Cobwebs and Flies

Ch13• Cold As Ice

The delinquents were silent. The violent pack of grounders had vanished in flames. Raven opened the dropship doors, the hissing sound of the pressurized door filling the room as smoke danced in the air. They stepped outside; they were all alone except for dozens of bodies -piles of brittle bones - that surrounded the dropship. They may have won this fight, but they were far from winning the war.

Murphy was looking around aimlessly for Bellamy, but he was nowhere to be found. "Where's Bellamy?"

Raven looked at Murphy and sighed, "He didn't make it into the dropship."

"What? What do you mean? Where is he?"

"I don't know. He must have run."

Murphy could feel his bones shake; what if Bellamy was among those bodies? The thought alone was enough to make him think eery. "We've gotta find him."

"Murphy," Clarke began, emotions clearly painting her face. "We can't just go running around the forest blindly. Especially with the mountain men out there looking for us."

Clarke was right. The only way they could defeat the cruel mountain men was with Lexa's help.

"How can you trust a grounder after what we've just been through?" Raven had a point, but Clarke was convinced otherwise.

"She saved my life." Clarke responded, "We're going to become the thirteenth clan, and then we'll be under the commander's protection - Lexa's protection."

Jasper spoke up, "What do we do until then?"

"We do what we always do; we survive."

Bellamy had his hands tied and was being dragged by a grounder on a horse. There were two more behind him who made sure he didn't try anything they disapproved of. They all wore white war paint, which caught his eye for every grounder he had met on Earth so far had worn black paint. Through foreign chatter, Bellamy had only acquired the name of one warrior: Echo. She was the girl that kept on digging arrows in Bellanmy's back when he walked too slow.

They finally arrived at a small village where Echo forced Bellamy into one of the wooden cabins they had built, and she chained him to the wall. So many thoughts ran through his head, but Bellamy had to remain strong and silent. His mind found comfort in thinking about the nights he spent by Murphy's side, ensuring he was okay and protecting him from this planet's many dangers. To him, it was the perfect place.

Bellamy knew they would try to make him talk, most likely with pain, so he tried to treasure the moments where he was left alone. His peace was quickly broken when Echo walked inside, holding a sharp knife in her hand and locking the door behind her. Bellamy gulped, a lump of anxiety traveled down his throat, and he could almost feel the blade against his tanned skin. His body shook, and he tried to keep his head high and hide his fear. Echo kneeled in front of him, the knife gripped in between her fingers so tightly that her knuckles began to turn white, matching the paint that covered her face.

"I'm only going to ask you once, and if you don't tell me what I want to know, you'll pay the price. Understood?"

Bellamy needed to make a decision: either he would talk or he wouldn't. Even he wasn't sure of what yet.

"How many more of you are there?"

Bellamy didn't speak; he simply looked the girl in the eyes. Without hesitation, Echo tore part of Bellamy's lower shirt and dragged her knife onto his abdomen, blood escaping his stomach as he let out a cry.

"How many more of you are there?"

Again, he refused to spoke and sliced him again."I can do this all day."

She placed the knife against his throat this time and threatened to cut, but Bellamy caved, "Wait!" Echo stopped and retracted her weapon.

"There are another few hundred people still in space and us. I don't know when they'll come down."

Before she had the chance to ask him another question, there was a knock on the door, and someone said something in a language that sounded like English yet wasn't. Whatever it was, Echo stopped and left, leaving Bellamy to bleed. It wasn't going to kill him, but it was uncomfortable.

Echo was meeting Queen Nia, who impatiently wanted to know more about those strangers that had landed in their backyard.

"My queen, I'm afraid I have bad news. There are still hundreds of them who are supposed to come down from space. This is only the beginning."

Queen Nia was sitting on her throne and thought about what Echo was saying, "I will let the commander know when I go to Polis tomorrow. Get as much information as you can until then; I am counting on you, Echo."

Echo bowed down to her and left, returning to see Bellamy with his eyes closed. Since he got down to Earth, he never really had time to get much sleep with the threat of the grounders around. A part of Echo wanted to let him sleep peacefully, but she knew she had work to do and questions that needed answering. She gave Bellamy's leg a kick that woke him up as she was kneeling down in front of her. This time, she dabbed the open wound with a damp cloth before speaking up again.

"Who have you been fighting with?"

"A grounder named Anya," Bellamy answered.

"That makes sense. You see, there are twelve different clans of survivors on Earth, each with its own leader. Then there is the commander, Lexa, who is in charge of all the clans."

"Lexa, that's the grounder Clarke met. They're planning on fighting against the mountain men together."

Echo turned her head to the side, interested in what Bellamy was saying. "You've met the mountain men?"

"Not personally, but Murphy was taken and tortured by them."

Echo and Bellamy kept talking. The knife became unnecessary, and she learned more about the 100 delinquents sent to a radiation-soaked planet. They weren't the enemy, after all, perhaps even an alliance that could finally help them defeat the mountain men.

When the sun came up, Echo went to untie Bellamy to bring him to Polis, the city where the commander lived. He was to follow Echo, who was accompanying Queen Nia and her son, Roan, next in line for the throne. They had a journey in front of them, but it was filled with optimism for the Ice Nation finally had a chance at defeating the men who took so many lives from them.