S U R V I V O R S
O N T H E
G R O U N D
THE FIRST MORNING THE DELINQUENTS woke up on the Ground, Wells was searching for Lilly. He hadn't seen her before he went back to sleep last night and she was still nowhere to be found. Marcus Kane had asked him to keep an eye on the brunette, and Wells was just figuring out how badly he was doing. He was kicking himself for letting the Johns walk back to the dropship with her. Lilly could deal with herself, that was made plenty clear when she killed Austin Rogers, but there were others down here with murder on their record.
As Wells limped around camp looking for her, she was just waking up in the tree she'd fallen asleep in. Lilly blinked her eyes open and took in her surroundings. It wasn't a dream. A smile spread across her face as she climbed off the branch that she'd slept in, realizing as she did that it might've been a bad idea. The ache in her back was the convincing she needed to decide to find another way to make herself feel safe at night.
"What did you do with Lilly?" The dulcet tones of Wells' voice could be heard not far from her. Looking around, the brunette noticed her best friend approaching Murphy. It was obvious his actions could quickly turn into a fight so she hurried over.
"You mean Fun Size?" Murphy snickered, looking over at Mbege and the rest of his little gang. "I didn't do anything with her. I could, though." Murphy's tone made it obvious he was joking more than actually threatening the wellbeing of the girl, but it made a shiver run through Lilly's spine nonetheless.
"Well, then, where's she at?" Wells snapped, stepping closer to Murphy to get in his face.
"I'm not her babysitter, how am I supposed to know where she's at?" However, behind Wells, he saw Lilly approaching. A devious smirk covered his features as he added, "Now that I think of it, I think I saw her go off into the woods. She's probably long gone by now."
Before Wells could start yelling at Murphy more, Lilly finally arrived next to him and snapped, "Fuck you, Murphy. Stop being such a piece of shit." Wells' gaze snapped to her, a brief look of surprise and relief on his face, having believed Murphy.
"You stop being such a stupid bitch, and maybe I will." Murphy retorted with a sneer. The two of them stand in silence for a moment, both of them daring the other to throw the first punch.
Wells was the one to break it up before anything could happen. "Come on, Lilly." He grabbed his friend's shoulder, turning her in the opposite direction and leading her away from Murphy and his gang. Once their far enough away, Wells hisses, "Where were you? I spent all morning looking for you."
"In that tree." Lilly answered calmly, pointing to the tree, which still had the crate resting at it's base.
"In the tree? Are you crazy?" Wells sends her an incredulous look.
"Yes." Lilly answered jokingly. As they walked closer to the Exodus ship, she asked, "Has anyone buried those two kids that died during the landing?"
"No, and I have a feeling nobody will. We should probably do it, huh?"
"We should probably collect their clothes, too. Share it with anyone who needs to change." Lilly suggests. Wells nods in agreement and the two make their way up to the upper section of the dropship to collect the dead boys.
By the time both boys have been brought outside, stripped, and buried in marked graves, Lilly and Wells were sweating and exhausted. Her dark hair was disheveled and her shirt is caked in sweat. Wells' shirt is also covered in sweat and his face is dripping with the substance. Both of them consider changing, but find reasons not to. I'm not wearing something that has been on a dead body for almost twenty-four hours, was Lilly's thought process. It might seem a little pompous, but the idea made her think of how disgusted she felt when her clothes were covered in Austin Roberts' blood.
"Should we...say something?" Lilly asks cautiously.
"What do we say?"
"I don't know. I didn't know them well." She thinks for a moment and realizes, "I didn't know them at all, actually." But someone on the Ark did, and she could imagine what they might go through when they hear about the boys' deaths.
"Let's just have a moment of silence. That seems appropriate." Wells looks down at Lilly who nods in agreement. So, they stand there until they feel they've paid enough respect to the dead boys, despite the fact they died because of their own stupidity. They didn't stand above the graves for very long, having other things to get done before nightfall.
Approaching the dropship with the clothes, Lilly sees Atom—a delinquent that had been sitting on the crates when Lilly wanted to climb her first tree—walking down the hatch in their direction. "Hey," he says, "where'd you get the clothes?"
"We buried the two kids who died during the landing." Wells answers.
"Smart. You know—," Atom reaches the grab the clothes Lilly is holding, "—I'll take it from her. There's always a market for—,"
"No." Lilly snaps, backing up a step. "We share based on need."
"Just like back home." Wells adds.
Behind Atom, Bellamy Blake and his aggravatingly perfect, shirtless chest exit the dropship with a girl. The gun he'd had last night was peeking out from the waistband of his jeans, keeping the majority of the brunette's attention as he approaches. When she's able to move her gaze, Lilly notices his hair is no longer slicked back, but rather fluffy curls. Lilly couldn't deny, his haircut and the freckles made him very attractive—not to mention those abs. Yum.
"You still don't get it, do you, Chancellor? This is home now. Your father's rules no longer apply." Bellamy told Wells, breaking Lilly's trance which didn't go unnoticed by the Blake boy. He looked at her analytically and said, "Hi, Monkey." With quick movements, Bellamy reached forward and grabbed a shirt from her arms before she could even begin glaring at him for using the nickname. That, mixed with what happened last night, she stepped forward ready to punch him harder than she already has. Atom put his arm in front of her, stopping her in her tracks, but Bellamy stopped him. "Oh, no, no, Atom." He said causing Atom to slowly lower his arm. "Atom, hold up."
"You want it back?" Bellamy asked sweetly. He watched Lilly with an amused smirk as he held the shirt out for her to grab from him if she dared. "Take it."
Before she can even begin to consider what he had in mind if she were to take the shirt, Wells turned and threw the clothes from his arms to the ground in front of some of their peers. They rush for the clothing to fight for it without a second thought. "Is this what you want?" Wells asked, directing his question towards Bellamy. "Chaos?"
"What's wrong with a little chaos?" Bellamy retorts, pulling the shirt on since Lilly didn't take it from him. No one else has a chance to speak before there's a scream. Lilly drops the clothes in her arms and everyone within earshot runs to the source of the scream to find a girl with her face being held near a small fire by none other than John Murphy.
"Bellamy, check it out." Murphy says, noticing Mr Alpha Delinquent himself comes into his view. "We want the Ark to think that the Ground is killing us, right? Figured it'll look better if we suffer a little first."
"You sick bastard!" Lilly shouts, stepping towards him. Wells is quick to grab her arm and pull her back, marching toward the boy and shoving him. Lilly would've rather done it, but she was just happy Wells felt brave enough to try and start another fight.
"Let her go!" Wells orders. Lilly decides to March over and help the girl calm down while Wells takes care of Murphy.
"Are you okay?" She asks the girl while Murphy and Wells glare at each other. When she nods, Lilly stands and gives Bellamy a deadly look. "This is what's wrong with a little chaos, Bellamy. You can stop this."
The way that Bellamy looks at her almost gives her hope, until he says, "Stop this? I'm just getting started, Monkey." Her face scrunched up full of so many emotions. Anger, disgust, annoyance, anger, pure hatred. Was anger mentioned already? Because she felt a lot of it. Lillian Kane wouldn't be surprised if her face was turning red as a tomato.
She's about to start yelling at him, but Murphy punches Wells across the face and takes her attention away from Bellamy. Wells is knocked backward and, thankfully, is quick to regain his composure and get back on his feet. Although, Murphy seems to be quicker and punches Wells again, this time in the stomach. Hard. Then, he rams his body into Wells, both of them crashing to the ground.
Lilly rushes forwards, pushing Murphy with her foot hard (one might call it kicking). Murphy didn't budge much and before she could kick him again, someone grabs her from behind and pulls her away. As Murphy begins beating the shit out of Wells, punch after punch, Lilly looks back to see Mbege with a very indifferent look on his face. Her head snaps in Bellamy's direction to see him just standing there, watching. "Do something, Bellamy!" He doesn't seem to have the guts to even look at her, or maybe he was ignoring her.
She manages to smack Mbege's hands off of her and returns her focus to the fight to watch Wells flip over with Murphy beneath him. Now that her best friend was in control of the fight, he landed a few punches on Murphy. Standing to his feet and turning to Bellamy, Wells motions back to Murphy and snaps, "Don't you see you can't control this?"
"You're dead." Murphy says as he stands to his feet with the same knife he'd had yesterday. Lilly takes a step forward to try getting in the middle of the fight—though that probably wouldn't stop Murphy—and Mbege grabs her again. She whacks his arms a few times, elbows him in the chest, and steps on his foot. None of it makes him let her go.
"Bellamy!" She shouts, glaring at the freckled Blake. This time he looks over at her, and she adds, "Do something!"
He considers her suggestion for a moment before stepping forward. "Wait," he says. Mbege cautiously lets her go and Lilly can't help the sigh of relief that escapes her lips as Bellamy approaches the fight. That is, until she watches him drop a knife of his own in front of Wells. "Fair fight."
Mbege isn't able to grab hold of her this time as she sprints towards Wells. "Don't you dare pick that knife up, Wells." She seethes through gritted teeth. At this point, she might even punch Wells with the amount of anger building inside her. Arms familiar to last night wrap around her torso and drag her backwards away from the fight. "Bellamy Blake, I swear to God you better let me go!" Wells watched Bellamy pull her away, doing nothing. He gives her an apologetic look and snatches up the knife. They danced around a bit before Murphy finally nicked Wells' left arm with his knife. This made Lilly struggle harder against Bellamy, grumbling threats. All the while she couldn't help but wonder two things; one, she killed Austin Rogers, but for some reason can never get out of Bellamy's tight grasp when shit's going down around her; two, if she couldn't get free of Bellamy's hold, how was she going to fight off the other delinquents when they found out who her dad was?
"This is for my father!" Murphy shouted, lunging with his knife once again. Wells was able to avoid it and turn the tables again, holding the knife in his own hands against Murphy's throat.
"Drop it!" Wells ordered.
"Wells!" The name had not come from Lilly. Everyone turned to look at its source and found Clarke and the rest of the Mount Weather or Bust crew. They all seemed to be okay. Although, as she looked at them, Lilly noticed there seemed to be someone missing, the group of five now dwindled to four.
Jasper.
"Let him go," Clarke said as she walked closer to the fighting boys.
Bellamy dropped his hold on Lilly as Wells shoved Murphy to the ground. He got up quickly and lunged at Wells. Thankfully, Bellamy ran forward and held Murphy back. "Whoa, hey! Enough, Murphy." Then he caught notice of Monty helping Octavia walk towards them. "Octavia! Are you alright?" He asked, rushing toward her. She assured him that she was fine, though it didn't look completely true.
Lilly watched and listened as Finn and Clarke explained that they hadn't made it to Mount Weather. That the last man that died on the Ark hadn't been the last Grounder. Then Clarke noticed Wells' wristband gone. Of course, she gets upset and goes on another rant about life support on the Ark failing. Upon hearing the argument she was making, Lilly stopped to wonder why her dad really sent her to the Ground. Had he done it to get rid of her? Because he hates her? Or had he done it because he knew what would happen after the prisoners were sent to the Ground? Because he was scared for her? The thought made her anger fall. Maybe he didn't hate her, he was just trying to protect her and hand her over to the lesser evil.
"We're stronger than you think." Bellamy argued to Clarke, loud enough for the crowd around them to hear. "Don't listen to her, she's one of the privileged. If they come down, she'll have it good. How many of you can say the same? We can take care of ourselves. That wristband on your arm, it makes you a prisoner. We are not prisoners, anymore!" A few people cheer in agreement, making Lilly's anger come back. "They say they'll forgive your crimes. I say, you're not criminals. You're fighters, survivors. The grounders should worry about us!" More people cheer this time.
Lilly watched as her blonde friend began to walk away from the crowd of delinquents seemingly on Bellamy's side of the argument. She watched Monty go after her and decides to follow as well. "What do we do now?" Monty asks, noticing Lilly's presence appear beside him.
"Now, we go after Jasper."
Monty and Lilly kept up with Clarke's quick pace as they went back to the Exodus ship. Clarke climbed the ladder to the second level and Lilly followed after her. She'd spent time earlier that day thinking of how to argue with the blonde when she inevitably denied her request. "Clarke," she began, "I'm coming with you to find Jasper."
"No, you—,"
"I'm coming, Clarke. There's nothing that I can do here, I'd rather help you get Jasper back."
"You can help Monty. I'm gonna have him stay here and work on finding a way to communicate with the Ark. With your experience in the Engineering Station—," Lilly visibly flinched at the memories that followed the words, "—you can help him, and make the process go faster."
"I stayed back when you left last time. There's no way I'm sitting back again, especially when you need all hands on deck." Clarke opened her mouth to argue with Lilly again, but the latter cut her off once again with her arms folded over her chest. "You can say what you want, but there's nothing you can do to make me stay. I'm going. Besides, I'm older than you, I should be telling you to stay behind."
"Fine." Clarke huffed when she realized the brunette wasn't going to listen.
"Good, I'll meet you outside." Lilly went to the ladder, climbing down. Monty was still in the lower level and Lilly wanted to offer him an idea. "Hey, Monty." She said, approaching him.
"Long time, no see." He said with a smile.
"It hasn't been that long." Lilly responded, smiling back. "So, it seems we're going to be in charge of getting back in contact with the Ark. I had an idea."
"Shoot," Monty said, ready to listen.
"The wristbands. They're sending our vitals to the Ark. If we can figure out how, maybe we can figure out how to use the technology to our advantage."
"I was thinking the same thing."
"And that, Monty, is why we're the geniuses here." Lilly smiled, patted him on the shoulder, and left the dropship.
Lilly was waiting patiently for Clarke to follow her out, and as she did, she saw Murphy coming back with Bellamy and Octavia. Every cell in her body urged her to go knock him to the ground and beat him up like he tried to do with Wells. She was growing tired of his bullshit, and it was time that he learned what she truly thought about him, no holding back. More specifically, no one to hold her back. Murphy noticed her hot glare and just smirked, making her more aggravated. She stood, ready to march over and start another fight.
But Clarke exited the dropship, grabbing her attention away before she could do anything. "Lilly, come on, we're going now." The brunette nodded, following her friend. To where Murphy, Bellamy, and Octavia were.
"You could have been killed." Bellamy said to Octavia as they approached.
"She would have been," Clarke interrupted, "if Jasper hadn't jumped in to pull her out."
"You guys leaving? I'm coming, too." Octavia began to stand up, but her brother pushed her back into a sitting position.
"No," he said. "No way. Not again."
"He's right, your leg is just gonna slow us down." Clarke shifted her body slightly towards Bellamy. "I'm here for you." At her blonde friend's words, Lilly's jaw dropped.
"He's not coming." Lilly protested, glaring up at Bellamy.
"I hear you have a gun." Clarke said, ignoring Lilly and holding Bellamy's gaze. It truly wasn't a joke that the two of them were fighting to be Alpha Delinquent. In response to Clarke, Bellamy pulled his shirt up slightly revealing the gun. "Good, follow me." Without even looking to see if he'd follow, Clarke began to walk away.
"And why would I do that?" Bellamy challenged, only moving to turn and face the blonde.
"Because you want them to follow you, and right now, they're thinking only one of us is scared." Clarke turned to walk away once more. Lilly followed behind her almost immediately. From behind them, Bellamy gives orders to Murphy and Atom as he watches the two girls strutting away and pulls on his jacket.
Lilly chances a glance behind her to see Wells following behind Bellamy and Murphy trying to catch up with her and Clarke. He catches up, walking beside Clarke while Lilly continues behind them, glancing back every few steps to make sure Bellamy and Murphy weren't about to stab or shoot them in the back.
"Those guys aren't just bullies, Clarke, they're dangerous criminals." Wells mumbles to the blonde. Lilly's attention snaps back in front of her, feeling a pang of hurt in her chest. Logically, she knew he wasn't talking about her and her crime, but if they were dangerous criminals for whatever they'd done, what was she in his eyes?
"I'm counting on it." Clarke says.
×××
The walking continues for a while in silence. Well, silence meaning Lilly had yet to open her mouth. She was afraid she'd make some stupid comment that would end in a fight between either Bellamy or Murphy and herself.
Bellamy seemed to finally have something to talk about when he and Murphy caught up with the other three. "Hey, hold up." He said, the gun being made obvious in his hand rather than the waistband of his jeans. "What's the rush? You don't survive a spear through the heart."
"Put the gun away, Bellamy." Wells commanded.
"Why don't you do something about it, huh?" Murphy walks forward, putting a hand on Wells' chest and pushing him back slightly.
Lilly grabbed his arm, removing it from Wells' chest. She gave him a murderous glare and said, "Why don't you keep your fucking hands to yourself, Murphy?"
While the two of them continued to glare at once another, Clarke explained the situation. "Jasper screamed when they moved him. If the spear struck his heart, he'd have died instantly. It doesn't mean we have time to waste."
Bellamy stepped forward, grabbing Clarke's wrist. "As soon as you take this wristband off, we can go."
Clarke ripped her arm out of Bellamy's hand and got up in his face. "The only way the Ark is going to think I'm dead is if I'm dead." She told him. "Got it?"
"Brave princess," was all Bellamy said.
"Hey, why don't you find your own nickname?" Looking back the way they came from, Lilly sees Finn walking swiftly towards them. "You call this a rescue party? We gotta split up, cover more ground. Clarke, come with me." Finn gives no time for argument as he walks passed the group, Clarke following behind him. For a moment, Wells, Lilly, Bellamy, and Murphy stand there watching.
Then, "You're with me, Monkey." Bellamy grabs the girl's hand, but she quickly drips it from his grasp.
"Stop trying to fucking manhandle me, Freckles." She snapped before hurrying after Finn and Clarke. He didn't waste anytime following after her.
"So, Monkey, I've been wondering what happened to your face." Bellamy said, finally catching up and walking beside her. He seemed genuinely concerned, but Lilly didn't want to fall into whatever kind of trap he was setting. She was sure it was his way of making her think he cared so he could get her wristband off or something. After what Clarke talked about with life support today, she was doing everything she could to stay firm in her decision to not take it off. If her dad did care, she wouldn't put him through that pain no matter how much part of her wanted to. Through her loud thoughts, Bellamy kept talking. "Don't ignore me. It's not worth it. I can be really annoying. I'll just keep talking until you answer. If you answer my questions, I'll leave you alone. Unless you like me talking to you, then I could do this all day. I—,"
"Do you ever stop talking about yourself?" Lilly snapped in annoyance, stopping in her tracks and looking up at him.
He leaned closer and whispered, "I'll shut up," dramatic pause, "if you answer my questions."
"That depends on how many questions you have."
"Not that many."
"Fine." She groaned, continue to follow Finn and Clarke. "First question, go."
"Tell me about the black eye. You get in a fight? Is that why you were in Lockup?"
"That's more than one question, Freckles." Lilly gave him a pointed look, but he just stared straight ahead as they walked. "Ugh, you're a pain in the ass. There was a guard who wasn't very happy with me about some stuff. He was a little on the violent side. He didn't like hearing that I wasn't immediately floated after talking to the Chancellor the day we got sent down here. And, well, this happened." She gestured to the black eye that was less black and more of an ugly yellow.
Bellamy was silent for a moment, thinking. The story only gave him more questions. After a while he finally asked, "How old are you?"
"You're not very smart, are you?" Lilly looked at him with an amused smirk and snickered at his expression at her words. "The day we came down was my eighteenth birthday. Hence the almost being floated."
"Why didn't Jaha float you?"
"What gives you the impression I know the answer to that?" She looks at Bellamy again to see him nod in understanding. "Are those all your questions, or is there more to this interrogation? Personally, I'd like to finish this interaction as quickly as possible."
"What got you into Lockup?" Bellamy looked down at her in time to notice her scowling at nothing in particular. He could only assume it was in response to his question.
She didn't like thinking about Austin Rogers. She hated thinking about what he did, and what her reaction got her into. She'd denied Chancellor Jaha's help, but she didn't want to deal with the citizens of the Ark after what shed done. Lilly answered his questions as vaguely as she could, "I killed someone."
Bellamy didn't even falter at her words. He just calmly asked, "Did they deserve it?"
"He did."
Again, they fell into a silence as Bellamy thought carefully about his next question. "You still haven't told me your last name."
"Probably because I don't want to."
"Why not? What's so bad about it?"
"Trust me, everything is wrong with it." Even though Bellamy's legs were longer than hers, her pace seemed to quicken and he struggled to keep up.
"Come on, Monkey. You can tell me." Lilly rolled her eyes, but he wasn't able to see it and kept talking. "I'll probably find out sooner or later. Secrets don't make friends, you know. If it's really long and difficult, I can learn. Why can't you just—?"
"Shut. Up." Lilly seethed, stopping and turning around to face him. If it were possible, steam would be coming out of her ears. She was hoping her reaction would stun him into silence, but it did the opposite.
"You're cute when you're angry." Bellamy barely had time to react before she lunged at him with a hard slap.
Seeing the interaction between them, Wells hurried forward and led his anger prone friend away. "You need to be more careful, Lilly."
"I don't need your help, Wells. I'm a dangerous criminal, I can look out for myself amongst my kind." Lilly didn't feel bad about what she'd said, bringing up words he'd said earlier that he didn't even think would affect her. She walked ahead of him, feeling like she'd rather be alone. Wells didn't know girls very well, but he was smart enough not to go after her.
Not long after, the group happened across a waterfall. Lilly was in awe. She'd only seen the water feature in old rotten pictures from before the war and sketches of what people guessed it looked like after the war. Neither compared to the real thing. It was simple, but it was just as wonderous as when they first got off the dropship and saw the forest around them. Like when Lilly climbed that tree for the first time. Like when she'd stared up at the night sky and for once in her life not been a part of it.
Despite the way she'd snapped at Wells, she wanted to convey her idea of coming back here for water when they needed it. "Wells," she said, walking over to where everyone was staring at rocks. Only when she'd gotten up close did she realize why they were looking at it.
Blood. Probably Jasper's blood.
I'm sorry if this chapter sucks. It's nearly 1am and I have a migraine, but i wanted to get another chapter done. I've been on a "every other day" publishing plan for this story but my creative juices are running low so it might be a while before I post another chapter. Hopefully I get inspiration this weekend to bust out a few chapters to have ready.
Anyways. I hope despite my tired writing it was at least somewhat enjoyable to read.
Until next time!
Words 4702
Published 16 May 2020
Edited TBD