We Are Grounders

Pushing Our Humanity

Chapter 11 ... Pushing Our Humanity

***

The clouds above were turning darker by the second but I hardly noticed as I got myself lost in the grounders eyes. His dark hair was messy and long, slicked back out of his face. He held no emotion in his face that was also sharp and defined.

"How did you find this place?" He asked. I wasn't sure whether to reply or not at first but decided that he was clearly in control of the current situation as he held a sword to my throat.

"I went for a walk one day and stumbled across it." He crease his brows, contemplating I was telling the truth or not while I stared back, giving nothing away. The overbearing silence gave me time to realise that he could speak English.

"You can understand me?" Before anything further could be said a loud war horn rang out, sending birds flying. He lowered his sword immediately and I decided this was my chance to make a break for it. While his attention was dragged elsewhere I sprinted to the right, out of reach from his sword. I moved fast across the pebbles that moved around underfoot. Just as I was about to reach the wall foliage to loose the grounder in I was tackled to the ground and flipped onto my back. In a plot second I felt now a smaller dagger pressed against my neck and a drew out a large frustrated breath as I knew I would have now have to talk my way out of this one.

"Let...me...go."

"Why should I? You're on our land." His deep voice reminded me a lot of Bellamy's. It held power and authority, but what differentiated the two was that the grounders tone remained calm; emotionless.

"We aren't here to harm you."

"Well our Commander sees you as a threat." He retaliated.

"Commander?"

"You need to move or you will be killed." The grounder said, almost like he had done this before.

"Is that a threat?"

"It's a warning." After staring deep into my eyes he finally retreated his grip from me and started to walk back towards the water to collect his sword that he dropped to chase me.

"Why are you telling me this?" It didn't make sense, he was giving us a chance to survive. Why?

"Why haven't you killed me yet?" I asked, thinking back to what happened to Jasper.

"We aren't all savages." He didn't turn to meet my gaze as he spoke and just picked up his sword, starting to head for the forest edge.

"Wait!" he paused immediately at my outburst.

"What's your name?" Although I was curious, I also wanted to test him. If he was willing to give his name then maybe I could trust his word.

"Ryder."

"I'm Adria." He slightly turned his head towards me when I said my name and then continued to walk away from the waterhole, engulfed by the foliage.

***

As I got closer to camp I could see flames of light in the distance which stood against the pitch black night. The wind was getting worse and you could hear the thunder getting louder and louder as it approached. As I entered the back of the camp I heard a commotion at the gates.

"Where's Adria?" Immediately recognising the voice I ran to the front of the crowd and saw Octavia with Jasper. I small amount of relief came over my body, but it was short lived.

"Finn! No no no!" I heard Raven screaming and turned to see Bellamy carrying Finn and Raven in tears who looked up to me as I approached.

"Help him please!" My adrenaline kicked in as I looked to see Finn's pale and unconscious body with a dagger sticking out of his chest.