So Many Miles Between Us

8. Worst Neighbors Ever (Bellamy)

     It's been one week since I was attacked by the giant gorilla. My shoulder wound was healing slowly, causing us to take more breaks than we could afford. We've only covered about fifty miles since the gorilla attack. We also have been needing to be extra careful, since we're officially in another Clan's territory. The area has been more mountainous, leading Lincoln to believe that we entered the Mountain Clan's territory. "Are they more or less dangerous than your Clan?" I asked him.

     "More. Their leader, she's not a visionary like Lexa is. She doesn't care about peace with Skaikru. She hardly wanted her Clan to join the Coalition," explained Lincoln.

     I nodded and said, "We'll just have to be extra careful, then."

     Lincoln nodded in agreement, just as Raven spoke up, "You do know where we're heading, right?" 

     "Yes," replied Lincoln, with a bitter and annoyed tone. I believe that he still held a grudge against her for what she did to him in the Dropship. I did the same thing but the difference was that I was sorry for it; Raven was not. 

     The mountains were a nice view. They weren't just rocky, but held grass and trees. The grass was a dark green color. It was tall, about half my height, while some parts were either almost as tall as me or taller than me. The grass gently swayed in the wind, making it seem as green waves rippled across the landscape. The trees all looked like they were ready to snap and fall to the ground, due to the tilt of the mountain, the trees were bending. There were assorted flowers along some parts of the mountain. The flowers consisted of mostly pinks, purples, blues, and yellow. Deer ran in front of us, on the less steeper sides of the mountains. They ran in groups of four or more. Small, blue and yellow birds fluttered out from the bushes but eventually ended up soaring through the sky. It was only the very top parts, closer to the peaks, of the mountains that held no life, neither plant nor animal life. Those parts were rocky and jagged. The main color of the mountains, when not colored by wildlife, was light brown, but I also saw mountains that ranged from dark brown to smokey gray. I heard a twig snap behind me. Great. Here we go again, I thought to myself.

      I turned my head slowly around, but was surprised to see only a deer standing there, staring at me. The deer was a buck and it was alone. I smiled kindly at him, and reached into my pocket, taking out some berries I was munching on as we walked. I slowly crept up to him, making sure not to make too much noise. Once I reached him, I extended my arm, holding the berries out to him. His nose twitched a couple of times and then he slowly walked forward. He reached out his neck and pressed his nose to the berries, giving them one last sniff. At last, he slowly nibbled away at the berries I had in my hand, eating all one dozen of them. After he finished, he looked back up at me and slowly turned around. That's when I noticed it. A red cut along the right side of his cheek. It wasn't just any cut but it was an opening. The opening held a third eye, that glared at me the whole time the deer turned itself around. I gave a little shriek and stumbled backwards, falling hard. My clumsiness scared the deer off. It took off at top speeds in the opposite direction.

      Mel rushed over to me, helping me stand up, demanding, "What the hell happened?"

     I shook my head and explained to her, "I, uh, saw a deer with a third eye. It gave me a little scare. No biggie." My cheeks burned in embarrassment and I brushed dirt off of my shoulder to try and disguise my embarrassment. 

      Lincoln gave me a weird look and said, "Yeah, well, if they didn't know we were here before, they sure as hell do now." It took me a moment to realize who the "they" was in his sentence. My eyes widened with horror once I realized the "they" referred to the Mountain Grounders.

      "Wonderful. Perfect. Great job, Bellamy. You just had to scream like a two year old and alert savages, basically telling them that we decided to hike through their territory!" scolded Raven.

      My embarrassment only grew and I didn't know what there was left to say, so I just said, "My bad."

     "Let's just keep going. We'll just have to be quieter now. And stay together," said Mel.

      With that, we were off. We walked for about another quarter mile when I asked Lincoln, "Don't they have guards around here?"

      Lincoln nodded and opened his mouth to respond but the only response was a shout that came from somebody in the higher parts of the mountain. I looked up in confusion and then asked him, "Did you hear that?" 

      I heard the gallop of horses and whipped my head around to see Grounders, dozens of them, enclosing us in a circle. "No... No..." I muttered to myself. The Mountain Grounders. They found us. 

     "Well, I guess that answers the question, so don't worry about answering," I told Lincoln. He just shot me an angered look. 

    The leader glared at me with pure hatred in her eyes. Once she spoke up, I realized just how hopeless escape was,  "Nau yu na wan op, Skaikru." I swallowed hard, terrified, my knees shaking so much they threatened to give out, sending me to the ground. Octavia had taught me some Trigedasleng before, and based on the words she taught me, I could easily tell what the Grounders' leader was saying to me. She was telling us, Skaikru, that we were going to die.