Chapter 20
A Whole New World | Octavia Blake [1]
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Addison patiently waits for Octavia at their meet up spot just outside the dropship, scanning camp for the raven-haired girl. She's never been late, hell, Addison's always the late one, having to sneak further here than Octavia. She sighs, starting to silently pace back n forth.
Granted Addison wasn't in camp until late evening, she hadn't once seen Octavia, who would've greeted her the moment she stepped into camp, but she never did. During the flares and after the flares, she still hadn't seen her. The idea of sneaking into her tent crossed her mind when Octavia hadn't shown up in ten minutes, but she down-played the idea. Now, after an hour of her still not being at their meeting spot, the idea she down-played didn't sound so bad after all.
But did she want to risk being caught by Bellamy? Yes. It's worth the risk to know if she was ok. With her mind made up, she quickly and quietly sneaks her way to Octavia's tent, not once making a noise to alert anyone, specifically big brother Blake. She moves the tent flap and enters her tent, only to find it empty.
Addison's heart stops, a wave of panic coursing their her veins. "Octavia..."
She quickly backs out of the girl's tent, rushing to the one she had hoped to avoid tonight. With a swift move of her arm, she opens the tent flap, startling the once sleeping boy. "Get out, Addison."
"Octavia's missing."
That's all it took for Bellamy to get up. She backs out if his tent, letting him put a shirt on in record time. The tent flap opens, Bellamy shrugging his jacket on, "What do you mean she's missing?"
"She's not here, Bellamy," she whispers in worry, watching his features tense up in worry, too.
He walks past her, grabbing a nearby lit torch and handing it to her, "Go look on the other side of camp. I'll look on this side," he orders.
Without question, she does. She opens everyone's tent, disturbing them, but she didn't care. All she cared about was finding Octavia. Addison scans every nook and cranny in camp she could've hidden away in, but nothing.
She circles around camp again, finding Clarke checking tents, too. The brunette jogs towards her, catching her just as she finishes checking the tent she's on. "Clarke, have you seen Octavia?"
The girl shifts her gaze to Addison, shaking her head, "No. I've checked all these tents and Bellamy's checking the dropship. She's not here," she says softly.
Addison presses her lips, scanning the delinquents her and Bellamy have woken up, "Damn it."
"Hey, we'll find her." Clarke squeeze her shoulder in comfort. Addison flickers her eyes to the girl, nodding. "Go wake up Liam and Dawson, Bellamy will be gathering everyone up."
Addison nods again and jogs to the boys' tent. She opens the tent flap, "Guys, wake up. It's important," she rushes out in a stern, yet trembling voice.
Dawson's the first to spring up, then a confused Liam who groans. "Addison, what is it?" The tall blonde boy asks in concern, the faint glow of the fire lighting up her pale face that holds worry and fear.
"She's not here," she whispers, flickering her eyes between Liam, who's now joined Dawson's side, and the tall boy in front of her, "Octavia's missing."
Dawson and Liam locked their eyes knowingly, both nodding in sync as they move their eyes back to the girl in front of them. "We'll help you find her." Liam states softly, slipping his jacket on.
Addison thankfully nods, Dawson quickly shrugging his jacket in as he and Liam follow her to where Bellamy's rounded up everyone from camp. The delinquents make a path for the trio, her slipping to Bellamy's unoccupied side.
"Hey, everyone, gather around and grab a weapon." Bellamy drops a pile of their makeshift weapons to the ground. "My sister's been out there alone for 12 hours." He tosses multiple weapons on the ground, "Arm up. We're not coming back without her," he finishes.
Everyone starts grabbing weapons, Dawson and Liam moving to grab one too. Addison impatiently sighs, her leg bouncing up and down. She watches Jasper move beside Liam and grab a weapon, too, her three friends coming back towards her.
"You need one?" Dawson holds a knife out for her to take.
On instinct, the hand not holding the torch moves to the waistband of her pants, feeling the knife securely tucked in their. She shakes her head, pulling it out and stares down at the knife, "No, I've got one."
Liam inspects the knife, "Nice knife. When did you make it?"
"I didn't. Octavia did," she says softly, sniffling and sliding the knife back into her pants.
"Finn! Get out here!" Bellamy shouts from Clarke's side. He glances at the brunette, "You should stay here, in case she comes back."
"I'm not gonna helplessly wait around, Bellamy. I'm going," she states in a hard voice.
He nods, glancing around camp again and leaving Clarke's side when Finn jogs up. Addison leaves too, following after Bellamy. "Do you have a weapon?" She shows it to him, waving her torch around when she shifts.
"We're going to have to split up. More groups will cover the forest better which means our chances of finding her will be greater," the brunette states.
Bellamy shakes his head, "We don't know how many Grounders are out there. We're strength in numbers," he counters over her idea, stopping near a lit fire.
Addison just nods with a small sigh, going along with Bellamy's plan since it is his sister they're looking for.
"Guys, guys. Come here!" A boy shouts, "Did you see that? Look up there."
She glances up at the sky. Tiny, bright balls of light burst in the sky, like a meteor shower. "It's so beautiful," another boy states loudly. The Calling of the 300 people the Ark plans on killing is tonight. Her face softens even more in realization, her head bowing down to the groundâRaven's flares didn't work. 305 of the Ark's people she knows of have died within a week of landing on the ground. First, the boy when they first landed, Wells, Atom, Charlotte, and now the 300 the Ark sacrificed to conserve oxygen.
"They didn't work," Raven's voice wavers slightly at her failed planned. It was a good one, but not good enough to stop the Ark from killing 300 innocent people. "They didn't see the flares." She says softly, Addison lifting her head just enough to see her figure.
"A meteor shower tells you that?" Bellamy annoyingly questions.
"It's not a meteor shower, it's a funeral," Clarke replies, her voice wavering, too. "Hundreds of bodies being returned to the Earth from the Ark. This is what it looks like from the other side," she informs. Addison's gaze falls elsewhere, licking her lips and tucking them gently in a line across her face. "They didn't get our message," Clarke says softly.
"This is all because of you!" Raven shouts, Addison's head fully lifting at her angry voice.
Finn grabs her arm, holding his girlfriend back from attacking Bellamy. The Blake outstretches his hand past Addison, pointing at Finn's girlfriend, "I helped you find the radio."
"Yeah, after you jacked it from my pod and trashed it!"
"Hey, he knows." Clarke rests a hand in her shoulder, "Now he has to live with it." Her voice lowers, staring at Bellamy.
"Stop it." Addison sternly catches everyone's attention, moving between the two arguing sides. "Arguing isn't going to bring them back," she flickers her eyes between Raven and Clarke. She moves her eyes between all the delinquents gathered around, "I know you all might have lost someone tonight, and I'm sorry for that. We tried, and now there's nothing we can do about it anymore!" She continues scanning the crowd of delinquents, meeting their sad eyes, "But there is something we can still do...find Octavia. She is one of us. Not one of the Ark's people, but one of the 100, like you and I all are."
The crowd's silent, their eyes flickering around to different people in thought. "What are we waiting for? Move out!" Bellamy yells, glancing at Finn, "You coming or what?" Bellamy asks Finn.
He nods, grabbing a torch from someone. "Yeah."
Addison glances at Finn, Raven, and Clarke before following after Bellamy. "Nice speech," Liam says quietly, grabbing his own torch.
"He's right. It wasn't half bad," Dawson replies with a shrug.
Addison scoffs, "God, you two should've been brothers or something," she says to the duo. They both chuckle, Addison picking her pace up and catches up with Bellamy. "Do you know where to start looking?"
"I have an idea," he says softly, glancing over his shoulder at the delinquents that followed. "Thank you." He randomly states after a short silence, Addison nodding. "I mean it, Addison. Thank you," he repeats more gratefully.
"An apology from the guy that hung me because of my close friendship with his sister while we're looking for said sister..." she trails off, her lips curling into a small smile, despite the current events. "This is a start to a wonderful frenemy-ship, Bellamy Blake."
He releases an amused low chuckle, "Don't get comfortable. I could try and successfully hang you tomorrow," he says with a small laugh in his voice.
"Key word, try. I'm like a cat... got nine lives," she replies with a shrug of shoulders, forgetting for just a moment why they're out in the woods in the middle of the night with torches.
They fall silent again, torches moving and eyes scanning the forest for the girl that's become Addison's rock. After almost taking Atom's life and watching someone else do it, it crushed her, especially having relived the night she killed someone on the Ark. She told Octavia everything about that night on the Ark, how Atom really died and how she tried to take his life so her brother or Clarke didn't have too, only for Clarke to do it anyways.
Octavia didn't shy away from the truth of what Addison believes really got her locked up, not counting her other crime she doesn't know about. She was there for her and comforted her, saying comforting words that really made Addison believe her killing Avery Williams wasn't such a bad thing, but she knew it was.
Octavia's been the reason for her not breaking, but after watching 301 people die within 24 hours, she feels as if she's slipping closer to her breaking point. The other's may not feel the need to have a breaking point, especially one as easy as Addison's, but she does. She needs one. It's the only way that's made her feel human since living in Sky Box. She didn't have Liam or her parents to make her feel human, she only had her own thoughts about never seeing them again and loosing her mother.
Since exiting the Sky Box and coming to the ground, only one person has truly been able to make her feel like she doesn't need a breaking point to feel human anymoreâOctavia, her missing piece.
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