Chapter 36

~~~~~~~~unedited~~~~~~~~

Addison

Darkness had set in fast, their heavy breaths filling the dark woods as they sprinted. Addison's heart thumps heavy against her rib cage, feet tripping and stumbling over branches and forest debris she can't see, due to it being practically pitch black. The group of seven did as directed by Lincoln and sprinted straight for camp, barely stopping for any breaks until the glow of the torches came into their sights.

Not one time did Addison's hand loosen in Octavia's that holds the brunette's hand equally as tight. By the time she caught sight of the torches, her lungs burned and throat dry from the heavy breathing she's been doing and the constant fall air being swallowed. Every time she swallows the dryness, she swears she can taste the metallic taste of blood.

Her head pounds and thumps against her skull, her already spinning surroundings blurring together the more she continues sprinting. Black spots begin clouding her vision, now tripping over air as she struggles to keep up with Octavia.

Just when she thinks she's gonna pass out, she stumbles into Octavia's now stopped figure, their sweaty hands still locked together. "Hey...you okay?" she whispers through heavy breaths, Addison snapping her eyes shut with a very faint nod.

"You got something to say?" Bellamy asks Finn, staring him down, who in turn, stares back at him.

Addison slowly opens her eyes and looks at the two boys' exchange from behind Bellamy and Clarke, using Octavia to rest her tired body on. "Yeah," Finn replies with just as hard voice as Bellamy had used. "I told you no guns!"

"I told you we couldn't trust the Grounders," Clarke interferes with a raised voice and locks eyes with Finn. "I was right."

Raven steps forward, grabbing onto Finn's arm and spins him to face her. "Why didn't you tell me what you were up to?!"

"I tried, but you were too busy making bullets for your guns!" Finn fires back.

"You're lucky she brought that!" Bellamy interrupts their fight in a louder voice, not once shifting his eyes away from Finn. "They came there to kill you, Finn."

He takes a step toward him, "You don't know that. Jasper fired the first shot!"

Octavia shakes her head, looking at Jasper and says, "You ruined everything." She backs away towards the gates and frees her hand from Addison's

"I saved you!" Jasper yells back at her and scoffs. "You're welcome," he says quietly, storming past Addison.

"Jasper..." she whispers out, watching his figure disappear where Octavia had, her cold hand hanging down at her side.

"Well, if we weren't at war already we sure as hell are now." Finn points out.

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious," the brunette says before storming through into camp.

No sooner than she slips through the gates, she's bombarded by Liam and Dawson, each asking their own versions of the same question. Why she would go to a Grounder meeting hungover, why she didn't tell either of them what she was up to... Addison doesn't reply, merely brushing them off and pushes past them, ignoring their calls.

Her pace quickens, seeing the familiar tent in her sights. "Addison, hey."

"What Liam?" She snaps in annoyance, turning to face him and Dawson, snatching her arm free from his grasp.

"A meeting with the Grounders? Really?" Liam asks with a raised brow.

Addison flickers her eyes between her best friend and Dawson, "You wanna know about the meeting? Ask Clarke or Bellamy. I'm not in the mood to argue with you right now, okay?" she says in exhaustion, a sighing escaping through her lips. "We can talk about this in the morning," and with that she enters her tent.

She stops at the entrance and rubs her hands over her face in frustration with an equally frustrated sigh. Addison didn't want to be at war... she's only sixteen, and planned on living a long and somewhat peaceful life on Earth. Not constantly looking over her shoulder for murderous Grounders on the planet she and everyone on the Ark grew up dreaming about—'The dream', she scoffs at herself.

Addison bites the inside of her cheek, glancing over her shoulder in the direction of where the radio tent is. She bounces her knee, continuing to look at the ground and back in the direction of the small tent.

"What are you thinking about?"

The brunette sucks in a gasp, her heart leaping out of her chest in fright. "Jesus, Octavia..." she breathes out, and takes a deep breath to calm her quick heart beat. "What are you doing in here?" she asks, stepping further inside her tent where she can see the outline of Octavia's sitting figure in the spot she's claimed when in the brunette's tent.

Octavia sighs softly, "I didn't know where else to go."

Addison nods, swallowing the nervous lump in her throat. She hasn't been alone with Octavia going on three days, and the brunette was nervous as hell. She takes a seat next to the Blake girl, folding her knees up to her chest and looks at the the older girl.

A torch that's planted near the back of Addison's tent gives off enough light to be able to see the faint glow of Octavia's face; the anger of Jasper ruining their chance of peace, worry and sadness for leaving Lincoln on the bridge after being shot in the chest with an arrow.

"He'll be—"

"I know," she cuts Addison off softly and nods. "Doesn't mean I'm not worried."

Addison sighs and nods, not knowing what else to say, and looks at the tent flap. "I'm gonna, uh...I'll be right back, okay?"

"Where are you going?" Octavia's quick to ask while Addison gets to her feet.

"I need to talk to Raven," she says quickly before exiting her tent, and goes to the radio tent, hoping she'd be in there.

She ducks in, finding it vacant. With another sigh, she exits and goes to the tent where Raven's been spending most of her time making bullets.

"Knock, knock." Addison says as she ducks inside, but the tent too is vacant. With a heavy sigh, she backs out, wondering around camp in search for the girl, but not once does she catch her.

Addison goes back to the radio tent, sitting in the chair and puts the headset on. She begins messing with the different knobs and switches, hoping one of them would turn the screen on, but no such luck.

"Crap..." she breathes out, groaning before the headset is ripped off and tossed on the table. "So much for that idea," Addison stands and makes her way back to her tent.

Addison secretly hopes Octavia is still there, but she won't put hope into it. Octavia only ever visits in the middle of the night when the Addison's asleep.

She opens the tent flap, finding Octavia still in her tent, her figure having hardly moved from where she left her. "You didn't find her, did you." Addison agrees with a short nod, taking her jacket off and tosses it near the rifle in the corner of her tent.

Before her jacket lands on her rifle, she catches a glimpse of her pistol, a faint smile tugging on her lips. She then undoes the now very loss bun Octavia had put her hair in on the bridge when she was puking her guts out.

"What did you need her for?" Octavia asks curiously.

Addison keeps her eyes on a particular spot in the ground, gathering her hair back up, "To talk to the Ark. I can't figure out the stupid buttons," she grumbles, tying off her hair in a ponytail, and looks at Octavia.

The Blake girl cracks a smile, brows raising. "Pfft, says the one who thought of the idea to use our wristbands to contact the Ark."

"I was in the moment then," the brunette replies shyly, earning a chuckle from the other girl. Addison nudges Octavia with her boot, "Scoot over."

Octavia complies, holding the blanket up for the brunette to crawl under. Addison hums at the warmth of the already warmed up blanket, closing her eyes as she settles next to Octavia.

"Here."

Addison opens her eyes and takes the cup of water, chugging it all in one giant gulp that earns an airy chuckle from Octavia.

"Thanks," the brunette mumbles with a soft sigh, laying her hands in her lap above the blanket. "I was wanting to talk to my dad," she says softly.

Octavia now sighs, a type of sigh Addison has become familiar with, in regards to how it comes out. "Addison..." she shakes her head, their eyes locking with one another. "The Exodus Ship...it crashed."

The words echoed like a bad dream, the world around Addison slowing; her breaths pick up, hearing them in her ears and the beating of her heart, the chatters and walking of delinquents that pass muffle.

She averts her eyes to her trembling hands, "No...no, no, no...." she squeezes her glossy brown eyes shut, head bowing down in a position that would make her feel uncomfortable if she wasn't sad.

Octavia's arms wrap around her, her hands balling the fabric of the blanket as her hair's smoothed down, and the coos of Octavia are heard, drowning out every other noise that isn't her sobbing.

"Liam..." she whispers, pulling back enough to look at Octavia, "His parents would've—"

Octavia nods, a hand going to her cheek out of instant m, brushing a tear away. "I know. Raven's handling it right now."

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Liam

After Addison had disappeared into her tent, left to his own in anger and aggravation. He just wanted to know what she was thinking about going off to a meeting, but instead, got the version of Addison he's become to get frustrated and annoyed with; the short-fused shadow of the girl he remembers on the Ark.

Liam understands that losing her mother was hard and having to kill for the person she loved dearly, only for her to die in end, was enough to push her to the edge. Not only did she commit one of the worst crimes on the Ark, but she was caught by his own father, who had never liked Addison to begin with. Same with his mother.

His tent flap flips open, Raven's figure entering. "Hey," the girl says slowly. Liam doesn't respond, merely moving his head to continue sharpening his knife. Silence travels between them, "Are you mad at Addison?"

"I'm not discussing this with you," Liam snaps, keeping his gaze fixed on the blade of his knife. "No offence," he says quickly in a less snippy tone.

"None taken," Raven replies, hands going in the pockets of her bomber jacket. "A search party's leaving in a couple of days. One you should go on." Liam glances up at her with a funny look, "Clarke and Bellamy think it'll be a half days trip."

"'Search party' ? What are you talking about? What are we searching for?"

Raven shifts her weight around to her other leg with a heavy sigh, pondering over the many ways she could tell the brunette-haired boy the news. "The Ship. It crashed...—The Exodus Ship crashed," she says slowly. Liam's face falters, brown eyes widening. He's stunned in silence, mouth agape as he turns his head to the ground. "It went down a few minutes ago," she elaborates softer.

Liam's heart thumps hard against his chest, Raven's words still processing...he never got along with his parents, but that didn't mean he'd want them dead. He knew they were on the Exodus Ship, along with Addison's father, who'd be with Clarke's mother. "Does Addison know?" Is all Liam's able to say, not once sparing Raven a glance.

"Octavia's handling it," she responds.

Liam nods slowly, the knife in his hand feeling like it weighs as much as the planet his on. It slips from his grasp, along with the stone he was using to sharpen it with, and slowly rubs his hands down his face. "She won't handle it well," Liam's voice muffles in his hands, finally meeting Raven's unreadable brown eyes that eerily resemble Addison's.

The brunette-haired girl gives her head a short nod, hands still in the pockets of her jacket. "I know, but Octavia can handle her. She's been doing a good job so far, despite their rough patch."

"Why aren't we out searching now?" Liams asks suddenly, the words of Octavia being there for her having already sunken in. He stands up abruptly, "We shoulde be going there right now."

Raven side-steps in front of the boy, blocking his path, "You want to go walking through the woods after the meeting with the Grounders went side-ways? Even if it went well, we wouldn't be able to start searching until the flames of the crash buried out."

Liam ignores her, shoving past her and hits her shoulder. Raven sighs and gets in his path again, crossing her arms over her chest with a stern and determined look, "Move."

"You're not going. No one is."

"Says who? You?" Liam challenges with a raised voice.

"Yes. And Bellamy—"

"Yeah? Well you or Bellamy didn't lose anyone on that ship!"

Raven loses her cool and shoves him back, "If you would've let me finish my sentence, you would've heard that it was Clarke's decision, too."

Liam stumbles, his anger rising that's fuelled with grief. "Don't push me," he says lowly, using every ounce of his restriant not to shove Raven back.

The logic finally runs in his head; if they left tonight, they'd risk being killed by the Grounders, and if they weren't killed by them, then the crash could. The fires that would spread, pieces of the ship flying when a flame dances with the fuel. He knows she was there during the meeting, and backs down, taking a couple steps back, and averts his gaze to the floor.

"I'm sorry..." he shakes his head, "I didn't mean—"

"I know," she cuts him, her once stern voice turning slightly softer, and takes slow steps forward. "It wasn't your fault," she says and stops in front of him.

Liam nods, averting his gaze down to their boots, "Still. It doesn't make up for me wanting to shove you back," he replies honestly.

"That's a lot more restraint than your bestie."

Liam manages to crack a small smile, lifting his head to meet Raven's eyes once again. "A lot is an understatement." Raven chuckles, Liam joining until it dies out soon after. "She never used to be like that," he says sadly.

"She's been through a lot. It's enough to make any person become as short-tempered as her," the brunette-haired girl replies.

His head quirks to the side, expression crinkling in surprise and also confusion. "Wait, she told you about that? She barely talks to me about it!"

Raven gives her head a short nod and shoulders a simple shrug, like it's no big deal. "Yeah. Octavia knows a lot more than me, while I've only scratched the surface."

Liam sighs, "I can't believe she talks to you guys and not me." He quickly snaps his head to Raven, "In a good way, I mean...don't get me wrong, I think you guys are great for her and great in general, but I'm her best friend. That's gotta mean something, right?" Liam rushes out in one breath, making Raven's eyes widens.

"Whoooa..." she draws out lowly. "She probably doesn't want to tell you so you don't worry. That's just who she is."

"Yeah..." he sighs heavily, "I don't even think she wants to talk to me right now. We barely talked before the Unity Day Celebration."

"What do you mean?" Liam's taken back by the genuine curiosity in Raven's voice.

He wipes the shock off his face, shaking his head as he stumbles over his words to get the right reply. "I told her about, uh...why she got arrested and that, I framed her for something I did, but I didn't have a choice..." Liam trails off quietly, his eyes no longer meeting Raven's. "My father was gonna have her killed."

"Liam...none of that matters now. She's alive, because of you. You saved her," she replies and takes a step closer.

"Yeah, maybe...but she wouldn't have gone through what she went through."

"She wouldn't have because she would've been floated," Raven is quick to say. "Murder isn't the only thing she would've been arrested for," she tells him matter-of-factly. His brows furrow, hands resting on his hips as he kicks a leg forward and leans on it in confusion.

"What?"

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