[C H A P T E R F I F T E E N]
Killer Friends
☆☆☆
AS THE TEAM MADE THEIR WAY through the dense woods, Roseline had come to regret that she didn't bring her jacket with her. All she was left with was a dark blue tank top that did nothing to stop the early morning breeze from hitting her skin. The sun still hadn't come up yet, so she couldn't even rely on the sunbeams to keep her warm. Instead, she held her mallet close to her chest as she whipped her head around at every sound in the trees.
"Look! Over here!" Jones called out through the darkness. Everyone piled to the edge of a steep hill to look down to where Jones was pointing his flashlight. Down at the bottom on a wiry bush, a belt hung over the thin branches. Bellamy seemed to recognize the belt immediately and demanded the rope, which Jasper happily gave over. The team watched as Bellamy began to unravel the rope and tie it to a tree, his movements rushed.
"What are you doing?" Finn questioned, finally making his way to the front of the group.
"We need the rope to get back up," Bellamy deadpanned, not looking up from his task. Taking a flashlight from Jones, Bellamy stuffed it in his pocket, threw the rope down the hill, and slid down the side with ease. He quickly snatched the belt off of the bush and shined the flashlight over it.
"It's hers. Let's go." He shoved the belt into his pocket and swiped the flashlight across the forest floor as everyone took turns making their way down the rope. Jasper was eager to go first and once he was down, others followed with ease. The rope rubbed at Roseline's still healing hands but she gritted her teeth through the pain. She needed to help Bellamy find Octavia, and her blistered hands were most definitely not going to stop her.
She hopped down and made her way to where Bellamy, Jasper, and Finn were crouching by a rock. Roseline saw Bellamy's bloody fingertips along with the blood splatters on the rock, and her heart dropped.
"Someone else was here," Bellamy murmured, his eyes glancing at the footprints embedded into the mud.
"The prints are deeper going that way." Finn pointed toward their right before looking at Bellamy with realization. "They were carrying her."
"If they took her, then she's alive, right?" Roseline piped up from beside Jasper. She made sure her voice sounded hopeful, but she knew there was no denying her pale skin and jittery fingers.
"Like when they took me," Jasper added distantly. Roseline grimaced, remembering his beaten body tied up to the large oak.
Bellamy stood up swiftly and continued his march as the rest of the team made their way down to them. The others then had to jog to catch up with his pace. Roseline almost wanted to ask him to slow down, but she knew it was a bad idea the moment she thought of it. Instead, she followed the man through the cold void, a mallet in one hand, and a fist in the other.
Soon they reached a place deep in the woods that made Roseline's skin crawl. Finn stopped the group as Bellamy swung his torch around to get a better look at what was in front of them. Hanging from the trees were corpses of people in various stages of decay. The smell made Roseline gag and it didn't help that she watched as rotten pieces dropped to the forest floor. Flies swarmed the place, and there were a few birds picking at what remained of the bodies. They swayed in the breeze and the light from Bellamy's torch gave them eery shadows that made Roseline want to hurl into the bush next to her.
"I don't speak Grounder, but I'm pretty sure this means 'keep out'," Finn concluded, glancing at Bellamy and Roseline with uncertainty. Murmurs of hesitance came from the others, and some even decided to go back to camp while they still could.
"Go back if you want. My sister, my responsibility," Bellamy said, his eyes filled with determination. He looked down at Roseline, and the determination in his eyes melted into concern when he saw how scared she truly was.
"You should go back with the others," he said softly, nodding back up the hill.
Roseline tilted her head and furrowed her brows. "We had a deal, remember? Besides, you can't get rid of me that easily."
The small smile she gave him seemed to ease Bellamy's nerves enough for him to accept her answer and continue into the dark forest filled with hanging bodies. Roseline, Finn, and the people who were left followed in suit, holding their torches and weapons close to their chests. The rescue team marched what felt like hundreds of miles through the overgrown bushes and trees, rarely stopping for breaks. Roseline almost wanted to go back to camp and call it a day, to sleep in and rest her aching muscles. But, she knew that she had come too far to back out now, and Octavia could've been in danger, so she needed to try her best and help her friend.
One thing that Roseline did enjoy about the trek, however, was that the sun had finally risen. Though she was still very cold, the warmth that the sun offered made her feel better about all the walking she was doing. Other people in the group seemed to be doing the opposite; one by one, they slowly began to take off their jackets and tie them around their waist.
After what seemed like hours of walking, Finn sighed. "I got nothing. We lost the trail."
Bellamy, who was on edge the entire walk darted his eyes around the forest while twirling his tomahawk. "Keep looking."
Everyone fell silent as they continued to look for any clue as to where Octavia disappeared to. Roseline wondered if they might've missed something back where they came from but she was worried that Bellamy would lose it if she suggested going back.
Finn, however, did not care what Bellamy thought. "Wandering around aimlessly isn't the way to find your sister, we should backtrack-"
"I'm not going back," Bellamy argued, the pair finally stopping. Roseline sighed and glanced around the woods. As far as she could see, tall trees and sunbeams were scattered all across the forest. The sun shined on the mist that lined the moss on the ground and trees. If they weren't in those specific circumstances, Roseline would've commented on how beautiful the morning truly was.
"Hey, where's John?" Roma called out. Everyone slowed down and checked their surroundings, and sure enough, John was gone.
"I swore I saw him a second ago..." Roseline murmured, her eyes straining to see past all the trees.
"Spread out, he couldn't have gotten far," Bellamy ordered. Everyone began to spread but hearing something hit the ground made everyone turn back. In the middle of everyone sat John's body, a slit across his throat and his eyes lifeless. Roseline squeaked in horror and Roma looked as if she was going to pass out.
Roseline looked up and soon enough everyone else did the same. "They're using the trees," Roseline realized, her brain going back to her day with Bellamy in the woods. She then looked back at the forest floor and saw shadows of people standing in plain sight. It made her stomach churn as she saw more and more begin to surround the group.
The girl heard Diggs, Jasper, and Finn say something but nothing registered except the last word that Finn said: "Run." She got the message loud and clear and bolted to the nearest exit she could find through the trees. The Grounders followed after her and her friends with incredible speed and Roseline almost tripped from how fast she ran.
Before she knew it, Roseline ended up in a part of the forest she couldn't recognize. What didn't help was that she could also no longer see any of her friends in the corner of her eyes. Slowing down, she spun in circles with her mallet clutched in her hands. The girl almost called out for Bellamy, but she didn't want any Grounders attracted to her.
Turning once more, she was met with a large and angry Grounder with a spear in his hands. The Grounder threw it right as she turned, but due to sheer luck, she happened to trip on a root that stuck out of the ground. The spear whizzed past her head and hit a tree not too far behind her. She took his moment of surprise to scamper up off the ground and run off into the woods once more. Another Grounder came in on her left side, a knife in hand. She tried to zig-zag through the trees but unfortunately, the Grounder knew what she was doing. In an instant, the Grounder had Roseline tackled to the ground and a knife ready to stab her neck. Roseline tried to reach for her mallet that had fallen, but it was too far. This is it, she thought, I was too dumb and failed to stay with the group, so now I'm gonna die at the hands of a freaking Grounder.
A whistle broke the tension between the pair, and the Grounder looked up in confusion. A poor mistake on her part because that second of hesitation was all the mysterious person needed to let go of an arrow and let it sink into the victim's throat. The Grounder gurgled from the blood-forming in her throat and with a final heave, she fell over dead on Roseline. The scientist gagged and pushed the body off of her, wiping off the blood and dirt she got on herself. Remembering someone had to of killed the Grounder, she grabbed her mallet, struggled to her feet, and held a defensive stance as she scanned the area.
A few yards away from her stood a man dressed in what looked like an animal skin robe and beads hanging around his neck. She could make out tattoos on his dark skin and even a piercing in his septum. She wanted to thank the man but as she walked closer she watched as he notched his bow and aimed it right at her head. You've got to be kidding me, she thought bitterly. This guy wanted to kill me so bad that he killed his buddy just to do it himself.
When he let go of the arrow, Roseline expected it to go straight into her head. She even closed her eyes to make herself feel better. Instead, she listened as the arrow whooshed past her and into something behind her. She opened her eyes and whipped her head around to see an arrow sticking out of a Grounder's chest, blood spilling from the wound.
Roseline turned back to the man in shock, the memories clicking together. "I know you. You're the guy who saved me and Bell like a week ago, aren't you?"
The man said nothing which made Roseline take small steps closer.
"Can you understand me?" she asked, clearly being able to see the tattoos on his arms and face. He was silent as he surveyed their surroundings, his weapon at the ready. Roseline wanted to ask another question but a loud horn pierced through the forest. She stood still for a moment, wondering why the sound was so familiar. It didn't register until the mysterious man reached for her arm and began to drag her away.
"It's the acid fog! We have to go back and get my friends!" she cried out and pulled at her arm. The man kept his grip as they ran deeper through the trees. Roseline heard Bellamy's voice in the distance call out her name, but before she could answer Bow Man dragged her down into a tunnel underground. It was pitch black and she could hear drops of water hit the bottom with an echo. He led her down a hallway to the left and at the end was a steel door. With ease, the man opened the door and shoved the pair in.
Roseline panicked at the fact that she was now in a dark room with a Grounder whom she had barely met. She didn't even know his name. She had her mallet, but she didn't think it would do much compared to his bow that he was clearly trained with. The panic died down once the candles were lit and she found herself entranced by the things he had piled around the room. There were jars of random objects, a shelf full of books, and even a whole tea set displayed on a bookcase. Drawings were also tacked to the walls, some quickly drawn and some that looked as if he had spent a week perfecting them. She reached to pick up a small plastic dinosaur but before she could touch it, the man slapped her hand away.
He began to make himself at home by setting his bag down on the bed and taking off his robe. Underneath he had a simple ripped t-shirt and cargo pants that had stuff crammed into the pockets. Roseline looked around the room again with awe.
"Where did you get this much stuff?" she wondered, her hands gesturing around the room. The man said nothing. He picked up a knife from his bedside table and began to sharpen it with a rock.
"You don't know English, do you?" Roseline crossed her arms and waited for a response, yet still nothing. "Of course. This might as well happen. I'm stuck in a room with a Grounder, my friends are probably being burned alive by acid fog, Octavia is in danger, and I'm freezing because I couldn't be bothered to grab a coat before I left!"
The girl huffed and shuffled to the candles that lit up the room, her hands outstretched. It was quiet for a minute, the pair glancing at each other every so often to make sure neither were going to kill each other. Roseline almost wanted to sit on the bed next to the Grounder, but she was afraid that he would shiv her if she came any closer. So, she stood in the corner shivering and eyeing all the knick-knacks that lined the room.
After another fifteen minutes of the girl's shivering, the man got up abruptly and fished through a box at the end of the bed. Roseline stood still and waited for him to pull out a knife and declare that the fun was over and that he's bored of her now. Instead, he pulled out an army jacket with old worn-out patches on it. On the front left, there was an odd symbol of an oval and a three-pronged fork in the center. When he turned it around, an even larger version was painted on the back, covering almost the entire jacket. She noticed letters written on the back but before she could see what they read, he dusted it off and gave it to the girl with an expressionless face. Gingerly, she accepted the coat and shrugged it over herself, feeling better already.
Another minute went past and Roseline decided that she wanted to touch what seemed to be an old and faded chessboard. Her hand reached toward the castle, yet before she could touch it, Bow Man whacked her hand with a stick.
"Ouch! C'mon!" she cursed, pulling her hand away and giving the man a mean glare. "If I'm gonna be stuck in here, I might as well look at your stuff. I mean, it's not every day I get to see a collection of stuffed animals!"
He stared at the scientist with thought. Roseline thought that he was going to let her touch the board, but instead, he went back to sharpening knives. The girl huffed in annoyance and glanced around the room. She spotted the drawings on the wall and took a step to get a closer look at them. A lot of them seemed to be people, yet their faces seemed so distorted that she couldn't tell what they were supposed to look like. She didn't want to judge his abstract art so she turned to the more realistic drawings and one caught her eye. It was a picture of a rose and surrounding the rose were twelve different shapes. She couldn't really make out what the shapes exactly were, but she thought the drawing was beautiful nevertheless.
Reaching her hand out, she went to grab the drawing, but once again Bow Man slapped her hand away and this time she slapped him back.
"C'mon, dude! You're not giving me a whole lotta options! Let me snoop through your stuff!" Roseline groaned as the man didn't make eye contact with her. She stared up at the ceiling and scrunched her eyes closed. "Give me the strength not to chuck this chessboard at this man's head."
The man's lip twitched ever so slightly.
☆☆☆
A/N: thank u guys so much for being patient w me and reading my story it means so much!!
anyways happy reading!
-kate