"Isn't the sunset beautiful?" Clarke said.
"Stunning." He said sarcastically.
He could care less about the sunset, or really anything she had to say for that matter. His only focus was on their next prey.
"I wonder how many like these I've missed all of this time?" She said aimlessly, more to herself than to him.
"Well you were in space for 17 years so I would say quite a bit." He remarked.
She rolled her eyes, brushing off his comments like she usually did. He didn't want her to come hunting, but unfortunately she was more useful than most of the others right now so he was stuck bringing her along. Her presence alone was enough to make his hair stand up. Her voice made his skin crawl. She was single handedly the most annoying and frustrating person in the camp. She never agreed with him. She constantly went against his orders and did what she wanted. She was almost as bad as his sister.
"We'll come back tomorrow." He said finally after another 20 minutes of walking with no result.
"We still have some light left."
"Clarke, we have more than enough to last us for the rest of the week. It'll be dark before we make it back if we don't go now. Let's bring what we have and come back out tomorrow," He said. "And besides, Jasper made some more of whatever the hell that drink is. We can celebrate making it this long and let the kids enjoy themselves tonight."
He had no interest in drinking or celebrating. Honestly, he was exhausted after walking through the woods all day and he figured if he offered a distraction, everyone would leave him alone and he could sneak off to bed early.
"We don't need to be partying. The grounders could attack at anytime. We need to be on high alert."
"We will be. We'll rotate the guards out and give everyone a chance to just hangout for once. You forget that they are still kids after all."
He was right. It was easy to forget that down here.
"We still need to be careful."
"Like I said, we're not letting our guard down. Just unwinding a bit. Lighten up a little," Clarke hated when people told her to lighten up, especially on the ground. There was nothing light about their current situation. "It won't hurt anyone to take the night off."
"That's true," She contemplated for s moment. "There are worse things we could do."
Bellamy said whatever he needed to say to convince her, and by the tone of her voice, it worked. He had always been good at persuading people. After all, he'd been doing it all of his life back on the Ark. For him, it was the only way to get what he needed. Not everyone grew up with a silver spoon in their mouths like Clarke.
"Okay everyone lets head back to camp." She called out.
Bellamy scoffed. Of course she had to give the final orders. Clarke wrangled in the rest of the group and they started their hike back to camp, her and Bellamy leading while everyone else followed.
They all walked in silence, leaving Clarke to be immersed in her own thoughts. She couldn't help but take in the artistry of the nature around her. Everything on earth was so beautiful. The way the sun shined through the trees and bounced off of the water in the creek beside them. The sound of the branches swaying in the wind. The smell of the early summer flowers blooming in the bushes that lined their path. It was all so naturally stunning and she couldn't help but ponder about all of the views and moments like these that she had been missing out on while stuck in space.
A loud sneeze snapped her out of her daydream and caused her to jump. She panicked for a second, looking around for the source of the noise. Her eyes laid on Bellamy who was rubbing his nose with his index finger.
"Bless you," she said with a sigh of relief. "You startled me."
He nodded his head at her without saying anything. He didn't feel like talking and he knew that if he responded, she would want to start a conversation with him that would never end.
They kept walking, no one saying a word. Clarke wanted to rave about her thoughts more and how amazing the ground was, but she knew that Bellamy didn't want to hear it, although he didn't really want to hear anything that anyone had to say. He was only worried about his thoughts and his actions, a dangerous and selfish way of life down there.
Bellamy sneezed again, louder than before, alarming some of the others. He sniffles and rubbed his nose again.
"Sorry." He said blankly.
He received a few odd looks but he ignored them. He had been fighting that tickle off all day and couldn't curb it anymore.
"You good?" She asked.
"Yeah? I just sneezed. Am I allowed to do that or is that against the rules too?"
The others stared at him for a minute before they continued walking. They knew better than to talk back to him. Bellamy could feel Clarke glaring at him out of the corner of her eye, but he paid no mind. He kept his eyes forward for the remainder of the trip until they were finally at the camp. The doors were promptly opened and they were all greeted with smiles as they strolled through with their trophies from the hunt. It felt good to finally be appreciated, even if it was from a bunch of kids.
"We have returned with food for everyone. For once, tonight; we won't have to go to bed hungry. We won't have to worry about rationing. We can eat enough to be full for the first time in our lives. This may not seem like a lot to some of you, but this is a huge step in the right direction. We will establish a life down here, free of harsh rules and awful conditions."
The crowded cheered. Clarke gritted her teeth. They all loved him for some ungodly reason. To them, he was their savior. Their liberator. Clarke was just the 'naggy mom' who liked to follow the rules. Bellamy on the other hand, was daring and reckless. He offered them things that they had never gotten to experience on the Ark. The kind of wild and carefree life that they so desperately craved.
"Now, the grounder attack is still at our feet. While I'm allowing us to have a few hours of celebration tonight, that doesn't mean that we can let our guard down."
Clarke noticed that he kept scratching at his nose while he was talking. She even noticed it twitch ever so slightly. She honed in on it, watching and waiting.
"All of you still need to be on high alert at all times. We will have the gates guarded, but I advise you to carry your weapons on you at all times. This is not something to take heh....heh.... lightly...."
He could only get a few more words out before the tickle grew even more, stopping Bellamy mid sentence.
"We need to be prepared. We need to fight. And most importantly, we-"
He was interrupted by two sneezes, which he let out over his shoulder, making sure no one saw him wince.
"We need to win," he picked up right where he had left off, unfazed by his interruption. "We have no other option."
The crowd cheered again, giving Bellamy time to quickly turn around and let out another sneeze into his hands. So much for personal hygiene. He turned back around and flashed his award winning smile once more before walking off, but not without Clarke following right behind him.
"That was a nice speech," She said. "And bless you by the way."
She said it both jokingly but also to let him no that his sneezes didn't go unnoticed.
"Thanks. I hope I was able to inspire them at least a little."
He had purposely ignored her blessing. She wanted to press the issue, but she knew that if she did, he would just blow her off and blame it on something else. She also knew that she had to keep a close eye on him. Not only for his sake, but for the other campers. They couldn't afford another outbreak, especially with no medicine.
"Are you going to go get a drink?" She asked. She motioned over to Jasper, who already had campers lining up to get a cup of the disgusting alcohol that he had somehow managed to distill.
"No," He said. "I'm going to bed early tonight. Today's hunt wore me out."
"This hunt wasn't even that hard compared to the others," She raised her eyebrow at him. "And besides, I figured you would be the first one to start drinking away your problems."
"Well you're wrong," He looked her up and down. "Wouldn't be the first time."
"I-"" Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to my tent. Don't follow me and don't disturb me or you'll be sorry."
And with that, he turned around and walked to his tent. Luckily everyone else was too caught up in the high of the celebration to notice that he was gone. He slid back the flaps to his tent and sighed with relief. He had never been so happy to see his lousy sleeping bag before. He hastily undressed and curled up into his sack, shivering slightly as he did. He laid there for a minute, listening to the lively campers talk and mingle with each other. It was a good distraction to say the least. He was actually pretty proud. As he reveled in his ego, the festivities slowly became background noise to him as his body quickly fell into a fitful sleep.