Conflate | Bellamy Blake ¹ ✓

※ | chapter twenty-six

❝when are you going to get it through your head? we're in this together!❞

-hermione granger, harry potter

♛

OCTAVIA'S LIPS PRESS INTO a thin line. Her eyes dart to the exit of the foxhole multiple times, but I notice and immediately understand what's happening. She's going to run.

"The hell do you think you're going?" I hiss at her so quietly that only she can hear. Her eyes slightly widen when she realizes she hadn't been as discreet as she thought.

"Finding Lincoln," she answers with a gulp. I can see it in her face that she's expecting me to make her stay. However, there's no way I can do that and there's no way I'm letting her go alone.

"Alright, then," I say after checking to make sure Miller isn't watching us. Sure enough, his full attention is on his gun and the Grounders that are coming closer. "Let's go."

Octavia knows better than to argue with me. She waves at me to follow as she quickly ducks out of the foxhole and darts into the dark forest. I make sure my rifle is secured on my shoulder before taking off after her without looking back.

My feet move soundlessly across the mossy, uneven ground. Octavia tries her hardest to mimic the way I run, but unlike her, I have been trained to move in silence by my father. Even my breath seems to make no sound as it puffs out of my lips in white clouds. I'm briefly reminded of the time I ran across the Ark four times just to evade guards and give that bracelet to Clarke on her birthday.

"How are you sure that Lincoln won't kill me on sight?" I whisper as loudly as I dare to as we run side-by-side.

"He won't," Octavia asserts firmly. She pauses for a breath before responding, "You took care of him. That's how he knew to request you to meet Anya."

My mind travels back to how I had cleaned Lincoln's face after Miller had smeared berries across it. He hadn't looked at me for longer than a split second, but now I know that I had made an impression. At least being nice is going to work in my favor.

The sound of gunfire makes me jump. War cries sound from back where we came, sending chills down my spine. I can hear the horrible groans of the dying and grunts of those who are already dead.

"We have to go back," I tell her breathlessly, already slowing down.

"What?" Octavia asks, turning back to look at me incredulously. "Are you crazy?"

I just manage to catch the slightest of rustles from my left. Without hesitating, I grab my rifle and spin to face the source of the sound. A Grounder is hopping silently through the plants, almost invisible in the darkness. I fire a bullet at him before I can stop to think about the person I'm killing.

"Holy damn," Octavia breathes in shock. Obviously she hadn't been expecting me to be the type to kill so easily. I don't think she realizes that the girl who almost cried while helping to end Atom's misery is long gone.

"We have to go back," I repeat myself more sternly, and this time she nods in agreement. We both take off back the way we came, occasionally having to pause in order to pick off an attacker. Even though it shouldn't, it still surprises me when Octavia kills without the bat of an eye. I guess we both have changed drastically.

A familiar yell causes Octavia to pick up her pace to almost a sprint. My heart leaps into my throat when it registers that the voice had been Bellamy. My long legs decrease the distance between the younger Blake sibling and I, but my speed is no match for hers.

I find myself in the center of a battle when we stop. Once again I begin looking through the scope of my rifle as I fire countless shots at the Grounders around me. They're everywhere- popping out of the brush just when I think they might be gone. I can see the war paint on their shadowed faces before I see anything else. It's just me and them and my gun and bullets and blood.