Andromeda crouched down in the North foxhole with her weapon at the ready. Next to her, Sterling readied his weapon.
"Any sign of them?" she asked him.
Sterling shook his head, "No. Nothing. It's like there taunting us."
"They are."
Andromeda saw movement to her left. Grounders.
"Sterling, radio Bellamy," she barked at him.
She trained her sights on one Grounder when another walked into her view. She switched targets but before she could steady her line of fire another Grounder appeared. She pulled back from her sights. There were many Grounders just running around South of the wall. Next to her, a shot went off. She could hear Bellamy's voice coming over the radio but she couldn't make out what he was saying. All around her shots were fired at the Grounders. She let out two shots and hit one of the Grounders sending him sprawling to the ground. She didn't know if he was alive or dead.
Once the Grounder was shot, the rest of them disappeared. Andromeda swiveled around in the foxhole to try to catch a glimpse of them.
"Where'd they go?" she asked Sterling.
"I don't know. They just vanished."
Andromeda cursed under her breath before turning to address the rest of the south foxhole, "Keep your eyes peeled. They're waiting for us."
As soon as she said this, Grounds reemerged from the shadows. They seemed to have multiplied. There were at least fifteen on their side alone. Andromeda didn't want to think of how many actually surrounded them.
Sterling unloaded a clip into the running Grounders hoping to hit something. As the Grounders ran to the right one of them tripped one of the few mines that Raven and Jasper set up in the field.
"Raven our mines actually work," Jasper yelled over the radio.
Blood and pieces of flesh rained down on the foxhole covering them in what was left of the Grounder.
"Jasper we need you to get to the drop ship. Now!" Clarke's voice rang out over the radio.
"Negative, I can't lose a gunner," Bellamy replied.
Andromeda snatched the radio from Sterling, "Jasper go, those lands are mined. It'll be fine."
Andromeda trained her sights on the field in front of her and frowned. The Grounders weren't attacking them. She thought this was just taunting but it was actually strategy. She looked to the empty clips next to her and cursed.
"Dammit don't shoot people. The Grounders aren't attacking but making us waste bullets. Don't shoot when they're running laterally," she shouted into the radio.
Bellamy's voice answered, "Andromeda's right. Do not fire unless you are sure it attack. Repeat, do not fire unless you are sure it is an attack."
All was quiet after this command. Andromeda lowered her gun to get a better look at the surrounding area. It was almost like they were called off, as if they knew. Shouts reached their ears and Andromeda saw Grounders running at them.
"Fire," she muttered to the South foxhole.
Andromeda fired into the oncoming onslaught of Grounders and they dropped beneath her bullets. There were too many.
"Pull back," she shouted at them.
A Grounder leapt over the foxhole to fight them. She ducked under their sword that passed over her head and shot him right in the heart when she came up. Before she could recover a Grounder tackled her to the ground. He punched her face but when he made to decapitate her with his sword, she rolled out from under him and kicked his knee out. She rolled to standing and took her gun and shot him in the head. She pulled the trigger once more but only clicking sounds came out of it.
She cursed and picked up the Grounder's sword eyeing it warily. Her father's words about her use with blade's rang in her ears and she almost laughed. A Grounder came at her. She ducked under his swing and came up to find her sword clanging against his. She grunted and fell back at the force of his swing but stopped the next attack. She hit his blade with hers and caused it to fall by his side. With a mighty swing she brought her sword forward and removed the Grounder's head from his body.
Sterling had disappeared and no one else from the foxhole was in sight. Andromeda sprinted toward the tunnel that she knew would lead to the heart of camp. As she ran, she tripped and fell on her face. Turning over, she didn't see a Grounder but the face of a dead kid that belonged to her group. Andromeda didn't have time to mourn. There would be many more dead bodies before the sun rose. She scrambled to her feet and ran into the tunnel.
When she came out of the tunnel she was met by no more than sixty of the hundred. They'd lost twenty people already. She looked frantically around but didn't see Octavia or Bellamy. She heard the shouts of the onslaught coming. Guns fired in all directions as the guns who still had ammo fired into the crowd.
"There are too many! Everyone in the drop ship, now!" Miller shouted.
Clarke came up behind Andromeda, "No! We need more time."
Andromeda nodded at her before yelled at the sixty kids, "Gunners stay at your posts! We fight until the last man! Everyone else, inside."
Clarke began to usher in the people who couldn't fight anymore while Andromeda stayed to oversee the gunners she had trained so well that she believed that they could do this until they had to or that they died.
A loud explosion boomed over their heads. All fighting ceased. Andromeda looked up at the sky to see a ball of fire fall from the sky.
"Is that from the Ark?" she asked Clarke.
Clarke shook her head, "That is the Ark."
The Ark exploded upon reentry into the atmosphere. Pieces of it littered the sky and lit up the battlefield.
"Take down the gate," Andromeda heard from outside.
She tried to shoo Clarke into the drop ship and she gripped her sword tighter in her hand. Before an assault could be made, whooping and chanting could be heard entering the fray. Silence. Everything suddenly stopped. There seemed to be a silent fight going on outside before the real one broke out again. There were sounds of a battle outside the gate but no attack on the gate. Andromeda thanked whatever it was that bought them a little more time.
Rustling sound came from the left tunnel entrance to the camp. Andromeda shoved Clarke behind her and readied her sword. Finn burst through the undergrowth and looked relieved when he saw the two girls, especially Clarke. Clarke shoved past her and ran into Finn's open arms. The two of them went into the drop ship and left Andromeda and her gunners to defend the gate.
"Now to the wall!"
Andromeda drew in a great, deep breath and readied herself for her final stand. Gunners dropped left and right before she saw hooks coming over the wall. The Grounders scaled the wall and hopped into camp. Final fighters stood around her as the gate collapsed in front of them.
Grounders rushed in and she and the fighters charged them. They collided with great force. Blood flowed everywhere and sprayed in her eyes but she did not stop wildly swinging her sword.
"Alright, Jasper did it, everyone get inside now!" Clarke shouted at them.
Andromeda fought her way back as she made sure her people got inside the drop ship first. One Grounder seemed to charge her. His was big and tall with the air of being the general in charge of the assault. She wouldn't let him get to the drop ship. She ran at him and their swords met echoing in the night. He shoved her down to the ground but she rolled to her feet in time to meet his blade again.
"Bellamy, run!"
If she had looked around to find him she would have died.
"Andromeda, go!" she heard his voice ring out over the chaos.
Without hesitating to his command, she spun on her feet and sprinted toward the drop ship. When she got to the door, she turned expecting to find Bellamy behind her but instead she saw him fighting the Grounder she had been fighting. The Grounder's first pummeled into his face and Andromeda realized that the Grounder was killing him. Bellamy wasn't going to win.
"Bellamy, no!" she shouted.
Andromeda took one step forward before both Miller and a gunner grabbed onto her arms to stop her. She thrashed against them as she watched Bellamy be beat to death. Finn rushed to him to aid him. She watched as the Grounder beat both Bellamy and Finn. Miller dragged her into the drop ship as she screamed. It was the worst thing that she had ever felt. Andromeda felt as if her heart was being pulled out of her chest by an invisible hand. Tears streamed down her face as Clarke closed the drop ship door.
A body collided with Andromeda's who rolled away from the newcomer. Grounder Princess had gotten into the drop ship. She glared at the intruder who was ready to lunge into a hopeless battle that she would die from.
"Jasper now!" Clarke shouted at him.
Jasper flipped a switch but nothing happened. He looked up in fright. The whole drop ship shook with the force of the assaulting Grounders as Jasper tried again and again to ignite the engines.
"Anya, you can't win," Clarke tried to reason with her.
Anya wouldn't have it. She screamed and swung her swords around until Miller knocked her down. The rest of the hundred screamed and began to attack her. Andromeda forced her way through the crowd trying to see through her tears. She reached Jasper and slammed her hand down over the switch as hard as she could and broke the switch under her palm. Whatever she had done, worked.
Rumbling broke out under their feet and everyone in the drop ship was thrown to the ground. A sob escaped Andromeda's mouth as she lay on the floor. Her body shook with her crying as they were lifted in the air by the hydrazine. It took a minute for them to kill three hundred people. When they landed, the drop ship shuttered under the force and everyone got up to see what had happened.
She pushed her way to the front to stand next to Clarke. The two girls still had tears streaming down their faces when the drop ship door opened. Andromeda was reminded of when the drop ship door opened for the first time on Earth but now it was not like that at all. The sun had just risen over the horizon and illuminated the ash that covered everything. The smell of burnt flesh filled her nose as she stepped down onto the ash-covered ground. Under her foot, a skull cracked and broke as she made her way into the camp. Andromeda stood emotionless in the sunlight. No more tears fell down her face as she stared at the wreckage they caused.
Andromeda left her heart outside of the drop ship door. When she ignited the engines she burned the only piece of her heart left.
A canister landed next to her foot and it immediately began emitting red smoke that caused her to gag and cough. Andromeda felt her eyelids grow heavy. She tried to fight the fatigue and stumbled away but didn't make it far before she collapsed on the ground. As darkness took her, the last thing she remembered was being thankful for the relief from thinking about how she had been the one to kill three hundred people. And in that three hundred, she killed the man she thought she could love.