Shoelaces (A Bellamy Blake Fanfiction)

9 - Found

"Hey, how do we know this is the right way?" Murphy asked as they walked along a dried up river bed. 

"We don't," Bellamy said. "Spacewalker thinks he's a tracker."

"It's called 'Cutting Sign'" Wells schooled Bellamy. "Fourth-year earth skills. He's good."

"You want to keep it down or should I paint a target on your backs?" Finn asked, adding fuel to Wells' fire that he was good at Earth Skills. Finn paused when he turned back around, reaching up to touch a broken branch with a furrowed brow. He let the branch go and bent down to look at the rocks below. 

"What is it?" Sophia asked, her heart speeding up in her chest. But before they could answer, a loud moan came from further in the bushes. 

"What the hell was that?" Murphy asked, turning to look in the direction the sound had come from. 

"Now would be a good time to take out that gun." Clarke said, walking on down the river bed, her gaze never straying from the bush for too long. Sophia stayed still, watching as Bellamy took out the gun. Her eyes seemed to stick to it like glue. Would they need to use it? What was waiting for them in the forest?

***

The group continued on, finally moving back into the forest in the direction of the strange moan. Sophia kept wondering, in the back of her mind, if it was Jasper. He was alive, they knew that. But in what state? For some reason, the grounders had cleaned him up. They were going to use him for something. But what would require the use of an injured  boy who wore goggles everywhere he went?

Sophia's arm had begun throbbing again. No matter what she tried, she couldn't get it to stop. She'd cleaned it, bandaged it. What more did it want from her? She wished she'd kicked that massive sea snake thing harder. 

They came to a break in the trees and Sophia gasped. A large, dead tree sat in the middle of a small clearing. Jasper was strung up in its branches, his abdomen covered in scratches and blood. He moaned loudly, letting them all know that he was very much indeed still alive. 

"Jasper," Clarke announced, happy to see the lanky boy. "Oh my god. Jasper," She said as she moved into the clearing, her eyes on Jasper's tied up form. 

"Clarke, be careful," Finn said, watching her walk as if she was fragile. 

"We need to get him down," Sophia said, moving closer to the tree than the rest of them. But, she wasn't watching her footing. The ground collapsed from beneath her and she fell straight down. With a scream, she fell down into the hole, her world covering in darkness. But something yanked a hold of her arm, stopping her from dropping any further. It took her a second to realise that they'd grabbed her wounded arm. Then the shock of the situation wore off and the pain in her arm let loose. 

Sophia screamed as she reached up with her other hand, clawing at the arm holding her up. But, whoever was holding her misread her, thinking she was afraid of dropping further. 

"I got you," Bellamy grunted as he began to lift her out. Everyone else crowded around, shouting that they needed to pull her up. Clarke landed on the ground beside Sophia, her hands automatically reaching out to look at Sophia's wounded arm. Sophia screamed as her fingers touched the wound, the pain almost unbearable. 

"I think it's infected," Clarke said, her eyes wide. 

"No kidding." Sophia bit back, completely overtaken by pain. 

"It wasn't this bad before we left," Bellamy said as he knelt down beside Clarke. His worried eyes glancing at her momentarily.

"It must have torn when you caught her," Clarke said, fingering the torn straps of Sophia's jacket out of the way. "You'll definitely need stitches." Sophia nodded, gasping around the pain.