Coming Back Down

Contents Under Pressure

  Soon after bringing Finn back to camp and getting the radio set up, a storm hit, and it was pouring down buckets of rain. Everyone ran to the dropship to take cover, and I hid out on the top level of the ship like last time. Shaking my head to get some of the rain that hit me off, I dropped my pack on the floor.

  I could hear the pitter-patter of the rain on the metal ship, but the calming sound of it was ruined by all of the voices below. Pulling off my jacket, I laid it out on the floor next to my pack to dry. When the hatch swung open, I paused, then saw some guys struggling to bring a larger man up the ladder. My brows drooped as I slightly glared.

  They brought the Grounder into the dropship.

  "Oh, good. Viper, I need you to keep everyone back." Bellamy said as he and a few others dragged him to the back of the room and began tying him up. Halfway through, however, he woke up and began to struggle. To make matters worse, everyone was filing into the top floor because of the procedure with Finn downstairs.

  "Whoa! He's awake!"

  "Tie him tighter!" Bellamy shouted while pointing. "The last thing we need is this bastard getting free because you screwed up." The Grounder was silently struggling against his restraints but completely froze when Octavia crawled through the hatch. This, however, didn't go unnoticed by anyone.

  "Octavia, get out of here."

  "I told you he was protecting me." Octavia stood close to her brother. "You didn't have to do this."

  "This isn't about you." Bellamy said firmly. "I'm doing this for all of us."

  "You did that for all of us?" Octavia questioned as she looked at the Grounder in his rather bloody state.

  "I did that for Finn and Jasper. And Diggs and John and Roma."

  "It wasn't even him!"

  "You don't know that!" Bellamy rose his voice. "We need to know what we're up against. How many there are and why they're killing us. And he's gonna tell us right now."

  "No, Bellamy, please." Octavia grabbed her brother's wrist as he walked toward the Grounder.

  "Miller, get her out of here." Bellamy yanked his arm free while demanding another man take his sister away as he wouldn't even look at her.

  "I was there! I sw- Hey! Get-Get off of me!" Octavia shouted as she backed away from whom I assumed was Miller. As she walked toward the hatch, she looked back at her brother. "I don't even think he speaks English. He won't understand you."

  "Oh, I think he will." Bellamy stepped closer to the Grounder as they both stared at each other with a fire in their eyes. Ushering the people back downstairs, only a select few remained with the Grounder.

  However, before anything actually got serious, something crashed into the dropship, causing many people to fall over and for things to topple to the floor. "What the Hell was that?" Bellamy called out. "Are we under attack or not?"

  "Storm damage. We're okay." A blond male replied while climbing up the ladder.

  "We're gonna try this one more time." Bellamy walked back toward the Grounder and stood a foot in front of him while looking him in the face. "What's your name?" The Grounder answered with silence. "Where's your camp? How many of you are there?"

  "Hey, check it out." The guy rifling through the Grounder's things called out, and Bellamy went over to look. Crossing my arms, I glanced over at them huddled in a circle while crouching. Sighing through my nose, I had my own curiosities to quell.