CHAPTER THREE
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

     FIVE PAIRS OF BOOTS pounded against the dirt not caring for a certain path or direction, only caring for getting as far away from that river as possible. They weaved in between trees and up and around ditches, their heavy breathing being the only thing each of them could hear.

     Monty tripped and fell flat on the ground, Finn and Octavia trying to pull him up. "Come on!" Octavia hurried as she pulled his arm up.

     "We gotta go!" Finn rushed out, doing the same as Octavia. Taylor's blood ran cold when she saw the old, rotting bones that Monty had tripped in front of. He had certainly noticed them himself as his eyes were as wide as saucers.

     "Who are they?" Finn breathed, his brows furrowed in confusion. Confusion seemed to be mainly what he was feeling, his expressions not showing the intense fear that Taylor was feeling. Clarke knelt down beside Taylor and picked up a skull, straightening herself up and showing it to the rest of the group.

     "What are they?" she questioned. The skull was oddly misshapen and looking nothing like a normal skull. Images that Taylor forever wished had never even graced her mind to begin with flashed before her eyes; images of mutilated, bloodthirsty people who weren't keen on the idea of them being there.

     "We are so screwed," Octavia let out, her face contorted in pure panic.

     "Look, I don't care! We need to get far away from here now," Taylor rushed out, already backing away from the unsettling pile of bones that made her heart beat so fast it felt like it would spring from her chest.

     An echoing scream rang out in the forest, everyone's eyes widening at the sound. "Jasper. He's alive!" Clarke exclaimed before taking off in the direction they had just been running from.

     "Clarke, wait! Wait!" Finn called out, the rest of the group following her lead. They pushed their way through some bushes before they caught up to Clarke. "Wait. Stay out of the trees."

     They all crouched down and the panic that she had felt invade her on the dropship was returning, the panic that she detested experiencing. The spot where Jasper had been impaled was empty, no trace of him ever having been there.

     "He was right there," Finn uttered. The eeriness of the situation had intensified greatly. There was no way Jasper could have gotten up by himself and that scream had said it all. There was only one valid explanation.

     "They took him," Clarke finalized in horror, her eyes still glued to the spot where Jasper no longer was. Taylor took a deep breath and tried to push away every panicked thought she was having.

     "We need to go back. We can come back here, but right now, going after him isn't the smart choice," she explained quietly, trying to figure out some kind of plan that wouldn't get them killed by the mysterious people who still inhabited the planet.

     Clarke looked away and nodded slowly at first but eventually came back to her senses. "You're right," she agreed as she started to turn away from the scene, beckoning the others to follow. "Come on."

     Everyone seemed to silently agree to that plan as well since there wasn't an objection to be heard from them. The paranoia was apparent in the five, obvious by their running and not walking back to camp and occasional nervous glances behind them.

     When they could finally spot camp in the distance and slowed their running as they approached, they were met with a crowd cheering on a fight. Wells stood with a knife to Murphy's throat, looking very much like he would rather be in any other position at that moment.

     "Wells!" Clarke called out in a reprimanding tone as she and Finn became the first to begin the descent on to the level ground that everyone else was standing on. "Let him go!"

     She strode across the area and went right next to Wells, who threw Murphy to the ground when Clarke told him to. Murphy lunged back at Wells furiously, stopped by Bellamy who told him that it was enough.

     Octavia and Monty were next, Taylor right behind them. Octavia seemed to have more trouble with her leg as they went on, Monty having to help her down the moderate incline from the forest. Bellamy's eyes drifted to the three who had just arrived and his face went from arrogant to concerned.

     "Octavia! Taylor!" he exclaimed, making his way over to the two. He helped Octavia onto the ground first and asked, "Are you all right?"

     "Yeah," she huffed out with an exhausted nod as she collected herself. Bellamy turned to Taylor and asked her the same question and she nodded and swatted him away gently when he tried to help her down. She needed to take a minute to calm herself down and in her eyes that wasn't helping. Bellamy rounded on the rest of them expectantly.

     "Where's the food?" he questioned, looking around like there was the hope that they were all hiding it somewhere. Taylor took a seat next to Finn on a log and looked down at her hands. Her breath was still ragged and her hands were shaking slightly. What they had seen had struck a nerve so deep inside of her and triggered a new kind of fear she didn't know how to handle feeling.

     "We didn't make it to Mount Weather," Finn answered with a grim look towards Clarke like he was expecting her to elaborate upon his response.

     "What the hell happened out there?" Bellamy demanded, looking for a more detailed answer from either one of them.

     "We were attacked," Clarke continued for Finn, still looking on edge and shocked.

     "Attacked? Attacked by what?" Wells inquired, looking just as confused as all of the others had been when the revelation had first hit them.

     "Not what. Who," Finn said, filling in the blanks of Wells's statement. "It turns out, when the last man from the ground died on the Ark, he wasn't the last Grounder."

     "It's true. Everything we thought we knew about the ground is wrong," Clarke announced, mutterings spreading through the crowd and surrounding them like a wildfire. Taylor just shook her head and wished more than anything that what Clarke was saying was a lie and what they had just been through wasn't real. "There are people here, survivors. The good news is, that means we can survive. Radiation won't kill us."

     "Yeah, the bad news is the Grounders will," Finn added gravely and unsmiling. Wells looked around at everyone who had returned, creasing his eyebrows and turning his attention back to those who had been speaking.

     "Where's the kid with the goggles?" he questioned. Taylor could feel her stomach drop at the mention of him and felt like running away from everything at that point.

     "Jasper was hit. They took him," Clarke responded, her tone becoming a more quiet kind of distressed. If Taylor had learned anything about Clarke, it was that she was good at keeping cool under pressure and taking into account the needs of others. She couldn't say the same for herself on the first part. Clarke's eyes drifted down to Wells's wrist and her expression shifted. "Where's your wristband?"

     Taylor looked up from her shaking form and her face creased in confusion. Wells looked at Bellamy and nodded at him. "Ask him," Wells answered with a dark look. Clarke's expression turned sour and angered as well as she took a step towards Bellamy.

     "How many?" she inquired.

     "Twenty-four and counting," Murphy responded smugly, his beaten face showcasing a churlish smile. Clarke turned around and looked at him incredulously.

     "You idiots," she stated quietly, shaking her head in disbelief. She looked around and her voice grew louder. "Life support on the Ark is failing. That's why they brought us down here! They need to know if the ground is survivable and we need their help against whoever is out there. If you take off your wristbands, you're not just killing them. You're killing us!"

     There was a pause in the clearing as everyone processed what Clarke had revealed. Another sick feeling hit Taylor as she thought of her mother back on the Ark once again. She was sure that she wasn't the only one with parents back on the Ark, so how could they be doing this? There wasn't an answer that she could come up with to explain it. Bellamy eyed the crowd before stepping forward near the middle of the clearing.

     "We're stronger than you think. Don't listen to her. She's one of the privileged," he began, speaking with what seemed like absolute sincerity. "If they come down here, she'll have it good. How many of you can say the same?"

     Murmurs of agreement rippled through the group and they nodded along with what Bellamy was saying. It was working. Taylor wanted to jump up and shut his mouth herself but she could barely keep her hand steady, much less stop Bellamy.

     "We can take care of ourselves," he continued, much louder now. "That wristband on your arm? It makes you a prisoner. We are not prisoners anymore! They say they'll forgive your crimes. I say you're not criminals! You're fighters, survivors! The Grounders should worry about us!"

     The end of his small speech was met with cheers and gleeful yells from the crowd. Taylor stood up and shook her head at the sight. The worst thing for her was that she knew that if her mother wasn't still up there, she would probably be agreeing with Bellamy. And she knew that was wrong of her, but it was undeniably true.