The sky is pitch black, and we have been walking for hours now. Lexa, Bellamy, Cole, and Zoe are in front of the group, leading us on.
The only light in the dark forest comes from the moon shining overhead and torches burning everywhere. Thankfully, we haven't seen any earth people since we started walking, nor have we heard a single sound throughout the entire trip.
Elijah is slowing down, he's been carrying me for the entire hours that we have been walking, but he isn't leaving me behind. My head rests comfortably on his shoulder, I try to keep myself awake, I can feel a fever coming.
Lexa and Bellamy continue walking ahead, talking in hushed voices.
"I think there's a cave up there," Bellamy yells to the group from ahead.
"Well, let's go and find out!!" I hear Cole exclaim.
Bellamy leads the group toward a cave entrance and cautiously enters it. The rest of the group follows him, and we enter the cave. Elijah and I are the last to enter, he carries me in carefully. I see that everyone is huddled in small groups, and talking in hushed voices.
"We will stay here for the night," Lexa commands. "The grounders can't travel through the mountain, the cave system will protect us from them,"
The groups of people make themselves comfortable on the cave ground, some making jokes about how scary the cave was and others asking questions about the grounders.
I spot Logan, Zoe, and Bellamy sitting in a corner, and I gesture for Elijah to head over to them. Once we reach them, Elijah carefully rests me down on the ground, sitting me down on one of the smaller rocks that litter the cave floor.
"How are you doing, Kat?" Logan asks quietly, his voice laced with concern. I give him a weak smile.
"Not good. My legs are killing me, and I'm tired, and I just want my bed," I whisper.
My fever starts to get worse, and I feel as if I'm about to pass out. My body slips to the ground with a loud thud, I can't keep myself awake anymore.
"Kat?" Someone says shaking my shoulders.
"Katie, wake up!" Someone else says, their voice is ridden with worry.
My vision is blurry, and I can barely register who is talking to me, but I manage to make out their faces, and I recognize them instantly.
It's Logan and Elijah. I attempt to speak, but everything gets caught in my throat, and I choke on it causing me to cough uncontrollably. My head feels as if it is on fire.
"What's happening? Is she okay?" I hear somebody ask above me.
Before I can stop myself, I throw up all of the food that I ate earlier that day. The person helping me pulls a wet towel out of nowhere and wipes my mouth. After I'm done throwing up, my stomach begins to hurt more than before and I feel the bile rising up in my throat again. I try to open my eyes, but they just burn.
"I'll go get water for her.", I hear Elijah's voice say, then footsteps fade from hearing distance away.
The pain in my head gets unbearable and I start crying, "it hurts," I whimper.
I feel hands touch my forehead, "she's burning up! What happened?! Where did the medicine go?!" Somebody yells frantically.
I can hear running footsteps in the distance approaching us and I hear another set of heavy footsteps right behind me.
"She's burning up, her wounds must have gotten infected!" It's Lexa's voice.
"How bad?" Another voice asks, and that's definitely not Lexa. It's Logan.
"Bad, really bad, but she should make a full recovery once we get her some medicine and clean her wounds," Lexa replies. I hear more footsteps nearing us, followed by someone kneeling down beside me.
"Katie, come on sweetheart, open your eyes for me." I hear Lexa instruct.
After a couple of minutes, my eyes shoot open and I see Lexa standing a few feet away from me, a worried expression painted on her face.
"Can you sit up?", she asks me urgently.
I try to sit up but immediately start coughing again and my head falls back onto the ground with a sickening thud. I'm breathing heavily and feeling incredibly dizzy.
A hand reaches out and grabs mine, pulling me upright and holding me against him.
"Easy, easy," Logan murmurs, placing his hand over mine.
Elijah walks back with the water and reaches for me. He sits down and pulls me into him, my back is resting against his chest.
"Hey, no sleepin', Katie, you need to drink something, you're dehydrated, alright?", Elijah speaks up, but I don't answer. Instead, I just bury my head deeper into his chest as I try to get some comfort from his embrace. He kisses the top of my head softly.
"Kat, drink something. It's probably not safe to sleep yet."
I know exactly what he means.
I sip the water slowly, my hand still gripping Logan's tightly, and my back resting against Elijah's chest.
When I finish drinking, Lexa hands me some dry rags to wipe my mouth off and place the rag on the ground beside me.
"You sure you don't need anything? Your fever hasn't gone down any, so I'm going to put some ointment on those wounds and hope it helps," Lexa explains calmly as she moves to grab a small bowl filled with ointment and puts it beside me. I nod my head, knowing full well that there's no way I would ever be able to do anything with that fever still raging inside of me.
"Okay, we've got a little bit left," Lexa tells me gently, pouring the remainder of the ointment on my skin, "it might sting, but it will help, okay?"
I nod my head once again.
Lexa removes her hands, and the warmth she provides disappears instantly.
I lay my head back against Elijah's chest, the pain of the ointment going on my wounds is unbearable.
I start to feel my fever go down, and my wounds hurt less.
I feel my whole body relax into him, and he presses a kiss into the top of my head.
"Sleep now, I've got you." His soft tone is soothing, comforting, warm, comforting, comforting... calming... relaxing...
..................................................
I wake up to the feeling of someone running a finger along my side. A smile grows on my face when I realize that it's Elijah.
I turn my head slightly, and see that everyone is asleep.
I feel Elijah press a kiss onto the back of my neck, causing goosebumps to rise. I turn to look at him.
"Is this better?", he whispers into my ear. My heart skips a beat, and I swallow nervously. I nod my head shyly and gulp down a big breath.
He moves his lips to my ear again, "you need to take better care of yourself, Kat," he says.
I blush slightly and look down. "Sorry," I mutter.
He chuckles, "you have nothing to be sorry for, love,"
And I feel him move his hands onto my body, caressing my hair, my cheeks, the sides of my face, my arms and eventually moving them down to my breasts.
I feel like butterflies are fluttering around inside of me. When I don't respond or react to the touches, he reaches under my shirt and places his hands on my bare skin, which causes heat to spread throughout my entire body. He rubs slow circles on my sides and massages my breasts gently. The feel of his fingers against my skin is intoxicating.
Suddenly I'm hyper-aware of every part of my body. Every single sensation makes me feel alive. The heat between my legs is starting to build, and I don't even think I'm capable of speaking right now.
His hands wander lower and lower until they are rubbing circles into my inner thigh. I feel my breathing quicken and I gasp slightly, trying to hold back a moan.
Elijah smirks at me, and I can tell that he knows what effect he has on me, and I find that I don't mind too much. I can't help but close my eyes as he continues kissing my neck and collarbone while his hands continue roaming my body. Then I feel him press himself more firmly against me, and my eyes widen. He suddenly stops.
"...Do you like it?", he asks quietly, his voice husky.
I nod my head vigorously, still unable to form any proper sentences. All I managed to accomplish was nodding my head like an idiot.
He gives a soft chuckle, "good." He moves his lips to my neck again and starts sucking on it lightly. I moan quietly. I don't even think I'm breathing at this point, I'm just focused entirely on Elijah's lips on my neck, sucking hard, sending shivers down my spine.
His other hand reaches deeper into my pants, his fingertips touching my clit through the material of my panties.
I gasp loudly, my head falling back as I lose control over my muscles.
Someone clears their throat, and I notice it's Bellamy. All the color drains from my face, and I am seriously dying of embarrassment. Elijah quickly takes his hands off my body and turns to Bellamy who has an amused grin written all over his face.
"I didn't interrupt anything, did I?", Bellamy laughs. I feel my whole face flush red hot, and I want to die right then and there.
I can feel Elijah's gaze on me, but I can't bring myself to meet it.
"No," Elijah answers for me.
"Well good, because I wouldn't want to ruin the show," Bellamy replies, his words laced with sarcasm.
Elijah clenches his jaw, looking annoyed, and I watch the scene play out in front of me from the corner of my eye. Bellamy walks away, shaking his head slightly, obviously laughing at our current predicament.
My entire body feels numb from embarrassment, shame and shame alone. I wish I could disappear into thin air. This couldn't possibly be happening right now.
"Are you okay, Kat?", Elijah whispers, and I feel a light stroke on my cheek, bringing my attention back toward him.
"Yup," I lie.
Elijah looks skeptical, "no, you're not."
I sigh, "yes, I am."
Elijah sighs "Ignore Bellamy, I doubt he cares that he saw us being passionate, let him laugh his ass off, it doesn't matter," he assures me.
I shrug nonchalantly.
He brushes a strand of hair behind my ear and strokes my cheek, smiling slightly as I lean into his touch. I'm so damn attracted to him right now, if I didn't know any better I'd say my feelings for him were coming back stronger.
"You okay?", Elijah asks again.
I sigh.
"Yes," I reply. I lean my head back onto his chest, and he takes my hands in his, reaching forward.
Logan is the first one awake, he sits up straight and rubs his tired eyes.
He smiles and stretches as he yawns, then glances across at where I am leaning on Elijah's chest.
"Morning," Elijah answers.
Logan sends a death glare at Elijah and walks towards us.
"I better take her from you, I think you should go get some food for the rest of the camp," Logan says to Elijah.
He walks over to me and picks me up, away from Elijah.
As soon as I'm safely nestled into Logan's arms, Elijah comes back into view, he quickly wraps his hand around mine and gives me a slight squeeze before releasing my hand and getting up to leave. As he walks past us, I hear Lexa whisper something in his ear. He nods his head and smiles down at her before walking out of the cave. Lexa is awake too now.
"What were you saying to him?", Logan asks curiously.
"Nothing important." She responds with a smirk.
Logan shakes his head slightly as he sets me down on the rocky cave ground next to him. I immediately curl up against his bare torso and cuddle close to him. He holds me close to him while he leans forward and lays his forehead against mine.
"I'll never get enough of having you wrapped around me like this," he states with complete sincerity.
I smile at his compliment, "yeah, neither will I," I answer.
"How are you feeling?", he asks after a couple of minutes of silence.
I smile softly, "better, actually. My wounds hurt much less than yesterday."
He pulls me closer to him once again and plants a gentle kiss on the top of my head, "thank God," he mumbles, tightening his grip on me. " Now come here.", he adds.
A grin spreads across my face. "Why?", I ask with a small grin.
"Because you're beautiful, and it makes me happier to see you smile," he says as he lifts his chin to place another kiss on the top of my head. I let out a content sigh.
.......................................................
"I don't know about you, but I'm starving.", Lexa says after she has fully woken up.
Our massive group sits on the cave ground talking and laughing, joking around. Well, we're trying to anyway. It's not very easy when we are all exhausted from our recent experiences.
Cole stands up, "I'm heading out to gather some more berries. Any volunteers?", he asks the group, looking from person to person.
"I'll go!", Zoe shouts excitedly.
Lexa, Zoe, Elijah, and Logan raise their hands up. Of course, Logan is going, he is one of the smartest people I know, and can tell hundreds of berries apart. Elijah however, looks annoyed, and I can tell he doesn't want Logan going. They're brothers, why haven't they made up yet? Is this because of me? His mouth is set in a frown and his eyebrows are slanted. I know he is only getting berries to help feed me, Logan too.
Cole smiles, "Okay everyone, we'll only be gone for a couple of hours, don't worry."
He gives everyone a quick glance, then turns and leaves the cave.
As soon as he leaves we start whispering amongst ourselves. Everyone seems to be in the same state of tiredness. Except for Tiana and Lucy, whose excitement seems to be endless. They are constantly giggling and squealing.
I feel very lonely, Elijah, Cole, Logan, Lexa, and Zoe are all gone looking for berries. What kind of company am I supposed to have? My only source of entertainment is Tiana and Lucy. We don't really talk, and I can't imagine being friends with those two. I couldn't stand them on the space station, let alone on earth.
"Hey, Katie, sorry about this morning," Bellamy says as he sits next to me on the cave ground "That was weird, and wrong of me to be laughing at you and Elijah, uh, doing stuff,"
he adds quickly. I turn to look at him. His cheeks are bright pink and he avoids making eye contact with me.
"It's okay", I assure him.
Bellamy laughs nervously and runs his hand through his messy brown hair, messing up the strands even further.
"So... do you need something? you look kinda hungry," Bellamy asks awkwardly.
I bite my lip as I try not to laugh.
"Yeah, I guess I haven't eaten dawn," I admit, feeling my hunger growing.
"Well let's find somewhere to eat then," Bellamy offers. "I'm sure Lucy won't mind sharing some of her breakfast with us."
I shake my head "Nah, I'll feel horrible if I take her food, and I doubt she would even share some with me," I explain.
"Alright then, we'll go hunt for breakfast then, it'll be fun, plus you can learn what hunting techniques are," Bellamy suggests enthusiastically.
"Yeah, let's do that," I reply with a faint smile.
I stand up, and the pain in my ankle has subsided. It still hurts a lot, but it's bearable enough for me to walk.
Bellamy chuckles, grabbing a hunting rifle before wrapping his arm around my waist.