KING, the hundred

twenty-seven: duty

"It's the moment of truth, and the moment to lie
The moment to live and the moment to die"

this is war by thirty seconds to mars

"GROUNDERS!"

Jasper screamed louder than Avery had ever heard. She and Octavia moved more quickly than the stunned delinquents around them, extending their arms out to make sure that no one moved further into the forest. The grounders had found them, killing one of their own.

They shouldn't have tried to run.

"Bell!" Avery yelled, and she saw his attention snap to her for a split second. "Get everyone back to camp!"

He followed her orders quickly and without question, much to Clarke's protest from beside him.

Within minutes, the entire group was back within the camp walls with Avery and Octavia ushering in the stragglers at the back of the group. Miller closed the door behind the King, and the pair exchanged panicked eye contact. People were running and screaming, and Finn made sure to get the injured Raven into the dropship first.

Avery and Miller quickly made their way into the center of the camp where Bellamy, Clarke, Octavia, and Jasper were already debating about how to handle the situation at hand.

"Lincoln said the scouts would be the first to arrive." Clarke said, specifically addressing Octavia.

"If it's just scouts we can fight our way out." Octavia said. She still saw running as their only option. "That's what Lincoln would do."

Avery turned to Bellamy to gauge his reaction to his sister's words. As expected, he was fuming. They'd just lost another one of their own because of Lincoln's plan, and he didn't agree to trust the grounder to begin with.

"We're done doing what that grounder would do." Bellamy said. He set a quick nod in Avery's direction, acknowledging that she was unharmed and that fighting was the only option. She nodded back at him in agreement. "We tried it and now Drew is dead. You want to be next?"

"That grounder saved our lives." Finn said, interjecting himself into the conversation with force. "I agree with Octavia. For all we know, there's only one scout out there."

"One scout with insanely good aim." Jasper chimed in from the side of the wall, his gun pointed outside of the fence. Avery made quick eye contact with him. Jasper sent her a wide eyed look that said "do something!" She obliged.

"Alright, everybody shut up!" Her voice was almost at a yell, causing the group around her to go silent. Avery cleared her throat, trying to overcome the slight pain that still came when she spoke. "This is our home now. We built this place with our own blood, sweat, and tears; with our bare hands. People have died here, for this place. Our friends, our family. They're buried behind that wall, in this ground. Our ground! The grounders think they can take that away. They think that because we came from the sky, we don't belong here. But they're yet to realize one very important fact: We are on the ground now, and that means we are grounders!"

"Grouders with guns!" Miller chimed in from beside Bellamy. The crowd nodded along with him and Avery suppressed a wide grin, instead forming her lips into a tight smile.

"Now, I know you're afraid." Avery continued. "But we owe it to ourselves and the people we've lost to fight this. To fight them. You're not fighting for you today, you're fighting for all of us. So that we can live, so that we can survive. Hell, we already have. They sent us down here, to Earth, to die. But we didn't die. We survived. Against all odds, we are still here. So I say: Let the grounders come!"