Esperança 》B. Blake

1.14

[C H A P T E R   F O U R T E E N]
The Lost Message

☆☆☆

AT FIRST, ROSELINE WASN'T TOO KEEN ON wading into the freezing river to find the radio. The fear of seeing the monster snake loomed in the back of her mind, and she had to repeatedly tell herself to focus, and not let the fear take over. Soon enough, she was thigh-deep in the flowing water, constantly reaching her hands in to feel for a piece of tech she feared was long gone. Along with that, the water was slowly numbing her feet, and the girl almost wanted to give up, punch Bellamy, and collapse in her tent. She managed to distract herself by making small talk with Raven, though Raven wasn't much of a talker when she was on a mission.

"Your boyfriend's such an asshole," Roseline heard Raven mutter at some point. Roseline lifted her head up in confusion.

"Huh?"

"Your boy, Bellamy," Raven repeated, not looking up from her searching. "No offense anyway."

"Oh, Bellamy isn't my boyfriend," Roseline corrected the girl, her cheeks red. "I wouldn't even consider him my friend at the moment considering how annoying he's been."

Raven finally turned to her with skepticism on her face. "Well then why does he keep staring at you like a lost puppy?"

Roseline turned her head to finally glance at Bellamy, who was staring at Roseline just as Raven described. He diverted his eyes once he made eye contact with the girl, and instead focused his attention on the others in the river. Roseline pursed her lips and went back to searching the water.

"I don't know," she murmured with a puzzled look.

"Hey! I found it!" Jones called out farther downstream. Raven was quick to get the radio, and the others waited by the shore with anticipation. Roseline was thankful for not only finding the radio but for also not having to be in the frigid water anymore. Her hands and feet resembled prunes, and everything felt numb.

Raven brought the radio back to shore as she picked out bits of seaweed from the crevices. Everyone stayed silent as she examined the piece of machinery. Of course, Roseline couldn't stand waiting for her diagnostic.

"Can you fix it?" she asked eagerly.

"Maybe, but it'll take half the day to dry out the components to see what's broken." Her voice was bitter and it stung Roseline's heart. She couldn't wait that long, and neither could the people on the Ark.

"Like I said, it's too late," Bellamy repeated. Roseline glared at him with dark eyes as Clarke shoved past her and got up in his face.

"Do you have any idea what you did? Do you even care?" she seethed.

"You asked me to help. I helped."

"Three-hundred people are gonna die today because of you!" 

"Hold up," Raven interjected, gears clearly working in her head. "We don't have to talk to the Ark. We just have to let them know we're down here, right?"

"Yeah, but how do we do that with no radio?" Finn questioned.

Raven gave a mischievous grin. "Let's just say we're gonna be putting on a show."