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Aleta awoke with a stabbing pain in her head. Her vision was blurry and as soon as she opened her eyes, she closed them again. Her head hurt and she squeezed her closed eyes tighter. She groaned in pain and rolled onto her side. She reached a hand up to her head and winced.

That all too familiar black blood coated her fingers as she pulled them away. She didn't need to open her eyes to know that. Her mind slowly worked to remember what had happened. She remembered hunting. The tracks being too perfect. Myles. Clarke. Finn. Grounders. Aleta's eyes opened again and she willed them to stay that way.

From the ground, she tried to take in as much of her surroundings as possible. She then slowly sat up and let her eyes scan the area. There was no one. No Clarke. No Finn. No grounders. Where's Myles? There was no way that the grounders would have taken him. He was injured. Unless they planned on using him for something. But why had they left her? She then recalled playing dead. She didn't think that that would work. Faint groans could be heard from behind her.

Aleta turned her head as slowly as possible to avoid her vision blurring. It didn't help much. By now, the sun seemed to be getting ready to set. Aleta blinked her eyes rapidly to get them to clear. The groans got louder and she squinted her eyes. "Myles?" Her voice came out rasped. The groans stopped and Aleta froze.

"Aleta?" A small voice whispered back. Aleta crawled closer to where the groans originated from. Myles came into view and she let out a breath of relief. "How are you here? I thought the grounders took you too," Myles whispered before his face contorted in pain. "That doesn't matter right now. What matters is getting you out of here," Aleta responded.

She then scanned her surroundings for something that she could use to help him. There was nothing. "All right, I'm not gonna pull the arrows out. That could cause more harm than good. But I need to find something to slow the bleeding," she told him. She looked around again before her eyes landed on him. More specifically, his jacket. "Okay, I'm gonna need your jacket," she informed.

Myles coughed briefly. "My jacket?" He muttered. "Yeah I'm gonna have to take it off," Aleta said. Myles breathed heavily and nodded. "O-okay," he stuttered. Aleta nodded her head and looked down at him again before slowly getting to her feet. She crouched slightly and got her arms underneath his armpits. She then began dragging him toward the nearest tree. She then slowly slipped the jacket off of one of his arms.

He let out a grunt but Aleta ignored it. When it came to getting the jacket off of his other arm, Aleta paused. The arrow in his shoulder went through the jacket. "Okay. It's no big deal. I can do this," she mumbled to herself. She squinted her eyes as she tried to think. "I need something sharp. Do you have something sharp?" She asked Myles who shook his head.

"Your spear," he gasped out. "Right, my spear," she said. Aleta quickly stood up and swayed on her feet, almost tumbling back to the ground. She placed a hand on the tree to steady herself and closed her eyes. Aleta took a deep breath and released it slowly. She opened her eyes again and began walking to where she thought her spear was.

She found the broken weapon and grabbed the pointed end. She walked back over to Myles who was panting. She fell to her knees in front of him and broke down the spear even more, with much effort, so that it was shorter. Once it was at an okay length she carefully pulled on his jacket and cut at one end. Once it was cut to where the arrow was, she put down the spear and slowly unwrapped the jacket from around the arrow. Aleta then proceeded to slowly slip the jacket down his arm.

Aleta helped him lean forward so that she could unwrap the jacket from his body before taking the other sleeve off. Once the jacket was completely off, she cut off one of the sleeves and tightly wrapped it around his injured leg.  She then got to work with wrapping the rest of the jacket in a way that would slow his bleeding of his shoulder. When she was finally done, she let out a tired sigh and looked at him. He looked exhausted and like he was in a lot of pain. "All right, Myles. Can you stand?" She asked him. He attempted to shrug. "I don't know," he breathed out.

"Well, we're gonna have to see," she replied with a nod. Aleta stood, picking up the spear and placing it in her pant strap and began helping Myles to a standing position. He grunted in pain whilst she grunted at the effort it took to lift him up. Once he was standing, she let out another sigh. "We gotta get you back to camp," she told him. He nodded his head and slowly, the two begin walking forward. Aleta was supporting most of his weight, which was proving to be very difficult.

The two walked very slowly back in the direction of camp. At the pace they were going, they wouldn't make it back before nightfall. Aleta really didn't want to be out in the woods at night. She pushed herself on, hoping that they would make it back to camp in time to help Myles.

••••

"Where do you think they took Clarke and Finn?" Myles quietly questioned. The sun was now beginning to set, much to Aleta's dismay. And the two were still a great deal away from camp. Aleta remained quiet. She wasn't sure how to answer the question. She had been thinking about it since she woke up from unconsciousness.

She was beyond worried about the two and wondered if they were even alive. "Do you think they're dead?" He asked next. Aleta sighed, "I don't know, Myles." The two continued on in silence. "I think they're dead," he admitted. Aleta paused in her movement abruptly, causing Myles to stop and groan. She sent him an apologetic look and tapped him so that he knew to start walking again.

The two continued walking. "Why would you say that?" Aleta asked him. Myles looked straight ahead as he answered. "Why would the grounders keep them alive? It doesn't make sense," he said. "Why would they take them if they were just gonna kill them? If they wanted to kill Clarke and Finn, they would've done it back there," she countered. "Then they need them for something," he said thoughtfully. "Maybe," she mumbled.

"Either way, even if they're alive now, I don't think they will be for long," he said quietly. Aleta didn't respond and just continued walking. "Maybe we should go back and try to find them," Myles suggested. Aleta smiled slightly. "Maybe if you weren't hurt, we would. But you'd probably bleed to death before we found them. And I'd rather not lose three people in one day," she said.

"I'm tough. I could make it," Myles protested. She ignored him.

The sky grew darker every few minutes and Aleta attempted to quicken her pace. However Myles was struggling at their current pace and there was no way that he could pick up his speed. He grunted again and the two slow to a stop. "We should rest," she suggested. Myles shook his head. "No. I'm fine. We should keep going, it's getting dark," he replied.

"You need a break and so do I. I may look like I'm super strong and awesome but you're not exactly the lightest person to carry," she said. He sighed and she slowly helped him slide to the dirt. She helped lean him against a tree before sitting down next to him. She let out a sigh of relief and began stretching out her aching muscles.

It was then that she noticed the pounding in her head and she began rubbing her temples to ease the pain. It obviously didn't help. Aleta checked on Myles' wounds. The bleeding had slowed significantly but not completely. She needed to get him back to camp so that she could properly treat his injuries. "How come the grounders didn't take you too?" Myles finally asked. The question had been in his head for hours since she discovered him.

She sighed in mild shame and embarrassment. "I, uh, I pretended to be dead," she finally answered. Myles stared at her for a while before he began laughing. He immediately went into a fit of coughs and took in a deep breath. "That was smart. You're really smart," he said. Aleta chuckled slightly and looked down at her hands. "Thanks," she muttered.

She then looked up at the sky before standing up. "We have to keep going. You ready?" She said. He nodded his head and she carefully pulled him to his feet. She wrapped his uninjured arm around her shoulders and supported most of his weight again. She looked to him and he nodded. The two then begin walking back to camp.

••••

It was now nighttime. The two were not yet back at camp but the feeling of familiarity of the surrounding woods told Aleta that they were somewhat close. The faint moonlight illuminated their path as they continued on. Aleta tried not to think about the fact that there might be grounders in the woods, ready to attack them at any moment.

She focused on the task at hand. Myles had grown increasingly heavier as the time went by and Aleta was struggling to hold him. At this point his feet were dragging along the dirt and she was practically carrying him. Her tired arms screamed in protest. The still healing area of her arm ached so painfully that Aleta felt like crying.

But she didn't allow herself to do so. Myles' head bobbed ever so slightly. "Come on, Myles. You can do it. We're almost there," she said encouragingly. Myles mumbled something that she couldn't make out. "Myles, you gotta help me out here," she said quietly. Her eyes swept across the darkened forest as she monitored their surroundings. "Tired," he slurred.

"I'm tired too. But we gotta keep moving. We're almost there," she repeated. Another grunt escaped her lips and she panted. She struggled to keep him up. Aleta kept pushing forward. She felt a warm liquid run down her arm and she sighed. She assumed that some, if not all, of her stitches had ripped open. She continued to ignore the pain. The pounding in her head had subsided and left a dull ache in its wake.

The next few moments happened too quickly for Aleta to react. The entirety of Myles' weight fell into her. Her arms gave out and the two tumbled to the ground, her body rolling away from his. Aleta was breathing heavily, pain overtaking her entire body. She was surprised that the spear in her pant strap hadn't impaled her. Myles was screaming in the immediate pain that he felt. Aleta got to her knees and crawled over to him.

She put a hand over his mouth and shushed him. She squinted her eyes to see in the darkness. It looked as though the bleeding of Myles' leg had increased. Aleta silently cursed to herself. "We gotta keep moving," she tried, though she knew that it would be impossible at this point. "I can't," Myles whispered. "I can't."

"You can. I'll help you," she assured. "No. You have to go on without me," he said. Aleta immediately shook her head. "That's not happening," she stated. "You have to. Get back to camp and then come back for me," he slurred out. "I'm not leaving you here alone," she replied, standing up in determination. "I can't walk," he mumbled tiredly. "I can," she said.

Aleta reached down and grabbed onto his uninjured leg. She then began pulling on it, dragging him slowly. Her arms felt weak and like jelly. She had next no strength left within her but she kept going. The two progressed slowly. At some point, Aleta had gripped his uninjured arm as well and is currently pulling him that way. It was probably uncomfortable for him but she wasn't thinking about that.

She continuously looked behind her to make sure that she didn't run into anything. And also to make sure that there were no grounders. In the distance, she thought that she heard voices. She carefully slowed to a stop and listened closely. She heard nothing. She then began pulling him again.

Aleta once again stopped when she heard a noise. She slowly set Myles' limbs down and pulled out her broken spear. Her eyes swept across the dark woods and she tried to look for movement. From her left, a branch snapped and her head immediately turned in that direction. She tried to get her eyes to adjust to the darkness and waited. Her grip on the spear tightened as she readied herself.

"I swear I heard something. We should go back," a familiar voice said. Aleta's grip on the spear loosened. "Raven?" She called. The brunette girl emerged from behind a tree and Aleta sighed in relief. "Aleta? Oh my God what happened?" Raven quickly walked to her. "Guys, I found them," she said into the device she was holding. Aleta pointed behind her. "Myles is hurt," she informed. Raven reached Aleta and looked her over.

"What happened?" She repeated. "I..." she trailed off and swayed slightly on her feet before her legs completely gave out. Raven did her best to catch her friend before she hit the ground. "Aleta? Aleta can you hear me?" She asked, her voice sounding distant. "Help, Myles," Aleta said between gasps. More footsteps and voices were heard and Aleta closed her eyes before opening them quickly.

"Where are Finn and Clarke?" She heard someone ask. Her eyes began to droop and she answered before she fell into unconsciousness.

"Grounders."

°°°°

Well, here you have it. Chapter twenty four. I finally got the motivation to finish it. Hope you enjoyed.