𝟐.𝟑

───── 「CRUELTY」 ─────

     Octavia smiled at me as we all realized who had saved us. I walked up to her, opening my arms for her, she hugging me as relief ran through my veins. She's alive and uninjured. As we broke the hug she looked behind me and her smile grew bigger if that was even possible. I turned to see Sam with tears in her eyes. Octavia ran towards her.

-    "Sam!"

-    "I love you, O." –Sam spoke as she hugged her- "So much, and I knew you were going to be fine but I..."

-    "Shhh..." –O softly spoke as she stroke Sam's cheek "I love you too, Sam."

I stood beside them, happily witnessing the reunion of the two people I cared for the most. Sam kept her word, 'I love you' have really been the first words she's told her. Octavia broke the hug and looked at me.

-    "Come here, big brother!"

I smiled as she motioned for me to join their hug. I embraced each of them in one of my arms, both of them resting their heads against me and I felt... home.

-    "I love you both so much." –Sam spoke against my chest and then she looked at Octavia- "And I'm so glad you are back, I was already getting bored without you."

-    "I missed you too."

-    "If I'm interrupting something here," -I cleared my throat as I let go of them- "just let me know."

-    "Don't be stupid, you both only have eyes for each other."

-    "I mean, can you blame me?" –Sam crossed her arms over her chest as she looked me up and down.

-    "Alright, enough." –I smiled- "You've barely just reunited and I'm already done with you both together."

-    "I'm not even going to pretend I believe you." –Sam retorted smiling- "I'll give you both some time."

     The stress and the panic I had felt moments prior, all dissipated as soon as I landed eyes on Octavia. I wanted to run to her and hug her but I knew her reunion with Bellamy was more important than me so I stood in my place and simply watched them. I was so thankful she was back in one piece. She was my sister and losing her would hurt me more than I could admit at that moment. Once we exchanged a few words and she cleaned the tears from my eyes, I left them to catch up while I went to check on the rest.

-    "Hey." -Murphy rose his head as I spoke-    "Thank you." –I sat down beside him; my shoulder was killing me and I needed a break- "You came through back there with the rope and stuff."

-    "Well, I couldn't let Bellamy die after he's been so good to you."

-    "You are a good person, Murphy, even if you don't want to admit it." –I punched him lightly in the upper arm.

-    "Maybe I'm learning from you."

-    "Huh, sure."

I smiled at him, his eyes moving behind me, so I turned to see Octavia walking towards us, kneeling to check Monroe's wound. She explained she was on her way back to camp when she heard the gunshots, Monroe being the first to thank her for coming to our aid. Murphy, instead, decided it was the best of times to ask about Lincoln and, by the look on Octavia's face, I realized something had gone wrong.

-    "He's gone."

Wait, what? Murphy took that as his cue to leave us alone, Octavia standing up as I did, walking towards her and standing next to Bellamy who had also heard the conversation.

-    "I'm sorry, O." –Bellamy spoke first, his voice was soothing and calm- "We both are."

-    "We're here for you, alright?" –I added, taking her hand in mine and squeezing it- "Whatever it is that you need."

Octavia looked at us and nodded, a thankful look in her eyes before she let go of me and turned around. I glanced at Bellamy, exchanging a knowing look with him before Octavia regained our attention, saying we had to move before the Grounders came back for us. Monroe needed to get back to the camp because the arrow could've been poisoned, which meant we'd have to divide because there was no way Finn would give up the fight, my suspicions confirmed as he handed Bellamy a copy of the map.

-    "I'll meet you as soon as I can."

-    "I know."

-    "Parting." -Murphy eyed us before he moved after Finn- "Such sweet sorrow, right?"

-    "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

-    "Come on, Bellamy. You know if I go with you, they'll just lock me up again."

-    "Yeah," –I agreed while taking my things- "that's why we are going to take care of Finn."

-    "Sam," –Bellamy spoke making me face him- "please."

-    "You know I have to go. Finn is not okay." –I reminded him and I saw in his eyes he knew I was right- "Besides, now I have someone to keep an eye on you."

-    "I'll keep an eye on him but you have to come back," –Octavia moved closer to me- "promise me."

-    "I promise you, I'll come back."

Octavia hugged me tight, squeezing my upper arms before she moved towards Monroe to help her stand. In the meantime, Bellamy had given Murphy his rifle and he had started going after Finn. Bellamy then moved towards me.

-    "I know you don't want me to go," -I followed him with my eyes until he stood in front of me- "but now it's my turn to step up."

-    "I also know it's what needs to be done and I won't stop you, but that doesn't mean I like this arrangement." –he sighed- "I'll look for you as soon as I get them home."

-    "I'll be waiting impatiently." –I smirked- "Be careful, you've scared me enough today for the next week at least."

-    "You too, you have to come back home."

-    "You know, the only home I know is wherever you and O are."

-    "Then come back to us." –his tone was serious, taking my hand in his and pulling me into a hug- "Come back to me."

-    "I always will."

I pressed my lips to his cheek before I pulled back. I took a last glance at him and the rest of the group who were now ready to go before I started walking towards Murphy and Finn who were waiting for me, Finn rushing me to move. Here goes nothing.

     Once I had everything I needed, I looked back at Bellamy and Sam saying goodbye, a smile on my lips as I watched them interact, recognizing how far we had come. Sam glanced at me one last time before moving away, nodding at her, letting her know it was all going to be okay.

-    "She'll be fine." -I glanced at Bellamy as he walked toward me- "She's hard to kill, just like us."

-    "She almost died that night."

-    "What? What happened?"

-    "She had a lot of wounds, she'd lost a lot of blood..." –Bellamy sighed; it was easy to tell he had been worried sick about her- "I thought I had lost her for good, O."

-    "How...?"

-    "The Ark crashed not far from where we were. They found us and I took Sam there so that Clarke's mom could take care of her. I donated my blood for her."

-    "So," –I knew there was more to it but I decided not to press him, so I simply smiled- "turns out she will end up being a Blake after all." -Bellamy shook his head, attempting to hide his laughter but failing-    "And she even gave you a goodbye kiss on the cheek, now that's something I never thought I'd see thinking back to the firsts days we were down here."

-    "Yeah, I guess we all ended up warming up to each other." –he turned his face to look at the group- "But now I have to get the rest home and I can't do it without you."

-    "Of course you can't." –I laughed, shoving him to the side- "But we will talk about what's going on between you two, eventually."

-    "Alright, let's go, then."

We traveled for longer than a day since we couldn't move too fast due to Mel and Monroe's injuries and once we finally arrived at what Bellamy had explained to me to be our new camp, the welcome wasn't so warm. As soon as we put a foot inside, all of our weapons were taken, we were almost treated like prisoners, although I can't say I was surprised. A woman whom I recognized as Clarke's mother soon came to us.

-    "I know you." –she looked at Mel- "Factory station. Where are the others?"

-    "There are no others."

-    "We found her a day from here." -Bellamy explained- "No survivors, lots of supplies."

-    "Get her to medical."

Abby nodded, instructing another woman and a couple of guards to also take Monroe with them, leaving both me and my brother there alone, wondering what we should do next. But we weren't alone for long; I saw something blonde running towards us, crashing against my brother as he was the closest to it. Clarke, what is she doing here? Are the others back too? Where's Sam? Bellamy took some time to hug her back but he eventually did. Then, it was my turn to get a hug from her, moving closer to them.

-    "I'm glad you're okay."

-    "You too."

-    "How many are with you?"

-    "None."

Raven showed up from behind Clarke, greeting us with a smile, but her eyes moving behind us didn't go unnoticed. I knew she was looking for Sam; I wasn't 100% sure what had gone down between them but I could recognize the worry in her eyes. But nothing made sense; how was Clarke there?

-    "Where's Finn?"

-    "And Sam?" –Raven added to Clarke's words, her eyes on my brother- "Where's Sam, Bellamy?"

-    "They are looking for Clarke."

     After a couple of hours walking around the forest, hoping we had gotten lost and we'd never get to the camp, we actually made it. We hind behind some bushes, looking inside with our snippers and trying to see if we could find any trace of our people and count how many Grounders were inside.

-    "I count 26."

-    "I got 28."

-    "Did you both fail math?" –I asked- "There are clearly 30 Grounders in there."

-    "Well, none of them look like warriors anyway." –Murphy almost ignored me- "Just kids and old people. There's nothing big enough to hold our friends."

-    "They could be underground."

Murphy looked at me and I could only sigh annoyed. Underground. What did Finn think this was? An old spy's movie? He was making things up in his head to match the tale he had chosen to believe in.

-    "We wait until dark–"

-    "For what?" –I interrupted Finn as he spoke again- "You can't seriously be thinking of attacking them, can you?"

-    "Once it's dark enough, we'll go in."

-    "In? Finn, we don't even know if our people are there!"

-    "They're here." –Finn answered Murphy aggressively- "Or they were when that Grounder took Clarke's watch."

-    "You know he could have been lying, don't you?"

-    "They could also be already dead–"

Murphy couldn't finish his sentence, being hit on the stomach by Finn's fist, landing on his ass behind us as I bit my tongue before I shoved Finn away from him.

-    "How much ammo do we have?" –Finn asked me, quickly recovering his composure.

-    "You know?" -Murphy faced him- "I think I liked you better as a peacemaker."

     After I had told Bellamy, Octavia, and Raven everything that had been going on, from being captured by the Mountain Men and the experiments those people were running on Grounders, to how I managed to escape, I went to meet my mom to know when we could leave to go after Sam, Murphy, and Finn; only to be met with a negative answer and a weak excuse, but Bellamy was having none of it.

-    "You're sorry?" –he asked as both my mom and I turned around to face him- "Finn, Murphy, and Sam are out there looking for your daughter with guns you gave us and now that Clarke's home you're just going to abandon them?" –Bellamy waited for her answer but her silence was enough for him- "If you can't spare the guards, we know the terrain, we have a map, we can do it ourselves."

-    "No. Absolutely not."

-    "Mom–"

-    "I just got you back."

Her voice broke as she looked at me. I understood how she was feeling but Finn seemed not to be doing alright and I couldn't risk something happening to him because I'd never forgive myself. I also couldn't just abandon Sam because I knew she was out there keeping an eye on Finn and looking for me. Bellamy and Octavia would never forgive me if she got hurt because of me. We didn't have much more time to discuss it with my mom as Jackson came to look for her, saying they needed her in medical, but she didn't leave without instructing the guards not to let anyone out of the camp.

Once she left, and I made sure we had been left alone, I turned to Bellamy. I knew he was ready to go on and on about how leaving them alone was wrong so, before he could say anything, I told him we'd need guns. That seemed to please him, leaving me there as he left to look for them, disappearing with Octavia through the hallways as I went to look for Raven, agreeing on meeting with everyone at the outskirts of the camp, near the fence that had been electrified.

-    "Hey." –once I got there, Bellamy was already there with Raven- "My mom's in surgery, and the team going after Kane just left. We should too."

-    "Did you see Octavia?"

-    "No, but I found you." –Octavia showed up from behind Bellamy, making the three of us turn around- "I'm not letting you leave here without me."

-    "Octavia–"

-    "Finn, Murphy, and Sam are headed for Lincoln's village. I have been there, have any of you? Besides, that's my best friend out there looking for you."

-    "You done?" –Bellamy asked, handing her the bag we had prepared for her, gaining a confused look from his sister-    "Your pack." –Bellamy smiled at her as she took it- "Lead the way."

-    "Whoa." –Raven stopped her- "Not so fast, Pocahontas."

She then proceeded to touch the fence with one of her crutches and a spark of electricity made us jump away.

-    "I thought you said it was handled."

-    "It is." –Raven calmly answered me as she took her walkie-talkie- "Shut her down, Wick." -After that, the radio beeped two times and Raven touched the fence again without any consequences this time-    "Handled."

I nodded as Octavia wasted no time to get out of the camp, followed by Bellamy. I glanced at Raven before I moved outside, running after the siblings, quickly finding cover in the forest not to get caught. We followed the map Finn had given Bellamy and, as nighttime came over us, we took a break to rest. I had laid on the floor, falling asleep almost without noticing it; when I woke up, I saw Bellamy completely lost in thought looking at the fire. Raven had told me about what had happened with Sam and I knew he was thinking about her. Any of us who had seen him around her could tell how much she meant to him, even if he had never admitted it out loud and Sam was completely oblivious.

-    "Hey."

-    "Last time I saw you, you were closing the dropship's door." –he looked at me and I felt regret washing over my face- "It had to be done."

-    "Did you get any sleep?"

-    "It's okay. I'll sleep when we find them."

-    "She is strong, Bellamy. I'm sure she's alright." –he looked at me as if he didn't know what I was talking about- "Raven told me what happened to Sam and how you saved her."

-    "I know she is. We all have to be." –he said trying to avoid the conversation I had started.

-    "Bellamy–"

-    "Of course I'm worried about her, how couldn't I? Sam's strong, but she's also not someone who measures the consequences of her actions, and that scares me because I know where that could lead her." –he looked at me- "But I'm also concerned about Finn. You haven't seen him, Clarke; losing you, the others, the war... it changed him. He executed the Grounder that drew us the map, pulled the trigger without even blinking, and walked away."

-    "That doesn't sound like Finn."

-    "No, it doesn't. I saw what he was capable of and I still let him go with two automatic rifles and Murphy."

-    "I'm sure that had to be done too. Plus, Sam's with them; she'll know how to handle them, you know what she's capable of."

-    "I just hope we are not too late."

     As nighttime settled, Finn, Murphy, and I entered the Grounder's camp and started looking around but couldn't do much since we were surrounded by people working and moving around, even if unaware of our existence. I had a bad feeling about this and it wasn't only because I was certain that our people had never even come close to this place; it was Finn. The way he was acting, paranoid, and out of his mind... I didn't like this new him. Suddenly, Finn grabbed one of the torches illuminating the camp.

-    "What are you doing?" –Murphy asked him- "This isn't part of your plan."

-    "I'm changing the plan."

Finn answered as Murphy looked at me, confused; I wasn't sure where he was going with this, following him, watching as he grabbed another torch and stood next to one of the buildings with it. I thought he wanted to look inside; I had been wrong.

-    "This is their food." –he threw the torch inside.

-    "What are you doing, you idiot?"

If we weren't at war earlier, we sure as hell are now. Soon enough a woman saw the fire and started yelling in their language what I assumed meant 'fire'. Grounders started showing up from every part of the village and started trying to end the fire as we stood hidden behind some bushes.

-    "A distraction?" -Murphy seemed impressed- "Not bad."

-    "Let's go."

We started moving around camp, carefully not to be seen. I moved after Finn, trying to keep an eye on him as Murphy guarded our back. Someone yelling behind us stopped me dead on my tracks and, as I turned around, I saw Murphy knocking down a Grounder that had seen us.

-    "You good?"

-    "Yeah," –he grabbed my arm, pulling me with him- "but we need to gt out of here."

-    "No, we can't." –Finn stopped us- "They'll kill our people."

-    "They'll kill us!"

But Finn wasn't listening, he took the Grounder hostage and started shooting to the air, scaring all the Grounders around us that had been quick to come to aid the first one. I hated this. I didn't want to hurt his people, they reminded me of the farmers in the arc, they reminded me of the people that were the less privileged around the ship and were always struggling to stay alive. This was wrong.

-    "Who's in charge here?"

Finn started yelling, shooting a couple more times until a man finally stood forward, raising his hands in the air, asking Finn to talk to him since their leader wasn't there.

-    "Nobody has to get hurt. We just want our people back."

-    "We don't have your people."

I mean, obviously. I was starting to get concerned about what Finn would do next. I looked over at Murphy who seemed to be thinking just the same.

-    "Then you won't mind if we look around."

I rolled my eyes as Murphy tilted his head in disapproval. Without any type of warning, Finn dropped the Grounder and pointed his rifle at the one standing in front of us. This is so not going to end well. Finn ordered me and Murphy to watch the Grounders that were all now kneeling inside a fold while he searched for our people. He took all night so I assumed he even looked under each rock for them.

-    "I'm getting tired of this new Finn," -I leaned against the fence- "it's crystal clear our people were never here."

-    "Yeah, tell that to Finn." -Murphy scoffed beside me- "he thinks that Grounder was being serious."

-    "It was so obvious he was lying."

-    "Care to explain?"

-    "He said this was the place where they took their war prisoners. You were a war prisoner and you've never been here so... Aside from right now, obviously."

-    "Seems like you still catch up on everything faster than anyone else."

I looked at the Grounders again. I felt terrible for doing this but I also knew that whatever I did had to be carefully measured because Finn was about to snap and, probably, in the worst way possible considering the events from the last couple of days. One of the Grounders couldn't have been much older than us; he looked at Murphy and then at me and then around. He's looking for a way out. I don't blame him, I'd do the same, but right now running away would be the worst thing he could do considering Finn is armed.

-    "Please, don't." –I told him- "I don't want to hurt you and I won't but the other guy isn't as level-headed as I am. Stay put and we won't hurt you, I promise."

He looked at the Grounder next to him, the leader, who looked at me and then at the kid and pushed him down. I nodded at him, to let him know I was on their side, thanking him for cooperating.

-    "I told you, we don't have your people."

- "I know."

-    "Stop talking." –Murphy answered as I sighed, my eyes catching Finn's silhouette running past behind us-    "You found something?" –Murphy asked but Finn didn't bother- "Finn!"

-    "Finn are you alright?"

I moved from my place, taking a couple of steps away from the fence to see where Finn had run towards. A mistake for, next thing I knew, a kid was screaming, turning around to see Murphy pointing his rifle at him and screaming for him to get on his knees.

-    "Murphy, stop." –I pleaded, moving beside him, placing my hand on his shoulder- "He's just scared."

Murphy looked at me and moved away, yelling for Finn to show up. Finn appeared running, maddened is the best adjective I could find to describe his state. He jumped inside the fold and threw some jacket in front of their leader, pointing his rifle at him.

-    "What have you done with them?" -Finn's voice was cold and not even Murphy's attempt to mediate could have erased the bad feeling in the pit of my stomach, Finn turning to look at him for just a second-    "Their clothes are here so they were here."

-    "You don't know that." –I moved closer to him even if still outside of the fold- "I want to find them as much as you but look around, Finn–"

- "These people are scavengers," -Murphy finished for me, reading my mind- "can't you see that?"

-    "They killed them!"

He recharged his rifle and pointed it again at the Grounder. He's out of control, he won't listen to reason. What the fuck do we do now? Some of the others started to raise and I feared the worst, but the one Finn was pointing at spoke to them in their language and they all backed down.

-    "Your friends were not here. I saw one, Octavia, but she was alone."

Octavia? Wait, what? I was still processing the Grounder's words, Murphy still trying to get to Finn with words when the latter grabbed the girl kneeled closest to him, throwing her to the ground and pointing the rifle at her, screaming at the leader again over Murphy's pleads to stop his nonsense, jumping himself into the fold and trying to pull him back.

-    "Get off me." –Finn yelled at Murphy and placed his boot over the girl's back- "Murphy!"

-    "Finn," –I pointed my gun at him- "get out of there and leave the girl alone. Now." -Finn glanced at me; his eyes narrowed as he landed them on mine and I hoped he'd just take his damn rifle and point it at me-    "I will not tell you twice." -I hoped too he'd let it go because I knew I wouldn't be able to shoot him- "If you shoot her this will be your end, Finn. They haven't done anything to you; these are innocent people."

Finn finally let the girl go and got out of there so I lowered my rifle, turning to the leader and apologizing, even if I knew that wasn't enough, looking at the girl, hoping this wouldn't scare her for life. I moved toward Murphy and Finn, hearing the latter going over how if the clothes were there and the other guy had told us about this place, it meant they had to be here.

-    "It doesn't mean anything."

-    "He told us our friends were here, why would he do that?"

-    "I don't know, maybe because you had a gun to his head and you were not believing anything he said prior to that?"

-    "Maybe he didn't want to lose his only good eye?"

-    "A man with one eye?" –the Grounder from before stood up, speaking after Murphy's remark- "You saw Delano. A snake, a thief. He and his men were cast out; you are his revenge."

Oh, glorious grace, revenge? Really? Why are we always in the middle of this shit?

-    "It makes sense, Finn." –Murphy started walking away- "We need to go. Now."

-    "Finn, you know we are right, let's go."

We were about to walk away, thinking this would all just be a bad afternoon to forget when Finn did something unforgivable. As they saw us walking away, one of the elders in the fold stood up, struggling to get out of there and stumbling away for I wouldn't call that running. Once Finn landed eyes on him and before Murphy and I saw it coming, he shot him dead.

-    "Finn, what the fuck?" –I pushed him back.

-    "He was just trying to get away." –the Grounder's leader yelled at him.

-    "Come on."

Murphy pulled Finn back, trying to get away. The young kid from before was now on the move and started running. Finn got rid of Murphy and killed the kid as soon as he jumped over the fence. No. A bunch of Grounders started running away and Finn started to follow them and kill them one by one. I saw the leader trying to get them to stop, but he couldn't take care of all of them. I knew I had to do something. Murphy was screaming and trying to pull him back, but Finn wasn't thinking and so, I acted.

-    "Finn, if you don't stop right this second..."

Finn ignored me and started shooting at everyone that moved. I'm sorry Finn. I ran to him, took my gun by its barrel and, as soon as I was next to him, I hit him with the back of my gun as hard as I could while pushing him to the side. For a second I thought he didn't even feel it, but he stopped pulling the trigger and looked at me in disbelief.

-    "If you are gonna keep shooting," - I moved to be just in front of his rifle- "Finn, you'll have to do it through me."

-    "Sam, please," -Murphy pleaded me, motioning me to move to him- "don't do this."

Finn looked at me dead in the eye and rested his rifle on my chest; I gulped but I didn't yield. These people were innocent. I was ready for him to shoot, I was sure he was going to, but his eyes drifted away from mine and behind me. Alright, what now?