Hell and Back (The 100)

20 - Search Party

Our much smaller search party has been wandering through the woods for hours now. The sun is now shining through the trees, meaning we no longer needed our torches. Finn was doing pretty well for a while of tracking the prints until it started to become harder. 

"I got nothing." Finn comes up in lead. "We lost the trail."

"Keep looking." Bellamy orders with the small ax in hand. 

I walk alongside of Jasper, not wanting to lose him from my sight. The rest of us are out in the wide open for Grounders. We could easily hide when the moon was out, but now everything was easily seen. 

"Wandering around aimlessly isn't the way to find your sister." I speak up to earn Bellamy's attention. 

Finn agrees by nodding his head, "We should backtrack."

Bellamy stops walking to face both of us. "I'm not going back."

"Hey, where's John?"

Everyone looks back to see Roma looking concerned. All of us come to a halt, glancing around in every direction. 

"I just saw him a second ago."

"Spread out!" Bellamy tells us. "He couldn't have gotten that far."

Jasper's fingers latch around my wrist to keep me from separating from him. This doesn't feel right. None of us would just wander off. Not when we crossed the boundary line. 

I lead Jasper towards Bellamy and Finn. The best idea is to stick close to them. Spreading out will only make it easier for us to be taken by a Grounder. Before we can move that much, John's body falls from the trees right in front of us. I suck in a deep breath to keep myself from screaming. Jasper's grasp on me tightens. 

John's throat has been sliced. His eyes are left wide open. He's dead. 

Grounders.

Bellamy and Finn jog over to us. I oddly find comfort in Bellamy standing so close to me. 

Finn looks up, "They use the trees."

"We shouldn't have crossed the boundary." Diggs states.

"Now can we go back?" Roma asks.

Jasper pulls me behind him while pointing at a Grounder through the trees with his metal pipe. "There." 

"Another one." Diggs says, spotting one in a different direction.

All of the blood drains from my face. "We should run." I whisper to everyone. 

Not a second passes before all of us are sprinting in the same direction to escape from the Grounders. The hand on my wrist disappears as Jasper races alongside of me. Bellamy leads the way through the woods and I make sure to keep close to him and Jasper. 

"Let's go! Let's go!" Finn shouts.

"What are we gonna do? They keep heading us off." Diggs calls out.

I jump over a fallen tree. I easily bypass Finn and end up running alongside of Bellamy. I may not be a great fighter, but I move swiftly through the trees. 

"Just keep running!" 

"I can't run much longer!" Jasper's voice sounds too far away.

I abruptly stop running to see that Jasper ended up at the very end. Surprisingly, Bellamy stopped running as soon as he saw that I did. 

"I'm not stopping for him!" Diggs keeps moving. 

Jasper reaches me and leans some of his weight on me, panting.