Bellamy stood at the center with his arms crossed, his expression caught somewhere between disbelief and cautious curiosity.
"A bomb?" Bellamy asked, breaking the silence.
Jason leaned forward from where he stood as, his hands clapped loosely. "Yup," he said with a casual grin. "A bomb. Think about it, there won't be anyone to shoot at if they're all dead."
The tent went quiet for a moment. Jasper's eyes widened; Monty blinked, clearly unsure whether Jason was joking.
Finn was the first to speak up, a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Well… that's not a bad idea, actually. Saves us bullets."
Bellamy gave him a look. "What exactly are we blowing up?"
Jason's grin widened. "Didn't Murphy say he crossed a bridge when he ran from the Grounders and made it back here?"
Bellamy frowned for a second, thinking then realization hit him. "Yeah," he said slowly, "I remember that."
Jason tilted his head, amusement glinting in his eyes. "Sound familiar?"
Bellamy exhaled sharply through his nose. "You're saying—"
"I'm saying," Jason interrupted, "we remove the variable that links us to them. For now. We blow up the bridge, cut off their direct route, and effectively buy ourselves more time while the sick get better."
Finn nodded, leaning forward. "He's right. The virus is already lifting, but we still need time to recover before we can fight."
Bellamy sighed, pacing a few steps. "That sounds well and good, Jason, but that bridge's been there for a century. It survived a nuclear war and the damn test of time. How exactly are we supposed to bomb that?"
Jason didn't answer right away. He looked at Bellamy… then at Raven.
"Remember the hydrazine?" he said finally.
Raven raised a brow, then chuckled under her breath. "Oh, I remember it."
"Then let's see if the bridge survives you," Jason quipped.
Raven grinned back. "Challenge accepted."
Jason clapped his hands together. "Good. It's settled then. Raven, get your suit. We've got a bomb to make."
——————————
Smoke still rose in thin plumes from the torn hull of the Exodus wreck. Pieces of metal glinted among the ashes.
Raven crouched beside the damaged engine, her old Ark suit hugging her frame, the clear visor fogging slightly as she breathed. She held a flask steady beneath a trickle of red liquid hydrazine.
"Please don't blow up," she muttered under her breath.
Jason stood a few feet behind her, hands in his pockets, watching her work. "You know," he said dryly, "it's kind of poetic. You collecting the stuff that could blow us both to hell."
Raven smiled beneath her helmet. "Well, at least I'm wearing the suit."
"Yeah," Jason said, glancing at her, "that'll look great in the afterlife."
She chuckled, carefully adjusting the angle of the flask. "Relax. You'd save me before I even feel the blast."
Jason tilted his head. "That might be possible. But what's in it for me?"
Raven finished the last of the extraction, the flask now half full of hydrazine. She sealed it tight, stood, and turned toward him. The soft metallic click of the latch echoed faintly between them.
"Well…" she said, voice smooth, teasing. "I guess you'll just have to save me and find out."
She brushed past him, close enough that her shoulder grazed his arm, her tone was sweet and light. It tickled something in Jason's mind that made him pause.
He watched her go, blinking once.
'Why the hell is she giving me positive energy now?' he thought.
Then he turned his head slightly and saw Finn watching from a few meters away, a faint frown on his face as he looked at Raven.
Jason's lips curved into a small smirk. "Ah," he murmured. "That explains it."
Before he could say anything more, Bellamy came striding over, brushing dirt off his hands. "Great. Now that we've got our little science project ready, we should start heading back before the Grounders decide to throw a welcome party."
Jason nodded, his expression slipping back into focus. "Agreed. The sooner we move, the better."
He glanced once more at Raven, who was tightening the flask in her satchel.
"Let's make it back quick," he said. "Preferably without running into any uninvited guests."
———————-
Raven tipped the flask carefully, hands steady despite the thin ring of red around the engine glass. The hydrazine slid into the jar with a slow, dangerous hush, the thick, oil-red liquid looked so harmless but a tiny mistake and Boooom. Jason stood shoulder to shoulder with her, watching the liquid gather like a heartbeat in clear glass. When she closed the flask and pulled off her helmet, steam of breath fogged the rim for a heartbeat.
"Well," she said, setting the jar on the battered wooden table. "That's it."
Bellamy came in then, eyes leveling on the jar. "So this is it," he said.
Finn wandered up behind him, squinting. "Doesn't look like much," he grunted.
"It's rocket fuel," Jason said. "Hydrazine. Pretty much everything that'll go boom if you look at it funny. That's more than enough." He tapped the glass with a fingertip and the liquid sloshed like a living thing.
Raven slid the jar into a second, empty canister for safety and laid out the plan. "We fill this can with gunpowder," she said, drawing a chalked X on the lid and marking a bulls-eye. "Aim for that. Hit it from two hundred feet out and the shock will be enough to rip the span."
Jason glanced over the crude diagram. "Two hundred feet? Easy shot."
Bellamy's face tightened. "That's the rest of our gunpowder. We won't be making more bullets if we use it all."
Jason leaned forward until his breath warmed the can. "Secondary problems. Right now we have one bomb and one shot. We gotta make it count."
Finn shrugged. "Jason's right. We can worry about bullets later. Blow the bridge, slow their march. Give the camp time."
Bellamy arched an eyebrow, incredulous. "You're against guns, Finn, but fine with blowing up a bridge?"
Finn met him level. "If there aren't people on it, what's the difference?"
Jason watched both of them. He liked the way Finn thought about possibilities; he liked it even less when Finn treated danger like a math problem. "Someone has to plant the bomb," Jason said. "Question is—who?"
There was a palpable hesitation in the room at that question. Jason saw Raven as she looked over at Finn and then at him with that tiny, telling tilt of her head. Small things like that told him everything he needed to know.
"I'll plant it," Jason heard himself say it. He'd do it and he'd run if it spun out.
Finn then said. "They don't know we only have one bomb."
"Exactly." Bellamy's voice hardened. "One shot to make them think we can do more. We make it count."
"A façade," Raven supplied. "Make it look like we have more than we actually do."
Finn nodded. "Could work as a deterrent."
Bellamy's lips twitched into a near-smile, dark with irony. "You know, the men who built the A-bombs thought they were peaceful, too."
Jason's eyes narrowed on Bellamy's nose for a second, Finn and Raven also noticed the blood trickling down his nose, "Don't touch anything." Raven said.
"We need someone else to take the shot now that Bellamy definitely cannot leave the camp." Finn said as he looked at Bellamy who was starting to look pale.
"I appreciate the concern." Bellamy rolled his eyes at the quick dismissal from Finn.
Finn then moved closer and said, "I'll plant it, you take the shot."
Jason looked at Finn. He saw something in the younger man's jaw, it was neither pure bravado nor fear. Responsibility. Finn wanted to be useful. But Jason also knew what else Finn might be needed for later. "You might be needed elsewhere," Jason said. "This isn't the only thing on the table."
Finn shook his head. "No. This is the only other way I'll take. Let me do it."
Jason considered it a beat and then let the choice go; Finn had the look of someone who couldn't be talked out of what he'd decided. "All right," Jason said finally. "You plant. I take the shot. Raven, get the bomb ready in ten minutes. Bellamy, go see Clarke."
Bellamy started to stand. "Got it."
The tent flap rustled. Jasper drifted close by, then stopped when Bellamy called him over. Jason watched Bellamy's hand fall to his side before he could say anything to Jasper, and he saw the slight wobble.
"Careful," Jason said under his breath, but Bellamy couldn't hear him as he fell over.
Jason moved without thinking. By the time Bellamy buckled, Jason had both hands under him and was hauling the older kid away from the tent flap. "Wait here," Jason ordered a confused Jasper.
He carried Bellamy to the dropship with a speed that made the others' heads snap. Octavia met them halfway and shoved between them, hands already working as Bellamy's fingers clawed at the air. Bellamy gagged and vomited dark, foamy blood. Octavia held him, hands steady, murmuring to him and somehow steadied him.
"Breathe, Bellamy slow and easy." Jason's voice was clipped. He helped lay him down. Bellamy's eyes opened and landed on Jason, all fight and raw pride. He grabbed Jason's sleeve.
"You—" he coughed. "Make sure the bridge—" He tried to spit the words and failed as he started hacking and coughing up blood.
Jason didn't look back out of respect. He nodded once not looking back at Bellamy at his weakest point right now. Jason turned moved out of the drop ship.
He had a bridge to blow up.
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