The following morning presented us with an opportunity to carry out a mission against Mount Weather. Raven had apparently figured out a vital piece of information about how Mount Weather had been jamming signals, which of course affected equipment like our radios and walkie-talkies. Surprisingly, Abby had actually agreed to letting us go and find the jammer so that Raven could destroy it.

"I can't believe they let Finn come," Octavia muttered as I walked alongside her. I directed my attention to my surroundings, not wanting to get into that debate.

"He's the best tracker we've got," Bellamy reminded, even though I knew he wasn't too keen on the idea too. In fact, honestly, I wasn't entirely fine with it either. Finn had become unpredictable. "Don't forget to look up!" He then called out, raising his voice so that the rest of the group could hear. "The Grounders use the trees. That's how we lost John Mbege."

I heard him sigh quietly and glanced up, watching him with a small smile. My mind was still blissfully reeling through the kiss the other day, but I'd began to become a little confused by my feelings.

All of a sudden, an arm shot out in front of me, causing me to come to a halt. I snapped out of my thoughts, noticing Bellamy watching me with a slightly amused look. I then averted my eyes to a low branch that had been hanging at my head height. "Watch where you're going, Dimples."

I bit my lip, feeling a blush rising to my cheeks when I realised I'd been too busy staring at Bellamy to notice I was about to walk into the branch.

"Thanks," I managed say, to which Bellamy responded with a breathy chuckle. As he went to catch up with Octavia, I groaned, putting my head in my hands.

"Have I missed something?" Clarke questioned, startling me. I lifted my head up, turning my attention towards her.

"No– nothing," I blurted out, probably a little too quickly. Clarke glanced from me, and then up ahead to Bellamy and Octavia. Her gaze finally rested on me once more, a slightly smug smile pulling at her lips, but she made no comment.

We continued on for another few hours before finally reaching Mount Weather. Being back near that place already gave me shivers. There was a sick feeling of dread in my stomach. I never wanted to be near there ever again.

"It'll be dark soon," Clarke commented, pulling down the binoculars she'd been using to look at the satellite dish. "We'll never spot the traps. We should set up camp here, leave at first light."

I took the binoculars from her hands, taking a look at our target. I relished in the fact that it would destroyed soon.

"We're missing two!" Abby called out, causing me to slowly pull the binoculars down, silently cursing. We'd come up with a plan to allow Bellamy and Octavia to break away from the group and get into Mount Weather. I didn't expect anyone to notice so soon though. "Where the hell are they?" Abby muttered.

It must have been at least half an hour since they'd separated from the group, which hopefully meant they'd covered a good deal of ground by now.

"Bellamy! Octavia!" Voices rang out, the guards beginning to break away and search for the two.

"Clarke, we're in enemy territory, and their lives are my responsibility," Abby snapped, causing Raven and I to share a look as we watched the two of them.

"They went to find a way in," Clarke eventually informed.

"A way in?" Abby questioned, completely shocked. "That's not what this mission is about."

"It is for them."

Abby immediately whirled back around, turning to one of the guards. "Find them. Bring them back."

"Yes, ma'am," he nodded, looking towards two other officers before the three of them headed off to find Bellamy and Octavia.

"I'm going with them," I heard Finn say from behind me as he retrieved his gun. My eyes widened slightly at the thought of that.

"Finn, wait," Clarke spoke up before he could follow the guards.

Raven also paused in front of him, stopping him from going any further. "We need you here."

"Why?" He bit back. "So you can keep an eye on me?" He glanced at Clarke, his words harsh. "You'd have to be able to look at me to do that."

"Finn–"

He took a step back from the three of us, his face twisting in annoyance. "What do you think I'm gonna do?"

"Finn!" Clarke called out as he threw the gun to the ground, storming off without another word. Clarke sighed exasperatedly, glancing back at Raven and I. "I'll go get him."

She followed in pursuit of Finn, the rest of us staying quiet. It was going to be a long day.

~

Back at Camp Jaha, later on, I waited anxiously for the rest of my friends to return.

After Clarke had gone to find Finn, there was an ambush of acid fog. Raven had managed to fix the frequency so that we could listen to Mount Weather, which allowed us to figure out that they were behind the attack. 

So the decision, after some debate, was made not to blow up the tower. I was glad to finally see Abby slowly opening up to consider making choices that Clarke would make. I'd been slightly annoyed with the way she only helped us when it suited her. Then again, at least she was doing something – which was more than what I could say about my own mother.

As soon as I saw a flash of blonde hair, I immediately jumped up, watching as Clarke and Abby embraced each other. "Bellamy and Octavia?"

The two of them still had yet to return, which admittedly had set me very on edge. "They know to rendezvous here," Abby assured, as Clarke's eyes wandered to me, before flickering back to her mom.

"Have you tried the radio?" She questioned.

"Still jammed," Raven responded, causing Clarke to frown, obviously unaware of the situation.

"You didn't blow the tower?"

"Raven figured out a way that we could listen to Mount Weather," I said, looking at my friend proudly. In all honestly, some of the things Raven did absolutely blew my mind. "If we took out the antenna, we wouldn't be able to do that."

Clarke shook her head, turning to her mom. "What about the other Ark stations?"

"We don't know if they made it," Abby replied. "What we do know is that forty six of our people are being held prisoner on that mountain. We're gonna get them out."

I couldn't help but smile at her words as Clarke pulled her mom back into an embrace. I stepped back slightly, watching instead as Raven then made her way over to Finn.

"Help!" A man's voice cut through the air, causing me to spin my head around in confusion, along with many other people. "Help me!"

The guards immediately began running towards the source of the voice, and I stood watching as a familiar man hobbled towards us.

Thelonious Jaha stumbled slightly, his eyes setting on Abby as he fell to the ground. Abby's hand remained on his shoulder as he gripped her wrist tightly.

He was covered in blood.

"I have a message from the commander," he stated, as whispers arose around the crowd. "Leave or die. We have two days."

~

"Billie, honey, all this worrying isn't going to do you any good," my mom said gently, still situated on a bench as I continued to pace up and down.

It had been hours and Bellamy and Octavia still weren't back. I was going absolutely insane with worry, my mind thinking over all the possibilities. The message Jaha delivered to us was just enough to tip me over the edge, making me feel like I was on the brink of insanity.

"What if something bad has happened?" I rushed out, my words tripping over each other. "What if they got caught in the fog? What if the Mountain Men found them? What if the reapers–"

"You said yourself that they knew how to handle things," she assured, watching me with a frown. "So why are you getting so panicked?"

"Because they promised they'd be back," I mumbled, more to myself than in reply to her question.

"The other day, you asked me to trust you," she started as I stopped pacing for a moment, recalling my mind back to our slightly heated conversation. "Well, if they're anything like you said, then I'm telling you to trust them. They'll be back."

I let out a heavy sigh. "I hope you're right." My mom watched me carefully as I moved to sit down on the other end of the bench. I placed my hands in my lap, finding myself absentmindedly fiddling with my fingers.

The whole situation we'd been placed in was stressful. It felt like that even if we could sort one thing, there would still be another million things waiting to go wrong. It was a never ending cycle of anxiety. And as somebody who naturally worried a lot, it didn't help my own personal situation. All I wanted was to get my friends out of that damn mountain, to make peace with the Grounders, to have Bellamy and Octavia return safely and to live peacefully. But all of that, of course, was never going to happen.

An awkward cough brought me out of my thoughts and I snapped my head up to see a boy, about the same age as me, standing talking to my mom. He was tall and quite thin, dressed casually with a plaid shirt and dark blue jeans that looked slightly too big for him. He had messy dark brown hair, with a fringe that covered his eyes slightly, and wore a shy smile on his lips.

"Billie," my mother said, catching my attention again. "This is Freddie. He wanted to talk to you. I said I'd introduce you both."

"Uh, hi," I said, giving him an awkward wave that I immediately regretted. I was confused, to say the least. He must have noticed because he too became a little uncomfortable as my mother told him to sit down, before then proceeding to leave us both alone. "I'm Billie."

"I know," he practically blurted, his round, brown eyes widening slightly. "I mean, I've heard a lot about you and your friends. You're quite famous in camp."

I laughed a little, knowing it was true that we'd become pretty well known in camp. The stares were kind of annoying, although I knew they were mostly towards Clarke– especially with her being Abby's daughter– or towards Bellamy and Finn, who had apparently made quite the entrance.

"I'm Freddie," he said, holding his hand out. "Freddie Wilson." I took it, smiling politely as we shook hands. I took an instant warming towards him, his kind and slightly awkward nature not beginning to impose any threat or concern to me.

"My mom said you wanted to talk?" I asked, my eyes scanning past him briefly in a naive hope-filled attempt to catch sight of Bellamy and Octavia. I directed my attention back to Freddie again, who was scratching under his chin, seeming nervous. I hoped I didn't seem intimidating or rude in any way, that's not what I wanted to get across at all.

"Um, yeah I was wondering, and it's okay if you don't know by the way, but when you guys got sent down here did you– did you talk to someone called Noah?" He questioned, his words coming out so quickly that it took me a while to process them. "Noah Ashford?"

I thought back for a moment. I'd met a lot of the people when we got sent down, obviously, but I'd mainly stuck to my usual group. I couldn't remember anyone called Noah, and I didn't want to tell him I did just in case it turned out that he didn't make it. He seemed to be an important person to Freddie, but I wasn't quite sure what to say.

"It's okay," he eventually said after a few moments of silence. "I didn't mean to–"

"What did he look like?"

"Uh, tall, like really tall. Dark skin, dark eyes..." he trailed off, seeming to think over his description of Noah. "He always wore a bracelet on his left wrist. God, sorry, I'm terrible at explaining."

"It's fine," I assured, giving him a small smile. "I'm sure I could ask around the others and see," I offered, my heart feeling heavy as I watched Freddie's eyes fall to the ground defeatedly. "I mean, there's a possibility he's at Mount Weather."

Freddie let out a sigh, one that seemed to be a mixture of both relief and worry. He sat back slightly, and I looked down at his hands, noticing him digging his nails into his palms. "So he could still be alive?"

I sighed, leaning forwards. "Freddie, I can't tell you for certain but–"

"But there's a possibility?" The new hope dancing in his eyes made it difficult for me to even consider saying no. Of course there was a possibility, but god knows what was going on in that mountain.

"Maybe," I finally settled on, although I wasn't entirely convinced myself. But if I could inspire some hope within Freddie, I could get more people on our side about helping the forty six in Mount Weather. "Did Noah mean a lot to you?"

"He's my best friend," he replied, a sad smile replacing the hopeful one, the light fading from his eyes. "I just want him to be okay."

"We're doing everything we can to get to help the forty six," I assured. "If Noah is one of them, I promise you I won't give up trying to get them all out."

Freddie nodded slowly, his eyes holding my stare for a little longer than usual. There was a different look to them, almost a determination, a fire within him. "I'd like to help."

"You would?"

"I owe it to him," he said. "I'm a good tracker. And I picked up survival skills pretty well when it was taught up on the Ark. I'm also really good at sneaking around, that's the only reason I wasn't thrown into that skybox with him," he explained and I silently wondered what the two of them actually did, although that would have to be a question for another time. "I think I could help you, if you needed me."

"Are you good with a gun?" The look on his face told me the answer to that was 'no'. "A knife?"

"I'm willing to learn."

A smile twitched on my face, his words almost bringing me some kind of excitement. After Jaha's statement had shook up the camp, things had been a little tense, a little chaotic. People were getting ready to run, but there were also people preparing to fight, Freddie being one of them.

And the best part was, he was fighting on our side.

↠

A/N

Bit of a filler chapter but new oc introductions ftw.

There will be some info about Freddie on my 'meet my ocs' book very soon 😎