Surviving the Sky

Chapter Five

Bellamy walked out of the tent, trying to calm everyone down.

If that didn't work, Finn and Clarke would take Charlotte to a small bunker. If they found that, I'd take her into the trees, where no one else could follow.

Calming people down definitely didn't work. A few moments later, Bellamy was knocked unconscious. Octavia sat in the tent as a decoy, blocking a sleeping back full of pillows to look like Charlotte.

Meanwhile, I was running with Finn and Clarke to the bunker, Finn carrying Charlotte.

"Get in the bunker," I said, keeping my voice down so that no one could trace it back to us. There was no one following us for now, and no clear tracks.

Charlotte, Clarke, and Finn all hopped down into the bunker, and I continued running to create an easily traceable false trail.

It worked for some time. Everyone followed me. My footsteps led them to the far edge of the woods, as close to Trikru territory as I dared go. I climbed a tree, watching as they tried to figure out where I was.

"Up here, idiots," I shouted.

"It's the grounder!" Murphy replied, despite the fact that everyone already knew.

I glared at him, the light from their torches turning my gaze to flames, "The 'grounder' has a name, you know."

They continued yelling, "Where's the girl?"

"Which girl?" I asked.

"Charlotte," they were clearly frustrated.

I shrugged, "Up here somewhere. I told her to keep jumping trees. You'll never find her."

"A kid her size wouldn't be able to jump for long," Murphy said, "Tell us where she is, and I'll consider not killing you."

"You're forgetting who has the long range weapon," I held up my bow, "And has twelve years worth of knowledge of hunting and the ground."

They were mad. I jumped from tree to tree, leading them away from the bunker still.

Everything ached, but I kept going.

If Kadian knew I was risking my life through all of this just to save one Skaikru girl, he would kill me. Well he can't. He's already dead.

I shut down that train of thought. I seemed to have thought about him a lot since the Skaikru arrived. I don't know why.

It was getting cold, and it was now pitch black. The torches were the only way for me to know if they were still following.

"Give it up, grounder," Murphy yelled.

"Not a chance," I answered. Eventually, they'd realize they've gone at least three miles in the wrong direction. Not that they're that intelligent.

Until screams from behind us sounded, "I'm over here!"

Murphy was no doubt already following them. I was faster, but I took a tree branch to the head from a misjudged jump and fell to the ground.

Not wasting a second to climb back up and continue, I saw where we were. Bellamy and Charlotte were surrounded next to a cliff. Clarke and Finn were on the other side of the gang of boys.

"Just hand her over," Murphy said.

"No," Bellamy growled.

Clarke and Finn yelled, "Just let her go!"

"You seemed super eager to let me go," Murphy said, "And you're going to let her go because she's a few years younger?"

I jumped down from the tree, one of my hands holding a dagger at Murphy's throat, the other locking his head into a choke hold, "Let the girl go."

"I won't let anyone else die because of me," Charlotte said. Then, she vanished.

"Charlotte, no!" Bellamy yelled.

She jumped. She just jumped off the cliff. To save us? At her age, I doubt any of us would have done the same, except maybe Bellamy for Octavia.

But that's different. They're brother and sister- family. This girl barely knew us.

"Let me go," Murphy snapped.

"Try to kill me again without proof," I said, "And that'll be you going over the cliff."

Bellamy interrupted, "Well we can't just let him go. Not after he spent all night trying to kill us."

"And we can't just kill him either," Clarke continued.

Finn asked, "Then what do we do?"

"Looking to you, princess," Bellamy mocked.

"We banish him," Clarke said, "What? It's not directly killing him. But we can't risk letting him back into camp either."

It was agreed.

"If we ever see you back in camp, we will kill you," Bellamy said as we all began to walk away.

Murphy smiled slightly, "Hey grounder. If I ever catch you outside of camp, I'll kill you."

"You can try," I said as calmly as possible.

The walk back to camp was long and silent.

When we arrived, the gates opened for us. Bellamy and Clarke, now Skaikru's two main leaders, I guess, gathered everyone.

"Is the girl dead?"

"Why's the grounder still here?"

"Where's Murphy?"

The shouting wouldn't stop, so I roared, "QUIET!" Instantly, everyone was silent.

"Thank you," Bellamy said, "Listen up!"

"Charlotte is dead," Clarke began, "She was scared enough to commit suicide. She jumped off the cliff."

Bellamy continued, "Murphy was hunting her through the woods relentlessly, and someone like that honestly can't be trusted in this camp."

"It's for this reason that we banished him," Clarke added, "We don't kill each other, but if a crime is bad enough, that is what we'll do."

"Let this be an example to everyone!" Bellamy said.

Clarke turned to Bellamy, "Anything else?"

He nodded, "One other note. Many of you have seen this grounder around camp." He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me out of the shadows of the trees into the firelight.

"Really?" I asked, glaring at them, "You had to bring me into this?"

"This is Sky. She may not be from the Ark, but she knows how to survive. She knows the grounders and all other threats from Earth."

Shouts of kill the grounder rose up again.

"Everyone listen!" Clarke shouted.

"Sky is one of us now whether you like it or not," Bellamy continued, "I'm not asking you to trust her, despite how many times she's saved our lives. But if I hear of anyone trying to hurt or kill her, they will be banished, just like Murphy."

Everyone turned silent once again.

"Okay, everyone," Clarke said, "That's all. You can go now."

"Was that really necessary?" I asked.

Bellamy glared at me, "They would have tried to kill you."

"They probably still will, and I don't blame them," Seeing the look on his face, I added, "But thank you."

He nodded, and I climbed back onto the dropship to get some real sleep, no interruptions this time.

If only sleeping was less haunting than waking.