Shameless ~ Bellamy Blake

6~ Determination

My feet hit the ground hard. Harder than I had anticipated. My arms pumped back and forth as I tried to make my strides longer. Finn ran next to me, equally as fast. Octavia was a little in front and Clarke and Monty were on our heels. 

Suddenly I here a grunt and someone fall. I turn to see Monty had tripped. 

"Monty! Come on!" I yell running back over to him. 

"Monty! Get up!" Octavia yells, a few feet away.

Monty stays, frozen, examining something on the ground. Not just something, a human skull. Clarke walks over and picks it up, looking at it. It didn't look human. It looked like some sort of alien. 

"Who are they?" Finn asks. "What are they?" He says looking over Clarke's shoulder at the skull. 

"We are so screwed." Octavia mumbles.

The sound of a distant scream fills our ears.

"Jasper. He's alive." I gasp. I start sprinting in the direction we had come from. Somehow we had crossed back over the river, so now we were on the opposite side of it. 

"Tatum, wait, wait, wait! Stay out of the trees!" Finn calls after me. 

I ignore what he said and keep running at full speed. The trees turning into a brownish greenish blur. 

I stop just in time to be at the edge of the river. If I had kept running any more I would have fallen in. 

"He was right there." I say looking at the spot Jasper had gotten speared. It was empty. Completely untouched. 

"No." Monty says in disbelief. "Where is he?"

"They took him." Clarke says, answering his question.

"We have to go. We have to get back to camp and get supplies." I say turning around to face them. "Jasper's alive and we're going to find him." I say with determination.

"Tatum, I don't know...you saw how skilled they are-" Clarke begins.

"Clarke!" I yell interrupting her. "We are not on The Ark anymore!" My voice rising with every word. "He is one of us. He is out there, alive, right now. We have to survive together." I get up in her face, my face stern. "We leave no one behind." I turn and begin running back towards camp.

"It's a 20 mile trek back, Tatum. It will take all day." Clarke yells after me. 

"Well then we might as well start somewhere." I say turning back and running even faster than before.

They seemed hesitant at first, but sooner than later I heard each of there boots hitting the soil, running after me.

***

My body was giving out and I knew it. My lungs were struggling to get oxygen and my sides were killing me. We had been running for hours, not stopping. But I was determined. Determination was something that I never lost sight of, even when being locked in a cell for 88 days. 

Soon I saw the lights of the camp and the sounds of fighting. I knew there was a fight before we even approached it. 

We run up on Wells holding a knife to Murphy's throat and the entire camp surrounding them, watching.

"Wells! Let him go!" Clarke yells, even through her struggling to breathe. 

"Enough, Murphy." I growl as I can see in his eyes he was about to continue fighting.

Bellamy makes eye contact with me, holding it for a second, before turning to look at his injured sister. 

"Octavia. Are you alright?" Bellamy asks with concern.

"Yeah." Octavia mumbles.

I walk over to them, standing next to Bellamy. 

Bellamy turns to me, "Where's the food?"

I look into his eyes then down at my feet, "We didn't make it to Mount Weather."

"What the hell happened out there?" Bellamy asks.

"We were attacked." Clarke answers.

"Attacked? By what?" Bellamy asks, his questions still veered towards me.

"Not what." I say lifting my head to look at him. "Who. It turns out, when the last man from the ground died on The Ark, he wasn't the last Grounder."

"It's true." Clarke says, looking at the confusion on Bellamy's face. "Everything we thought we knew about the ground is wrong. There are people here, survivors. The good news is, that means we can survive. Radiation won't kill us."

"Yeah, the bad news is the Grounders will." Finn says.

"Where's the kid with the goggles?" Bellamy asks looking over us, realizing one of us is missing.

"Jasper." I correct. "Jasper was hit. They threw a spear, Bellamy." I say looking at him. "A spear. They are skilled, way past our ability. But we think Jasper's alive."

"Number 24." Murphy smirks walking over to us with a wrist band in his hand, interrupting our conversation.

"What do you mean twenty four?" I ask, my eyebrows scrunching together in confusion.

"You've been taking them off, haven't you." Clarke says, her voice rising. "You idiot! Life support on the Ark is failing. That's why they brought us down here. They need to know the ground is survivable again, and we need their help against whoever is out there. If you take off your wristbands, you're not just killing them. You're killing us." 

"We're stronger than you think." Bellamy growls and then turns to the crowd. "Don't listen to her! She's one of the privileged. If they come down here, she'll have it good. How many of you can say the same? We can take care of ourselves. That wristband on your arm? It makes you a prisoner. We are not prisoners anymore! They say they'll forgive our crimes. I say you're not criminals. You're fighters, survivors! The Grounders should worry about us!"

The crowd bursts in applause, cheering on the words of Bellamy.

"What do we do now?" Finn asks.

"We go find Jasper." I say. I walk off into the drop ship, gathering everything I could use to defend myself with and help Jasper.

Shortly after, Bellamy joined me in the drop ship, leaving the chanting crowd outside. 

"What was it?" Bellamy asks, watching me gather as many knives as possible.

"What do you mean?" I ask, not looking at him.

"The thing that attacked Octavia. What was it?" 

"I don't know." I reply, my mind not on that subject at the moment. "It looked like some giant ass snake to me. You could probably get a better description from Clarke."

I hear Bellamy sigh loudly, "She could have been killed." 

"She would have been if it wasn't for Jasper." I say, finally turning to him. "You have a gun, right?" 

Bellamy slightly nods, pulling his jacket back to reveal the gun sat tightly in his waistband. 

"You're coming with me." I say, walking out of the drop ship. 

When we exit the drop ship I see Clarke and Finn ready to go.

"Murphy, you're coming with me. Atom, stay with my sister. Make sure she doesn't leave camp." Bellamy commands.

We all fall in line, walking at a fast pace to save my friends' life.