The 1oo. A fan fiction (Season One)

Chapter Twelve: The Fog

    We had been walking for about thirty minutes in complete silence, and it was so boring. Finally, Wells spoke to Clarke. "You know you should really rethink this whole hating me thing. We're surrounded by criminals and we need each other. We're gonna be friends again." He said, panting as he walked after her. Without turning around, she gave him an answer.
    "You got my father killed so there's no chance of that happening." My heart burned with pain for the lost friendship. I longed to tell Clarke the truth, but I couldn't. Wells made me swear that I wouldn't, no matter the cost. There was a pause before Wells answered.
    "This is Earth, Clarke. Anything can happen." After that, I jogged ahead to keep up with Clarke, leaving the boys behind us.
    "You sure you're not going to forgive him?" I asked.
    She shook her head. "No way in hell. How do you just forget the fact that you told your best friend something and he just violates your trust and gets your father killed? Explain to me how." She refuted. I grabbed her hand.
    "Well here's the thing," I said, my anger rising. "He would do anything for you. I thought you knew this. He thought he could trust his father with this. How could he have known this was gonna be the outcome? I didn't realize he was supposed to read the future." I let go and stormed ahead of her.
I felt bad about lying to her about the situation, but maybe I could convince her to talk to Wells about it, and he'd finally tell her the truth. Suddenly there was a hollow bang behind me. I spun around to see that everyone had stopped. Finn was kicking at something in the ground, buried underneath the dirt and plants.
    "What is it?" Clarke asked. He crouched down and dug around for a bit, then stopped. Grunting, he pulled up.
    "Would you look at that! It's an automobile!" He exclaimed.
    "Ooh, I want to see!" I came running towards them. It was still covered in dirt, the red color faded into a rusted orange. "Let's go inside." I said, dropping to my knees and starting to climb inside.
    "Shayla, not now. This thing's been here a hundred years, all right? It can wait. Jasper can't." Clarke said and walked away. I sighed and stood back up. Wells shrugged and followed after her.
    "Well, she is right. We'll come back later, right Finn?" I asked. He nodded and shut the door.
    "Let's catch up to Ms. 'No Fun and Games', shall we?" He asked sarcastically, motioning for me to go ahead. I laughed.
    "As you wish Sir 'Finds Random Things." I said, before running to catch up to Wells and Clarke.

    About an hour later we arrived at a creek. Tan rocks lay unsteadily beneath our feet and we stumbled a few times before finally reaching the edge of the water. Clarke sighed and glanced over at Wells.
    "So what does this seaweed look like exactly?" She asked. Wells looked down into the water and pointed out clumps of bright red.
    "Like that. So that thing that bit Octavia, how big was it?" He asked nervously, taking a step back from the edge.
    "Big. We could rig this into some kind of a net." My brother responded, taking off his pack and crouching down to examine it. "Find something to lower it into the water." Meanwhile, Clarke waded into the water towards it. "Or we could just do that." I stifled a laugh and turned to Clarke.
    "Here, throw me some and I'll put it in my bag." I said, walking into the water a little ways. She threw a large clump at me and turned back to grab another.   
    "For studying purposes." She answered to our curious looks and splashed back to shore. She handed the clump to Finn, who put it in his bag. That's when the noises started. Loud squawking filled the area and we looked up, seeing a large flock of birds flying around the forest straight at us and we ducked, swatting them away.
    "Let's get out of here." Wells declared. Then another sound echoed through the forest. A horn of some sort.   
    "Grounders?" I asked, looking about. That's when I saw it.
    "It could be a war cry." Wells put out.
    "Or a warning." Finn added.
    "Not to choose favorites over you two, but Finn is absolutely correct." I said, backing toward where we came from, pointing out what I saw. They looked to where I was pointing and saw what the birds were escaping from. A large cloud of sickening green-yellow mist was overtaking the forest on the far side of the creek, coming right at us.
    "What the hell is that?" Finn cried, backing away. Clarke started to scramble toward the forest.
    "Run!" She yelled, grabbing my arm and pulling me along. I looked back to see the boys following and the fog gaining. I turned and yanked my arm back to run on my own. It was a mad dash, but we made it back to the automobile that Finn had found earlier. Wells opened it and pushed Clarke inside. He hopped in after, then Finn followed and I was last. The door got stuck, and panic rose in my throat.
I felt the fog roll over my right hand just as I managed to get the door unstuck, slamming it shut.
    The fog rumbled overhead and managed to seep inside. Clarke, Finn, and Wells scrambled to shove pieces of clothing up against the cracks. I didn't feel the pain at first, but then it washed over me like that fog did. I hunched over, grasping my burning hand. I moaned quietly and sat down, scared to look at it. I realized I was shaking and tried to breathe, but the pain was awful. I gently rubbed at my hand and cried out, clenching my injured hand into a fist, making it worse. I curled into a ball and moved my body away from the others, hoping they didn't hear my cry.
    I took a glance at my hand and gagged. The skin was peeling away from my bone, leaving deep, red burns dotting across my hand up to my wrist. Blood spilled from them and I reached over to grab what looked like a shirt and dabbed at it. Wincing, I bit through the pain. I hit one of the bigger ones and a small yelp escaped my lips.
    "Clarke!" I called. "I kinda need a little help over here." I said, sounding breathless. I felt her legs brush against my healing shoulder as she crouched down beside me.
    "What's wrong?" She muttered. I turned my body to her and gently pulled the shirt away from my hand. She gasped and covered her hand with her mouth. She sat there staring at it for a little bit before shaking her head and pulling out her water canteen.
    "Let me put this on it." She said, unscrewing the cap. She splashed a few drops on my hand and I shrieked, yanking my hand away. Finn and Wells looked over at us.
    "What's going on?" Wells asked, concerned. Neither Clarke nor I responded so he crawled over to us. His eyes widened when he saw my hand. "Shayla, what happened?" He asked. Finn peeked over Wells' shoulder and moved to sit beside me.
    "While I was closing the door, it got stuck. I panicked a little and the fog covered my hand just as I got it closed. Then you guys were working on sealing the car up and I didn't want to bother, so I tried to cover it up, but it hurts like hell. It'll be fine." I grunted, letting Clarke pour some more water on it. I grimaced and kept my mouth shut as Finn rubbed my back a little, before getting up and looking out the window.
    "It's still out there." He said grimly.
    "Maybe we should make a run for it." Clarke suggested. "Cover up enough, and we might be able to make it. Jasper can't wait much longer." She said as she finished clearing the blood off my hand. Finn looked down at her.
    "Did you not see what it did to Shayla? I don't think we'd last long out there, thick clothes or no. So us dying in a cloud of acid fog doesn't help Jasper." He said, then went to work trying to wedge open a glove box. Clarke huffed and turned back to face me, getting ready to wrap the wound up. There was a crash and Finn pulled out a bottle from the now opened compartment.
    "Is that-" Clarke started to say.
    "Booze." Finn finished, looked at the bottle, then back at us. "Hooch. Rotgut." He climbed over Clarke and I and sat across from Wells. He worked the cap open and took a sip. "Whiskey, I think." He said, his nose scrunching up. "Better than the moonshine on Agro station." He held the bottle out to Wells, who shook his head.
    "Alcohol's toxic, so no thanks."
    "This is Earth. Everything's toxic. Plus, it's a time-honored rite of passage."
    "We'll pass." He answered. I saw Clarke glaring at Wells before taking the bottle from Finn.
    "Don't let me stand in the way of tradition." She said dryly, before taking a shot. Her face wrinkled and she coughed, handing the bottle back to Finn.
    "Well, I'll be next." I reached over and snatched the bottle from Finn, placing it at my lips and started drinking it.
    "Whoa, slow down and leave some for the rest of us!" Finn jested, pulling the bottle away from me.
    "Hey, what can I say, it's good." I shrugged, already feeling the hazy pleasure of being drunk. I sat back and took the bottle from Finn again, took a sip, then handed it to Clarke. "Pour some on the burns. Doesn't alcohol cleanse stuff?" I asked, hearing a little bit of slur to my voice. She nodded and poured a little bit on my hand. I winced and felt the pain subside.
    "You know what, I'm gonna keep this." I took the whiskey from Clarke and took another drink. I sighed, swirling the liquid around in the bottle. "Damn, that's good stuff." I smiled at my brother. He made a grab for it.
    "Come on now, I want some!" He laughed as I held it just out of his reach, teasing him.
    Finally he pinched at my healing shoulder and I winced, pulling my hand back just enough so he could grab it. I smiled and noticed the Clarke was working on wrapping up my wound.    
    "Thanks again, Clarke." I said, feeling the drink messing with my brain. She gave me a small smile and squeezed my hand. Pain flowed over the drunk feeling and I blacked out.