Knife throwing. It was definitely more complicated than it looked, and Cass hated it being like that. So far, she managed to only stab the tree once, and it was annoying as hell. Standing by Bellamy and behind Murphy, she bursted out laughing as she watched his makeshift knife fall to the forest floor. Cass ignored the glare from Murphy, and looked towards Bellamy as a small smile grew on his dark lips.
"It's that damn kid, alright," Murphy complains, "he's messing with my head."
"It's not gonna last much longer," Bellamy replies, "you're gonna have to think of a new excuse." He lets his arm fall back, swinging it full force towards the tree. The back of the hammer digs itself into the tree, and a small smirk grows on Cass's lips. "That's how it's done."
Murphy's eyes roll, resulting in Cass kicking the back of his shin before Adam walks over. "We searched a half mile in all directions, no sign of Trina or Pascal." He reports, a frown growing on the brunette's lips before she digs her feet into the wet ground.
She's already established that no one gets left behind, and she wasn't willing to break that promise yet. "Then we go in a full mile to look for them, they couldn't have gotten too far." Cass argues.
Waving her hands in the air as she speaks, the Arsen girl jumped as she felt Bellamy's hands come into contact with her own, pulling them down as he looks at her. "There's only so much we can do, Cassie," he says softly, making Cass frown, "we might not be able to find them."
"Visit your special tree when you were out there?" Murphy mocked.
Adam's eyes shut in a wave of some sort of emotion. Embarrassment? Perhaps resent? Cass wasn't too good with this when she couldn't look into their eyes and see for herself. "Adam took his punishment," Bellamy scolded after releasing Cass's hands and turning towards Murphy. "Let it go."
Part of Cass was glad to see Bellamy was acting like this, being the leader he should be and scolding him. But, she still had a small grudge against him for tying Adam to the tree in the first place. "It could be Grounders." Adam suggests softly, looking up from his spot on the forest floor to back at Bellamy.
"Yeah," Murphy agrees, though to Cass he didn't sound very convinced, "or, they could be in pound-town, got a lot of that going around recently."
"Grow up, Murphy." Cass snapped, walking up to him before ripping his makeshift knife from his hands, twirling the metal in her hands before looking back up at Bellamy. "You're not getting this back yet." She scolds him, her grip tight on the metal piece.
Bellamy lets out a breath as he stepped towards the tree where his hammer was stuck, Cass twirling the piece of metal before twisting her head as sounds of branches were heard snapping, leaves wrestling themselves before she noticed Octavia within the bushes, emptying a bucket of water by splashing it among the plants. Cass caught Adam looking down, almost ashamed, before turning towards Bellamy. "Look, Bellamy," he begins. "People are scared. And that...dying kid? He's not helping around right now."
"Morale will grow up when I find them more food." He said, Cass furrowing her eyebrows. As if that will help?
"What do we say when they ask about Trina and Pascal?" The other kid asks, Cass looking at him as if he had just showed up.
"For now," Bellamy beings, "nothing. It's possible that they're just lost." Cass nodded her head at his reasoning. "We'll keep an eye out for them next time we go hunting later."
"It's about time I go and kill something." Murphy mutters.
Cass angrily gripped his knife before violently swinging it once the kid and Adam moved away, watching it embed itself from within the tree. "That's how it's done." She mumbles, turning around to see Murphy angrily biting the inside of his cheeks, and a smirk on Bellamy's lips.
"Was that really necessary?" He asks as she steps to his side.
"Well, when is it not?" She retorts, raising her eyebrows up and down before letting out a soft giggle.
She begins to walk away, only to have stopped herself when she realized Bellamy wasn't behind her. "You're not going," she hears him say, watching as he stopped Murphy from moving, "I need you to stay here. The Grounders are circling, I can't leave this place unprotected."
Cass nervously watched as Murphy pursed his lips together, nodding a bit. Why was she afraid? She didn't thing she was targeted, and she was pretty sure that she wasn't targeted, so why was she afraid? Maybe the fear wasn't diverted to herself, but to someone else.
"Fine," Murphy agrees reluctantly, "someone better make sure goggle-boy keeps it shut."
Cass rolled her eyes at his comment, waiting before she knew that Bellamy was behind her before continuing to travel upwards, her legs heaving themselves up the hill.
----------
"So we'll take the eastern side about half a mile out, there's a stream there that some of the animals may go to for food and water." Cass explains to Murphy and Bellamy, listing off good hunting places she has seen when going on her morning and late night walks.
Sure, Bellamy has scolded her not to do so, for the Grounders could take her. But, she liked watching the sun rise and also enjoyed seeing the sun set. The colors made her heart flare, her stomach tying itself into knots that could never be undone as she watched all the bright and dark colors coke together as one. Wasn't her fault that colors easily made her happy.
Nodding, Bellamy began to agree with her. He began to suggest certain places around her suggested areas, before the tent opened and closed. "What did you do to Adam?"
Turning around, Cass noticed Octavia standing in front of the three, and anger was flaming up within her eyes. Bellamy motioned to Murphy to go ahead and leave, but Cass stayed put. She let her eyes speak for her: I'm not leaving either of you.
Clearing his throat, Bellamy stood from his crouched position as Murphy exited the tent, Cass following his movement. "Adam's fine." He reassured her.
"Then why did he blow me off?" She asked, still in disbelief.
Cass was left in the dark, she had no idea what happened between Adam and Octavia, but whatever it was, Bellamy didn't like it. Bellamy probably took being a big brother too far, and it left Adam too traumatized to even speak to Octavia. Really, Bell? Really?
"Maybe he's just not interested." Smooth.
"You can't keep everyone away from me!" Octavia was quick to fire back, the anger in her eyes burning furiously. Cass wasn't confident enough to admit it out loud, but it was scaring her.
Deeply inhaling, Bellamy shifted from foot to foot before replying to his little sister. Cass had her hands slid into her jean packets, watching to the sibling exchange for the argument. Something violent could break out, hurtful words exchanged or slaps handed out, someone would need to break up the fight. "Adam needed to learn," he admitted, "disobey me: you pay the price. He paid the price, now we're good."
"Now I'm paying the price," Octavia said in a surprisingly low voice, "so next time you decided to go on power trip, leave me out of it."
Suddenly, a cry broke out, and it took Octavia a few seconds before she raced out of the tent. Jasper. Cass would follow, but she didn't want to overwhelm Clarke with everyone in the drop ship while she was trying to take care of Jasper. So, she turned and faced Bellamy with a frown on her face. "Seriously?" She asked, her hands throwing up to the air before falling to her sides.
Obviously playing like he didn't know what she was talking about, Bellamy furrowed his eyebrows on confusion. "What?" He asks.
"Even Titus would let me talk to guys, and he's about as protective as it gets," she snapped. "Octavia has a right to hang out with whoever she wants, whenever she wants, Bell. Whatever the hell we want, right? What about Octavia? Does your sister fall in that category?"
"I am trying to protect her," Bellamy snaps, his voice hard, it made Cass flinch a little. "Everyone down here is a criminal, and I want to keep her away from those kind of people."
"So she can't hang out with anyone down here besides you, me, and my friends, right?" Cass asks, referring to Adrianna and Rowan. "Because I was arrested for being born, my friends were accused for drug possession, and you are the innocent little angel trying to take care of 'your people'. Did I get that right?"
Bellamy lets a hard smile grow on his face, this one not showing any evidence of happiness or any positive emotion. "If you really knew, you wouldn't think I'm that innocent, Cassie."
An angry huff of air exited her pink lips, followed by a harsh laugh. "You keep being so vague about crap like that, why can't you just flat out say what you did? If I sleep with you, will you tell me? Is that what this whole damn dark story is about?"
"It's not like that," Bellamy tries to reassure her, taking a step forward, Cass stepping back, "not one bit."
"Then tell me, please!" She never thought she'd have to beg, but she wanted to understand. What did he do that was so bad? Why did he make it such a big deal? Also, how did this get from Octavia's freedom to his dark story? "I want to help you and understand why you're so hellbent on keeping Octavia on lockdown in the camp. It can't just be from her injury, that's for sure, so just tell me what happe-"
"I did it!" His sudden raised voice shocked her, Cass's eyes widening at it. She's felt comfortable around him, safe, like nothing could go wrong. Now? She didn't feel that same tranquility.
She sighed heavily, walking back up to him and rubbing his shoulders gently. Okay, maybe she pushed it, the distress in his body language and eyes was enough to alert her that. "Did what?" Cass asked, trying to get him to look her in the eyes. "Bell, what did you do?"
The littlest Arsen sibling watched as Bellamy struggled to find words, and all she did was nod at his silence. "I'm going to check on Jasper." She whispers, her hand giving his shoulder a comforting squeeze before walking out of the tent.
By the time she had gotten to the top, Octavia was complaining to Clarke that she was killing him, but Cass could clearly see the goal: cut away the infected flesh.
"She's trying to save him." Finn corrected her.
"She can't."
Cass's dark eyes closed at the sound of the voice from behind her, refusing to turn her head or body to meet the eyes of the oldest Blake. But, of course, she slightly turned her head back to see Finn standing up and staring down Bellamy. To Cass it looked like a challenge to a fight. "Back off." He said, quietly but threatening.
"We didn't drag him through miles of woods just to let him die." Clarke replied, Cass nodding at her words.
The brunette agreed with the Privileged delinquent. She didn't almost die twice just to let the boy die here. "He's a fighter," she adds, "he can survive this."
"He's a goner," Bellamy corrected, "if you can't see that, your deluded. He's making people crazy."
At those words, Clarke's head went up in a state of annoyance. Cass could see the noticeable anger bursting within the icy blue irises. "Sorry if Jasper is an inconvenience to you, but this isn't the Ark," she snaps, Cass smirking a bit at her comeback, "down here, every life matters."
"Take a look at him," Bellamy replied, his voice soft and breaking. Cass did as instructed, and her heart almost broke. He just looked...in pain. "He's a lost cause."
A silence fell among the group, no words were shared for the period of silence. The only way to know what anyone was thinking was to look at their body language, or in Cass's case, read their emotions through their eyes. "Octavia," Clarke suddenly speaks up, "I've spent my whole life watching my mother heal people...if I say there's hope, there's hope."
"This isn't about 'hope'," Bellamy fires back, "it's about guts. You don't have the guts to make the hard choices, I do. He's been like this for three days, he's not better by tomorrow, I'll kill him myself."
After his words, Bellamy went down the drop ship, and Cass was left with a sick feeling in her stomach.
Part of her wanted to go down, confront him, but they were already in their own Cold War. They needed time.
She needed time.