𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐃𝐀𝐖𝐍 | the 100

37 | Too Late

"We were... friends."

‧ ✩ ｡ ✭ ° ☆ ･ _______ ･ ☆ ° ✭ ｡ ✩ ‧

The gunshot echoes through Amber's mind as the sickening realization of what just happened hits. Horrified, she stumbles back. The fallen man on the ground doesn't rise again, and the person in front of her stands frozen in silence, rifle still raised and wild eyes locked ahead.

"Finn..." she whispers, then loses her voice. She can't hear herself over the hammering in her chest, but then a booming shout shatters the trance that's fallen over everyone.

"He was just trying to get away!" It's the bearded man in the pen, and at his words the air warps, thickening with distressed murmurs from the villagers behind him. Amber's stomach churns as everything changes, as swiftly as the tide.

Murphy senses it too and tries to pull Finn away before it's too late, but it already is. The rebellious teen that the bearded man previously scolded now jumps up, slipping from his friends' hands, and flies over the fence in a swift leap. A young wolf headed for his first kill.

He's battered with bullets before Amber can even scream, but a chorus of yells erupt when he falls to his knees and his cheek lands in the mud. With the flick of a finger, Finn has ignited the villagers. The bearded man tries to hold them back, his arms almost enveloping them all in an embrace, but he's one man and they're furious.

Someone tugs at Amber's jacket, and when she spins, Murphy's face is inches from hers. His shouts don't register. She shakes her head at him as he attempts to drag her away, and once she's managed to slip out of his grip, she staggers up to Finn who still stares at the scene in front of him. When she grabs his arm and yanks, he stumbles, but doesn't drop the rifle or his focus on the people in the pen, like a machine programmed to kill.

A villager slips past the bearded man's arms and leaps the fence. Without hesitation, the rifle spits bullets from the barrel.

"Stop it! Finn, stop!"

Another villager falls. Then another. A man too old to move on his own, hands raised in surrender. A girl with twin braids, crawling back in the dirt. Each crack of the rifle is a dagger in Amber's chest and she digs her fingers into Finn's jacket, refusing to let go even as the bullets thunder in her ears. She screams, pleads, orders, but the rain of bullets doesn't end.

Until it does.

Stunned by the sudden silence, her grasp on Finn loosens and she's pulled back into an embrace. Murphy says nothing as he holds her, a barrier protecting her from the devastation that remains, and she lets herself sag against him for a brief moment, unable to process what has happened. But then her eyes drift over his shoulder, and she sees what has finally brought Finn to a stop.

Clarke, Bellamy, and Octavia stand at the edge of the forest. Delight sweeps away all the horrors that occurred just a moment ago, but then Amber realizes that they aren't looking at her, but at the scene that separates them. And then she hears it. Wails fill the air, sobs, shouts, and her gaze drops to the destruction, finally seeing the people who clutch bloody rags against wounds or the hands of their loved ones, and she feels the scent of fresh blood sinking into damp earth in her nostrils.

The bearded villager climbs the fence and Murphy's arms tense around Amber, but there's no need. Without wasting a glance on them, the man walks up to the corpse of the young rebel who he failed to keep safe and gathers his lifeless form into his arms to lift him to his chest.