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 N I N E
"Look over here!" A boy shouts, pointing down the drop to a tree with a sign of hope cradled in its branches like a new born. So delicately it was placed there, lost there, with no intention of aiding their search party, but there it was leading them in new directions.
"What is it?" Bellamy asks, stepping forward to get a better look.
"Right there. You see it? Is that Octavia's?"
Bellamy extends his hand. "Rope," He orders without even turning his gaze.
Althea looks down the bank to. It was dark down there. Beyond a certain point, all was dark and full of terrors unimaginable. Althea would go down there for Octavia.
The rope is thrown down and Bellamy is gone before she can even begin to tell him to be careful. Jasper follows after him. Seeing Jasper go down, Althea decides to follow suit. Taking in a large breath, she takes a hold of the rope and guides herself down. Stumbling slightly near the bottom, she hits into Jasper, but he doesn't notice.
Finn comes down behind her, sending her a slight nod only visible in the light of the flame that set her goal in stone.
"Someone else was down here," Bellamy concludes, the blood from the rock on his fingertips.
"The prints are deeper going that way." Finn gestures with his free hand. "He was carrying her."
"If they took her, she's alive. Like when they took me," Jasper contributes. Althea wasn't sure whether to feel comforted or anxious about his addition. Jasper wasn't exactly the most positive and when trying to be optimistic, his presence did not help in the slightest. If she had not liked Jasper so much, she would have been irritated by it.
They followed the tracks, moving with only the light of torches to guide them in the black of night. The horrors swirled within the darkness, lounging in its tides and drinking up its inky black.
Althea felt her gut churning inside of her as they walked. She stuck close to Bellamy, who walked slightly behind Finn as he tracked the footsteps. Although she did not reach out to touch him, she'd wanted to. But she'd told herself that independence was the key to becoming the person she so desperately wanted to be.
If you can help yourself, you can help others. She just needed to figure out how to help herself.
When her eyes lay upon the dead and decaying corpse, her hand flies over her mouth and her face pales.
"I don't speak grounder... but I'm pretty sure this means keep out," Finn says, staring at the body.
"Let's get out of here," One stranger says, turning around and beginning to walk.
"Go back if you want. My sister, my responsibility," Bellamy tells them, giving the option which was taken by some. Bellamy stalks off, not giving much time for a decision.
Others follow, but a few remain.
"I'd walk into hell to find her," Jasper mutters, watching Bellamy leave.
"I think we just did."
-
"I got nothing, we lost the trail," Finn admits, turning to Bellamy with a defeated expression.
"Keep looking," Bellamy commands. Althea eyes him, looking for relent but there was none.
"Wandering around aimlessly isn't the way to find your sister. We should backtrack," Finn says, gesturing back.
"I'm not going back."
"Hey, where's John?" A nervous voice asks, Althea turns to look but there was no sign of John.
"I just saw him a second ago," Jasper says frowning.
"He was here," Althea says, her voice stronger than she thought it would have been after not talking for such a long time. She didn't like to talk often. She was more of a listener and an observer.
"Spread out," Bellamy tells them. "He couldn't have gotten that far."
They only take one more step before the body falls from above, from the trees, hitting the floor with force. It was John. He was dead. His neck was sliced open like he were livestock and his eyes were dull, lifeless. Althea takes a step back, her face paling once more and her heart aching for the boy who died too young.
It could have been any of them. It could have been her. It made her wonder why it wasn't her. Why John? He was young and full of life, but now he was dead and lying in the dirt as if he was meant to be there. None of them were meant to be here.
It made her think of John Murphy. Out there all on his own. She prayed he was not dead, but looking at the boy with his neck wide made her hopes diminish into dust.
The grounders were not merciful in defending their home from the invaders from space, the aliens. They were willing to do anything to protect the ones they loved, that's what made Althea respect them.
The grounders were just as scared as they were.
Only they were taking the offensive.
"They use the trees," Finn confirmed.
"We shouldn't have crossed the boundary."
"Now can we go back?"
"There," Jasper says, pointing. His breath catching in his throat with raw and honest fear. "Right there."
"There's too many to fight them off," Althea says with a grimace. Although she did not fear death happening to her, she did not want today to be the day she had her final breath. "Bellamy!"
"We should run," Says Finn whilst starting to run, and the others do not hesitate in following his lead.
Staying to fight would be a fool's death and Althea knew Bellamy Blake was no fool, no matter how many mistakes he'd made in the past. Even taking into account the mistakes he was about to make, she did not think him ill witted.
They ran as a pack. Running for their lives from the inhabitants of the place they'd fallen to and decided to pronounce as their rightful home. When, in fact, it wasn't theirs to take.
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971 words althea doesn't talk much, she's a thinker
