While I had been hoping for a nice quiet night after everything, I was awoken to the sound of the crowd stirring, but it was the soft boom that followed that made me get out of bed. I hurried out of my tent and looked up into the sky where the others were looking. Something was coming down and I knew exactly who it must have been.
"Raven," I whispered.
Although I liked Clarke and several other members of the cast, my favorite character had always been Raven. She was brilliant, beautiful, and took no crap from anyone. Without her, the Hundred that were sent down would never have been able to establish contact with the Ark, but she did a lot more than just that. She built weapons, made bullets, and could fix any tech that she put her hands on, but it was her incredible determination that was her most praise-worthy quality. Once she put her mind to something, nothing could stop her.
"They're coming to help us," one of the guys said. "Now we can kick some Grounder ass."
There were a few chuckles and cheers, but when I looked over at Bellamy, he did not look happy.
"Please tell me they brought down some shampoo," one of the girls who was sleeping with Bellamy said.
I rested the urge to sigh at the girl's request since her priorities were mixed up, but it did not matter right now. Surprisingly, everyone quickly got to work gathering their gear and making torches while Bellamy and a couple of his guys went back into his tent. I went back to my own and quickly got changed, grabbing a few of the stone knives that I had made. As long as I had made them with my powers, I could sense them if they were close and even control them in the air, but it was limited to just a few feet around me. By the time I was done, so was the majority of the group.
"If it cleared the ridge, it's probably near the lake," one of Bellamy's goons said as I ducked into Bellamy's tent.
"We should get moving. Everyone's ready," I added.
"No one's going anywhere," Bellamy replied with a shake of his head. "Not while it's dark. It isn't safe. We'll head out at first light. Pass the word."
I let the goons leave, but when Bellamy tried to walk past me, I stopped and said, "Everyone for a hundred miles saw this thing come down. What if the Grounders get to it first? We should go now!"
"I said we wait until sunrise," Bellamy insisted as he walked around me.
"Fool," I scoffed under my breath then followed him out of the tent.
While I wanted to slip out on my own, the prompt that would sometimes give me Octavia's lines had reappeared. This time, though, it was not words to say, but a countdown with specific instructions to not leave the camp. I could only pace by the dropship while I worried about Raven. She might have made it to the end of the show, but this was not a happy, peaceful place. There was a good chance that she was hurt, and she might even get captured in the beginning for all I knew, yet I was stuck here, pacing and listening to the excitement of the kids around me.
When my countdown was nearly done, I caught sight of Bellamy sneaking out of the camp and I squinted my eyes with annoyance. I knew that Bellamy had shot Jaha to get down here, and with his attempts to get everyone to remove their wristbands, it was easy to guess that he would try to sabotage the radio that Raven likely brought down. As soon as the timer was done, I snuck out of camp and started chasing after him.
By the time that I caught up to him, the sun had risen, but once I got close, my body felt like it was taken over. My body kept running, but it was like I was running on fumes as I clumsily moved forward.
"Bellamy," I shouted. "What are you doing?"
"Go back to camp. It isn't safe," he said, stopping.
"You lied to everyone. You lied to me! You just want whatever's in that pod…"
"Just go home!" he yelled, shoving me backwards.
"You always want to play the big brother, huh? Well, guess what? Joke's on me. You're just a selfish dick," I snapped, and while I may not have been the one actually saying these things, I did agree with the statement.
"I did this for you, to protect you. If the Ark finds out we're alive, they'll come down. And when they do… I'm dead."
"What did you do?"
"I shot him. I shot Jaha."
"What?" I whispered.
"I found out they were sending you to Earth. I couldn't let you go alone. Someone came to me with a deal-- Do this. Kill him, and they'd get me on the dropship. And I did it."
"You killed the chancellor?"
"He floated our mother. He locked you up. He deserved it," he defended himself.
"I didn't ask you to do that."
He was clearly hurt that I did not agree with his actions, but he still nodded his head and said, "You're right. I made the choice. This is on me. Whatever they sent down, I'll take care of it."
"I didn't ask for any of this," I responded then turned and started walking away.
Bellamy did not try to stop me and instead headed on towards the pod that had come down. I would have thought that whatever power that taken control over me would have faded once I was away from him, but it kept me walking, and slightly off course. If not for the prompt telling me that I was on 'auto-pilot' I probably would have been concerned, so I was forced to play along while my body did all the work.
I had been hiking back slowly for nearly an hour when I heard a twig snap. My head swung from side to side as I searched for the source but found nothing and no one. That did little to reassure me though, since the Grounders were much more skilled at hiding than I was at searching. Still without the ability to control my body, I could do nothing but let the events play out. The sound happened again and again until I was running away from whatever it was that was following me, but my body was too concerned with what was behind me than in front of me. I broke through the underbrush, but in the next step, I started tumbling down a steep hill. There was mostly grass down the hill but there were also several rocks which I seemed to find all of them with my body, reopening my old wounds and granting me several new ones. My last thoughts were a silent curse to Tori for putting me down here as Octavia, then everything went black as my head hit a rock at the bottom of the hill.
There was no way for me to know how long that I had been laying at the bottom of the hill, but it was dark when I opened my eyes again. Everything was a fog which meant that I likely had a concussion, but the pain screaming from the rest of my body told me that it was just the beginning of my problems. I might have been given back control of my body again, but I wished I had not been since finding the will to move was exceptionally hard. I managed to lift my head up and the first thing I saw was a Grounder standing over me. My head swam as everything started to fade to black again and, while I knew that I needed to get away or at least stay awake, my will alone was not enough to prevent it.
When I regained consciousness again, I found myself in a dark cave. Glancing around, I could make out a messy pile of books and other knickknacks and some kind of fire light streaming in from a tunnel. I checked my knee since it was in the most pain and I found a cut deep enough to see the bone underneath. My head swam again, and I felt my consciousness waiver, but I held out this time.
Unfortunately, I heard the sound of footsteps not a moment later, so I tried to push myself back towards the junk pile, but I could not help screaming out in pain when I tried to use my bad leg. A hulking figure walked into the little chamber I was in. The shadows hid who he was, but my eyes went straight to the glowing hot blade in his hand.
"Please, please don't hurt me," I said, following the prompt out of instinct in my fear.
He did not listen to my cries for mercy and pain. He dragged me towards him without a word then pressed the red-hot blade against my leg. I could not help but scream out until the blackness claimed my mind once again.
When I woke up again, I was still in the cave. Part of me knew that I was lucky to have woken up at all, but my condition was nowhere near ideal. I checked my knee and found that the Grounder had cauterized the wound. While there was no sign that he was around, I did not trust my own judgement on that matter. I pulled myself to my feet the help of the junk pile then reached into my back pocket where one of my stone knives remained and pulled it out. Slowly, I limped along the wall, using it as a crutch, and looked through the small cave, but found no one.
"I swear… when I find Katye," I growled. "Of all of the shows to for us to get thrown into, why did it have to be this one? It hasn't been two weeks and I have more injuries than in my entire old life… except that final car accident, I guess."
Complaining out loud was a bad habit that I had picked in my past life, but it did not mean I was going to give up. I did not remember Octavia being captured in the series, but I did know that she got up close and personal with the Grounder culture. For all I knew, this was how it happened and how she met Lincoln, but the thought of staying here filled me with dread.
The only way in or out seemed to this cave was a metal framed hatch above me. I tried, but I did not have the strength with my broken body to move it. I fell back hard onto the ground, causing me to groan in pain, yet I pulled myself back up. I needed to get out of here one way or another and stopping would not help.
Feeling along the walls, eventually I felt a slight breeze. I knew what that meant, so I desperately started pulling at the clumps of moss and used my knife to pry some of the smaller rocks out of the way. Once I started, it did not take long before I cleared out the opening. It was a long, thin tunnel that I would barely be able to fit through, but the daylight at the end was enough motivation to crawl my way through.
I tumbled out onto the ground, taking in deep breaths of air with my newfound freedom. As much as I wanted to rest, I knew that I could not. It had been over a day since I had seen Bellamy, so he was bound to come looking for me, if he was not already. Clearly, I was in Grounder territory, so if Finn was able to track me down, he would be leading them this way.
Although I had no idea which way was camp, it did not matter, and I just started moving as fast as my legs could carry me. I ran for a while before I heard a scream that made me stop in my tracks. It was probably foolish to run in the direction of the scream, but my only hope was that it was one of our people. It was in that moment of hesitation that someone came up behind me and grabbed me from behind, covering my mouth. I could not see his face as he dragged me over to crouch behind a tree just as someone ran into my view. I recognized the clothes and knew it was someone from the dropship, but before I could pull his hand off my mouth, a spear impaled her. There was nothing that I could do for her and, as terrible as it sounded, I needed to be worried about myself.
After waiting for a moment, the Grounder picked me and started carrying me back towards the cave. He only carried me for a while before he placed me back on the ground and gave me a little push to walk forward. I was ready to draw my stone knife when he pulled down his mask and I recognized him. It was Lincoln.
Once again, the prompt appeared before my eyes and warned me to not say his name until he gave it to me and to follow him back. I had covered some ground before he had caught up with me, so it was not a short walk back to his cave. I did the best that I could, but my body was still exhausted, and I had to stop.
"My leg," I groaned, "I need to rest."
Lincoln studied me for a moment before he walked up to me and picked me up. He did not talk, but when I saw the prompt in front of my eyes, I knew it was the only thing that I had to rely on.
"Thank you. You saved my life," I said, but Lincoln would not speak. "That girl back there, I knew her, so, if she's here, then so is my brother. Please, you have to help him, too. They'll kill him... You don't understand me, do you? Great."
He did not reply in any way and just carried me as he walked. Another ten minutes or so later, he stopped and set me down then knelt down. He slid the hatch back and stood up, silently telling me to get down. I sighed as I sat down and slid into the hole. He followed right behind me and then picked me up, carrying me to the back room where I had awoken not too long ago.
"Why are you taking care of me?" I asked as he placed me down on the ground.
As usual, he did not reply and stood back up, shifting over to the junk pile.
"You found me at the bottom of that ravine," I said with no other option than to follow the prompts. "Fixed my knee..."
Lincoln circled around me, but it was the sound of chains that frightened me. I ignored the prompts as he tied up my wrists and I tried to struggle free of his grip. I knew that Lincoln and Octavia had a relationship on the show, but if I had not recognized him, I would likely have already tried to kill him and tying me up did little to ease my personal stress. He dragged me over to a pole and padlocked the other edge of the chain then left.
I could only laugh at the stupidity that I had gotten myself into, but it only lasted a moment before it changed into anger. Yanking against the chain, I let out a scream of anger and pain, releasing all of my frustrations. I never asked to be here! I did not like the show all that much, yet here I was, living in conditions worse than I had ever experienced with no end in sight. If this is what it took to become a God, I was fine being a mortal.
With nothing else to do while Lincoln was gone, I worked on my Stone Knife spell and launched every successful creation into the chain in hopes of breaking it. I kept trying until I felt dizzy, but I had made little progress. Eventually, I heard footsteps which belonged to Lincoln, yet it was the prompt before my eyes that left me feeling uneasy.
He approached me from behind and knelt down. I grabbed a large rock while keeping my back to him then I looked over my shoulder at him. He leaned slightly closer, so I made my move, striking him across the side of his head. Proving just how much of a badass that Lincoln was, he did not go down with the first hit, so I was forced to smack him again to fully take him to the ground.
I sighed, looking down at the unconscious Lincoln, and was tempted to try to heal him, but then I heard more footsteps. Quickly, I grabbed the key that was hanging on Lincoln's wrist and took it to the lock. I tried to get it unlocked, but the footsteps got closer, and I looked over my shoulder to see someone familiar creeping in.
"Bellamy?" I asked with surprise.
"Octavia!" he exclaimed as he rushed forward.
"The key," I said, passing it over to him since he would have an easier time than me.
Finn, Jasper, and a girl I recognized from camp followed Bellamy into the chamber. Finn looked over Lincoln body with a slight wince of sympathy then knelt down next to him as he checked over his gear. Bellamy got the lock off and started untying my hands.
"Monroe, watch the entrance," Bellamy instructed.
Once he got the chains off my wrists, I could not help but reach out and hug him tightly. Whether he was Bellamy Blake or Tori Cox, I had felt that same brotherly love from him as I had from my own brother. Even if I knew Lincoln was a good guy on the show, the past day had been far too much for me to handle it like it was nothing.
"It's okay; you're okay," Bellamy soothed as he rubbed my back.
Jasper gave me a smile when I broke away from Bellamy and I had to admit that I was just as happy to see him too.
"How did you find me?" I asked as I limped over and hugged him as well.
"Followed him," Jasper replied.
"We should go, now. Before he wakes up," I said.
"He's not gonna wake up," Bellamy growled, grabbing a spear that was resting against the wall.
"Bellamy, stop. He didn't hurt me. Let's just go!"
"They started this. Finn, move!"
"Foghorn," Finn mumbled as he looked at the horn on Lincoln's belt.
Before anyone could react, Lincoln sprang to life, grabbing the blade in his sleeve. With one fluid motion, he stabbed Finn in the chest and kicked out Bellamy's feet. Bellamy stood back up, but Lincoln grabbed the spear and started to wrestle it away from him. Lincoln was far more skilled, so it only took a moment before Bellamy was back on the ground with the spear pointing at his throat, only keeping it back by holding onto the end.
"Stop! That's my brother!" I screamed.
Lincoln did not listen, but he was too focused on Bellamy to notice Jasper inching up behind him. Jasper used his whole body as he swung his pipe into the back of Lincoln's head, knocking him out. I grabbed a cloth from the junk pile and wrapped it around the blade of the knife to immobilize it as best as I could.
"We got to go. Now! Finn won't last long without Clarke's help!" I said.
"I'll take out the blade," Jasper offered as he knelt down.
"No, it's too dangerous for us! We could make everything worse if we do something wrong. Bellamy, come on! Finn is more important than your revenge!"
Bellamy still looked ready to stab Lincoln through the heart, but thankfully, he dropped the spear and walked over to us. Jasper and he picked up Finn and started carrying him out of the cave. Now we were in a race against time to get him back to the dropship before it was too late.