Fears on Fire

Chapter Ten

The bright stars scattered across the midnight sky, making the sky more mysterious. The moon sat in the middle of the sky as it created a silver glow to the ground. A fire pit sat at the center of camp, kids stood around the fire. The sound of conversations sprung from either side of camp as everyone did their jobs. Bellamy had left with the others to check out the crashed site from the ship that had crashed last night. Clarke had asked if I wanted to come with, but someone needed to keep camp from falling apart. Bellamy left me in charge until they came back with information. I cleaned up after dinner, making sure there weren't any leftover crumbs. I grabbed an extra cloth and quickly wiped down the table.

I folded up the table and set it inside the drop ship. I stepped out of the ship, finding Jasper talking with a few kids. The delinquents who sat around him all grinned from the story he was telling. He waved his hands around to demonstrate what happened at the bridge yesterday evening. Monty and Octavia had their backs facing Jasper as they looked out of the opening of the gate. The two of them turned around to continue listening to our friend. I walked over to them, joining the conversation. "Fear is only a problem if you let stop you, right?" Jasper said, earning more smiles from the kids.

"That's not even his line," Octavia said, "Finn said that." She pointed her hand at Jasper, shaking her head. Monty pressed his lips to a thin line before looked back at his best friend. She rolled her eyes again as she looked back at Monty and I. "I saw the Grounders in the trees. It was like nothing I ever felt. You know, pure animal instinct took over. One pull of the trigger, two Grounders dead," Jasper said.

"Pure animal instinct? More like pant's wetting panic," Octavia commented. I laughed at her remark towards Jasper, shaking my head slightly. "You don't really know what you're made of until a moment like that, you know," Jasper continued, "When it's kill or be killed and there's just nothing between you and the tip of the spear." I scoffed, crossing my arms. I hopped off from the boulder and turned to look at Octavia and Monty. "Okay, this has to stop," I said, walking towards the fire pit. Monty reached over and grabbed my arm, he shook his head. "Come on," he said, "Let us have this?"

"Us?" Octavia inquired, appearing by my side. "Look at him," he pointed to Jasper. Our friend smiled and laughed with the kids around him. He told the story as if he was the main character. "The boy is a folk hero. They even gave us a bigger tent," Monty continued. The kids gathered around Jasper, each giving him a pat on the shoulder or a high five from his 'achievement'. Octavia rose her eyebrows at Monty's claim about the tent.

A loud clattering sounded from the front of the gate, we all whipped our heads to the abrupt sound. Monty passed me my gun, I wrapped the strap around my shoulder and pointed my gun forward. I ushered for Conner and Derek to check their posts. I stood beside the door, looking through the small lookout hole. "I've got nothing," I announced. I turned to look at Conner who remained at his post. "Conner? What about you?" I inquired.

"Something moved," he said. Shots fired from his gun, directly pointing downward. I lowered my gun and walked away from the wall, stepping towards the door. I reached forward to open up the door, but was stopped by Conner and Derek. Conner pressed his hand on the metal door to prevent me from opening it. Derek stood by his side with his gun in his right hand. "What do you think you're doing?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

I pushed Conner's arm away from the gate, lightly pulling him away. I looked out of the hole that was beside the door then looked back at Conner and Derek. "You want to see what's out there?" I questioned. Both boys nodded their heads in response to my question. "You shot them right?" I added, earning another nod from them. "Then let me open the gate," I continued. "And who said that you were in charge?" Conner retorted. "Who do you think?" Octavia said, standing beside me. Conner turned his head and ordered Miller to open up the door. The metal door slowly opened up, revealing a pitch dark woods. I stepped out of the gate and looked both ways before walking further.