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THE STARS SHONE LUMINOUSLY above her as she made her way back to camp. Jinny thought a walk would be cathartic, but she was wrong. It made her wistful and she didn't like that, she didn't want to feel anything resembling melancholia. But the dirt, the humidity, the darkness and the silence seemed to close in on her with every breath she took and she found herself resenting it all. She blamed the Chancellor, her father, everyone on the Ark who was privy to the knowledge that life support was failing.
Most of all, she blamed herself.
The Ark had been where she grew up, it was her home and she still thought of it that way. She missed being amongst the stars that twinkled dimly in the night sky. Up there, she could see all their brilliance as they floated in the eternal mystery of never ending space. Sometimes she imagined what it would be like to explore that boundless territory, seeking for new life and worlds beyond their wildest imaginations.
Instead, they returned to Earth—a planet they had almost destroyed and refused to give up on.
Jinny's thoughts wandered back in time, to another age when things were less convoluted and fragile. The memories felt like brittle bone that would crumble to dust at any second.
It was night, or their concept of night, when the temperature seemed to lower and calls for curfew ran throughout the ship. Some, like her, never obeyed those calls and she snuck out of the room she shared with her father to walk the empty corridors like a wandering ghost. The thin soles of her canvas shoes made no sound as her light footsteps crossed the metal floor. She rounded the corner and walked towards the observation window, leaning against the railing in front of it.
The steady hum of machinery surrounding her was calming, like how story books described the crash of ocean waves. She hugged herself, rubbing her arms through the thin fabric of her black turtle neck. Then there was a flicker in the faint reflection from the glass and she smiled when she felt his familiar presence standing behind her.
"I can smell you from a mile away," she told him.
"I had a shower before coming here, okay," he told her and she chuckled.
"Sure, and I—" Jinny let out a strangled cry as the older boy grabbed her arm into a lock and his elbow hooked around her neck. He knocked the back of her knee and she felt her leg give in as she dangled on to his choke hold with clawed hands. She heard his deep throaty laugh rumble next to her ear, sending her hairs bristling.
"Bellamy, I am going to murder you in your sleep!" she exclaimed.
"Rule Two." He smirked. "Never let your guard down."
He released his hold on her and she regained her balance to spin around, smacking him on the arm. His eyes were filled with mischief as he continued to laugh at her expense. After a moment, she couldn't resist the infectious mirth that escaped her own lips. Bellamy leaned his back against the railing next to her, hands deep in the pockets of his jacket.
"I figured out the code you gave me," he said proudly.
"Yeah, you want a prize for that?" she smirked widely at him.
"I could do with some new shoes." He grinned and she rolled her eyes in good humour.
"How's O?" she asked.
"You know how she is," he sighed. "Miserable. Restless. Wishing she was never born to begin with. I wish I could do something more for her."
"We could sneak her out at night," she told him. "We could bring her here."
"I think she'd like that."
Jinny stopped, feet crunching against the detritus that lined the forest floor. She blinked and looked around at the sound of frantic yelling, starting towards the direction with her blade drawn. The rabbit she had hunted earlier rested on her shoulder as she crept forwards through the dense foliage. The girl sighed in exasperation and sheathed her knife when she saw that it was just Atom—hanging from a tree.
They stared at each other for a couple of awkward seconds before speaking at the same time.
"Please help me."
"What are you doing?"
Jinny crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. At least she knew he didn't put himself there on purpose. Atom wriggled his body, trying to communicate his plea to her with his eyes alone, and she had to laugh in amusement. Whoever put him there had tied him up by the hands and the only thing he could do was to kick his feet about in the air.
"Tell me how you got up there in the first place and I'll help you down," she said.
He looked at her with despondence as she waited expectantly. After almost a minute of silence, she shrugged and started to walk back to camp. "Okay, then."
"No, no, no, wait!" he called anxiously. "I—uh... got in trouble with Bellamy."
"Oh," she intoned, then went back to him. "Well, that's reason enough for me."
"You don't want to hear the rest?" he asked as she set her rabbit on the ground and started to climb the trunk of the tree.
"You gonna tell me anyway?" she retorted, grabbing hold of a branch above her head.
"He's really protective of his sister," he merely said.
Jinny snorted. "No kidding."
She reached a branch that was level to him and pulled out her knife to cut the rope loose. Atom fell to the ground and let out a pained groan as he crumpled into the dirt. "Oops... sorry!" She peered down at him as he started to pick himself up. Jinny was just about to climb down when her periphery vision caught movement in the canopy opposite her. She paused and stared at the spot, straining her eyes against the sea of darkness that enveloped them like a fog.
"Hey, are you okay?" Atom asked cautiously from below.
She continued to train her gaze on the tree top for three long seconds before looking back down at him. Atom was frowning at her peculiar behaviour and she quickly made her way back down to level ground. Jinny picked up her rabbit and with one final look at the leaves, she pushed Atom along in a hurry.
They could see the flickers of torches darting around the perimeter of the camp and everyone was sitting around the firepit in the middle. She sniffed, smelling the aroma of cooked meat wafting through the air and Atom looked around hungrily for its source. Eventually, they found it—actual food waiting for them. Jinny went up and gingerly picked up a skewer with a chunk of meat resting on it. She eyed it dubiously and looked around, noticing the pile of wristbands that littered the base of the crackling flames.
"What is it?" she wondered out loud.
"Some kind of panther," John told her, sitting with his gang on the ground to her left. "Bellamy and the others brought it back. It was huge."
Speaking of the man himself, she saw him tear through the undergrowth and stomp in her direction. Without even a word or warning, he grabbed her wrist roughly and started to pull her away from the others. Jinny felt her heart jump up to her throat at the sudden aggressive treatment and his touch on her skin was intrusive. She struggled against his tight grip until he finally let go of her when they were a good distance away from camp.
"What the hell was that about?!" she asked furiously, having half a mind of stabbing him with her skewer.
"Where the hell have you been?" he demanded in an equally fiery tone. "Never mind that you cut Atom down to undermine me."
"Wow, get your head out of your ass, Bellamy," she scowled. "The damn universe doesn't revolve around you."
"Where did you go?" he questioned forcefully.
"I went for a walk, okay?" she nearly shouted. "You're not my father to be keeping tabs on me anyway!"
He lunged forwards and grabbed her wrist again, leaning in close to her face. She could see the anger roiling in his eyes from the faint light of the moon, whilst the rest of his face was thrown into shadow. His hair had grown unkempt and wild, making him look like a lunatic that just escaped from lockup.
"Will you stop manhandling me?!" she snapped, face contorting into a mask of rage.
"It's dangerous out there," he hissed. "You could have gotten yourself killed."
"I can take care of myself," she replied icily.
"We found the boy that was taken," he told her. "The Grounders patched him up and strung him to a tree as bait for us."
She felt her blood run cold at what he was telling her. Paranoia started to seep into her veins along with the dread and her body felt hypersensitive to her surroundings. Bellamy leaned in closer and she could feel his warm breath fan across her face. His hold on her arm turned to an uneasy comfort as her mind wandered back to the movement she thought she saw in the trees earlier.
"They're hunting us, Jin."
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