chapter ten
CALLING ARK STATION
"what you gonna do when there's blood in the water?"
Walking into camp, Evelynn could feel herself crumbling. She was desperately fighting a darkness that was trying to consume her, her ears were ringing and there was a dull throbbing in her arm accompanied by overwhelming heat from the wound.
She walked a few steps into camp before she finally let her knees buckle. Evelynn kneeled on the dirt, eyes squeezed shut, holding her jacket tightly to her arm. She could vaguely hear the crack of thunder above her head or the shouts of people around her.
She didn't know how long she was sitting there, time and sound all melding together in a blur in her mind.
"Evelynn!"
She let her eyes flicker up to someone standing in front of her. Bellamy was looking down at her with urgency, "Get in the dropship, there's a storm coming."
She blinked fast and tried her best to forget about her pain. She used all her strength to stand herself back up, but as soon as she took a step forward, she blacked out for a second as she stumbled and started to fall.
Bellamy quickly wrapped his arms around her waist before she toppled over, and watched as her jacket fell to the ground beside her.
It was drenched in blood.
"Holy shit."
Bellamy grabbed Evelynn and found the wound in the back of her arm that was still bleeding.
He instantly scooped her up into his arms and walked quickly to the dropship, "What the hell happened to you?"
"I fell into a fucking knife."
He wanted to tease her again, the 'language' joke on the tip of his tongue, but he stopped himself. Now was not the time.
Bellamy shook his head as he walked her into the chaotic dropship. All heads of the delinquents turned to him as he stood in the doorway carrying a body.
"What the hell are you looking at? Get out of the way!"
Everyone moved aside as Bellamy made his way to the center of the dropship to a makeshift bed and Clarke who was wrapping bandages around the knife still deep in Finn's stomach.
Bellamy found a cleared area on the ground a few feet away from Finn and carefully set Evelynn down. She instantly brought her hand to her wound and winced, not doing much other than covering her hand in blood.
Bellamy immediately brought his fingers to her neck under her jaw checking her pulse. Evelynn tried to shove him off, "You don't have to do that, I'm not dead."
Bellamy stared her down before removing his fingers, "I'm just checking your heart rate, okay?"
Evelynn rolled her eyes and complied.
"Stay here," Bellamy ordered.
Evelynn pushed back her pain and joked, "Not like I could go anywhere else."
Bellamy turned before walking away, "Very funny."
A few seconds later Bellamy returned with Clarke who was nearly tripping over her own feet to make it to her best friend.
"No," Evelynn said sharply as Clarke approached, "You need to be with Finn."
Clarke sat in front of Evelynn and shook her head, "There's nothing I can do for Finn until we can contact the Ark."
Evelynn turned her head to see Raven frantically working on the radio repeating her mantra, "Calling Ark station."
Clarke moved Evelynn's side and took her arm to examine the damage. Her hands moved around the wound, trying to see the cut behind the blood.
Evelynn bit hard down on her lip letting out a suppressed yell of pain. Bellamy jumped a bit at Evelynn's cry and crouched down with them and chastised Clarke, "Be careful."
Clarke ignored him and began to mop up some of the blood with wet bandages, "This is deep."
Bellamy scanned Clarke's concerned face, "What do we do?"
Clarke's eyes moved from Bellamy to Evelynn who was squirming in pain and paling from blood loss.
"I need you to get a hot knife."
That caught Evelynn's attention. She instantly sat up and shook her head, "Can't you just put a bandage on it?"
Clarke's face softened, "The wound is too deep. It will just keep bleeding."
Evelynn groaned and let her head fall back against the wall as Bellamy jumped up to get the knife.
"This is Raven Reyes. Calling Ark Station. Please come in. The hundred are alive." Raven repeated.
Evelynn felt her eyelids droop as she listened to Raven repeat the same sentence over and over again.
"Hey, stay with me." Clarke's voice brought her back to reality. She was standing up looking down on her as she walked closer from the other side of the room. Evelynn didn't realize Clarke ever left.
Bellamy came running through the group of delinquents all huddled around the radio.
He held tightly onto a knife that was red with heat.
Clarke and Bellamy both crouched in front of Evelynn. Then Bellamy handed Clarke the knife.
"Okay Lynn," Clarke said, her voice gentle, "Try to hold still."
Evelynn nodded through her lightheaded daze.
Next thing she knew, a searing hot pain shot up her arm. The burning sensation on top of her stab wound was the worst pain she had ever felt in her life.
Evelynn screamed in pain. Bellamy moved himself closer to her and pulled her into a sideways hug in an attempt to calm her.
A bunch of the hundred burst through the crowd and ran up to them, wondering what the commotion was.
"Back up!" Clarke yelled at the kids as she removed the hot knife from Evelynn's arm.
Evelynn stayed resting in Bellamy's arms, overwhelmed by pain. Once the heat from the knife left her, she suddenly felt incredibly cold.
"Evelynn?" Clarke said, moving her hand to her friend's cheek, "You still in there?"
She blinked and opened her eyes, keeping her head resting on Bellamy's shoulder. Clarke sighed in relief.
Bellamy spoke up with fear in his tone, "Clarke, she's shaking. Why is she shaking?"
Evelynn spoke sarcastically, using all the strength she could muster, "Because I'm cold."
Clarke turned to Bellamy, "She's lost a lot of blood, her body temperature is low."
Bellamy moved from Evelynn's grasp and laid her down. He shrugged off his own jacket and carefully pulled it over her. Evelynn tried to thank him but she just closed her eyes lost consciousness.
Bellamy stood up, his face becoming stone cold.
"She'll be okay." Clarke said as she stood as well, "The bleeding stopped. Now she just needs to rest."
Bellamy didn't acknowledge her comment, he just walked away into the sea of delinquents.
»»————- ★ ————-««
Evelynn felt herself wake up, but she kept her eyes shut, feeling too tired to open them.
The room was ominously quiet, the noise of the delinquents from earlier no longer there.
But the sound of a fuzzy voice caught her attention. It was Abby.
Raven fixed the radio.
Evelynn opened her eyes to see the empty floor of the dropship. She sat up causing Bellamy's jacket to fall to the ground, catching someone's attention.
"Clarke! She's awake!"
Evelynn looked around to see Octavia sitting a few feet away from her. Octavia immediately moved to her side and began to examine her arm, "How do you feel?"
Evelynn watched her in confusion. Didn't she hate her? She hadn't spoken to her in days, and if she did it was with a face of resent. Why was she here now?
"Why are you being nice to me?"
Octavia glanced up her, meeting her gaze. She sighed and focused back on her wound, "It's no fun to hold a grudge against someone if they're dead."
Evelynn let out a soft laugh. Octavia smiled at her, "Seriously, how do you feel?"
Evelynn thought about it for a second, "I feel dizzy and cold." Octavia nodded with a look of pity and handed her Bellamy's jacket from the floor.
She then stood up and walked away calling to Clarke, "Did you hear me? She's awake!"
Evelynn smirked and began to slip on the jacket. She carefully put her wounded arm through the sleeve slowly, careful not to reopen her wound.
"Yes, Octavia, I heard you."
Evelynn pulled herself up to stand and wobbled as she held onto the wall to walk over to the group.
The fuzzy sound of the radio emitted a familiar voice, "Who's awake?"
All heads turned to Evelynn as she spoke, "Me. Evelynn."
There was silence as they all listened to the static of the radio. Abby's voice came back, sounding softer than before, "You're alive."
Evelynn felt a smile spread across her face, "Yeah, I am."
Clarke's voice broke up their little reunion as she finished up Finn's stitches, "Okay, I'm done."
"Good. Do you have anything to cover the wound?"
"We'll make do, like always." Clarke said, wiping her hand off. Raven placed her hand on Finn's shoulder and spoke up, "Should he be this pale?"
"He's lost a lot of blood, Raven," Abby said, "but if your boyfriend is anywhere near as tough as you I'm sure he'll be fine."
"Wait, mom, she's right. He's feverish and his breathing is uneven." Clarke said, her hand on his forehead.
"You need to give him some time to recover. Let me know if he gets any worse, but I think he might just be out of the woods."
"Well, down here there's nothing but woods." Clarke said, a tone of anger seeping through her words, "I need a break."
Abby's voice became urgent, "Clarke, wait. Girls, could you give us a few minutes?" Raven began to walk away, "Sure—"
"No, no." Clarke stopped them, "Stay with Finn."
And just like that, Clarke began climbing up to the next level of the dropship.
There was a bit of silence after Clarke left. Evelynn felt like something sucked all of the strength out of her, and it became a challenge to keep standing.
She let herself slide to the ground against the wall.
"How are you feeling Evelynn?" Abby's voice broke through the silence.
Evelynn bit her lip, "I feel okay actually."
"Any pain?"
Evelynn shrugged with a smirk, "Nothing I can't handle."
There was another crack of thunder that shook the room. Abby's voice through the radio became fuzzier as the static picked up, "That's my... strong... your mom... miss..."
And then the radio went completely silent.
"Damn it." Raven sighed, "Lost connection."
"We'll be able to contact them after the storm though, right?" Octavia asked. Raven nodded and opened her mouth to say something but was cut off the Finn moving.
Evelynn quickly forced herself to stand and move over with the other girls to the table.
"What is he doing?" Octavia asked as they watched Finn's body begin to jerk around sportaically.
Evelynn lost her breath for a second but quickly spoke, "He's having a seizure."
Raven went into full on panic mode and ran to the ladder to yell up to Clarke, "Clarke! He's seizing!"
"On my way!" Her voice called back down.
Octavia turned to Evelynn, "What do we do?" Evelynn chewed on her lip, "I don't know."
Clarke and Raven ran as fast as they could to Finn. Raven spoke, voice shaking, "He was fine and then—"
Clarke cut her off, "Get my mom back on the radio now!"
Raven ran a nervous hand through her hair, "The radio is dead, interference from the storm."
Nobody spoke for a second, all eyes helplessly on Finn.
"Please don't let him die."
There was a loud groan coming from the top of the dropship. Evelynn turned to the group in confusion, but she didn't get an answer before Octavia ran to the ladder and left them.
Clarke's breathing was fast as she closed her eyes, as if searching for something in her brain.
"Breathe, Clarke." Evelynn said, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"I don't know what to do," Clarke said, as if scared of her own words.
Evelynn shook her head, "I don't think if there's anything we can do."
Raven did not like that answer as she spoke, nearly shouting, "So were just going to let him have a seizure?"
Clarke nodded slowly, a grave look on her face.
Minutes felt like years, but Finn's seizure finally began to subside.
"It stopped. Quick, help me get him on his side." Clarke shouted orders at the girls.
They all pushed Finn over as a white foam started coming from his mouth. Evelynn pushed some of Finn's hair out of his face, "There's fluid in his lungs."
Clarke nodded and placed her hand on his forehead, "He's burning up!"
Raven backed up a bit, panic consuming her, "Fluid in his lungs, does that mean the knife—"
"No, this isn't blood, it's something else. I did everything she told me." Clarke stepped back as well, feeling helpless.
A spark of recognition dawned on her, "Wait, I've seen this before, shortness of breath, fever, seizing. It's poison."
"Clarke you sterilized everything I watched you do it!" Raven cried.
Clarke shook her head and ran over to the bloody knife beside the bed, "Not everything."
Clarke grabbed the knife and ran up the dropship ladder leaving Raven and Evelynn alone with Finn.
Raven sat by Finn and ran her hands through his hair while Evelynn turned and paced around the empty dropship floor.
"His breathing is really uneven," Raven called out. Evelynn ran over to her in a haze. She placed her fingers on Finn's neck to feel his pulse.
"His heart rate his declining," she said, concern flooding her features. Raven was moved to the verge of tears as Finn's breathing kept slowing.
"Clarke! He's getting worse!"
Evelynn placed a hand on Raven's shoulder before running to the ladder, "I'll go get her."
Evelynn completely forgot about her arm as she pulled herself up the ladder all the way to the top floor. It wasn't until she tried to open the hatch at the top that she realized the searing pain that shocked from her arm to the rest of her body.
She popped the hatch open to see a man with his arms open wide, tied to both sides of the dropship. His face and body was covered in blood and bruises. She realized it was the Grounder. In front of him was Clarke kneeling and Bellamy crouched behind of her.
"Please, which one is it?" Clarke was begging, the sound of vials clinking in her hand, "Tell us which one the antidote is and they'll stop this."
Evelynn pulled herself into the room with a loud shout of pain causing all heads to turn on her direction.
"What are you doing up here?" Bellamy shouted, running up to her, "You're supposed to be resting."
Evelynn began to roll her eyes at his concern and shrugged off his jacket to hand it back to him but Bellamy wasn't paying attention, only grabbing onto her arm tightly, "You're bleeding."
She looked down at her arm with blood running down her arm, some drops oozing through Bellamy's fingers.
"Shit."
Evelynn winced and placed her free hand on top of Bellamy's, trying to apply more pressure to stop the blood.
"You should've stayed with Finn!" Clarke exclaimed at her.
Evelynn shook her head, "He's only getting worse, I came to tell you to hurry up!"
Octavia came running towards Evelynn and aggressively shoved Bellamy off of her. She then lead Evelynn to stand in right in front of the Grounder.
"O, what the hell are you doing?" Bellamy called out, following her.
"If he won't give us the antidote, he's going to have to watch her die."
Everyone's eyes eyes grew wide, including Evelynn's.
"What? We're just supposed to let her bleed out?" Bellamy yelled, appalled at his sister's idea.
"This will work," Octavia spoke confidently. She knew the Grounder had a heart, "Besides, do you have a better plan?"
Evelynn was going to protest Octavia's idea, but she didn't have any other ideas.
Besides, she didn't want to hurt the Grounder anymore than they obviously had.
She turned to Bellamy, his scared eyes on her, "I trust Octavia."
For a few laborious minutes, Evelynn stared the man straight in the eyes, trying to get him to crack. It took everything in her not to wince or try to stop her bleeding arm, the immense pain flooding her senses.
The only sound on the dropship floor seemed to be the rhythmic drops of blood that fell to the floor and formed a small puddle at Evelynn's feet.
But the Grounder wasn't breaking, she was. Her face was pale and her body was shivering. She stumbled back a few steps as a wave of dizziness struck her.
"That's enough!" Bellamy shouted. He stepped behind Evelynn and placed a towel to her wound to stop the bleeding. She placed her hand on the towel to apply pressure as Bellamy helped her sit.
"When will you understand that he wants us to die?" Bellamy said sharply stepping up to Octavia, "You might be willing to wait for Evelynn to die, but I'm not."
Bellamy took a giant screw that had fallen out of the dropship floor into his hands. He stood at eye level to the Grounder, "Last chance."
The Grounder maintained eye contact, unyielding. Bellamy scrunched his face up in disgust and yelled as he plunged the screw through the Grounder's hand.
"What's taking so long?" Raven shouted as she burst through the hatch into the room, "He stopped breathing."
Clarke was alarmed and tried to run to Finn, but Raven held her back, "He started again. But he might not next time."
Clarke turned to the Grounder, "He won't tell us anything."
Raven cocked her eyebrow, "Want a bet?"
Raven ran over to the corner of the dropship with wires and forcefully yanked out two blue wires.
"What are you doing?" Bellamy asked, stepping towards her.
Raven flicked the wires together, sending sparks into the room, "Showing him something new."
Raven held the wires to the Grounder's abdomen, making the lights in the room dim and the Grounder to shake with the electricity.
"Come on! Which one is it?" Raven yelled. The Grounder didn't do anything, so Raven brought the wires to his skin again, "He's all I have!"
"No!" Octavia jumped up trying to stop Raven.
"He's letting Finn die!" Raven screamed, a few stray tears falling from her eyes.
"Help." Evelynn's croaky voice muttered. Bellamy turned away from the Grounder to Evelynn, his heart dropping.
She was sitting vulnerably on the floor, her body shaking, lips and face lacking color. Her hand was covered in blood as she held the now blood-soaked towel to her arm.
Bellamy quickly ran over to her and sat next to her, holding his hand over hers trying to apply more pressure to her wound. Her head dropped onto his shoulder in relief. He placed a few fingers under her neck to check her pulse.
"What's happening?" Octavia asked, her voice shaking almost as much as her hands were.
"She's loosing too much blood," Clarke cried, her hands pulling through her hair.
"Someone get a hot knife or something for stitches. We have to to close her wound!"
Nobody moved.
"I'm sorry, but we're not moving until we get the antidote." Raven said sharply, turning her glare to the Grounder.
Bellamy grew more impatient as Evelynn bleed out more and more. He just held her tighter as if he held her long enough it would make everything else go away.
Clarke screamed in the Grounder's face, "How can you just watch her die?"
"He won't let me die."
Octavia moved up to the center of the room and looked the man straight in the eye, bringing Finn's poisoned knife to her arm and slicing open her skin right on the vein.
Bellamy released one of his arms off of Evelynn and reached for her, "Octavia!" But she just swatted him away.
"This one?" Octavia asked the Grounder, holding up a vial. He shook his head. "Come on." He turned his head towards one on the end full of a clear liquid. She held it up, "This one?" He nodded.
Clarke immediately grabbed it from Octavia as she wrapped her arm in fabric to stop the bleeding, "Thank you."
Raven ran to Clarke who gave the antidote to her, "Give this to Finn, save some for Octavia."
Clarke turned to Bellamy and pushed some hair out of Evelynn's face who was resting on his shoulder, "I'll get the wires for some stitches."
Bellamy raised his eyebrows at her as if scolding her for wasting time, "Well, hurry!"
Clarke's face contorted into a look of confusion at Bellamy's care for her friend, "She'll be okay."
Bellamy watched Clarke run to the ladder and leave without another sound. He then laid his head on top of Evelynn's, holding tight the towel over her open wound.
"You said that last time."