MIND OVER MATTER

CHAPTER THREE: A HELPING HAND

CADY'S eyes took in all the different colors around her, it was mostly shades of green, but every now and then she'd catch a glimpse of purple or pink, flowers if she remembered correctly.

There were also a few bits of blue from small fluttering creatures that flew past them a few times, they were beautiful, but, she couldn't remember what they were called.

Murphy walked alongside her and Zach, and for a moment she'd forgotten about him, almost as if he didn't exist.

She could admit that he was charming and that he looked like the type of person that was able to simply disappear whenever they liked.

But his presence was like a dark silence creeping up on her, and it was so loud that it was somewhat comforting.

The blonde girl from earlier was somewhere behind them, closer to the dropship doing lord knew what, actually, Cady did want to know.

So she turned around and began to make her way back to the open ship, and with a few grumbles from Zach, both he and Murphy followed after her. The girl paid them no mind at first, her eyes tracing over the lines of the map that was laid out in front of her.

It wasn't until Murphy cleared his throat that the girl glanced over her shoulder at them, "what?" she grumbled, taken aback, Cady frowned and gestured to the map, "what's that for?" she questioned, the girl- annoyed as she could be- turned around with the map in her hands, "this." she gestured to a point on the map, "is where we're supposed to be."

She moved her finger to another place on the map, "this, is where we are."

"They put us on the wrong mountain."

"You're damn right they did." the girl retorted, "so what?" Murphy spoke his arms drawn across his chest, "so what? So all our supplies are waiting on the other mountain." the blonde explained, Cady's eyes widened and she met the girl's gaze, "so we have no supplies right now?"

She shook her head, "none, I'm trying to find people to go with me to the mountain, I only have four volunteers right now."

Cady couldn't help the stream of thoughts that had begun to run through her head, "well, you have two more now."

Zach's wild expression from beside her didn't seem to bother her much, "not you Zach, John, and I."

The boy calmed for a moment before heavily sighing, "why can't I go?" he questioned, turning to look at him for a brief second, she spoke, "because, we have no clue what's out there."

Rolling his eyes, it was now Murphys turn to argue, "I don't remember agreeing to this."

Cady raised a brow and gestured to the map, "do you wanna eat tonight?" slight realization crept onto his face and he remained silent for a few seconds, "count me in." he added.

"I'm Cady." sticking her hand out towards the blonde, she watched as she swiftly took it in her own and shook it, "Clarke."

Raising his hand to indicate he was the one speaking, John spoke once again, "I'm John, people call me Murphy."

"Nice to meet you." Clarke replied as she released Cady's hand, "that's my brother Zach." she added with a small gesture in his direction, "we can leave him with some of the older boys if you'd like." Cady thought about it for a moment, she didn't know any of the boys, at least she didn't think she did.

"Yeah... yeah, we can do that, you have any suggestions?"

Clarke pursed her lips before softly shaking her head, "I can find you someone before we leave though."

And with that, Clarke was walking off towards the biggest group of kids she could find.

"I don't need a babysitter." Zach grumbled as the girl walked off, Cady turned to face her brother and leaned down slightly so she was level with him, "I know, but I don't want you out here with no one to have your back."

Frowning, Zach crossed his arms over his chest and turned to look at the woods surrounding them, Cady took the bit of silence to cast John a look, "you sure you're up for this?" she questioned, he shrugged his shoulders, "death awaits our arrival, right?" she couldn't help but smile, as morbid as the statement was, it brought her some comfort.

"Death awaits our arrival." she replied with the same smile, John watched as she turned away and watched her glance around the surrounding greenery, god, she was beautiful, and for some odd reason, she wasn't put off by the fact he'd killed someone, he wondered why.

Maybe it was because she was a criminal too, and she thought she had no room to judge him, hell, none of them had any room to judge any of the others, they were all criminals, and now, they were free of those same crimes that had put them there.

But they would never be forgotten.

And he knew that much.

Bored, the three found spots around the dropship to sit and waited for Clarke to return, which didn't take long. Within ten minutes she was back and had a tall boy in tow, his hair was as black as it could get and he had soft blue eyes that seemed more welcoming than the people far off behind him.

She stopped in front of them with the boy a foot or so behind her before pointing to Zach, "Zach, this is Adam, Adam, this is Zach." the two nodded towards each other in acknowledgment before Adam's eyes ran over the three of them, of their small team.

"Sorry that Bellamys making you guys go out on your own." he spoke his voice low as he cast a look towards where the boy stood with a few others, she could tell he didn't want the older boy to hear him.

"It's okay, he's just being your typical ass."

Adam offered the girl a smile and gestured to Zach, "c'mon buddy, you can help me track those little blue butterflies."

That's what they were called, Cady almost felt dumb for not remembering it, but it didn't matter, she was the only one that knew she had forgotten.

Zach cast his sister a parting look, one that hurt her more than it should have, she was saying goodbye to him once again, but hopefully this time it wouldn't be for long.

"Well, if you guys are ready to go I think we can head out."

The two teens exchanged a glance before standing up and following Clarke through the crowds of kids, eventually, they stop and she called out to someone named Wells, he in turn brought along two boys that both looked like they were scientists of a sort, and then a boy with long hair approached Clarke, and he too seemed as if he would be joining them.

As they reached the edges of the woods that would hide them from the rest of the teens, a girl ran up and shoved past Clarke, it seemed they had a new volunteer.

Upon closer inspection, she realized it was Octavia, the douche of a girl that had been on the dropship.

Cady did her best to ignore the girl which was easy seeing as she was practically up the ass of one of the boys, if she hadn't been so worried about navigating the unfamiliar terrain she would've told the girl to give him some space. But that wasn't the case.

John extended a hand to her as they crossed over a jagged stretch of rocks, she gratefully took his hand and let him lead her across the rocks. "What kind of supplies do you think they left us?" he questioned, they were towards the back of the group, keeping an eye on those in front of them, she shrugged her shoulders, "I'd guess food, maybe some clothes, the basic necessities."

"Do you think they left us any weapons?" Cady snorted before swiftly covering her mouth in horror, when she met John's gaze he was smiling, it was a half-smile, one side of his lips turned up, "no, no I don't think they would." she spoke her voice void of any emotion, she couldn't think of anything more embarrassing.

They continued to follow after the others, only stopping when Clarke ducked down and held out a hand towards the others, "shhh." she'd whispered before pointing her finger towards a creature off in the near distance, "what is that?" John questioned, the boy with the long brown hair turned to look at him, "it's a deer." he replied.

"Shut up Finn."

Octavia, christ, she wanted to smack her, but despite her want to do so she managed to keep it together and watch the beautiful creature in silence.

"It's beautiful." one of the boys from the front muttered, suddenly, as if it knew they were there, the deer's head shot in their direction to reveal that it didn't have just one, but two heads.

Cady quickly turned away from the sight of the creature, she'd never seen anything so disturbing. "That's not something you see every day." Finn mumbled from the front of the group, she never wanted to see anything like that again.

"I'd say it's from the radiation, it's a miracle animals were able to survive down here with all of it."

And that was that, after their close encounter with the creature they trekked on through the woods for an hour or so before stopping at a small stream, when one of the boys leaned down to get a drink of what they believed to be water Clarke quickly yelled his name to stop him, "we don't know if it's safe to drink." she'd warned.

Taking this into consideration, the boy moved away from the water and stepped back onto the path Finn and Clarke had been leading them down, meanwhile, John chanced a drink of the liquid while no one was watching- except for Cady- and quickly returned to inform her that it tasted just like the water back on the Ark.

"If you're dead by tomorrow morning I'm gonna tell them it was your stupidity that killed you." he simply smiled, "you only live once, better that toxic water kills me over some animal."

They followed the steam for a mile and a half before it spread out into a much larger body of water, a river. It was beautiful, a greenish-blue color that flickered specks of a darker color when the sun shone over it, for a second they all stood and watched the river, fascinated.

Octavia was the first one to make a move, she'd made her way down the path and out onto a rock that jutted out about twelve feet over the water, without so much as a word she began to strip down to just her tank top and underwear which earned a look of disapproval from Clarke and a few smiles from the boys.

"See." John began as he jabbed a finger in the girl's direction, "she gets what I mean."

Cady frowned at his words and watched as the girl waved in their direction before taking a step forward and dropping off the rock, there was a loud splash, and within seconds they were all crowded around the edge of the rock looking for some sign of Octavia, there was none.

"I'm gonna go in after her." Finn had started working on removing his jacket, suddenly, Octavia's head peeked out of the water and she smiled up at them, "Christ, you scared us." Clarke sighed, "oh come on, it's not like I would've drowned."

After a moment she smiled and stood, the water wasn't as deep as they had thought, in fact, it only rose up to the girl's lower chest, or a second, Cady considered joining her.

MIND OVER MATTER

CHAPTER THREE: A HELPING HAND