From the look on Bellamy's face when I joined him at the bottom of the grassy hill, I immediately knew something was wrong. Jasper and Finn were close behind me as we walked up to where he was kneeling down beside a small rock covered in soft moss. I leaned down next to him, noticing a small area of the rock was covered in dark blood that hadn't dried yet.

Bellamy shined the light over the rock as Finn looked around for tracks, "Someone else was here."

Finn spotted the tracks Bellamy was talking about, "The prints are deeper going that way."

"He was carrying her," Bellamy glanced at Finn, worry lacing his words.

"If they took her, she's alive," Jasper looked at Bellamy with hopefulness. "Like when they took me."

I saw the fear in Jasper's eyes, "Hey, you're brave for being here. I'm proud of you."

He gave me a nod of thanks as Bellamy stood up, determination in his quick footsteps, "We need to keep moving."

I felt my feet aching as I stood up and followed Bellamy. We had already been walking a long time, and I had a feeling that this journey was far from over.

If the grounders actually had Octavia as a prisoner at their camp, how we get her out? What if it was heavily guarded? I knew Bellamy would take any risk to get his sister back, and that scared me a little bit, because what if the risk was too high?

I caught up with his quick pace, "Are you okay?"

He kept his gaze trained on the path before us, "I just want to get O back."

"I know," I answered, glancing over his worrisome face. "We're going to find her, Bellamy."

Finally, he pulled his eyes away from the trees. Meeting my gaze, he offered a nod of appreciation, "Thanks for coming along."

I shrugged, a grin catching my lips lightly, "Well, someone has to watch out for you."

I spotted a ghost of a smile on his face; the first one all night, and I couldn't help but feel proud for being the cause of it. However, my joy was short-lived, because as soon as Bellamy and I turned our eyes back to our path, we both stopped. I came to a halt so abruptly that Jasper ran right into my back.

With a pang of fear hitting my chest, I glanced around at the horrid scene in front of us. An ominous expanse of trees stood with their branches swaying softly in the wind. Attached to almost every single tree was a rotted skeleton. Some of them were missing limbs; some of them still had flesh on the bones. I turned my nose up at the potent smell. The faint light from our torches only illuminated some of the path, but I knew there were even more creepy skeletons waiting for us.

"I don't speak grounder," I heard Finn say from beside Bellamy, "but I'm pretty sure this means keep out."

I scoffed, bringing my eyes to him, "Yeah, no shit, Sherlock."

"Let's get out of here," I heard people in the back murmuring. "This is crazy."

"I'm out of here," one said before immediately turning around. I couldn't blame him.

"Yeah. Me too," another replied.

"Go back if you want," Bellamy spoke up with his eyes ahead of him. "My sister, my responsibility."

Without hesitation, Bellamy began walking into the skeleton forest. Jasper moved from behind me, "I'd walk into hell to find her."

Finn stepped forward next to him, "I think we just did."

Sighing, I followed them, casually walking beside Finn, "Well, someone has to make sure all you idiots don't die."

――――

I had no idea how long we had been walking through the forest; deeper into grounder territory with every step, but I knew that I was tired as shit. With every movement, my back ached as my legs yelled for rest. The crunching of pine needles under my boots had become an annoying sound that bothered my ears, and there were heavy bags circling my hazel eyes as I forced myself to try and find some distant energy.

The only thing keeping me moving was the tiny hint of fear in the back of my mind. My fear kept me on edge; ready to run or fight; whatever we had to do to survive. A grounder could have popped out at any second, and I was prepared.

"I got nothing," Finn caught up with Bellamy and me after searching for more tracks. "We lost the trail."

Bellamy refused to believe his words, "Keep looking."

"Yeah, we didn't walk through a skeleton forest just to lose the trail, Spacewalker."

Finn sighed, "I'm doing my best, Harley. Would you like to take over?"

I rolled my eyes at him, "Just shut up and keep looking."

Finn turned to Bellamy, "Wandering around aimlessly isn't the way to find your sister. We should backtrack-"

"I'm not going back," Bellamy cut him off with emotion laced in his tone.

"Hey," All of turned around when Roma spoke up. She was looking around with fear in her eyes. "Where's John?"

I glanced between the six people in our group that had dwindled since the skeleton forest. Roma was right. John was missing.

"I just saw him a second ago," Jasper said.

Bellamy scanned the trees, "Spread out. He couldn't have gone far."

I nodded, pulling out my knife as I took a few steps forward, but I stopped in my tracks as something almost fell right on my head. I jumped back, startled as I looked at what had been thrown from the trees.

It was John, and his throat had been slit; a single X around his neck. His dead eyes stared at the sky. My gaze was glued to his lifeless body in disbelief and shock as I felt someone's hand on my arm.

"Harley, are you okay?" I looked over to see Bellamy glancing over me.

I gave him a small nod as I backed away from Jonh's body, "They used the trees," Finn said as he joined us.

After the initial shock of John's death had faded from the group, all of us turned our heads upward, looking into the trees.

"We shouldn't have crossed the boundary," I glanced over at Diggs, someone I was surprised to still see with the group. He usually did his best to stay away from danger, but he was Monroe's friend, so I figured that was why he joined us.

"Now can we go back?" Roma asked.

"There," Jasper raised the thick metal pole he picked as his weapon, pointing about fifty yards away from us where a grounder stood.

He had a spear in his hand with a strange mask covering his face, but I could tell that he wanted to kill us. I felt Bellamy step closer to me when he spotted the grounder.

"Another one," Diggs's voice wavered as I saw a second grounder on the other side.

Finn glanced at Bellamy and me, "We should run."

Good idea.

Less than a second later, we were all sprinting to the left; the only place where no angry grounder warrior stood waiting to spear us. Bellamy ran right beside me, and I glanced around, noticing that the grounders were chasing after us.

Adrenaline was pumping through my veins, causing me to run faster than I thought I could. My heart raced with every passing second as one word echoed in my mind: Survive.

Clutching tight to the knife in my right hand, I kept running, hopping over tree roots and scattered foliage in my path without looking back.

"Let's go! Let's go!" Finn called out.

"What are we gonna do? They keep heading us off," I heard Diggs ask.

"Just keep running!"

I moved through a small opening between two trees, but I stopped when I heard Jasper struggling, "I can't run much longer!"

"I'm not stopping for him," my eyes went to Diggs, walking up to him, and shoving him backward.

"Hey, we don't leave anyone behind," I fired roughly at him. "Understand?"

As Jasper caught up to me, Bellamy turned around, "I'm sick of running anyway."

Finn gave him a confused look, "What are you doing?"

Bellamy motioned to the grounders gaining on us, "They know where she is."

"Diggs! Diggs, where are you?"

My head snapped to Roma as I noticed that Diggs had thrown my words out the window and ran off, and now, Roma was running off to look for him.

I shook my head, "These people really are idiots."

"Harley! Come on!"

I picked up my pace again as we ran in the direction Roma went with one of the grounders close on our tail. I caught up to Bellamy, hoping that we could find Diggs and Roma before the grounders did, but when Finn came to a fast halt with widened eyes, I knew we were too late.

I saw Diggs impaled with some kind of big, swinging trap. His head hung down, blood dripping from his mouth. I looked away from the gruesome sight, a realization hitting me.

I turned to Finn and Bellamy, "They were leading us here."

Jasper nodded as he looked around frantically, "It's the only direction we could run in."

"There could be more traps," I pointed out.

Finn's eyes scanned the forest, "Hey, where'd they go?"

I followed the path of his eyes, the fact that the grounders chasing us were nowhere to be seen registering in my mind.

"After Roma," Bellamy quickly answered before breaking into a sprint again.

The feeling that they were leading us into more gruesome traps was in the back of my mind as the rest of us ran after Bellamy. The grounders knew this forest well, and we were just running around like chickens with their heads cut off. We were going exactly where they wanted us to go.

A scream echoed in the forest. Did the grounder have Roma already? The scream seemed to make everyone move faster.

We ran for a few more minutes before Monroe stopped, pointing towards a distant tree, where I could see half of her body leaned against it, "There she is. Roma!"

The lack of response caused me to have a bad feeling in my gut. Bellamy was the first to walk towards the tree, coming to a dreaded stop in front of her body.

I saw a thick spear stuck in her chest that pinned her to the tree. Another dead; another killed by the grounders, and for what? For being in their territory. A flame of anger entered my mind. Why did they hate us so much? What had we done to deserve being killed?

"They're playing with us," Finn said quietly.

I watched Bellamy, his eyes still on Roma with sadness. He tentatively reached forward, closing her frozen gaze. I put my hand on his shoulder.

"She only came because of me," he muttered with guilt as he glanced at me.

Finn disregarded Bellamy's words; still focused on trying to see where the grounders were, "They can kill us whenever they want."

"Then they should get it over with!" Jasper suddenly yelled into the air. Finn ran over to Jasper as he kept shouting. "Come on! We know you're out there! You want to kill us-!"

"Jasper, shut up!" I said to him as Bellamy walked up to him, and grabbed him, trying to silence him.

"They're coming!" Monroe warned.

My eyes darted around the trees. Sure enough, the grounders had found us, thanks to Jasper's sudden outburst. I counted at least four. There could have been more hiding in the brush. All of them were armed and ready to kill us just like they killed John, Diggs, and then Roma.

My eyes met Bellamy's; thousands of unsaid words between us flickering through our thoughts. Then, Seconds before the group of grounders charged at us, a loud and deep horn blew over the forest. The grounders stopped in their tracks before turning and running away.

That was weird.

"They're leaving," Bellamy said with disbelief.

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

"Acid fog," Finn replied quickly, pulling out a large, folded tarp from his bag.

Monroe looked at him, "We have to run."

He shook his head, "There's no time."

――――

"Well, this is really fun guys."

My sarcasm didn't seem to brighten the mood as the five of us laid underneath the tarp, up close and personal. Almost half of my body was pretty much thrown over Bellamy so we could all fit. Several minutes had passed, and no acid fog had come through.

"How long are we supposed to wait?" Jasper asked from beside Finn.

Monroe sighed, "Will this even work?"

"We'll find out," Finn answered.

I could tell that Bellamy was tired of laying under the tarp. I knew that every minute we laid here was another minute we weren't looking for Octavia.

"No, we won't," Bellamy basically said, 'fuck this, as he stuck his head out of the tarp. "There's no fog," he said as he stood up.

We got out from under the tarp, "Maybe it was a false alarm."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move. I turned my head, finding a grounder jogging through the trees, but not towards us. Bellamy followed my eyes.

"They're coming back."

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

Jasper was right. I glanced around, but there was no other grounder in sight.

"Now can we run?" Monroe asked.

Bellamy's eyes were still on the grounder, "He doesn't see us. I'm going after him."

Finn moved his eyes to Bellamy, "And what? Kill him?"

"No. Catch him," Bellamy responded, keeping his focus with the grounder. "Make him tell me where Octavia is, then kill him."

Bellamy stood, walking in the direction of the grounder, and I followed suit with Jasper calling after us, "How do we know he's not leading us into another trap?"

"We don't," Finn replied as they walked behind us.

I glanced over my shoulder, "Stay quiet."

We moved with caution in our light footsteps with the grounder in the distance. We stayed far enough away so we wouldn't be noticed by him. I didn't think this was the best idea, but Bellamy was stubborn, and I knew there was nothing I could say to change his mind; especially since we still hadn't found Octavia.

I watched the grounder as he stopped by a large hatch covered in moss and vines. He opened the rusty door and descended into whatever was below it. There was no way to know what we would be walking into, but Bellamy still had no hesitation.

I was right behind Bellamy as we walked down creaky steps into the eerie darkness. The air was musty, and mud squished under my boots when they made contact with the ground. Insects were crawling over the rocky walls, and I shuddered. This place was gross and depressing.

We turned a corner, ready to be faced with the grounder, but instead, we were faced with Octavia as she stood over him. He was out cold.

"Bellamy?" She said with joy and disbelief in her voice.

Her head was covered in dirt and dried blood. Her hands were chained, and her hair was tousled. She looked bad, but at least she was alive.

"Octavia!" Bellamy ran to her, relief obvious on his face.

"Get the key!" Octavia said in a hurried voice as she searched the ground for the small metal key she must have dropped.

Once Bellamy found the key, he quickly unlocked her chains and called over his shoulder, "Monroe! Watch the entrance."

A smile formed on my lips when Octavia finally got the chains off her wrists and she threw her arms around Bellamy's shoulders. I watched the happy reunion, not able to imagine the amount of relief Bellamy must have been feeling in that moment.

"It's okay. You're okay."

After a few more cheerful moments between the siblings, Octavia pulled away from Bellamy. Her eyes looked over Jasper, Finn, and I. She came up to me, giving me a quick hug before moving to Jasper.

"How did you find me?"

Jasper motioned to the grounder after Octavia hugged him, "Followed him."

I finally moved my eyes to the unconscious man lying next to us. The mask that had once covered his nose and mouth had fallen off, revealing his whole face. Smeared war paint lined his eyes and cheeks. He looked like the definition of a warrior. If this was what all grounders were like, did we even stand a chance against them?

"We should go before he wakes up," Octavia said, and I knew she was right.

Bellamy stood over the grounder with a clenched jaw, "He's not gonna wake up."

Bellamy walked over to the wall, grabbing the long spear that was leaning against it, "Bellamy stop!" Octavia shouted as she stood in his path to the grounder. "He didn't hurt me. Let's just go."

"Octavia's right," I said as Finn leaned down over the grounder.

"They started this!" Bellamy exclaimed. "Finn. Move."

I glanced over his shoulder to see what Finn was examining, "Foghorn," I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion when I saw the horn in Finn's hands. This grounder had blown the horn when there was no acid fog? He wanted the others chasing us to go away.

Had he saved us?

Before I could ask any questions, or say anything, the grounder woke up. He moved swiftly before any of us could process what was happening. He pulled a knife out, shoving it into Finn's side. Finn let out a painful grunt, falling over as the grounder kicked Jasper's feet out from underneath him.

I went over to Finn, looking at the knife sticking out of him with panic. I turned my head, fear striking every ounce of my being when I saw the grounder trying to press the tip of his spear into Bellamy's throat.

"Bellamy!"

"Stop that's my brother!" Octavia yelled.

Then, a heavy thud echoed in the air as Jasper used his metal pipe to knock the grounder in the back of the head. I looked at him with shock as the grounder fell over, out cold again. As Jasper leaned down next to me and Octavia, I stood up and rushed to Bellamy's side.

"Are you okay?" I asked as I helped him up.

He nodded, "We need to get Finn back to camp. Now."

"We should take the knife out," Jasper said.

"No, we don't do anything until we get him to Clarke," Bellamy instructed before putting his arms underneath Finn's body and picking him up.

Finn had already passed out, but he was still breathing. If we didn't get him back to camp in time, he would be the fourth death of the day.

And I didn't think I could take someone else dying from a grounder attack.

――――
okay, here's the next chapter :)
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