"Me?" 014 asked in surprise. "What do you need me for?"
"You can fight, I'll need that. If we encounter whatever these 'Grounders' are, I'll need all the firepower I can get." Bellamy said, he didn't feel the need to sweeten his words when he was around 014. "Care to join me?"
014 nodded slowly. A tool, yes, I should be able to do that. "Allow me to get my things Shall I meet up with you at the bonfire when I'm ready?"
Bellamy nodded. "Sounds like a plan. Though, I'd advise you to hurry, Princess is specially bitchy right now and we don't want her to keep being bitchy on our trek." 014 nodded again and Bellamy left.
014 took several minutes to lace up his boots tightly and make sure his weapons were secure . He glanced at the convertible staff on a nearby table and thought of where to keep it, he couldn't exactly keep shoving it down his pants each time. He tried tying it to a belt loop but the metal was too slick to hold. Sighing, he decided to put it in the waistband of his pants.
As soon as he was done, he headed out from his tent towards the bonfire. When he arrived, he saw that Finn, Clarke, Wells, and Murphy were all standing there. Curious to where Bellamy was, he swiveled his head to look for said man. After several moments of searching, he found Bellamy with his sister. Clarke glanced over to 014 and jerked her head to Bellamy, 014 nodded and headed his way.
When he arrived at the scene of the Blake siblings, he found that they were arguing with each other. 014 waited a few moments to see if they would stop, but their argument only grew more heated. Seeing that it wouldn't end anytime soon, 014 coughed into his fist in hopes of attracting their attention. When his cough wasn't noticed, 014 coughed again louder, his throat throbbing in pain. Once again being ignored, 014 felt his eyebrow twitch in annoyance. Marching to Bellamy's back, he kicked his foot out to hit the taller's popliteal fossa, causing Bellamy to stumble and nearly fall on his face. A snicker escaped both Octavia's and 014's mouths as they watched the oldest Blake regain his balance.
"What the hell was that for?" Bellamy squawked in indignity.
"The Princess doesn't like to be kept waiting, King. Now leave your sister alone and let's head out." 014 mouthed while rolling his eyes, sending a smirk towards Octavia when he saw her grateful smile.
"And you had to trip me for that?" Bellamy asked warily as he accepted 014's hand.
014 shrugged innocently after he helped Bellamy back up. "It's not my fault that you ignored me. I did cough, twice in fact." Bellamy rolled his eyes and noticed Octavia standing awkwardly to the side.
"014, this is my sister, Octavia. Octavia, this is 014. I figured introductions are in order as you probably didn't exchange names during the fiasco yesterday.
014 gave a smile to Octavia. "A powerful name for a powerful woman." He extended his arm to her. "Well met, Lady Octavia."
Octavia grinned at him brightly for treating her like a person and gripped his forearm firmly as he did the same. "Well met, Sir 014."
Bellamy glanced at the two in disbelief of their opening, scoffing a silent "Nerds." under his breath.
"Wait here, I have something for you." Octavia said as she began to retreat to what 014 assumed was her tent.
"Is she ok?" 014 mouthed to Bellamy as to start up conversation after a moment of silence.
"Yeah, the cut was shallow. She's a little shaken up but she's strong." Bellamy responded. 014 nodded and they fell into awkward silence yet again causing Bellamy to sigh.
"Look," Bellamy said once he turned to 014, "I know you're a friend, but I need to tell you this." 014 looked at him curiously once hearing the serious tone.
"I understand that now that we're on Earth you may feel a little liberated or whatnot, but that doesn't mean you are free to flirt with my sister! She's only sixteen!" Bellamy cried out. 014 blinked once before letting out a wheezing laugh.
"What? What's so funny?" Bellamy asked defensively.
"Bellamy, if I were to be flirting with someone, they'd know. I wasn't flirting with Octavia. Besides-" 014 was interrupted by Octavia cutting in.
"Here," She handed 014 his jacket. "I thought you might like it back, it gets cold out there." 014 sent her a grateful smile, putting the jacket back on.
"Well we better get going." Bellamy said once seeing the exchange between Octavia and 014.
"Be safe." Octavia said simply causing 014 to ruffle her head which elicited a scowl from Bellamy.
"Sure you weren't flirting with her?" Bellamy asked dubiously once they headed towards Clarke.
"Quite. And as I was about to state earlier," 014 turned to look at Bellamy with a smirk. "I… Hm, how to state this in a way you would understand? Aha! You could say I'm a butcher," 014 reveled in the confusion he saw in Bellamy's eyes.
"As I take my meat round the back." Feeling particularly flirtatious, 014 sent a wink Bellamy's way before he started to walk ahead the bewildered man.
Realization flooded Bellamy as the tips of his ears coloured and he stammered. Was he flirting with me?
|⦽|
"Hey, hold up. What's the rush? You don't survive a spear through the heart." Bellamy asked to break the silence that had overtaken their trip. In hopes of getting an answer, he had pulled out his gun and carelessly waved it.
"Put the gun away, Bellamy." Wells said slowly to not provoke the man.
"Well, why don't you do something about it, huh?" Murphy asked, eager to please his King.
"Jasper screamed when they moved him." Clarke cut in quickly. "If the spear had struck his heart, he'd have died instantly; he's still alive. But it doesn't mean we have time to waste." With her tone, it sounded like she had said those words to reassure herself too.
Bellamy reached to clasp his hand around her wrist banded arm. "As soon as you take this wristband off, we can go."
Clarke scowled at him. "The only way the Ark is gonna think I'm dead is if I'm dead. Got it?" She said to him bitingly.
Bellamy smirked, "Brave princess."
Finn scowled and shoved Bellamy off Clarke. "Hey, why don't you find your own nickname?" Taking a deep breath, he calmed down.
"You call this a rescue party?" Finn asked, his eyes going to Murphy who was picking his nose and then to the silent 014 who was mindlessly tearing apart a leaf. "Got to split up, cover more ground. Clarke, come with me." 014 rolled his eyes on how defensive the boy was being.
"Better late than never." Clarke muttered.
"I would like to think so." Came Finn's reply as they both headed off to another direction.
"Guess we got more in common than meets the eye, huh?" Bellamy said as he strolled up to Wells.
"We have nothing in common." Wells said harshly causing Bellamy to smirk.
"No? Both came down here to protect someone we love. Your secret's safe with me. 'course, for you it's worse. With Finn around, Clarke doesn't even see you." Bellamy wasn't daft, he could see the looks of adoration Wells sent the blonde. "It's like you're not even here."
|⦽|
After Clarke and Finn had found trails of Jasper, they had met back up with Bellamy's group. 014's eyes went towards the trails of blood. He took in the colour of the blood, a bright red, almost the colour of poppies, meaning that it was heavy in oxygen and had came from somewhere closer to the heart.
"Hey, how do we know this is the right way?" Murphy asked, dubious of Finn when he brought some dirt up to his nose to smell.
"We don't. Spacewalker thinks he's a tracker." Bellamy said in annoyance.
"It's called cutting sign. Fourth-year Earth skills. He's good." Wells replied mildly. Ah, that's right, the 100 were forced into classes. Now we know why.
"You want to keep it down over there, or should I paint a target on your backs?" Finn said scowling as he motioned for Clarke to move besides him.
"See?" Bellamy whispered to Wells. "You're invisible."
The group continued to follow Finn silently as 014 tensed up. Immediately, his hands went to his daggers as he drew his tongue over his piercing. Something is wrong, the jungle shouldn't be this quiet.
As if on cue, a moan filled the air.
"What the hell was that?" Murphy whispered harshly.
"Now would be a good time to take out that gun." Clarke said softly as they slowly walked towards the origins of the moaning. Bellamy ignored her though the moaning continued.
With a few more careful steps, a large tree was in front of them with Jasper tied onto it with twine. 014's eyes narrowed suspiciously at the sight, this seems like a trap. His eyes then took in the different foliage on the ground a few feet away from the tree Jasper was on. Honey eyes narrowed his eyes in realization. He began to mouth words but the others were already too far from him.
"Jasper. Oh, my God." Clarke said, he voice clearly pained.
"Clarke, be careful." Finn said, his eyes scanning his surroundings.
"Jasper? What the hell is this?" Clarke said, clearly disgusted that someone would do this to a human being.
Seeing that Clarke was slowly walking towards the tree, 014 opened his mouth, prepared to torment his throat even more.
"Wait!" He cried out, drawing the attentions of all but Clarke.
"You can talk?" Murphy asked, mystified. 014 glanced at the boy but quickly looked back towards the tree once a scream pierced the air.
Alarmed, he turned to where the foliage had once been and saw Bellamy holding someone up. Glancing around him, he saw that Clarke was missing so he assumed it was her that fell into the trap.
"Clarke! Get her up! Pull her up! Pull her up! Get her! Pull her up!" Finn yelled at Bellamy once he saw that all the man was doing was holding her up. Soon enough, everyone sprang into action ad headed over to Bellamy to help pull Clarke up.
"You okay?" Finn asked once Clarke was safe.
"Yeah." She said, panting. "Any other words of wisdom?" She asked 014 wryly.
"We need to check near the tree for more traps." 014 said, earning shocked looks again.
"Then why don't you do it?" Bellamy said acidly, feeling miffed that 014 had lied to him about not being able to talk.
"As you wish, King." 014 said, giving the man a mock bow.
014 looked around for a long stick, not wanting to show them his weapon just yet. Finding a suitable stick, he began to poke and prod the ground in front of him until he reached the tree. He then started to poke around Jasper's body, being careful to not hit the boy. Once he saw that there wasn't anymore traps, he told the group it was safe.
"We need to get him down." Clarke stated.
"I'll climb up there and cut the vines." Finn said as he made his way to the tree.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm with you." Wells said as he began to move forward.
"No. Stay with Clarke." Finn said, glaring at the dark skinned boy. "Keep a watch on them." He said referring to Bellamy and 014.
"You." Finn said, looking at Murphy. "Let's go." Murphy's mouth opened to protest but then sighed realizing that it wasn't worth it.
Murphy climbed up the tree and used his knife to cut the boy down. He then lowed the moaning kid to Finn who brought him over to Clarke.
"There's a poultice on his wound." Clarke said mystified once she saw green paste covering Jasper's wound.
"Medicine? Why would they save his life just to string him up as live bait?" Wells asked in confusion.
"Maybe he was bait for something that likes its dinner to be breathing." Bellamy said, his eyes darting between the trees.
"Maybe what they're trying to catch is us." Finn said ominously.
"Hurry up, Murphy." Finn said, leaving the lanky boy to carry Jasper.
"Be careful." Clarke chided once he saw how rough Murphy was being on the boy.
014 sighed. "Just let me carry the boy." Murphy looked to him in relief and headed toward the long haired man.
Murphy was about to give Jasper to 014 but a low growl filled the air. 014 quickly pulled two daggers into his hands.
"What the hell was that?" Murphy whispered.
"Grounders?" Bellamy said, uncertain. He then reached for gun only to find that it was missing.
The snarling continued until a large hulking beast jumped in front of Bellamy. 014's eyes widened as he saw that it was a panther. To be more specific, it was the same pantheress he had met on the riverbanks yesterday, he could recognize those scars. But why is she attacking us? Are we near her den?
"Bellamy! Gun!" Clarke cried out in alarm. Bellamy was about to yell back at her that he didn't have the gun until the pantheress lunged at him.
014 dashed over to Bellamy and pushed him out the way and then quickly rolled in time to miss her slashing at him. He looked the pantheress eyes and saw that her usual intelligence was missing, instead, something wild and feral replaced it.
"Why are you doing this?" 014 asked, trying to reason with the beast.
"We won't harm you, I swear it! Just leave us alone!" For a moment, 014 saw a flicker of intelligence return to her eyes.
Six quick shots fired into the panther's hide and upper chest. Warm sticky blood splattered on 014's face as he saw the pantheress drop to the floor with a roar, her breathing shallow. 014's head then swiveled to the direction of the of the shots, seeing Wells hold the gun with a look of shock.
"Now she sees you." Bellamy muttered, still panting with adrenaline.
"She's still alive." 014 muttered, his voice full of pain as he thought of the cub that would be left alone.
"Then kill it." Finn said, causing 014 to glare at him at the blatant disrespect.
014 got up slowly and approached the fallen panther and crouched in front of her. He slowly brought his hand up and placed it on her large snout. Her hazy eyes look up to him and let out a whine of pain.
"I know it hurts darling, but it'll be over soon." He said softly, yet his words echoed in the quiet of the jungle. "If I find your cub, I'll make sure it remains safe." 014 murmured, causing the pantheress to let out another whine.
014 began to hum softly, he knew this wasn't helping his throat but he had to make her at ease. He knew she wouldn't make it. He began to pet her head as he slowly brought up a knife to her throat. With a sharp breath, he plunged it in and watched as her eyes turned dull.
|⦽|
014 was quiet as he carried Jasper back to camp, completely ignoring the questions he got from the kids and Bellamy. Eventually, they had managed to make it back to camp without a hitch, the body of the pantheress trailing behind them in a they drew closer to the camp, more of the 100 crowded at the outskirts trying to make out the group that was nearing them.
"They're back!"
"Over there."
"Is he..?" One of the kids asked once he say 014 carrying Jasper.
"He's alive." Clarke said to the kid. "I need boiled water and strips of cloth for bandage." She demanded as someone rushed off to comply to her wishes.
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