"How can you lose when you never stop fighting?"
Cassiopeia Walker-Simmons looked at her star from a tiny window in space her whole life. She never imagined that it'd be even more beautiful from the ground. Yet every time she gazed upon the dazzlin...
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A MONSTERS HEART
Cassie's feet pounded the ground, her footfalls thudding slightly faster than the others. Her breaths shuddered out of her chest violently; she didn't stop running. Sweat beaded on her forehead and her back; she tried to ignore it and keep on running. The wind whipped against her face as she soared ahead of the group, giving her bursts of pain.
Her steps faltered. Her body was sent careening forwards and she couldn't stop it - she could only embrace the fall. Cassie braced herself for the impact with the compact land, the seconds whizzing by the closer her face came to the ground.
Thud!
Cassie's face finally met the ground. A crunch resonated throughout her very being, the wave of familiar agony tearing through her body telling her something she didn't need a doctor for: she'd broken her nose. Wet liquid sloshed down her.
Tentatively she rose, setting aside the throbbing in her nose. Gently she dabbed at the blood gushing from her nose, glaring at the group behind her. "Couldn't have warned a girl, could you?"
Her words fell on deaf ears. They all seemed focused on what Clarke was holding. Curious, Cassie wandered closer, her feet clattering against more debris on the ground. Confusion engulfed her. Sticks didn't feel like that. She gulped, taking a moment before looking down. The distinct shape and colour of the debris forced Cassie to swallow the bile rapidly rising.
They were bones.
Her eyes instantly connected to what Clarke was holding. It looked like a human skull, but with the face having been flattened and forcing the forehead upwards. Cassie had to try harder this time not to throw up. Clarke's shaking voice asked the question they were all eager to know. "What are they?"
"Whatever they are, I want to stay as far away from it as possible." Cassie's statement received nods of agreement. No one wanted to encounter what the skeleton supported.
Octavia sighed deeply, keeping her gaze away from the skull. "We are so screwed."
Cassie felt a sarcastic comment coming to the tip of her tongue - before she could give her witty reply a high pitched scream broke the silence. Jasper's scream. Instantly Clarke set off in the direction they came from, all of the others following while yelling warnings to her. Cassie wanted to follow, she really did, but the kid was as good as dead. There was no point in them getting killed too.
She sighed, spinning back to the never ending forest, putting a foot forward. She halted. She scanned the trees - they all seemed the same to her. If she wanted to get back to the camp, where there was food and water and shelter she needed a guide. And that guide came in the form of her map reading group.
"The shit I do for these people," Cassie muttered, sprinting after the others. By the time she got there, they were all frozen, their jaws hanging loose. She wouldn't find it hard to believe if they hadn't moved since they got there. All of their gazes were fixed on the same place. Brows furrowed, Cassie followed the line of sight.
