Hopeless - (Bellamy Blake - Book 2)

Chapter 18.

A sharp, burning pain emits from my thigh.

Someone stabbed me with a knife.

I cry out, turning to swing my arm as I start to fall but hitting nothing but air. I stumble against the ramshackle building to my left with a heavy thud, clutching my thigh as the fire within burns.

My breath shakes as I stare at the reason I couldn't hit my attacker. A boy—probably no older than ten—stands before me, a dark, disgusted look on his face. A child.

"FUCK!" I clench my eyes shut and grunt and pant through the pain, clutching the top of a wooden barrel in one hand, my other shaking hand presses around the blade still impaled in my leg. A wet, sticky residue coats my hand. Blood.

"Hey!" Murphy appears not a moment later, gun raised at the boy in front of me.

"Murphy, no!" I shout at him, cringing at the jolt of movement I cause. "He's—He's just a kid!" He doesn't hesitate before spitting onto the muddy ground and running away from us.

"Yeah, he's a kid who just buried a knife in you, Carter." Murphy quips. I barely look at him, I just stare up at the sky and try to breathe as much as I can, tears of pain start to stream down my face.

"Ooh, motherfucker that hurts." I hiss out, trying to push myself into as much of a sitting position as possible, Murphy grabbing onto me to help when the wound bleeds out more.

The gunfire stops...well, it's either that or the ringing in my ears has blocked it out.

"Hey. You're okay." Murphy tells me, one hand on my shoulder to keep me down.

"Fuck off, Murphy-argh!" I clench my eyes shut from a burst of pain, but open them again to look down at my high. My pants are covered in blood that continues to ooze out of my leg, the knife still embedded into my muscle.

The sight makes me nauseous.

"CHRIS!" Someone's voice bellows out my name. I recognise it instantly.

"Bellamy?" I whisper, looking around frantically.

"At least he has good timing." Murphy tells me, quickly standing up and giving me some space as Bellamy runs over, falling to his knees on the ground beside me.

"Chris..." His eyes scan my entire body, falling onto where I clutch my leg, blood oozing out from the wound. His eyes fixate onto the knife. "What the fuck happened?!" He turns his head to glare at Murphy.

"It wasn't him." I rasp out.

"Clarke!" Bellamy calls over his shoulder, "Clarke—she needs help!"

Hold on...did he just say—

"Carter!?"

"Clarke...?" My voice is a whisper, but it cracks, and tears start to fall down my face again as the blonde runs over to us. "You're-you're alive."

"Yeah," She doesn't smile as she crouches beside me. "What happened? Why are you all here?"

I wince. "We-we thought you were here." She nods, looking down at my thigh. I see her jaw clench, and she glances over at Finn, who watches us with wide, terrified eyes.

"Chris..." Finn shakes his head is disbelief and the rifle drops from his hand, hitting the ground with a wet thud. "Oh my god, Chris, what..."

"Get the hell away from her." Bellamy barks at Finn when he tries to step towards us. Finn freezes mid step, eyes wide and head shaking from side to side.

"Bellamy, stop." I wince.

"Alright," Clarke gives me her full attention. "We need to stop the bleeding."

"Sure." I agree, swallowing past the nausea.

She gives me a sympathetic look. "This'll hurt."

"What wi—ARGH FUCK, CLARKE!" I push my head backwards as a reflex, hitting the hard wood behind me with a deep thunk. Clarke takes her hand and puts it on my thigh, pushing a piece of fabric around the wound.

I sob in pain and bite my lip, looking away from her and trying to focus on the tree-line above my head.

"Sorry." She sighs. "It feels like a flesh wound, no major damage to the muscle yet."

"Oh, great. Glad we...have that." I nod, panting.

"So, she'll be okay?" Bellamy asks, his hands clutching my arm.

Clarke nods at him. "We need to add a dressing and source a stretcher if we can. You won't be able to walk, and even if you could, I'd rather you didn't."

"What about my new...accessory?" I pant through the pain. My hands shake as I gently lay them on my thigh, itching to grab the knife and yank it out of me.

"We leave it in, you'll need stitches and there's nothing here for us to use." She glances around us. "Plus, I don't think we should stick around for much longer."

"Alright." I close my eyes and continue to breathe. "No walking. Knife stays in. Gotcha."

"Hey, Carter. Hey." A light slap on my face from Clarke has me blinking rapidly, looking around. "And no sleeping, okay?"

"God, I can't believe I missed you." I try to joke. Clarke still doesn't smile. "Where were you? Are the others here—"

"It's just me and it's a long story." She cuts me off. "Let's get you fixed up and out of here first. Bellamy, put pressure here."

I grit my teeth and groan when a firm hand is pressed against the wound. Clarke gets up, probably to find material for a bandage.

I sigh. "No walking, no sleeping. This'll be fun."

"Hey," This time it's Bellamy's voice that has me blinking up at him. "You're gonna be fine."

Fuck, he looks so worried.

I nod at him and try to smile. "Yeah. Good timing on your part by the way...couldn't have come a little earlier though?"

He tries to smirk at me, but I can tell it's forced, "I like to make an entrance." I try to laugh, but grimace when I move my leg. Bellamy watches me carefully and clenches his jaw. I watch him, and try to smile.

"Hey...I'm okay."

"I'm gonna kill him." He says lowly, glancing over his shoulder at Finn, who stands far away from anyone, pacing. Murphy tries to calm him down, to no avail.

"No...you're not." I tell him through deep breaths.

Bellamy faces me again, disbelief on his face. "He was shooting at the Grounders, Chris, then they retaliated by stabbing you."

"Yeah, well, can't say I...blame them." I look over at the bodies of those fallen, now surrounded by their loved ones.

Bellamy follows my line of sight, then turns to face me again and lowers his voice. "What happened here?"

I shake my head at him, a sudden chill causing me to shiver. "Things got out of hand."

He nods, and we say nothing further on the topic.