Stargirl ➤ Bellamy Blake

chapter five | the cowardly lion

chapter five | the cowardly lion

"What the hell happened out there?" Bellamy demanded, looking accusingly at Clarke like she'd purposefully sabotaged the mission and gotten his sister hurt. 

"We were attacked," Clarke explained. 

"Attacked?" Cleo questioned, so far, minus some insects, she'd yet to see any form of life besides what came down in the drop ship. "By What?" 

"Not what. Who," Finn corrected. He'd taken a seat on a nearby stump, his breathing heavy. Cleo realized the entire group that had just returned looked beyond weary. They'd definitely been running from something. 

"I don't understand," Cleo shook her head in confusion. "What the hell happened to the kid that went with you?" 

Clarke and Finn exchanged an utterly serious look with each other. Cleo couldn't tell if they were more terrified or concerned, or maybe something else entirely. What ever happened had been bad, and before they could even manage to find the words to describe their experience, Cleo felt worrying rooting itself inside her mind. They were in even more trouble then she'd thought. 

"It turns out, when the last man from the ground died on the ark, he wasn't the last grounder," Finn began to explain.

 At his words, Cleo began putting pieces together in her mind, and she didn't like what her imagination was putting together. She looked to Clarke for clarification, even though she was fairly certain she didn't exactly want it. 

"It's true," Clarke nodded at her. 

Around them, the entire camp had grown silent. They were all afraid, as they should be. Finally and unfortunately, they were seeing the gravity of their situation. 

"Everything we thought we knew about the ground was wrong," Clarke now announced to the gathering crowd. "There are people here, survivors. The good news is, that means we can survive. The radiation won't kill us." 

"Yeah, but the bad news is the grounders will," Finn added darkly. 

Understandably, fear pricked the hearts of everybody hearing this news with it's evil thorns. Cleo was no exception, in fact she might've been the most afraid with the images her mind was producing of what these grounders could be like. 

"You asked about Jasper," Clarke was once again talking to Cleo. "He was hit. They took him." 

"He was hit?" Wells questioned. 

Clarke looked at him, ready to clarify, and Cleo wasn't exactly heartbroken when the blonde stopped herself short. Instead of responding, Clarke's eyes fell to the Wells' wrist. Immediately, she pinpointed what was missing from it. 

"Where's your wristband?" Clarke inquired, grabbing at his arm.