“The walls look unbreakable, but only from a distance,” Bellamy went on. Clarke noticed that his hands were shaking. “There are windows, cracked foundations, places we could plant these explosives and blow the whole thing down around them.”

“You know this how, exactly?” Paul asked, smiling tightly. “Did you become an engineer in the past two days, on top of everything else?”

Instinctively, Clarke started to rise to Bellamy’s defense, but Bellamy’s eyes lit up, smirk back in place.

“No, I’m not an engineer,” he said calmly. “But he is.”

He nodded to Luke, who was sitting on a log, his forehead creasing as he listened.

“What do you think, Luke?” Bellamy asked. “Is this viable?”

“I’d have to see it for myself,” he said, scratching his curly hair. “Help figure out where to position the explosives.”

Bellamy nodded. “That was going to be my next suggestion. We can risk one more recon trip, maybe tonight…”

Clarke stood.

“Then we’ll loot the armory and—”

“And blow up part of the building,” Clarke finished for him. “With our friends inside.”

Bellamy fell silent, turning to look at her.

She tried to ignore the look on his face, a mixture of pain and frustration. “This is reckless and this is wrong.”

“Thank you,” Paul said, standing up beside her with a huff. “I was sitting here listening to this, wondering if I was the only one who—”

Clarke cut him off, her eyes never leaving Bellamy’s. “We have to try diplomacy first, Bel. We have no idea where our friends are inside this… this structure, fortress, whatever you want to call it. For all we know, they could be in exactly the places you’re planning to bomb.”

Bellamy stiffened. “I thought about that,” he said through clenched teeth. “Those walls are just a defense. If we can knock them down, we can get to the heart of the structure without putting our friends at risk.”

Clarke took a deep breath. She knew Bellamy wouldn’t like it, but she had to speak. “Why do we have to attack at all?” she asked, turning to face the others. “Shouldn’t we explore every option available to us?”

Bellamy let out a short, bitter laugh. “You really think talking to these monsters is an option?”

Clarke blinked hard, trying to avoid the scorn in his face. “Paul and I talked about this last night. We think there’s a way to make a tactical and peaceful approach that will allow our loved ones to come home safely. We will listen to the demands of these… raiders.”

“These murderers,” Bellamy shot back.

“And we will offer a counterproposal, keeping the lines of communication open as long as we can in the hopes of a peaceful solution. Meanwhile, we can use that time to come up with a plan B that might be a little less…” She turned away from Bellamy, bracing herself for his reaction. “Rash. More strategically viable.”

Even without looking, she could feel the anger radiating from him. “And if our friends are killed in the meantime?” Bellamy asked, striding toward her. “My brother. My little sister? Are you really prepared to gamble with their lives?”

“Are you?” Clarke’s voice rose, her fists balling with anger. She refused to let him make her feel like some callous, uncaring person just because she wanted to exercise caution. “Because that’s what you’re bringing to us right now, Bel! A huge, reckless, crazy gamble.”

“Crazy,” Bellamy repeated. “You really want to throw that word at me right now?”

“You know what’s crazy?” Paul said. “Risking our lives to save people who might already be dead.”

The word sucked the air out of the woods around them. Cooper winced, and next to her, Clarke saw Jessa go pale.

Paul threw his hands up. “I’m just saying what everybody’s thinking! That’s a variable we need to keep in mind. There’s no sense in putting our own lives at risk until we know that there are people left in there to save.”

“They’re not dead,” Bellamy said in a low, dangerous voice. “And I’m not going to stand here while you cowards come up with excuses to abandon them.”

Vale cleared her throat. “He has a point. We’re working with limited information. We need to gather more before we can make a—”

“You might need to. But I don’t.” Bellamy turned around and started away, waving for Felix to follow. “We know where the armory is. We can take it from here.”

“No!” Clarke shouted, hurrying after him. “Bellamy, you can’t. This will put everything at risk… their lives at risk, you’ve got to see that!”

When he turned, his eyes were cold. “The only thing I see is a bunch of cowards, too scared to do what they swore to do.” He scanned the others quickly; then his gaze darted back to Clarke, pinning her with a glare. “Or is selfish a better word?”

She tried to reply, but couldn’t. Her chest was too tight, her heart aching, her blood too hot.

Bellamy turned away again, nodding at Luke. “You coming?”

Luke half rose, then looked to Clarke, wavering. She mouthed, please, and he sat back down.

Bellamy snorted. “That’s fine. I’ll wing it.”

“No, you won’t,” Paul said. “Stand down, Bellamy.”

“I’m not one of your guards,” Bellamy snapped. “And I think you mean Councilor Blake.”

Frustration bubbled up hot in Clarke’s chest. “Is that what this is really all about, Bellamy?” she asked. “You don’t feel like you’re getting the respect you deserve? Are you really going to endanger our friends’ lives to prove a point?”

His face turned white. “I’m trying to save them,” he spat. “We have no idea what’s going on in there—” He pointed toward the fortress. “They could be torturing Wells. Octavia could be in pain. And you’re all just content to sit there, doing nothing.”

“You’re not the only one who’s worried about someone you love,” Jessa snapped, stepping forward. “We’re all desperate for this mission to be a success. But we only have one shot, and we have to make it count.”