voice loud enough to be heard over the sound of the gun hitting flesh. I came up behind Bellamy yelling, trying to get Finn to stop.
When Finn apparently had enough of Bellamy trying to hold him back, he did something unthinkable as he yelled, "Back off!" and pulled the gun on Bellamy, now pointing the firearm directly at his head.
My face turned to horror, as did Bellamy's before he calmly said, "Put down the gun, Finn."
The scene in front of me scared me more than anything I have ever seen on the ground because of the lone fact that one of us was touting in another. Finn was acting differently. There was no denying it at this point, but pulling a gun on someone's head — especially on someone he knew was something I thought Finn would never do. His actions had me staying frozen in my spot with my eyes darting between the two boys, trying to steady my breathing that had become heavy during all the chaos
There was a beat in between when Finn moved the gun's aim from Bellamy's head to the Grounder's. "Three seconds." Finn seethed out as I swallowed another lump in my throat. "Two! One."
"Okay." The Grounder gave in. "I'll tell you. Your friends are east of here. The village where we take our prisoners of war."
"East, where?" Finn urged. "How do we get to them?"
"I can draw you a map." The Grounder offered. "But you should hurry, soon they'll outlive their usefulness."
Finn lowered the gun from the Grounder's head. "Get him something to draw a map."
Monroe was the one that came forward and held out a piece of paper and a pencil for him to draw with. She set it down before backing away, and I took this as my chance to talk to Bellamy.
I moved over, closer to where Bellamy was standing, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see John walking towards us and his eyes were on Bellamy as he spoke. "You thought I was the crazy one, huh?"
Almost instantly, I lifted my left foot and sent a kick to John's shin. I hit him hard, but not hard enough for him to lose his balance and fall. I gave him a death glare as he walked away in surrender.
I grabbed Bellamy's arm and pulled him off to the side, away from everyone. "Bellamy..."
"I know." Bellamy said, seeming to know what I was going to say. "I know."
"What are we going to do?" I whispered. "This is Finn, but it's not him. He's going to do something that'll hurt us all."
Bellamy's eyes glanced to where Finn was pacing before asking almost rhetorically, "What do you suggest we do with him?"
I let out a deep breath. "Bellamy, he's a ticking time bomb. How long will it be until he goes off?"
I hated that I was referring to Finn as a 'ticking time bomb' because I knew that's not who he was, but losing Clarke, losing everyone, had turned him into something, something horrid. It's like a switch flipped — like someone flicked the switch that turned Finn from being the person who wanted nothing but peace and would barely even look at a gun, to someone willing to beat another person half to death and just pulled a gun on one of his friends. Finn had changed — war had changed him.
Bellamy let out an exasperated sigh before he answered my question. "Honestly, I don't know."