Love to Hate [1]

It's obviously best for them to turn their guns to a fist.

Song: Guns for Hands // Twenty One Pilots

Nessa's POV

We had been walking for about half an hour. Bellamy and I had eventually separated - him moving up front to lead the group. I stayed in the middle, an arrow knocked, walking next to Raven on her stretcher. The whole time I had tried to engage the girl in conversation, trying to take her mind off of her pain and get to know her better. I had realized that I had yet to really get to know any of the hundred aside from Bellamy. My lack of social skills and aversion to people had kinda gotten in the way. As Raven and I talked though, I began to like her more and more. Maybe people weren't as bad as I thought. 

Suddenly the whole procession stopped. Miller and another boy had been talking about surfing once they got to the beach, but they fell silent. "Why have we stopped?" Raven croaked. She seemed to be getting weaker. Her normal olive skin had become so pale, strands of brown hair stuck to her face with sweat. 

Finn - who had been carrying the back part of Raven's stretcher - looked around, worried. "I don't know," he whispered.

"Stay sharp," I heard Jasper say from the front. I raised my arrow to eye level and scanned the treetops, knowing that the Grounders liked to attack their unsuspecting prey from above. Suddenly I heard a branch crack and something came hurtling towards us. An axe buried itself in the face of the boy Miller had been talking to. Silence followed as those around him processed what had just happened. Then panic ensued. 

"GROUNDERS," Jasper shouted, and everyone immediately took off running in the direction of camp. I backed up slowly, keeping my arrow raised to make sure no one came at us from behind while we retreated. I searched the oncoming crowd for Bellamy and sighed in relief when I saw his curly hair above the other delinquents. His eyes met mine and he grabbed my hand. 

"We have to run back. Now," he urged me, pulling me towards camp.

Camp was in chaos when we all got back. People were screaming, yelling, running in all directions. Desperate to reach the relative safety our makeshift wall afforded us. It was evident everyone was terrified. We had tried to buy time, but it looked like we were too late. The Grounders were here, and we had no other choice but to fight. Bellamy was barking orders, telling gunners to man the walls and watch for oncoming Grounders. Finn and another boy supported Raven back into the drop ship. Octavia took up a defensive position at the wall. I came up next to her and knocked an arrow. We looked at each other and nodded grimly. Now that we were unsure whether we'd see tomorrow or not, I also regretted not getting to know the younger Blake better. After all, we'd had pretty similar childhoods. And I was in love with her brother. I glanced up at Bellamy and saw him exchanging hushed words with Clarke, looking over the wall into the forest. 

Clarke, looking visibly upset, turned to Finn. "Lincoln said the scouts would be the first to arrive," she called to him. 

"If it's the scouts then we can fight our way out," Octavia chimed in. "That's what Lincoln would do."

"We're done doing what that Grounder would do," Bellamy said firmly, climbing down from his perch on top of the wall. "We did that and now Drew is dead." He gestured to the body that had been carried back. "Do you wanna be next?" He asked her roughly. I could see how frustrated Bellamy was, since this is exactly what he had wanted to prevent from the beginning. And now that another of the hundred was dead, he felt that much worse about not fighting harder to make everyone stay. 

"That Grounder saved our lives," Finn responded. "I agree with Octavia." I bit my lip, glad I wasn't Clarke or Bellamy in this situation. There didn't seem to be a right choice. Either way, people would get hurt. People would die. "For all we know there's one scout out there," Finn continued.

"One scout with seriously good aim," Jasper cut in. I almost laughed at his grim humor, but seeing Drew's body in the center of camp made me sober up. 

Octavia turned to Clarke. "We can still do this," she pleaded. 

"Looking to you, princess," Bellamy added. Even though it was a serious situation and he meant nothing by it, I still felt a twinge of jealousy when Bellamy used that nickname for Clarke. I shook it off. Everyone looked at the blonde, waiting for an answer. She looked as confused and torn as I felt, and I felt bad for her. The lives of all of these kids were in her hands. "Run and get picked out in the open or stay and fight back." Bellamy stated our two choices. I could see the internal debate Clarke was having. The whole camp was hushed, waiting for a command from one of their leaders. She turned and surveyed the forest again before climbing down from the wall. Finn caught her arm and said something to her urgently. 

"Lincoln said scouts. As in more than one. He said get home before the scouts arrive. Finn, they're already here," she said despairingly. She turned to Bellamy. "Looks like you've got your fight." Bellamy nodded and turned to bark orders at everyone, clearly glad we were going to be finally doing something. He grabbed Octavia's arm as she made to follow the gunners. 

"O, you're not a gunner," he told her.

"No, I'm not," she responded shortly, pulling her arm out of his grasp and holding up her sword. "Like you said, I'm a Grounder." And with that she ran off into on of the tunnels leading to the foxholes outside the walls. I went to quickly follow her without Bellamy seeing but of course he noticed and stepped in front of me to block my path.

"Whoa, sweetheart, where do you think you're going," he asked me.

I rolled my eyes and snorted. "Bell, this is cute and all, but I'm a better shot than almost everyone here. You need me out there." 

He laughed and held his hands up. "Hey, I won't disagree with you. I was just going to say that I wasn't going to let you out of my sight. You're coming with me." I smiled and nodded, secretly glad that he wasn't making me stay "safe" behind the wall. As if he could have kept me out of the fight even if he wanted to. Clarke came up to the two of us.

"So how the hell are we going to do this," she asked. We both looked to Bellamy and he smiled. He had a plan.