Ready, Aim, Fire

Chapter Four

The six of us continue towards the Grounder village in almost complete silence. We walk alist in a single-file line, Bellamy insisted that I walked next to him. The trees begin to thin out, and the sunlight begins to beat down on us through to gaps in the leaves, leaving us all hot, sweaty and tired. "We need to go faster." Finn says from just ahead of us and takes off running. "Finn, wait!" Bellamy calls but is ignored. "Everybody keep up." Bellamy calls behind us and places a hand on the small of my back, pushing me into a jog next to him.

We continue on like this for what feels like hours, and I begin struggling to catch my breath. "Everybody, eyes peeled. We're in Grounder territory." Bellamy says as w come out of the trees completely and into the full heat of the sunlight. "Everything is Grounder territory, alright." Murphy says as I begin to lag behind Bellamy and run next to him. "I can't keep running." He says, stopping, and I stop next to him, silently thanking him for speaking up. Finn turns around and stomps towards us as Bellamy carefully watches him. I haven't said a word to Finn since the bunker incident.

"We don't even know if the guy Finn killed is telling the truth." Murphy says, causing me to wince through my labored breaths as the image of the one-eyed Grounder dead with blood pooling around his head comes to mind. Finn grabs Murphy and me roughly by our our jacket sleeves and tugs us after him. "Keep moving." He says as he shoves us into walking ahead of him, sounding nothing like my best friend. "We can give them a minute." Bellamy says, placing his hand one Finn's shoulder and causing him to stop. "No, we can't." Finn argues, and I begin to feel my anger bubble up. "You heard what the Grounder said: 'They'll outlive their usefulness.'" Finn says, and I purse my lips to keep from lashing out.

"I heard what he said when you had a gun to his head." Bellamy says, and I almost want to start clapping. Finally, somebody said it. "Look, you think I wanted to do that?" Finn asks, and I take a step forward, joining the conversation despite Bellamy's warning look. "He would've told his people we're coming, and by the time we got there, our people would be dead. Maybe that's something you could live with, but I can't." Finn explains and tries to step past Bellamy as I roll my eyes, but Bell stops him. "I know you did what you think you had to do." He says, and I cross my arms over my chest. "Did you have to point a gun at my head?" I ask, glaring at the side of Finn's head, and he returns the glare with so much anger that I almost look away. Almost.

"Look, you are not yourself right now, and I can't be out here with another loose cannon." Bellamy says, regaining Finn's attention as I give Murphy a pointed look. Murphy gives me his best bitch-face, and I smirk at him. "You guys." Monroe says, raising her gun and gaining all of our attention. Bellamy turns around, and I look past him to see at least five dead bodies just in front of us. I thought the smell was coming from us.

"Fall in." Bellamy says, and Finn takes the lead with me right behind him then Bellamy, Murphy, Sterling and Monroe bringing up the rear. "Where the hell did they come from?" Murphy asks as I cover my mouth and nose with my hand, the smell reminding me too much of what probably still surrounds the Dropship. "From the Ark." Bellay answers, and sadness grips me as I think of the fear they all must have felt along with the hope that they could live new lives on Earth.

We follow the trail of dead bodies and scrap metal until we come to a cliff, and I can't keep the gasp of horror back as the scene in front of me causes me to stop walking and my hand to fall to my side. Bellamy stands behind me, his cheating into the back of my shoulders as the six of us stare at the crash sight in front of us.

Crashed into a cliff opposite from us lies a pole of twisted and smoldering metal that used to be one of the stations of the Ark. The area is absolute quiet besides the buzzing the insects around the bodies. "That's a rough landing." Murphy says as all of us continue to stare. How many more people have to die in the hope of reaching Earth?