Queen of the Ground //b.b.

•four•

   I stand over Jasper holding a wet cloth to his forehead as he moans in pain in his sleep. "You're okay buddy, just keep fighting." I whisper down to him.
      I watch as Clarke walks in. "Clarke they cauterized his wound. They saved his life but the skin around it is infected. If we don't get that off he could turn septic." I tell her. "How many damn books did you read?" Monty asks making me slightly smile and giggle. "Well, when you're locked up for four years you don't really have anything better to do but ready every book you can come in contact with." I tell him never taking my eyes away from what I'm doing .
      "Hold him down, I need to cut away the infected flesh." Clarke says and I nod getting over his head and holding his shoulders down. I look from Jaspers sweaty face up at Finn and Wells hold down his legs. As soon as the scolding hot blade is on his skin he's screaming bloody murder. After only two minutes of pure torture Octavia busts through the second level door.
      "Hold him still!" Clarke says still desperately t try ing to cut away at the poltus. "We're trying, Clarke!" I spit back at her . "Stop it! You're killing him." Octavia says running over as Jasper goes silent and falls limp in front of us. "She's trying time save his life." Finn says. "She can't." Bellamy says coming up the ladder. "We didn't drag him through miles of woods just to let him die." Clarke says quickly, still trying to focus on what she's doing. "Kids a goner. If you can't see that, you're deluded. He's making people crazy." I quickly stand up and push Bellamy towards the door. "Sorry if Jasper's an inconvenience to you, but this isn't the Ark, down here, every life matters." Clarke retorts. "Take a look at him. He's a lost cause." He says. "Bellamy, stop." I tell him before he climbs down the ladder with me close behind him.
     "What the hell." I sigh wiping the sweat from my forehead. "What?" He asks. "You know what, they need hope Bellamy. That is the only thing holding them together right now. You have to stop." I tell him. He looks down at me with a hint of something in his eyes only I can't quite catch what it is.
        I had just stepped out of the ship with
Bellamy behind me when I heard my name from inside. "Yeah?" I breath, trying to take in as much fresh air as I can. "What're you doing out here?" Clarke asks me. "Just needed some air." I tell her and she nods glancing over at Bellamy.
"I need you to find some seaweed. It's red  and it grows in streams with low currents. Do you think you could possibly do that for me?" She asks staring at me with almost a pleading look. "Of course, I'll be back as soon as I can." I tell her. "Thank you. I couldn't do this without you, you know." She says grabbing my hand. I look down at her hand before putting my other hand over it and offering a small smile. After she lets me go I grab my bag from inside the drop ship and walk towards Bellamy.
     "Bellamy, I need you for something." I tell him and watch as he nods, never taking his eyes off me. "What do you need?" He asks me. "Jasper needs this special seaweed stuff, I don't need your help I just really don't want to get caught alone out there." I tell him and his eyes immediately soften before he looks down at me. "Alright." He says quickly stepping into his tent and grabbing his backpack. "Let's go so we can get back by sun down." He says and I nod in agreement.
        The walk to the stream is eerily silent for what seemed like hours but realistically we were only an hour and a half into it before Bellamy speaks up. "You hate me now too Princess?" Bellamy asks me and I look up at him with furrowed eyebrows. "You think I hate you?" I ask him. " I don't think you necessarily like me." He admits and I shrug. "Yeah, since when have you cared about who likes you and who doesn't?" I ask him looking down at my feet watching every step I take. "I don't really." He tells me and I nod. "Than why do you care what I think?" I ask him and he shrugs. "I don't." He says and I nod and raise my eyebrows at his response.
As we trapse through the woods the sound of water becomes clear and I slowly begin to pick up my pace until Bellamy grabs ahold of my arm causing me to stop completely.
      "What!" I whisper yell before he quickly put his finger to his lips as to tell me to hush.
       Footsteps, small quick footsteps. "Who's
out there?" Bellamy says, his deep voice booming through the trees. He slowly pulls the gun from my waist band, his touch sending shivers over my skin,as he points it into the trees. "I'll only ask one more time!" Bellamy yells. "Who the hell is out there!" He yells and cocks the gun, making my entire body tense as I grab ahold as the side of his shirt and jacket. "Don't shoot me! Please!" A small voice yells out and I move my hand from his side to his arm. "Who are you?" I ask them. "I'm Charlotte, from camp." She says, her voice coming out barely audible from behind the trees.
      "Why are you out this far?" Bellamy asks her as she comes out from behind the trees and into our line of sight. "I couldn't listen to that dying kid anymore." She tells us and I can feel Bellamy eyes on me before I ever even look up at him.
      "What do we do, we can't just tell her to turn around and go home." I tell him. "Especially now that we know what else is out here."
"No, of course not but we also can't just leave her here." He says obviously. "Well no shit." I sigh.
     "Hey Charlotte, why don't you just come
with us." I tell her and she nods before walking towards us. We continue walking until we get to the water and as soon as we do, I spot the seaweed we need for Jaspers tea.
    "Hey, hold this so it doesn't get soaked." I say handing Bellamy my gun which he quickly takes from me before I step into the freezing cold river I quickly grab huge chunks of the red seaweed and shove it down into my bag until it's full. I look up at the trees behind me when I hear birds, thousands of bird screaming before they all fly out of the trees and straight towards us forcing us all to duck down.
      "What the hell is that?" Bellamy asks and I quickly step out of the water and grab Charlotte arm and pull her towards me as Bellamy tries to pull us behind him. The sound of a horn ringing loud in our ears. "I don't know but it doesn't sound good." I tell him as the sky becomes yellow.
      "Bellamy, we need to get out of here, right now." I tell him and as the words come out of my mouth a yellow fog runs through the trees across the river. "Bellamy now! Run!" I yell before grabbing ahold of both him and Charlotte and running in the opposite direction.
      "Where was the cave?" I ask as we run for our lives, weaving through trees and rocks. "Keep going straight and you'll see it!" He yells and I try my hardest to pick up my pace until the cave comes into view. In front of me Charlotte trips over a log making me trip over her. "Reyna!" Bellamy tells, looking behind him to find us on the ground. "Come on, get up!" He says again grabbing ahold of me and lifting me up. "Ow ow." I hiss, looking down at my ankle as the pain shoots up through my leg. "We have to go!" He says again, wrapping his arm around me as Charlotte leads the way.
       I quickly turn around to see the fog right
on us. "Come on Charlotte, go!" I tell her and she runs in before me and Bellamy pushes me in before him.
      "So what do we do now?" Charlotte asks and I look down at her before sliding down the cave wall and holding onto my ankle. "We wait it out. It can't last forever." I tell her trying to catch my breath. I look back at Bellamy to see him nod before looking down at me. "What happened?" He asks, concerned. "I think I just rolled it. I'll be fine." I tell him, he reaches down for me to grab his hand so I can stand up and I take it before we walk deeper into the cave and find Charlotte laying down in a small hole in the wall. "We have a little bit of water, we'll be okay for however long this takes." I say before sitting down against the wall.
        "Try and get some sleep." I tell her and she nods before closing her eyes.
      What feels like hours go by as we sit in
the pitch black darkness with nothing but the sound of the hissing fog outside. Charlottes screams echo throughout the small cave making both Bellamy and me jump before looking over at her.
      "Hey, Charlotte. Hey, wake up." Bellamy whispers tapping on her leg before she jumps awake. "I'm sorry." She says. "I had another nightmare." She sighs. I look up at her with sad eyes. "Does it happen often?" I ask her and she sighs. "What are you scared of?" Bellamy asks her. She just looks down at the floor obviously  not wanting to answer him. "You know what? It doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is what you do about it." He says and I watch as she looks up at him. "But... I'm asleep." She says. "Fears are Fears." Bellamy says shaking his head. "Slay your demons when you're awake, they won't be here when you sleep." He tells her putting his huge hand over hers. "Yeah, but.. how?" She asks. "You can't afford to be weak. Down here, weakness is death, fear is death." He tells her and I watch as they both stare at each other for a moment. "Let me see that knife I gave you." Bellamy says and we both watch as she hesitates to give him the knife. "Now, when you're afraid, you hold tight to that knife and you say, 'Screw you. I'm not afraid.'" He says simply, giving the king back to her.
      I watch her as she repeats what Bellamy told her. "Slay your demons, kid. Then you'll be able to sleep." He tells her before he lays back down next to me. She offers a small smile up at me and I do the same before I lay down next to Bellamy.
       "That was really good." I tell him and he
shrugs. "Octavia used to have nightmares." He tells me. "I just told her what I told Octavia." He says and I nod. "Well, thank you. I wouldn't have been able to do that." I tell him, he grabs ahold of my hand and looks over at me so I do the same. "I think you would've." He whispers staring at me, studying me.
My eyes, my nose, my lips, my chin, and back up to my eyes. But as he stares at me I stare at his eyes and suddenly wonder when I became attracted to him, when the guy I was so up against two days ago became attractive. He slowly begins to lean in towards my face when Charlotte yells from the entrance of the cave. "Hey guys! The fog's gone." Charlotte says, making me wonder when she ever got up in the first place.
       We both quickly look away from one another and stand up from our spot on the ground. I quickly grab my bag and put weight on my foot only to realize all of the pain is gone before we walk towards the entrance. "Come on, Jaspers waiting." I tell them.
Anybody out here!" Bellamy yells. "Jones!" He yells again. "We're here!" The guy yells back. "Where'd you go?" Bellamy asks the hunting group of guys. "Made it to a cave down there. What the hell was that?" Jones asks. "I don't know. Where's Atom?" Bellamy asks them and then I realize who they are. They must've been out when the dog hit too. I watch as Jones shrugs.
       It's not long into our search for Atom that Charlotte starts screaming, I quickly take off running in her direction and as I get closer I realize there's something in front of her. "Oh my God." I whisper to myself before running down the hill towards the body. It's Atom, completely covered in painful red blisters and welps, I look into his eyes to see they're white and glassed over before Bellamy runs up behind me and puts his hand on my shoulder, quickly realizing who's in front of me.
  "Hey, listen you're gonna be okay." I whisper to him gently lifting his head up and putting it in my lap. "You're gonna be okay." I tell him.
And as I stare down at him he starts to mouth the words. "Kill me. Kill me." He repeats and as he says it my eyes well up with tears. I take a deep breath and the tears begin to fall. I look back at Bellamy to see him look at me with complete sympathy, I quickly look back down at Atom and nod. "Okay, I'm gonna help you." I tell him as Bellamy sits down by his side. I start humming a lullaby my mom used to hum to me, trying to make him as calm and peaceful as possible as I run my hands trough his dark hair. After a minute I take my knife out.
  "Go back to camp. You too Charlotte." Bellamy says, I look up to make sure they're gone before I start humming again. I look down at Atom and slowly push the knife through his neck as I keep humming and crying.
      I slide my knife out of his neck and keeping humming until I'm sure he's dead and I look up at Bellamy and start sobbing. "I killed him." I cry. "I killed him, Bellamy." I cry again before Bellamy moves over and hugs me and shake his head. "You helped him." He says pulling away from me and looking at me.
       "We heard screams." Clarke says walking
out of the trees. "Yeah, Charlotte found him." Bellamy says. Clarke looks over at me with sad eyes before Bellamy stands up and pulls me up with him.
       And now on my feet I have only one thing
I'm forced to think about: Jasper.