“You got something to say?” Bellamy yelled at Finn when he was glaring at him.

                “Yeah, I told you, NO guns!” Finn fought back.

                “I told you we couldn’t trust the Grounders, and I was right!” Clarke intervened.

                Everyone began screaming at each for this and that, fighting about the guns and the Grounders. No matter who yelled what, it wouldn’t change the fact that we were at war.

                Octavia’s voice was dark, demeaning. “You ruined everything.”

                Jasper gaped at her; I could see he stilled cared for her, but there had never been much of a chance for him. “I saved your life!”

                Octavia stormed off.

                “Well if we weren’t at war, we sure as hell are now.”

                “We already were.” I finally said, and everyone seemed to note my presence for the first time.

                “What are you talking about?” Finn asked, “Lincoln set this up so that we could try to make peace with the Grounders.”

                I shook my head, “Anya, their leader, she never had any intentions to let us live.”

                “What can you tell us…?” Clarke asked.

                “They are not all horrible…” I said, thinking of Bjorn and Felicity, my head spinning at the memory of her lifeless body falling from a tree and into the cold river. “But they are not like us. When we go to war with them, they will slaughter us.”

                “How many are there?” the blonde asked.

                “Two, three hundred? And that is just at the camp… I don’t think that was their central location.”

                Silence fell upon the six of us.

                “You fired the first shot?” I asked Jasper, trying to tame my voice.

                “Yes, they had archers in the trees.”

                “One of those archers,” I began, “One that was murdered by your hand… was a girl no older than sixteen!”

                “Many of us are no older than sixteen.” Jasper noted.

                “I don’t know how you will be able to sleep at night.”

                He gaped, and then glared, holding up some demeanor that he had developed in the time that I was gone. Was is cockiness? I couldn’t really tell. He shook his head and rushed into the walls of the camp, muttering something under his breath.

                I looked at Bellamy, “Guns won’t stop what’s out there.”

                “It will slow them down; they are people-“

                I cut him off, “Yes, they are people. Just like us they bleed and they feel.”

                An explosion echoed through the air, stopping all conversation. My eyes followed the dark skyline, above the tops of the Evergreen and Oak trees, until the stars dotted my vision. In the distance, miles away, a golden orb soared through the sky. It grew larger by the second, just as Raven’s drop ship had, only this one was larger, and moving faster.

                “Looks like your mum is early…” Bellamy said to Clarke.

                “It’s coming down too fast…” Clarke said nervously, “No parachute?”

                The drop ship entered the atmosphere, seemingly larger now that it was closer and even more engulfed in the hot flames caused by their swift descent.

                “Something’s wrong…” Clarke said.

                The moment the exodus ship hit the mountain in the distance, the explosion was visible over the entire camp. Every Grounder, Reaper, Mountain Man and Hundred had witnessed that explosion; no one could have survived such a blast. If Clarke’s mum really was on that ship, how many others were on it as well? Who else had suffered the inferno? How many families had been on board?

                Clarke had dropped to her knees then, shaking as tears slid down her pale cheeks. Through her despair, she was still remarkably beautiful, and I envied her somewhat. Crouching down beside her, I placed my hand on her back, another on her shoulder, trying to comfort her in the only way I knew; contact. Words would fail me if I even tried, that I was sure of, so this was the best I could do as she sobbed.

                After Bellamy and I had gotten Clarke to her tent, we were alone at last. I had expected the minute I saw him after being held hostage for days with the Grounders that our greeting would have been drastically different than it played out. All the shouting, the declaration of war, the drop ship failure… It was all a heavy weight on our shoulders, but there was nothing we could do to turn the tides; we had to deal with the consequences.

                Sitting around a dying camp fire, Bellamy placed his hand on my thigh; the same place only hours ago Bjorn had done the same thing. Looking into his eyes, I studied them deeply, trying to search for something familiar from the last time I had seen him. Had he even bothered to come looking for me?

                “Did they hurt you?” He asked.

                I shook my head, “No, not me.”

                “What did they want from you?”

                “They thought I was Clarke…” I admitted, “They had seen you with her, the day with Dax, and thought you would come for her.”

                Silence.

                “Did you come for me?” I asked, “Did you try?”

                He nodded, “We didn’t know where to start, we searched for you just as we did Octavia, but they left no trail, no evidence of where they had taken you. Then Octavia told us, as Lincoln told her, that you were at their camp, safe for the time being. And Finn decided we should try to negotiate with them. I requested that you be brought, to make sure you were truly safe; I would never trust the word of a Grounder.”

                “A Grounder saved my life.” I told him.

                “What?”

                “He helped me escape.” I explained, “They have Murphy.”

                Bellamy made a face, forgetting the fact that a Grounder had assisted me in my escape from their hostile grip. “Murphy? He’s still alive?”

                “Barely.” I told him, “They tortured him in front of me…”

                My voice shook as I spoke, remembering the pained look on Murphy’s face as Anya cut his finger off with no pain killers and no remorse. Bellamy squeezed my thigh, comforting me. “You’re safe here.”

                I shook my head, “For now. They won’t take long to cross that bridge, armed and ready to kill.”

                “Ava, I haven’t seen you for days, I was sleepless every night imagining you being stuck with those vile people, unable to help you or to even see you…” His words were kind, and honest. “They took you once… I can’t let them take you again; not you, Octavia… No one. We came here to survive, and you can be damn sure we will stand our ground.”

                “I love you, Bellamy…” I said at last.

                His eyes widened, locked on mine; but his lips remained still.

Those three little words have been spoken! Will Bellamy say them back? Post your comments!