in which a girl with a heavy burden tries to find her way through the trials and torments of the earth they've come home to.
OR
in which she must rebuild.
EMBERS
JOHN MURPHY
DEATHLIES 2016
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN T...
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T W E N T Y E I G H T
Although she wanted to, Althea did not sleep. She lay beneath the sheets with her palm beneath her wary head and with her eyes staring out into the dark. The shouting outside stirred her into action, no longer wanting to lie in her self-pity.
She'd done that for too long.
-
Emerging from the tent, fully clothes and hair tussled into a sense that wasn't so messy as her bed hair. It felt heavy on he head. Horrible to touch, but there isn't much to do about it on the ground. Hair was the least of their worries when there were people out there, roaming in the gloomy blankets of the trees armed with spears and other barbaric weaponry. Adapted to kill.
Althea walks into the crowd, pushing through and to where Bellamy was stood over a bag of weaponry, just as barbaric.
"Hey everybody!" He calls out, his arms folded over his chest. "Gather around and grab a weapon. My sister's been out there alone for twelve hours. Arm up. We're not coming back without her."
Althea's ribs contract at the news of Octavia's disappearance. Although Octavia often went out on her own, she always came back. But this time, she'd been gone too long for it to be one of her adventures of exploration.
"Hey, Jasper," Clarke says softly, turning to him. "You don't have to do this. You haven't left camp since we brought you back."
"Clarke, I need to do this," Jasper replies, determination wavering through his voice.
"We need all the people we can get," Bellamy tells Clarke. "We need a tracker. Finn! Get out here!"
"Bellamy," Althea says meekly beside him, pulling the sleeves of her jacket over her hands and folding herself into it tightly. "I'm sorry," She apologises when he looks down at her, his height not intimidating her.
"For what?"
"For using you," She responds without a hint of hesitation. She'd been thinking about it whilst she tried to sleep. It bit away at her. What she'd done was wrong and, as much as her heart ached, no love was going to quench the fire of agony.
It was only afterwards that she realised that she was a selfish girl for asking that of him. She shouldn't be putting what little energy she had into trying to find salvation in love, she should've been putting it into helping others for which she would find pride. What she'd done with Bellamy only filled her with regret and shame.
Bellamy's eyes flicker over her face. There were no tears.
He turns away, calling to Finn again. "Finn, we're leaving!"
-
"Guys, guys," A boy Althea had never spoken to exclaims. "Come here!"
"What is that? So bright!" Another says.
"Did you see that?" The same boy again. "Look up there. It's so beautiful."
And so everyone casts their eyes to the skies of night to have their vision filled with an overwhelming sense of wonderment. Most gazed upon it with awe, but the few who understood felt a sense of failure in their stomachs.
Althea's head spins, she looks down from the sky.
"They didn't work," Raven confirms. "They didn't see the flares." Althea swallows, wrapping her arms tighter around herself.
"A meteor shower tells you that?" Bellamy scoffs, turning his nose up at her.
"It's not a meteor shower," Clarke tells him sullenly. "It's a funeral. Hundreds of bodies being returned to the Earth from the Ark. This is what it looks like from the other side." She turns to Raven. "They didn't get our message."
Raven, in her anger and frustration, marches towards Bellamy. "This is all because of you!"
"I helped you find the radio!" Bellamy defends.
"Raven," Althea says, loud enough for her to hear.
Raven's eyes dart to her for a moment and Althea wonders if she'd going to shout at her too. She didn't know if she'd be able to stand there and take it like Bellamy did, but she would sure as hell try.
"Yeah, after you jacked it from my pod and trashed it!" Raven shouts back.
Clarke steps in now, taking the higher ground like she always did. "Yeah, he knows. Now he has to live with it."
Bellamy sighs. "All I know is that my sister is out there and I'm gonna find her." He looks to Finn. "You coming or what?"
"Yeah."
"What are we waiting for? Move out!" Bellamy commands the crowd, walking out with them following behind him.
Althea, with a spur of determination, walks with him. Jogging lightly to catch up and then matching his pace.
When Bellamy notices her he has to catch the surprised laugh in his throat and prevent its escape. "You're coming?"
"Octavia's my friend," Althea tells him, digging her hands into her pockets. "I want to help find her because I know for a fact that she'd not dead. So, she's out here somewhere and you need as much help as you can get, right?"
