Hopeless - (Bellamy Blake - Book 2)

Chapter 11.

Bellamy and I manage to catch up to the others easily enough, but not before he pulls me back towards him for another kiss that has me weak at the knees.

This man will be the death of me.

"And where did you two scurry off to?" Murphy says to us with a sneer. "Find a comfortable enough tree to f—"

"Finish that sentence Murphy." I cut him off, a sharp edge in my tone. "I dare you."

He simply smirks at me and shrugs his shoulders. "Hey, I'm just saying you should be a bit more considerate. You two got a nice little reunion, think about poor Finn looking for Clarke." He pauses, "Then again, he always has Raven to crawl back to."

"Shut the hell up." I snap.

"Will you all shut up?" Finn turns to us from the front of the group. "The Grounders will hear us with all your yapping."

Finn either hadn't heard what Murphy said, or is rising above it. Either way, I give Murphy a shove forward for his sake.

"Now where?" Finn says to him.

Murphy makes a show of looking around the area, then points to the left of us. "That way."

We trudge through the grass and brush in that direction, and I again wonder why we're putting so much faith into Murphy.

It isn't long before Murphy lunges at Bellamy, "Everybody down, down." He whispers, causing us all to crouch and keep alert. "Get down."

"This is it." He says.

I edge forward on the tips of my feet, the six of us in a line behind some brush, with a Grounder camp built before us.

It's no wonder we hadn't spotted it before, the entire thing is basically camouflaged into the trees. I remember an old school teacher telling us about tree-houses, a structure built onto or around trees, and this is exactly it.

It's incredible.

The Grounders have built stairs, bridges and platforms which are attached to the trees themselves, most of them have leaves or ivy growing to help blend in further. I suppose it's one way of saving space on the ground itself, build up and you can double the area.

The Ark structure is completely out of place on Earth compared to this.

"Told you I'd find it." Murphy says quietly.

Bellamy looks through the scope of his rifle towards the camp, using it to see closer at what we're dealing with.

"You see them?" I ask him, trying not to build up too much hope.

"Nothing but Grounders." He lowers the rifle with a sigh. "Our people aren't here."

"Wait a minute." Finn whispers down the line, looking through Sterling's rifle. "They've got stuff from our Dropship."

"What?" I hiss. "No wonder the place was empty, the bastards stole everything that was left behind."

"Maybe they know where our friends are." Bellamy says.

Murphy's tone is calm as he says, "Yeah, or maybe they killed them already."

I ignore him.

"Son of a bitch." Finn whispers, gaining our attention.

"What is it?" Bellamy asks.

"The guy with the one eye. Around his neck."

Bellamy brings his rifle up to take a look. "What am I looking at?"

Finn looks at him with a stern expression. "He's got Clarke's watch. It was her father's."

My stomach drops, and Bellamy and I share a look as he says, "She wouldn't give that up without a fight."

Finn nods once, "Neither will we."

Bellamy looks through the rifle once more, and I can almost see the gears inside his head moving, forming a quick plan.

"Okay. You're with me." He says to Finn. "You three stay here, out of sight." He looks to me this time. "If this thing goes south, take out the other Grounders, but don't shoot the Grounder with the watch. Copy?"

Monroe and Sterling confirm, and I give him a firm nod.

"What about Murphy?"

"Yeah, do I get a gun now?" He asks.

"Something like that." Bellamy grabs him by his jacket, and the three guys start moving.

I watch anxiously as they head back into the trees, then turn to face the camp before us, vaguely seeing the Grounders walking around.

Monroe, Sterling and I raise our guns, but I keep my finger off the trigger.

"Sterling," I say quietly, "focus on our guy."

"On it." He agrees.

It's not long before we start to hear the faint clacking of rocks hitting each other, the sound bouncing off the trees.

"Go time." Monroe mumbles.

"Anyone follows him, we take them out." I say, my eyes darting around the village as the sound continues.

"You think they had anything to do with the others being taken?" Sterling asks, moving his rifle along to the left.

I sigh, "I don't know, but it also doesn't look like any of these guys took part in the fight. There's no wounded, no soldiers." No obvious ones, at least.

After a moment, Monroe says, "It's stopped."
True enough, the clicking rock sound had stopped.

"I can't see him anymore." Sterling says, looking around.

A low whistle sounds from behind us, causing all three of us to spin around, but we relax at the sight of Bellamy. He inclines his head behind him, and we follow.

*

The guys all take turns carrying the knocked-out Grounder, Finn guiding us through the woods whilst Monroe and I keep look out for anyone following us.

"Where are we going?" I ask eventually, "The Dropship is the other direction."

How I know that, I've no clue, but somehow my internal compass had switched on during our time on Earth. Looks like all that constant running actually had some use.

"We're not going to the Dropship." Finn says. "Too many people know where it is."

"Then where are we going?" Bellamy grunts out, the Grounder's arm slung over his shoulders as he and Murphy drag him along.

Finn stops and looks around, then jerks his head to the left. "Here."

We follow him, and I'm about to comment on how a random patch in the woods isn't exactly private, when he kneels on the ground and pops open a hatch.

I look down and blink at the sudden entrance concealed by dirt and brush.

"Glad to see you're still full of surprises." I try to joke, but Finn merely jumps down into the hole in the ground, and calls up to the others to lower down the Grounder.

I grind my teeth in frustration, but turn to scour the area.