Fearless (Bellamy Blake - Book 1)

Chapter 48

Shaky breathes rack my body as my eyes stay fixed on John's, somehow unable to tear them away. Bellamy and Finn race over, looking down at his body before scanning the area.

They've found us.

I swallow thickly and manage to tear my eyes away from Mbege, taking a small step backwards, bumping into someone behind me. A hand grasps mine, and I relax instantly, knowing that it's Bellamy.

"They use the trees." Finn whispers, looking up at the trees above us.

"We shouldn't have crossed the boundary." Diggs, one of the other guys in the group says to us.

"Now can we go back?" Roma asks, fear in her voice.

"Bellamy, they're right." I whisper, my voice coming out quite shaky, something that annoys me. "We should go." As a response he gives my hand a small squeeze, but that tells me nothing other than the fact he doesn't know what we should do.

"There." Jasper whispers, pointing out into the distance where a large Grounder stands staring at us. He's clad in dark clothing and his face is covered, and from his stance, weapon in hand, he doesn't look happy to see us.

"Another one." Diggs says shakily, pointing out a Grounder running through the trees.

My head swivels around, trying to catch up with the sudden ambush, "They're everywhere."

"We should run." Finn says, and Bellamy nods before taking off running, dragging me with him by our joined hands.

I pull my hand free of his as we all run, knowing we'll only slow each other down that way, nevertheless, he glances back at me once my hand is free from his.

"Go, I'm right behind you!" I tell him, jumping over a large tree root and pushing myself to run faster, my heart beating so loud I can hear it even over the pounding of our feet.

I whip my head to the side, seeing a Grounder running adjacent to me about fifteen feet away and my heart skips a beat at the realisation that they're following us and we're running blindly. They know these woods, and for all we know there's more Grounders waiting for us up ahead. The thought courses fear through me, but that only pushes me harder and I will my legs to move quicker as I pray no one else gets caught.

"Hurry up!" I hear Bellamy yell at us all from up ahead. He's taller than me and a lot faster, so I'm glad I'm not holding him back.

Monroe swerves towards me to avoid a tree blocking her path, and I move over slightly, missing the overgrown root that my foot gets lodged on, sending me tumbling to the ground. I land with a painful thud, my hands and fingernails covered in dirt as I clench my fists from the pain as my chin hits the ground. I feel a pair of hands grab my arms, pulling me up to my feet.

"Come on, Carter!" Roma helps me to stand and I ignore the stinging  sensation in my ankle as I start to run again, Roma by my side.

"Thanks Roma." I breathe out as I rub the dirt from my chin, hissing at the pain surging up from my right ankle. I'm sort of surprised that Roma stopped to help me, we've never actually spoken and all I know about her is that she's one of Bellamy's girls, nevertheless I'm thankful.

The adrenaline pumping through me is the only thing keep me upright and moving, and I mentally curse at the sight of a hill up ahead. I grab onto as many low hanging branches as I can, pulling myself up the hill as I follow after everyone else.

"What are we gonna do, they keep cutting us off!" Diggs yells out, and I hiss as I jump over a log, landing on my bad ankle.

"Just keep running!" Finn tells him.

"Running is getting a little hard for me to do you guys!" I reply, struggling to keep up at the same time Jasper says,

"I can't run much longer!" I look back to see him struggling behind me, and remember that he's still recovering from his injury.

"I'm not stopping for them!" Diggs sticks to his word and carries on running whilst the others all slow down and stop.

"I'm sick of running anyway." Bellamy says defiantly as he stands his ground.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Finn grabs him as I collapse against a tree beside them, lifting my foot off the ground to relieve the pressure and gasping for air as my lungs burn and my heart thumps loudly. My head throbs from the heat I just caused myself running, and I swallow every few seconds to try and rid the dehydration from my throat.

"They know where she is." Bellamy tells him firmly before quickly putting an arm around me and pulling me into the small circle, practically lifting me off the ground as he spins me towards Finn. "What the hell happened to you?" He demands.

"Chris are you hurt?" Finn frowns and I push aside his sudden concern and say to them both;

"I'll live."

"Diggs! Where are you?!" Roma takes off running when a Grounder quickly advances towards us.

"Oh for the love of--"

"Come on." Bellamy cuts me off and takes my dirt covered hand in his, keeping a firm grip on it and running again, not letting me slip behind.

A strangled cry from Roma instantly worries me as we follow her, not knowing where to.

"Wait, Roma there could be more!" Finn calls out to her, as he runs up into a small clearing, Bellamy and I stop right behind him and my eyes widen at what I see.

Diggs is before us, impaled by a trap of sharp wooden spikes, blood dripping from his mouth.