Chapter 37 - Back on ground

Monroe drifts back into consciousness because she feels a pair of strong fingers gently massaging her head. Peering through her tired eyes, she found the guy she started to like massaging her while she just slept after running for the whole night.

We won the fight, but in the end how many survived the assault? We couldn't even return back home since Tristan and some of his goons survived the fire and since last night, these grounders were hunting us almost nonstop.

"Morning, princess, how's your head?"

"Hey, still hurting, but it's better than last night. Thanks for bandaging it, Leon."

"I may not be Harper or Clarke, but even I know how to give emergency treatment to someone in need."

"I'd kill for a painkiller."

"Tell me about it."

"Arrow wounds hurt more, point taken. By the way, where's Sterling?"

"He saw someone and went to check."

"And you let him?"

"I'm injured or have you forgotten about it?"

"My bad. I'm still trying to remember everything that happened last night."

Before I could say anything, someone walked over a branch, making both Monroe and I grab the rifles that were lying near us. We may be injured, but firing a rifle shouldn't be that hard for either one of us.

Who would have thought that Sterling would come back to us being chased by an angry Tristan and a horse that was dragging Finn and Bellamy?

Monroe, Sterling, and I watched in absolute shock as Tristan, the Grounder that had managed to gain the upper hand on both Finn and Bellamy, dropped to the ground after two clean bullets to the brain from behind him. It seemed that we were late, but nonetheless, Finn and Bellamy were saved, most likely by the survivors from the Ark when the whole thing fall down from the sky. Even though the two of them were saved, we remained crouched down hearing the gunshots, just in case whoever shot Tristan might shoot us as well thinking that we are grounders, but when Bellamy and Finn looked up from behind the horse that they were bounded to a group of people dressed as the guards from the Ark, led by Marcus Kane himself made their presence known to us.

"We're here now, everything is going to be all right. You three can come out as well."

We didn't wait any longer and with the help of Sterling, who helped me move, we made our wait out in the open. As soon as Bellamy and Finn saw us, both of them run towards us, taking Sterling's and Monroe's job of helping me move.

"Leon Kennedy, I presume. I've got to say that I'm impressed. You survived despite what most people thought would happen to the most hated criminal. Who would have thought that the kid that put so many guards in the infirmary would eventually be the one that would lead them?"

"Sir, with all due respect, what's your point? If you want to shoot me, just do it. I don't need your pity or to hear your mockery. I've already proved to my friends who I am and even if I die, they would know the truth."

Kane stepped forward without saying another word and examined the corpse on the ground to make sure that the vicious Grounder had been killed through and through. Before I could continue talking Abby Griffin stepped out from the woods, followed closely from behind by another group of guards.

Even if she knew who I was, she still came over and asked the two boys to gently let me down so that she could check my wound. The moment I took off my shirt, everyone's eyes went wide open when they saw the amount of scars and wounds that were on my body.

"T-Those scars and wounds… you didn't have them on the Ark."

"No mam, I didn't have them when I was locked on the Ark. I earned these scars when the grounders tortured me and when I fought to protect my friends. We didn't have it easy at all since the council sent us down."

Abby didn't say anything after she heard me and as soon as she was done changing the makeshift bandage and cleaning the arrow wound, she gently hugged me.

"I'm sorry, Leon. I didn't know that we would send you kids to your death. As soon as we saw the signals going off, we thought that you kids were dying. Even after we learned that we can live down here, the rest of the council was still adamant on actually sending a ship down, at least until we learned that we don't have too much air left for all of us."

Kana, who was silent until now, walked forward and helped me up to my feet.

"I knew your father and I'll say it again, he would be proud of you, son. As for what you did back on the Ark, I believe you earned your forgiveness when you took the mantle of a leader and kept the kids alive."

"No, sir, I didn't keep all of them alive. Twelve people died before the fight and god knows how many felled in battle."

"Here you are wrong Leon. Think about the ones that survived, not about the dead. You can't change the past, but you can make sure that it won't happen again. Now, let's go and get the rest of your friends."

When we arrived at the dropship, Kane and a few of the guard members entered the ash-covered place filled with the ashes from the bodies of the dead Grounders. Me, Finn, and Bellamy exchanged a glance once the guards were gone, and all three of us saw that we were pushed aside when we should have been the first ones to go inside the place where the people we cared about were supposed to be, but even if we tried to fight back, we would only annoy Kane, further proving him that we were just a bunch of idiots that don't think. We waited for what seemed to be an eternity when Monroe and Sterling, who were on the other side of the guards, made a sign, spiking our attention. The guards that were supposed to block them from entering through the gate weren't going to let that happen, but unfortunately for them, there was another way inside the camp. After we nodded at each other, knowing well the consequences of our actions, Bellamy and Finn tackled the two guards while I, Monroe, Sterling run as fast as we could towards the foxhole next to the entrance. Finn and Bellamy quickly caught up with us while the guards yelled after them. As soon as we made our way inside we saw the destruction, Raven's trump card did to the grounders, but strangely enough, there wasn't any sign of our friends anywhere we looked.

"Where is everyone?"

"There's no sign of anyone!"

Finn was as desperate as Bellamy when he didn't see Clarke and to be honest, I was kind of scared myself as even if they used the dropship, they shouldn't have left the place.

Right as I walked further into the camp making my way towards the dropship, I saw Kane coming out of the ship with Murphy leaning on his arm, who looked as bad as the last time I saw him. Soon after the two of them came out, Raven, who was on a stretcher was being carried by two guards as she looked confused about the lack of people.

I quickly dragged myself towards Murphy, followed closely by the rest of my friends.

"John, what happened?"

"I don't know. The last thing that I remember was seeing a grounder woman entering the drop ship right before the hatch closed. She hit me in the head and that's all I remember. Thankfully Raven managed to wake me up just in time to see Kane and you guys."

Just as I was about to turn and ask Raven if she knew anything, one of the guards raised something from the ground.

"Kid! You didn't have these right?" The guard showed me a grenade that wasn't even remotely familiar with what Raven made.

"It's not ours, sir. We only had grenades that exploded, not these things."

The guard turned to Kane as soon as he read the name of the grenade. "It's knock-out gas, sir. Whoever used it took the kids away."

Kane let out a sigh before he looked at us with a determinate look on his face. "I know that you want to find your friends, but we need to get back to our camp. Some of you kids are injured and we can't spend the whole day trying to find your friends. Especially when we don't have even the slightest idea where they could be."

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