chapter 11

Finn, Bellamy and Clarke were following the path that Finn believed was that of Octavia and her captors. The three had been following the trail of broken twigs and bloodspots- though those had stopped appearing after a while- and they had been at it for a good few hours.

The party of three stopped after Clarke called for a break much to Bellamy's anger.

"Why the hell are we stopping?"said Bellamy with a perturbed look on his face. The other two didn't understand that Bellamy couldn't —wouldn't — stop until Octavia's safety was guaranteed. He'd already lost one family member. He didn't eerwant to add to that number if he could help it.

"Look Bellamy,"said Finn slowly as he took a sip from his canteen,"It looks like there was more than one person on this path and if these guys were able to take out Octavia then it probably would make sense that we aren't dead on our feet if we find them."

"When we find them,"corrected Clarke as she passed them some of the food she had packed before they left camp,"If these guys wanted to kill Octavia then I bet you they would have simply killed her and left her body nearby. I'm pretty sure we're on the right path. Octavia definitely didn't go down without a fight if those shards were anything to go by."

Bellamy ,despite himself, could see the validity and he accepted the bottle of water that Finn threw his way. The three rested for five more minutes before they continued on their way.

Occasionally, Clarke would look up into the trees as she remembered the other Grounders they had encountered had made use of the trees, but she hadn't spotted anything through the rather thick canopy.

While they were walking, Clarke tried her best to understand her elemental powers. It was hard to explain how she was able to use different powers at different times, but the only thing she could liken it to was discovering a set of muscles that you had no idea existed until they were there.

The other delinquents who had activated their powers – a number that was still way below ideal agreed with this although some of them have mentioned how there were moments that they couldn't control their powers or had a 'muscle spasm' .

The spasms occurred for a host of various reasons such as Octavia's armour activating whenever she was in danger to Jasper, ironically, nearly burning Octavia to hell when he stared just a bit too hard at her ass.

Bellamy remained blissfully unaware of the infatuation Jasper had with his sister and that was probably for the best. Octavia would probably go out of her way to flirt with Jasper and others if only to annoy her brother.

She had an understandably strong dislike of authority.

Clarke tore herself away from thoughts of the Ark, for now at least. The Ark was basically a powder keg waiting to be lit from Raven's estimation and Clarke knew there was no point in fussing over something that she couldn't affect as of yet. Monty and Raven said they'd be done with the radio by midday probably, but they'd wait for them to retrieve Octavia as long as possible before they'd signal the Ark.

Slight rustling in the canopies above drew Clarke's attention and she stopped walking nearly causing Bellamy to bump into her.

Finn stopped when he heard the footballs behind him cease and a grim look grew on his face as he spotted the grim look on Clarke and Bellamy's face.

Clarke was scanning the trees and readying for a fight, but there had been no further sounds. She motioned for the three of them to keep walking and they did, but this time they were much slower and cautious of their surroundings.

It was after perhaps another half hour of hiking that the first warning signs appeared. Clarke barely heard the sound of something landing behind them before she turned and Bellamy was grabbed by a Grounder and up into the branches.

Instantly, chaos broke out as a group of three Grounders dropped from above and landed surrounding Finn and Clarke who had instinctively gone back to back.

"Princess,"said Finn as he activated his intangibility –and by proxy made Clarke intangible too–and reached for the handle of his sword,"We need a plan of attack here."

Unseen to Finn, Clarke took a step forward and lightning crackled up and down her arms,"I do have a plan."

A strange smell that Finn couldn't quite identify filled the air before a large bolt of lightning shot at the ill-prepared Grounder who had the misfortune of being Clarke's target.

The man was hit instantly by the lightning and let out a guttural scream before his body collapsed to the ground. Finn had turned around and he noticed immediately that the man wasn't moving.

Finn was horrified at the sight and was barely able to move. The ease with which Clarke had killed the man struck deep within him. He watched as Clarke ruthlessly punched one of the Grounders away and sent him flying into the trunk of a tree with the momentum generated by her superhuman strength and speed.

The impact was emphasised by a loud crack and one look at the Grounder showed Finn that the tree wasn't the only thing that had been broken as the dented and misshapen head of the Grounder showed.

Clarke was oblivious to Finn's behaviour and she barely paid him any attention before she turned her attention to the other Grounder who seemed to have braced himself for anything.

Clarke took a moment to analyse the Grounder and she saw he was dressed in ratty clothing and perhaps most curiously his arms had what looked like old burn wounds across them. There were still some parts that were unblemished and showed what looked to have been an intricate tattoo at some stage, but it was though it had been deliberately removed through burning.

Clarke's eyes flicked over to the cooling corpses of the other men and as she expected the old burn marks were also present on their arms. It was clear then that this had been done on purpose, but the question was why?

Self-harming rituals aside, she had to find Bellamy and Octavia and fast. She hoped Bellamy was okay, but she had no way of checking in on him.

"Where are my friends?"said Clarke Sicily as she walked past Finn and closer to the Grounder,"I know you understand me and I doubt you want to end up like your friends over there so you better tell me."

The warrior seemed to consider Clarke's words and took in a deep breath before finally opening his mouth to speak.

At least, that was what Clarke thought he was going to do, but the man exhaled and to Clarke's dismay she was sent hurtling through the woods and she felt her bones break and bruises form as she carved a new path through the trees.

Finally, she slowed to a stop against the bough of a thick tree. Immediately, she felt her wounds heal at an extremely fast pace and after what was probably a miniteshe was already fully healed.

A hoarse scream emanated from where she'd been hit with the gale force wind followed by a heavy thump into the ground. She felt the force of the tremor even from here and with a start Clarke realised she hadn't been alone.

"Finn,"breathed Clarke as she steadied herself before running back to where she had been.

The sight she had encountered was not what she was expecting at all.

There was a deep crater in the ground and in it Clarke was just able to discern the broken and beaten body of the last remaining Grounder.

Finn had sunken to his knees and had a look of horror on his faces but the sight that truly surprised her was Bellamy who had his hand pointing downwards.

There was also the corpse of who she assumed to be the Grounder that had taken Bellamy, but what truly surprised her was the bald and muscular man who had a tattoo etched onto the top of his head.

As if on reflex, Clarke prepared to burn the man to hell and flames had even formed on her hand, but to her surprise Bellamy stepped in between her and the Grounder with his hands pointed at her.

"Don't, "said Bellamy slowly, but firmly as he looked into Clarke's eyes meeting her glacial glare with one of his own,"He's the one who saved me from that Grounder up there and he said he knows where we can find Octavia. He's a good guy."

Clarke was undeterred and fixed her eyes on the Grounder who still hadn't taken any sort of action,"I don't trust him. How do we know he isn't going to lead us into another trap?"

Bellamy sighed and said,"We don't, but it's fine if you don't trust him then trust me. I have faith in him ."

The flames on Clarke's hand grew in intensity before they suddenly turned off. Bellamy let out a sigh of relief and dropped his hands.

The man walked out from behind Bellamy and said in what was surprisingly perfect English,"We need to leave. The Splita usually work in larger groups than this. They might move your friend if we don't hurry."

Clarke moved to Finn and touched his shoulder, but she was hurt when he flinched away from her and looked at her with fearful eyes. He rose and without even looking at Bellamy and Clarke spoke to the Grounder,"How far away is she? Also, I'm sorry, but I'll need something a bit more concrete than some words."

The man didn't look offended and reached into his pockets. Only Finn had tensed up at the action, but his body language relaxed when he saw what the man had pulled out.

"Octavia's wristband, "said Clarke as she took in the silver contraption. It must have fallen off after Monty had fried all of the remaining wristbands.

The man began to walk and the other began to follow. There was an uncomfortable silence before Clarke said,"So, what's your name? My name is Clarke. Clarke Griffin. The guy whose life you saved is Bellamy Blake and this is Finn Collins."

"Lincoln,"said the man calmly as he began to guide them through the woods.

Clarke figured that now was as good a time as any to figure out more about the Grounders and Earth and with that in mind said,"You saved Bellamy from those guys. I think you called them Splita...what does that mean? In what language too? It's nothing I've ever heard of."

Lincoln didn't shy away from the question and said,"It means traitor in my people's language, Trigedasleng. These markings we have symbolises our loyalty to Trikru– or the Woods Clan as you would understand it. They had been exiled for bringing disgrace to our people and as such their markings were removed."

Clarke was surprised at the this turn of knowledge and a small kernel of anxiety formed as she processed Lincoln's words. Those burns had been deliberate and what was more was that there were more people on the Ground. An entire clan of people too. Clearly, the Grounders must have had some sort of genetic variation that enabled them to survive the aftermath of the war.

"Are Trikru the only clan or are there more people out there?"inquired Finn as he too became invested in the information that was being shared.

"No. The Trikru aren't the only clan. There were many that survived the bombs and they were the first of what came to be known as the 12 clans. We are in Trikru territory and to the east is Floukru, the Boat people, and further north is the Ice Nation, Azgeda. Those are the only important ones for now,"said Lincoln gruffly as they reached an area where the forest petered out and their surroundings changed to that of open fields.

Even Bellamy was unable to keep the surprise off his face at the idea of enough people surviving the nuclear war to form 12 clans. Everything they had thought they had known about the Earth was completely shot to dust in the wake of this revelation.

It amused Bellamy in a morbid way that the people on the Ark had suffered and were currently suffering for no reason. The Earth had been able to sustain life all along and yet the people of the Ark were forced to eat barely filling meals and restrict themselves to having one kid and reuse clothes all because they thought the Earth was uninhabitable.

As usual, thoughts of the Ark caused Bellamy to sober up especially when he'd heard the culling had occurred in spite of Raven's flares. The fact that the deaths of over 300 people were squarely on his shoulders was a hard pill to swallow.

His selfishness and cowardice had resulted in the deaths of hundreds and Bellamy felt as though a chunk of his soul had shrivelled up and died. Raven had been especially vocal about just how she felt about him and her words had cut deeper than any knife.

It was only thanks to the intervention of Clarke and Finn that Raven had calmed down though he was sure the two were simply bottling up their disgust for him while Octavia was still unaccounted for.

More Clarke than Finn anyways. Finn had been giving Clarke and Bellamy these little looks and while they were wearing on his nerves Bellamy knew that it was a fight for another day.

The mighty Spacewalker clearly was uncomfortable with how Clarke and Bellamy had killed those Grounders without breaking a sweat. It didn't seem to matter to the boy that it had been done to save their lives and it was in that moment that Bellamy realised that for all his talk and bluster Finn was still -like the rest of the 100- a kid. Something that most had forgotten with the very real threat that the Grounders posed.

The motley crew carried on walking through the plains as Finn questioned Lincoln about the ground and other such stuff. There were mostly inane things like the weather, seasons and even on the level of technology until Clarke finally asked the question that was on everyone's mind.

"Why are you helping us?"

The somewhat easy mood that had settled upon the group evaporated instantly at those words. They kept walking, but now the tension in the air was palpable.

The silence ensued before Lincoln said,"My people are wary of you. I was assigned to scout your group further to see whether or not you are a danger to Trikru and to the Coalition. My superior believes you to be dangerous, but from what I have seen most of your people are harmless. Children. I doubt many of your people have ever even been in a battle."

The glance that Lincoln gave over his shoulder made it clear just who he didn't see as children and Clarke had to nudge Bellamy with her elbow since she could practically see the steam pouring out his ears at what the words implied.

Lincoln didn't seem to mind though as he said,"To deny you two being dangerous would be a lie and that would not help you to trust me. I was due to return when I had happened across Octavia being taken away. My pride will not allow these traitors to roam and terrorise your people. The Splita were normally exiled to the dead zone, but there's a large group that tempts fate by remaining in Trikru land. "

Clarke spoke up and said,"If they're traitors why doesn't the Trikru kill them? "

Lincoln didn't answer and Clarke noticed that the scenery around them had changed again and they were approaching a cliff. They reached the crest of it and they were surprised to see that a river was flowing down below.

Lincoln grabbed onto a vine and tested it's strength before he finally answered Clarke's question, "It would be an exercise in futility. "

Lincoln looked across the river and thiigh his next words were barely above a whisper they were still comprehensible by the three delinquents and the haunted tone in them sent chills down Clarke's spine.

"Living in the shadow of the Mountain is a fate worse than death."