The Conclave / Another Life (A Clexa Story)

Chapter 5: The Fog (Part 2)

Bellamy's POV

 Walking through the trees I let the sound of the plants crunching under my feet fade into the background. I can hear Atom just to my left, I don't have to look to know he's by my side. He's always been good like that. True we had a bit of a disagreement involving Octavia, but I sorted it out. If tying him to a tree for a night counts as sorting it out anyways. Murphy and I spent two days fashioning these spears from fallen branches... Hopefully, they work.

We haven't had a good meal since the panther and we ran out of that a while ago. It's starting to show too, people are losing hope. If it continues they'll be calling for new leadership, or gods forbid, looking to Clarke. I can't have that, not now. If they turn on me then there's no chance I'm going to survive when the Ark comes down. Either way, my odds are low, but if I have a few people to back me up, maybe even fight for me, then I'll at least have a fair chance. Clarke's been up to something recently too.

At the risk of sounding paranoid, yesterday I asked Octavia if she thought Clarke had been acting weird, and she agreed that something was up. I'm pretty sure O knew more than she was letting on too, Clarke's practically her best friend. Unfortunately for me means that even if she does know something, she won't tell me regardless. If it were anyone else sneaking off into the woods I would assume they were having sex, but not Clarke. Personally, I admire Clarke's admiration, she's very dedicated, focused, but that's why she's a threat.

Clarke's far too concerned with everything going on and the grounders to just be sneaking off with some guy... that and Clarke doesn't seem like the type of girl to do that. If it were Octavia maybe, love her dearly, but she's a troublemaker. Unlike the princess who has a stick up her ass. I can't help but think she's planning something.

SNAP! I whip around, spear in hand to face the sound of whatever branch or stick just broke behind me. I don't know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn't a child. I have my spear aimed at a young girl, she's one of us so I immediately lower it.

"What the hell! I could have killed you!" My voice is a lot louder than I meant it to be, so much for catching food today. She looks incredibly startled backing up slightly. Shit, I didn't mean to yell at her, I don't want to scare the poor girl.

"Sorry... I-"

"What're you doing out here?" I make sure my voice sounds much more gentle than it did earlier, trying to be calmer, she scared the shit out of me. "You know there are grounders in these woods right, you can't just go sneaking around."

"I know, I just, I can't be back there."

"At camp?" She nods her eyes on the forest floor. "Why not?" She continues to avoid my eyes, so I crouch down in front of her, so we're at eye level. "Hey, it's ok. I get it, sometimes I get tired of the place too." She looks back at me and I give her a small smile, trying not to scare her away. "Tell you what, you can stay out here with us if you'd like." Her face lights up as she nods. "But, if you're going to stay with us, you're going to have to hunt," I add, mostly teasingly, but she doesn't seem opposed to it.

"Here, you can't hunt without a knife." Atom smiles gently at her, handing the girl a short blade, which she clutches close. "I'm Atom."

"Charlotte." She replies, glancing at me. "And you're Bellamy right?"

"Yeah, you probably know my sister huh?"

"No... you have a sister?" She sounds shocked, I just nod.

"Alright, we've got to be quiet if we want to be able to catch something to eat."

"Ok."

I take point, Atom, just behind me, keeping an eye on Charlotte. We make our way through the brush and trees as quietly as we can, the only sound in the area being the occasional crunch of a leaf under our feet. We continue like this, inching further and further into the woods, for quite some time. It doesn't take long for me to hear the rustle of some leaves. I give a nod to Atom, who moves ahead, as I try to keep an eye on Charlotte. Whatever it was is a decent size and there are panthers out here, so I'm not taking any chances with a kid around.