"Fear not death for the sooner we die, the longer we shall be immortal."

                                       
2.

"Here, clean your hands." Miller throws me a wet piece of cloth and I immediately start scrubbing my hands.

"What did Bellamy want to talk to you about?" I ask Miller while I try to get the blood off my hands.

"He wants to start getting people to take off their wristbands."

"What?! But Clarke clearly explained to us what would happen if we take them off." I can't help but start to get angry, these wristbands are the only thing letting our people know that we're alive and it's okay to come down. My dad is up there, I don't want him to think I'm dead.

"Taylor, calm down. I'm not taking mine off and I know you're not but Bellamy seems persitent in getting everyone to take them off." As soon as Miller finished his sentence I get up and start making my way toward the drop ship. I'm going to give that jackass a piece of my mind.

"You don't want to go in there." Some kid tells me as I walk past him and start walking up the opening. I ignore him. I push the parachute tarp aside, Bellamy and the girl who was making out with him stop due to my entering. Bellamy has his shirt off and it looks like the girl was getting there. I couldn't help but stare at his body for a second longer than I should have but I remembered what I came here for and I instantly snap out of it.

"You. out." I point at her than to the drop ship entrance, she gives me a dirty look and I glare at her. She quickly walks past me and out of the ship.

"What do you think you're doing, Queen?" Bellamy grits through his teeth.

"No, Bellamy, what do you think you're doing? Why are you trying to get people to take off their wristbands?" I poke at his chest. I can't help but take a quick glance down at his toned stomach, he looked good. I shake the thought as he speaks up.

"You really want those people coming down here and locking us up all over again? I don't and you shouldn't either." I look into his eyes and I feel as if he's hiding something. Then I realized that he was wearing a guards uniform when he wasn't really part of the guard, and he didn't come from being locked up because he was older than eighteen well at least he looked older than eighteen.

"What did you do that is so bad that you don't want them to come down here?" I wait for his answers and he looks taken back by my question. He must have done something unforgivable by the counsel. 

"I did something that they would kill me for if they came down here." Did he kill someone? It's the only thing I can think of that would cause the most punishment.

"So because of what you did, we're all paying for it? Bellamy, you can't make people take off their wristbands, more than half of us have family up there." I try to get through to him but he seems to get angrier.

"I can and I will. The only person I love is down here and right now she is all I care about, I have to protect her." Bellamy explains. I can't help but think how incredibly sweet that is that he just wants to do what's best for his sister but making us pay for it in the process is selfish.

"Bellamy, I understand you want to protect Octavia but this will hurt her in the long run when we don't have our people down here to help us." I know people already look at Bellamy as some kind of leader. He's older and he's already spoken out on many things which make people believe he's who they should be following. Also the fact that he was intimidating to people as well as his little group who follows him around.  I know people won't listen to me or Clarke or whoever more than they would listen to him. But I've got to do something.

"I don't have time for this." Bellamy says. He grabs his shirt and throws it on while walking out the dropship.

"If you're going to kill someone, it's probably best not to announce it." I hear Bellamy say and my spark of curiosity makes me step out of the dropship. I see Bellamy talking to Murphy and a group of guys.

"You're not really a member of the guard, are you?" Murphy asks him. I stand by them crossing my arms.

"No. The real guard will be here soon unless we stop it." Bellamy tells them and my fists clench. He obviously didn't hear a word I said.

"You don't actually think they're gonna forgive your crimes. Even if they do, then what? Guys like us, we're gonna become model citizens now. Get jobs if we're lucky, maybe pick up their trash?" He goes on, I see Murphy and the guys intrigued by what he's saying. I'll admit he knows how to talk to people, I can already tell even though I barely know him. I mean he has a group of people already following him and we only just got here.

"You got a point?" Murphy asks.

"No, I got a question. They locked you up and dumped you down here like lab rats to die. So why are you helping them?"

"The hell we are." Murphy starts to angry and I know Bellamy had got him and his boys hooked.

"You're wearing those bracelets, aren't you? Right now, those things are telling them whether or not it's safe to follow us down." Oh here we go. Bellamy catches my eye and I shake my head at him. But He looks back to Murphy.

"Okay. You said we could stop it. How?"

"Take them off. The Ark will think you're dead, that it's not safe to follow. You follow?"

"Right, and if we do, what's in it for us?"

"Someone has got to help me run things." They're going to take their wristbands off.

After watching Bellamy convince Murphy and the guys to take off their wristbands I decided I needed to get some stuff done. There were pieces of scrap metal on the floor by the dropship so I picked up some decent size chunks and I took rubber from the seats and walked back over to my now finished tent. I see Miller had finished it up for me so I made a mental note to thank him later when I see him. I go inside and sit on the floor and get to working on making my knife. I don't know what but something tells me I'm going to need protection.

Back on the Ark the only thing I feared was getting caught for the crime I was committing. Although, I don't see it as a crime, I was doing what needed to be done. It's funny, I kind of miss looking out my cell and seeing the earth and the stars from there. I've always hated it up there but I miss the view. As much as I love earth, even after just arriving, I'm scared to find out what is really down here. I'm even more terrified of what is going to happen to us. What kind of things are down here? Maybe radiation will kill us and it's just taking it's sweet time. Maybe we will all kill each other before any natural form of death can get to us first. It's clear I can defend myself and stand up for my beliefs but I still get scared just as much as the next girl, I still fear death just as I always have when I was locked up on the ark.

Back on the ark I was just ticking down the days to when I would be floated, I mean they were going to review my crime but I had killed 2 people, to make matters worse those 2 people were on the guard. There was no way they were going to let me free. So I counted the days. Countdowns are suppose to be fun, especially countdowns to your birthday but my birthday was also the day I was going to die. The irony of it is really funny actually, I guess I can laugh about it now since i'm down here. But death can still be lurking around the corner. Death is inevitable yet I fear it the most.

It's dark out now and I start to question how long I was in my tent for. None of that mattered now though since all hell was breaking loose again. I walk out of my tent. 

"What the hell are you doing?" Wells shouts at Bellamy. Behind them I see Murphy breaking a girls wristband and seeing it fall to the floor. I also take notice of many people are surrounding them with no wristbands and people who seem to be waiting in line to get them cut off. I take a few deep breaths trying to calm myself before I do something bad. I walk up to them and stand by Wells in front of the fire.

"We're liberating ourselves. What does it look like?" Bellamy raises his hands and the crowd cheers. I walk up to Bellamy and shove him. Everyone shuts up immediately and watches.

"Oh look, the princess is here." Bellamy laughs and I hear some snickers.

"Stop this. Now, Bellamy." I demand and he laughs again. I really want to punch that smile off his face.

"You think this is a game?" Wells stands by my side to talk to Bellamy.

"Those aren't just our friends and our parents up there. They're our farmers, our doctors, our engineers." He explains and then faces the crowd.

"I don't care what he tells you. We won't survive here on our own, and besides, if it really is safe, how could you not want the rest of our people to come down?" Wells has a good argument, I hope people will get their heads out of their asses and listen. I know Bellamy isn't letting up though as he goes to speak, "My people already are down. Those people locked my people up. Those people killed my mother for the crime of having a second child. Your father did that." He points a finger at Wells.

"My father didn't write the laws." Wells told him.

"No. He enforced them but not anymore, not here. Here, there are no laws." As soon as Bellamy finishes his sentence everyone breaks out into cheers and Murphy continues to take people's wristbands off.

"Here, we do whatever the hell we want whenever the hell we want. Now, you don't have to like it, Wells. You can even try to stop it or change it, kill me. You know why? Whatever the hell we want." Bellamy smirks and everyone gets riled up again.

"Whatever the hell we want!" Everyone starts chanting. I turn and see Murphy is still breaking people's wristbands off. I walk up to him, he's totally asking for it.

"Murphy, if you want to live I suggest you stop." I grit through my teeth and he looks up and smirks.

"You can't stop me, princess." He laughs and I pretend like I'm going to turn around but instead I turn back towards him and punch him in the cheek where his cut from our previous fight was.

"You bitch!" Murphy shouts and I punch him again harder making him fall to the floor knocked out. 

"Queen! You can't just punch someone every time you don't agree with them." Bellamy says grabbing my shoulder.

"Oh, Bellamy, I'm just doing whatever the hell I want." I smile at him sweetly and walk past him hitting his shoulder with mine.

All of a sudden it starts raining and I stop walking and look up and open my arms to the rain. It feels amazing on my skin and it smells so fresh. At least something good came out of this day.

"Let her go! You can stop this!" I hear Wells voice through my tent waking me up. It's too early for more fighting, I want to go back to sleep so bad but I know trouble is stirring outside and right now I'm the only one with actual sense in this damn camp. Well me and Wells but he won't dare face Bellamy like I have. It's understandable though, everyone's afraid of him ever since he took charge. He can get pretty intimidating to other people but he didn't scare me.

I get up, stretch, and throw on my jacket and slip on my boots. I move my tent flap over and see Murphy and Wells circling each other with knifes. I groan and walk up to the chaos. Murphy tries to stab first but Wells grabs his arm and twists him around and holds the knife to his neck.

"Wells, let him go!" A voice comes from behind the trees and suddenly Clarke is in view. She looks to me, "You're suppose to be watching the camp."

"I am trying, trust me." Ever since Bellamy's speech last night people think they can do anything. They cheer for whatever the hell they want to do but they don't even know how many things can go wrong. If I wanted too, I could kill lots of people because apparently we can do whatever the hell we want. They just don't understand the consequences of no rules.

"Let him go, Wells." Clarke repeats and Wells shoves Murphy to the ground. The rest of the group comes into view and I see Octavia with a bloody leg and a makeshift bandage.

"What happened out there? Where's the food?" Bellamy turns to look at Clarke while I rush to Octavia's side to trying to inspect it. Bellamy notices her and rushes to her side too. My dad is a doctor back on the ark and I pretty much grew up in the medical area with him, he had taught me a lot through the years. Clarke was always in the medical area with her mom as well but there was two different wings and I never cared to make friends there, I just wanted to learn.

"Taylor, I already checked her leg. She needs a few stitches." Clarke explains to me and I nod still trying to take a look.

"We didn't make it to Mount Weather. We were attacked." Clarke says, me and Bellamy look at each other and stand up.

"Attacked? By what?" Bellamy asks.

"Not what. Who. It turns out, when the last man from the ground died on the Ark, he wasn't the last Grounder." Finn tells us and chills go down my spine.

"It's true. Everything we thought we knew about the ground is wrong. There are people here, survivors. The good news is, that means we can survive. Radiation won't kill us." Clarke looks around at everyone making sure they all understand. Well, now I know I won't die from radiation.

Finn adds in, "Yeah. The bad news is the grounders will." I can't believe this is happening. I thought are only real problem was Bellamy but it turns out we've got bigger problems.

"T." I hear Monty behind me and I turn around and give him a hug.

"Glad you're okay. Where's Jasper?" I smile pulling away and the group of five get quiet. I look around trying to see if he's trailing behind them but I don't see him.

"Taylor, Jasper was hit. They took him." Clarke tells me and my eyes widen and I shake my head.

"No. Stop messing around, where is he?" I turn to Monty and he shakes his head.

"Clarke, please tell me this is a joke. You said you would watch him for me." I walk up to her, she doesn't say anything.

"Well, then we have to go get him. Now." I say and Monty pulls me into a hug. Clarke looks away from me and to Wells. We need to find Jasper. I can't stand the thought of actually loosing one of my best friends, he's basically my brother. 

"Where's your wristband?" Clarke asks Wells. I'm now just noticing it's gone. He was the one who said not to take him off. What the hell happened?

"Ask him." He nods towards Bellamy and I realize that Bellamy probably took it off of him with force. What a dick.

"How many?!" Clarke yells.

"Twenty-four and counting." Murphy smirks and it sets Clarke off.

"You idiots. Life support on the Ark is failing. That's why they brought us down here. They need to know the ground is survivable again, 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!" She yells at them.

"We're stronger than you think." Bellamy tells her and looks around at everyone. Of course he has to speak, he just won't give up. He's being selfish.

"Don't listen to her. She's one of the privileged. If they come down, she'll have it good. How many of you can say the same? We can take care of ourselves. 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!" Bellamy finishes his speech and the crowd cheers. I don't know whether it's the anger or the sadness of Jasper being taken but I get out of Monty's grip and walk up to Bellamy.

"Hey, Bellamy." I say. He turns to face me and I punch him right in the face. The crowd goes quite right away and Bellamy moves his jaw around. I turn around and face everyone.

"If you guys don't get your shit together, we'll be dead in less than 5 days. If not by grounders than I will kill you all myself." I yell at them and they stay quiet.

"Idiots." I say under my breath but I know they all heard it. I turn towards Clarke,

"Let's go get Jasper back."