A rumble of commotion from above snapped my mind away from sleep as I sat up. My eyes adjusted to the darkness of the second floor as I slowly stood. My pounding headache had subsided; replaced with a faint fogginess that tried to lull me back to sleep. I shook my head as I placed my hands on the cool metal bars of the ladder. I climbed up to the hatch, shoving it open loudly. 

Miller stood above me with one of his hands around Octavia's arm as she shoved him away from her. He moved out of my way, and I scanned the room. I saw that the grounder Bellamy captured was very much awake, and his eyes were darting around frantically. Bellamy stood across from me with his gaze focused on the grounder.

I looked at Octavia, "What's going on?"

She shot an angry glance at her brother, "Ask him."

Octavia exited the room with an exasperated expression. Why was she so angry?

 I walked up to Bellamy, pulling his attention away from the tall grounder that was giving him a heated stare. 

My eyes shifted between Bellamy and the grounder, "What are you hoping to accomplish with this exactly?"

"We need to find out what we're up against," Bellamy answered, "and he's going to tell us."

I scoffed, "Are you stupid? What if his people come for him?"

"All I know is that I'm not going to sit here and wait around for them to kill more of us," Bellamy crossed his arms over his chest. "Come on, Harley, you know we need to find out more about the grounders."

But was torturing someone the answer? We needed the information; that was true, but there had to be a better way to get what we needed from the grounder. I was doing my best to make better decisions; to do what Wells would have done, and I knew he wouldn't condone torturing someone. 

I nodded, "You're right, but this isn't the way to do it," Bellamy shook his head as I continued. "You know, if you torture him, you'll have to kill him right? He'll go back to his people and tell them what you did. Then, they'll all come for revenge. Is that what you want?"

"What else do you want me to do?" He said with force as he threw his arms up in frustration. "If they cared about peace, they wouldn't have killed our friends for no reason. This is a war, whether you want to believe it or not."

A sudden jerk hit the dropship, followed by an enormous boom of thunder. The floor shook underneath us, and I was thrown forwards. Bellamy's arms steadied me as I regained my balance, letting out a breath of relief.

 Would this storm ever end? It was starting to get annoying.

"You good?" Bellamy asked as he glanced over me.

"Yeah," I nodded, my eyes catching his, noticing that his arms were still on my waist. 

He cleared his throat and backed away a few seconds later. He walked over to the ladder, leaning over the hatch as Archie poked his head through the opening.

"What the hell was that?" Bellamy asked him. "Are we under attack or not?"

Archie shook his head, "Just more damage from this shitty storm." His eyes went to me. "How you feeling Harles?"

"Fine," I answered, crossing my arms over my chest. "Except for the fact that Bellamy is a hardass who won't listen to me."

"Shut up," Bellamy called out over his shoulder.

 I listened as he tried to question the grounder again, but it was no use. I was beginning to think Bellamy's hostage didn't even understand English. 

I looked to Archie again, "How's Finn?"

"Clarke got the knife out. He seems fine for now."

I gave him a relieved nod, turning my head as I heard Miller call out, "Hey, check it out." 

I glanced at his hands and noticed what had grabbed his attention: a small container filled with vials. Each vile was a weird and polluted color. Bellamy and I leaned down as Miller examined each vial. 

I gave the vials a disgusted look, "I bet these taste gross."

"What is all this stuff?" Miller asked.

Bellamy shrugged as he reached down and picked up a worn journal from the grounder's bag, "Who the hell knows with these people."

His action caused the grounder to let out a grunt of disdain as he tried to lurch against the tight chains holding him back from freedom.

"I think we found something he doesn't want us to see, Miller," Bellamy said with a hinted grin as he flipped through the thick pages of intricate drawings. "These aren't bad." 

But then, his jaw clenched when his eyes landed on the next drawing. It was a picture of Octavia smiling. He pulled his angry stare away from the journal as he looked at the grounder. I could feel the tension building in the room with each loud boom of thunder from the storm outside.

A few seconds later, Bellamy moved on to the next drawing, and this time, my eyes widened when I realized what the picture was. One page had the dropship, and the one next to it looked like one hundred individual tick marks with ten crossed out.

Ten of our people had been killed.

Bellamy had made the same conclusion as me, "It's our camp. I'm guessing if I counted all those marks, it would add up to one hundred and two. Ten are crossed out."

"That's how many we've lost," I said.

Bellamy looked up at me, "Now you believe me, Princess?" he asked as he stood. "They're killing us off one by one." His tone got angrier as he faced the grounder. "They've been watching us ever since we got here!"

I got to my feet and crossed my arms over my chest, "I don't know what to think anymore, Bellamy. All I know is that if all grounders look like this one, we're fucked."

"She's right," Miller commented from behind me.

Bellamy gave me an annoyed glance, "No, Harley, if we refuse to fight, we're fucked."

"We're fucked either way, dumbass!"

"Okay, would you two please stop saying 'we're fucked'?" I turned my head to find Archie sitting by the hatch. "Your negativity is really crushing on my vibe."

"Well, Archie, we have more important things to worry about right now other than your 'vibe'," Bellamy said with even more annoyance.

Archie let out a small scoff as he swung his legs around to go down the ladder, "Harley's right. You are a hardass."

――――

A little while later, I decided to take a break from constantly being around Bellamy's bad attitude. I was sitting against the ladder on the bottom floor as Raven stood beside the table Finn was lying on. He still hadn't woken up, and his body temperature still was too high.

But the bright side was that the knife was out of him and that he was still alive. That was definitely a win. I would admit to anyone that Spacewalker was never one of my favorite people to be around and that I would never understand Clarke and Raven's weird obsession with him, but he was kind of my friend, and I kind of cared about him. 

Basically, I didn't want him to die.

Which was why I internally freaked out when his body started jerking randomly on the table.

I jumped up quickly, running over to the table beside Raven with wide eyes, "What the hell happened?" I asked. "Where's Clarke?!"

"She-she went up to talk to Bellamy," Raven let out frantically before yelling, "Clarke, he's seizing!"

In a matter of seconds, Clarke rushed down the ladder. She was beside us in the blink of an eye looking over Finn with fear.

"He was fine, and then-"

Clarke cut Raven off, "Get my mother on the radio! Now!" I stepped back with my heart beating fast. "Raven, now!"

Raven snapped out of her fear, "The radio's dead!" She exclaimed. "Interference from the storm." I ran my hands through my hair as I watched Clarke stand over Finn's shaking body. Raven gave Clarke a pleading look, "Please, don't let him die."

Clarke seemed unsure of what to do as she looked from Raven to Finn. All she could do was hold her hands on his shoulder while she waited for the seizure to stop.

"This doesn't make any sense," I shook my head. "I thought he was fine!"

"He was!" Clarke yelled back with confusion and frustration on her face until Finn's seizure came to a stop. She lurched back into doctor mode, "Okay. It stopped. Quick, help me get him on his side." Raven just stared at Finn with shock. "Raven, there is fluid in his lungs. He could choke! Quick!"

Raven helped Clarke turn Finn on his side as fluid dripped from his mouth.

"God, he's burning up," Clarke said.

"Fluid in his lungs?" Raven asked with teary eyes. "Does that mean the knife hit something?"

Clarke shook her head as I handed her a piece of cloth to put under Finn's mouth, "No, this isn't blood. It's something else." Her voice was desperate as she looked over Finn. "I did-I did everything she told me... Wait, I've seen this before: shortness of breath, fever, seizing..." Then it clicked. "It's poison!"

"Clarke, you sterilized everything!"

I nodded, "Yeah, we watched you do it."

Clarke's eyes fell to the table beside Finn, "Not everything," she walked over to the table, grabbing the knife that the grounder stabbed Finn with before heading towards the ladder. "Raven, stay here."

I followed behind Clarke as we climbed to the second level where everyone else was sitting around waiting for the storm to pass. Clarke stopped ahead of me, and I looked up to see that the latch wasn't budging.

"Clarke," I turned my head to see Octavia getting up and walking up to the ladder. "They locked the hatch."

"Bastards," I muttered under my breath.

Clarke's determined nature took over as she pounded on the hatch, "Hey!" She said forcefully. "Open the door!"

A few seconds later, the hatch opened, and Clarke didn't waste any time. I heard her tell Miller to get out of her way, and then Octavia and I stepped onto the third level with her.

Clarke stormed right up to the grounder, holding up the blood-stained knife in her right hand, "What's on this?"

Bellamy stepped forward, "What are you talking about?"

Clarke didn't take her eyes off the grounder, "He poisoned the blade! All this time you knew Finn was gonna die no matter what we did. What is it?! Is there an antidote?" I had never seen Clarke acting so angry and forceful. Her badass side was finally starting to break through the cracks.

"Clarke, he doesn't understand you," Octavia called out from behind her.

"Vials," Bellamy said, and I instantly turned around and leaned down to pick up the small container. I handed it to Bellamy and watched as he handed the container to Clarke. "It's gotta be here."

Clarke threw down the knife as she looked through the container, "You'd have to be stupid to have a poison around for this long without an antidote."

I glanced over her shoulder, "They all look the same to me."

Clarke looked at the grounder, holding out the vials, "Which one?" 

Bellamy's rough voice boomed over the room, "Answer the question!"

"Show us," Octavia said in a calmer voice. "Please."

The grounder didn't budge. 

"Which one? Our friend is dying down there and you can stop that!" Clarke pleaded, but nothing anyone said seemed to work.

And that led to Bellamy stepping away from us and drawing back his fist, "I'll get him to talk."

Octavia grabbed his arm, "Bellamy, no!"

"He wants Finn to die!" Bellamy fired back. "Why can't you see that?"

Here goes a moral dilemma. Finn was dying. That was a fact. The grounder knew which vial held the antidote, but he wouldn't show us. How else were we going to save Finn? There was no good option. 

"Octavia, he's right," I finally said. "We can't let Finn die."

Octavia shook her head at me as Bellamy turned to Clarke, "Do you want him to live or not?"

"Clarke, you even said it yourself, this is not who we are!" Octavia yelled. "He was protecting me. He saved my life!"

"We're talking about Finn's life!" Bellamy shouted.

After a moment of contemplation, Clarke's eyes met Bellamy's, "Do it."

I nodded as Bellamy looked to me, but Octavia still protested, and I inhaled a deep breath, preparing myself for the horrible events that were about to unfold.

――――
hehehe
ummm hi everyone!
so, it's been over 2 years...
but i figured i'd finally update this.
listen, i have every intention of finishing 
this book, but i lost my passion for the 100
bc the writers were so fucking stupid,
but i think i've finally been able
to move past the ATROSITY that was s7. 
anyway, sorry for the radio silence lmao
but, look out for a few more updates this summer ;)