CHAPTER THREE
colors your eyes with what's not there
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𝐓ime is a funny thing. The sound of birds chirping and the sunlight escaping between the cracks of the rover was a sign that morning had come. Elliot wasn't sure how long they'd been stuck inside the rover. They could've come out a few hours ago but she didn't think anybody would want to sacrifice themselves for whatever that might greet them out there. An arrow to the head or a sword to the neck doesn't really sound very enchanting.
"It's been three hours," Bellamy sighed loudly. "What are they waiting for?"
"Even with the light, I don't see anyone," Kane muttered uneasily.
"I say we make a run for it," Monty suggested.
"That's what they want us to do," Elliot scoffed, hefting her sword in her grip as if she was prepared to stab it into somebody anytime.
"The boy is right," Indra said, awfully calm which made Elliot scowl in the shadow inside the rover. She had a point but it was too early to make sudden decisions. "They can wait longer than we can."
Kane contemplated. Then he turned to the oldest Blake beside him. "Okay, Bellamy. Get in the turret, and you cover us. Once we get to that ridge over there, we'll cover you."
"Copy that. Run fast." Bellamy zipped up his jacket before he went to open the ceiling latch. He stood completely although before they could prepare to leave the rover, Bellamy spoke, and he didn't sound very assuring: "They're here."
Elliot clenched her fists around her sword. Well, that was fast. She noticed. But she remained silent, trying to get a look at Bellamy from where he stood with half of his body out of the rover. It was very hard, considering they couldn't make any sudden movements that could cost his life. One thing for sure, somebody had a knife against his neck, which gave him no choice but to stay still and raise his hands.
"Everybody out, or the boy dies."
They instantly glanced at each other, exchanging silent agreements and whatnot. Elliot was not looking forward to this. Suddenly, Bellamy was dragged out of the rover from the roof, their unknown enemy becoming impatient. Out of instinct, the Azgeda Grounder was the first to act. She kicked the door open, her swords raised and the others followed her out in the forest with no other choice.
"Drop your sword," A feminine voice threatened, pushing the tip of a rifle to the side of her head, which Elliot completely disregarded with her calm demeanor. The lady in the mask didn't take it too lightly. "Do it now!"
She pressed the rifle harder to her temple, and Elliot bit her tongue as she begrudgingly dropped her blade on the ground. An unsatisfied grunt escaped her mouth as she was harshly pushed over the dirt, kicking her knees so she was fully on the ground. She made eye contact with Bellamy who struggled against his captor who kept him.
Elliot despised it. The way they were so obviously trying to main her a little from pushing her face further on the dirt and rocks. It was as if they held a grudge against her. All of them were struggling against the binds that kept their wrists together. These masked men and women, for whatever reason decided to ambush them, it was not good. The roughness and the threats gave it away.
"All targets secure!"
Monty was pulled up on his feet by one of them as another guy walked towards him with a noisy device before saying he found something. The masked man grabbed the tracking beacon from the boy and marched away without a word. Monty continued to fight back and struggle against the man who held him, not wanting to let them have the beacon. His only chance to find his family.
"Monty, let it go," Bellamy warned.
"Monty?"
"Mom?"
Turned out it was Farm Station who found them instead. Monty's mother was one of the people who had them captured, and that prevented a whole lot of killing that would've come from Elliot if the situation escalated. Still, despite the sky people's reunion, Elliot had a bad feeling most of them harbored more than hatred toward Grounders.
She could practically see it on their faces as they reluctantly cut off her and Indra's binds despite their esteemed leader━Pike's clear order to let them go. With Kane and Bellamy's reassurance, that is. The man obviously wasn't too happy about their presence either. They didn't like them. It went both ways. Elliot did not want to be around them any longer than she had to.
"The rest are camped in the mountains north of here." She heard Pike tell Kane. Then he said loudly: "Grounder killers one and all. Am I right?"
"Ooh rah!" His people roared in agreement and a certain spite.
The only two Grounders shared looks with Kane, Monty, and Bellamy. Uncertainty was clear on their faces. These people, they adapted, and they seemed to really hate Grounders. Elliot made sure to remember the faces of the people around them. They were going to be a problem in the near future, she could already tell.
"Hate to cut this short," Bellamy cut in. "We got to find Clarke."
"Clarke Griffin?"
"Yeah."
"If only all of my Earth skills students were as good as her."
Elliot's eye narrowed, noticing how cozy Bellamy and Pike seemed as they talked and smiled at each other. She sheathed her blade, trying to ignore the gnawing feeling in the back of her throat as everybody gathered to move the tree blocking the path. She moved back to the rover, thick strands of silver covering half of her face. Her hands however above her weapons as if she expected someone to attack her any moment.
From the looks they were giving her, she wouldn't be surprised.
"SIxty-three?" Kane asked in disbelief, standing by the front of the rover as he faced Pike. "Farm Station left orbit with three times that number."
"We landed with that number, too." Pike nodded at him. His accusing eyes flickered toward the Grounders, especially on Elliot who stared back at him with no certain emotion. She slightly tilted her head, making Pike double back at the sight of her scar.
"The Ice Nation can be ruthless," Indra said hardly, recognizing the look on his face. "Take pride in the number you saved."
As Kane began to introduce them to each other, Elliot walked off around the rover before he could start with her. She was not in the mood to acquaint herself with more enemies and more people who could turn their backs on them. They were just more baggage on her lists of people whom she might be forced to eliminate.
"Kane," Bellamy called. The tree had now been pushed aside to free their path. "It's time to go.
"Monty, give them the coordinates to Arkadia," Kane stated. "We have a settlement fifty miles south of here. Your people will be safe there."
Pike smirked at him. "You're my people."
"Good, because we have reports that put Clarke north of here," He told him. "We could certainly use your expertise."
Elliot shook her slightly, pulling the door to the rover open so she could jump in. Bellamy appeared next to her, a small furrow between his brows as he slightly blocked her way. His tall height towered her, leaning one hand on the handle of the door. He gulped ever so slightly under her stare. "Hey. Are you still with us?"
"Do I have a choice?" Elliot asked wryly. Then she slightly shoved him away, his arm dropping to his side. "Now, move. We don't have time to waste. Tell that to your new friends."
His new friends were right about one thing though. They were going back to hell. Ice Nation is just what they disguise it as. And they might've just served themselves on a silver platter by walking right back into where they weren't wanted.
Arriving at the nearest trading post, Elliot immediately noticed the broken door and heard painful grunts from inside the hut. She was quick to jump out of the rover and fetched her swords out, twirling them around. There she saw an Azgeda warrior beating up a familiar blonde on the floor. Before she could attack, Bellamy saved her from the stress and shot the Grounder from behind with his rifle.
Elliot sent him an irritated glance. "I had him."
"You're welcome," Bellamy said coolly.
Instead of saying anything, she merely glared at him and marched further inside the trading post. The blond girl scrambled up to her feet and backed away from them, looking at them fear-strickened wide eyes. Her face was covered in blood and from what Elliot could gather━it was all hers.
"Are you okay?" Bellamy instantly asked as they approached. "You all right?"
"Bounty hunter," Elliot spat as she kicked the dead Grounder over so his face could be seen. Her nose wrinkled in disdain. Then she looked at the blond who kept a cautious distance from them as Indra pranced around the room to look for Clarke. Trigedasleng slipped from her mouth. "We're here to help."
"English," Pike exclaimed, earning another glare from the white-haired Grounder who merely walked away, unbothered.
"Pike," Kane cut in as he looked at his colleague. Even Bellamy was staring at him with a slight furrow between his brows. "Go outside. Take Monty and Hannah. Search the perimeter. Make sure he was alone."
"One of you needs to keep that man in line," Elliot scowled as soon as Pike left. Her last sentence was clearly a warning and a threat. "If anything happens to him, don't say I didn't warn you."
Indra looked at the wounded blond girl. "We're looking for Wanheda."
"So was he," She retorted in English as she glanced at the dead man on her floor.
"Please," Bellamy said carefully. "She's in danger."
"You're Skaikru?"
"Yeah."
The girl hesitated. "She was here last night."
"Did she say where she was going?" Kane asked urgently, stepping forward.
"No." She looked away, avoiding their gaze as if there was more than she let on. Perhaps it was disappointment that Elliot saw in her eyes when she accidentally looked at her. "She was here when I fell asleep and gone when I woke up."
"She give you any indication of where she might go?"
"No..." She shook her head, earning a bunch of defeated reactions from the ground. Then she looked at the dead Grounder. "But he did. He said that his partner came back for her. He was Ice Nation."
An irritated sigh escaped from Elliot's lips as she shook her head. Before she could hear any more words, she marched off, her footsteps heavy on the ground. Bellamy's eyes followed her figure until she was out of the room. He gulped ever so slightly. If this was all of Ice Nation's doing, he knew Elliot was just as knee-deep into this situation as Clarke. They want her head just as much.
Elliot spent all her years running from her worst nightmare, only to end up back where it started because she was stupid enough to let her emotions guide her. Her first mistake, and one she could no longer take back. Elliot, the Azgeda traitor, might as well put her sword against her neck and call it a day, because this only ends in one way, and somebody was going to die in the worst way possible.
Monty and the others managed to find possible tracks of Clarke or the friend of the bounty hunter they killed. On the contrary note, they couldn't use the rover since there were too many trees. They had to go on foot, and truthfully, it wasn't much of a problem for Elliot as she liked it better than having to ride a vehicle. Being on foot gave her more advantages and she could see everything as she liked. No blind spots.
"Ask you a question?" Pike caught up to Bellamy as they were walking through an open field. Bellamy merely glanced at him, giving him a slight nod. "Last report we got on the Ark, you were under attack by Grounders. What changed?"
Bellamy's eyes briefly flickered toward Elliot in front of him who was ever so oblivious to his staring. Then he looked away, silently clearing his throat before he answered Pike. "Well, it turns out, we had a common enemy."
"What happened to them?" Pike asked.
Bellamy seemed to pause for a second. Then he said half-heartedly: "We won."
"Quiet." Indra suddenly held out a hand, signaling them to stop as she led the group from the front. They stopped and looked at the warrior. "Listen."
"War drums," Kane whispered.
Elliot gripped the hilt of her swords, her scowl deepening at the sound, but what took her attention was the two dead Ice Nation warriors between the thick grasses on the ground. Her voice was laced with poison when she spoke: "Azgeda."
"You can tell it's Ice Nation from the sound?" Monty asked incredulously.
"No," Elliot deadpanned. They followed her gaze, the blood draining from their face at the sight of the dead Grounders. She slightly hefted her blade in the direction of the bodies. "From them."
The former Azgeda warrior didn't have to be ordered about what to do as she ran towards the bodies to get rid of them. She didn't realize that a certain Blake had run off until Pike stopped him which made the boy infuriated. Bellamy claimed he saw Clarke, and now, he wanted to come after her without even thinking about the consequences. They were literally in the middle of a field that was about to be marched on by the Ice Nation army.
"Hey, Tough Guy," Elliot called calmly, which instantly made Bellamy stop his frantic search for Clarke through the scope of his rifle. His gaze narrowed. The nickname was clearly not a compliment. "You're no use to her if you're dead. Stay down."
Bellamy stayed down.
Without another word, he went to help her with the bodies. The sound of war drums was getting closer and so were the Azgeda warriors. They hurriedly dragged the dead Grounders inside the nearest cave, dumping them somewhere in the dark. They huddled around, Indra missing from the bunch as she left to warn the Commander about the march that the Ice Nation initiated.
Sitting on a flat-edged rock near the entrance of the cave, Elliot was once again lost in her thoughts. Come to think about it━finding someone who didn't want to be found wasn't the smartest thing these people had done, even now that Clarke was being hunted. She brought that upon herself, and what made it worse was that she still decided to leave her camp where she would be protected. Not a lot of people get treated that way.
The Grounder didn't budge even when Bellamy decided to accompany her as he sat on the same flat rock across her. She could literally feel his frustration from where she sat but she ignored him. At least tried to. Besides, it wasn't like she could make him feel better. She was only good at making things worse. Her specialty.
He eventually stood and walked towards the others after Monty's mother began telling him about what happened to his father. Out of all the places in this godforsaken world, their ship just had to land on the most cruel land known to mankind. Elliot might be a killer, but she wouldn't wish that to anybody innocent━somebody who had no idea about the evil among them. Children. Even she wasn't that cruel.
But the Ice Nation was ruthless, and the scar marring her face was one of the reminders of that. She was once young and carefree, then the queen destroyed her. They don't pick their victims. Whoever or whatever lands on their wrong side, once you've got their attention━you're as good as dead. They had a list of names, and unfortunately, Elliot's name was written in red and underlined at the top of the list.
"━We've been fighting Grounders ever since."
"That was the Ice Nation," Kane said grimly. "Not all Grounders are the same."
"They are to me," Pike spoke with resolve.
Something about the way he looked when he said that made Elliot realize. Because that was the same face that stared back at her in the reflection on the water as she promised to kill everybody who wronged her. And maybe that's why she could not bring herself to hate a single part of this man for wanting revenge for his people.
Kane was right about one thing. Grounders weren't all the same. But the people, as much as Elliot would hate to say it, were more alike than they'd admit.
While they were all sharing sob stories and arguing about the past and their current beliefs━they didn't seem to notice a certain stubborn boy had already slipped out of the cave. Elliot did, and he knew, too. Bellamy saw her but he did not expect her to follow after him. That's where he was wrong.
She kept watch on him from a safe distance. Just like she always did from the start. Truthfully, it was getting boring watching him suffer so from then on, Elliot decided to not leave this man alone to his horrible plans. Not that she wouldn't enjoy seeing him fling around with no direction, but their current situation was too precarious for Bellamy to ruin. It didn't help that his people were hanging on a fragile truce with the Commander.
Elliot sucked into a deep breath after a tall Grounder bumped into him in the middle of the marching army of Azgeda warriors. However, the Grounder just made him turn around to face the right direction. She clenched her fist around the blade of her sword, becoming a bit relaxed. Getting caught would be bad, like extremely bad. Trust me, he would not want to be caught in the middle of a warzone with a dozen bloodthirsty Ice Nation warriors. Killers all alike.
Since she couldn't cross the field yet, she had to wait until the army had fully crossed the vast field. Besides, Elliot didn't want to wear those garbage Azgeda warrior wears (and it was kind of uncomfortable, to be honest). She preferred fewer layers so she could move around swiftly despite the harsh cold. She perched on a sturdy branch, watching as the field finally cleared out and when she jumped down, she was greeted by Kane and the others.
"Where is he?" Kane instantly asked, ignoring the confusion of his people.
Elliot pointed across the field with her sword. "That way."
The group had found him in the middle of the forest, leaning against a tree, obviously wounded by the painful expression on his face as he clutched his thigh. They all rushed towards the stubborn man in worry. Except for Elliot who merely walked at a normal pace with a nonchalant face and an eye that bore holes in the back of his head. Bellamy could almost hear her saying, Idiot. Maybe he was this time.
"We told you to wait for the army to move," Kane scolded him.
"He's not very bright, is he?" Elliot muttered under her breath as she went forward, ripping a piece of fabric from her shirt and suddenly wrapping it around the stab wound on his thigh, at least stopping him from losing too much blood. His brows knitted, a pale glow tinging his tawny cheeks. Then she abruptly tightened it, earning a quiet grunt from him. "I told you to stay down."
"I needed to make sure," Bellamy breathed, stealing a glance at her as she stepped back after tending to his wound. Her face showed no reaction as he continued. "She was here."
"You worry too much," Elliot said incredulously. "Clarke didn't get the name Commander of Death for you to think she can't handle herself."
"Clarke wasn't fine," Bellamy argued, pushing himself off the tree with great difficulty. He winced ever so slightly, putting on a strong front for everybody else. "Somebody has her right now and we have to do something about━"
"Don't push it, Sky Man," Elliot snapped, shooting him a nasty glare that made him slouch over in front of the girl. "You're walking on very thin ice."
It took a lot of convincing before Bellamy finally gave in as they told him they would find Clarke another time. He was in no condition and the trees were too dangerous to be prancing around at the moment. With the blunt conviction that Elliot gave to them━that the Ice Nation Grounder who captured Clarke wouldn't kill her, they went and left with very few words and more frustration and suspicions thrown in secrecy.