Please remember that Bellamy isn't really in a lot of the first episode since they all go off alone. He will be in this more very soon.

Also, these chapters are shorter than usual,  I know, but I just want the story to be more consistent.

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The next morning rolled around fast, the sunlight shining in between all of the leaves. Thankfully, the mossy logs weren't all too bad to sleep on. We walked for a couple of hours until we finally reached the river which separated the mountain we had landed on from Mount Weather.

As the others walked ahead, Clarke pulled me back a moment. "Can we talk for a second?"

I was surprised by her invitation, not knowing how to react. "Oh. . . um. . . sure?"

"Great," she replied, waiting for the rest of our group to walk a bit further away. "I just realised before that I'm at a disadvantage; you know who I am, but I don't know you. So, I'm Clarke. Clarke Griffin," she held out her hand to me.

What was she playing at? Why did she need to know who I was so bad that she would add time to the trek she was already worried we wouldn't complete?

"Theo Sutton, nice to meet you, I guess," I sighed as I grasped her hand and shook it lightly.

After I said my name, she took a small step back. "Sutton," she mumbled beneath her breath. "You're that girl who-"

"And you're that girl in other people's stories," I interjected. I shut my eyes, sighing as I realised that being rude wasn't exactly the best start.

"Look, Clarke, you obviously know how I ended up here, so how about we leave it at that? I'm finally free, and what got me locked up is the last thing I want to talk about, okay?" I told her as calmly as possible. "We're on the ground now, so I just want to move on. Please."

She swallowed as she bobbed her head, her eyes still watching me warily. I didn't believe that she trusted me, so I wasn't about to offer her the same courtesy.

Clarke and I walked over to the others who were waiting beside the lake we needed to cross. Looking around our current area, we all tried to spot a way to get across.

Finn pointed up at a thick intertwined vine hanging above our heads that could definitely carry our weight. "Why don't we swing across?"

We all looked at each other, grinning. Obviously living up in a space station we never got to do things like this, so any chance to try something new was exciting.

"I don't know," Clarke said, staring at the vine. "What if it's not safe?"

Letting my head fall back to face the sky I laughed, "Come on Clarke, live a little. If we keep being scared that something's not going to be safe, we're never going to make it to Mount Weather."

The others nodded in agreement and after a moment of thought, Clarke finally sighed, "Alright, let's go."

"Really?" Finn laughed. When Clarke confirmed what she had said, Finn started to climb up to the vine with Jasper in tow. "Dibs first!"

They untangled the vine from some branches and pulled down on it a few times to make sure it was stable. It looked like he and Jasper were talking amongst themselves while we were all still waiting for Finn to go.

"You wanted to go first," Clarke shouted to Finn. "Now quit stalling. Mount Weather awaits."

"Just hang on 'til the apogee and you'll be fine," Jasper instructed Finn as the boy tugged on the vine, preparing to swing across.

Finn looked at him, "The apogee like the Indians, right?"

The boy wearing the goggles looked like he was trying not to laugh at his new friend. "Apogee, not Apache."

"He knows," Clarke said. "Today, Finn."

Finn saluted, "Aye, aye, captain. See you on the other side."

He took a step back and pulled the vine with him. Just as he was about to go, Jasper told him to wait.

"What?"

Jasper's eyes flickered down to Octavia before he turned back to Finn. "Let me. I can do it."

Finn's gaze travelled to where Jasper had looked and he smiled, knowing exactly why Jasper was volunteering. Octavia did too, I could see it from how she was smiling at him.

Smirking, Finn handed him the vine. "Knew there was a badass in there somewhere."

Jasper chuckled awkwardly as he gripped onto the vine. I knew he had it in him, he just needed someone to help him bring it to the surface. Plus, there weren't exactly many opportunities to be courageous when you're locked away.

He took a few deep breaths, his eyes wide as he stared out across the lake. I was honestly beginning to worry that he would back down. "Come on, you've got this," I whispered as I watched him.

"Hey, it's okay to be afraid, Jasper," Finn told him. "The trick is not fighting it."

It was good advice. We all needed to live by it if we wanted to give ourselves a chance to survive.

Jasper smiled as he moved his hands and regripped the vine. "See you on the other side."

Finally, he took a step back before launching forward and swinging across the lake. He yelled excitedly the whole way, before letting go and landing roughly on the other side of the lake.

We all ran towards the edge of the lake, concerned he may have hurt himself. The vine swung back towards us and Finn grabbed onto it as we watched Jasper.

At last, he climbed to his feet, a smile on his face. "We are apogee!" He yelled as he threw his fists up in the air.

"Yeah!" We all shouted back to him.

"You did it, Jasper!" Clarke shouted. It was the happiest I had heard her since our arrival on the ground.

Jasper jumped up and down excitedly, looking around where he was.

Cupping my hands around my mouth to make my voice louder, I shouted to my friend. "I knew you could do it! Wait for us!"

"Let's go, princess," Finn said to Clarke as he handed her the vine. "You're up."

Clarke was a bit hesitant before she smiled and took it from his hands, readying herself to climb to where Jasper had jumped from.

"Come on, Clarke! You got this!" Jasper yelled. He was still on a high from what he had just done. "Whoo! Apogee!"

"Get going, blondie, we all want a shot!" Carter laughed with a smile.

We all cheered her on, the rush clouding everything. I may not completely trust her yet, but that was no reason to treat her any differently to anyone else yet.

"We did it!" Jasper shouted.

I turned around to see him holding a sign above his head, which I couldn't really read properly since it was mostly burnt. Thankfully, Jasper informed us of what it said.

"Mount Weather!" He yelled to us, holding the sign as high as he could, whooping excitedly.

We all reacted the same way as he did, sighing in relief. We had actually made it to Mount Weather. After only being on the ground less than a week, we had almost completed the task the Chancellor had set.

"Yeah, Jasper!" Finn called. Everyone was on top of the world, our adrenaline running high as we watched on.

And then, out of nowhere, it happened.

All of a sudden, Jasper was thrown back by the force of a spear hitting his chest. He landed against a tree, his eyes wide as he stared down at the weapon which had pierced his chest.

"Jasper!" I screamed. Rushing over, I ripped the vine out of Clarke's hands and got ready to climb up to where Jasper had swung across the lake. "Jasper, hold on!"

"No!" Finn grabbed me and pulled me back down with the others, yanking my arm to get me to hide behind a rock.

I ripped my arm out of his grasp, tears beginning to build in my eyes. "What the hell do you mean 'no'? I need to help him!"

"All you'll be doing is getting yourself killed. Don't you realise that?"

We listened as the branches rustled in the forest in front of us before Clarke made the statement we had all been thinking. "We're not alone."

When the rustling died down, we finally began to move. Finn got us to head into the forest because crossing the lake would put us in the position to end up like Jasper.

No matter how badly I wanted to just swim through the lake to him, Finn was right. "We're gonna save you," I whispered, reassuring myself more than anything.

We ran as fast as we could, attempting to navigate our new surroundings. It was much harder running across a forest floor than it was to run around the smooth metal that was the Ark.

"Clarke! Come on," I heard Finn say as I looked over my shoulder to see Clarke hanging back slightly. She chooses now to be slow?

As we were running we were going at a fast pace and covering a lot of ground, until Monty tripped over something and landed on his stomach. Laying right in front of him were the bones of someone who had died in the forest.

I thought I may be sick. I wasn't going to let this happen to Jasper.

"Come on," I breathed, wanting to go. Maeve came over and helped me get Monty back on his feet. "We don't have time, we have to find him."

As we helped him up, Finn looked around at the ground, to see at least three other decomposed bodies. "Who are they?"

"How the hell are we supposed to know?" I asked as I patted the dirt off of Monty's jacket.

Clarke was holding a deformed skull as she glanced over at us all. "What are they?"

"We are so screwed," Octavia sighed, trying to catch her breath. Carter was helping her stand, looking over his shoulder to make sure nothing had followed us.

A scream echoed throughout the forest, Clarke dropping the skull and all of our eyes searching for the source of the sound.

"Jasper," I whispered, spinning in a circle. We didn't have time to stand around. Running in the direction of the sound, I screamed his name.

I heard the others begin to follow me, all of them calling my name and telling me to wait and slow down for them. All except Clarke, who was running almost beside me.

If I slowed down that would mean taking longer to get to Jasper, and I wouldn't allow it.

"Stay out of the trees," Finn had managed to catch up with us, grabbing an arm. We stared down to where we had last seen Jasper, only to find he was no longer there. "He was right there."

"No," Monty let out in worry. "Where is he?"

Clarke didn't sugarcoat it when she said that whoever had attacked him had taken him also.

"We need to find him," I demanded.

"And we will," Finn tried to reassure me. "But right now, we need to get back to camp."

I shook my head, "Are you kidding me? He got speared, Finn! We need to help him."

"We need help. Something stabbed him and then took him, we are completely in the dark here. You know that," Maeve said.

"Theo," Octavia began softly. "I know you want to find him, we all do, but we need more help. We don't know what we're up against here, and that could be the difference between finding him dead or alive."

She was the one I trusted most, and that was the only reason I followed them.

✦✦✦✦✦

We had gotten back just in time to see a little fight club surrounding Wells and Murphy. How could the council think sending down the Chancellor's son would actually end well for anyone? Especially Wells?

Once they managed to break up the fight, everyone stared down at us. After calming Murphy down, Bellamy went to check on his sister seeing as she was still limping after her incident with the serpent.

"Where's the food?" He asked Clarke, who was in charge apparently.

She didn't answer, just stared. Finn took a seat on a rock and looked at the self-appointed leader. "We didn't make it to Mount Weather."

"What the hell happened out there?"

"We were attacked," Clarke spat out.

Wells repeated what she had said, confused. They were all still under the belief that we were the only people here.

"Not what. Who," Finn corrected. "It turns out, when the last man from the ground died on the Ark, he wasn't the last Grounder."

Clarke nodded, "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."

"Yeah, but apparently these Grounders will," Carter pointed out.

Wells took a quick look around, before turning back to Clarke. "Where's the kid with the goggles?"

My jaw clicked as I stepped forward. "His name is Jasper, and they've got him. He's dying and we're just standing here chatting."

Clarke placed a hand softly on my shoulder, non-verbally asking me to stand down. I did so, but this only led to her noticing something on Wells.

"Where is your wristband?"

He removed her hand from his wrist harshly, pulling down his sleeve a little before glaring over at Bellamy. "Ask him."

Bellamy didn't say anything, he didn't even try to deny it.

"How many?" Clarke asked as calmly as she could muster.

Even though he wasn't asked, Murphy seemed to feel the need to butt in. "Twenty-four and counting."

He seemed so proud of himself, the sun glinting off of the blood on his forehead and nose.

Clarke shook her head, thinking things over.

"You idiots," she said in a low voice. She then spoke louder in order to address the members of the hundred in the vicinity. "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!"

Bellamy finally chose this moment to break his silence. Why was he so hellbent on keeping everyone else on the Ark?

"We're stronger than you think. Don't listen to her. She's one of the privileged."

"What are you doing?" I whispered to him as he walked past me to stand in the centre of the group. He looked at me for a moment, a small smile playing on his lips.

"If they come down, she'll have it good. How many of you can say the same?"

Murmurs rippled amongst the crowd.

"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!"

And then the whole crowd erupted into cheers. Bellamy definitely had a gift; he really knew how to rally a crowd.