The 100 - Just one life more!

34: Pauna

A/N: What can I say, I'm back, bitches. And short reminder: Clarke and Lexa are running from Pauna. And Quint is dead, not that this is a loss.

___________________________________________

They ran and ran and ran. For a very long time. Then Lexa spotted a tunnel and they ran into it until they reached the end...and stopped dead in their tracks.

The tunnel opened into the bottom of a deep pit, littered with bones, bloody corpses and half eaten forest animals. They landed in the feeding grounds of the Pauna.

"Watch out!" Lexa's guard screamed and pushed his Heda out of the way. Lexa grabbed Clarke and pulled her to safety with her. Only a second later Clarke saw, what the guard was so afraid of, as he got crushed by the Pauna dropping to the ground. Since the giant gorilla blocked the way to the tunnel, Lexa and Clarke could only run further into the pit and climb up to a gallery. What tokk them a lot of effort, took the Pauna only a single jump. Desperately, Clarke turned around and shot bullet after bullet into the beasts chest. The Pauna stumbled back, fell and with a thud landed on the ground of the pit. Silence followed. Only interrupted by Clarke and Lexa's heavy breathing.

Clarke etched closer to where Pauna fell, but Lexa pulled her back, whispering, "Don't risk it."

Reluctantly Clarke let Lexa pull her back. She had to make sure, this thing was dead. A second late, she changed her mind, a loud roar disrupted the silence and Pauna jumped back onto the gallery.

Clarke and Lexa turned and ran through something that probably once was a door. Finally they came to the edge of an old parking garage. Nature had claimed most of it back.

Lexa looked over the edge. "We have to jump," she stated matter of factly.

Clarke got next to Lexa and looked down. She didn't like the distance between the ground and them, but she also knew, that they couldn't go back and if they didn't want to become a Pauna snack, they had to jump. Another roar came from behind Clarke and she jumped. Luckily for her, her fall was broken by moss and she rolled away a little to further absorb the impact. Lexa came down beside her and screamed in pain. Lexa only slipped away from Pauna by a few millimetres and couldn't land properly. But she still scrambled back to her feet, supported by Clarke, because she twisted her ankle.

In a small tunnel Pauna finally caught up to them and grabbed Lexa's ankle. This was the first time Clarke has seen pure fear in Lexa's eyes. Struggling to hold on to a metal pole while the Pauna damaged her twisted ankle even more. But she still bit back the screams of pain.

In a split second Clarke decided to position herself and she emptied her gun into the Pauna's chest again. Further wounded, the Pauna stumbled back and that was the second Clarke used to pull Lexa further into the tunnel, through a door. She put Lexa up against the wall, grabbed one of her swords and used it to block the door. She let out a sigh. They were safe for the moment, but the door wouldn't hold forever and honestly, she had no idea how they'd get out of this.

"You should've left me, Clarke. Now two will die here instead of one," Clarke heard Lexa voice her own fear. But unlike Lexa Clarke refused to give up so easily.

Clarke tried to conceal her own far with sarcasm, "I still am relatively new to your world, but my people say 'thank you' when someone saves your life."

But Lexa stood firm in her ways, "I'm serious Clarke," when Clarke rattled on the bars, she looked up to her, "To lead well, you must make hard choices."

"Hard choices?" Clarke knitted her eyebrows, "You're telling me?"

"I've seen your strength," Lexa tried to make Clarke see her point, "And it's true. You have held yourself against my people. You've made Anya like you. You have led your people here. But you waver. You couldn't kill Quint. And you couldn't leave me to save yourself. That was weakness."