DISCORDIA

[ 18 ] sly run

     WINTER WAS COMING, but that was currently the least of Jinny's worries at the moment. The chill had started to creep up on them almost unexpectedly and the acrid scent of smoke lingered heavily in the air. Bellamy sat quietly next to her as she filed her nails with the rough side of her knife. She felt that it was easier to maintain than letting dirt accumulate underneath it. The Grounder in front of them looked like he'd fallen asleep standing up, not that either of them particularly cared.

     They were both trying to ignore the line of delinquents that were excitedly waiting to make contact with their families still aboard the Ark.

     Clarke had tried to persuade them to talk with the Chancellor, which they had adamantly refused. In Bellamy's case, it was understandable since he was now a pariah but Jinny's reaction confused Clarke to no end.

     "I don't get it," the blonde had said. "You were the one trying to restore communications, you helped Monty and Raven build the radio, and you fought with Bellamy over it. So why are you avoiding them now?"

     "Look, my part is done," Jinny retorted. "If you wanna play twenty questions with Jaha, be my guest."

     "Do you know why she's acting like this?" Clarke turned to Bellamy curiously.

     "Nobody knows anything about Jinny, it's better that way," the man responded, averting eye contact with the both of them, and making his way back into the dropship instead. Jinny turned to follow, not wanting to be harassed anymore.

     "Well, if the both of you change your minds, you know where to find me!" Clarke called after them.

     There were only five living people that knew the real reason of why Jinny had been kept in solitary confinement. Before they were sent to the ground, everyone thought she had been floated for treason. Hacking sensitive information and killing a man, those had been the official stories for her arrest. Nobody knew that she had been thrown into the darkest hole of the Ark until the Council could figure out how to repair her mistake.

     It was an accident that had costed them so much more than they realised. Besides, it wasn't entirely her fault. If somebody hadn't decided to interrupt her at the worst possible time, none of it would have happened. They might all still be sitting around happily in space- except for the few delinquents who would have turned eighteen if they hadn't been sent to the ground. She scoffed internally at the thought that she had accidentally saved a hundred criminal lives in exchange for a few hundred others.

     Bellamy shifted beside her in his seat and cleared his throat, breaking her out of her train of thought.

     "Maybe Clarke has a point," he said unexpectedly.

     "No." She brushed him off.

     "Maybe it's a chance for us to fix things," he went on.

     "Absolutely not."

     "Should we run away then?"

     Jinny paused in her grooming and looked up at him incredulously before her frown smoothed down into contemplation. She hummed out loud in thought as she eyed their prisoner briefly.

     "What about O?" she asked.

     "O can look after herself," he told her. "She tells me that all the time."

     "And you wanna just leave her like this?" Jinny raised an eyebrow sceptically. "After everything you had to do to get here, you're just gonna bail?"

     "They know we're alive now." He leaned over to her, his voice lowering to a rumble. "When they get down here, we're gonna be dead. They'll execute us."