The First On The Ground

Earth Kills

(AUGUST POV)

Not much happened the next day, until that night. I was up in the dropship with Clarke, looking over Jasper.

"His pulse is steady," Clarke says checking his pulse. Jasper then moans loudly making the delinquents on the lower level complain. Clarke yells at them before turning back to Jasper.

"Don't listen to them," I say to Jasper as I run a wet rag over his face. I turn back to dampen the rag again but see that we are out of water. "I'm gonna get clean water. Keep an eye on him." I go get the clean water but when I start to head back to the dropship I hear a little girl screaming. "Take this to Clarke," I tell the nearest delinquent.

"No! NO! No! NO!" The little girl calls out.

"Hey, wake up," I say shaking her. "It's okay. It's okay. It's just a dream." I tell her as she wakes up. "You're Charlotte, right?" She nods. "I'm Augustina, but you can call me August or Bo. It's okay to be scared. Do you want to talk about it?"

"It's my parents. They were floated and I see it in my dreams..." Charlotte begins to explain.

"I can't imagine what that's like. But I did never get to know my mom. So, how did you end up here?" I ask.

"Well we were taking my parents' things to the redistribution center and I kind of lost it," Charlotte explains. "They said I assaulted a guard."

"I can't say I blame you. That's part of the reason why I'm here. I assaulted a guard trying to make sure Octavia wasn't caught but that failed. I should have been floated because of my age but my father and the Chancellor sent me here instead. There's one thing that's helped me for the year I've been down here. See that bright star up there?" She nods. "That's the Ark orbiting above us. I think whatever happened up there, you know, the pain maybe we can move past that now. Maybe being on the ground is our second chance." I explain to her.

"Do you really believe that?" Charlotte asks.

"It's what has been keeping me alive," I answer her before we fall to sleep. I woke up the next morning to see Bellamy come out of his tent with a random girl. For some reason, I felt a twinge of jealousy. I see Bellamy and Murphy heading around the side of the dropship. I decide to follow and see what they are up to but I take the trees. I find them practicing their aim or in Murphy's case, learning how to throw a knife. Which is quite funny.

"That damn kid, always messing with my head," Murphy uses as an excuse. I'm in a tree behind them so I grab my knife out and wait for the opportune moment.

"He's not gonna last much longer. Better think of a new excuse..." Bellamy says as he gets ready to throw his ax. I roll my eyes at the first thing he said. He then throws the ax. "That's how it's done." He goes to grab his ax. After he got the ax out he turned to face Murphy. I throw my knife and it goes right past Bellamy's head before sticking in the tree. By the time Bellamy has realized what has happened, I have reached the tree with the knife in it. Bellamy turns and looks at the knife before looking around camp. Murphy looks completely scared. I hop out the tree landing where I'm chest to chest with Bellamy.

"No. That's how it's done," I say as I pull the knife out. "And Jasper isn't dying. He's a survivor and if anyone tries to do anything to him, I promise that they will have to deal with me first." Before either them says anything Atom comes up. I nod my head at him since I've been helping him get around Bellamy's order.

"We searched a half-mile in all directions," Atom says. "No sign of Trina or Pascal."

"Visit your special tree when you were out there?" Murphy asks teasing Atom. I pretend to be confused by this question.