XX
[PREVIOUSLY: Octavia, Finn and Clarke go to meet Anya and her bodyguards at the designated bridge. As Clarke and Anya heatedly discuss treaty terms, Octavia notices archers in the trees and realises that it's a trap. She's just about to pull Clarke away when the unthinkable happens].
BANG. BANG.
Two more bullets split through the air in a fiery blast of gunpowder. They whizzed straight by my ear ... in fact, they were so close, I felt a tickle of air fan my face as the bullets whooshed past.
The bullets hit their target: one of the archers. The grounder dropped his bow and quiver of arrows and slumped, face-first, out of the tree.
BAM.
His limp, lifeless body slammed into the ground.
"Clarke, Finn, Octavia, GET DOWN!" Bellamy's deep, authoritative voice called out as he, too, stepped out into the open.
Anya, seeing her opportunity, whipped a knife from a hidden pocket that was on the underside of her sleeve. Twirling the blade expertly between her fingers, she lunged towards me, the gleaming silver aimed straight for my throat.
In that moment, the entire world seemed to freeze. My eyes widened as I, horrified and helpless, watched the knife curve through the air towards me. There was no way Bellamy could even aim to shoot in time; there was no way I could niftily dodge the oncoming blow in time.
I was a goner. That was that.
PING.
Suddenly and out of nowhere, an arrow lodged itself in Anya's wrist, stopping her mid-movement.
Anya let out a scream of pain as her wrist reflexively snapped back. Anya cradled her wounded arm to her chest as her knife clattered to the floor.
My mouth fell open in shock. What had just happened? One of Anya's own men had - had shot her?
BANG. BANG.
Bellamy had brought his rifle up to eye-level and was now delivering fast and frequent shots towards Anya. Unfortunately, all of the bullets were either ricocheting off of the edge of the bridge or blowing dents through the hard wooden boards.
Even still, the deafening noise caused by the boys' guns was enough to scare the grounders. And the proud, confident Heda was proud and confident no more. With cover from her bodyguards, who were stringing arrows towards Bellamy and Jasper, Anya stumbled hastily back towards her horse.
"Octavia, c'mon!" Finn urged as he reached forward and grasped my hand in his. Encircling his other arm around my shoulders, he pulled me away from the bridge.
As the chaos continued to expand, I tossed a hasty glance over my shoulder and gazed intently towards the woods from where the loose arrow had come from. Suddenly, I stopped abruptly, causing Finn to run straight into the back of me. A strangled gasp rose up in my throat.
What on earth?
He was standing on the outskirts of the woods next to the frothing waters of the stream. Over one shoulder was a bulging pack and over the other, a quiver of arrows. In his hands was a curved hunting bow. He was in the very act of notching another arrow to the bow-string when he looked up at me, his deep hazel eyes reflecting the colourful green-wood hues surrounding him.
Aidan.
"Octavia, what are you doing? Let's go!" Finn urged.
As I was tugged away from the bridge, I caught a glimpse of Aidan turning and slipping back into the woods from whence he came.
Finn and I found cover behind a nearby clump of sturdy oak trees; Clarke joining us only seconds later. Bellamy and Jasper, who were delivering last-minute shots towards the grounders, followed us into the safety of the woods.
"C'mon, let's move!" Bellamy ordered briskly. "Hurry!"
As we all sprinted down the twisting narrow bush track, we were joined by Raven and Monty, who'd been trailing us some distance away.
"What the hell happened out there?" Raven demanded.
"Just keep running and don't look back!" Bellamy yelled.
None of us where about to argue with him, so we pressed on until, after a few long minutes of hard and exhausting running, we arrived back at the camp gates.
"Open them up! Open them up! They're back!" I heard Dustin shout out to his comrades from his look-out post on the wall. "Hey guys!" he waved down at us. "How did it go ...?" his voice trailed off when he realised how puffed we were. "Oh no."
As the gates creaked open, Finn turned on Bellamy in frustration, "We shouldn't have brought the guns."
"What?" Clarke gaped at him disbelievingly. "You were in on this before, Spacewalker, what happened?"
Finn shook his head and tugged angrily at his hair. "Octavia nearly got killed, okay?"
"Octavia?" Raven scoffed. "That's who you're worried about?"
"Aw c'mon, Raven!" Finn yelled. "This is ridiculous. Maybe we could've had a fair shot of making peace with them if you didn't break the treaty conditions and bring the guns!"
"You're lucky she brought them," Bellamy snapped. "The grounders went there to kill you!"
"You don't know that!" Finn exclaimed in exasperation. "Jasper fired the first shot!"
Tears stung the back of my eyes as I turned on Jasper. "I told you not to shoot," I glared furiously at him. "You ruined everything."
"I - I saved you!" Jasper shouted. Grasping the gun tighter in his hands and gritting his teeth, he brushed roughly past me as he muttered, "You're welcome."
I rolled my eyes and groaned.
"Well, if we weren't at war already, we sure as hell are now," Finn guffawed sarcastically.
"Whatever Finn," Raven threw over her shoulder as she stalked angrily back into camp.
"You didn't have to trust the grounders, Raven!" Finn called out after her. "You just had to trust Octavia! She was so close ..."
"No, she wasn't, Finn," Bellamy swiftly cut him off. "The grounders had it all planned out from the beginning ... They were using us!"
Finn didn't reply. Instead, he clenched and unclenched his fists before turning about on his heel and storming off.
"Great," Clarke flailed her arms in the air. "Now what?"
"Now, we prepare to fight," Bellamy returned.
No longer wanting to be a part of their conversation, I grabbed Monty's arm and veered him away. "Let's go," I hissed.
Monty nodded in agreement.
As the two of us started walking back towards the drop-ship, we heard a startled shout sound from the radio tent.
Exchanging worried glances, Monty and I raced over and stumbled through the thick canvas covering the tent opening, only to find Raven desperately punching at the buttons on the radio's dashboard.
"W-what's wrong?" Monty ventured fearfully, gazing wide-eyed at the radio.
Raven heaved a deep, shaky breath as she placed both hands on the table in front of her. "It's dead."
I frowned. "Well, can't you fix ...?"
"No, Octavia, I can't!" she exploded, turning on me furiously. "It's dead!"
"Raven, what's going on?" Clarke demanded as she strode into the tent, Bellamy at her heels. Obviously they had heard the commotion and had come to suss it out.
Raven shook her head and rubbed her fingers against her temple. "I - I can't believe it ... it's the Ark."
"What about it?" Bellamy queried, confused.
"I was just talking to Marcus Kane," Raven's voice lowered to a whisper. "He - he said there's been a revolt on the Ark ... a bunch of people have taken control of the exodus ship - the spacecraft that's supposed to send everyone down to earth within the month."
"And?" Clarke prompted impatiently.
"Some lady called Diana Sydney betrayed the chancellor and the rest of the council ... " Raven stammered, tears slipping down her cheeks. "She, and the rest of her conspirers, have launched the exodus ship. They're on their way down to earth as we speak ... B-but the others, the rest of the people that didn't defect - they're stuck back on the Ark ... They'll only survive for a few months before the Ark completely shuts down ..."
"And the radio?" Bellamy asked.
"When the exodus ship launched, it cut off any power that might be connected us to the Ark," Raven explained soberly. "Kane was in the middle of a sentence when the signal bounced back. The transmission's dead."
"W-who's on it?" Clarke inquired, a tearful tremor breaking her voice. "Whose on the exodus ship."
Raven shook her head. "Diana took mostly working class people and a handful of guards. All of the important personnel, the engineers, the doctors ... the people we need to help give us protection ... they were left behind. T-there's no way in hell that we can defeat the grounders. Not now."
Nervously, I ran my fingers through my thick brown hair. "I - I can't believe this. Why would this - this Diana Sydney do this?"
Raven shrugged. "I guess she wanted top pick, first choice. She didn't want to take any chances and risk getting left behind. How am I supposed to know?"
"Doesn't she realise what she's done?" Clarke exclaimed. "She - she's doomed us all!"
Gif: Octavia as she hears the bad news about the exodus ship.
XX