As I was walking back to the camp, dreading what was to come but also curious to know how it would all turn out, I discovered that I was slowly learning my way around the forest. I was confident that I was on the right track towards the camp, and had no reason to stall or delay. We didn’t have much time left to begin with, and there was a lot I needed to say to Bellamy. I had left camp with the frustration of seeing him with Raven, but I was returning with a clean slate to start from.

                Bjorn had helped open my eyes to what really mattered; it wasn’t getting back at Bellamy or giving him a piece of my mind. It was accepting that we had made mistakes along the way, but we were only learning the ropes of each other. And if there was any part of him that still wanted me, I wouldn’t turn him down. I had told him I loved him, and something that strong didn’t change overnight.

                My foot fell into a divot and I nearly took a tumble. Stabilizing myself, I looked down at the deep foot print. Crouching, I ran my fingers along the perfect print, studying it though not truly understanding what it meant. Perfection was not something that existed in real life; animals ran and left scattered, inconsistent prints. Standing up, not thinking too much about these perfect prints, I took another step towards the camp but heard a groan from behind the bushes.

                It was human, that was easy enough to distinguish. My feet flew from underneath me as I rushed over, leaping over a shrubbery and landing in soft soil; dampened by blood. My heart pounded as I scanned the area; a small body of a kid, likely only sixteen, came into my view. He was part of the camp, though I didn’t know his name. An arrow was right through his chest, just like the Outlaw who had been attacking me, but I knew this had not been Bjorn. The wound was festering and too much blood had come out to be recent, but the fact that the kid was still alive proved that this was no more than an hour or two old. Another arrow projected from his thigh.

                “Hey,” I crouched down beside him and rested his head in my lap, looking down upon his arrow wound. “What’s your name?”

                “M-Myles.” He croaked, “Clarke… Finn…”

                “What about them?” I asked nervously, still looking at the arrow and wondering if it could be removed and if he could be saved. I didn’t dare remove the weapon now, as that would surely kill him. From the looks of it, the arrow had not hit any organs.

                “Grounders…”

                “Ava!” I heard Octavia’s voice.

                My eyes found Octavia, Bellamy and Raven. Everyone looked uncomfortable, but teenage drama was put on the back burner as Myles was our main priority. Bellamy had a walkie-talkie in hand, surely something that Raven had made. I felt a lump in my throat that refused to leave; everything I had wanted to say to Bellamy was lost, though it was not as if I could talk about it with all these people around, and Myles possibly dying in my arms.

                “They took them.” Myles said, clearly short of breath.

                 “Who?” Bellamy asked.

                “The Grounders.” I told him, though I knew that word coming from my mouth might send him into a rage, especially since I had been gone for some time from the camp. However, I wasn’t sure Bellamy would have noticed as he had been indisposed with Raven when I had left.

                He grimaced, “Let’s get him back to camp.”

                I nodded, “I’ve got his shoulders, someone take his legs, and we should have someone support his middle too. I don’t know how far that arrow goes.”

                Bellamy raised the walkie-talkie to his lips, “Monty, we found Myles. Clarke and Finn have been taken.”

                Static and white noise came from the walkie-talkie.

                “Monty?”

                No answer.

                “Myles can’t wait.” I said lightly, worrying now about Monty as well. The kid seemed so innocent and kind; if he had been taken too, I wasn’t sure he would survive what the Grounders were capable of doing.

                Octavia and Bellamy helped me with Myles, while Raven took the walkie-talkie and tried to see if there was anything wrong with it that was blocking the connection with Monty’s. However, she claimed that it was just as she had made it, and it had been working only moments before. Since Monty had taken to checking the perimeter, no one could pin point where he had been, and with Myles in our care, we couldn’t exactly send out another search party until we had gotten back.

                We arrived at the camp without speaking a word to each other, any of us.

                “Clarke isn’t here… does anyone else have any skill in this area?” I asked, desperate. I didn’t want to make our death count any higher.

                We brought him into the drop ship where very few people were still recovering from the illness. It felt odd being back in camp, as if everything that had happened outside the walls since I left was just a blurry dream. The camp was my home, no matter what went on outside these walls. It broke my heart to know that we would have to leave; the safety the drop ship offered would be gone. We would be alone out there, lost, unaware. We were just children.

                “Ava, we need to talk.” Bellamy said, his voice nearly cracking.

                “I know.” I said to him, a faint and forgiving smile on my lips. Did he know that I knew? “Soon.”

                He seemed to accept that, clearly wanting to wait a little longer before he broke whatever news to me that he had in that mind of his. There were no secrets on his side; I knew of him and Raven, and I had come to terms with it. Now, my secret might be that final push to make him hate me. I still did not regret a thing. His eyes revealed nothing to me, and I found myself quite antsy to know what he wanted to talk about.

Sorry this chapter seems short, it isn't much dialogue. But hey, I'm back into the storyline (I know some people are happy about this, some not so much). So, I just wanted to say that this story has breached 25,000 reads over all, and the first chapter has bypassed 1000 and that makes me really happy :D