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chapter four.
pride and prejudice.
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The dry grass they end up in is long enough to brush up against June's knees. She wasn't going to give up despite her feet aching from the amount of walking, the image of Clarke's face in her mind giving her motivation to go on. She would sometimes find it difficult to remember what Clarke looked like - the image of the teenage girl with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a strong jaw fading, all because She didn't have a clue of what Clarke looked like now. For all June knew, she could be an entirely different person by now. Three months wasn't a long time, but so many things have already changed for her.
"Ask you a question?" June heard Pike question Bellamy. She lifted her head, starting to eavesdrop. "Last report we got on The Ark, you were under attack by grounders. What changed?"
"Turns out we had a common enemy," Bellamy answered. June went stiff, grief weighing down on her. Mount Weather was an enemy, and she'd never argue that, but there were innocent ones inside the mountain. Maya, Vincent, and the children.
June feels sick as Pike nods like he understands. "What happened to them?" He asked next.
"We won," Bellamy responded like it was that simple. June chooses not to comment, aware that he knows it truly wasn't easy. Not when he's heard her screaming herself awake almost every night.
"Quiet," Indra suddenly demands, coming to a stop with her hand up. "Listen."
A silence falls. At first, June is confused, not sure what she was supposed to be hearing. She glanced around their area before it hits her. The sound of drums beating, not too far away from where they stood. "War drums," Kane whispered in realization.
"Azgeda," Indra angrily hisses.
"We're so screwed," June declared in a mumble. War and Ice Nation mixed too well, almost like the clan enjoyed murdering people.
"You can tell it's Ice Nation from the sound?" Monty asked Indra in disbelief.
The grounder shakes her head. "No," she says before nodding to the ground. "From them." June follows her gaze to see two Ice Nation grounders laying on the ground just a few feet from them. They look freshly dead, and it puts June on edge.
"We need to get those bodies off the field unless you're good with them thinking we did this," Pike informs Kane.
Before anyone can make a move, Bellamy quickly stops them. He's been looking around with the scope of his rifle, scanning the field around them. "Wait. Two people at twelve o'clock."
"Huh?" June is puzzled as she lifts her own gun, following Bellamy's direction. She doesn't see anything at first, but then her hands shake when she sees what he's so stunned by.
It's Clarke.
If June wasn't looking herself, she wouldn't believe it was true. But it is Clarke. Her wild hair is blonde with streaks of red, scars prominently on her face, dressed from head to toe in grounder clothing, and a gag in her mouth. She's being held prisoner. June darts her gaze to the right to see a grounder man is leading her, and he seems too well-built to fight. But that doesn't stop her from lowering her gun slowly, in a daze, as she shares a knowing look with Bellamy.
There's no warning as Bellamy bolts away, June on his heels. She isn't tired anymore and certainly isn't thinking straight, only sprinting to get to her best friend and save her. She can hear the ones left behind her and Bellamy chases after them, calling their names softly, but June doesn't stop until Monty and Pike catch up. Monty is in front of her, both his hands up as he stands in her away. "No!" She gasped, trying to shove by him.
Despite Monty's small frame, he's somehow easily able to keep June from running again. "Hey, hey," he tries to calm her down, softer over Pike stopping Bellamy. "You won't make it, June. No way we can get across without being seen. Look." When Monty points behind him, June finally stops struggling and follows his finger. She hates that he's right.
An army of more people than June can count is passing through the tall grass. They're all Azgeda, wearing armor with animal fur, white and black face paint covering scars, and definitely too strong for them to take on. Tears spring in June's eyes as she falls still against Monty, only standing because of her hold. She had spent so long being angry with Clarke, that when she saw her, alive, she was filled with regret and pain. June knows she can't lose her, not again. She's already lost everything else.
"We should lay low, let the army pass, then we find Clarke," Pike suggested when Bellamy stopped.
Monty shakes his head in distress, head turning and eyes landing on something not too far. "Guys," he announced when the rest caught up. "There's a cave."
Clapping Bellamy's shoulder, Pike comments. "We just got lucky."
"I can't go with you," Indra suddenly said. "Ice Nation has crossed the border. They're marching against my commander, I have to warn her."
Understanding, Kane gestured for her to leave. "We'll get Clarke," he reassured her.
"You better," Indra instructed darkly. "If the Ice Queen gets to her first, she'll be dead. And we'll be at war."
June looks back to where she once saw Clarke. Her best friend was still there, but a blur from the distance without her scope. "That's not happening," she stated through gritted teeth, forced to look away as Monty gently directs her towards the cave.
The cave is as dark and dewy as June expected it to be. She can't see Clarke and her hostage-taker anymore which is unfortunate, but luckily, they were shielded from the army and weren't at risk. June was sat on a large rock, her gun propped next to her with her elbows on her knees and her hands clasped together. She could only see Clarke, the picture of her so fresh and new that she knows she won't forget it. Especially when she looked hurt.
"We're losing her," Bellamy announced from his spot at the mouth of the cave.
"Relax," Kane calls to him. "Save your energy."
"Kane's right, son," Pike added when he sees Bellamy scoff. "The army will move soon. You'll need your strength for what comes next." June squeezes her eyes shut. She knew Kane and Pike meant well, but she figures they can't imagine what she and Bellamy feel either.
It's Monty's soft words that make June open her eyes and gaze in his direction. "I need to know what happened." He's sitting next to his mother, holding a hurt expression. June knows what he means, and Monty deserves to know about what happened to his father.
"Monty..." Hannah trailed off quietly.
"Please."
The quietness that follows causes everyone to look in their direction. June sees Monty's desperate but wounded features, silently begging his mom to tell him everything. "We landed in the snow," Hannah began. "Your father said it absorbed some of the impact. That's why we survived." She smiled sadly. "The snow looked so beautiful, it..." She stopped, her voice breaking at the end. "Charles?"
"The children were playing in it," Pike continued for her quietly. "They were the first to die." June sits up a bit straighter, eyes wide at the admission. She knew Azgeda was ruthless, but to hear they killed a bunch of children for no reason was sickening. "Fifteen of them. If not for your father, would've been more. He pulled four kids back into the ship, all four alive today," Pike said. "They got him when he went back for the fifth." Monty looked teary, mouth falling open. "Your father died a hero, Monty," he reassured him. "We've been fighting grounders ever since."
Although hearing about Monty's father was tragic and touching, June pushed herself up to a standing position. "You mean killing them?" She corrected. Pike's stare darkened at her. "That was the Ice Nation. Not all grounders are the same. We have one back at Arkadia - " She tried, only to be cut off.
"They are to me."
There's a heaviness that follows, everyone sensing the tension radiating off of June and Pike. Until Monty speaks up, stopping a fight bound to break out. He starts with the story of how they landed and what happened, all from the beginning. June had wandered off, ending up beside Bellamy at the opening of the cave, mostly hidden from the others. She raised a brow to see him crouched over one of the dead grounders dragged in by Kane, struggling to take off his jacket with the dead weight.
"Bellamy?" June spoke up, making him whirl around, wide-eyed as if he was caught red-handed by her. She sent one look to the body before back at him. It all clicked at once. "You're going after Clarke, aren't you?"
Bellamy doesn't even try to deny it. "Yeah." He goes back to work taking off the armor underneath the jacket. "You gonna try to stop me?"
The corners of June's mouth twitched into a grin. "If you think I would, you don't know me one bit, Bellamy." She crouched, giving him a hand by taking the mask off. "We can't both leave or they'll get suspicious. But I'll cover for you," June promised, handing it to him.
It didn't take as long as June expected to make Bellamy look like an Azgeda warrior. With one last nod, he leaves, and June returns to the group. She feels guilty, wishing she could have gone with him, but if there's one person she trusts in this world, it's Bellamy. A tight bond was formed shortly after Mount Weather, the two become as close as June was to Wells. And she doesn't doubt for a second he'd track down Clarke or die trying.
"... Forty-two of us got out alive," Monty was saying softly when June arrived. She knew immediately he had gotten to the story of Mount Weather. He looked up at the sound of her footsteps. "We did what we had to do." June nodded, remembering the times she had said the exact same words.
"You did the right thing," Pike told them both. "Kill or be killed."
Assuming that Monty told him the full story, June found her head snapping to him with a sudden scowl. "Innocent people died that day," she slowly said. "We're not proud of it." She leaves out the stories of how many nights she woke up screaming, clawing at her neck, panicking when she heard anything that sounded remotely like a drill, and having to blink when she would think she saw the people she loved bursting into radiation burns. June swallows the lump in her throat, knowing they weren't different from the grounders. Pike had no right to kill them.
"So, Mount Weather is ours now?" Pike questioned after a moment. June's jaw dropped in astonishment. She can't believe he thought of it as a home that they could belong to after what happened.
"Yeah," Kane spoke before June or Monty could. "Yeah, we use it for supplies."
"Supplies?" Pike repeated. "It's a nuclear hardened underground city."
"That hundreds of innocent people died in," June snapped, crossing her arms over her chest.
Kane held up his hand to stop her. "We established a truce," he explained calmly. "We need to think about perception."
"We need to think about what happens when the grounders break that truce," Pike retorted harshly. "Because they will."
June took slow steps until she was in front of him. She was much shorter than the man, standing only a few inches above five feet, but her glare held a coldness that made her seem much more intimidating. June used to hold a distaste towards the grounders as well after they attacked her camp and started a war, but once meeting Lincoln, she changed her mind and realized they weren't monsters. "With you here, priding yourself on being a grounder killer..." June sneered out, pausing, before finishing; "I don't doubt they will."
The glare Pike holds with June goes on for what feels like a minute before Monty calls out. "Oh, crap." June breaks the staring contest they have, turning to see Monty had discovered Bellamy's guard uniform. "Bellamy, what are you doing?"
"Going for a walk?" June suggested, the scowl fading and being replaced with an amused smile.
Monty rose up. "June, don't tell me..." He doesn't have to finish his sentence. June only nods. His head slowly drops, hanging low in what must have been with disappointment.
So June loosely shrugged. "The army should be moving past us by now," she said, picking up the strap of her gun and pulling it over her shoulder. "Let's go get them."
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They don't find Bellamy until hours later. They had spent too much time searching in the field before deciding to rush into the woods, uncaring if the army caught up or retreated. He's leaning against the trunk of a tree, gasping in pain, one hand clutching the thigh of his leg that's dragging against the ground. He's still in grounder clothing, but two things catch June's attention: Bellamy is bleeding from a gash in his leg, and Clarke is nowhere to be seen.
It's Monty who spots him first. "Bellamy!" He exclaimed. June broke out into a jog to catch up with him, the pair approaching Bellamy. "He's hurt!" Monty calls back to the rest.
"Bellamy, what the hell happened?" June panicked as Monty pushed him against the tree. She brings her hands down, trying to pry his own hand off the injury. "Let me see it."
"I almost got her," Bellamy whispered emotionally. He doesn't make a move to allow June to see his wound.
The other two adults catch up. Kane takes one look at Bellamy's leg before he instructed the other. "Pike, find their trail."
"It's useless," Pike argued. "He knows he's being followed now."
Knowing he's right, Bellamy tried to rip away from June and Monty to start limping the way he was going. "Bellamy, stop it," June protested, grabbing the armor he wore and tugging him back.
"Hey, you can't even walk," Monty added, standing in his path.
"So, what, we give up?!" Bellamy exclaimed. "Let him kill her?!"
"No!" June found herself shouting back before taking a deep breath to calm herself down. "No, Bellamy. I will never let that happen." She casts a look at his leg. "And I won't let it happen to you either."
Noticing that Bellamy was still agitated, trying to break free, Monty cut in. "I want to find her too," he insisted. "But June's right. Look at your leg. You could die out here. We have no trail."
"We can't lose Clarke!" Bellamy suddenly cried out. June is stunned as she watches him shatter, tears pooling up from his outburst. He lowers his voice into a hurt whisper. "We can't lose her."
"We'll find her," Monty said gently like he was speaking to a child. "Okay, we will figure something out. I promise. But this isn't the way."
It doesn't take long for Bellamy to realize that Monty is right. He finally caves, much to June's relief. "Okay," he agreed.
June took Bellamy's right arm, throwing it over her shoulder as Monty took his left. They worked together to prop him up in support so he doesn't have to put weight on his bad leg. "I got you," Monty murmured comfortingly. "Come on." June knows the first aid kit she took bandages from for Jasper is still in the rover, far enough back the way they came. Ripped cloth will have to do until they get home.
"Let's head back," Kane said, using his father figure voice that he was to Bellamy with his arm out behind the three. Home, June senses he wants to say. Their home. Clarke's home - where she belonged.