DR. CASSIE 

Jasper's moans fill the drop ship once again, echoing into the lower levels of the ship and into the outside world. Cassie mimicked his sound, her teeth grinding every time the noise hit her ears. Jay supported the wood she was placing in the ground, looking over his shoulder each time Jasper's pained voice went throughout the camp.

"I can't imagine how painful that must be. Getting speared, and then strung up for god knows how long?" Jay shuddered, his grip on the bark loosening slightly. It began to tilt and Cassie swore under her breath, quick to dodge out of the way as it plummeted to the ground. He cringed. "Oops, I think that was my fault."

Cassie bit back whatever sarcastic reply she had, already tensing her muscles more to lift up the heavy wood. She stayed silent. She couldn't explain it, but the smile he wore when he was with Octavia stuck in her mind. He'd never smiled like that around her. She shouldn't care - she dismissed him when she referred to them being 'allies' - yet she found her fists clenching whenever she thought of it.

Jay sighed, rubbing a hand through his short hair. "You can ignore me all you want, but I'm sticking around. We need each other."

Hot fury coursed through Cassie, it fuelling the words that spat out. "You need Octavia too, you two sure seemed chummy together."

"Are you serious-" he paused, his normally fast speech halting. His face went slack in realisation and he pointed a finger at Cassie. A hint of a smile lay on his face. "Callous Cassie is jealous. You really do keep surprising me, don't you? I knew you were so much more than everyone said you were."

Cassie rolled her eyes, feeling as though they were knocking against her brain on the way round. Of all things he could say, he said that. The fire within her had been calmed slightly - the flames were still roaring. She kept quiet, figuring that Jay would speak up again as he always does. He can't handle the silence. Cassie busied herself with readjusting the log as he gaped at her.

"Why are you jealous?" Jay made no attempt to help her with the log, eager for an answer. "Is it because we've upgraded from 'allies'?" He wiggled his eyebrows, a knowing smile on his face. Cassie shook her head, hoping it would hide the slight lift of her lips.

She grunted, "Help me with this you prick."

He jolted, as though he'd just remembered that he was meant to be helping. Immediately he rushed to her side, both of them holding their breath as they pushed it upwards, their arms trembling with effort. When Cassie believed that her arms would collapse, the log fit into place. She tried to not to breathe too big of a sigh of relief.

"You know," Jay piped up, moving into her line of vision. She released a groan. "It's not a bad thing to let people in, it's okay to have peo-" Jay was cut off by another earthquake-inducing cry of agony from Jasper. Cassie felt her fists clench involuntarily.

Swearing under her breath, she stormed over towards the drop ship, wiping a bead of sweat off of her forehead. The sun blaring down on them was slowly cooking Cassie, who was one of the only ones still wearing her jacket. She refused for the others to see.

"Where are you going?" Jay yelled, not having the effort to catch up with her long strides.

Cassie didn't turn around, shouting the reply over her shoulder. "Giving that kid some peace."

Without waiting for a reply, Cassie stormed into the drop ship, flying up the ladder to the level where Jasper was. When she got there she had to stop herself from gasping. Jasper, a kid whose grin ate his entire lively face, had ghostly pale skin with a grimace implanted on his features. His eyes were closed, his head tossing from side to side. Despite being asleep, he was still alerting everyone in the camp - and the world - that he was hurting.

Monty and Clarke's attention instantly snapped to the violent girl clambering her way through the hatch. Both of their faces were the picture of confusion, with Monty asking, "What are you doing, Cassie?"

"Building the fence was taking it's toll on me, so I figured I'd come up and see how Zombie's doing," she fluently lied, tossing a glance again at his sleeping form. She'd been hoping to knock the kid unconscious with a single blow; it seemed insensitive to smack a sleeping, recently-speared teenager.

The two both raised their eyebrows, and Cassie let the act drop. "Fine. The kid was loud so I thought I'd knock him out to put him out of his misery. Can't smack him when he's sleeping though - I'm not that cruel." They seemed sated with this, returning to their work. Cassie stood there awkwardly, finally allowing herself to drop to the ground. "Wake me up when all of this shits over."

Cassie curled up in on herself, the hard metal floor digging into her bones. She paid this no mind - she'd become accustomed to pain. This was nothing in comparison to some of the things she'd endured.

*

It was like it used to be. The walls were still the same dull grey, the beds still shoved harshly against the wall, the artificial light making all of the occupants paler. Yet there was an air to the place that she couldn't describe. The only way to explain it is that whenever she crossed the threshold, her worn muscles relaxed and a smile danced across her face easier than before.

Callum grinned at her, rolling into the room with Ryan at his side. It was infectious, her face reciprocating the action. Whenever he was happy, so was she. Ryan adoringly placed his hand on Callum's shoulder, squeezing it tenderly while looking at their daughter. His gaze held a softness she craved. All of a sudden her vision became blurred.

"How was it, my star?"

She nearly collapsed at hearing his nickname for her. He always called her it, and it always made the weight on her shoulders lighter for a short while. She didn't realise how much she missed it until it crossed his lips.

Cassie stumbled over her words, "How was what Dad?"

Ryan answered this time, fixing his usually hollowed out gaze on her. This time, it held something she hadn't seen in him for a long time: happiness. Like his eyes, his voice was kind. Too kind. "Killing us. How was it?"

She felt her lip wobble. Her words were shaking so much they were barely coherent, and her tone held a pleading quality. "Daddy?"

The wristband on her arm instantly popped and crackled, snapping off of her. She let go an intake of breath, the almost silent hum of machinery becoming non existent. Cassie had next to no time to react as her parents both grinned at her simultaneously, their lips turning bluer by the second. What she wanted to say got stuck in her throat as she too felt the constricting in her throat, and the thinness in the air.

"I'm sorry," she managed to choke out. Her parents paid no mind to this, their breath being stolen by the falling oxygen.

All she could do was watch as their bodies became still.

They couldn't even scream.

*

Cassie jolted up. Sweat ran down her head in rivers and her breaths left her in pants. She frantically spun around, taking in her surroundings.

She wasn't on the Ark. She wasn't watching her parents die. She wasn't dying.

They were okay. For now.

She released a large sigh she hadn't realised she'd been holding. They still had time to save them all. They just didn't know how much.

Yawning, she shook off her tiredness, standing up and stretching her muscles. There were several cracks, relief coursing through her. Another moan rises up from the other side of the room, and that's when Cassie makes the connection - the cries of pain she heard when she was fitfully sleeping were from the pain stricken boy.

"Cassie!" Clarke beckoned, ushering the frowning girl over. Cassie knew for a fact that Clarke would never voluntarily speak to her. She needed something. Before she could even ask, Clarke pushed her in the direction of Jasper's writhing body. "Hold his arms down."

Confusion still in control of her face Cassie wandered over to him, pausing and then putting her weight across his arms. Weariness seeped into her voice as she spoke. "Clarke I really hope this isn't some weird kind of fantasy of yours -"

Her words failed to leave her mouth. Her eyes caught sight of the red hot knife in Clarke's hand, and the sweat beading on her forehead. Oh.

Monty, Finn and Wells joined Cassie, pinning the boy down. Jasper was already wriggling under their weight, panicked cries leaving his body. Cassie tried to tune them out, already knowing that they'd remain in the back of her mind for a very long time.

Clarke neared Jasper's body.

"Congrats zombie," Cassie remarked, eyes darting away from the knife and connecting with Jasper's. His attention switched to her. "You're not as dead as I thought. You're a real bad ass now, I bet all the ladies will be lining up for your autograph."

Burning metal met infected skin. He roared in agony, his body bucking up and down. Cassie had to raise her voice in order to be heard. "Hey maybe you'll even get laid, or better yet, develop a deep and emotional connection to someone and then get laid. Personally I think that makes the whole sex thing ten times better."

His body continued to jolt, Cassie's grip slipping slightly. Huffing she put all of her weight across his arms, preparing herself to talk to him again. "I reckon sex in a forest would be uncomfortable -"

For the second time that day, Cassie was cut off. Octavia stormed in, pointing an accusatory finger at them all. "Stop it! You're killing him!"

"If you keep on whining and distracting us from saving him it'll be you who killed him, Octavia." Cassie snapped, loosening her hold on Jasper for a split second to spin around to Octavia.

Octavia laughed, not noticing her brother coming in behind her. "You believed he was dead no less than twenty four hours ago!"

"And he will be in another hour," Bellamy added, crossing his arms and glaring at the vulnerable teenager.

"Listen to me, Bitchy Blake's," Cassie quipped as Wells stood up braced for a fight, focusing her attention on the pair. "We're the ones with the knife. Don't think for one minute that I wouldn't snatch it from Blondie to slice and dice if you try stopping us. Is that understood?"

They both remained calm, but their gazes on Cassie held fire. She shrugged them off, returning her weight back to Jasper. A sigh behind her catches her attention, and Octavia comes into Cassie's line of vision. Without wasting a second she cradled Jasper's head, stroking the sweat off of his head.

"Octavia?"

"I'm staying here." Cassie sent the girl a small smirk. She didn't know if Octavia was doing it to piss off her brother - her one true motive behind the majority of her actions - or if she realised that there was no point in fighting them. Either way, it discouraged Bellamy.

That was an advantage.

Cassie paid no attention to the sound of the hatch being slammed closed. She huffed, forcing a smile on her face as Clarke returned to digging out diseased flesh from out of Jasper's body. "So, where were we?"

Jasper stared at her, heavy breathing and sweating. He uttered one word before his eyes rolled back into his head, one she never believed that she'd hear while on the ground. "Thanks."

And just like that, he passed out.

For a moment Cassie stayed there, hovering over him, her weight still draped over his arms. She didn't move until she felt his chest rise against hers.

Monty interrupted her hidden relief, muttering to himself. "Power-hungry, self-serving jackass. He doesn't care about anyone but himself. No offence."

Octavia didn't even bat an eyelid at the insult. Cassie chuckled, allowing her body to shake up and down. It was breathy and laced with exhaustion - it was still lighter than any of them felt. She pointed a tired finger to Monty, "Well I never expected to hear something like that from you."

Finn ignored her, turning his head towards the now closed hatch. "Yeah. Bellamy is all that. But he also happens to be right."

"What meds are you on, Space Shit? One thing I know is that by now, you have to expect the unexpected on this god forsaken planet. Hell we all thought he was dead yet here he is, drooling all over the floor and very much alive. If earth follows this same pattern I'd say that this kid will go much farther than any of us thought." She hadn't realised that she'd jumped to her feet, or the fact that she was squaring up to Finn. Or that her fists were clenched. Cassie wasn't entirely sure why this whole fiasco had her as riled up as she was, yet the anger coursing through her veins screamed at her to punch him.

An unfamiliar hand landed on her arm. Instantly she shook it off, evidently surprised that the person the hand belonged to was Wells. "Are you going to hit him for having an opinion?"

"For having the wrong opinion, yeah." She grumbled.

He visibly held back a laugh, a slight tremble shaking his figure. "C'mon, I need to talk to you."

"Sounds serious," Cassie commented, yet still her words were venomous. Wells didn't waste a second walking away, leading the way out of the drop ship. Stomping her feet, she almost ran after him, desperate to finish their conversation. Her fingers were itching to give Finn Collins a nice black eye.

He lead her out of camp, into the first ring of trees surrounding the delinquents. She paused in her steps, casting a glance back at the camp. Wells had kept walking, despite being outside of the limits of camp, and with the threat of grounders, Cassie genuinely believed that he was insane.

He stopped when he noticed she wasn't following anymore. "You okay?"

If Wells could do it, she had to. Swallowing her fear she nodded, picking up her pace until she was walking side by side with him. There was a faint smell of body odour but honestly she didn't know if that was coming from him or her; she didn't say anything. The trees all around them seemed all the same to her, and with each step they took the more trees revealed themselves. She twisted around again. There was no camp in sight.

She bunched her quaking fists into her pockets, her teeth finding the tender skin of her torn inner lip. She needed distraction, something to fill the sinister silence. Each snap of a tree branch made her jump, each chirp of a bird sent shivers down her spine and each whistle of the wind sent her nerves on edge.

"So, what did you bring me out here for?" She prayed that Wells couldn't hear how weak her words sounded. Cassie was proud that she hadn't collapsed yet.

A knowing smile danced on his face. "A little anger management." He halted his steps, eyes assessing the area. After a minute he seemed satisfied.

Curiosity got the better of her. "What the actual fuck are you doing?"

The smile grew bigger, and he gestured his arms wide. Before Cassie could question him again, he screamed so loudly she was surprised her ear drums didn't burst. Instantly she rushed to his side, smacking him on the arm.

"You idiot! Do you want the grounders to find us?"

"If they were here, they would've found us already." He let out another shriek, staring into the tree canopy above. When he finally finished, he saw Cassie with her eyebrows raised and a slack jaw. "Go ahead, give it a shot."

Cassie's eyes darted across the landscape again. With Wells' yelling, the grounders would probably be hunting them down this very second. "Oh fuck it."

And with that, she poured all of her fury, sadness, confusion and bliss into a single ear piercing scream. 

-

hey guys! at the minute i have about 20 more chapters to write and then this is done, so i'm thinking about my next projects. i was wondering if anyone would be interested in a fanfic based off of marvels captain america: the winter soldier? at the minute i'm debating that, a the darkest minds fanfic, the mortal instruments, stranger things or final fantasy xv. honestly i could easily do them all but is there any in particular you want to see? 

also there's a high chance that this book will get two updates a week. considering how i've wrote three chapters for this over two days it means i'm moving forward with this more than i have in a while, and it seems more likely that this book will definitely have all of the pre written chapters done by the end of march at the latest. 

anyways, i hope you all enjoyed this chapter, see you guys soon!

-thirdwheelchurchill