Little scenes like that with Theo and Bellamy really get me. Watch me make these two pine after each other.

That chapter was also a bit long

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A rustling woke me while I slept. Trying not to make it too obvious that I was awake, I slipped my hand under my pillow. Feeling the knife I had taken from supplies the day after Murphy was banished, I gripped it tightly. When the noise grew closer, I sat up swiftly and held the blade up at whoever was lurking in my tent.

"Bellamy?" I gasped, lowering the knife. "What the hell? I could've killed you."

"I'm sure you will one day," he said with half a smile, looking around the tent. "Have you seen Octavia?"

I took a moment to think back to when I last saw her, storming off in the forest.

Shaking my head, I sat the blade in my lap and rubbed my eyes. "Last time I saw her was when we followed you to the pod. I figured she just wanted to be alone for a bit. Why? Is she still not back?"

Bellamy left without a word which frustrated me. Getting out of my bunk, I pulled my jacket back on and slipped on my shoes.

"Bellamy, wait. I'm coming with you."

He looked over his shoulder at me and then looked away a moment later. "Fine."

We searched almost every tent, coming across Clarke's, where she sat awake.

"Hey, Clarke," I greeted.

She smiled in return, putting away some of her things.

"You're still up?" Bellamy asked.

The girl stood up with a sigh, "Yeah. Knowing that hundreds of people might be dying on the Ark makes it pretty hard to sleep."

"Raven's flares will work."

"Her radio would've worked better."

I could see the guilt on Bellamy's face. I had already grilled him about what he had done while they were setting off the flares, and now he had to hear it again.

"Have you seen Octavia?" He asked, ignoring her comment.

"No. It's Octavia. She's probably off chasing butterflies."

"That's what I thought," I added. "But she's been gone a while now, and she's still not back."

"Okay. I'll help find her. Let's check again. Bellamy, you go to the dropship, Theo check the perimeter, I'll check the rest of the tents."

"Got it," I nodded.

Bellamy agreed before looking over to her, "Thank you."

"Don't thank me," Clarke told him as she walked alongside us. "I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it for Octavia."

I raised my hand, "Same."

Bellamy turned to me, with a look that I could have sworn was disappointment on his face. I just shrugged. It was only me agreeing with someone and besides, he'd said worse.

✦✦✦✦✦

After we had all searched and found nothing, we met up near the fire.

"I don't think she's at the camp, guys. And if we're going to find her, we're going to need more help," I told Clarke and Bellamy.

We didn't waste time as we went about gathering weapons and piling them beside the bonfire. When we had enough to cover at least half the camp, Bellamy called everybody out of their tents to help and told them to grab a weapon.

I already had my knife, so I remained by Bellamy's side as he addressed everybody.
"My sister's been out there alone for twelve hours. Arm up. We're not coming back without her."

Everyone did as they were told, including Jasper who I was still concerned about.
"Hey, what're you doing?" I asked as I walked up to him.

Clarke was already there, telling him that he didn't have to come with us.

"You haven't left camp since we brought you back," I reminded him

"I need to do this," He told us, readjusting his grip on his weapon.

Bellamy was beside me moments later bobbing his head, "We need all the people we can get."

"All people doesn't have to include Jasper," I whispered to him.

"He needs this. If he stays here, he's always going to be afraid. Trust me."

"If anything happens to him, that's on you," I warned him, before jogging to catch up with Jasper who was walking with Carter.

"Hey, are you sure you want to do this? You know that you don't have to."

His eyes were still moving fast like they do when he's nervous, but he was dead set on coming with us. "Like I said, I need to do this."

Knowing he wasn't going to change his mind, I nodded. "Well, let's go find her then."

As we were all preparing to leave, I heard voices start to talk about something in the sky. Was another pod being sent down? Looking up, we could see hundreds of little white sparks making their way towards Earth.

"What in the world?" I mumbled.

"It's so beautiful," Carter said. I couldn't help but agree. But I also couldn't help but notice that during my Earth studies about space and stars, I had never seen anything like this.

While everyone else continued to stare, Raven just looked disheartened. "They didn't work. They didn't see the flares."

"A meteor shower tells you that?" Bellamy asks from the other side of the crowd.

"It's not a meteor shower, it's a funeral," Clarke explained. My hand came to my mouth in shock as I continued to stare at the sky, realising what we were looking at.

"Hundreds of bodies being returned to the Earth from the Ark. This is what it looks like from the other side. They didn't get the message."

How could something so horrible look so. . . mesmerising?

Raven charged towards Bellamy, "This is all because of you."

She was held back by Finn and Carter as Bellamy defended himself. "I helped you find the radio."

"Yeah, after you jacked it from my pod and trashed it!"

She was so angry, the veins were pulsing in her neck as she yelled at him. Finn and Clarke held tighter as Raven moved forward.

"Yeah, he knows," Clarke informed her. He'd been told several times, in fact. "Now he has to live with it."

I could see the guilt on Bellamy's face, but he was quick to cover it up. "All I know is that my sister is out there and I'm gonna find her. You coming or what?" Everyone stayed quiet, so Bellamy took it as a yes. "What are we waiting for? Move out!"

Jasper and I went to follow, but noticed that Clarke, Finn and Raven weren't moving. Waving my hand, I gestured for Jasper and Carter to follow me over.

"We have to talk to them," Clarke was saying in reference to the Ark. "Three hundred won't be enough. The oxygen level will just keep dropping and if we don't tell them that they can survive down here, they'll kill more people. They have to."

"Guys. . ." Jasper said quietly. "They're leaving, we've got to go."

I nodded, "Jasper's right. We can talk about this later. We have to find Octavia."

Finn began to follow us, looking back at Raven who wasn't coming with us. "I gotta do this," he told her. "You should stay and fix the radio, okay?"

"Fix it?" Raven asked dumbfounded. "The transmitter's smashed. Unless there's a part depot down here, we're not talking to the Ark."

I noticed Clarke's eyes squint in concentration, before widening. "Art supply store. I know a place you might be able to get a transmitter."

Raven noticed how Clarke and Finn were looking at each other, her eyes flickering between the two of them. "Great. It looks like you're coming with me instead."

"Finn," Jasper said. His face looked so scared. "We're not gonna find her without you."

Finn nodded, looking back at his girlfriend and the girl he liked. "Be careful."

Even I wasn't able to tell which one he was talking about.

Raven grabbed him and kissed him, and Jasper, Carter and I took that as our cue to walk away.

The look on Jasper's face made me feel so sad.
"We're gonna find her, Jasper, don't worry."

He pursed his lips, his eyes still wide as he nodded rather fast.

We walked for a long while, looking for any sign of where Octavia may have been or gone. I was beginning to grow tired and my hope was waning, when one of the boys shouted out, claiming they had spotted something.

Jasper, Carter and I arrived at the cliff everyone was standing at in time for Bellamy to loop a rope around a rock. He was planning to go down to check whether or not what they had found belonged to Octavia.

"What are you doing?" Finn asked. He had only just got here, so he was a bit behind on the happenings.

Bellamy didn't play around or ignore like he usually does. "We need the rope to get back up."

He then threw the rope down, asking for the boy beside him to give him his flashlight. Shoving the light into his pocket, he grabbed onto the rope and began to lower himself down the hill, trying not to trip on the way down.

When he reached the end of the rope he searched the bush for what the other guy had pointed to. "It's hers," he shouted back to us.

I felt like a massive weight was lifted off of my shoulders as I let out a sigh of relief. At least we had an idea of where she went now.

"I'm going all the way down."

The side of Jasper's mouth hitched upwards, before he handed his torch to Finn, who smiled encouragingly at the boy. Jasper then grabbed onto the rope and followed Bellamy down. Sheathing my knife, I was quick to tag along.

Gripping the rope tightly, I stepped carefully one foot after the other. Finn wasn't long behind me, watching his feet to make sure he didn't tumble and take us all with him.

The rope didn't reach right down to the bottom, so we had to jump the last meter or so. I stumbled on the landing, but luckily Jasper caught me. I gave a small smile in thanks, before we went over to Bellamy who was staring at his fingers.

We were joined by Finn not seconds later, the glow of the torch he was holding illuminating our surroundings and what was right in front of us. Bellamy's fingertips were smeared with scarlet blood.

"Someone else was here," Bellamy concluded.

Finn used his tracking skills to give us more detail into what had happened here. "The prints are deeper going that way. He was carrying her."

Bellamy didn't speak. Even though we now knew Octavia was out there, he didn't look any more relieved.

Jasper leaned forward a bit so as to make sure Bellamy would hear him. "If they took her, she's alive. Like when they took me."

The boys all looked at each other and then to me. We all just remained silent, but no one disagreed, so that's when we began to move.

All the others had been climbing down the rope as we were talking. There were at least ten of us down in the ditch and more to come. If Octavia was alive, we were going to find her. I knew we were.

Finn led us through the forest as he tracked the person who had carried Octavia away. I had been scoping the area when they all stopped suddenly. I bumped into Jasper's back, confused, before going on my tiptoes to look over his shoulder.

The whole area of forest in front of us was littered with the skeletons of whom I could only assume were victims of the Grounders.

"I don't speak Grounder. . ." Finn's eyes were flickering from body to body, bone to bone. He was shocked to say the least. "But I'm pretty sure this means keep out."

"I second that," I mumble.

The crowd behind us began to grow concerned, suggesting that we all return to the camp. Without Octavia.

In one of the most selfless acts I'd seen him commit, Bellamy spoke up as he stared at the skeletons. "Go back if you want. My sister, my responsibility."

He then walked off at a quick pace, weaving his way through the hanging bones. If anyone had doubted that he would do anything for his sister before, it was unlikely that they thought that now.

Jasper gulped a little, before peering at Finn and I. "I'd walk into Hell to find her."

With a weak attempt at a smile, I patted him on the shoulder, "Let's do it then."

About half of the people who followed us out had left to return to camp, the rest braving the Grounder territory with us.

None were as brave as Jasper though, in my opinion. To come into the area owned by the people who had almost killed him was the most courageous thing I could think of.

I know I wouldn't be able to do it. Not as soon as he was, at least.

Maybe coming to Earth would be good for us after all. If we survived, that is.

✦✦✦✦✦

"I got nothing," Finn sighed. "We lost the trail."

We had been walking for hours. It had felt like forever and at some point the sun had risen, allowing us to put out our torches.

Bellamy wasn't prepared to give up, however.
"Keep looking."

How far had this person carried Octavia?

"We're not gonna give up on her, Bellamy. Don't worry," I reassured him.

Finn searched the ground for any sign of tracks and I prayed that he would find something soon. He continued to search as he spoke to Bellamy.

"Wandering around aimlessly isn't the way to find your sister. We should backtrack. . ."

Bellamy immediately cut him off, "I'm not going back."

Finn went to reply, only to be interrupted by one of the girls who had tagged along to help. "Hey, where's John?"

We all spun where we were standing, all of us hoping to spot him. Nothing. He had just vanished.

"I just saw him a second ago," Jasper whispered.

"They wouldn't attack us in broad daylight, would they?" I questioned, a slight tremble to my voice.

"They speared me in the middle of the day."

I cringed at his words, regretting what I had said immediately. "Sorry," I whispered, biting my lip.

"Spread out," Bellamy instructed. "He couldn't have gotten that far."

We were about to do so when John's body thumped to the ground.

Please be alive, please be alive.

Stepping closer, I saw his eyes wide and his throat slit. My hand came to my mouth to keep from gasping. The Grounders were here and I wasn't going to let them know that had gotten to me. I had gained practise at this from being around Bellamy.

"They used the trees," Finn stated, pointing out the obvious.

Everyone went into panic mode as they searched the trees.

"We shouldn't have crossed the boundary," Carter said.

"Now can we go back?" The girl from earlier asked.

Jasper pointed his knife out towards a tree, saying there was a Grounder standing over there. Gazing over, I saw he was right. Beside the tree stood a Grounder; not moving, just watching.

Everyone began to spot them nearby. They were surrounding us. As soon as Finn suggested we run, we all did so straight away.

My feet flew beneath me as I navigated the forest floor. It was so much harder than running around the smooth surface that was the Ark. Roots and fallen trees threatened to trip us up at every turn, which was a disadvantage for us. The Grounders had grown up here, they knew what they were doing.

Which they further proved by cutting us off any chance they got. Bellamy yelled at us all, trying to get us to move faster, but we could only do so much.

"I can't run much longer!" Jasper called from behind me.

I immediately stopped, only to hear one of the boys say they wouldn't stop for him.
"I have your back, Jasper," I reminded him.

He shook his head, breathing quickly, "No, you need to go."

Bellamy walked over towards us and I gave him a confused look. He just shrugged, "I'm sick of running anyway."

I bit back a smile, nodding.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Finn asked.
The five of us were together again as Finn stopped also, followed by Carter.

"They know where she is," Bellamy replied.

The others had stopped, deciding to help us fight off the Grounders. It almost seemed like we could stand a chance, but then Roma - the girl from earlier - ran off in search of the boy who said he wouldn't stop for Jasper.

I had half the mind to leave him be, but decided I didn't want to be left alone with Grounders. We all shouted her name as we tried to get her to come back, but it was to no avail.

Roma screamed from ahead which only made us run faster.

Apparently we had just missed her, but we had found the boy. He had been skewered by a trap set up by the Grounders.

Jasper stopped to catch his breath, reviewing the area. "They were leading us here. It's the only direction we could run in."

"So, if this is a trap, then where are the Grounders?" I asked, looking around.

Bellamy's eyes glazed in realisation as he began to run. "They're going after Roma."