"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none." - William Shakespeare.
The next morning, Valery was awake early. The sky was pink and orange, a new day. She slept outside, she couldn't sleep because Jasper's moans kept her awake. On the other hand she was glad she heard him moaning, a sign that he was still alive. Soon after she woke, up the camp was slowly waking up as well. When she was playing with her handmade knife, she saw Bellamy coming out of his tent, followed by a girl who just put her shirt back on. She shook her head and sighed, and when she looked up she saw that Bellamy looked at her. They exchanged looks, but nothing happened. Valery felt her cheeks getting a bit warm, so she decided to leave. She walked into the Exodus ship. She saw Jasper lying, Clarke bended over him. she kneeled down next to Clarke. The area around the wound was flaming red.
"I need your help." Clarke said. Valery gave a short nod and inspected the wound. "It's getting infected," Valery started, "you need to get rid of the inflammation." Clarke nodded and Jasper let out a terrible scream. "Hold him still," Clarke said to Finn and Wells, "I need to cut away the infected flesh." Jasper closed his eyes and almost lost consciousness. Clarke felt his heartbeat. "Stop it! You are killing him!" Octavia screamed in Valery's ear, and she almost pinched in Jasper's wound out of shock. "What the hell?!" Valery snapped offended. "They're trying to save his life." Finn said calmly to Octavia, who looked a bit apologizing to Valery.
"He can't be saved." Bellamy said. Wells stood up and faced Bellamy, "Back off," he said. Clarke sighed: "We didn't drag him all the way back to let him die." Valery nodded in agreement. "Kid's a goner. If you don't see that, you are deluded, he's making people crazy." Clarke got a bit impatient. "Sorry if Jasper is a bit inconvenient to you," she started, "but this isn't the Ark. Every life down here matters. I have seen my mother heal people all my life, there's still hope-" Bellamy interrupted Clarke: "This isn't about hope, this is about guts. You don't have the guts to make hard choices, I do. He's been like this for three days." Valery gave a sarcastic high pitched laugh. She stood up and faced Bellamy.
"The only hard choices you make is who you are going to make out with and how you are going to punish people in the best way to show them you are so called the boss," she started, a bit stuttering "you may be the oldest, but you are certainly not the boss, you are a janitor," she said coolly, "so back the hell off and let us do our job." Everyone was looking with big eyes to Valery, and Bellamy was a bit startled. Within a split second, he recovered. "If he isn't better by tomorrow, I will kill him myself," he said, "Octavia, let's go." Valery looked at Octavia, who smiled at her. "I am staying here." Bellamy climbed down the ladder and he left. "Power-hungry, self serving jackass," Monty said, "He doesn't care about anyone but himself." Octavia looked down. "No offense," he said to Octavia and he turned to Valery, "but good you said that, Val." Valery smirked. "I will probably regret it, but yeah it felt kinda good." She shrugged. "Yeah, but he also happens to be right," Finn suddenly said, "we need to prove him wrong."
~
Monty, Octavia and Valery stayed with Jasper when the rest was going outside, looking for a solution. His temperature was very high and the minutes felt like hours. Valery decided to take a nap and woke up when it was dark. "Jeez, how long did I sleep?" She asked Monty. "Few hours," Monty replied, "you quite missed something. There's this kind of mist that make people's skin burning. Clarke and the guys are still outside... just like Bellamy." Valery sighed when Jasper was starting to moan again. "Oh.... why now," she whispered disappointed, "people are about to sleep." The moaning went on and on, Octavia and Valery were sitting in silence, Monty was downstairs trying to get some sleep. "MURPHY IS GOING TO KILL JASPER!" Monty rushed up the ladder and Valery rose faster than a cat. "The hatch!" Monty yelled. Valery rushed up to the hatch and kicked Murphy, who let go. Monty and Valery sat down on the hatch. "Damn, the lock is on the other side!" Valery yelled panicky. Octavia found and iron pole and shove it to blockade it. "Open up this hatch right now!" Murphy yelled and kept knocking. It took forever until he quit, for they heard noises outside. Octavia decided to have a look, and walked away.
"You think Clarke got medicine?" Monty asked Valery. Valery shrugged. "There are a lot of plants that have medical powers," she started, "Wells is with her, he knows about botany... so who knows." Clarke came back with Octavia and Valery hugged them. "Hey, what is it?" Valery asked when she saw Octavia's eyes watering. "Atom is dead." She said flatly. "The mist." Valery was startled and looked at Clarke, who confirmed it by nodding. "I am so sorry." Valery said and she hugged Octavia again. Clarke walked away and came back with a hot beverage for Jasper, who was drinking it. "What is it?" Valery asked. "A kind of sea weed, same thing what was in the poultice." Clarke said. "Let's hope it'll work."
~
Days passed, and it had been a week since Jasper got attacked. He felt a lot better, almost better. Every day Valery checked her trap, but nothing was there. When she woke up, she left the Exodus ship. People were trying to built a kind of wall, for safety. Bellamy and Murphy were commanding everyone. She decided to look one more time at her trap, and surprisingly, there was something. The lifeless body of a brown hare was lying in the grass. Valery was proud her trapped worked, but felt a bit sad for the hare. His fur was soft and beautiful. She grabbed it by the ears, and took it back to camp.
She was almost at the camp when the hare got snatched out of her hands. "Where did you get that?" Murphy asked holding up the hare. "None of your business, give it back!" She tried to snatch it back, but he held it up in the air. "Jump for me, little bitch." He mumbled. "You want another kick in the face?" Valery started, "I can give it to you-" Valery felt a terrible pain in her face, and she fell on the ground. She reached to her nose, her eyes watering. Murphy kicked her in her stomach and the air got pushed out of her lungs. She was coughing loudly, and Murphy kicked her again. Blood was dripping out of her nose, and she tried to get up. She got another kick in the stomach and she fell down again. She couldn't speak she was gasping for air. She grabbed her knife and swung it, but Murphy avoided it. He grabbed her by her hair and his fist hit Valery's face so hard, she fell down on the ground again and did not move.
When she woke up, she felt that she was lying on something soft. She slowly opened her eyes and she saw the shape of a person, who was dabbing her face with a cloth, yelling to people. After a few moments, Valery started to feel the pain in her body and her head became clear again. She blinked a few times and saw who it was, Bellamy. She tried to get up, but he pushed her back slowly.
"Hold still." He said, but Valery shook her head. "I go kill him." She mumbled. She rubbed in her eyes and looked around. She was lying in a tent, not sure who it was. Probably Bellamy's. "Please don't tell me I'm in your bed." She mumbled. He shook his head. "Who did this?" He asked flatly. "Murphy..." Valery said and she moaned loudly, "I caught a hare... he took it and kicked me." Bellamy didn't say anything. "You don't believe me, huh?" She said quietly. "Well," Bellamy said, "I did see him eating meat." Valery was startled. "He ate MY hare?" Bellamy shrugged and nodded. "Probably." Valery closed her eyes and her tears started to come up again.
"When Clarke's back, she'll take a look at you. You are quite injured, but I can't see what it exactly is." Bellamy said without looking at her. Valery looked at her ex boyfriend. Her five year older ex boyfriend, one of the cool guys. How deeply in love Valery used to feel when she was around him. Until she broke his heart. Valery wasn't sure if she made the right choice, she wasn't certain... The only who knew the answer was Abby Griffin. She prays everyday that she can somehow contact her, in order to know the answer to her question. Deep inside she might already know, but still she has to know for sure.
"Bell?" She said quietly. Bellamy looked at her. "Thank you," she mumbled, "and I am sorry for what I said earlier..." He looked at her, and after a few seconds he opened his mouth: "No you don't," he started, "you already made that clear 2 years ago." And he left.