Chapter 4: The Grounders!
'Thinking'
"Talking"
[System]
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- The Ground -
- Wells Jaha -
"That's far enough." Bellamy says after walking me away from the dropship, at gunpoint.
"I don't want to shoot you, Wells. Hell, I like you... but I do need them to think that you're dead." He says while pointing the pistol up towards the sky.
"Why? Why are you doing this, for real, not some crap about getting to do what you want to do?" I asked him.
"I have my reasons. I also have the gun. So, I ask the questions, and the question is, why aren't you helping me? Your dad banished you, Wells, and yet here you are, still doing his bidding, following the rules. Aren't you tired of always doing what's expected of you? Stand up to him. Take off that wristband and you'll be amazed at how good it feels." He speaks.
"No. Never. Not gonna happen. Is that clear enough for you?" I ask irritated.
"Yeah, it is." he says while pulling back the slide of the pistol.
"I'm sorry it had to be this way." He says while flipping on the safety, placing the pistol back behind his back and looking over to my left, nodding.
I look left and come face to face with a knife wielding John Murphy. I turn right to escape only to find one of Murphy's goons waiting for me, also with a knife. I sprint towards a small gravel hill behind me and find two more goons waiting for me at the top. Both grab me by the arms and begin to drag me back to Bellamy. "No! No! Get off of me! No!"
"Get him down!"
"Put him down!"
"No! Come on, man. Let me go!" I yell at Bellamy as Murphy brandishes his knife and begins to walk towards me. They force me on the ground and place my arm with the wristband on top of a nearby rock.
"Get it!"
"Do it!"
"No! Don't do this! Don't do this! No! No! Come on, man. AHH!" I begin to scream as Bellamy turns around and walks away, ignoring my pleas and allowing Murphy to remove my wristband.
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- The Ground -
- Arthur Pendragon -
"You wanted to go first. Now quit stalling. Mount Weather Awaits." Clarke says to both me and Finn as we both consistently retighten the make-shift vine rope.
"Just hang on till the apogee, and you'll be fine." Jasper says standing beside Monty on the rocks below us.
"The apogee like the Indians, right?" Finn asks confused.
"That's the Apache, not the apogee Finn." I informed him.
"He knows. Today, guys." Clarke tells us angrily.
"Aye, Aye, Captain. See you on the other side." Finn remarks doing a two fingered salute.
As I was about to let Finn swing, I stopped him and asked if I could go first. 'I am not about to let anyone here get nailed by a spear.'
Finn nods handing the vine rope to me, I grasp it tightly before glancing at Octavia and Clarke causing both to give me brief smiles of encouragement. I run forward off the ledge, tuck my legs in around the rope and swing.
Jumping off the rope, I land and roll onto the small sandy shore. I turn back around to worried faces and yell at them that I'm fine and give them a thumbs up. I turn back around and walk over to the barely intact Mount Weather sign, before lifting it up and facing back towards them.
"We did it!" I shout at them across the lake.
"Yes!" Monty yells.
"Whoo hoo!" the rest start to yell.
That's when I see the spear heading right towards me as well as the camouflaged grounder that threw it. I sidestep, grab the spear and twirl, launching the spear back from where it came.
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[Skills Gained:]
[Spear Throwing] (Passive) - Lvl. 1/100 {Novice}
The ability to throw spears with precision. Higher levels improve spear throwing capability.
[Spearmanship] (Passive) - Lvl. 1/100 {Novice}
The ability to fight with spears. Higher levels improve spear throwing capability.
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The spear didn't even come close to the grounder, that was posted high up in the tree. Instead, it impacted and stuck into the bottom of the tree. The grounder, seeing this, immediately hopped down from the tree and began to sprint off into the woods. [Observe]
Name: ??? {Unlocks at Adept}
Level: 7
[Item: Black Wood Iron Spear]
Item Rarity: D+
Type: Spear
Attack: +20
'Damn! That spear does more than my Sword?!' I question mentally, before refocusing on the others that are screaming if I'm okay or not.
"All of you stay down!" I yell at them. Even if I did see the grounder run off it's always good to be careful. I jump into the water and swim towards them, after swimming up behind them and getting their attention, Finn and Jasper help me up back onto the rocks.
"We're not alone." Clarke says frightfully.
"No, we're not Clarke. We need to make our way back to the dropship." I speak as Jasper begins to hyperventilate. Monty was able to calm him down and before I knew it, we were off sprinting through the forest, with me leading the charge.
"Do you know where we're going!?" Finn shouts from behind me.
"Yeah, I do!" I respond slightly irritated as he's asked the same question 3 times in a row. As we're running Monty trips and falls directly into a pile of old bones, Finn grabs him and helps him to his feet.
"Come on, Monty, get up!" he yells while helping Monty up.
"H-Hold on, look at this!" He says pointing at the bones.
"Who are they?" Finn asks, and Clarke kneels so she can analyze them.
She picks up an orangutang's skull and replies. "What are they?"
I quickly grabbed her arm causing her to drop the skull onto the mossy forest floor. "Hey!" she yells.
"Hey, what? That's just some monkey skull! I saw what threw that spear at me and it wasn't a monkey! It was a human!" I tell them, trying to make things better.
"We're so screwed." Octavia says scared.
"All of you, come on! We need to get back to the Dropship!" I tell them.
"Right." Finn and Clarke both say before we all break out into a sprint towards the dropship.
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- Dropship Crash Site | The Ground -
- Wells Jaha -
Walking back through the camp and observing the 100 after buring the 2 kids that died in the fall, fills me with anger.
'These guys are just running around playing, beating on drums, and having sex. They are doing nothing productive!' I think as I am forced to maneuver around a group of them that are playing tag.
"Move!"
"Yeah, move chancellor!"
'Ugh..'
"Hey, where'd you get the clothes?" some guy asks me as he makes his way out of the dropship.
"Buried the two kids who died during the landing." I tell him.
"Smart. You know, I'll take it from here." He says as he tries to grab the clothes out of my arms. "There's always a market for-"
"We share based on need, just like back home." I tell him yanking the clothes from his grasp.
"You still don't get it, do you, chancellor?" Bellamy asks as he makes his way out of the dropship shirtless with a girl by his side. After embracing and kissing her, he sends her off before turning back towards me. "This is home now. Your father's rules no longer apply." He says as he grabs one of the shirts out of my arms.
"Hey!" I shout as I move to take them back. Before I can reach Bellamy I get grabbed and pushed back by the guy who tried to take the clothes earlier.
"Oh, no, no, Atom. Atom, hold up. You want it back? Take it." He challenges. I glare at him and consider my options before turning around and tossing the clothing onto the ground. Like the vultures they are, a group of 10 or 11 of them flock over to the clothes and try to grab whatever they can.
"Get those boots!" One of them yells.
"Is this what you want? Chaos?" I ask pointing at the flock of vultures that are fighting over the clothes.
"What's wrong with a little chaos?" He asks.
"AHHHH!!!!" We hear from behind us. Bellamy throws on his shirt and him, I and the rest of the group go in search of the scream.
As Bellamy and I finally reach where the scream came from we're meet with a barbaric sight. Murphy has a girl in a arm lock and is hovering her over a fire.
"Bellamy! Check it out. We want the Ark to think that the ground is killing us, right? Figure it'll look better if we suffer a little bit first."
"Let her go!" I yell, sprinting forward and shoving Murphy onto the ground, causing him to let the girl go. "You can stop this." I say to Bellamy.
"Stop this? I'm just getting started." Opening my mouth to respond, I am quickly forced to close it as Murphy hooks me in the jaw causing me to stumble back. Murphy rushes me and I block an uppercut to the stomach before sending one back when he tried to go for an overhand punch. I throw a right hook that connects with his jaw, that sends him onto the ground. Murphy quickly gets back up and tackles me, bringing us both to the dirt. Blocking his punches and reversing or position I begin to lay down punches onto him.
I get up off the dazed Murphy and head straight for Bellamy. "Don't you see you can't control this?!" Murphy gets back up behind me and brandishes his knife.
"You're dead." He says as he advances on me, ready to stab me.
"Wait! Fair fight." Bellamy says throwing a small knife down at my feet. Looking around for any help and seeing that there is none. I reached down and grabbed the knife. I dodge a few of Murphy's lunges before going for an overhead slash. Murphy dodges and slashes at my shoulder, cutting through my jacket and drawing blood.
"Ahh!"
"This is for my father!" Murphy yells before swinging at me. I blocked the strike and grabbed hold of his knife arm, before turning him around and pressing my blade to his throat.
"Drop it!" I yelled at him.
"Wells! Let him go!" I hear Clarke yell.
'Me?'
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- Dropship Crash Site | The Ground -
- Arthur Pendragon -
'Coming back to the caveman boogaloo between Wells and Murphy was something that I had completely forgot about.'
"Wells! Let him go!" Clarke yells at Wells who has Murphy at knife point. Wells takes the knife away from his throat and shoves him away.
"Whoa. Hey!" Bellamy yells about to get involved as Murphy rushes back towards Wells, but before he can my brand-new foraged grounder spear is pulled and pressed against Murphy's neck.
"It's amazing what you can find in the middle of woods!" I exclaim sarcastically. Murphy stares at me with hatred, and gets ready to move forward on me, but I continue, "That's enough, hothead. Now, chill it." I ordered him.
"Enough, Murphy." Bellamy orders while grasping him by the shoulders and pulling him back. Bellamy then rushes over towards Octavia who isn't far behind me and asks, "Octavia! Are you all, right?"
"What? Yeah, I'm fine." Octavia responds slightly out of breath from all the running.
"Where's the food?" Bellamy questions.
"We didn't make it to Mount Weather." Finn answers.
"What the hell happened out there?" Bellamy asks.
"We were attacked." Clarke responds still frightened over the ordeal.
"Attacked? By what?" Wells asks.
"Not what. who. It turns out, when the last man from the ground died on the Ark, he wasn't the last grounder." I tell them.
"It's true. Everything we thought we knew about the ground is wrong. There are people here, survivors. The good news is, that means we can survive. Radiation won't kill us." Clarke informs a now murmuring and worried crowd.
"Yeah, the bad news is the grounders will." Finn continues.
"Where is your wristband?" Clarke asks Wells after seeing his wristband missing.
"Ask him." Wells says nodding towards Bellamy.
Octavia turns and looks towards her brother with a confused face.
"How many?" Clarke asks.
"24 and counting." Murphy says giving a smug smile.
"You idiots. Life support on the Ark is failing. That's why they brought us down here. They need to know the ground is survivable again, and we need their help against whoever is out there. If you take off your wristbands, you're not just killing them. You're killing us!" Clarke informs them.
That's when Bellamy stepped up and tried to turn the crowd back around in his favor, but I wasn't having none of that shit.
"We're stronger- guh!" He spoke before getting slammed on the ground by the butt end of my spear. I planted my foot on his back and pointed my spear towards his neck.
"You need to shut the fuck up. Now!" I told him.
"Arthur!" Octavia yells.
"Relax Octavia, I won't kill your brother." I say placating her. I turn to look at the rest of them and the only emotion on my face is pure disgust.
"All of you! I am one of you! I come from a simple guardsman who was floated simply for helping the girl next to me!" I say pointing at Octavia. "I thought the same as you once. I thought that these people, I can relate to, I can trust. All you have done is shown me how wrong I was! Instead of taking this opportunity and trying to find a way to survive, you're what? Playing games? Knife fighting? Are we fucking barbarians!?" I ask a deaf crowd. "I asked are we Fucking Barbarians!?" I ask again.
"NO!" The entire 100 yell.
"Then prove it! Prove the Ark wrong! Prove that you're not criminal savages! Prove that you're better than them! And prove that to the grounders who attacked us!"
"YEAH!" x98
[Title Gained:]
[Title: Leader of the 100]
A Title given to you for becoming the primary leader of the 100. The likeliness for them to follow your orders has risen by 30%.
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[Status]
Name: Arthur Pendragon
Class: Knight
Title: Leader of the 100
Level: 2
HP: 305
MP: 200
STR: 32 (+8)
AGI: 20 (+4)
VIT: 21 (+10) {Every +1 point from now on is +105 HP}
INT: 20 {Every +1 point from now on is +50 MP}
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Stat Points: 0
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[Skills:]
[Active:]
[Observe] (Active) - Lvl. 23/100 {Adept}
Enables you to see information about a target.
[Pickpocketing] (Active) - Lvl. 2/100 (Novice)
The stealthy art of picking an unsuspecting target's pockets.
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[Passive:]
[Swordsmanship] (Passive) - Lvl. 15/100 {Novice}
The Ability to fight with a sword. Higher levels improve fighting capability.
[Spearmanship] (Passive) - Lvl. 1/100 {Novice}
The ability to fight with a spear. Higher levels improve fighting capability.
[Spear Throwing] (Passive) - Lvl. 1/100 {Novice}
The ability to throw spears with precision. Higher levels improve spear throwing capability.
[Gamers Mind] (Passive) - Lvl. MAX
Protects the mind from being read or manipulated.
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[Quests:]
Active Quests: [Swish Swish Stab - Daily] - 11:32:45 Till Refresh
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[Inventory:]
[Slot 1:] Steel Sword
[Slot 2:] x1 Random Loot Box
[Slot 3:] x24 Black Snake Scales
[Slot 4:] Black Wood Iron Spear
[Slot 5-100:] Empty
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