The 1oo. A fan fiction (Season One)

Chapter Five: The River

    The sun was starting to get low in the sky as we kept on walking. We didn't talk much the next few moments after we saw the mutated deer. I still lagged at the back, just because I wanted to. I was never the one to start a conversation with people, especially when things were this tense. I pulled the flower out of my pocket, just for another look, and marveled at the deep color of its petals. I had never seen such a color, except in books or the in the colored pencils Clarke used to share with me as kids.
    I smiled, thinking of all the drawing we used to do together. Even at a young age, Clarke was a wizard at drawing. She used to look through her animal books, pick out an animal, and draw it to almost a perfect likeness. Now she draws things from her memories, and they look even better than the real thing. I was still swimming in old memories when we came to a steep hill. Everyone else was slowly making their way down, when I came along.
    My toe caught on a rock and with a yelp of surprise, I went face first, rolling down the hill. Pain flared in my left shoulder as I felt it smash down hard onto the ground. I hardly heard the others yelling my name. Finally, after what seemed like forever, I reached the bottom of the hill. I stayed there for a moment, just laying on the ground staring up at the sky, trying to catch my breath, when the pain caught up with me. I winced and sat up, clutching my shoulder.
    "Shayla!" Finn yelled at me. He was the first one to me, kneeling beside me. "Are you alright? That was quite the fall you took." He said, placing his hand on my good shoulder. I looked up at him with a dazed look on my face.
    "Yea, yea I'm alright." I said. He glanced over at my left shoulder and winced. "What?" I asked, still dazed from my fall and momentarily forgetting about the pain in my left shoulder. Everyone else rushed down, Clarke went to my left side and started to examine my shoulder.
    "It's dislocated." She said. "I need to put it back in place and make a splint. This is going to hurt. A lot." I nodded and leaned into my brothers arms, gripping his hand as Clarke held my arm out. "On three. Ready? One, two..." She didn't even get to three as I heard a crack and pain ran up and down my arm. I bit my lip hard to prevent myself from screaming, and crushed Finns hand as I held onto it for dear life.
    "Well, the worst part is over." Clarke said. "Can you move your fingers?" I wiggled my fingers in a small wave, and more pain overwhelmed me. I saw black at the edge of my vision and struggled not to pass out. "Good, that means everything is still intact." She gave a chuckle. "Now we just have to find something to make a splint out of. I think we will need moss and sticks. Can you guys help me please?" She asked the others. They all nodded, except for Finn.
    "I'll stay with her and you guys can look." Clarke gave a curt nod and headed away, looking along the ground. Finn moved carefully around, so that he could lean against a tree.
    "So, I see you are already smitten with Clarke." I said groggily, looking up at him. He tilted his chin down to look at me.
    "Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. She is really pretty, and I like her attitude about things." I saw him watching her with his eyes and saw that she was picking strands of moss from the base of the trees around us. 
    "What about Raven?" I asked. I felt him stiffen slightly.
    "I don't know. I love her, but I'm not sure if it's real love." I nodded against his chest.
    "I know that feeling. Remember Corey?" He laughed.
    "Yea I remember him. He always said he loved you, but he got over you in like a month and was onto another girl." I laughed remembering the boy, then winced and groaned in pain. Clarke came rushing back.
    "I found a lot of moss, and Octavia has some pretty good sticks for your splint." I sat up with a groan and held out my arm as best I could. Clarke carefully wrapped the moss up and around my arm, coming to knot it at my shoulder. She placed some sticks on the inside, so my arm stayed stable. "You're all set!" She said standing back up. "We have to keep moving though." I stood up, with some help from my brother.
    "I'm really sorry I slowed everything down." I said. Clarke shrugged.
    "You're fine. We needed a break anyway. Let's go." And with that she headed on her way, everyone following. This time, I stuck close by the others, just in case we came up against another hill. As we were walking, Finn decided to ask a few questions.
    "So you know what I'd like to know? Why send us down today, after 97 years. What changed?" He said.
    "Who cares?" Octavia put in. "I'm just glad they did. I woke up rotting in a cell, and now, I'm spinning in a forest." She finished off that sentence by grabbing onto a tree with one hand and spinning around on it. She grinned at Finn as we walked past.
    "Maybe they found something on a satellite." Everyone went silent for a moment as Monty spoke up. "You know, like an old weather satellite, maybe?" He said.
    "It wasn't a satellite." Clarke jutted in. "The Ark is dying." We all turned around to face Clarke, who was now in the back of the group. She kept on walking right by us. "At the current population level there is roughly three months left of life support, maybe four now that we're gone." She finished off, and kept on walking ahead. We all stood there for a moment, in shock, before following. Finn picked up the pace to walk beside her.
    "So that was the secret they locked you up to keep? Why they kept you in solitary, and floated your old man?" I instantly cringed at that part, knowing that Clarke's father was a touchy subject for her. I saw her look over at Finn, a slightly annoyed look on her face. After a pause, she spoke.
    "My father was the engineer who discovered the flaw. He thought the people had a right to know. The council and my mother disagreed. They were afraid it would cause a panic." I knew where this part was coming to. "We were going to go public anyway when Wells..." She trailed off.
    "What? Turned in your dad?" Monty asked. I glanced back at Monty before turning my attention back to Clarke. I saw her shake her head, as if she could swat away the terrible memory.
    "Anyways, the guards showed up before we could." She finished with a curt nod in Monty's direction. "That's why today. That's why it was worth the risk. Even if we all died, at least the Ark would have more time." She said, keeping her eyes forward.
    "They're going to kill more people, aren't they?" Monty asked. There was a long pause before Octavia spoke.
    "Good." We all stopped and turned back to look at her and she walked right past us, not a glance at anyone. "After what they did to me I say float them all." Jasper headed after her.
    "You don't mean that." He said. The four of us stayed back as Jasper went ahead with Octavia. Finn stepped up to Clarke, a worried look on his face.
    "We have to warn them." He said.   
    Clarke looked at him, her eyes hard.
"That's what my father said." She said softly. They stood staring at each other for a little while, then Clarke backed away, right into Jasper, who was just standing there.
    "Damn, I love Earth." He said, his eyes forward and a half smile on his face. We all came to stand beside him and watched as Octavia slipped out of her clothes, leaving only her undershirt and underwear on. She walked to the edge of a rock.
    "Octavia, what the hell are you doing?" Clarke shouted. She stayed silent and looked back, a mischievous look on her face, and a slight smile tilted toward us. Turning her back to us she jumped off the rock and disappeared. I heard a splash, and guessed she had found a river. We all raced to the edge where she jumped, and went down a little further, only to find we were at a bank of a river. Octavia was in the water, only the top part of her face peeking up at us.
    "Octavia, we can't swim." Monty stated. Octavia poked her whole head up.
    "I know." She responded. "But we can stand." She said with a giggle, standing up.
    "Wait, there's not supposed to be a river here." Clarke said, a thoughtful and worried look on her face.
    "Well there is, so take off your damn clothes." Finn said looking at her. Octavia laughed a little and splashed water at us. Clarke looked back away from Finn, a smile forming, and she bent down to start untying her boots. Both Jasper and Monty were eagerly taking their jackets off, when I saw Jasper stop, his face pale as he watched something in the distance.
    "Octavia get out of the water!" He said, fear overwhelming his features. Our smiles disappeared as Octavia turned around and saw what he was looking at. There was something in the water, a snake-like creature, slithering through the water straight for Octavia. With a shriek and a splash, she was taken under the water by it.
    "Octavia!" Jasper and I both shouted. It dragged her at the surface of the river, before taking her lower, and she disappeared. We all frantically searched for her, but there was no indication she was even there.  No, no, no, no, no. I thought. Please no. I couldn't bear to lose her, and it would completely destroy Bellamy. Then we saw her. The creature had brought her back to the surface. She flailed her arms and screamed in fear and pain.
    "What the hell is that thing?" Monty asked.
    "We have to help her." Finn said.
    "What are you gonna do?" Monty asked Finn, as he took of his jacket.
    "Try not to get eaten." He replied, starting for the edge.
    "No wait." Clarke said, putting her arm out to stop him. She crouched down by a loose rock. "If we distract it, it might let her go. Help me!" She said, starting to push at it. Finn got down beside her, and so did I. We all pushed and finally got it to fall into the river, with a splash, it went down. I saw it start swimming over here.
    "It worked! It let her go!" Monty exclaimed. Octavia was left thrashing about in the water, gasping and moaning.
    "Octavia, get to the shore!" Jasper yelled, and started to go to the side where she was. We followed him and watched as he jumped in with her. Wrapping his arms around her, he started to struggle back to shore. "I got you." He kept on saying. I watched in horror as the creature turned back from the rock and started back toward Octavia and Jasper.
    "It's headed right for you guys!" Monty shouted, and we all lunged forward to try and help them out faster. They managed to get out safely, and Octavia lay there, gasping for air. I saw a bite mark on her left thigh, and it was bleeding, a lot. Clarke got down beside her, ripped off part of Jasper's shirt, and bandaged it up best she could. Octavia was clutching onto Jasper, thanking him over and over again.
    "You're going to be alright." Clarke said reassuringly. Monty smiled slightly at his friend.
    "Note to self." He started. "Next time, save the girl from the evil river monster." Everyone chuckled at his jest. 
    We pulled them up higher onto the bank and Finn help Octavia stand. "Can you walk?" He asked. Octavia staggered forward, one step at a time, wincing a little before she managed to gain a steady walk.
    "I can." She replied. I helped Jasper up.
    "God, Jasper. You could have gotten yourself killed!" I slapped his arm. "I was about to have a heart attack." Jasper rubbed the spot where I hit him.
    "Note to self. Don't get on Shayla's bad side." He muttered to Monty, who grinned, trying to hold back a laugh.
    "I heard that." I said. "And also, good advice. You can ask anyone what happens when you get on my bad side." I winked at them, before heading up the bank with everyone else. "I vote we set up camp here. Cause one, I'm tired, two, we have two injured people, and three, it's getting late anyways." I honestly just couldn't wait for the day to be over. I wanted to get back to Bellamy as soon as possible.
    "Alright. Let's get further up the river, and then we can settle down for the night." Clarke said, walking away.  A few moments later we had found a good spot to sleep. We rolled up piles of moss for pillows and settled down. The moment my head hit the moss, I was out.

*Side note. I would really like it if you guys would comment and give me some of your thoughts on this story so far. I would appreciate it very much. Hope you are all enjoying!*