Radioactive

Chapter Twelve

I stay and watch the flares until I can't see them anymore. I give a nod to Clarke and glance at Bellamy. "Night." I say and head towards the dropship. Being on of the first people to try and go to sleep, the first floor still has room. I go to the corner and sit down with my legs out in front of me. I take off my jacket, rolling it up into a ball, and use it as a pillow. I lay my head down and close my eyes, willing sleep to come to me, and it does as exhaustion takes over me.

Something is shaking me, and I hear mumbled words. I open one eye and glance up, seeing Bellamy being the one who is doing the shaking. "Carter, wake up." He says, his volume level shows how much he doesn't care for the other sleeping teenagers. "What?" I groan out, opening my other eye but not sitting up. "Have you see Octavia?" He asks, and I can hear the big brother worry in his voice. I sit up, knowing this is serious. "I haven't seen her since we were all three together in the forest." I say, scrunching my eyebrows and letting worry for the younger Blake flare in my chest. "No one else has seen her since this morning." Bellamy says, standing from his crouched position. I get up with him, stretching out my stiff muscles, and follow as he walks out of the dropship. "Octavia!" He yells, grabbing one of the torches right next to the dropship. "Octavia!" He yells again, walking towards the nearest tent. He flings the flap open, waking up the person inside, and lets it drop when he sees Octavia isn't in there. "Sorry." I apologize to the woken delinquent and hurry after Bellamy.

He walks up to an open tent and squats down to look inside. "You're up?" He asks the person inside, standing up as they come out. I smile as Clarke straightens up. "Yeah. Knowing that hundreds of people might be dying on the ark makes it pretty hard to sleep." She says, an edge in her voice. I wince at the obvious jab the blonde makes at Bellamy. "Raven's flares will work." Bellamy says, sounding like he is trying to convince himself along with Clarke. "Her radio would've worked better." Clarke mutters, causing me to roll my eyes slightly. "Okay, let's move on. We have another problem." I say, stopping the brewing argument. Clarke looks past Bellamy at me questioningly. "We can't find Octavia." I say, rubbing my bare arms having left my jacket in the dropship. "Have you seen her?" Bellamy asks, an agitated grit to his voice.

"No." Clarke says, shaking her head. "It's Octavia. She's probably chasing butterflies." Clarke says, not getting the urgency of the situation. "Clarke, I've checked the camp. She's not here." Bellamy says, returning to worried big brother mode. Clarke pauses, obviously picking up on his worry. "Okay. I'll help you guys find her." She says and starts walking towards the middle of camp. "Let's check again. You two go to the dropship. I'll check the rest of the tents." Clarke says, and I nod, knowing that I need to grab my jacket anyway. "Thank you." Bellamy says, more like whispers. "Don't thank me." Clarke says, causing my eyebrows to shoot up. "I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it for Octavia." She says then splits off.

"You take the second level, and I'll take the first." I say, ignoring the rejected look on Bellamy's face. We walk into the dropship, Bellamy going to the ladder and me going to my jacket. I search the whole bottom floor and wait by the ladder for Bellamy. He comes jumping down, not really bothering with the rungs of the ladder, and looks to me with a small flicker of hope in his dark brown eyes. Knowing that she wasn't up there by the look on his face, I close my eyes and shake my head, letting worry take a firmer squeeze in my chest. Without a word, Bellamy storms out of the dropship, yelling foreverone to wake up. I sigh and follow him out along with the other sleepy teenagers. He yells for everyone to gather in the middle of the camp.

"Hey, everybody, gather around and grab a weapon." He says, unfurling the bag where all the homemade weapons are. "My sister's been out there alone for twelve hours. Arm up. We're not coming back without her. I sigh and bend down to grab a pretty thick stick with sharp pieces of metal from the dropship hammered into it. I sling it over my shoulder and walk to stand next to Bellamy, my free hand dangling by my side. I stand next to the Blake and watch silently as everyone begins to grab homemade weapons from the pile, and I faintly hear Clarke trying to dissuade Jasper from going. Bellamy leaves my side and goes over to them with his arms crossed, and I sigh, thinking this might start another argument between Bellamy and Clarke.