ᴇʟᴇᴠᴇɴ : ғᴏɢʜᴏʀɴ
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Eventually, the dark sky turns into vibrant colors of oranges and purples until a bright blue fills the sky from east to west. The search party has slowed in pace from the continuous walking. Bellamy is the only one not tired, his legs probably even pumping faster as urgency to find his little sister seeps in.

The sun beats down on the group. Sweat stains Clara's underarms and her forehead. Her hair has started falling from its loose ponytail, so she tangles it in two tight braids as she trudges through the woods. She asks Roma for a spare rubber band for her hair, which the pale girl begrudgingly gives her.

After a while, Finn stops in his tracks, frustrated. "I got nothing, we lost the trail."

Bellamy continues walking. "Keep looking."

Finn jogs to meet Bellamy, out of breath. "Wandering around aimlessly isn't the way to find your sister, we should backtrack—"

"I'm not going back," Bellamy says sharply, not even considering Finn's suggestion.

Before Finn can argue, at Clara's side, Roma speaks up. "Hey, where's John?"

Clara glances back at the group and feels a pang of panic in her chest when she doesn't spot the pale brunet.

Jasper's eyes scan the woods. "I just saw him a second ago."

Bellamy purses his lips. "Spread out," he orders, though he obviously doesn't want to waste any more time finding Octavia. "He couldn't have gotten that far."

Before anyone can even start to split up, a whoosh! followed by a thud! scares Clara from behind. She whips around and immediately regrets it as she stares into the lifeless eyes of John. Blood drips down his throat where it was slit. A scream rips out of her throat and she jumps back, tripping over a root and falling to the ground. She frantically scoots back as her chest rapidly rises and falls.

Bellamy grips Clara's bicep and hauls her up to her feet. Everyone cranes their necks and stares up at the trees above them in fear.

"They use the trees," Finn states the obvious as he tries to locate the grounders hiding behind the leaves.

Another delinquent, Diggs, runs a hand through his hair anxiously. "We shouldn't have crossed the boundary, we're all going to die."

"Now can we go back?" Roma squeaks.

Jasper gasps. He points at a moving figure in the distance. "There! Right there!"

"There's another one!" Diggs shouts.

With her heart in her throat, Clara steps in front of Rez and pulls out her makeshift knife, ready to fight if she has to. Her terrified gaze falls on a grounder running between the trees. It's her first time seeing a grounder, and they're much scarier than she ever imagined. He's wearing an animalistic mask of bones and fur. His body is covered in armor and animal hide and makes him look like a predator stalking its prey. Clara shudders when she realizes they are his prey.

Finn's eyes dart from grounder to grounder as they surround the group. "We should run."

"I second that," Clara whispers.

No one moves until Bellamy starts. Once he picks up his feet, everyone else takes off after him. Clara keeps an eye on Rez as she runs to make sure he doesn't get separated from her and keeps her useless knife handy.  Her legs pump as fast as they ever have before. Her braids fly behind her as the air whips against her face.

Her chest starts to tighten and burn as the minutes pass and the group is still sprinting at full-speed. Her side where she got stabbed starts to send sharp pains through her at every movement, and her breathing is ragged.

"Let's go!" Rez shouts to Clara when he notices her starting to fall back. 

She inhales sharply and pushes past the pain, one hand over the wound.

"What are we gonna do?" Jasper huffs between breaths. "They keep cutting us off."

Finn leaps over a log and replies breathlessly, "Just keep running."

"I can't run much longer!" Jasper warns, and Clara couldn't agree more. She's starting to regret her lack of physical activity on the Ark.

"Me neither," she strains, wincing as she runs.

Diggs picks up his pace. "I'm not stopping for them!"

Bellamy looks back at Jasper and Clara. He immediately stops in his tracks, causing Roma to almost run straight into his back. Despite his words, Diggs slows to a stop as well when he sees that Bellamy did. Everyone else stops as well.

Setting his jaw, Bellamy mutters, "I'm sick of running anyway."

Without another word, he starts to march towards the grounders, the ones they were just running from.

"Have you lost your mind?" Clara exclaims, reaching out to stop the boy before he can get himself killed. Bellamy stops and looks down at her when she grabs his jacket sleeve. Fear swims in his dark irises, but so does determination.

Bending over his knees as he heaves for air, Finn asks, "Hey, what are you doing?"

Not moving from Clara's loose grip, Bellamy replies gruffly, "They know where she is."

Roma's eyes widen. She whips around frantically, her hair stuck to the sweat on her face. "Diggs?" She shouts. "Diggs, where are you?"

From a distance, Diggs's echoes against the trees, "Roma!"

Instantly, the pale girl sprints away from the group towards the voice. She screams Diggs's name, not even caring if the grounders are chasing her. Clara lets go of Bellamy's sleeve.

Finn's eyes go wide. "Wait! Roma, there could be more, stop!"

Jasper turns around. His eyes search the woods frantically. "They were leading us here. It's the only direction we could run in," he whispers in realization.

Clara tries to even her breathing, but all the running and the fact that they're being hunted makes it impossible. She leans against a tree and prays they get out of the situation alive.

Finn straightens and looks out at the woods. Surprisingly, he doesn't spot any more grounders. "Hey, where'd they go?"

Bellamy's grip tightens on his spear. "After Roma." He looks back at everyone and commands, "C'mon, let's go."

Like that, the others run after Roma despite their fear and exhaustion. The girl was never particularly nice to Clara, but that doesn't mean she deserves to die in the woods at the hands of savages who would literally rip her throat out with their teeth. So, ignoring the little pains, Clara runs after the others.

She's just behind the group when there's a click. The sound of a whoosh! prompts Clara to dive to the ground. When she looks up behind her, she realizes she narrowly missed being impaled by a spear. The wooden weapon is lodged in the trunk of a tree right where her head would have been, had she not moved.

Grunting, Clara pushes herself off the ground and onto her knees. She curses under her breath when she looks around and doesn't see a single person. Lost, for the second time in a week.

Clara starts to jog, but then she winces and slows to a walk in the direction she believes the others went. She pays careful mind to each place she steps so she doesn't trip another trap. The last thing she wants is to die alone in the woods where it is likely no one would find her. The only reason why she survived being stabbed was because she was found shortly after the attack and was brought back before she could bleed out. In the forest by herself, she has little to no chances of surviving if she's stabbed again, or impaled.

About five minutes into her walking, a familiar horn sounds in the distance. Clara halts in her steps and furrows her brow. Suddenly, it dawns in her. "Acid fog."

Clara's eyes scan the forest for somewhere to hide as she jogs in an erratic path. She stumbles upon a hole in the ground the resembles a large rabbit-hole. A ladder leads a few feet down to a tunnel underground, and she decides that she's rather take her chances of meeting a grounder than burning alive in the acid fog. Taking a deep breath, Clara climbs down the ladder.

Her boots hit the ground. She tip-toes down the hall, body on high alert. She nears a larger space and steps through the dirt doorway. As soon as she enters, she gasps.

"Octavia?"

The dark-haired girl with blood crusted on her temple and a bloody rag around her calf looks up, a look of relief and surprise on her features. Her hands are bound in metal shackles that connect to the dirt wall. She isn't in the best shape, but it's better than being dead.

"Clara?"

"We've been looking everywhere for you, O!" Clara exclaims as she pockets her knife and rushes forward. She slides to her knees in front of Octavia and examines the metal shackles. "What did the grounder want with you? Did he do that to your leg?"

Octavia shakes her head. "No, he actually saved me, I think. I fell down a hill and he took me back here and fixed my leg."

Clara raises a brow. "Really?"

"I don't understand it either," Octavia breathes. Her eyes flicker to the entrance. Clara turns as well, a pang of panic in her chest at the sight of a shadow nearing. Octavia shoos the other girl away and whispers, "He's coming, hide!"

Clara clambers up to her feet. She presses her back up against the dirt wall beside the entrance, picking up a wooden spear. Octavia's eyes stay trained on her anxiously as the figure approaches.

Clara only gets a glimpse of the grounder before she swings forward with the spear, hitting the back of his head like a baseball. He lets out a grunt and falls forward onto the ground, unconscious.

Unlike Clara, who stands there in shock, Octavia immediately starts moving. "Hand me those keys, hurry!"

Clara snaps out of it and grabs the key ring on the grounder's belt. Her nose crinkles at the body odor she gets a whiff of by being so close to him. As she's tossing Octavia the keys to unlock herself, the sound of footsteps behind her reach her ears. Clara turns quickly, her braids whipping around.

The sight of Bellamy, Finn, Rez, Fox, Monroe, and Jasper catches her by surprise. They pause in the entrance before Bellamy spots his sister unlocking herself from the chains that bound her wrists.

"Octavia!" Bellamy takes two long strides and kneels beside Octavia, holding her face in his hands as he inspects her for injuries.

Clara stands. As soon as she's up on her feet, Rez rushes forward and wraps her in a tight hug. She laughs and hugs him back. "Miss me much?"

"Shut up," Rez mumbles, squeezing her tighter. "I thought you were dead."

"I'm like a cockroach, nothing can kill me," she jokes lightly and presses a kiss to his head before separating.

Bellamy glances back at Clara, his eyes lingering on her before shifting to the others. "Monroe, watch the entrance."

Monroe obediently follows the older boy's order.

Bellamy turns back to his sister and tucks her hair behind her ear. "It's okay, you're okay."

Octavia holds back the tears of joy in her eyes. Glancing between her brother and the others, she asks, "How did you guys find me?"

"Followed him." Bellamy motions to the grounder on the floor. At the mention of him, Finn steps forward and studies the man curiously. Bellamy looks over at Clara and asks, "How did you find her?"

"By accident?" Clara replies, kind of embarrassed for getting lost in the woods again, but she doesn't bring that part up as she explains, "I took cover from the fog and she just happened to be in here."

Octavia stands, favoring her injured leg. "We should go, now. Before he wakes up."

Bellamy's face hardens. All the concern he once showed disappears. "He's not going to wake up."

He picks up his spear, but before he can do anything, Octavia shouts, "Bellamy, stop! He didn't hurt me, let's just go."

Betrayal and confusion flashes in his eyes. "They started this, O."

He takes a step closer to the grounder on the ground, but then Finn steps in front of Bellamy.

"Finn," Bellamy all but growls, "move."

"He saved her, Bellamy," Clara adds, earning a grateful look from Octavia. "Just hear her out."

Bellamy gives her an incredulous look. "He's a grounder, how the hell can you stand up for him? His people almost killed Jasper and have been terrorizing us, Clara."

He does have a point, Clara thinks. She shakes her head and suggests, "Maybe not all grounders are bad."

Before Bellamy can argue, Finn mutters, "Foghorn."

Clara sends him an odd look. She's too busy looking at Finn to notice the grounder suddenly springing up. He thrusts a knife through Finn's chest, the latter making a choking sound and falling to the ground.

The grounder slashes another knife towards Clara, but Bellamy yanks her back before she can get cut. She falls to the ground with a wince and looks up to see the grounder on top of Bellamy. She gasps as the grounder holds a spear up to Bellamy's throat, the sharpened stake at the end dangerously close to his skin as he pushes it back with all of his strength.

"No!" Octavia screams. "Stop! That's my brother!"

The grounder falters slightly. It's only for a brief second, but Jasper takes the opportunity to whack him in the back of the head with his spear. The grounder falls on top of Bellamy limply, hopefully unconscious for a while this time. Bellamy huffs and pushes the heavy man off of him before pushing himself up to stand.

While all that commotion is going on, Clara is tending to Finn with shaky hands and a frantic state of mind. She tries to tend to his wound the best she can with her extremely limited medical knowledge, and she doesn't really accomplish anything despite the blood coating her hands. She grips the knife, but before she can pull it out, Bellamy blurts, "Stop!"

She jumps back and holds her hands up.

"Sorry, just—Don't take out the knife," Bellamy advises, glancing nervously at the unconscious state of Finn. "We need go get him to Clarke now, forget about the grounder for now."

The group agrees with Bellamy's plan. Monroe and Bellamy carry Finn on the way back to camp while Octavia has an arm slung around Rez's shoulders to take some of the weight off of her injured leg. Jasper and Clara walk at the back of the group. Her side is bothering her, but she doesn't pay mind to it.

As soon as they get close to the gates, Jasper jogs ahead of the others and shouts, "Clarke! Where's Clarke?"

Clarke casually strides out of the drop ship. "Hey. I'm here. What's up?" Her eyes flicker to Finn in Bellamy and Monroe's arms. Her eyes go wide and her lips part. "Finn?"

Raven runs out after Clarke. She freezes on the spot. "Oh, my gosh."

Clarke rushes forward and presses two fingers against his neck. After a few beats of tense silence, she sighs. "He's alive."

Clara walks up next to Clarke. "Bellamy wouldn't let me take the knife out," she says, not sure what she should have done in their situation.

"No, that was a good call," Clarke assured her and turns her attention to the boys carrying Finn. "Get him in the dropship now. Go!"

Bellamy and Monroe don't waste any time carrying Finn to the drop ship. A small crowd of apprehensive on-lookers watch the situation. Raven makes her way to Clarke, both girls looking absolutely wrecked with worry.

"Clarke, can you save him?" Raven asks, voice tight.

Clarke runs her hand down her face. "No." Raven's face falls. "Not me. I need my mother, I need to talk to her."

"There's still no radio," Raven replies.

"Raven, fix it!" Clarke bursts, overwhelmed with emotions. "Go!"

Raven nods and jogs over to the drop ship. Clarke turns to Octavia with her arm around Rez's shoulders. Her brow furrows at her injured leg.

"Hey, you okay?"

Octavia nods. "Yeah, just go help Finn."

Clarke hesitates, then gives Octavia a strained smile before turning to go take care of Finn. Bellamy emerges from the drop ship. His eyes meet Octavia's, and she says something to Rez that makes him reluctantly leave her side as Bellamy approaches. Rez walks towards Clara, but instead of stopping by her like she expects, he brushes right past her.

Clara frowns and turns, watching him join Jasper and Monty.

Shouting erupts from the Blake siblings. They're getting in each other's faces, spewing insults and accusations with venomous glares.

Despite her curiously, Clara turns away from the siblings. She doesn't have anything to do, so she decides to put herself to use and help the others building the wall. A chubby boy, maybe a little younger than Rez, is struggling to pick up a log. Clara hurries over and takes the other end. The boy looks over at her and smiles gratefully as the two easily carry the log over to the builders.

Clara only works with the builders for a few minutes when a low grumble of thunder shakes the ground. Everyone continues to work, but then Bellamy shouts, "A storm's coming, everyone inside the drop ship now!"

The campers take their opportunity to catch a break and rush to get inside. Clara doesn't join yet, wanting to get this last log in place before going inside.

Before she can finish, a voice calls, "Hey, it's going to storm, you need to get into the drop ship with the others."

Clara looks over her shoulder at Bellamy standing behind her with crossed arms. His face is stony, emotionless and all business. Clara sighs and starts to head to the drop ship, but before she can take a single step, Bellamy's hand loosely wraps around her wrist. Her gaze flickers up to his.

Bellamy's brow is pulled forward and his eyes aren't on her face, they're trained on her waist.

"You're bleeding?"

Clara looks down at herself. Over her shirt where she was stabbed is a damp, dark red circle.

"It's probably just my stitches, I'll be fine," Clara replies and takes her wrist from Bellamy's grip.

Bellamy doesn't seem convinced. He crosses his arms, suddenly all-business again. "We don't need you bleeding out."

"Clarke's busy with Finn, I'm fine," she assures him, then smiles to try to convince the stubborn man.

Bellamy shifts his weight. His eyes flicker between hers. "Can I at least have a look?" When she hesitates, his emotionless mask drops and his eyes seem to plead. He licks his chapped lips and looks away, murmuring, "I'd rather not lose another one of our people today."

Clara studies him, surprised that he even cares. She knows she's fine, that she's not going to bleed out. However, the look on Bellamy's face, the raw emotion and the weight of the people they've lost heavy on his heart, makes her reconsider. After a few moments, she nods and reaches down for the hem of her shirt. She pulls it up enough for her stab wound to be revealed, the stitched skin red and irritated. The skin around the dark stitches is turning green and yellow from the trauma. There's not a lot of blood, and it looks like only one stitch got torn out from today's events.

Bellamy looks down and bends over slightly to get a good view of the wound. His eyes flicker up to hers before he straightens.

Clara lets her shirt fall back down. "See? It's not a big deal." Bellamy nods. Before he can walk away, Clara adds, "But thanks for caring enough to ask."

Bellamy's eyes meet hers, something going unsaid in his eyes. He eventually nods again, looking away and scratching the back of his head. "You should get inside now, before it storms."

"After you," She says, but when he doesn't move, she frowns. Something shifts in Bellamy, something she has seen in him before. "Where are you going this time?"

Bellamy looks down at her, surprised she picked up on his unspoken plans. He mentally debates telling her, then replies, "Don't worry about it."