❝I don't do regrets. Regrets are pointless. It's too late for regrets. You've already done it, haven't you? No point wishing you could change it.❞
Elissa Bardot-Gray was never the one to be classified as a "rule breaker". She had a high-rankin...
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AFTER THEIR NERVE-WRACKING day, everyone was more than eager to head back to the dropship. As soon as Jasper was bundled up and secured on the makeshift stretcher, they were on their way.
Although they tried to be as gentle as possible while they moved, every motion still seemed to cause Jasper some sort of pain. His moans filled the air, setting everyone back on edge. The group was tense and wary; everyone worried about what—or who—might hear them along the way.
This is getting ridiculous.
At the distant sound of a groaning branch, Elissa whipped around to peer over her shoulder for the hundredth time. Her ears seemed fine tuned to any noise not coming from the group, instead catching every creak and crack in the forest around them. She knew the forest held a certain amount of natural noise, everything making its own sound as a breeze swept through, rustling leaves and rubbing branches against one another. She knew this, and it still gave her no comfort.
It would be too easy for someone to follow us right now. Stay just out of sight, hidden in the bushes or behind a tree. They wouldn't even need to see us to know where we are, it's not like we're actually trying to be stealthy, she thought. She cringed and shot a nervous glare at Wells, who had stepped heavily on some dry branches. The loud crunch causing the entire group to tense up.
Slowing her stride, she glanced around, allowing Clarke, Finn, and Wells to move past her with Jasper hanging heavily between the two boys. Ignoring Clarke's questioning gaze as she walked by, she focused instead on the dense foliage behind them, trying to see passed the shapes and shadows which too easily her attention.
They could be right there...standing just beyond the edge of the trees, watching us, studying us, waiting for the right moment for us to turn our backs...
Squeezing her eyes shut, she rubbed her face tiredly with both hands and ignored the painful twinge her wrist gave. Footsteps came up beside her and she opened her eyes to find Blake frowning back in her direction she'd been looking before he turned to meet her gaze and adjusted the heavy branch he held over one shoulder.
"See something?" He grunted down at her.
Eyes roving his face before traveling back to the animal Blake and Murphy had strung up between them. She swallowed, trying to ignore the disgusting way it's head bobbed up and down with its tongue lolled from its mouth—blood dripping from its slack jowls and onto the forest floor below.
Grimacing, she turned away.
"No," she said with a small shake of her head, glancing back the way they'd come. "Hopefully, I'm just imagining things."
Hopefully.
Even to her it sounded like she was trying to convince herself.
