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I woke up when people began shouting outside. I rubbed my eyes as I looked around the tent. I was on the inside of the bed this time, meaning I would have to climb over Bellamy to get outside. Which I attempted and failed to do. He woke up as I did so, and raised a brow when I tumbled off the bed and onto the ground.
"What the holy hell are you doing, princess?"
Before I had a chance to respond someone shouted again from outside. Bellamy was up and pulling me outside before I could regain my balance. Outside the tent the camp gathered under the starry night, staring up at the sky. Looking up I saw a fiery ball being thrown into the atmosphere. It was a pod. Someone from the Ark was coming down here.
"Now we can kick some grounder ass." They cheered.
Bea, Elliot, and Hunter found their places beside me. Bea leaned into my side as Elliot did the same to Hunter.
"What do you think is in there? Weapons?"Hunter asked.
"Like the Ark would trust a bunch of underage, degenerate, criminals with weapons." Bea retorted.
"Maybe medicine or food." I shrug, "I hope it has a radio."
"Me too, I want to talk to my parents." Elliot smiles sadly, "I'm actually surprised they sent anything down. I thought we were just expendable to them."
"I wonder what changed." I mutter.
I watched as Bellamy and a group of people went into the meeting tent. I filed in behind them, along with my group and Octavia as well. Inside the tent we all gathered around Bellamy. I pushed through the crowd to get a better look at everyone, and so it was easier to speak up.
"If it cleared the Ridge, it's probably near the lake." The one guy said.
"We should get moving." I say with an authoritative tone, that was not intentional, but I kept it none the less.
"Everyone's ready." Octavia adds.
Bellamy glances at us shaking his head, "No one's going anywhere. Not while it's dark. It isn't safe." He looks over to his followers who were in the tent, "We'll head out at first light." Bellamy orders, "Pass the word."
"Everyone for 100 miles saw this thing come down." Hunter said in an agitated tone.
"What if the grounders get to it first?" Octavia presses, "Bell, we should go now."
"I said we wait until sunrise." He states angrily while pushing past us.
"Bellamy!" I call after him, running after him.
Once I was out of the tent I looked around and Bellamy had disappeared into the crowd. I sighed loudly and trudged toward the gate, without realizing my group was still following. As I begin to open the gate Hunter places his hand on it and shutting it. I fold my arms over my chest and send him a glare.
"Where do you think you're going?" Hunter asked as he leaned against the gate.
"To find that pod." I answer mechanically, "And it'd be smart of you to move out of my way. I could take you."
"Alright," he says raising his arms in defense, "I see why you need your full eight hours of sleep." He comments making me roll my eyes.
"We want to come." Bea says after slapping Hunter's arm.
"The more the merrier." I shrugged.
We started into the woods and as we walked I realized that we were missing a lot of ground walking in a group. I shoved my hands into Wells' jacket pockets and sighed, bringing myself to a stop.
"I think we should split up." I tell the group when they look back to me, "We'll cover more ground that way. Then we all meet at the lake."
"Are you sure it's a good idea to split up?" Elliot asks stepping closer to me.
I nod, "We'll go in pairs. You and Hunter, and Bea and I."
"Okay, see you at the bottom." Elliot says before walking off with Hunter.
Bea and I walk away from where Hunter and Elliot had just walked. We stayed silent for a while. I wasn't sure whether that was because we were tired or because we felt comfortable in silence. After a few minutes Bea finally had enough of it.
"Why do you want to find it so bad?" She asks with a small voice.
"If the grounders get to it first and someone is inside they could end up like Jasper, or worse. They could steal what ever they sent down, destroy the radio, destroy the pod."
"Does this have to do with the fact that Bellamy told you not to?" She questions and even in the dim lighting of the moon I could see her quirk her brow.
"What? No, I just - "
She cuts me off, although I didn't really know what else I was going to say, "Save it, anyone can see the sexual tension from a mile away. I notice how you always like to do the things he tells you not to do."
"Like?" I question irritably.
"Not taking off the wristband."
"There are people up there who need to know I'm alive." I argue.
"Okay, what about taking the food and making a big deal about, 'whatever the hell we want'?"
"I was hungry, and I killed that Panther. What Bellamy was doing was sick and wrong."
"You didn't need to start a riot to do that." She argues, and to be fair that was a good point, "You also like questioning his authority."
I rolled my eyes, but in this light she probably didn't see it.
"You did the same thing when Jasper was hurt. When you guys were going to Mount Weather." She begins listing without my interjections.
"Whatever helps you sleep at night." I grumble folding my arms over my chest.
"And don't act like you haven't seen the way he looks at you. The only reason he let's you get away with all of that is because he has a soft spot for you. We all see it."
"Yeah right." I snort, "I didn't realize when you told me you shipped Bellamy and I, that you would bombard me with it 24/7."
"Maybe I'm just trying to get you to open your eyes."
"You always want to play the big brother, huh? Well, guess what? Joke's on me. You're just a selfish dick." I hear Octavia yell in front of us.
Both Bea and I can suddenly see two figures standing a ways in front of us. Bellamy and Octavia. We ducked behind a tree to hopefully remain unnoticed by the two. It seemed they were too wrapped up in their argument to care about how loud Bea and I were being in ours.
"I did this for you, to protect you. If The Ark finds out we're alive, they'll come down. And when they do I'm dead." Bellamy argues just as loudly as his sister.
The last part catches Bea's attention as well as mine. We look to each other with curiosity written on both of our faces.
"What did you do?" Octavia asks with a softer tone.
"I shot him." He pauses, "I shot Jaha."
My breath catches in my throat and my hand instinctively covers my mouth. Bea shares a similar expression.
"What?" Octavia asks in disbelief, speaking for all of us.
"I found out they were sending you to Earth. I couldn't let you go alone. Someone came to me with a deal. Do this. Kill him, and they'd get me on the dropship. And I did it."
Suddenly my mind flashes to when I first say Bellamy on the Ark. A gun in hand and being escorted by Commander Shumway. Bellamy must have just shot him when I ran into them. Shumway made the deal with Bellamy, he wanted the chancellor dead, but why?
"You killed the chancellor?"
"He floated our mother. He locked you up. He deserved it." Bellamy defends.
"I didn't ask you to do that."
There's a small pause before he speaks again, "You're right. I made the choice. This is on me. Whatever they sent down, I'll take care of it."
"I didn't ask for any of this." She says before turning and making her way toward Bea and I.
Bellamy takes off in the opposite direction. I run after him but end up colliding with Octavia. I groan as my back slams into the unforgiving forest floor. Bea chuckles beside us before offering her hand to both of us. Octavia doesn't even spare us a second look before running back toward camp. I sigh and take Bea's hand and we make our way through the forest after Bellamy.
❂ ❂ ❂ ❂
By the time Bea and I get to the pod Clarke is standing by a girl. She was spinning in circles and started laughing when rain came down in a light sprinkle. The laugh tugged at my heart and I thought I knew who it was, and once she opened her mouth to speak to Clarke I knew who she was.
"Is this rain?" I knew that voice.
"Welcome home, Ray." I say walking closer.
She turns sharply on her heal and once she sees me tears drop onto her cheeks. She races over to me and flings herself into my arms, nearly knocking us over as she does.
She pulls away from me with the widest smile I've ever seen, "I knew you couldn't be dead." That's all she says, and that's all it takes for tears to well up in my eyes.
"God I missed you Raven." I laugh hugging her again.
"I missed you too." She laughs but she suddenly grows quiet, "I didn't come alone, Lacey." She whispers.
I pull away with my eyebrows seen together. Before I can ask her what the hell she meant, Finn comes running over.
"Raven!" Finn yelled running over.
"Finn! I knew you couldn't be dead either." She laughed as he came over.
I suddenly saw her head and noticed the blood. I reached a hand up to inspect it but she swatted it away.
"You're bleeding." I state.
"I don't care. I'm with you guys, and that's all that matters."
She looks to Finn and pulls him in for a kiss, it was short enough so I didn't feel uncomfortable. When she pulled away she held on to one of Finn's arms and one of mine.
"How did you get here?" I asked tugging on her arm.
"You know that big scrap hold, the one on K deck?" She asks biting her bottom lip.
"You built that from scrap?" Finn asked completely shocked sharing a similar expression as me.
"I kind of rebuilt it." We laughed, "Please. Like that's hard. It just needed a couple parts and some love."
"You're insane."
"I'd do more for you two and worse. Just like you guys would for me."
After the words leave her mouth she stumbles on her feet. Finn manages to grab her before I could. He takes her over to a rock to sit and I let my eyes wander over to Clarke, she stands with a sad expression as she rifles through her bag. Finn runs over and I see my friends make their way over.
"Ray, these are some friends of mine." I motioned towards the three I had become surprisingly close to.
"You made friends? I didn't know that was possible."
I laughed, "Shut up. This is Bea, Elliot, and Hunter. Guys this is Raven, in case you missed that."
Suddenly I notice Raven look over in another direction with a sad expression. I follow her gaze and see someone I never expected to see again. Thistle. My breath catches and once Finn sees her he runs over to hug her. I stand frozen. When her eyes land on me I watch as she clenches her jaw and her hands ball into fists. Finn looks over to me sadly before rushing back over to Raven.
"Thistle?" I question, my voice cracking over her name.
She shoves her hands into her pockets and steps closer to me. She nods slowly. I let out a shaky breath once I see the rage that has filled her eyes.
"Lacey." She questions but it's sounds more like statement, a bitter one at that, "I was really hoping you would stay dead."
My heart pangs at the bitter words, but I couldn't blame her. I deserved every ounce of hate she dished at me.
"My mom?" I hear Clarke ask Raven.
I walk away from Thistle and rush over to the group that had collected around Raven.
"Wait, Abby?" I asked.
"This was all her plan. We were all trying to come down here together. If we waited oh, my God." She stands up quickly looking around, "We couldn't wait because the council was voting whether to kill 300 people to save air."
"When?"
"Today." Thistle answers rushing over to the pod, "We have to tell them you're alive."
She looks through the pod and comes out empty handed. With an desperate look in her eyes.
"The radio's gone." She tells Raven, "It must've gotten loose during reentry. I should've strapped it to the A-strut. Stupid!" She shouts hitting the side of the pod.
"No, no, this is my fault." I say shaking my head.
"Well that's not surprising." Thistle says bitterly, but I ignore it.
I see Bea and Elliot making a move forward both of them forming the same word, "Bitch - " I cut them off and push them back.
"Someone got here before us." I continue, "We have to find him."
I take off first, and was probably the fastest of the group. I was a ways ahead of everyone else when Bellamy came into view.
"Where is it?!" I yell at him grabbing his arm roughly and turning him towards me.
"Hey, princess. You taking a walk in the woods?" He asks with a smirk and all I wanted to do was to slap it right off of him.
"They're getting ready to kill to save oxygen. And I can guarantee you it won't be council members. It'll be working people. Your people." Clarke yells, running over.
As she speaks I let go of his arm, and I notice out of the corner of my eyes that he's looking at me, and not at Clarke.
"Bellamy," Finn says shoving him, "where's the radio?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Bellamy shoves him back.
"Bellamy Blake? They're looking everywhere for you." Raven states as her and everyone else appears.
"Shut up." He spits angrily.
"Looking for him why?" Elliot asks who was standing back with Hunter, Bea, and Thistle.
"He shot Chancellor Jaha." I answer for both of them, causing Bellamy to look to me with surprise.
"That's why you took the wristbands. You needed everyone to think we're dead." Clarke starts full of rage.
"And all that 'whatever the hell we want', you just cares about saving your own skin." Finn spoke coldly stepping closer to him.
Bellamy shakes his head, and turns sharply on his heal walking away. Raven goes after him and the rest of us follow slowly after them. I was the closest to them.
"Hey! Shooter! Where's my radio?" Raven yells after him, stopping in his path.
"Get out of my way. I should've killed you when I had the chance."
"Really? Well, I'm right here." She remarks in a challenging tone.
With that Bellamy slams her against the nearby tree with his hand around her neck. Worry filled me for a split second until I saw Raven pressing her knife against his face, but not too hard to draw blood.
"Where's my radio?" She asks in a low tone.
"Okay, stop it." I command pushing the two apart and ignoring the scoff that came from Thistle behind me.
I look at Bellamy who was avoiding my eyes. He walks off shoving his hands in his pockets before turning back towards us.
"Jaha deserved to die. You all know that." He starts, trying to defend himself.
"Yeah, he's not my favorite person, either." Raven yells after him, "But he isn't dead."
"What?" He turns toward us and I see his big brown eyes go wide.
"You're a lousy shot."
He turns away and starts to walk off. I could tell Clarke was about to chase after him but I stop her. I run over to Bellamy grabbing his hand, I tugged on him until he looked at me.
"Bellamy," I spoke softly and that immediately gets his attention, all of his features soften and he relaxes, "don't you see what this means? You're not a murderer." I stare into his eyes, careful never to break eye contact, "You always did what you had to do to protect your sister. That's who you are." I tell him, placing a hand against his chest causing his eyes to travel to my hand, but he quickly returns his gaze to mine, "And you can do it again, by protecting 300 of your people. Where's the radio?"
"It's too late." He answers sadly, dropping his gaze to our hands and letting go of mine.
"Just tell me where it is, Bellamy." He shakes his head and takes a step away from me, I grab his hand with both of mine and pull him towards me, "Where's the radio, Bell?"
He stares at our hands for a second before looking up to me, his eyes locked with mine and I felt like I was going to melt under the pressure of those chocolate eyes.
He lets out a sigh, looking up to the sky before looking down to me, "I threw it in the lake."
"Thank you." I whisper.
He nods his head but doesn't respond more than that. I turn back toward everyone else motioning for them to follow. Bellamy began to lead us to exactly where he threw it. As he did Thistle crashed her shoulder into mine as she walked past me.
"Trying to be the hero, are you?" She laughs, "Trying to overcompensate for something?" She spits venomously at me.
Bellamy looks down to her with his eyebrows sewn together. I wrapped my arms around myself and didn't respond.
She scoffs, "That's it? The great Lacey Rose Turner has been silenced? I expected more from you."
I shake my head and let out a chuckle, and chose not to respond to her again. I could see the frustration grow through the corner of my eye, but I kept ignoring it. There was nothing I could do to make up for what I had done to her. So why fight her when she has a good reason to hate me? I deserve it. I deserve her worst shot, and that's what I got. My body was suddenly thrown to the ground as she shoved me back. Everyone froze. Bea had a spark in her eye that showed me she wanted to fight. Finn and Raven carried sad expressions seeing this is what all of our friendships had come to. I stand up slowly and and walk away, toward the lake, no one else had moved yet.
"Oh come on is that the best you got?!" Thistle yells at me.
I shove my hands in my pockets and keep walking. No one had moved, they watched with curious eyes. No one had ever seen me this passive. Thistle expected and wanted me to fight back, but I'm not going to. She punches me hard in the jaw, nearly sending me to the ground, but I catch myself. She swings again hitting the other side of my face. I don't fall and I don't swing back. She kicks me and I stumble back into a tree. She slams her hands against the tree on either side of my head.
"Fight back!" She screams at me, "Why aren't you fighting me back?!" She screams but her voice cracks at the end of her sentence.
"You want me to fight?!" I ask sharply, she nods her head. So I shove her back, "Well I won't!" I scream.
"Why the hell not?"
"Because I deserve every punch, every bitchy remark you send my way. I deserve it all!" I say and I notice her bottom lip begins to quiver, "And I know there is nothing I can say or do to get you to stop hating me. And I know saying I'm sorry is not enough, but I am. I'm sorry, Thistle. So if you want me to fight back, I won't. I've got nothing on my side to fight for." I stay silent for a moment and she just stares at me with tears in her eyes but a stern expression resting on every other feature of her face, "Now the Ark is about to kill 300 people, so would you rather fight or save lives?"
She shakes her head and pushes past me walking towards the lake, "You're a cold hearted bitch." She says, rather loudly.
Bea rushes over, and beside her is Elliot. They both have their hands in fists. I stop them both.
"Leave it alone." I state sternly, "I deserve it and you guys have no idea what's going on."
"Deserve it?" Elliot scoffs, "Lacey are you kidding? No one deserves that."
"You don't know what happened, so leave it alone." I say more sharply than before.
"What'd you do?" Bea asks folding her arms over her chest becoming just as sharp as me, "If you deserve it what'd you do?"
"Something unforgivable." I say vaguely before wiping away tears beginning to drop onto my cheeks.
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Okay so I completely forgot to update last week. Sorry. But hey at least I'm updating on a Monday!
Anyway, you guys have been introduced to Thistle who has been mentioned several times throughout the book. She was even in a flashback a little while ago.
So what do you guys think of her?
She's definitely causing a lot of angst which I love tbh.
Unedited...sorry
Question Time: Any theories on what Lacey did to Thistle?
Random Question Time: Did everyone watch Teen Wolf last week? Because I pretty much cried at the last scene.
•callie•