undertow | bellamy blake (book one)

4 | not alone

After the river fiasco, they realized that they had to find another way to get to the other side. They couldn't risk being attacked again. So after searching around, Jovie eventually ended up finding a vine hanging from a tree.

"Hey guys! Over here!" She screamed, pulling it out of the trees to show them.

"What are we supposed to do with that?" Jasper asked.

"Swing over," Jovie said simply as if it were obvious.

"Works for me," Finn said, reaching over to grab the vine from Jovie. He held it in his hands, testing out the strength for a while before looking across the river. He was stalling.

"You wanted to go first. Now quit stalling," Clarke said, thinking exactly what Jovie was. If Finn was scared then she would happily take his place.

"Mount Weather awaits," Octavia joked, though it was kind of true. The longer it took for them to get there, the longer they would have to go without food.

"Just hang on to the apogee, and you'll be fine," Jasper instructed.

"The apogee like the Indians, right?" Finn joked.

"Apogee, not apache," Jasper corrected.

"He knows. Today, Finn," Clarke ordered as she stood below with Monty and Octavia.

"Aye, aye, captain. See you on the other side," Finn said, pulling on the vine once more to get a good grip to swing over. Jasper looked down and made eye contact with Octavia before stopping Finn.

"Wait," he said. Jovie rolled her eyes. She was so close to pushing them both out of the way, so she could just do it herself. They didn't have time to play 'let's impress the girl.' "Let me. I can do it." When Finn realized that Octavia was smiling up at them with her attention on Jasper, he smiled and nodded his head.

"Knew there was a badass in there somewhere," Finn said, handing the vine over to Jasper. Jasper held onto the vine, letting out a small breath as he looked back over at Octavia. Jovie crossed her arms across her chest and sighed.

"Any day now," she commented. Jasper made a face as if to tell her to shut up and she just let out a short laugh. Finn looked at Jasper to see fear clearly evident on the boy's face.

"Hey, it's okay to be afraid, Jasper. The trick is not fighting it," he advised. He took a step back next to Jovie to encourage Jasper to do it.

"See you on the other side," Jasper joked, finally leaning back and launching himself across the river, hanging onto the vine as tightly as he could. Jovie laughed as he shouted out in excitement as he swung across. When he landed firmly on the other side, Jovie and Finn ran over to stand with the rest of them. Jasper stood to his feet and threw his arms into the air.

"We are apogee!" He cheered. The others all threw their arms in the air, cheering with Jasper from the other side. Jasper started jumping around, doing a small dance of victory. Finn handed the vine over to Jovie.

"Alright, Blondie, you're next," he said. Jovie smiled, rolling her eyes at the stupid nickname he gave her before grabbing the vine to swing over to where Jasper was.

"You got it, Jovie!" Jasper screamed, cheering her on. He leaned down and picked up a dusty sign, holding it high above his head to show the others. "We did it! Mount Weather!" However, just as Jovie was about to swing across, Jasper was thrown back as a spear went flying into his chest. She gasped, immediately letting go of the vine.

"Jasper!" Clarke screamed. "No!"

"Come on," Finn said, yanking on Clarke's hand to pull her away. Octavia did the same to Jovie as she stood there in shock, staring across the way at the boy with the spear impaled through his chest.