Free || The 100 [1] || ✔

N I N E: forgive

Before I could stop it, they hanged Murphy. I lunged at the rope attached to the tree to let Murphy down but Bellamy stopped me. He pushed me away from the rope and stood in front of it, blocking my way.

"Clarke! This is your fault! I told you we should have-"

Before I could finish yelling at Clarke, a little voice piped up, "Stop! Murphy didn't kill Wells. I did!"

Everyone stopped and stared at the little blonde girl who just admitted to murdering Wells. I ran past Bellamy and cut the rope that was choking John. I ran to him and removed the rope from around his neck.

"Is this what you all wanted? We almost murdered an innocent boy! This is not  the Ark anymore," I yelled.

This is not the Ark anymore, I thought until I was sure I believed myself.

***

I made sure Murphy had no serious injuries and then joined Clarke, Bellamy, and Finn in a nearby tent.

"Bring out the girl, Bellamy!" Murphy could be heard shouting outside the tent.

"Why, Charlotte?" Bellamy said with a look of disappointment on his face.

"Because I was trying to slay my demons, like you told me!" the murderer defended.

"What the hell is she talking about?" I hissed.

"She misunderstood," he said to Finn, Clarke, and I. "Charlotte, that is not what I meant."

"Bring out the girl, Bellamy!" John shouted.

"Please don't let them hurt me," Charlotte pleaded.

I sighed, "Okay, look. You did kill Wells but your punishment will not be death, I won't let that happen. So, here's the plan. Finn and I have a place where we will keep her hidden. Bellamy, you and Clarke will distract Murphy so that we can take her there, understood?"

Everyone agreed by nodding their heads.

"All right. Clarke, Bellamy, get out there and do your job. We'll figure out the rest when she's safe," I instructed.

Bellamy and Clarke exited the tent and I heard Murphy say, "Well, well, well, look who decided to join us."

Finn, Charlotte, and I waited a few minutes to make sure that everyone outside was distracted. Then, we slipped under the tent and ran for the woods.

***

We ran for a few hours until we knew we were far enough away from camp. We walked for another hour or so, nearing the automobile Finn and I had found the other day. I walked side by side with Charlotte as Finn led the way.

Charlotte tried to grab my hand but I pulled mine away, "What the fuck are you doing? Look, you killed one of my best friends. You are lucky I am saving you right now, understood?"

"Athena," Finn said. "She's just a kid."

"We're all just kids, Finn. Do you think the Ark said the same thing when I killed my mom? When you took the blame for Raven's spacewalk? When anyone of those delinquents committed any of their crimes? Being a kid is not an excuse anymore," I reputed.

"Charlotte! Athena and Finn can't save you!" Murphy shouted in the distance.

"Shit. We better run," I said as I started to run but Finn grabbed my arm, stopping me.

"Wait. That's a good plan but..." Finn said as he opened a metal door in the ground. "I think we can just hang out here. Get in."

"Why didn't you tell me that you were leading us here?" I asked.

"I just remembered about it. Also, it's safer than the automobile," he responded as he helped me down the ladder.

I pulled out two flashlights for Finn and I and we clicked them on. Inside the metallic tunnel was food, a sink, and even some pictures of whoever used to live here before.

"Finn, why haven't you told anyone about this place? There's so much food here for everyone," I said looking at the cans of vegetables and other foods.

"All the food expired over ninety years ago. There's no weapons and this place doesn't really have anything useful in it. So, I just kept it a secret," he replied.

As we looked through every cabinet and drawer, we found candles and matches. We lit the candles which immediately illuminated the place. When we had finished, Charlotte started to get tired so Finn helped her set up a bed on a mattress that was left in there.

"So have you found anything?" Finn asked.

"Well, obviously, they didn't make it down here," I answered, handing a photo of a family to Finn. "I'm guessing the bombs took them by surprise."

Finn sighed, "All this preparation. What a waste."

I took the picture back from Finn and studied it, "Well, maybe they were lucky. They wouldn't have survived down here very long. This place is like a mini Ark. They could've ran out of air, gone crazy, who knows? They would've suffered a long, painful death," I set the picture on top of one the flames from the candles and the picture began to burn. "Anyway, what are we going to do about her? We aren't going to hang her but we can't keep her hidden forever. If Clarke hadn't confronted Murphy, we wouldn't be in this position."

"How do you know that?" Finn asked.

"If she hadn't accused him of something he didn't do then we could have continued to blame it on the Grounders or actually investigated and find out that it was actually Charlotte. We're turning on each other, Finn. The Grounders are going to notice that and all of us are going to end up like Jasper, or worse," I sighed.

"We'll figure something out, Princess," Finn reassured as he pulled me closer to him. "We'll figure something out."

Finn relaxed and his breathing slowed down as he started to fall asleep. I sighed and then shut my eyes, slowly drifting off into a deep sleep.

***

I woke up to the sound of Finn's snoring. I gently lifted my head from his shoulder and stretched. I looked over to the bed that Charlotte was in last night and she was nowhere to be seen.

"Finn," I shook the long-haired boy by the shoulders, hoping he would wake up quickly. "Finn. Wake up, now. She's gone."

His eyes fluttered open and realized what was happening. We grabbed our bags and climbed out of the bunker. It was night time when we resurfaced so we turned our lights on and began running in the direction of a footprint we found just outside our hide out. As we followed the trail, we reached a point where there were smaller footprints, which we hoped were Charlotte's, and larger footprints, which we prayed were not Murphy's.

"Someone else was here," I concluded.

"No! Murphy!" we heard Charlotte's voice echo through the forest.

"Murphy has her," Finn said before we took off running through the forest.

I could never forgive Charlotte for what she did but we're on the Ground.

Forgiving will be the only thing that will remind me that I'm human.