Esperança 》B. Blake

1.17

[C H A P T E R  S E V E N T E E N]
A Moral Quandary

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IF ROSELINE WASN'T BEING A PAIN in the ass before the argument, then she sure as hell was afterward. She refused to get out of the way of the Grounder even after numerous attempts to convince her to move aside, and she was pleased to notice Bellamy getting more and more fed up as the minutes passed. 

"Rose, I thought we were over this. Why are you still here?" Bellamy sighed, rubbing his hands onto his face.

The girl scoffed, still using herself as a human shield in front of the Grounder. "God, Bellamy, not everything is about you. I'm doing this for our people. If we want to make peace with the Grounders we need to start by not torturing them for information!"

"Peace?" Bellamy rolled his eyes, throwing his hands up. "We are way beyond that now! They've killed our people, don't you get that? They probably don't even know what peace is!"

She wanted to scream that Bow Man was a good Grounder and that he knew of peace--somewhat. But she figured that would spiral the conversation more than it already had.

"Not everyone is bad, and that includes Grounders! He probably wasn't even the one who killed Roma, Diggs, and John! He was probably busy saving Octavia--which by the way, shouldn't you be thanking him for keeping her alive?"

Bellamy gave a cold laugh as Nathan looked up from the book he found with wide eyes.

"Guys..." Nathan murmured. Unfortunately, neither one heard, too caught up in their argument.

"Thanking him? He kidnapped her! Have you've lost your mind? You're so caught up in this fantasy of everything being perfect and it's gonna get you and the rest of us killed."

"Oh go float yourself, Bellamy! The only thing that'll get us all killed is your obsession with power. Anything that could possibly damage your reputation as the king of this camp is suddenly a threat to you! That's why you don't want the Ark to come down, right?" She watched his nose flare. "And that's also why you kicked the crate from under Murphy, isn't it?"

Bellamy shook his head and pointed a finger at her. "You think you're so--"

"Guys!"

The pair turned to him with frustration and said the same thing: "What?"

"Check this out." he motioned for the two to come over and look at the small journal in his hands. Roseline was reluctant at first, but seeing Bellamy's paling face made her scamper over in a second to get a look at what was inside. Her anger suddenly disappeared upon seeing tally marks lining the page.

"What's the--"

Her sentence was cut off as a loud rumble echoed through the drop-ship, shaking the floor. Her feet lost their grip on the floor and she tumbled into Bellamy next to her. His hands were quick to catch her waist as she watched a lantern and various objects fall to the metal floor. Suddenly she was chest-to-chest with the man and for a moment, she forgot she was angry with him. But, as soon as it happened, the pair pulled away.

"What was that?" Nathan wondered out loud as Bellamy went to pick back up the light. 

Roseline adjusted her rain-soaked jacket that was beginning to get cold. "It's probably just the storm. I read that storms can get pretty bad on Earth."