Radioactive

Chapter Seven

It's been a few hours since Wells had been buried next to Atom and the other two guys from the crash landing. I watch Clarke through a gap in the unfinished wall. She's kneeling in front of Wells' grave, taking a vigil that no one else would even consider thinking about doing. I give the forest around her another sweep and gasp when I see a figure emerging from the forest. My hand grips my knife that is tucked into the waistband of my jeans and stays there as Clarke pulls out her own knife and points it at the person. We both relax when we see that it is Finn coming in from another night of exploring the forest. I sigh as they begin talking and turn to walk away, knowing that she is safe. I turn fully around and jump when I see Bellamy standing just behind me with his arms crossed over his chest.

"You know, everyone else is working on the wall." He says, raising his eyebrows at me. I flick my eyes and focus on the people behind him. I see most of the remaining Hundred working on the wall. I raise my eyebrows at the few who aren't. "Yeah, everyone except your little gang of misfit criminals." I say, rolling my eyes and walking past him. I bump my shoulder into his, or at least try. With the height difference, my shoulder bumps into his upper arm instead. I walk towards the Dropship to go see if Monty needs help in there but stop when I see Clarke storming her way in there with a worried looking Finn trailing behind her.

Finn and I have barely talked since we landed on earth. He's been too busy following Clarke around like a lost puppy, and I guess I've been too busy with actually trying to make a life for myself down here. I sigh and have the full intent of following after him, but Charlotte comes skidding to a stop in front of me. I smile at her as she tries catching her breath. "Carter!" She says, returning my smile. "Hey kiddo, what's up?" I ask, bending my knees slightly to reach her height. "I could use some help tying some logs together." She says, looking at me with hopeful, big eyes. "Can you help me?" I look up towards the Dropship just as Finn disappears behind the curtain. I look back down to Charlotte and smile even bigger. "Of course." I say cheerfully. It seems that the conversation that is way overdue with Finn will just have to wait a little bit longer.

I can feel someone's eyes on me as Charlotte grabs my hand and pulls me towards the center of camp where a big pile of tree limbs lay next to a spool of wire and a spool of string. She picks up a smaller log as I pick up another, and we lean them against each other. "Can you hold them for a second?" I ask her. She nods her head and hold both of the logs to stop them from falling. I grab the spool of wire and the spool of string, putting the latter into the pocket of my jacket, and start wrapping the wire around the two logs to keep them together. I hand Charlotte the wire so I can grab another log. I lean this one against the other two and hold it as Charlotte wraps the wire around it so they can stand without someone holding onto it. I grab a fourth log, but a guy, Conner I think his name is, stumbles, drops the end of the tree limb he is helping someone carry and falls to his knees. I gasp and drop my own log and kneel down beside him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You okay?" I ask just as Murphy storms over. "Hey!" He yells, coming to stop in front of us. "You think the Grounders are just gonna sit around and wait for us to finish the wall?" Murphy says with no compassion towards this guy. Conner breathes heavily and, unlike Murphy, has been working all morning and is sweating with the strain of his work. I stand up and get in Murphy's face causing him to back away from Conner a little bit. "Oh you mean like how you have been sitting on your ass all day, barking orders at everyone else as they build the wall because you think that you have some sort of power over us?" I say, anger and frustration finally taking over my actions.

I walk closer to him and raise myself onto my toes to make myself seem taller and more intimidating. "Well this will come as a shocker." I say, sarcasm lacing its way into my voice. "These people aren't afraid of you." I say, jabbing my finger into his chest. "These people have no respect for you because you just sit there as they work their asses off. The only reason they listen to you is because of him." I say pointing my finger at Bellamy who is watching the whole thing with his arms crossed and eyebrows raised. "They respect him. So don't you think for one damn second that you are better than any of us you son of a bi-" before I can finish, Bellamy grabs my arm and pulls me away from Murphy, putting himself between us. "Calm down." He says, his voice firm and full of authority, but his face is covered with a smirk. I just boosted his ego even more. Great.