Fearless (Bellamy Blake - Book 1)

Chapter 13.

My eyes dart around, Jasper is tied to a short, bare tree in the middle of the clearing, shirtless and with cuts all over his body. He's barely conscious, which means his wound is starting to get infected if it hasn't already, and not to mention the amount of blood he's lost.

"Oh my god. Jasper?"

Clarke moves first, the rest of us behind her and all of us staring at the condition Jasper is in.

"What the hell is this?" Bellamy asks the same time Clarke suddenly falls through the earth.

The ground beneath her caves in to show a deeply dug hole, sharp wooden spikes placed at the bottom so the victim, in this case, Clarke, gets empaled brutally. Clarke's arm is grabbed by Bellamy, and as Finn freaks out, I can tell Bellamy has an internal debate with himself whether to pull her up, or let her fall.

After all he said it himself, he would do anything to get that wristband.

"Clarke! Pull her up! Get her up!"

Finn, Wells and Murphy crowd around and help pull Clarke up and onto the ground, where she turns and stares down at the death trap before her.

For a second I actually thought Bellamy would do it, I thought he would let her fall.

A small part of me is glad that he didn't, but it just means we have to get the wristband from her some other way, and we still have to put up with her arguments pro the Ark coming to the ground.

"You okay?" Finn asks her as she catches her breath and he helps her to stand.

"Yeah." She stares down at the hole before glancing up at Bellamy, then diverting her attention to Jasper. She isn't stupid, Clarke knows that he was thinking of letting her die.

"We need to get him down."

"I'll climb up there and cut the vines."

"Yeah, yeah I'm with you." Wells replies to Finn.

"No." Finn turns and stops him. "Stay with the girls, and watch him." He sends a pointed look to Bellamy before nodding at Murphy. "You, let's go."

"There's a poultice on his wound." Clarke indicates as she stares up at Jasper.

"Medicine?" Wells confirms, "Why would they save his life just to string him up as live bait?"

"Maybe what they're trying to catch likes it's dinner to be breathing." Bellamy quips.

"Maybe what they're trying to catch is us."

Everyone stays quiet for a moment as we all take in Finn's words.

"Well then there's no time to waste." I say defiantly. "Let's get him down."

Finn and Murphy start by cutting the vines around Jasper's legs and torso, but it takes them a while as the vines are so thick and tough.

"Hurry up, Murphy." Finn says to him.

"Be careful." Clarke tells them, watching as they perch in the branches of the tree.

A noise sounds from the trees behind us, making me turn with my eyebrows furrowed. Were we followed by the Grounders?

If so, we are so screwed.

"What the hell was that?" Murphy asks.

"Grounders?" Bellamy suggests.

In the opening to the clearing a figure slowly emerges and starts charging towards us and growling. It's not a grounder, but some sort of animal.

I'm not sure which could be worse.