Bellamy was sitting next to her, his face dirty and haggard. But he was smiling in a way Clarke hadn’t seen before, a wide, beaming grin without any hint of amusement or mockery. There was something startlingly intimate about it, as if this smile exposed more of Bellamy than she’d seen when they went swimming in their underwear.
“Thank god you’re okay. Do you remember getting bitten by the snake?” he asked. Clarke closed her eyes as fragments of memory shot through her mind. The slithering movement on the ground. The blinding pain. Yet at the moment, the only sensation she was aware of was the warmth of Bellamy’s hand on hers. “We gave you the universal antidote thing, but I wasn’t sure you got it in time.”
Clarke sat up, suddenly alert. “You carried me all the way back to camp?” Her cheeks flushed at the thought of being unconscious for that long in Bellamy’s arms. “And you figured out about the medicine?”
Bellamy shot a quick glance at the door. “That part was all Wells.”
The name landed with a thud in Clarke’s chest. After Wells stopped her from rushing into a burning tent to save her friend Thalia, she’d fled the camp in a haze of grief and rage. But as she looked around this new infirmary cabin, all she felt was sadness. Thalia was gone, but she couldn’t really blame Wells for what he’d done. He’d saved her life—twice now.
On the other side of the small cabin, a girl was curled up on a cot. Clarke pushed herself onto her elbows for a better look, but when Bellamy noticed the direction of her gaze, he sat down on the edge of Clarke’s cot, as if shielding her. “So,” he said, shooting a glance over his shoulder. “About that.”
In a strangely detached voice, he told Clarke about the attack that had killed Asher, and the girl Wells had taken prisoner.
“What?” Clarke sat bolt upright. “You’re telling me that girl over there was born on Earth?” Some small part of her had expected this since the orchard, but waking up to find an Earthborn meters away was almost too much to process. Thousands of questions exploded in every sector of her brain. How had they survived the Cataclysm? How many of them were there? Were there pockets of people all over the planet, or just in this area?
“Keep your voice down,” Bellamy whispered, placing a hand on Clarke’s shoulder and gently guiding her back down on the cot. “I think she’s asleep, and I want her to stay that way as long as possible. It’s creepy as all hell having her in here.”
Clarke shook off his hand and rose to her feet. The excitement and shock pulsing through her veins left her whole body trembling. “This is unbelievable. I have to talk to her!”
Before she could take another step, Bellamy grabbed her wrist. “That’s not a good idea. Her people took Octavia and killed Asher. We caught her spying on us.” His mouth twisted into a sneer. “She was probably trying to decide who to take next.”
Clarke stared at him in confusion. Why would they speculate about the girl’s motives instead of asking her? “Has anyone tried talking to her?” There was no danger in trying, especially since her hands and ankles were bound. Clarke rose onto the balls of her feet for a better look. The girl was curled up on her side, with her back to Bellamy and Clarke. It didn’t look like she’d moved at all.
Bellamy pulled Clarke back onto the cot with a tug. “I think the girl speaks English. She hasn’t said anything, but it seems like she understands what we’re saying. As soon as we get some useful information from her, I’ll head out to find Octavia.”
His voice was calm, but he couldn’t hide the note of anxiety when he said his sister’s name. For a moment, Clarke’s thoughts left the girl on the cot and returned to the woods where she and Bellamy had been following Octavia’s footprints. She felt a stab of guilt that he had abandoned Octavia’s trail in order to carry her all the way back here.
“Bellamy,” she said slowly as another thought took shape. “That wreckage we found. Did you see the logo on it? It said TG.” Every child on the Colony knew that TG, Trillion Galactic, was the company that had originally built their ship.
“I know,” he said. “But that could mean anything.”
“It’s not from our dropship,” she said quickly, her voice rising in excitement. “Which means it has to be from something else the Colony sent down. Maybe some kind of drone? Or what if…” She trailed off, suddenly hesitant to share the spark of an idea forming in the back of her mind. “I think it’s important that we figure out what it is,” she finished vaguely.
Bellamy squeezed her hand. “As soon as we get Octavia back, we’ll go check it out.”
“Thank you,” she said quietly. “For everything. I know you lost a lot of time bringing me back here.”
“Yeah, well, it would have been a shame to lose the only doctor on Earth, even if you were arrested before you finished training. Can you remind me again which body part I should avoid injuring?” he said with a smile. “Are you better with elbows or ankles?”
Clarke was glad to see him in a playful mood, but it wasn’t enough to shake the guilt building up in her chest. She lowered her voice, glancing again at the girl across the infirmary. “It’s just… if you need to leave again, you should go. I feel terrible that you already lost a day because of me.”
His teasing smile softened. “It’s okay.” He reached up and absentmindedly began twisting a strand of her hair around his finger. “I think for now, my best chance is to see what this girl knows, before I go back looking for the trail.”
Clarke nodded, relieved that Bellamy didn’t resent her, and relieved that he wasn’t planning on leaving right away. “Octavia’s lucky to have you,” she said, then cocked her head to the side and surveyed Bellamy with a smile. “You know, I remember when I heard there were siblings on Walden.”
Bellamy raised an eyebrow. “My reputation precedes me? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. How could you not talk about someone this good-looking?”
Clarke knocked against him, digging her elbow into his ribs. He made an exaggerated grimace, then laughed. “It’s true,” she continued. “My friend Lilly remembered you guys from the care center. I think her exact words were, ‘There’s a girl with an older brother. It’s great that she has a sibling, but he’s so spectacularly attractive, no one can look directly at him. It’s just too blinding, like staring at the sun.’ ”