Fearless (Bellamy Blake - Book 1)

Chapter 20.

I stand in the same spot as earlier, practising throwing my axe as best as possible. I'm good at getting it to stick in the bark—just have to throw it with the right amount of force and at the right angle—but I'm not sure how good I'll be with a smaller, moving target.

"Hey."

I throw the axe and it once again sticks, and I turn to see Bellamy with an impressed look on his face.

"You're getting better."

"I'll be better than you soon if you don't watch out." I tease, retrieving my axe. When I turn back to Bellamy he has a small smirk on his face before he turns serious.

"We're heading out now, but if you're not up for it you can stay and take charge, I can take Murphy."

I scoff and furrow my eyebrows. "Why the hell wouldn't I be up for it?"

Bellamy shrugs, "Earlier with Jasper--"

"Look Blake, I can handle the fact he's dying, okay? It just sucks that it's in these circumstances." He stays silent and studies me, and I roll my eyes. "Study me all you want, but I'm being serious. Jasper is dying and yeah it sucks but that's life, especially life here on Earth. So. there is no way in hell I am staying here to babysit a bunch of delinquents when I can go and let off some steam instead."

"All right then." He nods and chuckles lightly, before turning to join the rest of the hunting group, glancing at me once more before we leave.

We walk through the woods as quiet as possible, all of us spread out sightly so we can track any animals easier.

A sigh escapes my lips, it would've been more productive of me to stay at camp, so far we've not found anything.

"Up ahead." Someone whispers. Guess I spoke too soon. "Look."

I look ahead and sure enough a boar is walking around in search of food, oblivious to us. We creep forward and duck down, keeping as quiet as possible.

Bellamy hushes us and holds a hand out, "She's mine."

He lifts his arm, axe in hand and aims at the boar, but when a twig snaps from behind us he spins and throws it in that direction, hitting a tree right next to Charlotte. The boar runs off, the other guys yelling and chasing after it.

"Bellamy!" I scold.

"Who the hell are you?" Bellamy asks as he, Atom and I walk over to her, the others all chasing the boar.

"Charlotte." She replies, frozen in her spot.

"I almost killed you." Bellamy pulls his axe out of tree.

"What are you doing here, Charlotte? You should be back at camp." I say to her sternly.

"Well, what with that guy who was dying, I just...I couldn't listen anymore." She admits quietly.

"There's Grounders our here, it's too dangerous for a little girl." Atom tells her.

"I'm not little." Charlotte replies sternly. "And you're here, why can't I be?" She gestures to me and I raise an eyebrow at her.

She looks at me determinedly and then at Bellamy, who looks at me as if seeking my opinion. I catch the look on his face and shake my head instantly, but he's already made up his mind.

"No, Bellamy—"

"Okay then, but you can't hunt without a weapon." He pulls a knife out of his boot and hands it to her, causing my breath to hitch in my throat. "Ever killed something before?"

"Are you serious?" I snap at him.

Charlotte shakes her head and looks at all of us, "Well who knows, maybe you're good at it."

Atom and Bellamy turn and walk away and I glare at Bellamy's back.

"Come on, Charlotte."

We catch up to the guys and I grab Bellamy's arm and pull him back a bit so we can talk.

"Are freaking insane?!" I narrow my eyes at him and he frowns.

"What?" He asks, oblivious.

"You don't just go around giving knives to little girls, Bellamy."

"You heard her, she's not little."

"Bellamy I swear—"

"Will you calm down?" He cuts me off. "She's not gonna do anything, all right? It's just so she can fit in for the day and act like one of the grown ups. If it bothers you that much I'll take it off her before we get to camp."

"It bothers me." I snap. "You never should have given it to her in the first place."

I shake my head at him in disbelief and walk away, leaving him there with a slightly confused look on his face.

We manage to catch up to the rest of the group quite easily since they're just standing around waiting for us.

"What are you doing?" I ask them all with a slight frown. "Where's the boar?"

"Lost her." Jones admits like it was nothing, when in fact it is a big deal.

We've spent most of the day wondering around with only one possible kill and if we return to camp empty handed then everyone will have our heads. The panther meat is all gone and everyone is hungry which means we need to kill something we can eat from, and fast. Problem is, we're losing day light.

"Well let's keep going, and be quick, it's going to be dark soon." Bellamy walks only a few paces before stopping at the sound of a horn in the distance. Everyone glances at each other with panic.

That really did not sound good.

"What was that?" Atom asks. "Grounders?"

"Never mind what that was, what the hell is that?" My eyes widen considerably at a green fog to the side of us. The fog nears us at a pace quicker than usual, and I feel my lungs start to burn when I breathe it in.

"Agh!" I scurry backwards and cough. "Get back, it burns!"

"Run." Bellamy says, grabbing my arm and turning us in the other direction, "Run!"