somewhere | b.blake ✔️

3x10

compathy

(n.) feelings, as happiness or grief, shared with another or others.

*****

How long has it been since Lincoln's death?

What day is it?

What time?

Ash has no idea.

It could have been 5 minutes since Lincoln's death, or perhaps 5 days.

All she knows is that Lincoln is dead and his blood is all on her clothes and face.

The rest is a blur, one she's unsure is because she's so deep in her mind that it's impossible to see the real world or if it is a result of the tears that have been freely falling from her eyes since the moment she saw Lincoln out there.

Through the blur, she can hear someone calling her, but it takes a great deal of effort for her eyes to sharpen enough to identify who it is.

"You there, Ash?" The person--Abby--asks with concern clear in her gaze.

"Yeah...yeah, I'm here," she answers tiredly, fighting the urge to let herself disappear in her dark mind once more.

"Okay, good," Abby says hurriedly. "I managed to convince the guards to give us ten minutes by...knocking them out. I know it's not much, but we can get you cleaned--"

"Leave it," Ash interrupts. "Leave it all."

"Okay...then that leaves more time for us to get you out of here."

Ash can't help the confusion she feels. "How?"

"There's a place in the wall down this hall. If you go northwest, you should find Kane and the others in a cave. He told me about it just before they left...you think you can run far enough away in 30 minutes?"

Ash nods as she pushes herself slowly to her feet, staring dejectedly at the blood on her hands. "So when do we do this?"

"Right now."

"What about you?"

"Someone's gotta stay here and do damage control."

"Okay," Ash says before turning and sprinting down the hall and in the direction of the cave.

Distantly as she makes it into the forest, she can hear an alarm going off followed by shouting.

*****

Ash is unsure of what she expects when she finds the cave. A broken Octavia, a sadden Kane, perhaps them both trying to ignore their feelings by planning what to do next.

What she's sure that she doesn't expect is for a beaten and bruised Bellamy to be in the corner of the cave and for Octavia's knuckles to match from where she sharpens her sword while several others stare pointedly at a campfire.

"Ash!" Kane calls, probably a little too loudly given that they are running from people who want to kill them. Everyone else in the cave turns to her.

"Abby got me out," she says quietly, tiredly, to their unspoken question as she stares at Bellamy for a second too long. "What happened here?"

" 'Gave him what he deserved," Octavia grumbles as a dangerous darkness forms in her eyes.

Ash nods, fighting the urge to run to Bellamy as she sits down slowly against the cave wall.

Shortly after, Miller begins brainstorming. "I say we run two-man patrons round the clock, starting now."

Kane nods. "We'll do that, but we should be safe here. The Blockade is too close for Pike to risk looking for us."