Earth Kills

Elara and Clarke sat together working on Jasper, "His pulse is three eighty." Elara states.

Jasper's pained moans can be heard throughout the camp. "Quiet!" "Go back to sleep!" Delinquents yells at Jasper.

"Don't listen to them. You're going to make it through this, okay? Promise." Clarke whispers to the boy.

"Can he just die already!" Someone yells up.

Nova abruptly stands up, "That's it! I'm going to kick all of their asses!"

"Nova no!" Elara exclaims. Nova turns around, fire in her eyes, "Please. Just get some clean water for us okay?"

Nova bites her lip but nods. She grabs the bowl from Elara's hands then turns to leave the dropship.

Nova steps out of the dropship and takes a deep breath. She pauses when she hears a girl yelling, "No! No! No!"

She looks around and starts walking towards the noise. She lightly kicks the girl with her shoe, "Hey, wake up." When she doesn't Nova sighs and reaches down, "It's just a dream, wake up."

Finally the young girl's eyes snap open, "Nightmare? Wanna talk about it?"

The young girl looks at Nova with wide eyes but doesn't say anything. Nova sighs once more, "I'm Nova. What's your name?" She tries again.

"I- I know who you are. Everyone does." A small smile twitches onto Nova's face, the girl continues, embarrassed about what she just said, "I'm Charlotte."

"Well Charlotte, it was just a nightmare. They can't hurt you."

"It's my parents. They were floated and they... and I see it in my dreams and I just..."

"I understand. It's not an easy thing to go through. So how did you end up here?"

"Well... we were taking my parents' things to the redistribution center and... I kinda lost it. They said I assaulted a guard."

"Can't say I blame you. I've assaulted a guard before too. They usually deserve it."

A brief moment of silence surrounds the two delinquents, "Do you have nightmares?" Charlotte hesitantly asks Nova.

Nova looks back at the girl, she bites her lips but decides to answer honestly, "Yeah. Almost every night."

"What do you do to stop them?"

"Honestly, I haven't figured out how yet. But when I do I'll be sure to let you know."

Charlotte smiles up at the older girl then lays back down trying to get to sleep.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*

The next morning, after some rest, Clarke and Elara are back with Jasper trying anything to help him. "The Grounders cauterized the wound. Saved his life." Clarke says.

"Saved his life so they could string him up for live bait. Garden of Eden this ain't." Finn replies.

"This is infected. He could be septic." Elara speaks, looking at the wound.

"Any progress on using the wristbands to contact the Ark? Monty?" Clarke asks.

"That would be a firm no." He replies, eyes still focused on the wristband in his hand.

"My mother would know what to do." Clarke mumbles. She pauses then looks at the others around Jasper, "Alright, hold him down."

Clarke starts to cut off the infected area as Finn, Wells, and Elara try to hold Jasper steady. He starts screaming causing all of the delinquents outside to look up at the drop ship. "Hold him still!" Clarke yells.

Octavia rushes in, Bellamy right behind her. "Stop it! You're killing him!" Octavia exclaims.

Elara immediately reaches out to stop Octavia from getting in the way, "She's trying to save him!"

"She can't." Bellamy states.

"We didn't drag him through miles of woods for him to die." Elara snaps, glaring at the older boy.

"Kid's a goner. If you can't see that, you're deluded. He's making people crazy."

"Sorry if Jasper's an inconvenience to you, but this isn't the Ark. Down here, every life matters." Clarke replies.

Bellamy shakes his head and starts going back down stairs, "Octavia, let's go."

"I'm staying here." She replies, eyes still trained on Jasper.

"Power-hungry, self-serving jackass. He doesn't care about anyone but himself." Monty grumbles once Bellamy is out of the room. He then looks at Octavia and continues, "No offense."

"Yeah, Bellamy is all that. But he also happens to be right." Finn replies.

Clarke starts playing with the red plant that the Grounders used as a poultice, "This stuff has to have had antibiotic properties."

"If we can find it and make it into a tea it would probably be more effective." Elara says, also looking at the substance.

Wells speaks up, "Let me see." Elara hands him some of the substance and watches as he looks at it. "It's seaweed."

"That means that there must be a water source nearby." Clarke says.

"It would have to be a slow current, lots of rocks. The water would probably be more red than green."

"I know just the place." Finn states.

Clarke stands up, "Great, let's go."

Finn and Clarke start to leave but Wells stops them, "Hey. I know what this stuff looks like. Do you?"

Elara quickly speaks before the three leave, "Be fast. I'll try and keep him stable."

*_*_*_*_*_*

Nova has been trekking through the woods alone all morning. Not only was she looking for food but she was also trying to find Trina and Pascal. The two delinquents have been missing for a while now and are either lost somewhere in the woods or dead.

Nova pauses, listening to the woods around her. It is eerily silent, more silent than it should be. In the distance she can just make out the sound of a foghorn.

She looks down and notices hundreds of insects all running in one direction. When she looks back up she sees a mustard colored fog moving towards her. She instantly turns around and starts running. She remembers that she passed caves not too long ago and makes her way in that general direction.

She prays to any God that will listen that she makes it on time. Not too long after she started running she could see the caves in the distance. She starts hearing someone yell, "Bellamy!"

The fog is now catching up to her, it touches her hand and she hisses in pain. She turns to enter the cave, nearly crashing into Bellamy. "Nova?" He questions, not waiting for an answer he moves around her to get out of the cave and help the delinquent that keeps calling his name.

"You'll die if you go out there." Nova says as she places a hand on his chest.

He steps away from the cave entrance and moves to the back, Nova following. For the first time since she entered the cave she realizes that the two weren't alone. "Charlotte? What the hell are you doing outside of the camp?"

Still slightly afraid of the girl, Charlotte is unsure how to answer, "She was with me." Bellamy answered.

Nova raises an eyebrow but doesn't question the older male.

*_*_*_*_*_*

As night falls Bellamy, Nova, and Charlotte sit in the cave waiting for the fog to pass. Charlotte falls asleep, laying near the back wall of the cave. Bellamy and Nova sit on opposite walls. The two close their eyes, though neither sleep.

"No!" Bellamy and Nova snap their eyes open at Charlotte's panicked scream.

Bellamy quickly shakes the young girl awake. Once she's up she instantly apologizes, looking at the two others in embarrassment.

"Does it happen often?" Bellamy asks Charlotte softly. Nova narrows her eyes at the boy, not used to him being so gentle.

Charlotte sighs and nods. Bellamy continues, "What are you scared of? You know what? It doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is what you do about it."

"But... I'm asleep." The young girl answers, confusion laced in her voice.

"Fears are fears. Slay your demons when you're awake, they won't be there to get you when you sleep." Nova scoffs at his words, shaking her head.

Bellamy quickly glares and continues, distracting Charlotte from Nova, "You can't afford to be weak. Down here, weakness is death, fear is death. Let me see that knife I gave you."

Charlotte reaches into her pocket and pulls out the knife, handing it to Bellamy. He grips it tightly in his hand, "Now, when you feel afraid, you hold tight to that knife and you say, 'Screw you. I'm not afraid.'"

Bellamy hands Charlotte back the knife. The two older delinquents watch as she tightly grips it in her tiny hand, "Screw you, I'm not afraid." She quietly repeats.

Bellamy gives her a look that clearly says, 'you can do better than that'. "Screw you. I'm not afraid." She says once more, this time more firmly and louder.

Bellamy smiles and lightly pats Charlotte on the arm, "Slay your demons, kid. Then you'll be able to sleep."

The two older delinquents watch as the young girl turns towards the wall and clutches the knife to her chest. After a few minutes soft snores start to leave her lips.

The minute Bellamy realized that Charlotte was asleep once more he spoke to Nova, "What the hell is your problem?" He harshly whispered.

"What?" Nova glares at the boy.

"When I was trying to comfort Charlotte. Why'd you scoff?"

Nova hesitates, she looks down as she answers. Her voice coming out in a shaky whisper, "Because fighting your demons while you're awake does shit for when you're sleeping." She pauses then continues, even quieter than before. So quiet that Bellamy has to lean forward to hear her clearly, "I killed my demon and he still haunts my dreams."

A brief moment of silence hangs in the air, "That's why you got locked up? No one ever knew."

Nova nods, a distant look in her eyes. She turns her body away from the boy, effectively ending the conversation, unaware of Bellamy's lingering gaze.

*_*_*_*_*_*

Elara and Octavia stayed by Jasper's side as Clarke, Finn, and Wells were out getting the seaweed. Night had fallen and the two lower floors of the drop ship were crowded with the delinquents taking shelter from the acid fog.

Monty rushes up to the top floor, slamming the door shut. "Murphy's going to kill Jasper!" He exclaims. "The locks on the other side."

Elara rushes over to sit on the door with Monty as Octavia quickly searches the room for something to keep the door shut. "I'm gonna kill him, okay? Let me in, Monty!" Murphy yells from the other side of the door.

"No rush. We're fine here." Monty says, as Murphy continuously bangs on the door.

Finally the pipe that Octavia was trying to get loose breaks off, "I got it! Move!"

"The three of you better open this hatch right now!" Murphy calls again. The three delinquents in the room with Jasper let out a sigh of relief when the pipe is firmly in place.

*_*_*_*_*_*

The next morning Bellamy, Nova, and Charlotte walk out of the cave to meet back up with the hunting party. "Anyone out here? Jones?"

Nova opens her mouth to scold him for calling attention to them when Grounders could be out there but stops as she hears Jones call back, "We're here!"

Once everyone is together, Jones and the others throw questioning glances at Nova but don't say anything. "Where'd you go? I lost you in the fog." Bellamy asks the group.

"We made it to a cave down there." Jones replies, gesturing in the general direction that they were.

We all hear a low moan, breaking the silence that followed Jones' words. "What was that?" Nova asks, head turning in the direction that the sound came from.

She pulls out an arrow, readying her bow, as she starts moving in the direction of the noise.

Bellamy and the group silently follow, also keeping their hands on their weapons. Then a scream is heard, Charlotte's scream.

No longer moving slow, the group rushed to where the scream came from. Finally seeing Atom laying in the middle of the woods. He never made it to a cave and the acid fog burned him.

"Kill... me. Kill me." He whispers out. Bellamy kneels next to his head. Charlotte reaches into her pocket pulling out the knife to hand to Bellamy.

"Don't be afraid." She says as Bellamy grabs the knife.

"Go back to camp. You too Charlotte." He says to the group. Everyone hurries to leave except for Nova.

Instead Nova kneels on Atom's other side. She sees movement in the corner of her eye and snaps her head up. Clarke runs into the clearing, "I heard screams."

"Charlotte found him. I sent her back to camp." Bellamy answers.

Atom keeps whispering "Kill me."

Clarke looks him over then says, "Okay. I'm going to help you." She sits at Atom's head and gently runs her fingers through his hair and starts humming a song.

She goes to reach for the knife in Bellamy's hand seeing that he's struggling with killing the injured boy. She gets beat by Nova grabbing the knife though. Clarke looks at Nova in shock, "You've never killed before. Let me." Nova simply states.

She grips the knife then slowly stabs Atom in the neck, killing him.