Lost

Bellamy was heading back at the drop-ship after a day of hunting with a few of his best guards. They had been out since the ass-crack of dawn and had caught almost nothing. A few rabbits had been trapped in snares hanging from the trees and they'd caught a couple of birds and a squirrel, but it wasn't nearly enough. The 100 would get through everything they'd caught in the next evening. It looks like they were going back out again tomorrow. The winter months were hard, not only was it freezing all of the time, but hunting was a lot harder as animals were hiding away from the harsh winter winds. Even so, the woods had seemed eerily quiet that day, the only sound being their footsteps and the gentle breeze whistling through the trees.

When they drew near to the camp, Bellamy stopped suddenly and motioned for the others to stay behind him. They were behind a row of trees, near the entrance of the drop-ship. Normally from here, you could hear all of the noises that the teenagers made in the camp. It was always impossibly loud in camp, Clarke always hated it. Now it seemed deathly silent. Something was really wrong.

Bellamy crept stealthily into the camp, his fellow hunter following behind him. They arrived in the centre of the clearing, which was deserted. Bellamy knew he had to pretend to be completely in control, if he seemed worried then the others would freak out and he couldn't allow that to happen. Octavia walked out of the drop-ship, looking surprised as she saw the assembled hunters, their gatherings forgotten near the fire.

As her eyes met Bellamy's, she flinched under the weight of his stare. She didn't want to be the one to break the news to him. But the others had insisted that it was best coming from her, plus he wouldn't hurt her as he would presumably do to anyone else.

She took his wrist and pulled him into the drop-ship. The teenagers gathered inside saw his face, seemed to pale and look worried, and then fled the room quickly. Octavia walked him over to one of the makeshift hospital beds and gestured for him to sit down.

"Bell. It's bad. She's gone. Nobody's seen her since this morning."

Bellamy wanted to pretend that he didn't know who his sister was talking about. He wanted to pretend that he hadn't noticed that she hadn't met him at the entrance as she normally did, to fuss over minor injuries and berate him for not being more careful. He wanted to pretend that she'd just gone for a walk and lost track of time, or just got lost in the forest nearby. But the truth was that he was lost without her. He didn't know if he'd ever see her again. Whether he'd be able to annoy her by calling her Princess, which had started out as a sarcastic nickname for how much better than the rest of them she thought she was but just turned into a term of endearment.

How was the camp supposed to function without her? How was he supposed to function without her? He felt the weight of hopelessness sinking into his skin. Without Clarke, he was nothing. He loved her, not that he'd ever told her. She just knew, she always understood him. But now, he was regretting never telling her how he felt. He may never get the chance.

He knew that he had to be strong, take control of the situation. He was the sole leader of 100 scared teenagers now, and he had to be brave for them. But his strength was spent and his courage disappeared. He was only 23 but he'd lived so much in his short years. So much fear. So much pain. He never had a proper childhood; he'd spent most of it worrying about Octavia. This was so much worse.

Bellamy didn't know what happened, he'd been making plans of a speech to convince the others to stay strong because Clarke would be okay, and the next thing he knew he was sobbing into Octavia's chest, gasping for breath. She knew him almost as well as Clarke did, they were the only two he'd let into his heart. Of course she knew how her big brother felt for his co-leader. That was why she'd brought him in here to have some privacy while she told him that the girl he loved was missing, presumed dead. But she'd never seen him like this. He was always putting up a front, even when he was hurting on the inside. She'd never even seen him cry before and now he was crying so hard he couldn't breathe. She held him tightly, praying that her brother would be okay. Because when he let someone in, he'd do anything to keep them safe. She knew he was blaming himself, the best members of the guard had been out with him, but she reassured him that the camp needed to eat and that he couldn't have known. She stroked circles in his hair, until he finally relaxed, having cried himself to sleep.

Bellamy woke up a few hours later with a pounding headache. His eyes ached and his was exhausted. Turns out emotional breakdowns sap your energy. He couldn't help thinking about Clarke. Where she was. Best case scenario she was lost and scared and alone. He didn't want to think of any other possibilities. But he realised that his princess was way too smart to have just got lost. It was the grounders. Obviously they'd grown fed up of sharing what was once all their land and had decided to cripple their enemy by taking their heart and soul. Because they thought they'd get rid of both leaders by taking Clarke. Not on his watch. Bellamy was going to get her back.

He walked out of the drop-ship and made his way over to the gathering of teenagers standing around the campfire. They were eating what little meat the hunting party had managed to gather. As Bellamy joined the group, all heads turned to him. His expression was cold and there was a gleam of vicious bloodthirsty anger in his eyes.

"You all know why I'm here. They took one of us. We all know what Clarke would do for us if it was the other way around. So I'm here, not as your leader, but to ask you a favour. Who is willing to stand up to those who will kidnap an innocent girl, for no reason other than to try to cripple us. They're trying to tear us apart. Make us turn on each other. Split up their targets so we're weak and defenceless. But we are not going down without a fight. I say that if they want her, they have to go through me. We defend our own. Right now Clarke will be frightened and alone, but she'll be giving them a hell of a fight. We need to do the same. So who's with me? Let's go and get our princess back."