XX

[PREVIOUSLY: Octavia voices her concerns about Bellamy to Finn. Furthermore, things come to a one-on-one with Clarke once she professes her feelings for Finn. A flame of jealousy sparks up between Clarke and Octavia when Finn finally makes his decision and shares a passionate kiss with the girl-under-the-floor].

CRUNCH. CRUNCH. CRUNCH.

The dead dry leaves crumpled up beneath my scuffed boots as I walked, slowly, through the outskirts of our camp.

It'd been three days since our landing and Bellamy and Clarke had gotten no closer to making a decision about the future.

Were we to stay at the drop-ship or travel to Mount Weather?

Everyone had mixed opinions on the matter. Some of us wanted to stay within the comforts of peace and safety, but others took a more practical side, knowing that if we continued on as if nothing were wrong, we'd surely starve to death. Maybe the grounders were waiting, waiting for us to become weak and helpless, before swooping in to attack us. Who knew what they were planning? And in the meanwhile? We were all acting like defenceless, lovesick puppies.

"Strong group of fighters we are!" I muttered under my breath, angrily kicking out at the dirt near my shoe.

"Whoa, Princess, why so glum?"

At the sound of that merry, masculine voice I couldn't help but smile as I turned around to face the speaker. "Spacewalker. Well, well, well, imagine seeing you here? I thought you'd gone on a search party for food?"

"I did ..." Finn's voice trailed off as he stepped forward and wrapped both arms around my waist.

"But?" I prompted him, laying my forehead on his and slipping my arms around his neck. "Spacewalker?"

"T-there is no food, Princess," he whispered. "None of the search parties have come back with anything for days ..."

I sighed. "We only have enough supplies to last us four more days. What do we do then?"

"I don't know. It's not our decision."

"It's not? Let's be honest, Finn, Clarke and Bellamy make pretty crap leaders. They're doing nothing, absolutely nothing!"

"You don't know that."

"Finn?" I arched my eyebrows as I gazed pointedly at him. "You know it. I know it. We all know it. So don't act dumb."

Finn smirked as he leaned in to give me a quick peck on the lips. "And why would I do that?"

"OCTAVIA! FINN!"

An urgent cry snapped us both out of our dreamy reveries. Quickly, we untangled ourselves from each other and whirled around in the direction of the voice.

"Dustin?" Finn queried, a worried tone lacing his words. "W-what's wrong?"

Dustin stumbled forward a couple more steps, until he was standing directly in front of us. Then, he doubled over as he tried to regain his breath.

"It's - it's ... Atom," he gasped out. "S-someone tried to kill him."

Finn and I exchanged horrified glances before turning back to Dustin.

"Where is he?" I demanded.

"He's being taken back to the drop-ship," Dustin gulped and shook his head. "He's pretty much dead already."

Before another word could be spoken, Finn took off running in the direction of the drop-ship.

"Thanks, Dustin," I shot the boy a quick smile and clapped him on the shoulder before running after Finn.

What on earth was going on?

Finn reached the drop-ship first, me not far behind. As soon as we'd both burst noisily through the door, all we could do was stop and gasp as we took in the scene in front of us.

Bellamy and Murphy were standing at a distance as Clarke and another girl bent over a bloodied, bruised body that was lying on a pile of canvas coverings in the corner. Clarke was dabbing at a wound on the victim's neck and calling out instructions to the girl next to her. The thing that really got to me was that the - the thing on those canvas coverings ... he didn't even look like a person; that was how bad he'd been beat up.

"What the hell happened?" Finn's furious voice broke through my stunned stupor.

"Relax, Spacewalker," Bellamy scoffed. "Atom'll be fine. He - he's just had a bit of a mishap."

"That's not what Dustin told us!" I exclaimed. "He - he said someone tried to kill him!"

Bellamy shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. But either way the bugger deserved what was coming to him."

"What? How can you say that?" I cried, glowering at my brother and balling my hands into fists. "No one deserves to suffer like this!"

"What did he do that was so bad?" Finn gazed pointedly at Bellamy. Even though he had gritted his teeth, I saw, out of the corner of my eye, that his jawline was trembling ... trembling with rage.

"He questioned my authority," Bellamy responded carelessly.

"That's it!!??" I exploded.

"And - as I was about to say - he committed a felony."

"A - a felony? A felony according to who?" Finn snapped.

"Me," Bellamy turned on Finn. "You got a problem? People need to know who the real leader is around here and if I can teach Atom a lesson, show him whose boss, then he can be used as an example to anyone else out there who even dares to think of crossing me again ... Someone like you, Spacewalker."

"Back-off, Bellamy," Clarke got to her feet and glared at him, eyebrows raised.

Bellamy sighed and stepped back. "Fine. Okay."

"I'm gonna ask one more time: what did he do, Bellamy?" I spat out.

"He - he messed around with one of my girls," Bellamy hesitantly replied.

"So we strung him up, left him for dead," Murphy related sardonically, an evil smirk twisting his mouth.

"Y-you're kidding me," I shook my head as I backed away a couple of paces. "You - you can't go around killing people, Bellamy! How could you?"

"Well, like a smart girl once told me, we can do whatever the hell we want," Bellamy eyeballed me, his hand touching the tip of the gun that he had in his belt. "Remember that, Octavia? Remember?"

I stared at him. My throat began to clog up. My vision began to blur with unshed tears. My chest began to physically hurt from all the pain I was carrying.

An agonised cry escaped Atom's lips as he began thrashing around, clutching his raw, bloody neck in terror.

My eyes riveted towards him, the boy that my brother had hurt, the boy that my brother had almost killed, the boy that my brother had no right to lay a finger on. Never before had I disagreed with Bellamy ... but now ...

Filled with unshakable rage and disgust, I turned back to Bellamy and hissed, in a low and threatening tone, "Bellamy Blake; you ... are ... no ... longer ... my ... brother!"

I spun around on my heel and stormed out the door, into the cool afternoon air. As a gust of wind flicked around my face and played with my hair, I told myself that I was done, done with Bellamy, done with Clarke, done with following orders.

From now on, I would listen to nobody. From now on, I would be my own person. From now on, I would take matters into my own hands.

I turned my back on the drop-ship and walked away. Things had changed. I had changed. And there was no going back.

Gif: Octavia when she sees Atom's unrecognisable body.

XX