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LONE WOLF
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THE DEW DROPS HUNG LIKE MORNING GEMS as the sunrise rode out across the land in all its glory. They had been walking for hours, Jinny's feet hurt and the bag strap was now digging uncomfortably into her shoulder. Her entire body ached with fatigue and anxiety as they followed Finn's tracking through the undergrowth. They had reached a patch of woods that was painted almost completely in green, mossy tendrils running rampant over damp wood.
"I got nothing," Finn said in defeat. "I lost the trail."
The soft foliage and knotted roots all along the ground would definitely have camouflaged any tracks the Grounder made through this way. Jinny sighed as Finn paused momentarily to gain their bearings.
"Keep looking," Bellamy told him.
Jinny turned her gaze upwards when she thought she heard a rustle overhead, but all she could see was the sun speckled leaves that clustered all around them. The warmth from the dawn was a welcome change from the previous night's cold though.
"Wandering around aimlessly isn't the way to find your sister," Finn said. "We should backtrack..."
"I'm not going back," Bellamy said aggressively.
"Hey," Roma suddenly interrupted. "Where's John?"
Jinny whirled around and scanned their group, finding that the boy had mysteriously vanished. Unease started to settle on her brows, and she gripped her spear tighter as she strained her senses.
"I just saw him a second ago," Jasper said breathlessly.
"Spread out," Bellamy suggested. "Couldn't have gotten that far."
"Be careful," Jinny called out as the kids started heading off in different directions.
A nagging feeling inside her head was telling her that something wasn't right. Just as she was about to join the search for the boy, he fell down onto the ground right in front of her. She cursed out loud, drawing everybody's attention towards John's lifeless body. His unseeing eyes stared back at her, a deep gash running across his throat as blood spewed out of the gaping wound. Finn ran forwards to examine the damage, then looked up into the canopy.
"They use the trees," he said to Bellamy.
"No, really? I never would have figured that," Jinny retorted sarcastically. "Thought they threw him from a catapult and landed right at my feet!"
He shot her a small glare in consternation.
"We shouldn't have crossed the boundary," Diggs said, his face pale.
"Now can we go back?" Roma asked.
"There," Jasper suddenly spoke softly. He pointed his stick out in front of him. "Right there."
Jinny followed the direction that he indicated and found a figure standing in the distance between the slender trunks of the deciduous trees. From the posture, she could tell that it was a man wielding axes in both hands. He looked like he was ready to run head long towards them- a predator hunting for prey.
"Another one," Diggs said, looking at the opposite side where a figure was running through the bushes with what looked like a sword and shield.
All around them, more adversaries were making themselves known by standing out in the open. It felt like they were taunting them, trying to rile them up with their menacing presence.
"We should run," Finn suggested.
"For once," Jinny muttered. "Good idea."
Bellamy glanced at her before they took off in opposite directions at the same time. The figures gave chase immediately, darting and meandering easily through the woodland terrain. Jinny jumped over logs and sidestepped exposed roots that twisted like menacing hands to grab hold of her. Her breath came out in anxious gasps, adrenaline rushing through her veins like an injection of sulfuric acid.
Their group eventually converged together in a single file line with Bellamy in the lead. The Grounders continued to pursue them from every possible direction. The mossy foliage beneath their feet flourished without care to their peril.
"What are we gonna do? They keep heading us off!" Diggs shouted.
"Just keep running!" Finn responded.
"I don't think I can last much longer!" Jasper shouted from the back.
"I'm sick of running anyway," Bellamy said, stopping abruptly and turning around.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Finn reached out to grab his arm.
"Bye, good luck!" Jinny called out as she zoomed past. She managed to catch a glimpse of Bellamy's exasperated expression.
"I'm not stopping for him!" Diggs yelled behind her.
She continued to run as fast as her feet could take her, going through a section of the forest where the barks were browner and less accumulated with heavy lichen. There was a sudden loud whistle that made her stop in her tracks. Jinny turned to the side and squinted her eyes to look out for its source. There was a Grounder sitting in one of the trees, camouflaged amidst its thick leaves, a hand cupped over his mouth. He whistled once more just as Diggs ran past.
The boy had only made it to twenty meters in front of her when he seemingly tripped and stumbled. In the next two seconds, a large wooden arm swung out of nowhere and impaled him in the chest with a metal rod attached to it. Jinny gasped out loud as she started in shock. That would have been her if not for the Grounder whistling. She changed course and sprinted into the trees on her left.
"Diggs?! Jinny?!" She could hear Roma calling, before a shrill scream rang throughout the woods.
Jinny searched the canopy and the never ending green haze of the thicket. She had no idea which direction was which anymore when she detected movement on the right corner of a large tree. She picked a stone up from the ground and threw it in that direction, earning a sharp cry for her accuracy.
"Stop hiding from me!" she yelled. "I know you're there! You helped me! Now tell me where's Octavia! Where is my friend?!"
The Grounder leapt onto the branch of another tree with impressive skill and dexterity, getting lost between the leaves once again. She followed relentlessly, running tirelessly on the ground below. Then there was another cry- this time of panic- and the Grounder fell, hanging upside down in front of her path.
Jinny screamed, and so did the boy who watched helplessly as she barrelled towards him. At the last second, she threw her body to the ground and skidded along the mud packed detritus. There was a grunt of pain as the boy fell down, and he was already running away when Jinny picked herself off the forest floor. She mentally cursed herself for forgetting to pick up her spear, and quickly patted her back to make sure her knife was still in place.
"Hey, come back here!" she shouted.
"Gon we!" he yelled back. "Bants ai solou!"
"I don't know what the hell that means!" she called as she ran after his figure again.
"Jinny?! Roma?!" Bellamy called from somewhere in the distance.
She looked around hastily, finding that she was still alone in the forest. The other Grounders were probably preoccupied with the main group. Suddenly, she saw Roma dash through the trees on her right and she was about to call out when a foot came out of nowhere to trip her. Jinny fell to the leaf covered ground with an unamused grunt. She looked up to glare at the Grounder boy she had been chasing earlier.
He was taller than average with a muscular physique and tanned skin. His dark hair was cut short, eyes a soft warm mahogany, with a crooked jaw. His clothes were made of heavy leather and thick furs, a triangle painted on both sides of his cheeks with dark red paint. He held a finger up to his lips and indicated with a flick of his eyes to the side.
Jinny's gaze swivelled back to the front to see a spear fly through the air and impale Roma through the chest. Her jaw dropped in horror once again at the sadistic cruelty of their enemy. There was a rustle to the side and she turned in time to see the boy's heel disappearing behind the tree before making a break for it deep into the woods.
"Jinny!" Bellamy called when he saw her lying on the ground. He quickly went over and helped her back up to her feet, picking stray leaves from her hair. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay." She brushed the dirt off from the front of her shirt, sighing in dismay at the stain on the white material. "I don't think Roma is though."
"Roma?" Bellamy turned around, his eyes landing on the girl's portrait visible from the side of the large trunk. The spear that was no doubt wedged in her body had been out of sight as the delinquents took careful steps forward. Bellamy stopped in front of her, face stricken as he was met with the reality of the girl's death.
"They're playing with us," Finn said in a low voice.
"She only came because of me," Bellamy said with something akin to regret, reaching up to close her eyelids.
"They can kill us whenever they want," Finn told them.
Jasper visibly trembled as he swept his gaze around, a vein standing out starkly against his neck as he started to scream. "Then they should get it over with! Come on! We know you're out there! You want to kill us!"
Finn rushed towards him, grabbing hold of his jacket and trying to shut him up.
"They're coming!" Monroe shouted as figures wrapped in dark gear popped out from the dense bushes like daisies.
"Thanks, Jasper," Jinny muttered as their group came together in a tight knit circle. They each held their weapons out, ready to attack and defend themselves. The Grounders closed in on them angrily, then halted when a horn sounded off in the distance. It reverberated through the air, causing them all to tense at its significance. The Grounders darted back in the opposite direction, completely abandoning their quarry.
"They're leaving," Bellamy stated curiously.
"The horn..." Jasper said. "What does it mean?"
"I remember hearing it before," Jinny murmured. "That time when we were out hunting..."
"Acid fog," Finn announced. He grabbed the small pack by his side and pulled out a roll of canvas.
"We have to run." Monroe looked at him.
"There's no time," he shook his head, then unfurled the canvas across the ground.
Jinny took one last glimpse at Roma's body pinned against the tree, and was met with a horrible realisation.
They had used her spear.
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[ author's note ]
translation: "go away! leave me alone!" - i think lol.
*throws flower petals in the air* my child has finally arrived!! btw the meaning of raulf's name is 'wise wolf' or 'wolf-shield' in german and it's tyler posey so literally this is scott mccall's descendant hahahahaha ok bye.