Surviving the Sky

Chapter Fifteen

Everyone was on edge. Now would be a great time for an inspirational speech, but Bellamy and I were terrible at those, while Clarke was still angry we didn't leave sooner and were all going to die here.

Bellamy's best attempt went along the lines of, "Let's try not to die!"

I sat at the edge of the wall next to Octavia, who was crying.

"How's Lincoln?" I asked.

"He helped Clarke and Finn escape," Octavia dried her eyes, "He tried to get me to come with him across the ocean to a more peaceful grounder village, but I told him to wait. Now he's probably going to die because he helped us. If we fail, you die too."

I nodded, "I've accepted that. Lincoln loves you, and he's accepted it too."

"Clarke got Raven and Jasper working on another hydrazine bomb," she said.

"We don't have any gunpowder left," I frowned.

Octavia smiled, "Apparently we don't need any. We're basically going to try to launch the dropship again. If it works, everyone around the dropship will be incinerated while we're safe inside. It's a last resort."

"And the mine fields and sniper nests are set up?" I asked.

"Yes," Octavia said, "And you shouldn't be fighting in your condition."

I laughed, "If they try to keep me in the dropship away from all the fun, I might help the grounders kill them all."

"You have this amazing ability to say the opposite of what's comforting," Octavia informed me.

"Well, it helps me," I said, "I'm working on it."

Drums sounded.

"Everyone in position!" Bellamy yelled.

"I better go," I said.

Octavia smiled, "I'm coming. Lincoln gave Clarke a sword to give to me, so I'm fighting."

"Nice," I smiled, "I'm stuck in the trees. And I can't even use my bow," I pointed at my shoulder.

Climbing a tree, I grabbed the radio from my belt, "Is everyone in position?"

"In position," each group answered.

"Alright, let's all do our best to not die today," Bellamy said. That's encouraging.

Everyone shot at everything that moved until nearly everyone was out of bullets.

"Don't shoot unless you're sure its an attack," I warned, "They know we have limited bullets." By then, it was too late. Everyone was out.

"Fall back!" Bellamy shouted, not even using the radio.

Everyone backed away. An arrow whizzed past my head. In dodging it, I fell from the trees. The grounders assumed I was one of them, while the 100 knew I was one of them. I remained unharmed.

"I got a terrible idea, everyone run," Finn yelled. War cries erupted. Reapers.

"You idiot, they'll kill us all," I muttered, trying not to draw attention to myself. While the grounders and the 100 wouldn't kill me, the Reapers would.

I climbed out of the small ditch created by the mines outside the camp, hiding behind a tree.

Something clicked next to me, and I instinctively reached for my bow, "Sky?"

"Bellamy, please try not to kill me," I said, "Finn led the Reapers here for some reason. I think he meant for the Reapers to kill the grounders for us, but they might kill us too."

"Hi, nice to see you too," Octavia said in labored breaths.

For a moment I was incredibly worried. Then, Lincoln walked over and grabbed Octavia, revealing a stab wound in her leg.

"I'm staying," she grunted.

"No you're not," Bellamy said, "The fight is over for you, O."

She frowned, but agreed to go with Lincoln. They vanished.

"We need to get to the dropship," I warned.

"We don't have to," Bellamy was being intentionally annoying.

I snapped, "We do if we don't want to get incinerated."

He smiled, "The tunnel's this way."

They had discovered a small tunnel that ran into the camp, so we used that instead of risking opening the gate.

I killed the Reaper that tried to stop us. They may be big brutes with unimaginable strength, but if you're fast enough, you can hit them in the neck with a dagger before they even see you coming.

"Bellamy!" Clarke yelled desperately, "Finn! Sky!"

I realized it was a warning. Not only was the dropship door closing, but there was a grounder general, identifiable by the war stripes on his face, right behind the three of us.

We all tried to fight him, but Raven's idea with the dropship worked. The force of the blast threw me out of the tunnel again.

The whole world went dark.

I don't know when I woke up. I only fully came to my senses when I was walking, my hands bound in front of me, tied to the back of a horse, Finn and one other boy in the same predicament beside me.

Bellamy wasn't there. I silently prayed he escaped before the explosion, that he wasn't just a pile of ash.

The jerk from the rope hurt my shoulder even more, and the stitches fell apart. The boy who's name I didn't know complained, "I can't walk anymore."

"That'll save me time," the man on the horse, the same general we'd fought moments before the blast, smiled wickedly as he took out his sword.

The boy was dead in an instant. Tristan cut him from the rope.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I'm Tristan, the general who took over Anya's army," the man grunted, "And you're the coward that Indra banished."

A deep growl emerged from my throat as I grabbed a dagger well hidden in my belt and cut the rope. I raised both of them into a defensive position.

Tristan overpowered me in seconds, "You're just a child without training. You won't beat me."

I hit the ground as he stood up, tossing my daggers to the other end of the small path, barely out of reach. My shoulder hurt more than ever.

"What are you doing?" Finn asked, "Don't kill her!"

"She'll bleed out soon anyway," Tristan said, "I won't waste any more energy on her. You're lucky. You're the only one left alive, so you're guaranteed to survive. Until you meet the commander, that is."

The commander. If it were still Lexa, Finn would be dead by dawn. Lexa used to be Anya's second in command, but was chosen as commander of all the clans.

Before I could protest that I wasn't dead yet, they were already out of sight. I couldn't move. The battle and the explosion had drained me to the point where I was barely conscious.

I nearly gave up when a firm hand poked the bullet wound. At that, I snapped awake, screaming.

"She's alive!" A familiar voice shouted.

"Good," said another, "Get her up."

The first voice spoke again, "Get up. Come on, Sky, get up."

My vision focused itself, "Bellamy?"