THE SCREAMING WAS DRIVING EVERYONE IN THE CAMP CRAZY. Ever since they had rescued Jasper, he had not stopped screaming. None of them could get any sleep, especially Clarke since she was tending to his every need every single time he screamed, which was all the time. Ivy, Wells, Finn, Enzo, and Monty were al watching as Clarke took out a knife. "Hold him still. I need to cut away the infected flesh."
"Stop it!" Octavia shrieked as she came running into the drop ship. She saw what Clarke was doing, and her eyes widened. She kneeled down next to her and shook her head. "You're killing him."
"She's trying to save his life," Finn corrected, but judging by the sounds that Jasper was making, he was not very excited by the procedure. Ivy and Wells struggled to hold the boy down as he squirmed, and Clarke was trying her hardest not to mess up because of his moving.
Of course, Bellamy walked in next, and he shook his head, ever the pessimist. "She can't."
"Back off," Wells told him, and he stood up, leaving Ivy to hold Jasper down on her own. Luckily, Monty and Enzo took his place and put their weight down on the Jordan boy to keep him from moving too much.
Everyone in the room glared at the Blake boy, including his sister. They did not almost get mauled by a panther for him to die. What was the point of that? "We didn't drag him through miles of woods just to let him die."
"Kid's a goner. If you can't see that, you're deluded," Bellamy continued, and his negative energy was not helping the situation at all. If he was going to be like that, he could get out. "He's making people crazy."
"Sorry if Jasper's an inconvenience to you, but this isn't the Ark. Down here, every life matters," Clarke informed him, and it was true. The faster their numbers declined, the more likely it was that they would not survive down there.
The older boy just gestured to Jasper like it was obvious that he was going to die and there was no point in believing anything else. "Take a look at him. He's a lost cause."
"Octavia, I've spent my whole life watching my mother heal people. If I say there's hope, there's hope," the Griffin girl assured her since it was obvious that she was very worried.
"This isn't about hope, it's about guts. You don't have the guts to make the hard choices. I do. He's been like this for three days. If he's not better by tomorrow, I'll kill him myself," he announced. He turned to leave but not before calling to his sister, "Octavia, let's go."
She shook her head. "I'm staying here."
"Fine," he muttered, and he seemed kind of let down by the fact that not even his sister would listen to him. He turned to the redheaded girl and gestured with his head to the outside. "Bishop, let's go. I'm taking a hunting party out, and you're coming with us."
Ivy stood up quickly. Despite the fact that she would rather die than willingly spend time with Bellamy Blake, she could not spend another minute bent over Jasper and listening to him scream. It just was not her thing. She followed him quickly out of the drop ship after shooting an apologetic look at Enzo.
"Thought you could use some rescuing from that awful situation," he commented once they got outside and out of earshot.
Despite the fact that she was grateful, she rolled her eyes at him, still so confused why he always picked her to talk to. They traveled to his tent where he had been keeping all of the weapons to get some for the party, and she glanced at him. "I don't need you to rescue me."
"Clearly. You kicked Murphy's ass the other day," he responded as he pulled out a bag and held it out to her so that she could take her pick before everyone else got to them. "Where'd you learn to fight like that? That's not exactly a class on the Ark."
"I picked it up somewhere," she answered, not feeling like opening up about her dad to him. She pulled out a couple of knives and rolled them around her hand while remembering the last time she had a knife in her hand and what happened.
"Fight me," he blurted out, and she froze. He reached over and grabbed the daggers from her before pacing them on the ground along with a bag. He assumed a fighting stance, a flawed one at that, and gestured for her to come at him. "Come on."
She stared at him in disbelief. He was not doing that right then. Did they not have a hunting party to get to? She shook her head at him. "You do not want to do this."
"You scared?" he challenged, and even though she knew exactly what he was doing, she was not going to take that. She sighed before grabbing the hair tie on her wrist to pull her hair back and assuming a correct fighting stance. She raised her eyebrows at him, waiting for him to make the first move.
He swung at her, and she was quick to defend herself. She blocked his punch easily and grabbed his wrist, using him falling forward as momentum to twist his arm and flip him onto his back. He groaned when he anded, and she stood above him, grinning down at him. She tilted her head curiously. "I did not expect it to be that easy. Hm."
She then grabbed the bag of weapons and walked out of the tent with the Blake boy propped up on his elbows and staring at her in disbelief. Where the hell did she learn how to do that?
《✤》
A BOAR OINKED A COUPLE YARDS AWAY, OBLIVIOUS TO THE PRESENCE OF THE TEENAGERS. Bellamy hushed them all when they started whispering and whispered something about it being his kill. Ivy rolled her eyes but obeyed. Suddenly, a twig snapped from behind them, causing Bellamy to throw the ax in his hand behind him and the boar to start running.
"Get him!" someone yelled, and the hunting party began running after the animal while Bellamy, Ivy and Atom all stayed behind because the Blake boy's axe had narrowly missed a small girl standing behind them.
Why Bellamy decided to chuck the ax behind him at the sound of a twig, Ivy did not know, but he was lucky that he did not kill the poor little girl. She seemed to be about twelve. "Who the hell are you?"
"Charlotte," the girl answered Bellamy.
"I almost killed you," the Blake boy informed her, even though she was pretty aware of that fact considering that the axe was implanted in the tree about 2 inches away from her face. "Why aren't you back at camp?"
Charlotte shrugged, and she seemed really scared. She glanced back in the direction of camp as she stammered out, "Well, what with that guy who was dying, I just... I couldn't listen anymore."
"There's Grounders out here. It's too dangerous for a little girl," Atom informed them, and Ivy was very close to punching him when he glanced at her when he said that. He knew good and well that she could kick his ass if she wanted to.
The girl did not like his statement either. "I'm not little."
"Okay, then..." Bellamy said as he crouched down in front of her and pulled a knife out of his pocket. He held it up for her to take, and she did. "But you can't hunt without a weapon. Ever killed something before?" Despite what he was saying, his voice was gentle, and Ivy was shocked about how he was with little kids. He was so mean to the people at camp. Charlotte shook her head, and he continued, "Who knows? Maybe you're good at it."
They met back up with the hunting party who had failed to catch the boar that ran away, and they continued the hunt. Ivy tried her best to teach Charlotte how to throw a knife without screaming at her. She was neither patient nor good with kids. At some point, Bellamy took over because he could see the Bishop girl getting frustrated.
Their trip was interrupted when a light green fog appeared in the distance. With furrowed eyebrows and panicked looks, the whole party started sprinting away, knowing that it could not be good. Bellamy shouted and pointed as he led the way. "Come on! There are caves this way."
A horn started bellowing in the distance, kind of concerning Ivy as they ran. At some point, she noticed that she, Atom, Bellamy, and Charlotte had gotten separated from the group. Atom was running behind all of them, and they ran toward a cave as the horn continued to play loudly.
They finally made it to one of the caves, and Bellamy pushed Charlotte inside after moving a rock covering the opening out of the way. He turned around to let Atom in, and he realized that the boy was no longer with them. He searched the fog frantically, but it was getting scarily close. Ivy groaned, knowing that he was about to get them all killed, and she shoved him inside the cave and moved the rock back.
They were safe for now.