CHAPTER THIRTEEN 

 "Ouch." 

***

 It had been at least an hour since we crossed into Grounder territory, and we haven't had any unfortunate run-ins yet. The small group that we have stuck together, everyone was on high-alert. It was like we were all just waiting for something to go wrong. 

 "I got nothin'. We lost the trail." 

 Well, that went wrong. 

 Bellamy shook his head in disbelief, biting his lip to hide a frown. "Keep looking." 

 Jasper stood close by my side, swiveling his head from side to side almost constantly. I nudged his shoulder so that he would look at me. His eyes were wild, but the red welt on his jaw from Murphy had gone down considerably. "You good?"

 "What? Oh, um, yeah." His head looked behind us again, and I rolled my eyes. 

 "Chill Jazz, it'll be okay. Stop stressing." 

 "I'm not." 

 "Good." 

 We locked eyes for a few seconds, which I used to narrow my eyes suspiciously. "Don't stress yourself out." 

 "I'm not." He repeated, his tone indignant. I pulled a face, but dropped it, turning away. 

 "Wandering around aimlessly isn't the way to find your sister." Finn had to speed-walk to keep up with Bellamy's long strides. "We should backtrack, and -" 

 "I'm not going back." Bellamy cut him off, his eyes narrowed into slits and his lips pulled into a frown. 

 "Hey, where's John?" 

 Roma was the one who spoke, her long, dark hair swished around her shoulders as she turned in a full-circle, her eyes searching for the missing boy. I turned around as well, but the only other sounds were the rustling of the trees, and the breathing of... well, us. 

 "I just saw him a second ago." Jasper's stance was crouched, like he was prepared to turn and run in the opposite direction at any moment. It's not like I blame him though, he got speared by these guys. 

"Spread out, he couldn't have gotten far." 

 "Yes, because when one of our own is missing, spreading out is the best thing to do." I rolled my eyes, my voice laced with sarcasm, but nevertheless, I grabbed Jasper's arm and took a half step in front of him. I was expecting at least a shove, but he stayed silent, looking grateful for the cover.

 Right as we were turning a corner, a figure jumped from the tree's right in front of my face, my heart jumped into my throat, and a loud scream fought it's way past my lips when I saw it was John. John, with open, lifeless eyes, and blood still running from the gash in his throat. 

 "Go back!" I yelled, noticing Jasper and I have become somewhat detached from the group. We were both tripping over our feet at the jump-scare. A string of swear words were mixed between both my friend and I, and I almost didn't feel it when Bellamy barreled into my side. "Nate! What the-" 

 We both yelled ineligible things at the other as Bellamy's arms flew out, grabbing mine and holding us both upright. I closed my eyes, almost expecting to be speared, or stabbed, or something else bad, but when I opened my eyes, I just saw Bellamy's face.

 "Uh, thanks." I muttered, as he took a step back so I could stand on my own face. He caught the light red dusting my cheeks, and smirked, winking dramatically. I rolled my eyes. "Stop being a child, and come look." 

 I reached over to grab his arm, practically dragging him over to where I was running from. My heart was still racing as I pointed to John's body, grimacing deeply at the sight. The blood drained from Bellamy's face, as he took a step in front of me to examine the body. Jasper, Roma, Diggs, and Finn rejoined us. 

 "I don't know what happened, he just, fell from-" 

 "The trees." Finn's voice was barley above a whisper, his head shot up and stared at the trees overhead. "They use the trees." 

My senses were suddenly hyper-aware of every sound the nature made. The birds sounded like war-horns, the wind sounded like a warning, and worst of all, we sounded like a huge target... which is exactly what we were. 

 "Now can we go back?" Roma asked, her dark hair contrasting against her ghost-like appearance. 

"There!" Jasper hefted his spear to point, "right there." 

 I turned my head to see what he was pointing at. There, less then a half-mile away, a figure in black stood rigid like a board, staring right at us. 

 "Another one." Diggs pointed to the left side, standing by a shaking Roma. 

 "We should run." Finn advised, his dark eyes flickering between the two Grounders. 

 "'Kay, bye!" I turned an dodged around Bellamy, sprinting off into the woods in a large arc. I was hoping that even though we were all in different directions, we could meet back in the middle after. If not, I just look like the coward who ran away. 

 Right as I was about to run around another tree, a long, metal blade jutted out from behind it, and I froze, narrowly missing getting stabbed. I didn't move, but right before my eyes, a figure clad in all black stepped out from behind the tree, grinning wickedly and swinging her sword. 

 The sword freaked me out, but what freaked me out more was that she looked like she couldn't be older then me. 

 My heart was pounding in my chest, wind ruffling my hair as the girl's dark eyes glinted dangerously. She had long, dark hair pulled pack into braids, and her face was mostly concealed by a cloth hiding her mouth and nose. "Um, hi." I began backing up slowly, not taking my eyes off of this girl's big-ass weapon. "We're just looking for our friend, we don't-" 

 I was cut off when she swung her sword right at my face. 

 Here's the thing: I didn't even duck, I just threw myself onto the uneven ground, grunting and rolling to the side. I didn't have the time to get up, this chick was too fast, and she slammed her boot into my face when I tried. 

 I didn't even have time to register the pain, I just rolled over again as she stuck her sword into the ground. One thing's for sure, this Grounder didn't plan on letting me live. 

 I don't know anything about fighting, considering the fact that I spent the last two years of my life in a jail cell, but I know that getting stabbed is bad so I should avoid the blade. 

 "Bellamy!" I managed to yell, but my words were garbled by the blood in my mouth, I spit it onto the ground, stumbling to my feet. "Bellamy help!" 

 The girl shushed, lashing out with her sword. I wasn't fast enough this time, and she managed to slice open my stomach, leaving the blood to soak through my shirt. I cried out weakly in pain, backing up against the tree with the tip of the blade inches from my throat. 

 I could feel the blood on my stomach, the pain like nothing I had ever felt before as I pressed my hand to my stomach, closing my eyes for a brief moment as the metallic taste of blood flooded my mouth, overpowering my senses. I couldn't die here, it was too pathetic; especially after everything I've done. I can't just die.

 "Please.... don't." I managed, breathing as little as I could with this pointy-thing pressed against it. The girl rolled her eyes, a small grin playing at her lips as she whispered something I couldn't understand, then reared her fist back. 

 My fight or flight kicked in. 

 I jerked my head to the side, elbowing her arm when she tried to hit me. She cursed in an unknown language, grabbing for her sword at the same time I did.  

 I hit her in the face with the side of my fist and she grunted, giving me enough time to hit the sword from her hand, sending it clattering to the ground. She reached forward, hitting her fist directly into my injured stomach. 

 I yelled, my knees hitting the ground. My senses were beginning to diminish, the ground underneath me swaying as the girl tore her face covering off, spitting onto the ground. She knelt by me, grabbing my chin and tilting my face upwards. 

 She had a pretty face, but it was glistening with malice as she scowled at me. "Nice try." 

 That was when everything went black. 

***

When I woke up, I was falling. 

 I didn't even have time to understand what was going on, before I slammed into the ground. I groaned, rolling over onto my back with the little energy I had left. My stomach was throbbing, and my whole body ached. The sky was dark again, making me question how long I was out. 

 I couldn't find the energy to move, so I figure that if I wasn't dead, they weren't going to kill me, and closed my eyes. Then I remembered that you should never sleep if you had a possible concussion, and groaned, re-opening them to the best of my abilities. I was exhausted, and my whole body was wracked with pain. I could barely hear anything, so when a group of people stood over me, I wasn't exactly surprised. 

 Until I recognized who they were. 

 "Nate!" Bellamy yelled, dropping to his knees by my side. I winced. 

 "Hi." 

 Ow, that hurt. 

 "Get Finn to camp!" He barked, and the rest of the group, minus Octavia, complied. 

 "Finn-" I tried to ask what happened, but the words were cut off, and I turned my head to spit a glob of blood onto the ground. The shift of movement made the gross feeling of blood trickling down my side appear, and I coughed, "What-" 

 "He got stabbed by a Grounder." 

 "Oh, okay."

 "Yeah." 

 Octavia rushed over, and together, they helped me to my feet. I made a strangled sound in the back of my throat as the movement jarred my stomach. Bellamy's eyes widened when he saw.

 "We need to get you to Clarke, Octavia, get to camp, I got Nate." 

 "How are you supposed to get him to camp yourself?" The girl demanded, scowling at her brother and pressing her hand to my stomach, pulling them away with a wide-eyed look. "Shit, Bell, he's really bleeding." 

 Bellamy responded by slinging my arm around his shoulder and lifting me up, bridal style. Under any other circumstance, I would be incredibly embarrassed that he could both lift me, and that that is how he chose to. 

 My head lolled to the side, resting on his chest, and I felt my eyes closing. "No." I mumbled as we began moving, shaking my head and blinking furiously. 

 "What? What is it?" Bellamy asked, staring down at me and stopping his movement. 

 "I-" I coughed once, shaking my head. "I can't fall asleep." 

 "We're almost at camp, okay?" His voice was strained from the effort of carrying me, and his jaw was tense. "Tell me what happened." 

 "Girl with a sword." I tried, trying to ignore that I could physically feel my blood running down the sides of my stomach. "Fast, cut my stomach, kicked me in the face. I - I kicked her sword away, but she got me good."

 I groaned after that. My face, my poor face. 

 "You're gonna be fine." Bellamy's voice was strained, and I didn't know if it was because he was worried, or because he was carrying someone only slightly smaller than him. "Clarke can fix you." 

 "No, Clarke needs to help Finn." 

 "Then I'll do it!" He spat, his voice so defiant I had the urge to laugh.

But I didn't have the energy to. It was beginning to rain, and I had to keep my eyes open, without getting a bunch of blood in them. When I pictured Earth, this isn't exactly my image of a perfect day. 

 "Is Clarke with Finn?" 

 Wow... that was fast. My vision is getting blurry, like I was watching everything with water in my eyes. My breathing was slowing, which I didn't take as a good sign. I felt my back hit the ground, followed by a hand running through my hair as I brought my hand back to my stomach. 

 Words were beginning to blur together. 

 "Raven is fixing the radio." 

 "Tell her to come here." 

 I don't know what happened next, because a roll of pain so intense it made me close my eyes came over me, and I managed to utter one last word before falling into a deep, but painless slumber. 

"Ouch."