Finn has been following a trail of tracks for the past ten minutes. We lost the others who came out hunting, everyone went off in their own directions. The four of us agreed to stick together. I didn't really want to go off with anyone else and it was amusing to watch Myles annoy Finn. 

Despite being with someone who had a gun, I'm still a little nervous about being out in the woods. The Grounders knew these woods better than anyone. Luckily, it's still daylight out. Unfortunately, the Grounders had the ability to blend themselves in if they were out here somewhere. 

The hairs on the back of my neck have been standing up for a couple minutes now. Something felt wrong. I may just be paranoid about being outside of camp. 

The spear is held tightly in my hands in front of my body. My aim wasn't too bad with it, but it wasn't that great either. The whole reason I said I would come out here was to practice my skills with a spear. I wish Finn would just find this animal already so I could practice. 

Finn crouches down on the ground, examining the tracks. I slowly trail behind them, only ten feet or so away from them. The whole time we've been out here, I've been scanning the trees for any sign of movement that didn't belong to an animal. 

Suddenly, two hands grab my body and pull me behind a tree, one hand sliding over my mouth before I can yell out a warning. My heart pounds in my chest. 

Grounders. 

I try to fight the Grounder off until their head slides down beside mine and I tense up when I recognize them. "Lincoln?" I breathe against his palm over my mouth. 

What the hell is going on? Why would he do this? Dread sinks into my body. What does Lincoln know that we don't? 

"Shh..." Lincoln quietly hushes me. He keeps me tightly pressed against his body and angles our bodies enough to see my three friends up ahead without being seen. 

None of them have noticed my disappearance. Finn is still crouched down on the ground with Clarke and Myles standing behind him. 

"One of those scaly panther things?" Myles asks out of curiosity. 

"Boar." Finn responds. 

"Good," Myles walks closer to him. "Because that panther meat is nasty, but I could eat a whole boar by myself, no joke. You know what the best part is of the boar? It's gonna sound gross--"

"Myles, quiet for a second." Clarke snaps at the younger boy.

Thoughts run through my mind of why Lincoln pulled me away from my friends. The only logical reason is that more of his kind are coming. My eyes snap down to the ground at one of the tracks Finn has been following. 

Oh, no.

We aren't tracking down an animal. The Grounders are tracking down us. 

I try to open my mouth and call out a warning to my friends, except Lincoln's grip on me tightens and his presses his hand against my mouth harder. They are going to be attacked and there's nothing  I can do to save them. 

Clarke crouches down beside Finn, lowering her voice. "What is it?"

"These tracks." Finn stares down at them in confusion.

"They're perfect." Clarke realizes. 

"Too perfect."

Hope bubbles inside of me. If they realize they're being tracked down right now, they may have a chance of getting away before the Grounders catch them. 

I still against Lincoln's hold. He did this to protect me. Lincoln doesn't want me to be captured. If the Grounders take them, I'll be able to tell everyone at camp what happened. No one would know they were taken, if the Grounders take me, too. 

"We're the ones being hunted." Finn whispers, looking around the area.

 Myles adjusts his hold on the assault rifle in his hands. "I don't see anything."

The first arrow slices through the air and lodges itself into the area of above Myles' knee. I flinch against Lincoln's chest, startled. With Myles shouting out in pain, the second arrow sinks into his left shoulder. He collapses on the ground. 

"Myles!" Clarke shouts, surprised. Her eyes dart from the wounded boy to the trees behind them, clearly alarmed that she can't find me anywhere nearby. She most likely thinks that I've already been captured. 

Finn jumps up from the ground. "Clarke, come on. We got to leave him." 

A Grounder dressed in homemade camouflage comes out from behind a tree, hitting Clarke across the face and succeeding in knocking her to the ground. 

"Clarke!" Finn sharply turns around at the sound of her being hurt. 

The same Grounder hits Finn's head with some axe and he tumbles to the ground. I watch in fear as my friends lay on the ground, nearly unconscious. I could have been right there beside the three of them. Or would the Grounders have put an arrow through me instead? 

The Grounders' Commander walks toward the three of them, peering down at Clarke, who rolled over on her back. This attack was on purpose. They wanted to capture Clarke and Finn. 

"I need to get back to camp." I try to pass by Lincoln. 

His hand falls down on my shoulder and forces me to sit down. I fall back against the wall of his little home he has. The same place we followed him to weeks ago and he stabbed Finn in the side. Everything looked the same as it did then. 

Lincoln drops a small bag to the ground. "It's not safe." 

"I need to tell Bellamy about what happened!" I climb back to my feet. "Clarke and Finn are in danger. Why did they even capture them in the first place?"

He messes with something in front of him, keeping his back to me. "They need Clarke to heal Anya's second." 

"The Commander?" I try to understand who he's talking about. 

Lincoln nods, "Her second was injured." 

"Her second?" 

"It is how we train young ones to become warriors and fight in battles. It is our process."

My brows furrow in confusion. "You mean kids?" I walk up behind him and grab his arm to gain his attention. "You make kids into warriors? They're just children. They don't deserve to be put to fight. No wonder she got hurt."

Lincoln shakes my hand off and his face hardens. "You're the reason she is hurt in the first place." 

The corners of my lips fall down in realization. My blood runs cold. I knew when I blew up the bridge, I was going to be harming a lot of the Grounders, but I never thought children would be in the mix. "She was on the bridge."

"Yes." Lincoln answers and crosses the room. 

I drift away from him until my back hits the wall. The Grounders train children and make them fight in the battles. How many others were on the bridge? How many did I injure or murder? 

In my mind, I convinced myself that what I did was necessary in order to stay alive, but now, I am struggling to believe that. I knew what I was signing up for when I pressed down on the trigger. I knew what was going to happen. In the back of my mind, I took the shot because I didn't want Jasper to have blood on his hands. 

Two tears slide down my cheek. I'm the reason that Clarke and Finn were taken. If I had taken the shot faster, they wouldn't be in this mess. What is Anya going to do if Clarke can't heal the girl?

We do what we can to survive, but no one ever said it was going to be easy. 

"I-" I take a deep breath. "I have to go." 

Lincoln's hand latches around my wrist when he sees me make a break for the exit.  A yelp flies off of my lips as he forces me to turn back around. With one hand, Lincoln forces me over to the furthest wall. 

"I told you it's not safe." He stands in front of the walkway that leads outside. 

"My brother is out there!" I shout at him. I wave a hand toward the exit. "If the Grounders are still out there--"

"Your brother's fine."

I stare at him in confusion. "What? How do you know?"

"I saw him make it back to camp before I found you." Lincoln folds his arms over his chest. 

A sigh of relief emits from my mouth. My brother went out to get more sulfur to make gunpowder. I didn't like the idea of him going by himself, but he promised he'd be fine. Thankfully, he made it back to camp without crossing the Grounders. I don't know what I would do with myself if he was taken. 

"What were you doing by camp?" I advert the topic to him.

He grabs a small book from a table, absentmindedly flipping through it. "I went back to check on Octavia."

"You saw Octavia?"

Lincoln shakes his head. "I kept my distance. She didn't even know I was there." He peeks at me over the top of the book. "You should come with us."

"What?" 

"Octavia and I are going to cross the seat to another clan. They'll take us in." 

My mouth falls slack. Octavia is going to run away with him? How long has she been planning this? What about Bellamy? She can't just leave him behind. That would kill him. Bellamy loves his sister more than anything. 

"If you stay behind, they'll kill you." Lincoln states. 

"I-I can't." I shake my head. My mind couldn't even comprehend the fact of leaving everyone behind. "These are my people, Lincoln. I can't leave them behind and- and my brother..." I press a hand to my head, taken aback that he would even suggest such a thing. "I can't leave them behind." 

How could Octavia ever agree to leave everyone behind? I could never do that to everyone. Sure, some people were major pain in the asses, but I can't leave them on their own. 

I stride toward the entrance, determined to return back to camp, whether Lincoln wanted me to or not. I knew my way back from here. 

Lincoln steps in front of me. "They will kill you, Wren."

"You know, when I first met you, I thought you were really strong and brave because you went against your own people, and you never gave up when my people tortured you." My eyes narrow as I speak. "A warrior doesn't run when they are scared. They don't take off when a battle is about to start. They stay and fight. You're nothing more than a coward." 

I step around him and make my way out of his underground home. I climb out of his hidden entrance. The moon is high in the sky by now. I've been gone for too long. Everyone back at camp is probably worried about why I'm gone. Who knows how Clarke and Finn are doing right now? What happened to Myles? 

Remembering my way back, I sprint through the woods to hurry back to camp. With only the moon as my light, I trip over a couple of roots in the ground. I am grateful that Lincoln saved me earlier today, but I'm disappointed that he is running away from all of this. How could Octavia agree to go with him? 

Some of the people back at camp may get on my nerves, but I would never leave them behind to go save my own ass. We're all in this together and no one gets left behind...Except maybe Murphy. I don't think I'd try to save him. I still don't trust him, even if Bellamy does a little bit. 

Up ahead, through the trees, I can see glimpses of torches coming from camp. I push myself to run faster. Being alone in the woods at night is something I definitely do not feel safe doing. However, there was no way that I was going to stay in Lincoln's place for any longer. I need to tell everyone at camp what happened earlier today. 

Suddenly, my body slams into someone else's and a loud scream rises from the back of my throat. My first, automatic thought is that one of Anya's guards found me out here in the woods. A few other voices yell in the distance, slightly confusing me. 

"Wren?!" 

I lower my arm before I could punch the person that I ran into. My eyes snap up to the person's face, sighing in relief when I see the faint outline of Bellamy. "Oh, thank God." I breathe. 

Bellamy's hands fall to my shoulders. "Are you okay? Where the hell have you been?" 

"Bell?" Octavia jogs over to us. Her eyes grow wide when she sees me standing there. "Wren! Oh, my God. You're okay."

I nod my head, glancing back and forth between them. "Are Clarke and Finn here? Did you find Myles?"

Octavia gestures over her shoulder. "We just found Myles." 

I follow where she pointed until I come across Myles laying on the ground with the arrows still lodged into his body. I drop down to my knees, reaching out to touch his other shoulder. "Myles?"

His eyes flash open and settle on me. "Wren. Where did you go?"

"Lincoln saved me." I glance over my shoulder at Octavia and Bellamy. "He knew what was going to happen and pulled me away before the Grounders attacked you guys." 

"You saw Lincoln?" Octavia asks with wide eyes.

"Yeah," I nod my head. I give her a look when Bellamy isn't looking, silently telling her that we need to talk. "If it wasn't for him, I'd probably be the same as Myles or taken with them. He saved my life."

XXXX

I know some of you thought that something bad was going to happen to Wren in this chapter. You were wrong. Mainly at @demigodofhogwarts1 @corashale and @-argent . You guys should trust me more often. Haha. Sure, I usually put my characters through literally hell and back (pun very much intended), but they can have some decent luck at times.

But not all the time. I just like making everyone think that something bad is going to happen when it actually won't. 

I really wanted Lincoln and Wren to kind of have a brotp moment because I love their friendship. I'm really excited for their friendship to grow more. 

In honor of The 100 starting up again tonight (tonight being Feb 1st), I decided to update this story. I was going to wait a couple of days, but I already have two other drafts saved, so I think it's reasonable to put this chapter up. 

I'm going on a trip, starting tonight, and I've been writing chapters to post while I'm gone since I won't have my laptop with me. I won tickets to Taylor Swift in Houston and I AM THRILLED.

Question: Do you like their friendship?

So, yeah!