Children of the Ark

Into the Woods

His eyes were harsh and filled with rage as he stared at the two on the rock. His glare seemed to paralysis them. His hands were balled into fists, his jaw was clenched, and the veins on his forearms strained. It was obvious that this wasn't going to have a pretty ending, but it was unclear when the ending would actually come. The field was silent, motionless as we watched each other. No one dared to say a word or make a sound excpet the luminous butterflies whose fluttering wings produced a low swishing sound, but it still wasn't enough to break the uncomfortable silence that needed to end. It needed to be broken, and I had to break it.

"Octavia," I said, motioning with my eyes for the girl to remove herself from the boy's lap. She quickly turned to me, her paralysis gone. She hurried to her feet, taking a couple steps backwards and then looking from me to Bellamy with a worried expression. "Atom," I continued, nodding at him. He turned from Bellamy's glare to glance at me then let his eyes fall to the ground. The stillness was no more. The silence was over.

Since the two were not directly in contact anymore, I stepped over to Bellamy, placing my hand on his lower back. "Bell, let's go. Please," I quietly begged, pulling slightly on his shirt. "Come on. Please just leave it." But Bellamy was being Bellamy, and Bellamy was stubborn. Leaning down to me, he whispered in my ear.

"He disobeyed me. I told him not to let anyone touch her. That included him," he said. "Atom, let's go. We have first watch." Bellamy kept his eyes on me as he spoke. The words that came out of his mouth was false, a lie to give Octavia an ease from her worried state. If she thought they were on watch, she wouldn't be concerned about what was actually going to be happening to Atom. It was better she didn't know. She would have caused a scene, sped up the process. I didn't need to be calming her down when I could be stopping the punishment all together, silently. I was thankful that Bellamy lied, to be honest.

"Come on, T. We need to go get a spot in the capsule before it fills up for the night," I told her. She looked up from her fixed glare at the ground and nodded, following behind Atom until they were next to Bellamy and me. I looked from the teenagers to Bellamy and started to walk away. He quickly joined me.

"I have to," he said, his voice a lot softer than before.

"Sure you do," I stuck my hands in my pockets. "I just want you to know that I'll be back to see what you did." I glanced up at him, giving him a look that told him not to do anything too harsh.

"I figured," he said, turning back to look at his sister. "Just don't bring her. He started to walk in a different direction towards a hill that would probably end up at his tent. I nodded and stopped walking, waiting on Octavia and watching Atom and Bellamy part ways from us. When she met me, we starting walking again, talking about what had happened between her and Atom. She told me that they had spent most of the day together, and that they sort of hit it off. He kissed her out in the butterfly field right before we came back from our rescue mission, and they had agreed to go back that night. Then she asked me what we were doing out there, so I told her that her brother had pissed me off like usual and he was trying to make up for it.

"He loves you so much," she chuckled. I disregarded her comment and sped up. We were at the edge of the woods by then and were about to make the short walk to the capsule that was already being filled with tons of people. Even though there would be plenty of space, I wanted to hurry up and get inside. So we sped up even more and got in line to enter the capsule. The freezing wind blew through the camp as we waited in the line, numbing my fingers as I stood right in front of the door.

"Are they really going to stay outside in this weather?" I asked, watching about a dozen kids prepare to test their luck with the weather. I recognized a few kids. They were the ones who stayed outside every night, but usually the wind wasn't as cold as it was that night. I was afraid most of them would end up beside Jasper, being treated for the flu or whatever other viruses that was on Earth that transmit easier in the cold.