CHAPTER SIX:

"STERLING WAS ONE OF US."

The trees were tall as they usually were and they were continuously going in the teenagers way as they all continued running through the woods. The chirps of birds and crickets were loud as their sounds echoed throughout the forest on the beautiful, yet terrifying planet. The occasional snap of twigs could be heard, adding to the already loud sounds as a group of sky people could be seen running through the woods, being as quick as they could to get to their destination from what it said on the map.

Like usual, Finn and Y/n were running in the front of the group with Bellamy right behind them, Murphy behind him and Monroe and Sterling trailing at the back of the group. Guns laid in their hands, except for Murphy, as they made sure to keep an eye out while also going to the place the grounder had put for them on the map he had drawn. Many times, they found themselves pushing the branches of the bushes and trees that were in front of their faces out of the way as they continued forward.

"Everyone, eyes peeled." Bellamy calls back. "We're in grounder territory."

"Everything is grounder territory, alright?" Murphy fires back, slowing his running pace. "I can't keep running. We don't even know if the guy Y/n killed was telling the truth."

Seeing the brunette stopping in his tracks, Monroe and Sterling did the same, trying to catch their breath. Seeing that their group had stopped, the three in the front also did the same as Finn marches over to the blue eyed boy.

Finn grabs his shoulder a bit. "Keep moving."

"We can give him a minute." Bellamy intervenes.

Y/n shakes her head. "No, we can't. You heard what that grounder said. "They'll outlive their usefulness"."

"I heard what he said when you had a gun to his head." Bellamy reminds.

"Look, you think she wanted to do that? He would've told his people we're coming, and by the time we got there, our people would be dead." Finn tells him, understanding why the girl did it. "Maybe that's something you can live with, but we can't!"

The Collins boy wouldn't lie. He had been a bit shocked when the Griffin girl shot the grounder, but he understood why. She wanted to find their people, just like he did. She wanted to find her sister. The e/c eyed girl goes to walk past them and continue their journey, but Bellamy grabs ahold of her shoulders, stopping her as Finn narrows his eyes on the Blake boy.

"Hey, you did what you think you had to do, but you are not yourself right now. Neither of you are." Bellamy states, glancing between both of them before looking back at the girl. "And I can't be out here with another loose cannon."

"Guys." Monroe cuts in.

They all go silent as they glance at her, seeing she slowly raised her gun, looking over their shoulders. Everyone follows her gaze, seeing a lifeless body laying a bit in the bushes. As they all step forward, they take notice of the many more dead bodies laying around, flies flying all around, buzzing loudly as they stayed by the lifeless creatures.

"Where the hell did they come from?" Murphy asks.

"From the Ark." Bellamy realizes.

Y/n was in front of the group, gripping the pistol in her hand as she heard the others trail behind her, Finn right on her heels. As they went down a pathway, following the bodies, they all walked in silence, glancing at each of the bodies around. Soon enough, they found themselves stopping right by the end of a cliff, seeing dirt and ash laying all around at the bottom. A large ship had crashed landed, no doubt being part of the Ark and it seemed no living thing inside had made it out alive.

"It's a rough landing." Murphy comments.

"There's nothing we can do for these people." Bellamy tells the others when him, Finn and Y/n shared a glance. "We gotta go."

When they saw the three begin to leave, the others began to follow but stopped at the sound of echoed cries from behind them. Questioning if the others heard that as well, Murphy walked back to the edge of the cliff, Monroe and Sterling right behind him with the other three slowly following. The group all look down where Monroe soon points out that someone was actually down there and alive.

"Hey! Up here!" Bellamy calls down.

"Please!" The voice of a female cries out. "Please, help me!"

Sterling's brows furrow. "Mel?"

"You know her?" Murphy questions.

"Shut up, Murphy. She's my friend." Sterling informs. "We have to do something."

Silently, Y/n and Finn exchange a glance, seeming to silently tell each other the same thing before they look to Bellamy, motioning for him to step back. Meanwhile, the girl, now known as Mel, continued calling up to them for help, even calling Sterling's name who had dropped his bag, starting to do so himself without Bellamy, Y/n and Finn noticing what he was currently doing.

"We can't stop." Y/n tells the black haired boy.

"This isn't a grounder, Y/n. We have a rope." Bellamy reminds.

Finn sighs. "You saw her. She'd never be able to hold on to it."

"Yeah, we'd have to lower somebody down. It'll take time that we don't have." Y/n adds and Bellamy stares at her. "We hate this as much as you--"

"I know." Bellamy interrupts with a nod. "Okay, I know."

"Just hold on, Mel." Sterling calls to his friend.

"Sterling!" Mel cries.

"We'll come back for her. Okay?" Finn whispers.

Bellamy reluctantly nods, turning back around. "We're moving out."

Just as they turned around, their plan to leave clearly wasn't gonna work out when they saw a rope tied around Sterling's waist as he began to lower himself down, the rope tied to a cut up tree trunk from above. Y/n lets out a sigh at Murphy's comment of actually taking the break he had been begging for earlier while she runs her fingers through her dirty long locks, even pulling at it. With a frown, Finn walks over, gently pulling her hands away from her hair.

The girl raises her head, seeing he was holding her hands while staring at her in concern. The h/c only shakes her head, wishing this could all be over. Letting go of one of her hands, he raises it to her cheek, trying to wipe the mud and dirt off her cheek but it didn't help as he also had the same substance on his hand. Staring into each other's eyes, they lean forward, resting their foreheads against one another's. After about a couple minutes, they were pulling away but held hands as them and the others all watched as Sterling continued to lower himself down to Mel.

"I'm almost there! Once I have her, pull us up!" Sterling shouts up to them.

"Well, I'd say he's heard one too many of your guys motivational speeches." Murphy states, looking at the two leaders.

Bellamy rolls his eyes, glancing at Y/n. "Shut up, Murphy."

Soon enough, Sterling was stopping right beside Mel, holding out his hand for her. From above, the others watched as they grabbed each other's hands. However, that didn't last long as Mel frantically clutched the branch she had been gripping when the concrete beneath her feet collapsed. Sterling had swung a bit, but caught himself as the pad of his boots met the concrete wall while Mel had placed her foot in a small crack. Once again, they were holding each other's hands out towards one another.

All of a sudden, the rope that had been holding Sterling as it was tied around the cut up tree trunk broke off and began moving towards the edge as Sterling started to fall. The others up above all frantically moved around as they tried to catch the rope so Sterling wouldn't fall, but it was too late as the rope fell off the edge, causing Sterling to fall down. The boy's screams echoed the air before it soon came to an abrupt stop as his body roughly met a large rock that was dented into the wall of the cliff, killing him instantly. From where she stood, Y/n could see Sterling's body laying close to the bottom, making her eyes widen even more than they already had been.

It was silent as the now group of five tried to process the news of losing another one of their own people. Monroe was letting out small pants, stepping away from the edge of the cliff, placing her hands on her head as shock ran through her body like everyone else's, tears pricking her eyes. What broke the silence was Mel's cries. Not just cries of fear in her current situation, but cries of the sudden death of her friend that she had known ever since living on the Ark.

"Mel, hold on." Bellamy calls to the girl, crouching a bit. "Focus on me. You can do this."

Mel shakes her head. "No!"

"Yes, you can. You're strong." Bellamy insists.

"I'm not strong! Stubborn, maybe." Mel replies.

"So be stubborn a little longer. I'm not gonna let you die, you hear me?" Bellamy assures, receiving a nod from the girl.

"We're out of rope." Y/n reminds when the boy turned to her.

Bellamy shrugs. "So we make a new one."

"If anything happens to our friends, when we could--" Finn begins.

"We don't know if we could save our friends." Bellamy interrupts, raising his voice a bit. "For all we know, they may be dead already. We've all thought it. But what we do know is we could save this one girl."

Monroe sighs, still trying to blink back tears. "Sterling was one of us. She was his friend. I'm in."

"How do we do it?" Murphy asks, looking to Bellamy.

"We make new rope from the wreckage. Go find wires, seatbelts, anything." Bellamy instructs.

Quickly, Murphy places a hand on Monroe's shoulder as they go off in one direction to find the supplies he had said from the wreckage. Meanwhile, tugging on her hair again, Y/n looks to Bellamy who had already been looking at her.

"I hope you're right about this." Y/n admits.

After that, she was walking off in another direction with Finn right behind her, leaving Bellamy to himself.