ATARAXIA • BELLAMY BLAKE

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As soon as we reenter camp, Monty hurries up to us. "Is he?"

"He's alive," I say, and we all rush to the drop ship.

"I need boiled water and strips of cloth for a bandage," Clarke demands while I help clear the way for Finn and Wells to get into the drop ship where they carefully put down Jasper on the floor, before walking outside to get Clarke what she needs.

I stay by Jasper's side until Clarke returns a few minutes later. He's unconscious, but at least he doesn't seem to be hurting at the moment. Clarke sits herself down next to me on the floor and starts to bandage up Jasper.

"Is he gonna be okay?"

Clarke offers me a sad smile before looking at the boy. "I don't know," she answers honestly. "We'll have to hope for the best."

She grabs a wet cloth, but before she can do anything else her head turns at the sound of people cheering outside. "What is going on out there?"

Another round of loud cheers can be heard and I stand back up. "I'll go check it out. You got this?" I ask. She nods.

I look Jasper over one last time before walking towards the drop ship ramp and almost bump into a frantic Monty. "Hey," I say, reaching out to catch his arms before he can ram into me. "You okay?"

"How's he doing?" he asks with worry.

"He's stable for now." My words seem to calm him a bit, but in reality I have no idea how much truth there is to to them.

Another round of cheers. "Bellamy's making people take off their wristbands for food," Monty explains, breaking the brief silence.

"He's what?" I say before walking past Monty and down the ramp onto the foliage. We did not go through everything we did today just for him to deny the kids of the food that we almost died retrieving.

People are surrounding a big fire in the middle of camp, and once I manage to squeeze past a couple of people in my way I immediately spot Bellamy standing there in the heart of the crowd. He's handing a stick with meat to a boy who has just gotten his wristband pried off by Murphy.

"What is this?" I ask over the loud crowd, my voice making Bellamy turn around to face me.

He crosses his arms over his chest. "What does it look like?"

"It looks like you're forcing kids to take off their wristbands in return for food."

He snorts a fake laugh. "I'm not forcing anyone to do anything."

The crowd cheers as Murphy pries yet another wristband off of a young girl. I spot the sticks of meat that are lined up at his side.

"You want some?" Bellamy asks when noticing me eyeing the food. "Too bad you don't have a wristband to give."

I scoff dryly. "So you're starving me now?"

Bellamy bites the inside of his cheek to hide a gloating smirk. "I'll tell you what. If you can convince one of these kids to take off their wristband, you can have some too," he says, cocking his head.

Instead I reach out to grab a stick of meat, but Bellamy catches my wrist before I can do so. "Yeah, I already told you that's not gonna happen," he says, his look a warning.

I hold his gaze as I pull my wrist back. "Fine. Be a tyrant. Your mother would be proud." Something in Bellamy's eyes changes for a brief moment, but I leave before he can say anything else.

I'm about to reenter the drop ship to check on Jasper, ignoring the way my stomach rumbles, when I spot Octavia sitting by a tree. I halt and head her way instead, trying to push my annoyance aside.