-Author's Note-

The two of us decided to wait on watching the second half of season 3 until we could visit one another and commiserate with each other. We were recently able to do this and were just as horrified by the second half as we expected to be. We were so frustrated by the de-evolution of the characters from the original 100 we decided to flesh out this old plot we had thought up forever ago where Clarke left the 100 early on. We are hoping it will be a similarly cleansing exercise for you our dear readers.

-RhinoMouse

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"Where is it?!" Clarke demanded as she forced Bellamy to turn around and look at her. Tracking his trail from Raven's pod had been disgustingly easy. He hadn't been hiding his movement. A sick feeling twisted in her stomach, whether it was from what had happened with Charlotte, Finn, or now the radio she didn't know. Focusing on the immediate threat was all that was keeping her going.

He shrugged her hand off and sneered. "Hey Princess, taking a walk in the woods?" The condescension in his tone was clear.

"They're getting ready to kill three hundred people up there." She spat at him, glaring with all her might. Even if the life of one girl didn't matter to him, three hundred had to… She poked his chest. "To save oxygen and I can guarantee you it won't be council members. It will be working people, your people." She emphasized his connection to the people getting killed, hoping it would reach him. Somehow she had to make the bastard care.

"Bellamy," Finn rushed up from behind her shoulder, shoving the man back. "Where's the radio?" He asked like he had a right to be self-righteous.

Bellamy brushed off Finn easily, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Clarke didn't even have time to be angry at Finn for disrupting her attempt to guilt Bellamy into giving them the information before Raven was coming out from behind her boyfriend. "Bellamy Blake?" She ran her eyes up and down him. "They're looking everywhere for you."

"Shut up." He moved away from them.

Clarke's instincts pinged. He was afraid of whatever Raven knew. She turned to Raven. "Looking for him why?"

Raven was blunt as she revealed what Bellamy had been hiding. "He shot Chancellor Jaha."

It hit Clarke in that moment, why everything had been happening. Why they'd been stuck in hell. The horror of realization felt like cold water running through her veins. "That's why you took the wristbands, why you let them lynch that little girl. You needed everyone to think we were dead and you couldn't let yourself lose the power you needed to maintain that illusion."

Finn spoke while she was distracted. "All that whatever the hell we want, you just care about saving your own skin." He spoke with disgust, deriding their rebel king.

Raven stepped in front of Bellamy, who was trying to leave once more. "Hey, Shooter. Where's my radio?" She demanded.

"Get out of my way." Bellamy growled at her.

Undeterred, Raven stayed in his face demanding what was hers. "Where is it?"

Bellamy's face hardened. "I should've killed you when I had the chance." He stepped further into Raven's space, clearly threatening.

"Really," Raven goaded him. "Well, I'm right here."

Bellamy shoved Raven into a tree his hands moving as if to strangle her. She whipped a knife out and held it to his throat. The anger clearly burning under her skin as she demanded again, "Where's my radio?"

Clarke could feel bile in her throat as she watched Bellamy threatening an innocent again, she knew how this could end after what happened to Charlotte. He didn't care about the lives of people who got in his way. She stepped forward, this needed to end before someone got hurt. "That's enough, we don't have time for this."

It seemed to do the trick, Raven shoved Bellamy off of her and he released her without added threat. Clarke felt relief that this particular drama was ending without much fuss. She watched Bellamy walking away and considered her next strategy to convince him to tell them the location of the radio. All that mattered right now was finding the radio and contacting the ark. Her father's death and her year in solitary would mean nothing if those in the ark died from lack of air despite their efforts. The radio was their chance at a miracle and without it they couldn't save the people of the ark. The horrors of the ground may have transformed her from the girl who naively believed in the good of the people and their right to know the truth, but it hadn't made her forget her father's cause. The ground had taken a lot from her but she wouldn't give up on her father's dream to save the people on the ark.

Bellamy stopped walking several feet away from them. "Jaha deserved to die, you all know that." His voice was firm like he'd made himself believe that his murder was justified. She couldn't even argue against him too stringently at this point, though a part of her wanted to for Wells' sake. Jaha had done monstrous things on the ark, but then again so had Bellamy on the ground. Jaha's guilt or innocence wasn't the point though. It was the lives of those who would be killed in the culling that mattered now. Just as she was about to make this point to Bellamy, Raven interrupted.

"Yeah, he's not my favorite person either," Raven snarled bitterly, "but he isn't dead."

The pronouncement seemed to drop like a bomb changing everything. Bellamy's expression shifted into shock with slight hope. "What?"

Raven looked down her nose at him. "You're a lousy shot."

If it had been a day ago, when Charlotte had been alive and not dead having been hung up by a furious mob. A day ago when she'd still believed that Bellamy wasn't weak, and easily swayed by a crowd, when she hadn't known he was a murderer in his own right. If this had been that day, maybe this would have convinced her that Bellamy wasn't as bad as she thought. However, this was not that day and she had seen Bellamy bend to the will of the populace and let a little girl be executed just as Jaha had done to Bellamy's mother. No, she couldn't trust Bellamy, but she knew his weaknesses well enough to use them against him now. Stepping forward, she grabbed his arm even though she wanted to do anything but. "Bellamy don't you see, the ark won't kill you for almost killing Jaha. You might not have been part of the original 100 but every one of us on that ship was promised pardons. You have an opportunity to save your people now. People like your mother and Octavia. The ark won't kill a hero who was part of saving 300 lives."

She saw his face was conflicted. Every fiber of her being may be sick and angry and disappointed in him, but she needed him to listen so she continued. "You have a chance to not just stand by and let innocent people die, again. Show them that you're not like Jaha that you can save people instead of killing them." She couldn't keep the bitterness over Charlotte's lynching out of her voice, but she could see her points hit home.

"That's…." He trailed off looking conflicted.

"You didn't kill the chancellor. Are you going to stand by and let people die and do nothing again? You won't be able to use your sister as your excuse this time." She glared at him feeling her anger boiling over inside her chest.

He let his shoulders drop and looked at her like he was asking for forgiveness. "It's too late."

"What do you mean it's too late?" Raven demanded approaching them. "What did you do to my radio?"

Bellamy shifted uneasily. "I threw it in the river. We'll never find it."

Clarke stepped back, staring in horror as Raven demanded answers from Bellamy. She was numb, completely numb. Gone, one more thing was ash and death in her hands. Everything she had fought for had proven useless, she couldn't help anyone, save anyone. Her father's death and his fight for the truth would save no one now. She remained silent as they began to move back towards the drop ship. In a detached sort of way, she knew Bellamy had agreed to help organize the delinquents into a search party for the radio, but what were the odds they'd find it? Even if they did find it, Clarke was the daughter of an engineer she knew what water did to electronics. There was no way that it would work. It was just going to be another tragedy of the ground, more people who would die because she couldn't do anything.

Her father, the boys on the drop ship, Atom, Wells, Charlotte...she grit her teeth as she walked robotically with the group. She hadn't been able to stop the mob; couldn't convince Bellamy to stand up and stop them when they went for Murphy; couldn't even get him to stop them when they strung up that little girl. Her eyes burned with tears that she couldn't shed. Trying to pull herself back to reality, she spotted Finn looking at her with concern.

Anger bubbled up inside her, pushing back the tears. The arrogance of the man, thinking he could continue a relationship with her when his lover who was utterly devoted to him was here. Did he think he could have both of them? Or that she wouldn't care that Finn had a girlfriend whose loyalty he betrayed after only a day on the ground?

The ground had been quickly destroying her faith in humanity and she was so very tired of fighting everyone and trying to get them to do the right thing. None of her efforts had helped anyone. Since they clearly didn't want 'the princess of the ark' here perhaps it was time she left. There was no use in her staying if no one was willing to listen. She and Wells had always been better off on their own anyway. It would be harder to be isolated without Wells as her partner in crime, but she had survived a year in solitary she would survive this too.

It was freeing to resolve to strike out on her own. She wouldn't be able to fail anyone, hurt anyone if she wasn't around them. Nor would she have to witness the savage depths that desperation drove humanity to in times of peril. It would be a relief. As they approached the drop ship she slipped inside making her way to where Monty and Jasper were quietly talking on the second floor. Jasper had dark circles under his eyes, not to mention they were darting across the area looking for a threat. She sat down next to the two boys. Except for maybe Octavia, they were the only ones in the camp who didn't hate her and hadn't tried to take advantage of her. They wouldn't come with her, there was no point in asking, but she would miss them. Monty was an optimist and he would never leave Jasper and Jasper was far too terrified of leaving the camp. So, she sat and just soaked in their presence for a few precious minutes.

She didn't have time to linger long as she heard Bellamy and those he'd organized to find the broken radio head out. Standing she ruffled Monty's hair and smiled sadly at Jasper. "You two take care of each other." She ordered softly.

"What's wrong Clarke?" Monty asked, looking at her curiously and slightly concerned.

If she told them, they'd try to stop her or tell the others. If Finn heard, he'd do something stupid. Octavia might just come with her to spite her brother at this point and that would ruin the whole thing. So she just shook her head. "It's just been a hard day. Promise you'll watch each other's backs for me though?"

Jasper nodded slightly, "Of course." Monty echoed him.

"Good." She went to the hatch before stopping and making eye contact with them. "We're running low on seaweed, I'm going to go out and get some more." With that she went down the ladder before they could respond. Quickly she packed the minimum of what she'd need into the shoulder bag Wells had made all those days ago. She took a knife fashioned from the wreckage, some torn fabric, and a day's worth of food. She left her cannibalized medical supplies, the delinquents might need it. With that done, she left the drop ship and walked out past a few loitering teens, none of whom bothered to so much as acknowledge her. She strode through the fence and into the woods.

It was easier than she'd expected as she headed to the river where she knew she could gather the red seaweed. It was further downstream than she knew the others would be. It was as simple as that to disappear into the woods and leave the delinquents to their own devices. They had lost and she was done trying to save people who hated her. She couldn't help anyone if they wouldn't listen to her anyway. For the first time since hitting the ground she felt the ever present weight on her back lifting. She walked along the hard packed ground and found she was crying. It wasn't until she had let go of the burden that the delinquents represented that she realized how much the responsibilities she had taken on were weighing on her. Wiping her face with the back of her sleeve, she came out from the tree cover and stomped into the river to get the red seaweed.

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Monty watched the lights caused by the burning up of jettisoned bodies from the ark with a heavy heart. Despite all their efforts, they had been unable to stop the culling. Either the ark hadn't seen their fireworks display showing them that the one hundred had survived and the ground was survivable or they had been too late. He tried not to think about the possibility that his parent's bodies could be among those causing the streaking lights above him. Turning away from the perversely pretty display, he looked at Jasper. Times may be tough but at least he had Jasper, who had been his best friend and constant companion for so many years. Monty wasn't sure what he would do without him. Which reminded him, he should probably check on Clarke. It had only been a day and a half since she had lost Wells and from what he understood they had once been as close as he and Jasper were. Her behavior earlier today concerned him. Clarke might not admit it but she could probably use some friendly support and there weren't a lot of sources she could get that from in this camp.

With a nudge, he got Jasper's attention. "Hey, want to go see what Clarke's up to? We haven't seen her in a while and she was acting weird."

"Yeah, she was a bit off. Maybe she could use some of our special tonic." Jasper said, waving some of the moonshine they had made.

Monty smiled at Jasper. "It certainly couldn't hurt. Let's check the dropship. She was probably storing that seaweed she retrieved and ended up reorganizing all our medical supplies."

Jasper snorted. "See, that's why we need the moonshine. Clarke wouldn't know how to lighten up if it bit her in the ass. We'll just have to explain to her that everyone needs a night off every once in a while."

It didn't take them long to reach the dropship but they were surprised to find that Clarke was nowhere inside and that there was plenty of dried seaweed in their stores. Clarke shouldn't have had to go out to get more. Now quite legitimately concerned about the fate of their friend, Monty and Jasper began searching the entire camp. Considering the size of the camp, it wasn't long before they were sure that Clarke was nowhere inside of it. That could only mean that she was somewhere beyond the walls.

Truly scared now that there was something wrong with Clarke, Jasper and Monty redirected their efforts and decided to interview the gate guards. Before they could get there, they were interrupted by a rough shove from Bellamy on Monty's shoulder.

"I'm looking for my sister. You seen her?" He asked, though it was more a demand than anything.

After sharing a quick bewildered glance with Monty, Jasper responded. "I don't know where Octavia is, but we just searched the whole camp looking for Clarke and she's nowhere to be found."

"Clarke is not a priority right now. The princess can take care of herself. We have to find Octavia." Bellamy growled, clearly impatient with them for getting off topic.

"Maybe they're together." Monty suggested hesitantly. Hoping it was true more than believing it.

"No, O was mad. She wouldn't have taken the princess with her. Something's wrong." Bellamy paused, apparently considering what his next step would be.

"Hey, what's this about the princess being missing?!" Finn asked coming out of his tent with surprisingly shorter hair than the last time they'd seen him. Raven coming out of the tent not long after him with a knife in her hand explained that mystery.

"That doesn't matter. What matters is that I haven't seen Octavia since this morning when she stormed off and anything could have happened to her." Bellamy responded, shooting Finn a heated glare.

"Octavia probably just ran off with some guy to have a good time in the woods so that you wouldn't ruin things for her. It isn't like Clarke to go missing like this." Finn dismissed Octavia's disappearance with a flippant wave of his hand.

Raven shoved Bellamy away before he could deck Finn for his disrespect. Jasper spoke up, interrupting the conflict. "Look, Clarke and Octavia are both missing. Fighting each other won't help us find either of them. Can't you two stop fighting for like a minute?"

Finn and Bellamy grumbled their acquiescence. Before long, a search team was prepared to look for the duo. Monty gave Jasper an uneasy look. He wasn't sure how he felt about Jasper going back into the world after what had happened first day on the ground.

"Jasper are you sure about this. You haven't left the camp since your injury." Monty pleaded.

"I have to do this Monty. I can't hide forever. Octavia and Clarke need me."

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After gathering the seaweed Clarke had managed to have a very productive evening. By the time night was falling, Clarke was several miles away from the camp, had caught a rabbit in an improvised trap, had made a small lean-to to sleep in, and had collected some edible plants. She had managed to catch a rabbit in a trap but remembering what the grounders had done to Jasper she was hoping to use it as bait to catch bigger prey. She was sitting up in a tree holding a dagger waiting for something larger to come so she could pounce on it, drawn by the sounds of the trapped rabbit. She could survive on her own she realized while sitting there waiting in silence. It had been a freeing day. She'd retched into some bushes when she saw the light show that might as well have been a funeral for three hundred lives, but there was nothing more she could do to help those on the ark and it was high time she started looking after herself. So here she was…surviving.

She was distracted from her thoughts by the sight of a panther approaching the rabbit ready to strike. Clarke was just about to pounce on it when she heard the roar. Adrenaline shot through her system as she looked up and saw trees breaking as something clearly huge came breaking through the woods. She couldn't move or breath from the sheer overwhelming fear. A strangled hysterical sound choked and died in the back of her throat. Her frozen state saved her as the giant mutated gorilla came crashing into the ground below her grabbing the panther and effortlessly breaking its neck before casually slinging the body around as it left into the woods.

She was unsure of how long it took before she managed to climb out of her tree, her limbs were still shaking too violently for her to climb down quickly. Sitting on the ground, she tried to get her breathing under control. She shouldn't be surprised, the ground had been one terrifying wonder after another, so of course there was an honest to god monster gorilla.

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The journey following the trail Octavia had left in the woods had been harrowing and Jasper was in no way alright. The ominous entrance to grounder territory had been terrifying enough that a number of the search party had abandoned the search and returned to camp. Now he had seen several more of the party die in gruesome grounder traps. It appeared like the grounders were just messing with them. Honestly, he just wanted the search to be over. The tension of trying to anticipate the next trap was pushing him over the edge. His hopes for finding Clarke and Octavia alive dwindling as they continued to run and fight and die. If Finn hadn't been as frantic as Bellamy to continue in their search for the lost girls, they all might have turned back. He had to remind himself that Octavia and Clarke had come after him and he couldn't repay them by turning back now. Building up all his courage, he defiantly shouted. "Why don't you cowards just come out and get this over with?!"

Suddenly, there were six or so grounders appearing out of the woodwork charging at them from all directions. Jasper readied himself to fight for his life scared out of his mind when he heard a loud horn blowing in the distance. The grounders immediately stopped charging them and retreated to who knows where. What the hell was going on to make the grounders retreat like that?

"What does that horn mean? Why are they all running?" Jasper asked, bewildered.

"Acid fog." Finn replied with dread in his voice.

They all stared at each other for a moment horrified by the implications. Finn proceeded to pull out an improvised tent and tried to get them all as covered by it as possible before the fog came and killed them. Jasper could feel the others pressed against him and he was terrified that at any moment the fog could get in and they would die an agonizing death like Atom did. However, time passed and nothing seemed to happen. Bellamy grew fed up with the long wait and poked his head out to see what was going on since the fog didn't seem to have descended. He quickly made it clear that the coast was clear. As they all made their way out from under the improvised canvas, Monroe spotted a figure in the woods. Of course, Bellamy and Finn couldn't wait to go chasing after it not having had enough adventure for the day. Jasper followed behind them as they stalked the figure through the woods. It wasn't long before they saw him entering into a cavern. They waited a moment to ensure that he wasn't coming back out and then Bellamy and Finn started bickering.

"We need to go in there he might have Octavia in there!" Bellamy snapped.

"Or he might have Clarke! We need to be careful or he might hurt them if he has them." Finn snapped back.

"We can't just wait for him to come back out again, who knows what he is doing in there. I'm going in, either follow me or don't," Bellamy growled at Finn. Quickly following behind the grounder man and entering the cave. Finn let out a huff, but he wasn't far behind. Monroe and Jasper followed them both, exchanging uneasy glances.

When they entered the cave, Jasper and Monroe found Bellamy hugging Octavia and Finn searching fruitlessly for Clarke while giving a grounder knocked out on the ground heated glares.

"Where's Clarke? Was she taken with you?" Finn demanded, interrupting the brother sister reunion.

"I'm fine. Thanks for asking, but no I haven't seen Clarke. What's happened with her?" Octavia asked, slightly concerned.

"That doesn't matter. If Clarke isn't here, she's probably just exploring on her own. We need to get back to camp as soon as possible and prepare for the grounders. Clarke can take care of herself." Bellamy argued.

"To hell with you! All you care about is your sister! We should interrogate this grounder. He might know where Clarke is." Finn exploded.

"We don't have time for that. We need to get back to camp. You can moon over Clarke later. Don't you have a girlfriend?" Bellamy responded.

The two continued to fight, but Jasper ignored them pulled into his own thoughts. If Clarke wasn't here, where was she? She had been behaving oddly before saying she was going out for seaweed. He and Monty had already discovered she had lied about them needing more. Her last statements to them had almost sounded like a goodbye, but Clarke wouldn't have left them would she? Just as he was giving the thought more consideration, his thought process was interrupted by the grounder suddenly jerking upwards and stabbing a knife into Finn. After that everything was chaos.

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Raven Reyes stood above the loosely packed soil and mud they'd buried Finn under. No one had wanted to help her bury Finn, but she had forced the issue. Glaring at the dirt, she cursed the ground for taking him from her. He was dead, after everything they'd been through, a knife was all it took to take him away from her and there was nothing she could do about it. Back when she had been a child she'd sworn to never be helpless like this again but here she was. Hot tears burned down her face as she stared at the ground. She wanted to run, she wanted to fight, she wanted to force time to turn back so she could bring him back.

"You can do better you know." Octavia said from where she was sitting on the wall.

Turning she glared. "Don't you dare speak badly of him." She practically bared her teeth at the stupid girl playing at rebellion and unrepentantly getting others killed for it. Her fingernails cut into the skin of her palms from how hard she was clenching her fists.

"He was charming sure," Octavia shrugged but the repressed venom in her tone was unmistakable. She was miserable and going to make everyone else that way as well. Raven didn't bother giving the girl slack, if she was going to speak badly of Finn, she would end her. Octavia clearly didn't know the danger she was in and continued. "I mean, he was flirting with Clarke from hour one. Hell, maybe if he hadn't fucked her she might not have gone and run off leaving us without a doctor."

Raven stalked towards Octavia. "How dare you say Finn would do something like that."

"What, you don't think his obsession with Clarke's disappearance was a bit much if he wasn't sleeping with her?" Octavia defended herself.

Raven's heart rejected Octavia's words, but her mind remembered what she had seen. Finn had been upset at Clarke's absence from the drop ship, demanding they go looking for her. When she searched the bunker, she'd seen the metal two headed deer. She'd written it off, but its similarities to her raven were striking. Still, it wasn't possible, Finn would never betray her like that. "You're lying." She accused while glaring.

"Why would I lie?" Octavia said. "He followed Clarke around like a puppy. Ask anyone here."

"So, Clarke pursued him, doesn't mean he ever slept with her." She knew that wasn't right but she was grasping at straws, she hated Octavia for taking this away from her as well. Especially when it was Octavia's precious grounder up in the top level of the ship that had stabbed Finn.

"The princess didn't do the pursuing." Octavia hopped off the fence, her voice rising to a sarcastic drawl. "He was like the only person who put up with her, then his girlfriend shows up and she fucks off to the woods? Yeah, he totally wasn't boning her." She rolled her eyes. "You can do better."

Raven didn't care about the facts or what was smart. This girl was dragging Finn's name through the mud when he was barely cold in his grave. She was doing it just to spread the hurt. She was barely thinking as she punched her straight in the face. There was a satisfying crack of her fist hitting the cheekbone before Octavia hit the ground. Raven ignored the stunned looking girl, walked past her, and headed straight to one of the tents inside the camp. Bellamy or someone would be coming to lecture her about punching Octavia. It was obvious who the true princess of the camp was. For now, however, she had questions that needed answers.

Monty and Jasper both nearly jumped out of their skin as she stomped into their tent and sat down staring at them, daring them to not answer any of her questions. "Tell me about Clarke."

The boys shifted uncomfortably and side eyed each other. Monty spoke, "Well, what do you want to know?"

"Don't give me that crap." She ground her teeth. "Did she sleep with Finn?"

They both blanched, but Jasper surprisingly was the first to speak. "Probably, they were pretty close. We all thought they were sleeping together."

Monty reached out and touched her hand in an attempt to comfort her. She ripped her hand away, not wanting his comfort. "Did she leave because of me?"

Jasper frowned while Monty replied quickly. "No, I think she left because of Bellamy."

"She slept with him too?" she scoffed.

Both boys laughed, clearly not having expected that. "No, they hate each other," Jasper said. "Like they haven't gotten on since the beginning."

Monty chimed in, "No, her best friend was murdered and everyone thought Murphy did it." The boys' faces darkened and Raven felt a sense of dread. "Everyone lost their minds. They strung him up, he was dying and Bellamy wouldn't let Clarke cut him down. When suddenly this little girl, who couldn't have been more than fourteen, screamed out that she'd done it."

Raven's eyes widened in horror as the boys both looked downcast and sickened by what they were talking about. "Murphy was cut down, but the crowd was riled up and thirsty for blood. Bellamy didn't stop them. Clarke, she tried to stop it, but he held her back while they strung up the little girl."

Jasper rubbed his chest. "I tried to help but they wouldn't stop."

"So, she left because they killed the girl and her friend was dead?" Raven asked trying to get a picture of the girl who her boyfriend may or may not have slept with while on the ground.

Monty grimaced, "Everyone hated her. She's a princess right? So, no one wanted to listen to her. The only reason no one threatened to kill her like Wells was because she was a girl and our only medic. She saved Jasper, she was always trying to help us survive."

Jasper grunted, "I don't blame her for leaving." Both boys looked surprisingly guilty.

"Thanks." Raven stood and left their tent, it suddenly felt too enclosed inside the thin walls of fabric. Breathing erratically, she stood looking, really looking, at the camp and the delinquents in it. They were toting around weapons so ready to use them. Had these kids really lynched a fourteen-year-old girl? It wasn't hard to believe. They hadn't been kind to her in the few days she'd been here. She was an outsider, a grown up, and they'd thrown their lot in with Bellamy. Finn was dead. Suddenly, even the walls of the camp were crowding her in, she couldn't breathe. She took off like a shot out of camp.

She ran till her legs burned, her lungs felt like knives were stabbing them with every labored breath. Tripping over a root, she went sprawling into the dirt. Screaming into the ground, she grabbed fistfuls of dirt and let her sorrow and hurt come out in great wracking sobs and cries at the injustice of the ground. Finally, her screams and cries tapered off and she was left kneeling in the dirt her chest feeling like someone had scooped everything that mattered out of it. Her joints and muscles ached as she forced herself to stand up and at least pretend to face the world.

The question she was left with was should she go back or not. Her slow and hollow thoughts were interrupted by an arrow embedding itself in the trunk of a tree. Jerking around, she saw the form of a distant figure already pulling a string back to shoot at her again. Not even bothering to think, she took off as fast as she could to get away from the grounder. Branches and bushes ripped at her clothing, but she kept running, dodging behind trees whenever possible. An arrow had already cut across one cheek, nearly causing her to go tumbling. Panting, she kept running up the rising incline. Looking behind her, she saw more than one dark shape following her. She moved forward with a renewed burst of speed. With a sharp cry, the ground disappeared under her feet and she went plummeting over the edge.

She braced her arms around her head as she went tumbling down the side of a steep hill. Sharp rocks and branches smashed into her sides surely bruising them to hell and back. Finally, she came to a stop at the bottom. Not giving herself time to recover, her adrenaline forced her to her feet and scrambling up the other side of what she now realized was a ravine. Her hands dug into the dirt and grabbed at rocks and roots hauling herself up and up towards the far edge. After several near misses with arrows, she hauled herself over the top lip of the opposite side of the ravine.

With every fiber of her being, she forced herself back to her feet and kept running ignoring how her body was screaming at her to stop. Out of nowhere, two hands grabbed at her, yanking her behind a tree. Gasping in, she went to scream even though she knew it wouldn't help. A hand clamped down over her mouth while a voice hissed in her ear. "Stay still!"

The English made her pause. Wide eyed, she peered at her captors face and was shocked to see the blond hair of the girl she'd briefly met before, Clarke Griffin. Nodding jerkily, she took in great gasping breaths as soon as the hand was removed from her face. Clarke still had a firm grip on her that she was using to hold her against the trunk of a tree. After an indeterminate amount of time, Clarke seemed to relax, releasing her. Clarke didn't bother asking her anything just speaking quickly and lowly. "We need to get out of the open, you're chase could have attracted it."

Raven went to ask what it was, but stopped at the glare Clarke sent her. Deciding to trust in the girl who'd just helped her avoid getting an arrow or spear in the back, she followed as Clarke moved through the trees with a familiarity that was impressive after only a couple of days on her own. Still, her patience wore out. "Where are we going?" she hissed.

"Somewhere safe." Clarke replied in a barely audible tone.

Rolling her eyes, Raven accepted that she wasn't getting anything else out of the girl till they got to wherever this 'safe place' was. They walked in silence for some time before Clarke sped up their pace. Raven realized that they were heading for some sort of bunker set into the side of a small hill. Clarke quickly opened the door and gestured her inside the building. Slipping in, she was struck by the fact it seemed to be some sort of high tech storage locker. It had piles and piles of books and filing cabinets. She could see where Clarke had made herself a bed. There was a skylight in the ceiling letting in enough natural light to illuminate the place.

The door shut with a clang and Clarke turned, her face was far less serious than it had been earlier. "Sorry about that, we didn't want to go and attract any predators."

"Predators? Not the crazy murderous grounders?" Raven scoffed as she dropped down on a dusty cushion by the side of an extinguished fireplace.

Clarke ignored her as she grabbed some wood from a stack of branches cut to size and began to get a new fire up and going. "The grounders don't come here. This is the beast's territory."

"Beast?" That did not sound good. If there was something that scared the grounders away, being near it didn't sound good at all.

Seemingly Clarke didn't hear or was ignoring the fear in her tone and she continued. "I didn't realize why the grounders hadn't bothered me here till I saw the beast. It's a massive gorilla."

"Gorilla?" She asked in disbelief. "Like a giant monkey? The grounders are scared of a giant monkey? There aren't even supposed to be monkeys on this continent."

Clarke raised her eyebrows in clear annoyance. Looking back down at the fire that was slowly eating away at the grass and thin twigs beneath the larger sticks, Clarke slid back from it and reached for a book and tossed it to Raven. "Here, I drew it."

Raven opened the book dubiously and was startled by the vicious looking beast, that was definitely larger than gorillas were supposed to be. "This is real?"

"On my first hunting attempt I nearly got eaten." Clarke said seriously with a hint of horror in her tone. "Of course, I tried to leave the area but well, we're surrounded by grounders in every direction. They don't come here, but if you leave the beast's territory they'll attack. You're lucky you made it here."

"So, you decided to stay with the giant ferocious beast?" Raven asked in disbelief. This girl was officially crazy.

Clarke shrugged. "Well, I found this place while I was trying to find the edges of the beast's territory. Since I clearly couldn't leave and it provided a certain amount of safety, I stayed. Of course, I still have to leave for supplies so I'm planning to kill it and take the territory. Why would I risk the grounders when this territory hasn't yet been claimed?"

"You're going to kill it?" Raven was sure the girl really had lost her mind. "How? With a knife?" She pointed to the jagged poor excuse of a knife strapped to Clarke's waist.

"Of course not." Clarke looked at her like she was an idiot. "I'm going to poison it." She reached out and grabbed the sketch pad with the gorilla in it and flipped a couple pages until she found what was clearly a rough map. "I've been working on a map of the area. As near as I can tell it lives somewhere within a square mile of here." Clarke gestured to a location on the map. "The grounders don't come in a ten or so mile radius of the beast's lair. If I kill it, I'll be safe from the grounders and safe from it."

Raven swallowed and looked at the map. It was insane, but it might work and honestly what did she have left to lose? She didn't have family, Finn was dead, the dropship was miles away and she didn't even know if she could bare to be back there, let alone survive the trip. "This plan is insane," she said finally. "When do we start?"