"Octavia?"
My head lifted up when I heard Bellamy's voice coming from outside of my tent. He sounded frantic. I got up, slipped on my jacket, and went to see him.
"Bellamy?" I said, making him turn around.
"Oh, Zen," he said, sounding relieved. He came over to me, the torch he was holding illuminating his facial features. His freckles were more noticeable than they normally were. "Have you seen Octavia?"
"No, not since we were in the woods with you," I answered. My words make Bellamy take a deep breath, worry filling his eyes once again. "She has to be here. I'll check the tents if you take the dropship." When I realized that I actually haven't seen Octavia in more than half a day, I was starting to get worried myself. Any grounder could've taken her on, she was weaponless. I went around to all the tents, opening the flaps, causing a few unhappy people to cuss at me. I just shrugged them off.
After half an hour, and all the tents searched, Bellamy came to the conclusion that she was missing. I helped him grab a bunch of weapons, and threw them in a pile in the middle of the camp.
"Hey everybody," Bellamy yelled, grabbing the attention from mostly the entire camp. "Gather around and grab a weapon. My sister's been out there alone for twelve hours. Arm up. We are not coming back without her."
I had already grabbed my bow and the arrows I got from Atom, and a knife I stuck in my belt. I watched as everyone picked a weapon of their choice, and gripping it tight. I saw Jasper grab one, and I went over to him.
"Jasper, you don't have to do this," I told him, seeing his nervousness. The last time we was outside the camp grounds, he found the fingers of Wells, and that ended badly. I didn't want him to think he owed Octavia or anyone. "You haven't fully left camp since we got you back. Don't feel obligated to do this."
"Zen, I need to do this," he told me, being completely serious. I patted his shoulder, giving him a small smile.
"We need all the people we can get," Bellamy said, giving Jasper a bit more confidence. I made a mental note to keep a watch on him, incase something happened.
"We need a tracker," I said, watching as everyone started to get ready to leave the camp. "Finn, get your ass out here."
After a little bit, and a stern talk to Clarke, he came over to me. He nodded at me as we went to leave, when Raven told us to stop and look up. I glanced into the sky, and saw a bunch of stars falling down. My stomach knotted, and I thought I was going to pass out.
"They didn't see the flares," Raven said, looking at me, disappointed.
"A meteor shower tells you that?" Bellamy asked her, obviously not connecting the dots.
"It's not a meteor shower," I stated, "it's a funeral. It's people being released into Earth. This is what it looks like from down here."
"They didn't get our message," Clarke said, sounding sad, just like me. I felt defeated, my idea didn't work. We wasted time, energy and resources for nothing.
"This is all because of you!" Raven screamed, pushing at Bellamy. I held her back, trying to keep chaos from erupting.
"I helped you find the radio," he answered back, looking annoyed. We were back to this again.
"Yeah, after you jacked it from my pod and trashed it!" Raven snarled, trying to get out of my grip. I kept a tight grip on her arms.
"Raven, he knows," I told her, causing her to relax slightly.
"Now he has to live with it," Clarke said, walking away.
"All I know is that my sister is out there and I'm going to find her," Bellamy said out loud. "You coming or what?" he asked Finn. He nodded, spitting out a quiet 'yeah'. "Well then what are we waiting for? Move out!"
We all started walking out of the camp walls, and I was walking beside Bellamy. His jaw was clenched, and he didn't take his eyes off of the trail in front of us.
"She's going to be okay," I told him, trying to reassure him, and also myself.
"What if she isn't?" he asked me, looking down with a scared look on his face. Before I could answer, one of the girls that was in Bellamy's tent the night Charlotte died, came in-between us, making me fall sideways. Finn caught me, and I gave him a small smile, that soon changed to a glare when I looked back at the girl who pushed me.
"I'll make you feel better, Bell," she said, hanging onto his shoulder. He didn't look interested at all, in fact, he looked disgusted. I didn't blame him.
"Hey, shark face, next time say excuse me before you push me down," I said to her, earning me a rude glance. She backed off of Bellamy and moved to the back of the group when she realized I wasn't going to stop staring at her until she did. I heard Bellamy sigh when she was gone.
"Thanks for that," he said, sounding relieved.
"I did that for myself, I already have terrible balance, I don't need that bitch messing it up even more," I told him, joking. He laughed, and it made me feel better when he smiled. This whole situation with Octavia was terrifying him beyond end.
After a good two hours of walking, we reached a small, but steep hill.
"Hey, look at this," someone called out, pointing to something hanging on a tree branch at the bottom of the hill.
"What is it?" Bellamy asked, running to the front to see what was the big deal.
"Right there, you see it?" the same kid asked, shining his light down on it. "Is that Octavia's?"
"Rope," Bellamy said, reaching his hand out for someone to pass it to him. Once he got a hold of it, he tied one end to a tree stump, then threw the rest of it down the hill.
"Bellamy, what are you doing?" I asked him, scared for what he had planned. He'd do anything for Octavia. Even if it was stupid.
"We need the rope to get back up," he answered. "Flashlight." The same guy that found this place handed him the light, and Bellamy started to go down the hill, holding the rope behind his back. He got to the bottom, and inspected the object on the tree.
"It's hers," he called up to us. "I'm going all the way down."
Jasper walked over to the start of the rope, and handed Finn his torch. He made his way down the hill, and one by one, everyone did the same thing. About five people in I was getting antsy, we didn't have time for this.
"Take this," I said to Finn, handing him my bow and arrow set. "I'm going down a different way."
"Zen, what the hell?" Finn said. I dove head first down the hill, my hands touching the ground first. I rolled forwards in a somersault like manner, and stood up at the bottom, a bit dizzy. Jasper grabbed a hold of me, keeping me steady. I looked back up at the hill, and saw Finn coming down with all the stuff. When he got to the bottom, he threw me my bow and the package of arrows.
"Just to let you know, I was going to keep your bow if your neck snapped," Finn joked, making me laugh.
We continued to walk, and I had made my way to the front once again, just behind Bellamy. When he stopped, I almost bashed into him like on the first day down here. He knelt down, and took a better look at the footprints that were on the ground.
"Some one else was here," Bellamy said. There was blood on the rock beside the print. Jasper, Finn and I took a closer look.
"The prints are deeper going that way," Finn said, taking a look behind and in front of us. "He was carrying her."
"If they took her, she's alive," Jasper said, "like when they took me." I looked back at him, and saw the scared look in his eyes. I grabbed his hand, and gave it a firm squeeze before getting back up, and walking forwards again. I needed to find Octavia.
We had only been walking a few minutes when we reached an opening in the woods. When more people with torches came, I noticed everything, and stopped walking. So did everyone else.
There were skeletons hung up on all the trees, bones scattered across the ground, and blood along every inch of the place. I shivered, holding back the urge to scream in terror and jump into someone's arm like Scooby Doo always did with Shaggy in those old TV shows.
"I don't speak grounder," Finn said, his voice shaking slightly, "but I'm pretty sure this means keep out."
"Lets get out of here, it's crazy."
"I'm outta here."
"Me, too."
"I'm out."
A ton of people were going back the way they came, and I contemplated doing the same thing, but then I saw Bellamy. His facial expression had a mix of anger, fear, and worry. He would stop at nothing to get his sister back, and I wasn't going to leave him alone.
"Go back if you want," he called out to everyone. "My sister, my responsibility. I'd walk into hell to find her."
"I think we just did," I said to him. He looked down at me, then nodded before he started walking off, me following close behind.
-
It was morning, and my legs were starting to give out from how tired I was. I had never had this long of a walk before, my body wasn't used to it.
"I got nothing," Finn said, "we lost the trail."
I looked over at Bellamy, who was still in agony from his missing sister. Hearing what Finn just stated didn't make it any better.
"Keep looking," Bellamy said, making sure everyone kept walking.
"Wandering around aimlessly isn't the way to find your sister," Finn told Bellamy, looking at the ground and the trees. There was no sign she was here. "We should backtrack."
"I'm not going back," Bellamy growled.
"Hey, where's John?" one girl said. I turned around, seeing that it was the girl that hates me. Roma, I think her name was. I heard her talking to somebody while we were walking. It was hard to believe she payed attention to anyone else except Bellamy.
Everyone was silent, frantically looking around to see if John was anywhere in sight. He wasn't, and my heart started beating fast. There was only one explanation as to where he went.
"I just saw him a second ago," Jasper whispered. I stepped closer to him, for his sake and my own.
"Spread out," Bellamy said, "he couldn't have gone that far."
Just as we were about to walk separate ways, a big thud landed in front of me. I looked down to see John right at my feet, his throat slashed. I stood there, breathing heavily.
"They use the trees," Finn said. I looked up at the tree lines, seeing the branches sway side to side. I let down my hair, throwing it behind me. I stood there, waiting for the wind to blow it, but nothing happened. The trees were moving because there were grounders in them still.
"We shouldn't have crossed the boundary," Diggs, someone I had met on this experience, said.
"Now can we go back?" Roma asked. I gave her a glare before Jasper started speaking.
"There," he whispered, pointing his weapon towards a direction in the trees. I looked over, and saw a grounder standing there, axe in hand. I gulped, trying to hold back a scream of terror.
"Another one," Diggs whispered, putting his hand on the small of my back, pointing to another person in the distance.
"We should run," Finn said. After a few seconds of us standing there, I decided to bolt. Everyone followed after me, and I gripped my bow in my hand, ready to attack when necessary. I've only ever shot animals, not an actual person. I didn't know if my skills were strong enough to take on humans.
After five minutes of running, the sound of rustling made me stop. Everyone behind me stopped as well, looking worried. I kept my eyes peeled, knowing that the grounders were closer than they were when we first started running. The second I turned my head to the right, something landed in front of me once again, but this time, they were standing up. I looked forwards, coming face to face with a grounder.
"Zen!" I heard Bellamy scream as I was hit upside the head with what appeared to be a rock, and I fell to the ground, black dots covering my vision. Finn helped me sit up, and I watched as the grounder tackled Bellamy once he noticed he was coming after him. Everyone else standing guard, and I stood up, aimed my bow, grabbed two arrows from my pack, and aligned them. I shot the first arrow, and hit the grounder in the calf. The second one was just centimetres away from hitting his head. I cursed to myself as I went to grab two more arrows, but froze when I saw Bellamy laying on the ground, about to get a knife lunged into his throat from the enemy standing above him.
I ditched my bow, looking for my knife. It wasn't in my belt. It must've fell out when I got knocked down. I looked over at Roma, who was holding an axe. She was just standing there, watching Bellamy, eyes wide.
"Give me that damn thing," I said to her, snatching the weapon and running towards Bellamy and the grounder.
The second the grounders arm shot up with a knife in his hand, I jumped forward, slicing down the axe. It went right through his neck, cutting his head off clean. I kicked his body, sending him away from Bellamy. He looked at me, perplexed. I grabbed his arm and helped him up. I gave the axe back to Roma before picking up my bow and finding my knife a few feet away from it.
"If any other grounders saw that, we're in trouble," I said to the group. They looked at me like I was crazy, but this time, in a good way. "We need to keep running. Let's go."
My assumption was right; the grounders were still chasing us. Everytime we went to turn right, they'd cut us off. Same with when we were turning left. Our group stopped again, just for a moment.
"What are we going to do? They keep heading us off," one of the guys said.
"Just keep running," another said.
"I can't run much longer!" Jasper called out. I ran the other way to get to him and help him stand up.
"I'm not stopping for him," Diggs said, continuing to run. I gave Jasper a sip of water, helping him catch his breath.
"I'm sick of running anyway," Bellamy said, out of breath.
"Hey what are you doing?" Finn asked him.
"They know where she is," Bellamy replied. By now, everyone else had stopped running and we were all standing in a small group. I hated that we were making ourselves easy targets, but if I did keep running, I'd pass out from lack of oxygen.
"Diggs? Where are you?" Roma called, starting to run again once she saw another grounder coming our way. Everyone started to run as well, but Roma was far up ahead. I heard her scream, and I started to panic.
"Wait, Roma, there could be more," Finn said, catching up to her. When I got to where he was, I saw Diggs. He had blood pooling out of his mouth, and a log with spears sticking from it lodged in his body. I nearly gagged at the sight.
"They were leading us here," Jasper stated. That made me feel worse. He was right. "It's the only direction we could run in."
"Hey, where'd they go?" Finn asked out loud, peering around. I did, too, and noticed there were no grounders around. Neither was Roma.
"They went after Roma," I answered. I started running in the direction she did, Bellamy following close after.
"There she is, Roma!" Bellamy called out. We had barely been running when we finally spotted her body behind a tree. Bellamy got there first, and from the look on his face, she wasn't okay. I went beside him, and saw Roma up against the tree, a spear stuck in her chest. I wasn't fond of the girl, but I felt bad this happened to her. Bellamy did, as well.
"They're playing with us," Finn inclined, looking around for any more traps or grounders.
"She only came because of me," Bellamy whispered, closing Roma's eyes for her. They had nothing special going on, but they did sleep together. He felt guilty. She probably would have never come if Bellamy didn't.
"They can kill us whenever they want," Finn whispered, keeping his voice down.
"Then they should get it over with!" Jasper screamed. "Come on! We know you're out there!" Almost instantly grounders appeared all around us. Finn, Bellamy and I ran to where Jasper was, and another girl, Monroe, was standing beside him. We all stood in a circle with our backs in the middle, weapons up high. I had just aimed my bow and was ready to shoot when a horn started blowing. The grounders then dispersed, running away from us. I put down my bow, confused.
"They're leaving," Bellamy said. We shared a look of worry together before looking back at the trees.
The horn blew again, and my heart jumped.
"That horn," Jasper said, "what does it mean?"
"Acid fog," Finn pointed out, already getting a tent out of his backpack.
"We have to run," Monroe stated, looking as scared as I did.
"There's no time," Finn said. I helped him get the tent together and in a matter of seconds all five of us where laying on the ground, the tent covering our heads. I was beside Monroe and Bellamy, and I was sure they could hear my heartbeat. This wasn't nearly as safe as the cave Bellamy, Charlotte and I were in when the fog first hit.
We waited there for at least half an hour.
"How long are we supposed to wait?" Jasper whispered.
"Will this even work?" Monroe asked.
"I guess we'll find out," I said to her. I hadn't heard anything brush against the tent. Hesitantly, my curiosity got the best of me and I lifted the tent above my head. I looked out, and saw a clear landscape.
"There's no fog," I stated, standing up. I threw my bow around my neck, and made sure my knife was still in my pocket.
"Maybe it was a false alarm," Finn said, stuffing the tent in his bag after everyone was standing up as well.
"They're coming back," Bellamy said, pointing to a grounder in the distance.
"I think he's alone," Jasper whispered.
"Now can we run?" Monroe asked. I silently agreed with her. I was scared shitless. The guilt of killing someone earlier hadn't even settled in yet.
"He doesn't see us," Bellamy said, gripping his axe. "I'm going after him."
"And do what, Bellamy? Kill him?" I asked, looking up. I wasn't going to let him do anything stupid. That would've save Octavia.
"No," Bellamy replied. "Catch him. Make him tell me where Octavia is, then kill him."
"How do we not know he's not leading us to another trap?" Jasper asked me as the two of us watched Bellamy take off in the grounder's direction.
"We don't," I told him truthfully, preparing myself for death.
We followed the grounder, and watched him slither between two rocks. He disappeared into the tunnel before we got to him, but we still went in. Bellamy went first, and lead us through the dark tunnel for about a minute. I heard chains rattling, and my heart sped. If I wasn't going to die from a grounder, I was going to die from a heart attack. Too much crap has gone down in this one day.
"Bellamy?" I heard someone say. It was Octavia. We had made it to an opening in the cave, and I walked in to see Octavia tied to the wall in chains, and a grounder laying on the floor with blood dripping from his head.
"Octavia," Bellamy sighed, running over to her.
"Get the key," she told him, her breath shaky. She must've been the one to hit the grounder.
"Monroe, watch the entrance," Bellamy said to her after unlocking the chains from Octavia's wrists. "It's okay, O. You're okay." He held her in a tight hug, then helped her stand up. I went over to her, and gave her a hug of my own.
"I killed someone to get to you," I told her, chuckling. She laughed, and hugged me tighter.
"How did you guys find me?" she asked, pulling away.
"Followed him," I told her, pointing to the unconscious person laying on the ground.
"We should go, now, before he wakes up," Octavia told us, getting ready to walk out. I was a bit stunned, she was going to leave him alive, untied. He could come back for her anytime.
"He's not going to wake up," Bellamy said, getting ready to kill the grounder.
"Bellamy stop," Octavia said, stepping in front of her brother. "He didn't hurt me. Just let it go."
"They started this," Bellamy snarled, the anger heating up his face. I noticed that Octavia was leaning against one foot more than the other. She had a wound on her leg, but I didn't know what it was from. It was healed, though. There was no more blood coming from it. The grounder helped her.
"Finn, move," Bellamy said, taking a hold of his axe. Finn was kneeling over the grounder, and checking out a horn that was hooked to his belt.
"Fog horn," Finn stated, running his fingers along the engraves around it. Before I could do anything, the grounder pounced up, stabbing Finn in the gut with a knife. He fell to the ground, and I ran over to him. He wasn't dead, and if we kept the knife in, there was a chance that he would live.
"Stop! That's my brother!" Octavia yelled to the grounder, who was now on top of Bellamy. He was gripping the axe that Bellamy held up, trying to hit him with it. I looked around frantically, trying to find something that would knock the grounder unconscious again, not kill him. Though he had just stabbed Finn, he showed mercy to Octavia. And I knew I would not be able to live with myself if I killed him.
"Zen!" Jasper shouted, tossing me a metal pipe. He had read my mind. I caught the metal tube, and went behind the grounder. With all the force I had, I swung, whacking the man on his head. He fell to the side with a thud, not moving. I looked down at Bellamy, who once again, looked at me perplexed. I guess tiny blondes that freak out over seeing people dead aren't known for taking out grounders. I had taken on two that day. I helped Bellamy up once again, and looked down at the grounder.
"Let's go, for real this time," I said to him. He nodded at me, and him and Jasper carried Finn, getting him out of the tunnel. I tore off a piece of my shirt, and wrapped it around the knife, hoping that would stop the blood a bit more. While we were walking back to camp, everything suddenly kicked in. I killed someone. Took his life. I looked down at my hands, which were covered in blood. Not from the grounder, but because of Finn. The sight still made me shiver, though. I couldn't believe I turned into this kind of person.
"Lose a little to save a lot," Bellamy said to me. I looked up, seeing his face. He was still carrying Finn, but his attention was on me. "Don't worry about one dead person, Zen. Worry about the other people you saved."
Lose a little to save a lot. Sounded rude and selfish, but down here, that's the only thing that keeps you sane.
Holy crap I fit a whole episode in this chapter, it's over 4k words O.O
Well 'Den' lasted two seconds (Diggs and Zen)
Again, thank you guys so much for all the support that you have been giving me and this story. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and the little Zellamy moment at the end :)
By the way, do you guys like Zen? What do you think of her?