Mother Earth // Bellamy Blake

March • 91

I was helping Bellamy clean up the mess from the fountain to clear the walkway when I saw Clarke chasing down Miller. He was reluctant to turn around to face her, but she got his attention by saying something I couldn't hear.

"What's that all about?" I pointed out the scene to Bellamy.

He looked up to see and then marched toward them with me right beside him. When we caught up to them, Clarke was saying, "it's sandstorm season. The wind moves in a predictable path. Trust me, you need my help."

"You're going to scout the valley," I realized what was going on. Miller looked to me and then back to Clarke.

"Follow me," Miller stated as he began to lead us into a building. When he opened the door, all heads turned to us.

"Miller, your orders were to go-" I heard Cooper speak up. I noticed how different she looked. She was an engineer from the Ark, now she fit right in with the grounder style. I also took note with how attached she was to Octavia.

"I know my orders," Miller cut her off. "I think we should listen to what Clarke has to say."

Octavia stared at Clarke, waiting for her to explain what was going on.

"You can't take the sea route," Clarke spoke.

"Why? You said the sea was gone. Is it passable or not?" Indra wondered.

"Yes, maybe. But you have to understand-" Clarke tried to detail why.

"Maybe is good enough," Octavia didn't want to hear more. She started her way out the door but Bellamy stepped in to block her path.

"Woah, wait," he said while stopped her. My eyes bounced around the people surrounding us who drew their guns out on Bellamy. I felt my eyes go wide since he was standing right next to me, it felt like the guns were pointing at me as well.

"Octavia," I said to her subtly aggressive. This was ridiculous, did they actually think we'd try to hurt her?

She kept her stare on Bellamy as she ordered, "stand down."

I watched as the guns were dropped back down. "Please, O, just hear us out," Bellamy pleaded.

"Octavia, we're all on the same team," Clarke reminded her. "No one wants to get to that valley more than me. It's my home. But this way is too risky."

"Risky how?" Indra wanted to know. Clarke still hasn't exactly given them a reason as to why yet. Clarke walked over to the map on the table in the room, all of us crowded around to see what she was demonstrating.

"You chose the shortest route, which makes sense, but the dry seabed is hit by almost constant sandstorms," Clarke expressed while pointing to the path on the map.

"We have the tents from the second dawn. Sand won't be a problem," Octavia fired.

"It's not just sand. Some of it crystalized in Praimfaya. I'm talking shards of glass that will rip through the tents and us," Clarke detailed the issue.

"Blodreina is right. Besides, we can only carry rations for seven days," Cooper interjected. "The sea route will take six. The next shortest path adds fifty miles. That's two more days if we're lucky."

"Enough," Octavia stopped the back and forth. "We're doing this. The hydrofarm is barely feeding us now, so if this is the last living valley on Earth then it should be ours."

"Diyoza thinks the same thing," Bellamy brought up.

"And so we fight," Octavia concluded. I watched her and her crew leave the room and looked back to Bellamy.