Survive for Another Time

Chapter 19

"I'm sorry, i shouldn't have come!"

The voice was that of Charlotte, twelve year old, the girl haunted by Theolonius Jaha and the one who would take Wells life in less than two days if Clarke did not prevent it.

Clarke was fixing Charlotte with startled eyes, having completely forgotten about her and her part in both Bellamy's and her own development on the ground.
To Bellamy Charlotte's death had been a reminder that life without rules was chaos and that in chaos innocents became victims and perished. After the girl's death and his involvement in her actions Bellamy had set rules and started to get the members of Murphy's group into line. It had taught him the price of leading.
To Clarke the loss of Charlotte, their youngest member, had been a shock too. The girl represented innocence and their chance to show their youth a better life, a better way. Instead they had shown her how to kill and wound each other. Clarke did not know wether she had to be thankful that Charlotte had seen through what was right and what wasn't as realizing that what she had done wasn't right had led her to jump to her death.

"I will return to the camp."

Charlotte's statement took Clarke out of her thought and, looking at the sky, decided that it was too late for the girl to walk back. The night was settling and Charlotte was more likely to get lost and meet a predator than anything else.

"No, stay with me."

The young girl let a beaming smile out and trotted to Clarke, taking her right hand when she stood next to her. As she did so she stepped on several crunchy leaves and snapping twigs and Clarke wondered how she could not have heard her earlier.

"Walk on tree roots or visible ground to be silent. We don't want to advertise our presence."

The girl followed her instructions immediately and the two of them carried on forward in the forest as silent as they could. They reached the river as the sun let its last ray brighten the sky. For Charlotte it was the first sun set she had ever seen and she stood stunned looking at the sun disappearing behind the mountain.
As soon as the sun was gone Clarke pulled her to a vine and they both crossed the river in one swing. Then Clarke looked at the soil in concentration, showing Charlotte the small patches of blood and the trail it left.

"We will follow the trail in silence. I want to see if we can find the Survivors and Finn. If he is dead he deserves a proper funeral, if he is alive we need to get him out of there."

From there on Clarke led them to the hill Jasper had been tied the first time around, faking looking at the floor to let Charlotte believe she was trailing the grounders when in truth she was following her memories of her past future. When they arrived there the hill was empty of any presence which she found weird as she thought that the grounders would have been long at work to dig the pit.
In the end they stayed all night under a centennial tree awaiting for their arrival.

Charlotte fell asleep her head on Clarke's legs but woke up in the middle of the night due to a nightmare. Clarke did not need to ask to know what was haunting the girl. Jaha was Charlotte's personal nightmare and Clarke needed to save her from it before she took Wells' life.