infamous

23 - the coward

phoenix, x and bellamy are walking, slowly, as i guide them around her footprints.

we searched for a while, but i know she would've stopped at the lagoon or something, after running all that way.

she did, she stopped here and headed off into the west, where the forest ends apparently.

the 2 other guys and the girls stand behind us, as we crouch at a footprint in the mud.

"finn" i say, as he stops, stabbing his fire torch into the ground.

the trees are thin, and most of the ground is dirt.

easy to track, but her tracks stopped.

"here" he says, pointing a few feet away.

"im lost, i dont know what these are" i say. looks like a long running fight of some sort, down the hill in front of us, in a huge, huge clearing, almost a field.

"she fell down the hill" he says, as we all rush down to the base of the hill, but the closer we get and can see, we know she isnt here.

"ballamy, there" one of the guys says, as we all look to where he point.

a few rocks, one, with a red liquid on it.

"wait" i say quickly, and they all look at me.

i walk back up the hill, to where the footprint was, and walk around it, searching the floor.

"the footprint is there mackinnon, she fell here" finn says, but i drop to the ground, shining my flame onto it.

"she was being followed, these are grounder prints" i say, as everyone heads go straight up, looking at the forest.

"quickly" bellamy says, as we come back down the hill, where they're all crowded around the rock pile, of sharp, jagged rocks.

one has a smear of blood on it.

"prints" someone says, looking a few feet away from the pile.

we all rush right over.

"they're deeper. they were carrying her" finn says, as anger runs through bellamys eyes.

"that mans she's alive, like when they took me" jasper says sullenly, as X scourers the trees, eyes moving between the shadows.

"lets go" bellamy says, using his flame to light the path of prints.

-

forget running after her when she was looking for the pod. forget the fight with the grounders the first day, fuck, forget my mothers execution. i have never been so scared in my life, as i am right now.

we stand, at a gateway kind of a monument, of the grounders. the only kind of structure we have seen of theirs, and only the second sign of their existence.

2 huge stakes, with rotted skulls are shoved into the ground, with about 15 bodies strung up on trees, and small ornaments made of bone that litter the other trees.

all rotted flesh, mostly bone, but they arent as old as we would like to think.

"im outta here" one of the guys says, but bellamy ignores him.

"go back if you want" he says, not breaking his eye line at the bodies.

he mutters something about his sister being his responsibility, and starts walking.

i follow right behind him, looking back to see who's coming.

phoenix, jasper, finn, the girl, and 2 of the guys, john and kynan.