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THE RETURN
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THE BLACK JACKET that she adorned was both familiar and comfortable, a pistol in one hand with her trusty shock baton attached to the belt around her hips. She stalked through the forest floor like a predator on the prowl, senses on optimum standby as she pushed through the flourishing undergrowth. There were instances where she had to halt, throwing a fist up to her side for caution as she listened and watched intently. The smoke from the dropship zone grew nearer by the second, and she could smell the leftover rocket fumes and stench of death on the slight breeze.
Shrill cries pierced through the air on her right and she turned sharply to locate its source, lowering her stance and moving forwards. There was a clearing beyond the boundary of the shrubberies, and she hid amidst the fronds and the glaucous leaves. A scuffle had broken out between the survivors of the inferno and Jinny smirked as she caught sight of their identities. Kane came up beside her with his gun held up at the ready but she reached out to stop him while mouthing, "My kill." She took aim just as Tristan raised his sword for a clean blow. The bullet shot out with a reverberating bang, finding its mark through the Grounder general's skull, and Bellamy turned around in surprise.
She stepped out from her shroud, holstering her weapon as she strode forwards to meet him. His face was covered entirely with blood, some parts dried while a fresh wave flowed freely from the broken nose he recently sustained. It did nothing to ruin his handsome features though. He breathed heavily as he stood up to greet her and she hugged him tightly. "What took you so long?" he asked gruffly.
Jinny merely grinned widely as she whistled, and the remainder of the Ark Guard emerged from the dense foliage behind her. Councillor Kane and Commander Shumway led the main group, and the delinquents stared in awe as their people arrived to secure their safety. Monroe and Sterling looked at each other jubilantly at their entrance. "We're here now," Kane told them. "Everything's gonna be okay."
Bellamy started violently at the sight of Jinny's father and he stumbled backwards as if he had just met with a ghost. "Bellamy Blake," Commander Shumway stated as he stared at him intently with an assault rifle in hand. "Why am I not surprised to see you still alive?"
"C-Commander." Bellamy gave a meek salute with his hands still bound together.
"Okay, let's not make this anymore awkward than it already is," Jinny proclaimed as she walked over to cut his ropes.
"Doesn't he know?" Bellamy hissed when she was in front of him.
"Of course he doesn't," she hissed back.
"You need to tell him!"
"What? No! Are you out of your mind?"
"He's gonna kill me!" he told her through gritted teeth.
Someone cleared their throat very loudly behind them, causing them to freeze in place before turning slowly to meet Shumway's vehement glare. "Is something wrong?" he asked testily.
"Of course not," Jinny laughed nervously, shoving Bellamy behind her back despite the fact that he towered a good foot above her. "We're close to the dropship, let's hurry and round up the rest of the kids."
"Hang on," Abby called as she jogged forwards to them and grabbed hold of Bellamy's face. "Let's get you cleaned up first."
Commander Shumway sighed in impatience before stomping off to scout the perimeter with Miller Senior. "He totally hates me," Bellamy muttered once he was out of earshot.
Abby chuckled as she examined his injuries. "Shumway hates everyone."
"This is not untrue." Jinny nodded in consideration.
"Where's Clarke?" Abby asked. "Is she alright?"
"She was when we left," Bellamy replied before crying out in pain when Abby snapped his nose cartilage back in place.
"We'll bring you to her," Finn said as he moved back down the path.
"Wait, slow down," Kane told him, standing up from where he was inspecting Tristan's body and turning around. "Sinclair, we're splitting up. Jinny and the Commander comes with me to the dropship. Everyone else here goes with you to Alpha Station, you have the coordinates. We'll follow as soon as we can."
The Commander turned and narrowed his eyes in Bellamy's direction before nodding to Kane. "Minho, Shepard, your men are with Sinclair. David, you can come with us."
"Did you see that?" Bellamy whispered heatedly to Jinny, who nodded sombrely. It looked like she would need to lock her boyfriend up until she could dissuade her father from murdering him in his sleep.
Kane paused before backtracking. "Anything more from Jaha?" he asked.
Sinclair shook his head. "No. Nothing in the past hour."
"Okay, you six with us." He gestured to David's squad before turning to Jinny and Bellamy. "You two lead the way."
Their group parted in separate directions through the forest as Jinny and Bellamy led the way to the dropship with Finn trailing along with them. They passed the first boundary of their perimeter, the line of booby traps and string of metal had already been long gone or trampled upon. "Good use of resources," the Commander remarked, which sent a surge of pride flowing through Jinny's bloodstream. "But not as practical in the long run." She deflated, allowing her smile to fall into a scowl.
"We expected you to come down a lot sooner," she responded scathingly. "More lives could have been spared."
"My son—Nathan—you remember him, don't you?" David asked. "He used to really look up to you."
"I saw he made it into the dropship, so he should be fine along with Clarke and the others," she told him. "For what it's worth, he makes a fine soldier."
David nodded and smiled in thanks before they continued their trek through the overgrown forest. The dropship soon loomed over them, and the gully outside the gates were filled with fresh corpses. Jinny recognised faces amongst the bodies of the delinquents that had fallen; Jones was sadly one of them and it made her blood boil. Beyond the barricades, ash and charred bones littered the ground that used to be the Hundred's campsite. It was a mass grave, the ring of fire from the rockets had worked impeccably. Jinny and Bellamy pushed the remainder of the scorched gate to the side before looking around at the devastation. No wonder Tristan had been so pissed off earlier, not that it was his problem anymore.
"It's too quiet," Bellamy commented.
Kane stopped him from starting towards the ship. "We'll take it from here. Commander—hey, Jinny, wait!"
The young woman ignored him, jogging towards the entrance of the dropship which was open, and frowned at the lack of voices or movement. They should have seen someone by now, even if they were still hiding out in case of leftover Grounders. "Hey, Clarke! Miller! Raven? Anyone home?" she called cautiously as she held her pistol out in front of her before pushing the parachute cover away to reveal the interior.
The first thing she saw was Raven's familiar figure lying unconscious on the floor with a boy bending over her. He looked up sharply at her entrance and Jinny felt a rush of anger take possession of all her senses when she realised that it was Murphy. "YOU FUCKING SON OF A BITCH!!" she screamed, grabbing her shock baton instead and pressing the button on the side. Electricity surged through the metal conductor and she took a step forwards when the Commander and Kane rushed through the entrance to restrain her.
She cried out in pain when Shumway twisted her arm and her grip faltered, causing her fingers to drop the shock baton. "What the hell are you doing?!" Kane demanded.
"This little fucker killed two people and now he's killed Raven too! I'm going to fucking destroy him!!" she yelled, struggling against their holds.
"Hey, stop it right now before I knock you out!" Shumway warned.
Bellamy had ran up behind them then, and the moment he laid eyes on Murphy, he pushed through Kane and Shumway to get his hands on the boy. "You murdering asshole!!" He managed to get a few good punches in before the rest of the guards swarmed the both of them and yanked them out of the dropship by force. Shumway stormed up to confront them with an expression of biting steel and frostbite. "Another word or move out of line and I will consider it as insubordination and arrest the both of you right here on the spot," he threatened lowly.
Jinny scowled darkly at him, hands balled tightly into fists. "Yes, sir," she finally grounded out.
"Wait, you don't understand," Finn said. "Murphy murdered two of our people. He shot another one. He tried to hang Bellamy."
"I don't care," Kane snapped as he strode out to join them. "You are not animals. There are rules. Laws. You are not in control here anymore."
"Control this!" Jinny shouted spitefully while flipping them off with her middle finger.
"Arrest them now!" Shumway said in exasperation.
As Jinny was fighting the guards off with her pistol, Abby was exiting the dropship with Raven lying palely on a stretcher. She paused and looked at her friend as Finn rushed over to check on her. "She's lost a lot of blood," Abby said. "It's a miracle that she's still alive. There's no one else in there. Come on, put her down over there so I can examine her properly."
"Banks, if you touch me, you are going to regret it for the rest of your life," Jinny threatened. The poor guard stared between the Major and the Commander before pretending to look at his tablet.
"Uh, sir, we're getting some strange readings around the area, traces of halothane vapour and BZ," he read out.
Shumway smacked him across the back of the head. "Just take a look at where we're standing, Sergeant, and make an educated guess."
"No, wait," Jinny said with a frown. "That's not right, halothane and BZ are constituents of—"
"Sleeping gas," Abby said and they turned to her, as her eyes widened with horror. "They've been kidnapped?"
Kane held up a hand. "Now, we don't know the details, there's no use—"
A body dropped down next to Jinny, causing her to cry out from surprise, and she had to seriously restrain herself from hitting Raulf in the head. She inhaled sharply in irritation before telling him, "You really need to stop doing that."
"The Mountain Men took them," he said.
"You saw this?" Kane asked.
"No—"
"Then we shouldn't jump to conclusions," he went on irregardless. "Our priority is to find the remaining survivors of the Ark."
"Marcus," Abby started sternly. "My daughter is still out there."
"And we will find her once we have more information," he said patiently. "Wherever they are, they're not here anymore, and I don't think it's a good idea for us to be wandering around when there are hostiles in the territory."
Jinny hated to admit it, but he was right, they shouldn't be stumbling around the woods without a proper plan of action. "So we're leaving?" Bellamy asked in disbelief. "This is where they'll come back, we can't just leave."
"Bellamy, I don't think they're coming back," Finn said. "And... Abby says that Raven needs surgery or she's gonna die."
As Jinny turned to look at the girl that was being carried on the stretcher, she felt someone grab hold of her hands and cuff them together behind her back. "Hey, who the hell?!" She turned around to meet her father's smug smile and balked. "You evil bastard."
"I don't make orders lightly," he told her before turning to Bellamy who held his hands up willingly. Shumway eyed him menacingly as he secured the young man's wrists together again.
"Abby, it's time to go!" Kane called, watching as she etched a message on the wall for the kids in case they came back; directions to Alpha Station. "Alright, let's get ready to move out. We gotta get there before dark."
Jinny exchanged glances with Bellamy before letting her gaze sweep over the camp site once more. It was obvious even to her, the layer of powdery white residue that covered the ground was riddled with drag lines that led north towards the mountain.
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © KAYE CEE
DO NOT STEAL, COPY OR TAKE ANY PART OF THIS WORK.
[ author's note ]
ahh what a beautiful way to start the season :') and yup, commander shumway is alive!! bellamy needs to sleep with his eyes open 24/7. plus all the hilarious power plays that are gonna happen in this season.