ATARAXIA • BELLAMY BLAKE

[ 3 8 ]

"I can't believe they let Finn come," Octavia tells me just as I move a tree branch out of the way.

"He's the best tracker we've got," Bellamy cuts in as he walks up next to us.

A few days ago, Raven found out that Mount Weather has been jamming our communications. They were the ones that crashed the Exodus ship and the reason our radios have horrible range. With the possibility that more Ark Stations could be on the ground without us knowing, Clarke finally convinced Abby to let us go to Mount Weather to blow up the tower that's broadcasting their signal. That was on the one condition that she'd tag along as well.

"You okay?" Octavia asks me after a while. I'm breathing somewhat heavily even though I've done much longer treks than this before.

"Yeah," I breathe out.

Raven shoots a look over her shoulder and meets my eyes. I shift my gaze to where I'm walking. My nightmares haven't been getting any better the past couple of days, so I've barely slept, which means I don't have quite as much energy as the others.

"So," I say to change the subject. "Do you know how to use that thing or do you just carry it around for decorative purposes?"

Octavia shows me the blade and spins it around in her hand. "I mean, I could definitely take you," she says, quirking a playful brow.

"Oh, really? W—"

"Hey," Bellamy says, hand catching Octavia's arm. "Now."

I take a quick look at those in front of us. Clarke and Abby are talking while Raven's keeping tabs on the signal of her radio and a couple of guardsmen scan the perimeter. Finn's just minding his own business, focussing in finding the right way.

With that, the three of us in the back fall behind and continue in a different direction. We'd made a deal with Clarke that she would keep her mom distracted while the three of us look for a way into the mountain. As far as Abby is concerned, this whole mission is about blowing up the communication tower to see if there are more of our people out there. Most importantly if we have any more guards out there in case Kane fails his attempts to talk the Grounder Commander into peaceful coexistence and we're forced into war.

As important as that is, we can't forget about our people inside the mountain. We're going to get them out of there one way or another.

"According to Clarke, before the bombs, there were buildings everywhere," Bellamy starts to explain. "I'm guessing some of them had access to the bunker. So we're looking for ruins—-anything that's man-made."

"Right," I say, and Octavia nods.

It's hard to imagine there ever being buildings here. I've seen photographs of our ancestors with buildings in the background and watched plenty of movies as well, but somehow it's impossible for me to picture any of that now that I'm down here on the ground.

To think that people would have their own homes where they didn't necessarily have to share walls with other families. That they had furniture that wasn't all grey and boring and a hundred years old, in dire need of some TLC. That—

"Earth to Freya," Octavia says, and I'm brought back to reality. I realize I have been standing in the same spot for a while just disassociating.

"Sorry," I say, walking back up next to them.

Octavia smiles. "That's the first time I've ever said that on Earth, by the way."

I huff out a small laugh. "Congrats."

"Thank you," she says, before clapping her hands together once. The sudden action gives me a start. "All right, twenty questions."

I pause for a second to see whether she's playing a joke or not. When she merely wiggles her eyebrows at me it's clear that she's serious. I look to the side to find Bellamy already looking at me with an amused glint in his eye.