A shiver ran through my body as we made our way deeper into the forest in search of Octavia. The dense forest was dark and full of noises causing me to glance around nervously with every step I took. I knew there was a chance the Grounders were watching us, or that they had traps set up, traps in which we would accidentally walk into, but we were doing this for Octavia, my best friend. I had to do this.

A sudden cracking of a branch caused me to jump, subconsciously moving closer to my brother. "What was that?" I whispered, my heart threatening to beat out of my chest.

Finn looked over at me with a comforting look, "Probably just an animal." He responded, trying to calm my nerves. 

"Hey! Over here." Someone from the front of the group called.

Finn grabbed onto my arm, guiding me forward. "Come on."

We pushed through the branches to find the group stopped in front of a steep incline, their lights illuminating the brush down below.

"What is it?" Bellamy asked the boy who had called us over.

"Down there," he said, shining his light on a piece of fabric that was caught in a tree, "Is that Octavia's?"

I leaned over, trying to see through the darkness whether or not the item belong to my best friend. 

"Rope." Bellamy instantly demanded, causing someone to hand him the rope we had brought along with us.

"What are you doing?" Finn asked, making his way over to Bellamy, I followed suit, not wanting to be anywhere without my brother at this point.

"Need the rope to get back up." Bellamy explained before tossing the rope down the incline. "Flashlight." he ordered, then pocketing the flashlight he was handed. 

Before anyone could say anything else Bellamy was making his way down the hill. He stopped at the tree, examining the fabric, "It's her's!" he announced, causing everyone to begin mumbling about how it could have gotten there. "I'm going all the way down." he added.

Everyone looked around at each other, deciding if they wanted to follow Bellamy down there. Surprisingly, Jasper was the first one to grab a hold of the rope.

"Jasper," I said, stepping forward so I was beside him, "You don't have to do this. I mean, you're still healing and—"

"Avery, I'm okay, I promise." Jasper said, giving me a sincere look.

I let out a sigh as I stepped back, allowing Jasper to make his way down the hill and much to my awe he did it with quite ease. 

Finn then grabbed the rope, "I'm gonna go down and then you'll follow okay?" he instructed, the rope in one hand, a torch in the other.

I nodded, watching as he made it down easily. Once he had made it down to the bottom, he turned to look up at me. "Come on!"

I grabbed the rope and let out a sigh. It couldn't be that hard getting down there, I mean Finn did it with one hand.

I started my decent to the bottom of the hill, I was almost there when my foot caught on a rock causing me to basically roll down the rest of the hill.

"Avery!" Finn called, rushing to help me up.

"I'm okay!" I yelled, quickly pushing myself up from the ground.

Finn let out a small snort as I brushed the dirt off of my body, "Watch out for rocks!" I called to the group above who had for sure just seen me fall.

"Come look at this!" Bellamy called to the two of us, causing us to forget about my fall and make our way over to where Jasper and Bellamy were crouched down.

Bellamy had his light shone on the ground, revealing a rock with blood on it and large footsteps in the dirt, far too large to be Octavia's.

I felt my heart sink as Bellamy spoke, "Someone else was here."

"Prints are deeper going that way," Finn pointed out, "He was carrying her."

I watched Bellamy's face contort in a mix of anger and fear, the Grounders took his sister.

"If they took her then she's alive." Jasper said optimistically before dropping his voice slightly, "Like when they took me."

That's all it took for Bellamy to be up and on his feet again, the rest of us following behind him. He didn't need to say anything. We were going after her, wherever she was. 

We hadn't made it very far by the time we stopped again, but this time it was for a different reason. There, in front of us, were dozen of bodies hanging from trees, mostly decomposed by this point. 

I felt my stomach lurch as I looked at our surroundings, the worry in my chest growing, seeming to grip onto me. 

"I don't speak Grounder, but I'm pretty sure this means keep out." I could hear the terror in my brother's voice, something I didn't hear a lot.

Mumbles about leaving started to surge through the group, "I'm outta here." one boy that was behind us announced, causing many to follow suit, shrinking the group down to about half a dozen.

"Go back if you want!" Bellamy called, "My sister, my responsibility." he added under his breath.

"Aves," Finn whispered, turning to look me in the eyes, "I don't think you should stay out here with us."

I turned to look at him, my face a mixture of fear and determination. I was scared as hell, but I wasn't abandoning Octavia. "Finn she's my best friend!"

Finn didn't waver. "Yeah, and I'm your brother and I don't want something happening to you."

I opened my mouth to argue but another voice cut in, "Your brother's right. It's not safe out here." Bellamy warned.

Letting out a deep breath, I shook my head. "It's not safe anywhere." I argued. "I'm coming with you and that's the end of it."

The two boys shared a look with each other before both looked at me, neither wanting to accept my decision. 

"Let's go, we don't have all night." I grumbled, grabbing the torch from my brother and walking ahead of the group. I was silently praying that they would follow and Bellamy would take the lead again, there was no way I was going to be the first one to walk into this death forest. Luckily, the group started walking along with me, Bellamy, Finn and Jasper arriving at my side.

"Sunshine is kind of a badass." Bellamy mumbled, leaning over towards me so only I could hear.

I cracked a small smile, "Yeah, you just figured that out?"

---

By the time morning rolled around we still had not found Octavia. We were all exhausted but had no intentions of giving up anytime soon.

"I got nothing." Finn announced, throwing his hands up in defeat, "We've lost the trail."

"Keep looking." Bellamy ordered.

Finn looked around, shaking his head, "Wandering around aimlessly isn't the way to find your sister, we should back track alright-"

"I'm not going back!" Bellamy argued. "If this was your sister you'd be doing the same thing."

Finn glanced over at me, knowing he couldn't argue with what Bellamy was saying. 

"Hey," Roma, one of the girls who had stayed with us called, "Where's John?"

We all paused, looking around for our missing group member. "He was just here." I declared, knowing that he had been right behind me only moments earlier.  

"Spread out, he couldn't have gotten that far." Bellamy instructed.

We did as he instructed, each one us moving in a different direction. All that we could see for miles was dense forest, no sign of John. 

I kept a firm grasp on my weapon, walking with a certain edge. 

As I went to take another step, I was abruptly cut off as something fell from the trees above, landing at my feet with a thud. 

I stumbled back, my breath catching in my throat as I looked down at what the fallen object was...it was John, his throat slit. 

A gasp fell from my lips as Finn grabbed me and pulled me away from the body. He held me close to him as he looked up, "They use the trees." He announced, the realization dawning on him. 

My heart was in my throat as we all shared exchanges of panicked looks. There was no where to hide. 

"We shouldn't have crossed the boundary" Diggs snapped, voice wavering slightly. 

"Now can we go back?" Roma asked, impatient fear in her tone. 

"There." Jasper's voice came out in almost a whisper. I allowed my eyes to follow whatever he was pointing at, when I saw what had him so shaken up I almost threw up. There was a Grounder about a hundred yards away from us, just standing there watching us.

"Another one!" Diggs exclaimed, his eyes fixed on another Grounder on the other side of us. 

I spun around in a slow circle. They were everywhere.

"We should run." Finn whispered, and that was all it took for us to take off running. 

I ran faster than I ever had in my entire life, each step I took I reminded myself that if I didn't keep going I would die. Finn was beside me, glancing over at me ever so often to make sure I was okay. 

I turned my head to see Grounders on either side, they were following us. I sped up my pace, my lungs and legs burning, but I couldn't stop.

"What are we going to do? They keep cutting us off!" Diggs yelled.

"Just keep running!" Finn instructed.

"I can't run much longer!" Jasper admitted. I slowed my pace and grabbed a hold of his arm, pulling him along with me.

"I'm not stopping for him!" Diggs snapped.

Scoffing, I held on tighter to Jasper, "No one is asking you to!"

Suddenly, Bellamy stopped running, eyes scanning our surroundings.  "I'm sick of running anyways."

The rest of the group stopped, with the exception of Diggs who kept going . I had my arm wrapped around Jasper, who was exhausted, pulling him up to where the rest of the group had stopped.

"What are you doing?" Finn asked in shock.

"They know where she is!" Bellamy announced, his eyes darting between the Grounders that surrounded us, they were still running towards us.

Roma obviously didn't like the idea of stopping, so she continued running. "Diggs, where are you!?" she called, chasing after him.

He could be heard from somewhere up ahead, yelling out for her. 

Through laboured breath, I shook my head. "Bellamy, we can't stop. They'll kill us all and then we're really no good to Octavia."

He looked over at me, his chest rising and falling rapidly with each breath he took. Finally, he gave a small nod, agreeing to keep going. 

I kept my grasp on Jasper as the remaining four of us took off again, following in the direction we had seen Diggs and Roma take off in. 

We had nearly caught up to Roma, I could see her weaving through the trees, when a scream ripped from her lips, causing all of us to flinch. We picked up our pace, nearing her in a matter of seconds. When we did, we could see what had her so upset. 

In front of us was Diggs, his body now impaled on a sharp spear that appeared to have swung from up above. Another trap. 

Roma didn't wait for us, she was already running by the time we fully reached her. 

"Wait Roma, there could be more!" Finn yelled, none of us rushing to chase after her just yet. This whole forest was likely trapped. 

We were all breathing heavily as we looked around. John and Diggs were dead, and now the rest of us were being chased. What did they want from us?

"They're leading us here." Jasper observed, struggling to catch his breath, "It's the only direction we could run in."

I let out a shaky breath as I looked around, expecting to see Grounders moving in on us and decreasing the space between us and them, but instead all I saw was forest, "Where did they go?" I asked through shaky breaths.

Everyone mimicked my earlier actions, looking around the forest. Bellamy gave me a wide-eyed look, "After Roma."