Elizabeth POV:
As I enter the dropship I am met with chaos. Behind I can hear a storm beginning and people are filing into the dropship to escape the weather. I walk over to find Finn placed on the makeshift bed I was on a day ago.
I walk to his side inspecting the wound once again. Clarke is opposite me and I look up at her. "Clarke. We can do this. Okay? We've done procedures harder than this," I tell her.
She looks up at me scared. "We're his only hope down here, Liz, and I can't loose him."
"You wont," I promise.
I look back down at Finn and cut off his shirt, exposing the wound to his side. I gently clean away some of the blood as Clarke walks over to Raven. "This is Raven Reyes. Calling Ark Station," I hear Raven say into the radio.
"Are you sure you have the right frequency?" a girl asks.
"Yeah, I'm sure," Raven snaps.
"Raven, you can do this. Okay?" Clarke tells her gently, placing her hand on her shoulder. Raven nods in response and returns to working on the radio. Clarke returns to Finn's side and helps me clean the wound.
As we are cleaning the wound a male voice calls out though the radio: "This is a restricted station. Who is this? Please identify yourself."
"This is Raven Reyes. I'm from Mecha Station. I'm transmitting from the ground. The hundred are alive. Please, you need to get Doctor Abby Griffin," she says into the radio looking over at Finn, "Now."
"Hang on Raven, we're trying to boost your signal."
A sigh of relief goes through the dropship. We are finally in contact with the Ark.
"Raven? Are you there?" a familiar voice calls out from the radio. I see Clarke quickly pickup the mic.
"Mom? Mom, it's me," Clarke breathes into the radio.
"Clarke?" Abby asks in disbelief.
"Mom, I need your help. One of our people was stabbed by a Grounder," Clarke says as she glances at Finn.
"Clarke. This is the Chancellor. Are you saying there are survivors on the ground?" Jaha asks and I glower at the sound of his voice.
"Yes, the Earth is survivable. We're not alone," Clarke informs him.
I grab the mic from Clarke and speak to Ark. "Abby, he's dying. The knife is still in his chest. We need to help him now or he'll die."
"Liz? Is that you?" I hear Abby ask.
"Yes, but we need to focus on Finn rights now."
"Liz, is my son with you?" Jaha asks.
I take a deep breath and clench my fists. "I'm so sorry...Well's is dead." No one from the Ark speaks for a moment.
"I'm going to talk you through it, step by step," I hear Abby say over the radio.
Clarke and I make our way towards Finn and prepare to help him.
"Clarke... just... find-" Abby's voice become muffled through the radio.
"Raven what's wrong?" I ask her quickly.
"It's not the radio, it's the storm," she tells me. I swear under my breath. This day can'y get any better.
Octavia enters the dropship with two canisters. I open one and smell it, "Monty's moonshine?"
"Pretty sure no germ could survive it," she says with a smirk.
"Storm's getting worse. Monroe, close the doors," Clarke orders from next to me.
"Clarke, we still have people out there," I tell her.
"Monty and Jasper still aren't back yet. Neither is Bellamy," Octavia tells her.
"It's okay, they'll find somewhere to ride it out," Clarke tells her.
Raven walks up to us and passes Clarke a needle. "One suture needle."
"Great, We still need something to close the wound," Clarke tells her.
"There's some wire on the second level. I used it for the tents," Octavia informs her. I nod in confirmation.
"Stay away from the blue wires that run through the ceiling. I rigged it to the solar cells in the roof. That means they're hot! You got that?" Raven yells to Octavia as she climbs the ladder.
"Yeah, I got it," Octavia snaps back.
"Tell me you can do this," Raven says to Clarke and I. I look to Clarke to find her looking at the floor. Before I can say anything Bellamy walks into the dropship with the grounder in tow.
"The hell are you doing?"Octavia calls out, coming down the ladder.
"It's time to get some answers," Bellamy snaps at her.
"Oh you mean 'revenge?" Octavia sneers at him.
"I mean intel."
"Bellamy, she's right," I say walking towards him. "This isn't who we are."
"It is now," he growls, walking past me and up the ladder.
Behind me I can hear Clarke and Abby talking. "The blade is at a sharp upward angle. Between his sixth and seventh rib."
"Okay, how deep?" Abby asks.
"Not sure. We didn't get a good look at the knife before it went it," I tell her.
"That's alright, just don't remove the knife yet," Abby tells me.
Clarke passes me a canister of moonshine and I wash my hands in it before passing it to Raven.
"Liz, Clarke, do you see any fluid?" I hear Abby ask, but we can hardly hear her due to the people in the dropship.
"There's too many people in here," I tell Clarke and Raven. Clarke nods in response and looks to Raven.
"Clear the room," she orders.
"Everyone! Upstairs! Now! Let's go!" Raven yells at everyone, ushering them to the stairs.
Clarke and I turn our attention back to Finn. Clarke places her hand on his forehead and she looks concerned. "What is it?"
"He feels a little warm," Clarke tells Abby and I.
"That's alright, fever sometimes accompanies a trauma. Clarke, I need you to tell me if there is any fluid leaking from the wound."
Clarke and I both look at the wound, but neither of us see any fluid. "Nothing," I tell Abby.
I hear her sigh in relief, "That's good. That's actually really good. You got lucky."
Raven smiles at Finn. "Hear that? You're lucky."
I take a deep breath before looking at the ladder and then back at Finn. "You got this?" I ask Clarke. She looks up at me and nods. "You call me if you need me," I tell her as I go to climb the ladder.
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I make my way to the third level of the dropship to find the grounder tied up. I look at the grounders bruised and cut up face and the look at Bellamy in disgust.
"You did that I'm guessing?" I ask him. Bellamy turns around to find me glaring at him.
"I did that for Finn and Jasper and John and Diggs and Roma," he tells me.
"It wasn't him."
"You don't know that! We need to know what we're up against," he yells at me. "How many there are and why they're killing us. And he's gonna tell us right now."
Octavia appears next to me and glares at he brother. "You disgust me."
"Drew, Miller take them downstairs," Bellamy orders. As they approach Octavia and I, I take a step back and glare at them.
"Don't touch me," I growl. Both Drew and Miller flinch turning away from me and force Octavia down the stairs. Bellamy looks at me and pleads with his eyes for me to leave. I simply glare at him and lean against the wall. "You're not getting rid of me, so get used to it."
Bellamy turns back to the grounder, glaring at him.
"He doesn't even speak English, he won't understand you," I lie.
"Oh I think he will," Bellamy states not breaking eye contact with the grounder.
"If you think torturing him will get you answers, it wont. All you will get is a guilty conscience," I tell him.
Before he can reply a loud bang sounds, and I am thrown off my feet. I groan as I slowly pick myself up off the ground.
"What the hell was that? We under attack or not?" I hear Bellamy call out.
"It was just the storm, idiot," I tell him, dusting my hand on my pants. Bellamy just glares at me.
"We're gonna try this one last time. What's your name? Where's your camp? How many of you are there?" Bellamy asks the grounder with crossed arms. I watch as Miller goes through the grounders bag, eventually finding a journal. The grounder struggles against his bonds when the journal comes into his sight.
"Looks like we found something he doesn't want us to see, Miller."
"Stop being such a dick, Bellamy," I say coming to his side to look at the journal. As we flip through the book there are drawings of out camp and a series of tally marks.
"It's our camp. Guessing that all those marks add up to 102. 10 are crossed out. That's how many people we've lost. You've been watching us ever since we got here!" Bellamy yells at he grounder.
We continue to look through the journal until I hear someone come up the ladder.
"Get out of my way," I hear Clarke growl.
"Let her through," I hear Bellamy say to the man blocking her way. Clarke walks up to us and looks at grounder.
"Well if he didn't hate us before, he does now," Clarke snaps at Bellamy.
"Who cares? How's Finn?" Bellamy asks.
"Alive. His people will care! How long until they found out where we're keeping him? And what happens when they do, I mean when they come looking for him. They will, Bellamy," Clarke tells him crossing her arms.
"Relax, Princess. No one saw us take him. He was chained up in that cave the whole time and thanks to the storm you couldn't see a soul on the way back," Bellamy informs her. "In case you missed it. His people are already killing us. How many more of our people need to die before you realize we're fighting a war."
"We're not soldiers in your little army, Bellamy. We can't win," I scoff.
"You're right, we can't win if we don't fight," Bellamy saps at me. From below I hear Raven call out: "Clarke! Liz! he's seizing!"
"On my way!" Clarke yells down. She pull me to the side glancing at Bellamy. "Make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."
"Will do," I tell her with a nod.
After Clarke leaves, Miller shuts the hatch to the stairs and Bellamy turns back to the grounder. "What's your name? Where's your camp? How many of you are there?" Bellamy asks again but is only met with silence. After a few seconds of silence Bellamy punches the grounder in the face. I flinch as I hear the sound of the punch. This continues for a few more minutes until someone bangs on the hatch. "Hey! Open up!" Clarke yells.
Miller opens the hatch and is basically shoved aside by Clarke with Octavia behind her. She storms over to the grounder and shoves the knife in his face.
"What's on this?" she growls. She is met with a neutral expression from the grounder.
"What are you talking about?" Bellamy asks her moving next to her.
"He poisoned the blade! All this time he knew Finn was going to die no matter what we did! What is it?! Is there an antidote?"
"Clarke he doesn't understand you," Octavia tells her.
"Vials, it's gotta be in here," Bellamy tells her going through the grounders bag again and pulling out a case of vials.
"You'd have to stupid to have a poison around this long with an antidote. Which one?" Clarke demands.
"Answer the question!" Bellamy yells at the grounder, but is still met with the stoney expression from the grounder.
"Please, show us. Once you tell us, it's over. The pain stops," I tell him. He looks at me, but doesn't tell us anything.
"Which one? Our friend is dying down there and you can stop that!" Clarke yells at him desperately.
"I'll get him to talk," Bellamy growls walking over to an abandoned chair and cuts of one of the seatbelts.
"Bellamy, no!" Octavia calls out, trying to get him to stop.
"He wants Finn to die, why can't you see that?" He yells at her. "Do you want him to live of not?" he asks Clarke.
"Clarke this isn't who we are! We save people, we don't torture them!" I cry, grabbing her arms.
"We're talking about Finn's life!" Bellamy yells from behind me.
"We're also talking about his life!" I yell pointing to the grounder, glaring at Bellamy.
"Do it," Clarke says, nodding to Bellamy.
"No!" Octavia yells. "Just tell us," Octavia begs the grounder.
Bellamy stalks towards the grounder and uses his knife to the cut the shirt off the grounder. "Show us the antidote it you'll wish you had." The grounder simps looks Bellamy in the eye, stone faced.
"Don't do this, Bellamy, please," I beg him. He ignores and raises the seatbelt to whip the grounder. As the seatbelt hits her grounder I flinch from the familiar noise.
Clarke kneels in front of the grounder, pleading him with her eyes. "Please, just tell us."
"Tell them, please. Then it's over," I call out to the grounder. He looks over at me but still says nothing.
Bellamy places his hand on Clarke's shoulder and gently pulls her away. Bellamy whips the grounder again and again before it becomes too much for me. As he rise his hand to whip the grounder again, I quickly place myself in front of the grounder and it is too late for Bellamy to stop and I feel the familiar pain in my shoulder. I only grunt in pain cradling my shoulder. I hear gasps of shock through out the room and the sound of the seatbelt falling to the floor.
"Angel..." I hear Bellamy say softly. He reaches out to touch me but I flinch way from him.
"Enough," I growl. "Stop this now," I say through clenched teeth.
From below I hear Raven call out: "He's getting worse."
"We're running out of time. Which one? Which one is it? If you tell us they'll stop! Please, tell us which is the antidote and they'll stop this!" Clarke desperately calls out to the grounder. Octavia gently pulls me to the side and inspects my shoulder. I can feel the blood dripping down my arm.
"Shit," Octavia breaths.
"I'll be fine. Go help him," I tell her, groaning in pain.
I see Bellamy pick up a screw from the corner of the room. "If that doesn't work, maybe this will. You don't have to be here for this," Bellamy tells me, looking at me with regret.
"I'm not leaving until both he and Finn are safe," I growl back at Bellamy. He sighs and looks at the grounder.
"Last chance." Bellamy is still met with silence and with a grunt Bellamy stabs the screw through the grounder's hand. The grounder grunts in pain, and I keep my glare on Bellamy.
"What's taking so long?" I hear Raven ask as she climbs up the ladder. "He stopped breathing. He started again but next time he might not."
"He won't tell us anything," Clarke says nodding to the grounder.
"Yeah I wonder why?" I ask sarcastically, still cradling my shoulder.
"Wanna bet?" Raven asks stalking across the room. She pulls out some electrical wires from the wall.
"What are you doing?" Bellamy ask.
"Showing him something new," she snaps shocking the grounder with the wires. The grounder grunts in pain, not used to the unknown sensation. "Which one is it? Come on!" She cries as she shocks him again. "He's all I have!" she wails.
From beside me Octavia steps froward. "No!" she yells moving in front of the grounder.
"He's letting Finn die!" Raven cries. Ignoring her, Octavia picks up the poisoned knife and cuts her forearm
"Octavia, no!" Bellamy yells. Octavia just looks up at the grounder who now had a concerted look in his eyes.
"He won't let me die," she said softly. "This one?" She asks pointing to a vial. The grounder shakes his head, gesturing to the right. Octavia picks up another vial. "This one?" The grounder nods and Octavia passes the vial to Clarke.
"Thank you," Clarke breaths to Octavia.
Bellamy walk up to Octavia, but she moves away from him. "Don't touch me!"
Bellamy lowers his head in shame. I watch as most people file out of the room until it is just Bellamy and I left.
He looks over at me, he gaze going between my face and my shoulder. "Angel... If I had known-"
"It doesn't matter anymore. Now you have to live with it. When I get back you better be out of this room Bellamy," I growl at him as I go in search of water to clean the grounder's wounds.
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As I make my way to the ladder with a bowl of water and a rag, I feel someone grab my arm and stop my movement. I turn to find Clarke behind me.
"What do you want?" I ask her.
"It had to be done, Liz," she says to me, pleading with her eyes to understand.
"No, it didn't. You chose to do this. You weren't forced. You tortured a human being. You get to live with that now," I say making my way to the ladder.
I struggle up the ladder, trying to balance the bowl and climb with an injured shoulder. I finally reach the third level and find it empty. I slowly make my way to the grounder to find he is already looking at me. I show him the cloth and water, "I just want to help," I say to him gently. The grounder nods at me slowly and I begin to clean the blood away. "I'm sorry for all of this. I should have stopped it," I whisper to him.
I gently grip the screw in his hand. "This is going to hurt, you ready?" He nods at me in response and I quickly pull the screw out. I pick up the cloth and clean the wound.
"This shouldn't have happened to you," I say to him.
"You tried. You stood up for me. You still helped me," I hear the grounder say lowly. I look up in surprise. I give him sad smile.
"It wasn't enough. No one deserves this pain," I tell him softly. "Do you have a name?"
"Lincoln," he replies. Before I can respond I hear someone come up the ladder and I turn to find Octavia. I smile at her. "I can take over," she tells me, taking the cloth from my hand. I nod at her and smile at Lincoln in goodbye.
I climb down the ladder and walk straight past Finn Raven, exiting the dropship.
I walk away from the dropship in a daze, not realising someone was calling my name. I feel a large hard grab mine, stopping me from moving further. I turn to find Bellamy behind me taken the screw from my grip. I look down at the bloody screw and my hands.
"Hey, hey," Bellamy says gently raising my chin so I look him in the eyes. "Who we are and who we need to be to survive are two very different things."
"Yeah, but, what happens when what we do to survive changes us? When we look in the mirror and we don't recognise who we are anymore?" I ask him, pulling my hand away from his.
Bellamy looks sadly down at me. "Angel-"
"I've gotta go Bellamy. Clean myself up."
I walk away from him and towards the stored water. I wash my hands of the blood covering them, scrubbing away the evidence of the violence that had occurred.
I walk away from camp and through the woods near the camp. I walk through the trees in a daze not registering anything around me. Before I can react someone grabs me from behind, pulling me behind a tree. I struggle in their grip but before I can escape the hit me over he head, knocking me out.
Why is it always me?
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Hey guys,
Here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoyed it.
I'm beginning the next chapter now, so hopefully it's up soon.
See you next time,
Em x