Radioactive

Chapter Eleven

Bellamy and I made it to the river after a little while of walking in silence. I take in the scene of the water cutting through the forest and the sound of the water flowing, muffling the usual sounds of the woods. "So, where exactly were you when you threw it?" I ask, not taking my eyes off of the water as the sunlight bounced off the surface of it. "About here." He says, and I turn to see him standing a few feet away from me. "Okay, uhh, what direction did you throw it in?" I ask, waiting for his answer but instead got silence. "Bellamy." I say, causing him to look at me and snap out of whatever trance he was in. He shakes his head and looks away from the ground and to me. "Why do you care?"

His question causes me to blink several times in surprise. "What do you mean?" I ask, slowly and cautiously. He sighs and walks closer to me, closing the few feet of separation between us. "Why do you care if those people die? All they did was lock you up for no reason." He says, looking down at me to meet my eyes. I look into his dark, troubled eyes and sigh. "Bellamy, I don't think the people the council voted to kill are going to be the people who were responsible for locking me up for seventeen years." I say, sighing and looking down at the ground before looking back up to see his reaction. "The people that are going to be killed are the people who have to work hard to stay alive on the Ark, he people who are living on disgustingly small rations, the people who aspire to just get their child through life." I say and take a deep breath. "The people who the council is going to kill are innocent people who deserve as much of a chance on Earth as we do." And with that I turn my back on Bellamy and wade myself into the river. Ankle deep in the water, I begin to inspect the cold water rushing past me to see if I can find any sort of thing that looks like it came from the Ark.

An hour or so later, Clarke arrives with Finn, Raven, and others from camp to help search for the radio. Clarke comes splashing through the water towards me and I look up just as she stands in front of me. "Any sign of it?" She asks, a small glimmer of hope in her eyes. I shake my head. "Nope, I've already looked from here and a few yards back, and I couldn't find it." I say and watch as her face falls and place my hand on her shoulder. "Clarke, I'm sure we'll find it." I say, giving her a small smile of reassurance. He returns it with a strained one of her own. "I'll keep looking." I say, and go back to looking in the water, squinting as the reflected sunlight shines in my eyes.

Clarke and I begin looking near each other in silence, and I hear the crunch of feet walking on the pebble shore-line. "I should've told you about her." I hear Finn's voice come from right next to where Clarke is. I look out of the corner of my eye to see the two of them standing next to each other. "Damn right." I mutter under my breath, feeling anger at Finn bubble up a"It's okay." I hear Clarke say, sounding defeated and slightly annoyed. I didn't think I'd see her again." Finn says, and I sigh, straightening myself up and walk over to the pair. "But you wouldn't take off your wristband. You had hope. It's okay, I get it. I was around, passable cute, and now it's over." She says as I stand next to her and cross my arms over my chest. "Is everything okay?" I ask, slightly glaring at Finn. He just shakes his head and opens his mouth to say something when Jones' voice cuts him off. "Hey! I found it!" He shouts, and I turn to see him shaking water from it and let Clarke and Finn run over there. I look over my shoulder and see Bellamy stand up from his spot in the grass and look past me to the radio. Instead of joining everyone at the radio, I walk up next to Bellamy, standing by his side as Raven brings the radio over. "Can you fix it?" Clarke asks, and I can hear the desperation in her voice. "Maybe. But it'll take half a day just to dry out the components to see what's broken." Raven says, not looking away from the soggy radio. "Like I said, it's too late." Bellamy says with his arms crossed. I nudge him with my elbow. "So, not helping your case right now." I say, lowly so only he can hear me. Clarke storms past Finn and Raven and gets in Bellamy's face. "Do you have any idea what you did?" She yells, sounding way beyond pissed off and angry. "Do you even care?" She asks, and I can practically feel her rage rolling off of her. "You asked me to help. I helped." Bellamy says, and I take a step away from him, not wanting to be too close when Clarke starts yelling again.