CHAPTER FIVE - INTO THE WOODS

     AFTER GETTING THE news that they possibly couldn't be the only living beings down here, scared Dakota to death and she needed a few moments to process the information. She walked away from Clarke's group, and towards the Blake siblings. 

Octavia was perched on a log as Bellamy was crouched down, looking at the gaping wound on his sister's leg. Dakota could tell that he didn't have a clue what to really do, and that's when she figured she should step in. 

 "Move out of the way." She whispered, putting her hand on his shoulder lightly to make him look up in her direction, he blinked before moving away to the side.  Dakota's eyes scanned the wound as her fingers moved her leg from side to side. It was relatively long and quite deep, the good news was that it wasn't bleeding too badly anymore. All in all, she would survive another day.

 Grabbing the wet cloth from Bellamy's hand, she began dabbing the area around the wound to clean off the blood that began to crust around the gaping wound. Octavia let out a small sneer at the pain, peering down at the brunette.  "What's the verdict, doc?"

 Dakota let out an amused laugh, "I'm no doctor, but I know a few things." Her brown eyes flickered up to meet Octavia's curious green ones. "The bleeding has calmed down, so that's good." She informed her, turning the girl's leg. "It doesn't seem infected either, so keep it clean and bandage the sucker up to keep it that way."

 She was passed a cloth from Bellamy, which she took and began tying it around Octavia's leg. "You will have to walk the pain off, though. That is unless someone miraculously has any painkillers handy."

Octavia nodded in understanding while her lips turned up into an appreciated smile. "Thank you, Dakota."

"What the hell was it?" Bellamy asked Octavia.

"I don't know. The others said it looked like a giant snake." She informed her brother.

"You could have been killed."

"She would have been if Jasper didn't jump in to pull her out." A voice said from behind them. They turned to look at Clarke, who walked over with Wells.

Octavia began to stand up. "You guys leaving? I'm coming, too." She announced, pulling to roll down the leg of trousers.

"No, no. No way. Not again." Bellamy protested as he grabbed her arm, pulling her back.

Octavia opened her mouth to argue, but Clarke cut her off. "He's right. Your leg's just gonna slow us down." She told her.

"Okay, now that we've sorted that out, let's go." Dakota said, stepping towards the group. 

"Wait, I'm not done here." Clarke turned to Bellamy with a pointed look. "I'm here for you."

"Clarke, what are you doing?" Dakota muttered to her, thoroughly confused as to why she would want him to join since she wasn't his biggest fan.

"I hear you have a gun." Bellamy glanced around before lifting up the bottom of his shirt, showing her the gun. "Good. Follow me." Clarke ordered as she began to walk off.

"And why would I do that?" Bellamy asked Clarke as she begun to walk away, having the right idea about not trusting her intentions. However, Clarke spun around on her heel and made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

"Because you want them to follow you," She nodded her head in the direction of the rest of the delinquents, "and right now, they're thinking only one of us is scared." She whispered to him, spiking immediate interest in Bellamy's personal agenda. When Bellamy didn't say anything, Clarke took it as an accepted offer to join her, so she split off immediately with Wells right on her trail.

***

Dakota walked in-front of Clarke and Wells and took everything in, it had been her first time venturing out into an actual forest,  and now she had the opportunity to really see it's beauty. 

It wasn't ling until the fight broke out between the two opposing groups, in fact, it wasn't more than a few hundred yards from the camp in which the argument started as Bellamy and Murphy struggled to keep up with Clarke, "Hey, hold up. What's the rush? You don't survive a spear through the heart." He said all of this while waving the gun in his hand, causing uneasiness upon everyone in the group, most importantly Wells.

"Put the gun away, Bellamy." Wells demanded, moving forward with Clarke. Before he could even get a step past Bellamy and Murphy, Murphy grasped him by the collar of his jacket.

"Why don't you do something about it, huh?" Murphy provoked.

Dakota slapped Murphy's hand away from the Chancellor's son, "Would you quit going after him?" She snapped, and he just turned his head and smirked at her. 

Clarke sharply turned to face them, stomping over to Bellamy, very pissed off. "Jasper screamed when they moved him. If the spear struck his heart, he'd have died instantly. It doesn't mean we have time to waste." She backed away, but was stopped by Bellamy grabbing her wrist, looking down at the silver wristband that was settled on it.

"As soon as you take this wristband off, we can go." He negotiated with a smirk.

"The only way the Ark is gonna think I'm dead is if I'm dead. Got it?" Clarke spat, getting up in his face.

Bellamy chuckled and stepped closer to her, causing her to step back. "You're brave, I'll give you that, Princess."

A voice prevented Clarke from talking. "How about you find your own nickname?" Dakota's head whipped around and she grinned at the sight of Finn, he was walking towards them with a smile sent in her direction.

Clarke walked over to him with a smile,  Dakota began to walk in their direction before someone stuck out their arm, preventing her from doing so. "You're coming with me."

 Dakota narrowed her eyes up at the older Blake. "But-"

Bellamy cut her off with a warning glance. "I won't ask twice, lets go." He lightly pushed her over to the other side of the path with him. Dakota rolled her eyes, and walked up to catch up with Murphy, who was walking in-front of the group.

"Hey, Honey bee." Dakota smirked at him, her arm draping over his shoulders as she maintained a steady pace beside him.

Murphy's head turned to the side, eyeing the girl next to him with a smug grin on his face. "What are the odds." 

 Dakota returned his reply with her own cheeky smile. "The two psychopath's reunited."

 Bellamy had caught up with Dakota and Murphy, and started walking along side them. "So, what did you get sent down here for?" Bellamy questioned, growing slightly curious of what she had done to earn her spot on to the drop ship.

Dakota narrowed her eyes over at Bellamy as she removed her arm from Murphy's shoulders. "Does King of the Jungle want to know about lil 'ol me?" She cooed in a playful manner while a smirk crept onto her lips.

"A guy can't be interested what a little child did to earn her place down here?" 

 "I'm not little."

"Whatever short-stack." Dakota sighed at the new nickname she had been given. Her gaze shifted upwards instead of looking in-front of her. Bellamy was grinning like an idiot. 

"Hm, let me see. I was sixteen when I was locked up for murdering four guards, one of them I managed to rip their throat out." 

Bellamy raised an eyebrow at her confession. "I find that hard to believe, how did you manage to rip out his throat?" 

Dakota chuckled at his curiosity, and pulled up the corner of her top lip to reveal two teeth that were naturally shaped like fangs, "these beauties helped."

"Guys, Jasper's this way!" Clarke informed the advancing group, appearing out of nowhere.

***

"Hey, how do we know this is the right way?" Murphy's horse voice broke the silence that had fallen over the group. 

Bellamy scoffed and rolled his eyes. "We don't. Spacewalker thinks he's a tracker." He said, rather snidely.

"It's called cutting sign. Fourth-year earth skills. He's good." Wells muttered.

"You want to keep it down or should I paint a target on your backs?" Finn bit at them as he kept his focus, slowly inching around as he looked for clues that they were, in fact, heading in the right direction. He noticed a cut branch on a shrub, and when his eyes moved to the ground, he saw it- a few drops of blood laid on a grey stone. 

 Clarke leaned forward to look closer and shared a look with Finn.

"See? You're invisible." Bellamy murmured to Wells. Dakota turned her head upon hearing the comment and scoffed at the older man. "Invisible? He's not a ghost, Bellamy."

A loud, blood curdling moan echoed across the trees and Dakota quickly forgot about what Bellamy and Wells were talking about, and broke out into a run, following the sound. It was all instinctive, and she didn't even think twice about it as she was rushed into action and left the others behind her. 

"What the hell was that?" Murphy questioned in a scared tone while his head whipped around to the sound, seeing Dakota's brown hair disappearing in the trees.

"Now would be a good time to take out that gun." Clarke said in a horse voice while quickly following behind Dakota. 

"Holy...shit.." Dakota whispered, her eyes widening as she felt herself get a little lightheaded. The rest of the rescue party was quick to catch up with her, slowing down and freezing as they reached the top of the hill.

"Jasper. Oh my god." Clarke whispered in horror as they all stared at the boy that was left tied high in a tree; two ropes were around his waist and legs and one held his hands above him. His shirt was missing and there were cuts and blood all over his body. Dakota's eyes were quick to notice the green paste that was covering the spear wound and she pursed her lips.

Clarke started walking forward. "Clarke, be careful." Finn warned, trying to grab her.

Everyone began to rush forward, towards the tree and Bellamy followed quickly behind Clarke, keeping in her footsteps as they approached Jasper.

"What the hell is this?" Bellamy murmured.

"I have no idea--"

The moment Clarke finished the last letter of her sentence, that's when it happened. The ground seemed to cave under her feet and her body dropped, as did the soil, leaving her with a panicked floating sensation. It was a disguised hole in the ground used to catch something or someone and leave them dead with no way out once they hit the bottom.

 Clarke looked back up to see Bellamy, he had a tight grip of her hand and beads of sweat were running down the side of his forehead. "Clarke! Pull her up!" Wells shouted. Bellamy didn't move. Was he seriously hesitating?

Bellamy's fingers were clasped tightly around her wrist and he didn't let go. Dakota would be lying to herself if she didn't expect Bellamy to just drop Clarke to the ground so that her wristband would go out and he would have won without the princess putting up much of a fight.

"Get her! Pull her up!" Finn yelled, skidding along the ground as he grabbed Bellamy's shoulders and pulled him back with the help of Murphy and Wells. Finn pulled Clarke into his arms to help her get up on her feet.

"We need to get him down," Dakota mentioned as she took a better look down at the pit that Clarke had almost fallen down in just moment's before.

"I'll climb up there and cut the vines." Finn offered.

Wells nodded in agreement. "Yeah, yeah, I'm with you."

Finn turned to Wells and shook his head. "No. Stay with the girls." He glanced at Bellamy. "And watch him." Bellamy glared back at him. "You." Finn looked at Murphy, "let's go." Murphy looked to Bellamy for permission, who nodded in return.

"Is that a poultice on his wound?" Clarke asked, looking up at Jasper.

"I think so." Dakota confirmed Clarke's suspicions. 

"Medicine?" Wells simplified. "Why would they save this life just to string him up as live bait?"

"Maybe what they're trying to catch likes its dinner to be breathing." Bellamy replies.

"Maybe what they're trying to catch is us." Finn corrected. 

"Oh, will you two shut-" Dakota stopped and spun in a full circle when she heard some leaves crunch, the sound was too heavy to be made by a human and that only left her mind to wonder about the bigger possibilities.

Murphy's head whipped round in the direction of the growl. "What the hell was that?"

"Grounders?" Bellamy suggested, instinctively taking a step closer towards the younger brunette. The sound of twigs snapping under heavy footfalls and a low snarl caught everyone's attention. Dakota's head whipped around at the sight of something big, stalking around the tall grass until it suddenly leaped out from the bushes, running straight for him and Dakota.

Bellamy pushed her behind him, planning on blocking her from whatever was running towards them.  "Bellamy, gun!" Clarke screamed as Bellamy desperately patted himself down, trying to find his gun. 

He was about to panic when gunfire sounded and Wells was pointing and aiming the glock right at the wild black cat. The second bullet hit it, but only slowed it down for a moment. The third one came, but Wells moved and looked around for the panther in the shrubbery. 

Dakota saw, from deep within the leafy green, the coat of the black panther as it recoiled to jump, heading straight in their direction.

"Bellamy!" Dakota screamed out from behind him as it lunged with a roar.  One last shot rang out as Wells shot the beast in the head, making it drop to the floor in front of Bellamy's feet, who was panting from the adrenaline rush.

"Hah-Hah. Shit." Dakota let out a nervous laugh as the nerves began to die down inside of her body, her eyes narrowing down at the squirming panther. 

"Now she sees you."