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LEAP FAITH
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"OH, MY GOD, SHIT—I'm gonna kill that asshole when I get my hands on him!" Jinny exclaimed while she examined the injury on Raven's side and found that the bullet was embedded deep inside her body. The girl was bleeding profusely even with both their efforts at placing pressure on the open wound. "Can you walk?" Jinny asked.
"I think so, yeah," Raven grunted out with a nod and Jinny wrapped the girl's right arm around her shoulder. On the count of three, she hoisted Raven back up to her feet and bore the extra weight as the girl leaned heavily against her. Jinny insisted on going slow and steady, inching their way towards the front of the dropship where a crowd had gathered in the middle of camp. There was the unmistakable glint of blonde hair from the epicentre of the cluster. "Finn!" Raven cried when she spotted his return.
"Raven?" the boy called, turning around to find her limping towards his direction. He immediately ran forwards to help. "What happened?"
"Murphy shot her," Jinny said as Finn picked Raven up in his arms, causing the girl to cry out in pain as her side shifted.
"Get her to the dropship!" Clarke told him, running up beside them, before turning to Jinny. "We need to leave—pack whatever's necessary and meet us in the dropship."
"What the hell?" the older woman exclaimed angrily while grabbing her arm roughly. "You just got back and you're telling us to leave? Who gave you that right?"
"There's an army of Grounders heading our way," Octavia explained, darting between them and placing a hand on Jinny's shoulder tentatively. "Lincoln told us to go east to the ocean for help. He has a friend there, we can tell her that he sent us. We'll be safe, no one else has to die."
"Even if we manage to get past the scouts watching us, or miraculously have the Grounders lose track of us, what guarantee do we have that the ocean people will take us in?" Jinny questioned. "Not only that, how do you know that they won't kill us on sight? We know nothing about them or the terrain out there, we hardly have the manpower or firepower to protect ourselves in the wild."
"Jin's right," Bellamy added. "Leaving here is a mistake."
"The decision's been made," Clarke said.
"Crowds make bad decisions," he insisted. "Just ask Murphy. Leaders do what they think is right."
"I am," she responded firmly before moving away to the dropship. Jinny exchanged exasperated glances with Bellamy, both of them the only ones who thought that leaving the barricade of their camp was a bad idea. She hated the thought of the wide open plains, leaving them vulnerable to any sort of attack from every possible direction. Their bullets were scarce, their skills were lacking; how would they even begin to run away?
"We're gonna die either way you look at it," Bellamy said.
"Yeah." Jinny nodded her head with a sigh. "We are so gonna die."
"Anyway, I'll meet you back in the dropship." He patted her arm before darting off towards his tent on the other side of camp. Jinny sniffed as she watched him leave before looking around to the rest of the delinquents as they bustled about hastily around camp. She scanned each familiar face that she had gotten to know within the month that they had been sentenced to the ground together. They had been her brothers-in-arms, her comrades, her people. All of them had come so far from being the hopeless and desperate souls trapped on the Ark, waiting for their day of deliverance. She'd never admit it, but she had actually came to care for all their well-beings. The only thing that Jinny hoped for was that they would live to see another day.
Her tent had barely anything inside, as she mostly lived on a day-by-day basis. She grabbed her bag pack and threw her water flask, rope, blanket and jacket inside. Her trusty knife was in the back pocket of her pants and she took one cursory glance around before quickly making her way to the dropship. Bellamy was already inside, standing to the side with his arms crossed as Clarke probed Raven's wound.
"She needs an operation," she said.
"We don't have the time," Finn told her.
"I know that..." Clarke looked up at Jinny. "We'll cauterise the wound, give me your knife."
The woman pulled it out and handed it to her before moving around the table where Raven laid to help start a fire. "What about the bullet inside her? Is she gonna be okay?" Jinny asked.
"It's difficult to say, I can't tell where it's perforated without an x-ray," the trainee doctor replied as she soaked the blade with some moonshine.
"Right." Jinny frowned, watching Clarke stick the knife into the hot coal. "But she's gonna be okay, right?"
"As long as she doesn't move."
"I'll find a stretcher," Finn said.
"Like hell you are!" Raven protested loudly and attempted to sit up. Jinny and Bellamy pushed her back down immediately, while Clarke drew the knife out of the firepit. Its silver blade was already alight with a red incandescence and the mechanic instantly paused tentatively with her eyes set on it.
"You ready?" Clarke asked and Raven nodded bravely. "Alright." She leaned over and pressed the side of the gleaming knife onto the girl's bloodied wound. Raven let out an agonised scream from the pain, the smell of burnt flesh wafting through the air as it sizzled momentarily. Jinny bit her lip, thinking of how much she hated the idea that they couldn't get the bullet out. She was so going to murder Murphy the next time she laid eyes on him.
"That should stop the external bleeding," Clarke said with a sigh.
"I don't understand," Finn said. "How did Murphy get a gun?"
"Jasper came in and put his gun down on the table before heading upstairs for some gun powder," Jinny explained while shaking her head. "He saw Murphy killing Myles and it's a really long story."
"We got lucky," Raven told them. "If Murphy hit the fuel tank instead of me, we'd all be dead."
"Wait, there's rocket fuel down there?" Clarke asked. "Enough to build a bomb?"
"Enough to build a hundred bombs... if we had any gun powder left."
"What about the reapers?" Bellamy asked, flicking his finger against the page of Lincoln's journal. "Maybe they'll help us. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?"
Clarke shook her head and her voice was tight when she said, "Not this enemy. We saw them. Trust me, it's not an option."
Jinny sighed in frustration. "This is hopeless."
"There isn't time to argue anymore," Finn said. "We need to carry her."
"No way in hell!" Raven exclaimed, pushing herself up to sit again. "I'm good to go!"
"Hey, listen to me." Clarke grabbed her arm to stop her from moving any further. "That bullet is still inside you. If by some miracle, there's no internal bleeding, it might hold until we get somewhere safe. But you are not walking there. Is that clear?"
Raven peered back at her before nodding in resignation, and Jinny helped ease her back down onto the table. "I'll get the stretcher," Finn said, starting quickly for the exit.
"Can't run away fast enough, huh?" Bellamy sneered. "Real brave."
The boy stopped to turn back to him. "Dying in a fight you can't win isn't brave, Bellamy, it's stupid."
"Spoken like every coward who's ever run from a fight," the man retorted. Jinny looked between them, finding herself easily on Bellamy's side.
"Alright, that's enough," Clarke said loudly. "It's time to go."
"If they follow?" Bellamy interjected. "It's a one hundred and twenty mile walk to the ocean."
"Out in the open," Jinny added.
"We're wasting time," Finn snapped impatiently. "If they want to stay, they can stay."
"No, they can't!" Clarke said, turning around to watch him storm off. She looked back to them. "We can't do this without you, the both of you. I've said it before."
"What do you want us to say, Clarke?" Bellamy asked testily.
"I want you to say that you're with us," she told him. "Those kids out there, they listen to you. They look at Jinny for guidance."
"They're lining up ready to go, they listen to you more," Bellamy replied with a hint of bitterness in his voice.
"I gave them an easy choice," she said. "Five minutes ago, they were ready to fight and die for you. You inspire them. I'm afraid we're gonna need that again before this day is through."
Jinny sighed wearily and looked at Bellamy expectantly to call the shots. He frowned in deliberation before turning back to Clarke with a nod. "Alright. We're with you."
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Bellamy stood next to Jinny in the middle of camp, next to the last camp fire with guns hanging loosely at their sides, as they oversaw the delinquents march through the gates. Miller and Jasper took point as they cautiously stepped out into the open wooden terrain, their rifles held fastidiously in their hands. Monroe helped Finn to carry Raven on the stretcher, making sure that they were within the safety of the group. Clarke walked up to them and attempted to smile amicably.
"You did good here," she said.
"Eighteen dead," Bellamy told her.
"Eighty-two alive. You did good," she reasserted.
He exchanged glances with Jinny, who knew most of all the sacrifice of casualties. She quirked her lips to the side and touched his elbow, prompting him to put out the last fire with the bucket of water left on the side. The flames sizzled and died out into the dry winter air, sending a thin plume of smoke rising to the pale blue sky above. With biting resolve and tempered nerves, they walked after the others and away from the dropship that had sheltered them for the past month.
"I'm taking point," Jinny said after a while.
Bellamy caught the crook of her arm before she could go too far and she turned around to look at him inquiringly. He brushed the hair away from her face gently and smiled down at her. "Be careful."
"Always," she said, then slipped away from his grip. She felt a flutter somewhere in her stomach and chest, or in between, maybe even both. There was something soft in his gaze that she had never seen before, and she had to bite her lip to stop herself from grinning widely. Eventually, she caught up to Miller at the front of the group.
"You know the first thing I'm gonna do when we get to the beach?" he asked.
"Fishing?" Jinny guessed.
"Nope."
"Swimming?"
"Close."
"Drowning because you've never learnt how to swim, dumbass," Drew snickered.
"I wanna go surfing," Miller told them with a grin.
"You can't be serious," they groaned at him. "With what?"
"Guys, be quiet," Jasper hissed behind them.
"No more woods, a view of the ocean," Drew began dreamily. "No more damn woods, just pale, blue water."
"What if the water is like red because of radiation and shit?" Jinny wrinkled her nose in disgust. "And we'll melt if we step in it."
"You read too many horror books," Drew told her.
"Dude, she is a horrorshow." Miller pointed with a laugh.
Jinny suddenly halted in her tracks when she heard a sharp whistle from the treetops. She pointed her gun and looked around, just as the other gunners did the same and Octavia drew her sword, forming a tight knot around the commander. "Shit," she muttered.
"What is it?" Jasper whispered in a terrified voice with widened eyes that were flickering around wildly. "I don't see anything."
"Stay on your guard," Jinny whispered back, keeping her voice level. She whirled around when she heard the singing of steel as it flew through the air, pointing her gun in the direction of an oncoming blade. "Fuck, get down!!" she yelled.
Jinny threw herself onto Jasper who was next to her, sending the both of them sprawling to the ground in a heap of dried leaves. The throwing knife embedded into the soil by her foot and she was scrambling to a stand when the next attack came hurtling towards her. Drew shouted for her to look out but it was too late for any of them to do anything when a second knife knocked it out of the air from the side. Jinny let out a relieved breath before turning around and pushing people back in the direction of the dropship. "Run! Go back!!"
"Wait, what's happening?!" Finn shouted from the back of the group as people shoved past him.
"Grounders almost killed us!!" Jasper yelled back at him, waving his arms in the air as he ran.
"The scouts are already here!" Jinny shouted as she ran towards Bellamy who was waiting for her. She reached out to grasp his arm and they hurried after the others back to their base camp. They stood guard with their guns hot as they waited for all the delinquents to filter back through the gates before heading in after them. Miller and Drew closed the gates and barricaded it tight.
"Where are they?" Bellamy asked as he peered over the watch post. "Why aren't they attacking?"
"Because we're doing exactly what they want us to do," Clarke answered. "Lincoln said the scouts would be the first to arrive."
"If it's just scouts, we can fight our way out," Octavia said. "That's what Lincoln would do."
"No, it's too late," a new voice said. Everyone stopped and cocked their guns to the treetops. There was a rustle and Raulf dropped down next to Jinny, causing her to bristle from the surprise.
"Do you always have to do that?" she hissed at him.
"Who the hell is this?" Miller asked, cocking his rifle aggressively.
"At ease, guys, I know him," Jinny said. "He's the one always saving my life, and I guess it was you earlier too."
He nodded. "You can't run. Tristan already sent out a greeting party to wait for you by the border—three hundred strong. The main battalion will be here by nightfall."
"Well, guess we got our answer," Bellamy said gruffly.
"And you got your fight," Clarke responded.
"Alright, this is it! Kill them before they kill us!" Bellamy yelled. "Gunners to your posts! Use the tunnels to get in and out. From now on, the gate stays closed!"
"Nice," Jinny smirked, feeling the adrenaline pumping through her veins as she grabbed Raulf around the shoulders with an arm. "What was that thing Anya said about blood?"
"Blood must have blood," he said.
"And blood will flow like rivers tonight."
"Tristan's arrows can blot out the sun," Raulf warned her.
"So we'll fight in the shade," Jinny said, letting go of him and turning to the delinquents with regal authority. "This is the moment we've all been waiting for. Ninety-seven years of exile has taught us one thing and one thing alone: survival. We will thrive here, and we will prosper! Give the enemy nothing, but take from them everything! We are the pioneers of generations, the soldiers of freedom, we are the one hundred!"
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © KAYE CEE
DO NOT STEAL, COPY OR TAKE ANY PART OF THIS WORK.
[ author's note ]
one more chapter to the end of season 1!! i'm so excited!!