CHAPTER THIRTEEN - THE MISSING BUTTERFLY GIRL

  AS SOON AS THE FLARES were out of sight, and the rest of the delinquents started to scatter now that the flare show had ended, Dakota found herself still looking up at the sky, at one tiny star in the distance. She wasn't sure why she was looking, looking for the hint that maybe her father was still up there and perhaps looking down at the green stained Earth - hoping that whatever spot he was looking at - was her.

  She let out a quiet snort and then blinked a couple times. She was wishing that she meant something, something to him but what she got was the forest silence around her, and the quiet laughter of the camp behind her. 

 Sighing, she started to move her feet and began advancing towards her own tent. She hadn't slept for days with having to look after Jasper, and then Raven was back. Her body was running on pure adrenaline half of the time, and now that the camp had started calming down, so has she.

 As soon as she pulled back the flap to her tent, and smiled when the tent was empty except for the left side that was messed up from her tent roomie. She could finally be alone with her thoughts, and not have a woman snoring quietly next to her. She let her jacket fall off her shoulders the moment she stepped through, carefully peeling it away from her blistering shoulder blades. She zipped the tent back up behind her and then proceeded to take off her maroon colored shirt, leaving her back exposed to the air around her, which according to Clarke- would be beneficial while it was still healing. 

▸▸▸

Bellamy strode through the less busy camp, a burning torch lightening his way as he looked for his sister. He hadn't seen her since she had caught him in the woods that morning, and needless to say he was growing more worried. His brown eyes searched throughout the scattered tents- looking for one in particular- as his hands were shaking slightly. 

 Once he found the tent he was looking for, he started maneuvering his way through the tents and then started zipping down the flap, flicking it back to poke his head inside. 

 The woman inside jumped back in surprise, looking over her shoulder with a dark look in her brown eyes until she noticed it was Bellamy that intruded. "You're still up?" Bellamy asked as he cleared his throat, his brown eyes scanning down the tanned and scarred back of Dakota. 

 "Obviously," Dakota replied back with a playful tone in her voice as she reached down to grab her shirt that was on the floor while her other hand made sure it was covering up her chest. "can you help me with something real quick?"

 Bellamy furrowed his eyebrows but nonetheless, he stepped further into her tent, leaving the burning torch outside.  It was only until she passed him a damp cloth that he understood what he was needed for. "I need help keeping these wet, if you- uh.. yeah." She said as she gestured towards her back, turning around so he had better access. 

 His hands carefully went to her back, overlooking the healing burns in the dim light. Dakota felt his hands slowly run down her back and stop along where the band of her pants covered the rest of her lower back away from his eyes but his eyes caught onto a small scar on her lower back, creeping up from the band of her pants. He blinked and brought his eyes back up to the worst of the blisters that she caught in the toxic mist, "They're looking really good," he told her as he started dabbing the wet cloth over her back. "almost healed."

 Even though he couldn't see her face, she smiled softly as he began letting the water drip down, "yeah, no more bandages." she informed him, now that Clarke had told her there was no more risk of an infection, it was just a matter of time that the rest of the dead skin to fall off on it's own.  "Anyways, why are you here?" she questioned, remembering that he didn't exactly tell her why he came in here in the first place. 

 She felt his movements stop, "It's Octavia.." he told her, his voice coming out filled with worry. "I can't find her."

 Dakota pursed her lips. She often knew that Octavia would venture off of camp grounds, but she didn't see any harm in doing so since a lot of the delinquents would wander off, and come back a few minutes later. "It's Octavia, Bellamy. She's probably off chasing butterflies or something." 

 Bellamy stood back from her, putting the wet cloth back in her hands as he finished up with her back. "I've checked the entire camp, Dakota." He shook his head, eyes pleading with worry as he looked at her. "She's not here."

 Dakota finally nodded her head at him, looking at his freckled face behind her shoulder and how it softened when she nodded. "Okay, I'll help you find her but can you turn around, I'm not about to give you a free show here." 

 Even though the situation they were in were turning serious, he found himself chuckling before he turned his back to her. Dakota started dressing herself, pulling the straps of her breast band over her head, and then pulling her maroon T-shirt over her head after. 

Bellamy chuckled before turning around. When his back was facing me, I smiled. I grabbed my bra and clipped it, and slipped on a maroon long-sleeved shirt. "Did you check the drop-ship?" She asked as she softly pushed him out of the way to grab her jacket that was sitting in the corner. 

 "Not there." he told her while turning around, knowing now that she was fully clothed. Dakota nodded at him, her full lips pursing in wonder. 

 "Let's check it again, you go to the dropship, check the upper level and I'll check the rest of the tents." She instructed him as she pulled the jacket over her arms and zipped it up about half-way. 

  "Thank you." He breathed. 

▸▸▸

Dakota preceded to pull back the fabric of every delinquent's tent. Most were asleep, or at least trying to sleep, and glared back at her impatiently with tired eyes. Each one, she mumbled out a 'sorry' and proceeded towards the next tent, but she couldn't find his little sister. 

 Dakota bit her lip anxiously, knowing full well that Octavia wasn't in the camp and that Bellamy would have no luck finding her here. Her mind was swimming with a million things that could've happened to her- and it was a terrifying thought that the girl she was starting to become friends with had vanished. 

 She looked towards the drop-ship, where Bellamy was coming out of with his head down and she knew that he didn't find her in there either. Dakota knew it was a long shot, but she had to try - she began walking towards Clarke's tent. 

 The entryway was open for all to see inside, fastened at the top by a tiny piece of cord she'd secured to the structure. She glanced up at Dakota, her blue eyes looking back with distaste as she felt someone staring at her, and then her eyes went sharp when Bellamy reached the side of Dakota. It was obvious that she was still angry at Bellamy for breaking the radio Raven had brought down with her, and that's why Dakota had the feeling that she wouldn't help them if it concerned Bellamy. 

"I didn't think you were still awake." Dakota broke through the silence as she stepped inside the tent, Bellamy hanging behind her as his torch lightened up the atmosphere around her. 

 "Yeah, well," Clarke nodded, before she fired back harshly, "knowing that hundreds of people could be dying on the Ark makes it pretty hard to sleep." 

"Raven's flares will work," Bellamy stated.

The blonde glared up at him as she stood to her feet. "Her radio would have worked better."

Dakota rolled her eyes at her but the blonde had a point. The radio would've worked better in the favor, but what was done was done and they couldn't rewrite the past. "Look, that's not why we're here, Clarke-"

 "Have you seen Octavia?" Bellamy questioned, attempting to avoid another argument and get back to the real reason why they were searching through the camp.

 "No." Clarke shrugged, clearly not detecting the urgency in Bellamy's tone, but furrowing her brows anyways. "It's Octavia. She's probably chasing butterflies-"

 "That's what I said, but we've checked the entire camp and she's not here." Dakota told her, voicing the urgent tone that Bellamy had forgotten. 

 Clarke turned her head as she glanced back over to see both Dakota and Bellamy's concerned faces, her demeanor shifted, softening to one equally as worried as the two delinquents stood before her. Sighing, she put down the wires to the radio and turned to face them. "Okay, i'll help you find her."

  When the third search of the camp had proved useless, Bellamy had begun to grow more desperate than before. Dakota could sense just how stressed out he was, she knew he felt that Octavia was his responsibility. Like her disappearance was his fault because he wasn't watching her close enough. The two teenagers walked alongside each other, each of them holding bags in their hand. "Hey, everybody, gather around and grab a weapon!" Bellamy spoke in a near-yell, drawing the attention of everyone nearby. 

 Dakota dropped her bag on the table, laying out the assortments of knives and spears and every makeshift weapon that the camp has made over the week of spending time down here. "My sister's been out there alone for twelve hours. Arm up. We're not coming back without her."

The pile of weapons began to diminish rapidly, and she saw Clarke start making her way towards them after telling Jasper that he couldn't come, but obviously Jasper ignored her, and was following behind Clarke. The two girls glanced at each-other before Clarke picked up a weapon and then Dakota nodded to herself, grabbing herself two sharp knives from the pile. She lifted the knife and threw it up in the air, almost like testing out the weight of it, and then grabbing it by the butt as it came back down. 

 Bellamy's eyes were already on her carefully watching as she skillfully maneuvered the knife through her fingers, and he smirked at the sight before walking over towards her. "We need a tracker." He stated, and Clarke nodded towards Finn's tent. 

 Dakota nodded and took the initiative to steal her best-friends boyfriend from her, and possibly get him into danger. Dakota walked over to their tent and opened it up, revealing Raven standing behind the tracker in question, and cutting his hair off. 

 "Hey, we need you space-walker," Dakota told them quietly as Raven's eyes turned towards her best-friend, frowning that Finn would be taken from her once again. "don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him." she informed her when she noticed the worried look on Raven's face. 

"Duty calls." Finn looked back at her, giving Raven one last kiss before he left. Dakota half-smiled at the sight, but didn't forget about the fact that Clarke was still heartbroken about the fact that Finn didn't tell her about Raven- hell, she didn't even know about her best-friend's boyfriend. 

 Dakota turned back around to find everyone packed and ready. Finn and Raven followed closely behind her as they reached the rest of the group that was helping to search for Octavia. At the sight of the Dakota leading Finn, they began walking towards the gates until someone pointed up towards the sky. 

 It looked like there were hundreds of comets falling from the sky, and Dakota furrowed her eyebrows. "Meteor shower?" she asks, directing her question towards Finn, who was standing next to her but he couldn't find the answer. 

 "The flares didn't work.." Raven came up from behind them. "they didn't see the flares."

 Bellamy must have overheard her because he turned to question her, "A meteor shower tells you that?" 

 Clarke's eyes were staring up at the sky, but her face slowly started to change. "It's not a meteor shower. It's a funeral. Hundreds of bodies being returned to Earth from the Ark. This is what it looks like from the other side." Bellamy looked away from her and towards the ground, and silence haunted the camp. Sadness began to seep into everyone's faces and Clarke turned away from the sight, not able to look anymore. "They didn't get our message."

 Raven stormed over towards Bellamy. "This is all because of you!"

 Bellamy threw his hands up in defense, "I helped you find the radio." Finn and Clarke both grabbed onto Raven's arms as she fought back, "Yeah after you jacked it from my pod and trashed it!" 

 "He knows, and now he has to live with it." Clarke spoke up. 

 Dakota scoffed which made Clarke glance over at Dakota but she didn't say anything. Bellamy shuffled on his feet, "All I know is that my sister is out there, and I'm going to find her. You coming or what?" he directed his question towards Finn, to which he nodded in response.

 Dakota's eyes followed the outline of Finn, and then she started to move forward to follow behind him. Bellamy glanced over at her briefly before barking out another order. "What are we waiting for? Move out!" 

 ▸▸▸

 Bellamy was leading the way, with Finn beside him trying to track where to go. Mbege held his lantern over a hill when his eyes caught something. "Hey, over here." Everyone rushed forward to see what he was looking at, it was a piece of fabric on a branch. 

 Dakota leaned forward to look at the blue colored fabric attached to a branch, "Is that Octavia's?" she asked, looking towards Bellamy who was standing beside her. 

 Bellamy held out his hand, "Rope." Dakota dug into her bag until finding it and handing it over to him. He walked over, tying it to a tree before tossing the rest of the rope down the hill.

 "What are you doing?" Finn questioned as he moved forward.

"We need the rope to get back up," Bellamy answered before leaning down and taking a portion of the rope in his hands. "Flashlight." He held out his hand for Jones to place a flashlight in, and then he began descending down the steep hill. He grabbed the piece of fabric from the tree, and noticed it was a belt that came off of Octavia's one piece. "It's hers!" He called out, "I'm going all the way down."

 Dakota didn't even hesitate as she grabbed the rope next, and began slowly making her way down the hill, taking a look up at Finn. "See you at the bottom," she winked up at him before reaching the bottom of the hill. 

  Dakota took out another flashlight that she packed in her bag, and turned it on as everyone else began coming down from the rope. Once everyone was at the bottom, they began looking around for any other signs that Octavia has been here.

 Something caught the corner of Dakota's eye as the flashlight shined down at a rock, and she blinked back while crouching to examine the rock that was laying at the bottom of the slope. Her hands reached out, "Bellamy, look at this," she raised her voice as she lifted her hand, noticing the crimson color that stained her fingers.

 Bellamy walked forward, his eyes caught onto the blood that stained Dakota's fingers. Her face turned to look over at him, her features were filled with worry. "She was here, we got to keep moving." 

 Finn followed behind them and then found a muddy footprint in the ground, "Someone else was here. The prints are deeper going that way. He was carrying her."

 Dakota fixed her bag that fell off her shoulders as she stood up straight, "If the grounders took her, that means she's likely alive. Like when they took Jasper." She informed the group, her eyes settling upon Bellamy, who eyes started to darken out of anger.

After another two mile walk, they all came to a stop. In the clearing, there were skeletons hanging from trees. Skulls and bones laying on the ground. 

 Finn stared up at it, "I don't speak grounder.. but I'm pretty sure this means keep out."

 A few people from behind them were muttering their fear, saying that they're out of here and not going in any further. Which Dakota could not blame them, she wanted to leave with them, but this was Octavia, her friend.

 "Go back if you want. My sister, my responsibility." 

And with that, Bellamy took off into the grounder's territory. A few others that were loyal to Bellamy began following behind them. Dakota began moving her legs as soon as Finn started to follow behind Bellamy. 

 It took the small group at least two hours to trek through the woods, and for Dakota it was like walking through hell. Every where she looked, a corpse would be hanging from it's neck, some flesh still attached to the bones but it's sockets would be staring back at her. Dakota bit down on the inside of her cheek and proceeded further in until the sun started rising, making the forest more easily to see through. 

 Finn was walking ahead of everyone, his eyes trained to the ground but a huff of frustration escaped his lips. "I got nothing. We lost the trail."

"We'll keep looking."

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

"I'm not going back." Bellamy hissed.

 "Hey!" someone shouted, and everyone turned around to see Roma, one of the girls that Dakota had learned had been coming out of Bellamy's tent early in the morning when everyone had spotted the pod in the sky, looking around worriedly. "Where's John?"

 "I just saw him a second ago." Jasper pulled his eyebrows together, looking for the missing boy.

Bellamy turned away from Finn and headed over to where Dakota was standing. "Spread out. He couldn't have gotten that far."

 Jasper turned to look towards Dakota and leaned forward to whisper, "I was just talking to him like a minute ago.." 

 Dakota frowned upon hearing the worried tone in his voice and she turned her head, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, We'll find-" before she could finish her sentence, an object fell from the sky and landed with a thud behind her. 

 Roma turned around with a gasp as everyone did the same, sharp and surprised. Mbege was lying on the ground, his body limp and heavy with blood beginning to crust around his throat from the incision that was made across his throat.  Blood soaked the top of his shirt and his eyes were wide open, the horror still in his pupils.

 Then there was a faint rustling from overhead and Dakota's eyes shot up to the sky, her vision stuck on a dark figure covered by leaves. "They use the goddamn trees," she whispered out in shock but loud enough to have Bellamy looking up. "What are we playing, Leap frog?"

Diggs, one of the other ones loyal to Bellamy's militia, said shakily as everyone looked over their shoulders and above their heads with fear. "We shouldn't have crossed the boundary."

 "Now can we go back?" Roma pushed. 

 "There," Jasper pointed out with his weapon. Dakota reached inside of her jacket and grabbed the hidden knife there, making sure to clench it tightly in her fist. "Right there. Right there."

 Diggs switched positions and everyone looked around them at the Grounders surrounding them, almost full circle, not including the ones they couldn't see in the trees. Diggs, spotting another figure in the distance, breathed out, "Another one." 

 "They're all over the place, how can they be so fast?" Dakota blurted out, spotting more of them as her eyes searched frantically around the forest.

"We should run." Finn said, looking around around cautiously.

 "No, I thought we could play a friendly game of duck-duck goose with them," Dakota snapped back at him as he took off on his feet with Bellamy supporting his decision right then and there. Every single one of them broke out into a spring in the direction they believed to be escaping the Grounders. The figures in the distance chased them so fast there was no room for any of them to slow down. Running was something Dakota was good at, thankful for the amounts of guard training her father put her in before she was locked up was finally starting to pay off, but others were not so lucky.  Bellamy and Finn were just a few feet in-front of her, running at the same pace, but when Dakota looked behind her for the rest of the group, Jasper was falling behind. 

 "Jasper! Come on!"

 "I can't run much longer!" shouted Jasper. 

 "I'm not stopping for him!" Diggs refused as he picked up the pace, no matter how hard it was to run already. Suddenly, Bellamy had stopped running, pulling his backpack off his shoulders and dropping it the ground. "I'm sick of running anyway," He pulled his axe out of his belt buckle and tossed it in his hand. 

Finn turned back around, stopping Bellamy from moving in the wrong direction and moving in the right one instead. "What are you doing?"

 "They know where she is," the protective brother snapped. Seeing Bellamy stop, all of the rest of them came to a slow except for Diggs, who still kept running. Roma, seeing a Grounder coming right at her, began to pick up the pace again.

 "Diggs! Where are you?" They all watched as Roma took off after him, so the rest of the group was forced to follow after her, further into the chaos. There was a loud scream before they all rounded a tree to find Diggs, with a spear through his chest. The Grounders were setting up traps and they were running right into them. 

 "They're leading us here. It's the only direction we could run in."

 Dakota leaned forward, placing the palms of her hands on her knees as she stopped to catch her breath. Finn looked around at the emptiness of the forest and shook his head. "Where'd they go?" he asked, noticing the lack of grounders. 

Bellamy looked in the direction they'd seen Roma tun off too and put the two situations together. "After Roma."

 The five of them all took off after Roma, Dakota starting to feel slightly pissed that the grounders were all picking them off, and scattering the group. Roma's screams had stopped, and the group made their way through the forest. "There she is." Dakota pointed towards Roma, who was lying against a tree. 

 Bellamy pushed past her, headed in Roma's direction and Dakota followed suit. Her stomach dropped when she made her way around the tree, seeing the girl with a massive spear sticking out through her chest. 

 "They can kill us whenever they want," Finn whispered, exasperated. Dakota opened her mouth as Bellamy closed Roma's lids, but suddenly, there was a loud, obnoxious shout from behind her.

 "Then they should get it over with!" Jasper screamed loudly, attracting unnecessary attention to them. Dakota's eyes widened, as did the rest of the group's, and Finn rushed over to him immediately. "Come on! We know you're out there!"

 "Jasper! Stop!" Finn demanded. 

Bellamy rushed away from Roma's body after shutting her eyes and pointed towards Finn, "Shut him up." He directed his order at Finn as Monroe scarcely scoped out the forest, only to find grounders running towards them in all directions.

Dakota turned towards Jasper, who was still waving his arms around and yelling out. "You want to kill us all, Jasper?" She shouted, glaring over at the boy.

 "They're coming!" Monroe announced over Jasper's screams, seeing the black figures run through the bushes towards them. The group huddled in a circle, ready to fight knowing they were outnumbered and screwed, but right when the Grounders were about to attack them, a horn sounded, blasting through the forest. Dakota's eyes landed on every grounder, all of them turning to listen intently for a moment and then they turned on their heel, taking off in the other direction and leaving them standing in the middle of the clearing. The horn sounded again. 

 Bellamy's eyes darted around them, watching as all the grounders started to run away. He pulled his eyebrows together, "They're leaving."

"That horn. What does it mean?" Monroe asked.

 It roared through the woods one more time before Finn could finally answer for them. "Acid fog." He told them all, and Dakota's eyes widened as she remembered getting stuck in the fog, and her back was the result of it. 

 "Well, we have to run." 

 Finn shook his head as he rummaged through his bag as quickly as he could. He pulled out a parachute and looked around at the three others, "There's no time." He jerked the tent and laid it out on the ground. There wasn't any more time to set the tent up, so instead he looked at the rest of them and gestured to the blanket-like tent. "Come on! Everyone get under. Now."

 Without wasting time, each of them got under the tent and formed a single file line lying down underneath the cover to protect themselves from the acid fog. After a moment or two of silence in the confined space underneath the tent covering, Jasper sighed from beside Dakota. 

"How long are we suppose to wait?"

 Dakota moved her head to the side, some of her hair hitting Bellamy in the face and he huffed out. "Is this shit even going to work? I got caught in the fog last time, not a fun time." 

 "We'll find out." Finn answered her, hoping for the best as the rest of the group fell silent. "No we won't." Bellamy told them while lifting the tent so the sunlight came through and he stepped outside, where the air was clear. He announced to the rest of them, "There's no fog."

"Maybe it was a false alarm?" Finn suggested, confused. Bellamy, however, didn't pay any mind to the acid fog when he spotted a Grounder walking among the trees.

"They're coming back!" he said anxiously.

 "I think he's alone," Jasper admitted. 

  Dakota cranked her head to the side, not seeing anyone else around him. "He's alone." 

"He doesn't see us." Bellamy paused and thought for a moment. "I'm going after him."

 Finn shook his head, "And what? Kill him?" His hair was sticking up in all different directions. Dakota shrugged her shoulders, "he helped kill two of us, I wouldn't mind getting revenge."

 Bellamy looked towards her, "No catch him. Make him tell me where Octavia is, then I'll kill him."

I just want to thank everyone for the amount of endless support this book has gotten over the years. I've reached 1k votes, and my book is voted #10 in the 100. I just can't explain in words how grateful I am.

edited: 2018-07-08