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ABANDON HOPE
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BELLAMY GRABBED HER ARM before she could follow Abby and Kane into the station. She turned to look at him with a guarded expression, save for her lips that were drawn into a thin line. His eyebrows were furrowed tightly over his dark eyes as he looked down at her with blatant disbelief. He seemed almost betrayed by her words, as if he expected her to be on their side. His side.
"Are you going to give him up?" he asked in a low voice so that the others couldn't overhear them. On the outside, they looked like they were sharing an intimate conversation as they always did.
"No, but they will," she told him, cocking her head to the side. "If you want him to live, he needs to leave. Now."
"I don't understand," he said with a shake of his head.
Jinny glanced around quickly before pulling him closer so she could whisper into his ear. "Lexa didn't just cut Kane loose because she likes him, she's using him to get Finn. We need to get out of here."
"Where would we go?" he asked, then paused in thought. "The dropship."
Raven walked up to them just then and Jinny grabbed her arm, pulling her to the side quickly to give her the plan. She nodded in agreement and they spun around to walk into the station before separating in different directions. Jinny and Bellamy made their way to B corridor where they'd told Finn to be. A few of the exposed panels on the walls buzzed with intermittent sparks as they passed by, finally spotting Finn with Clarke along the way.
Bellamy called out to them as they approached the pair. "You need to get out of here."
"We'll put you in the dropship," Jinny said, grabbing Finn's wrist and hauling him away with her.
"No!" Clarke protested. "You know this is the safest place for him right now."
"They're turning on him," Bellamy responded. "We can protect him at the dropship until we figure this thing out. Grab your gear and meet us at Raven's gate in five. She's already working on cutting the power to the fence."
"Okay, but nobody's coming with me," Finn told him.
Bellamy stopped and turned around. "That isn't up for discussion."
"I think you're missing the point of 'protecting you'," Jinny said with a raised eyebrow.
"We are surrounded by Grounders," Clarke hissed.
"If we split up, take the low ground, we'll make it through," Bellamy told her. "Then meet at the dropship."
"There he is!" A voice suddenly interrupted them. They turned to find the man from Mecha Station that had spoken out against Finn in the crowd the day before. He was holding a heavy metal pipe in his hands as he advanced. The moment he raised it in the air, Bellamy lunged forwards and struck him in the abdomen with his rifle. Jinny kicked the pipe away, its loud clamour sharply filling the air. They looked up to the small group of people that had been behind the man as they took a step back in surprise.
"Anyone else?!" Bellamy asked challengingly and they merely stared back. "Didn't think so."
"Bellamy's right," Clarke breathed out. "We have to go." She grabbed Finn's arm and they ran towards the exit.
"Out of the way!" Jinny barked at the others as she and Bellamy started after them.
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Jinny treaded lightly as she gently pushed the foliage in her face to the side, glancing around briefly before stepping out into the open. There were snaps of twigs breaking underfoot and the fronds shuddered noisily as Bellamy followed after her—not as quietly—skidding down the soft incline behind her. He caught up to Jinny with his heavy boots thudding on the ground and leaving an obvious trail in his wake. She winced; so much for being stealthy.
"Do you really think the Grounders would just give him up?" Jinny asked dubiously. "What if everyone ends up dying because we snuck him out?"
"Finn's one of us," he told her. "We've got to protect our own."
"Yeah, but what he did was wrong," she pointed out. "Shouldn't he deserve to be punished?"
"It was a mistake," Bellamy said, pausing to cast her a significant look. Jinny averted her eyes almost guiltily. The word 'mistake' was something that she was well averse to.
"Okay, fine," she huffed, continuing on their trek over the forest floor. "It still doesn't feel right to me though."
"Sometimes the things we need to do aren't always right," he told her, hopping over a fallen log in their way and offering a hand to her.
Jinny took it, stepping on top of the wooden carcass and springing over it lightly. She pondered over his words in her head, deciding that the only reason she was doing this was because of her friends. Finn had murdered without good reason, and she didn't think she would ever forgive him for such a crime even if it was a mistake. There would always be a rift between them from now on that she had no intention of overcoming.
She'd known him back on the Ark from Raven, though they hadn't been as close as Jinny was with the mechanic. Finn would sometimes accompany them in the work room, offering to keep an eye out for them as they stole components to build her laptop. She still remembered the day he ran up to her with an excited grin on his face, eyes sparkling as he asked—no, begged—her for a favour. It turned out that he had managed to get his hands on a spacesuit for Raven and wanted her to make sure that they wouldn't get caught. There was nothing Jinny could have done when the alarms blared from the breach though. She supposed she owed it to Raven to keep him safe.
They finally came to the familiar copse of trees that had been their constant companions during their first month on the ground. The tip of the dropship came into view through the slender trunks in greeting and Bellamy gripped his rifle cautiously as they walked through the battered gate. They crossed the compound, where the white ash had melted into the charred soil from the previous day's drizzle. Jinny ducked behind the parachute canvas and placed her backpack down on the floor as Bellamy surveyed the area outside through the scope of his gun.
It didn't take very long until they heard another pair of footsteps walking up to the dropship's entrance. They stood at the back of the cabin with their rifles raised at the ready, in case their new companions weren't friendlies after all. Murphy's pale face peeked under the canvas as he walked through and Jinny cocked her charging handle.
"Whoa, hey, hey!" he exclaimed with his hands raised in the air. "Don't shoot me!"
Raven entered the dropship right after him with an amused smile despite the frown on her brows. "I brought him along, thought we could use an extra gun."
"Or an extra pincushion," Jinny smirked in jest before lowering her rifle.
"Where's Finn and Clarke?" Raven immediately asked, turning her head from side to side as if expecting to see them hidden away in a corner. "They should've been right behind you guys."
"Don't worry, Spacewalker will be fine," Murphy drawled as he shuffled over to a corner and sat down.
"Hey, wait!" Jinny called, darting after Raven as the girl was about to head outside. "It's not safe."
"I just wanna check," Raven said, turning around with anxiety riddled in her brown eyes.
"It's too risky, there could be Grounders—" The parachute flap was pushed aside as she was speaking and their eyes diverted to Finn as he hurried inside, carrying an unconscious Clarke in his arms.
"What happened?!" Bellamy asked worriedly as they started to crowd around him.
"Grounder," Finn replied gruffly. "Hit her on the head."
"Put her here," Murphy instructed, placing a blanket on the floor, and Finn gently lowered Clarke onto it.
"I need a bandage, a rag, anything," Bellamy called as Jinny inspected the damage.
"Got it." Murphy fetched a piece of cloth from the side of the dropship and handed it to him. He was on top form today.
"Wound looks superficial," Jinny stated, peeling Clarke's eye open to check her pupil response, which was normal. Bellamy lifted the girl's head from the floor to allow Murphy to place the cloth against the bleeding gash. "I don't think she has a concussion either."
Finn took off his pack and slammed it roughly onto the floor, watching the three of them tend to the unconscious blonde. "Clarke, can you hear me?" Bellamy asked, shaking her slightly and she let out a small groan. "You'll be fine. Just gotta rest."
"It'll probably take a while for her to get up," Jinny said.
"I bet you'd know all about that," Murphy commented with a smirk.
"Hey," Raven started, going up to Finn who looked like he was having a panic attack of some sort. "Clarke's gonna be fine, it's just a bump on the head... Are you?" He merely looked back at her with apprehension. "We'll figure this out."
"That's what she said," Finn told her, glancing to Clarke. "Right before I almost got her killed." He then stormed out of the dropship with an aggressive flick of the canvas. Raven exchanged concerned glances with Jinny before hurrying after him.
They came back in a moment later looking shaken. "They're here," Raven announced.
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Jinny peered out the curtain below Bellamy, with Murphy doing the same on the other side. It had been fifteen minutes since they spotted the Grounders darting between the walls, just visible through the cracks of the broken barricade. Their hulking figures held silhouettes of lethal weapons in their hands. They seemed to be waiting, just within their sights, but not making a move just yet.
"They're staying out of range," Bellamy said, before turning around to the others. "They'll be waiting until it's dark."
"We hit them now, at least we'll take them by surprise," Murphy proposed.
"We don't know how many of them are out there," Clarke protested.
"Well, I'm not hearing any better ideas," the boy retorted.
"We create a distraction," Jinny told them. "Give me Finn's jacket and I'll run the other way. You guys get out of here."
"Or we give them something else," Raven said as she paced off towards the side.
"All they want is Finn," Bellamy responded with a frown.
"Finn wasn't the only one at the village," she suggested, and their eyes widened in realisation at what she was getting at.
"What are you talking about?" Clarke asked her.
"Whoa, whoa," Murphy started. "Raven, I came here to protect him. You were the one who wanted me to come—" He stopped when he caught sight of Raven's dauntless stare, then glanced towards Finn before taking a step forwards. "That's why you asked me to come along?"
Raven took a breath before continuing, "Enough Grounders saw him at the village, they'd believe he was the shooter."
"I love you, Raves, but they already know it was Finn that pulled the trigger," Jinny said softly, reaching out for the girl. "It's not gonna work."
"We wouldn't know if we didn't try," she replied adamantly.
"You sick bitch," Murphy spat.
"Raven, you don't mean this," Clarke coaxed with a shake of her head.
"You know what they do to people," Bellamy said, sparing Murphy a perturbed glance.
Raven lifted her gun and cocked it. "They want a murderer, they got one." She held the rifle high, aiming it at Murphy's chest. "Drop your gun!" she ordered.
He closed the distance between them until his sternum touched the barrel while leaning in closely. "Go to hell, Raven."
"Raven, this is so not on," Jinny told her.
"Put it down, Raven." Clarke raised her voice slightly with frantic nerves. "Like it or not, he's one of us!"
"I said, drop it!" Raven repeated, pushing against Murphy's chest with her rifle.
"Stop!" Finn shouted, lunging forwards with his arm outstretched to push her weapon down, and Raven's face fell in dismay with it. He stood between her and Murphy. "We're not doing this. They've got us surrounded. The only thing we can do is stay and defend this place."
Bellamy nodded readily. "I'm with you."
"Yeah, okay, fine," Jinny said with a shrug and the others followed their lead.
"Murphy." Finn turned to him.
"Yeah," the boy responded with feigned nonchalance.
"You and Jinny go upstairs, watch the rear. I'll take the lower level. You three, take the front gate." He looked around at them as they frowned uncertainly. "That's the plan, alright?"
Murphy was the first to make a move, heading towards the ladder and starting to climb. Jinny exchanged nods with Bellamy, and touched Raven on the shoulder briefly as she passed by to follow Murphy. She took the rungs slowly, taking care not to make too much noise as she ascended through the levels of the dropship to the top. Murphy popped open the hatch and pulled himself onto the roof above her.
It brought Jinny back to that day when he'd almost hung Bellamy, and there was a spark of annoyance as she looked at the boy now. He'd shot Raven too, rendering her a cripple for who knew how much longer.
She went to the side of the dropship and positioned her rifle over the edge as Murphy took the rear. From her current vantage point, she had excellent aim to take shots at the Grounders that were crouching behind their walls. They really did have them surrounded, and she counted about two dozen of them lying in wait.
"Hey," Murphy called. "What do you think about all this, Commander?"
"It doesn't matter what I think anymore, Murphy," she replied. "I've chosen my side, you have too."
"Yeah, but humour me," he said.
Jinny sighed. "Honestly, I think we should give him up. Or—" She stopped short and swivelled her rifle in the direction of the rustling branches off to the side by the west gate. Her breathing slowed as she peered into her scope and lined a shot, only to blink in surprise when she saw Finn stepping out into the open. "Holy shit, what's he doing?"
Murphy went over to her side quickly and looked down. "Is he actually..."
She looked through her scope again as the boy turned around to face them with his hands held high in the air. "Should I just shoot him now and spare him the misery?"
"Yeah, go for it," Murphy said.
"Finn, no!" Clarke shouted, darting out of cover and into the middle of the compound.
But it was too late, the Grounders waylaid him in the next heartbeat, grabbing the boy and taking him away. Jinny could hear Raven's agonised cries from below and she lowered her rifle. "Maybe another day," she told Murphy before heading down the ladder.
Finn had ended it all by giving himself up.
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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © KAYE CEE
DO NOT STEAL, COPY OR TAKE ANY PART OF THIS WORK.
[ author's note ]
hasta la vista finn.
no wait there's still one more chapter damnit.
i originally wrote jinny staying at camp to stall abby and let finn run away, kane being 4700% done with her, jinny running after abby when she went to meet indra and they'd have a brief conversation about jinny's mum. but then i decided going with bellamy would be more fun haha.