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RADIO SILENCE
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JINNY COULDN'T COME TO TERMS with the fact that the Ark had abandoned them again. She ran a hand across her face as she sat in front of the radio, knuckles turning bone white from how hard she was clenching the receiver. Monty sat in the corner watching her with concern as he salvaged whatever he could find from the Exodus ship wreckage.
"Ground to the Ark, come in," she spoke again. "Oh, my God, someone answer me! Fuck you, Jaha, you piece of shit!" Monty snorted. "I know you're listening to our channel, Kane. Screw all of you!"
She reached out and turned the knob to the frequency again, listening hard for any sign of a clearer signal. There was nothing; there hadn't been ever since the Unity Day pageant. The Ark should have had backup generators in case something happened, they couldn't all be dead yet. She calculated that there should still be enough oxygen for them to make it to the ground in time.
"Hey, Jinny," Monty called. "Check this out."
He fiddled some more with the black box as she moved to sit next to him in front of the work bench. They both leaned in to listen to the interference before a series of interspersed noise took over, effectively decreasing the signal entirely. Jinny exchanged a perplexed look with Monty.
"Does that sound deliberate to you?" she asked.
"It definitely sounds like something was jamming the signal," he told her. "The nav system went nuts after that."
"Grounders wouldn't know how to jam us... right?" She raised an eyebrow. "They use pointy sticks to hurt us for crying out loud."
"Maybe there are sophisticated Grounders hiding out somewhere," Monty suggested uncertainly. "I don't think that makes things any better."
"Wait a minute." Jinny sat up straight and furrowed her brows. "If the Exodus didn't decouple with the Ark properly before launch, then their systems would have been tied to the Ark. If the Ark went dead, and there was no one to manually override the system, they'd have to rely solely on internal controls to launch their landing instruments. But if their systems were being jammed..."
"They would have crashed," Monty finished for her.
The both of them sat there in silent horror at the revelation they had just discovered. Jinny's brain whirled as she tried to process the information and what it could possibly mean. Was there something else about the ground that they hadn't known about? Octavia told them about the so-called Mountain Men that Lincoln had warned her of and Jinny sat there pondering the myriad of possibilities when the dropship ladder rang hollowly as someone climbed up.
Bellamy popped his head through the hatch. "Hey, Jin. I need to talk to you. Got a minute?"
She merely stared back at him.
"Are you giving me radio silence too?" he chuckled at his own joke. "Come out here. We need you."
Jinny sighed before setting down her headphones on the tabletop and got up to follow after the man. They walked out of the dropship and towards one of the guard posts by the north wall. Bellamy spotted Clarke on an incline nearby, looking out at the forest, and called out to her.
"Still nothing?" he asked and she shook her head. He turned back to Jinny. "Jasper thinks he could cook up some more gunpowder if he gets more sulphur, and Raven says she could turn that into landmines. What do you think?"
"I like seeing things go boom," she replied. "But Bell, I'm worried about those Mountain Men that Lincoln was talking about."
"What do you mean?" He frowned at her. "What's going on?"
"The Exodus ship was—"
A scream suddenly cut through the air over the camp, frenzied cries following in its wake. Jinny and Bellamy whipped around, and watched in horror as a fire blazed from the meat house. They ran over, hurriedly looking for Octavia as the girl stumbled out from the shack and into their arms with soot smeared on her face.
"Are you okay?" Bellamy sat her down on the ground as she coughed, nodding to show that she was. Jinny rubbed her back in concern, noticing Murphy angrily getting up from the ground beside her.
"This is all your fault!" he shouted, rushing forwards at a kid named Del. He grabbed the boy by the collar and punched him in the face. "I told you there was too much wood!"
"Hey!" Bellamy yelled as they started to scuffle. He got up and grabbed hold of the back of Murphy's jacket and pulled the two boys apart. "Stop it! Save it for the Grounders!"
Jinny turned to Octavia. "Is it true? It was his fault?"
"He kept feeding the fire." Octavia swallowed. "We warned him not to but he wouldn't listen. By the time we—"
Jinny stood up and strode towards Del, knocking him out with one punch to the head. Everyone stared at her and Bellamy cocked his head to the side in disgruntlement, letting out a heavy breath through his nose. "Seriously?"
"Anybody who's stupid or steps out of line again is gonna get worse than that." Jinny pointed.
"What are we gonna do now?" Octavia asked. "That was all the food."
Jinny exchanged glances with Bellamy and Clarke who had ran over as quickly as she could. "We can't defend ourselves if we're starving," the blonde said.
"The whole Grounder army is out there." Bellamy frowned.
"Then we arm ourselves to the teeth," Jinny told them as she pointed towards the forest. "We hunt."
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"Each group take someone with a gun," Bellamy instructed as he hefted his own rifle slung across his shoulder. "They're for killing Grounders, not food. We don't have the ammo. Use the spears for hunting, get what you can, be back by nightfall. No one stays out after dark."
"If anyone's good enough to kill a Grounder without wasting a bullet," Jinny announced as she tugged on the string of her wooden bow with a quiver of arrows on her back. "I'll give you the first batch of Monty's moonshine."
Cheers erupted at her bet and she grinned widely as Bellamy shook his head at her. He turned around and made his way towards the exit.
"Just don't get yourself killed!" she called as she headed outside with him. They went to their tents to grab their gear before meeting at the gate and starting off into the woods to hunt. Jinny gripped her bow tightly in hand with an arrow knocked in place. A dagger was strapped to her belt and another one hidden in her boot. She opted not to bring a gun because the weight would just burden her, so Bellamy took it upon himself to be her bodyguard.
"Have you seen your tree friend at all?" he asked as he trained his eyes above to the canopy.
"No," she replied. "And if he really wanted to kill us, he'd probably have done that a long time ago. In our sleep."
"You seem to put some faith in the Grounder." He glanced at her. "Why?"
"He saved my life twice," she told him. "He tried to stop Jasper and he seemed to really want peace. Lincoln said he was his apprentice, maybe he just wants to see his mentor happy with his lady love from space."
He snorted in disbelief. "Yeah, sure."
She made a sound between a scoff and chuckle. "I mean—I trust him more than Murphy at any rate."
Bellamy grimaced. "I guess you're right."
They continued to stalk through the forest with their eyes and ears peeled. Jinny killed a couple of small game but had yet to find anything bigger than a rabbit in the past few hours. She was starting to wish that she had paid more attention in Earth Skills when Bellamy grabbed her arm. He pressed a finger to his lips and slowly cocked his head to the left.
She followed his gaze while holding her breath and made sure not to make any sudden sounds as she turned her body to a better angle. About twenty feet away from them, she saw a deer for the taking. With controlled movements, she aimed her bow and drew the string taut. The arrow sang as she released it, finding its mark directly in the heart. Bellamy hurried over to grab the fallen deer, slinging it over his shoulders as he passed his rifle to Jinny.
"What made you think about the promise?" he asked on their way back to camp.
"Promise?" She frowned. "Oh. I thought I was dying."
He smirked. "And the one thing you thought of was that?"
"I was delirious!" she answered shortly, glancing at his smug face. "Shut up."
"So are you ready to talk about things?" he asked.
"No, and stop asking me or I'm going to stab you with my arrows," she threatened. "I have way too many things on my mind so you're gonna have to wait your turn."
Bellamy sighed despondently. "It was worth a shot."
They quickly made their way back to camp, depositing their hunts next to Murphy at their new designated meat store. Jinny stood there with hands on her hips as she took stock of their inventory. Murphy looked at the pile of animals they had managed to kill and raised his eyebrows. "Well, I wouldn't expect any less," he told her.
"Good, cause you're gutting them all so have fun." Jinny smirked as she made her way over to the dropship to return her weapons to their stockpile. She noticed Raven climbing down from the upper level and running out to look for Finn. The rest of the kids that had gone out to hunt were returning to camp one by one.
Jinny went to grab a cup of water and made her way back to her tent to rest after a long day. She was just peeling off her jacket and throwing it to the side when her tent flap was rudely pushed aside. Startled, she turned around to raise an eyebrow at Bellamy.
"What do you want now?" she asked grumpily as he invited himself inside.
He took a step forwards and stood in the middle of the tent, inhaling a deep breath through his nose. Jinny pulled out her knives and set them down on the table, moving about to dispose of her gear. She turned around and Bellamy was still standing there with a watchful stare.
"What are you doing?" She scrunched up her nose at him. Bellamy closed the gap between them, leaning down close towards her. He reached out with a hand, running his fingers through her dark hair. Jinny blinked up into his eyes that looked down at her earnestly with an undercurrent of longing deep in their dark gaze.
"I can't wait," he told her.
Before she even had time to react, Bellamy pressed his lips against hers. Jinny took in a gasp of air in shock, her body completely frozen in time. His fingers ghosted across her cheek, etching unspoken words onto the blank canvas of her skin. She closed her eyes and savoured the taste of his soft lips that she used to yearn for every night, finding herself giving in to his warm touch without hesitation.
The dam of emotions in her chest had burst and she realised that this was where she was meant to be after all—in Bellamy's arms. A desire now burned inside her, one that she no longer wanted to fight against. His fingers snuck up her sides, leaving a trail of exhilaration in their wake, as he picked her up and laid her down on the bed.
She didn't stop him when he kissed her neck and left his mark. He didn't stop her when she raked her nails across his back to claim him. They didn't stop until there was nothing left to say between them.
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © KAYE CEE
DO NOT STEAL, COPY OR TAKE ANY PART OF THIS WORK.
[ author's note ]
this is not a drill guys, this is not a drill. the!! ship!! has!! sailed!!