Saviors ; 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘥

073. ꕥ Marching To War

A day had passed since my... interesting — to say the least — encounter. That was plaguing my mind, along with all the worrying thoughts about whether Bellamy was still alive or not. It was worse now that I was away from the radio because I couldn't ask Raven if he was okay, and I couldn't hear his voice through the radio. My mind was stuck on those two things, one weighing more heavily than the other.

The only thing I could do now was sat and wait like everyone else. Wait to see the flare in the sky that signals us Bellamy had gotten the acid fog down, and we could march. My eyes had been on the blue sky waiting to see that flare — praying to see that flare. I didn't doubt Bellamy could do it. I did not doubt that he couldn't get the acid fog down. But what came with that was knowing that he could've done it but still ended up hurt after the fact. That was the scariest part of all of this. The possibility of seeing the flare thinking Bellamy was okay when he wasn't. I know seeing the flare doesn't guarantee that Bellamy was safe — or even alive. He could've gotten the acid fog down but have been killed afterward. And that's why when I saw the streak of pink flying through the sky, my relief wasn't as high as others.

When we saw the flare, Lexa had ordered everyone to start marching. And that's exactly what the massive army of us did. That's what we're were doing now — marching through the thick green woods. In a way, it reminded me of the time the hundred tried fleeing from the Grounders. We tried running from them, tried to get away and go to the sea to find safety and salvation, but ultimately, we had to turn back and fight that war. We won, but now there's another war, and we're fighting with the enemy of our last. It was kind of ironic if you thought about it.

We were barely into our march when Clarke came up to my left and fell into step with me. "I'm assigning you to Raven's team."

My eyes didn't move in the blond's direction; they only stayed in the path ahead of me. I knew I still hadn't been assigned a team yet, and I knew that my skills would probably be more helpful with Raven than on the front lines with Clarke and Lexa or even in the mines with Octavia. I was well aware of this.

"Okay." Was my only response to Clarke before silence settled over us, and I couldn't tell if it was tension-filled or not.

"You know about the missile, right?" Clarke finally spoke up. There was something in her voice that I couldn't quite decipher what it was. "And how I knew it was coming." In the latter sentence, there was reminiscence of what seemed like guilt.

"Yeah, Clarke, obviously. I was there when you found out." She didn't seem phased by the hostility in my voice. "How could you not warn everyone?"

"I had to protect Bellamy." She said it was as if it was just that simple. "If we evacuated, then Mount Weather would've known we had Bellamy inside. They would've caught him and killed him. I know you care about that."

"Clarke—"

"I need you to understand." She cut me off. "You told me you understood why I do the things I do, and I'm asking you to do that now."

My face finally turned to look at the blond, who, as it seems, was staring at me the whole time. My jaw was clenched as I spoke to her. "How do you want me to understand that you let almost three hundred people die? How am I supposed to understand that?"

"Even if you don't today, I hope that you'll understand eventually." Clarke seemed like she was finished with her pleading argument before adding, "And you can't tell anyone. The alliance will break if you do."

I never responded to Clarke. The only thing I did was watch her walk away and contemplate what she had said. The latter part of her statement was evident. Of course, I wouldn't tell anyone — I'm not an idiot — I knew that we needed the Grounders to help get our friends out of Mount Weather, but I was more focused on the first part. She let that bomb drop on Tondc, and she asked me to understand why she did that. I understood why Clarke had done things in the past, but this was something I couldn't understand.

❣︎

It wasn't long after that when Raven came up beside me. I was grateful to see her, having a familiar face I could trust. It was also nice to know that she made it to us safely.

But she wasn't alone. A man accompanied her — one that I had never seen before. He had short red-ish hair and stood taller than both Raven and me. I could only assume that this man was Wick, the guy Raven has been mentioning over and over.

"Good to see you, Raven." I smiled, a playfulness in my tone. My eyes then went up to who I assume is Wick. "And you..." My eyes went back to Raven. "Wick, right?"

Raven shook her head with a slight smile on her face. "Don't pay any attention to him. He's just tagging along."

Wick, who had a very offended look on his face, spoke to me. "And I have no idea who you are."

"Jo." I answered."

The man had a look of realization on his face; his mouth opened wide with an 'oh' look on his face. "You're Bellamy's—"

He was cut off when Raven sent her elbow into his side, stopping whatever words that were going to come out of his mouth next. There was a pained look on his face as Raven looked at me. "Like I said, don't mind him."

Deciding to shake off the odd scene that had just unfolded, I asked Raven, "Is Bellamy okay?" To be completely honest, I was scared of the answer to that question. My stomach twisted as I waited for Raven to respond.

A solemn look appeared on her face as her eyes met mine. I could see a small amount of guilt hiding in them. "We lost contact with Bellamy. I'm sorry."

My eyes tried to blink back the tears that were starting to form in my eyes. The way my stomach was twisting quickly turned into my stomach dropping at Raven's words. The words that I didn't want to hear. I knew this didn't for sure mean Bellamy was dead, but it didn't mean he was alive either.

"Oh." My breath was shaken as I spoke. I sniffled, still trying to stop the tears that were threatening to spill. Desperate to change the topic to anything but Bellamy, I told Raven, "I'm coming with you. This is where Clarke wants me — helping you guys."

Raven seemed like she wanted to refuse me coming with them. She opened her mouth to oppose but shut it upon realizing that I wasn't going to back down. I was coming in that Mountain with her whether she liked it or not. I was going in there to get answers on whether our friends were okay; I was going to help win this war. Luckily, Raven decided against arguing with me and nodded her head.

"Okay. You can come." Raven agreed before she quickly started getting to work. "Do you know what we're doing and how to do it?"

"Uh, sure?" I answered, but it sounded more like a question than a statement. "I'll figure it out, I promise. I want to help."

"I know you will, but it'll be quicker if I just explain it to you as we walk. Sound like a plan?"

I nodded at her words before she started quickly explaining how we would get inside Mount Weather. As we continued to march, she pulled the backpack off Wick's shoulder and grabbed something out of it. The device she held out looked like some sort of bomb. I was right. Raven told me we had to blow the turbines to cut off their power and shortly explained how to detonate it.

By the time she was done explaining to me, it was our time to part off from the group. "Team dam!" Raven called to the Grounders. "This is where we break off." Raven, Wick, me, and a few other Grounders parted from the army.

This was it. We were going to war to save our friends. It didn't do justice to say that I was nervous — it was more than that. I was still worried about Bellamy; there was no way I couldn't be. But I had this feeling, this gut feeling, that something would go wrong. Of course, I tried to ignore this feeling, we had a plan, and I had faith that it would work. Though, there was still something sitting at the bottom of my stomach — something telling me to be more worried than I was.