Not Enough Time
Written by: Erin
"Bellamy! Bellamy, come in! Do you read me? Bellamy, pick up!"
Bellamy stopped in his tracks just as he was about to climb on board the prison ship; he didn't know how much time was left before the valley was to be destroyed, but time didn't appear to be on their side right now. But the unmistakable sound of Monty's voice over the radio in his pocket alerted him and he snatched it in his hand,
"Monty! Where the hell are you guys-"
"Bellamy..." Bellamy was able to make out the tremble in his friend's voice and his heart started to sink,
"Murphy's been shot...McCreary shot him..."
Panic flooded Bellamy and he froze,
"What?"
"Murphy's been SHOT, Bellamy!" Monty shouted and in the background, the older man was able to hear Emori's paniced voice as she shouted instructions and his heart raced as he overheard Monty turn his attention to her,
"I don't care how you stop the bleeding, Emori; just find something to stop it with!" His attention then turned back to the radio,
"He took a bullet for me, Bellamy...McCreary was about to kill me and Murphy jumped in front of that gun...He's taken multiple bullets, I don't know how many!" At Bellamy's silence, Monty shouted,
"Bellamy! Do you hear me?!"
Pushing back all the fear, the terror in his gut, Bellamy gulped and refused to let any tears fall as he shouted back,
"Stay right where you are, Monty; I'm on my way!" As the radio went silent, he turned back towards Clarke, who was still standing at the entrance to the prison ship and he knew that she had heard everything by just the look on her face.
"Bellamy-"
"I'm not leaving my friends!"
Clarke watched in fear as Bellamy finally turned back around and started running in the opposite direction of the waiting ship. Away from all of them, away from her...again. Looking around her in desparation and seeing that everybody in her visual range where all safely aboard the Eligius prisoner ship, Clarke glanced over her shoulder and saw that Madi was safely inside as well, standing with Echo and Raven. Without another thought, she started running as well down the ship ramp.
As she got closer towards Bellamy, she shouted,
"I'm coming with you!" She watched as he stopped in his tracks for a brief moment and looked her directly in the eyes. Gratitude, relief, love and a deep rooted fear where shinning in his dark eyes and Clarke was just able to make out the tears sparkling in them. Reaching for his hand, she gave it a tight squeeze,
"We're going to save them together; we're going to save Murphy, Bell. But we have to be quick, there isn't much time left."
Nodding his head without speaking, knowing that if he did he would break down, Bellamy squeezed Clarke's hand in return in a silent thank you before releasing it and the duo took off running. The clock was ticking.
And Murphy's life was at stake.
"Emori, Monty, just GO!" Murphy growled in agony as he slumped against a nearby tree and took his weight off of Emori's and Monty's shoulders,
"Just go without me-"
"No, you idiot!" Emori shouted, moving to try and bring his wounded left arm back over her shoulders so she could continue carrying him,
"We're not leaving you!"
"You have to," He whispered with a shake of his head, pulling carefully away from her,
"Please...Go and get on the ship...there isn't much time..." He pressed his hand against the gunshot wound in his abdomen and winced in pain, just as fire burned through the bullet hole in his shoulder. How in the hell was he still conscious after this? Looking down at the sopping blood on his hands, he closed his blue eyes in acceptance at his situation and continued in a whisper,
"You can't stay here-"
"Are you serious, man?!" Monty shouted, kneeling down so that he was eye-level with his friend. He nodded silently at Emori's bandana and she understood the silent demand; she quickly unwrapped it from around her head and placed into his waiting hand and he didn't waste a second before pressing it firmly to the wound in Murphy's stomach,
"You can't be serious!" He watched as Murphy started to open his mouth to tell them that he was, but interrupted him,
"Tough, because we're not going anywhere without you; even if I have to drag your ass back to that ship by myself, we're not leaving you behind!"
"Monty, there's no time-"
"Remember six years ago when you came back for me after saving everyone's life with that hydrogenerator? Remember that, because I do! You had almost no time, yet you saved me anyways. Well guess what, buddy? Now, I'm saving you, whether you like it or not," He reached for Murphy's arm and slung it over his shoulder, tightly clinging to his waist to keep him upright, while with the other kept his hand firmly on the bandana, trying to keep him from bleeding out.
"I can't let you guys do this-"
"Watch us," Emori growled and forced John's other arm around her shoulders and started walking them again when a loud cry of pain sounded from beside her and her grip, and Monty's grip combined, wasn't strong enough to catch him as he fell to the ground again,
"John!" She knelt before him and placed both hands on his shoulders. Fear twisted in her gut as she noticed it was getting harder for him to breathe,
"John! Hey! Stay with me, John; you're not going to die, I won't allow that-"
Laughing painfully, Murphy opened his eyes and looked straight into her eyes,
"Admit it, Emori; I'm just dead weight right now," She was starting to object when he interrupted,
"I'm not going to be able to make it back to that ship...There's not enough time. I'm bleeding out and you both know it." He looked down at the blood - his own blood - and then moved one hand tentatively to place it against his neck, the place where McCreary had taken his knife. On top of getting shot, the bastard had almost slit his throat, too, and would have if Emori hadn't saved his life,
"I'm sorry-"
"You're not going to die, John; not on my watch," Emori was unable to stop her voice from cracking. She dared herself to look down at the blood seeping through her bandana; it wasn't slowing down any time soon and if they didn't move, then they for sure would be dead.
But they weren't dead yet. There was still time-
"I know you think there's time, but there's not," John interrupted her thoughts,
"Only you can make it safely back-"
Emori was about to reply when a sound of running came from directly behind them and she whirled around, startled and frightened. But then she saw who it was.
Bellamy and Clarke.
"There they are!" Clarke shouted and Emori and Monty both sighed in the utmost relief as the two raced towards them. Bellamy got to them first and fell to his knees beside all of them, his eyes immediately going to the pool of blood on not just Murphy's shirt, but his hands and Emori's bandana.
"Oh my God," Clarke spoke up before Bellamy could wrap his mind around what he was seeing in front of him, and Emori watched as she also fell to her knees beside Bellamy,
"Murphy?"
"Murphy!" Bellamy cried and he took his friend's hand away from the gash only briefly, but replaced it as more blood started gooshing out,
"Murphy? Hey, hey, hey," He brought his hands up and cupped his friend's face as they all saw that he had closed his eyes yet again and wasn't responding,
"Don't you dare do this to me, man. Murphy!"
Still no response.
"MURPHY!" He shouted in desperation and a few seconds later, their friend's eyes fluttered open and Bellamy saw nothing but pain shining in them.
"Bell...what are you doing here-"
"What do you think I'm doing here?" Bellamy demanded, still holding onto Murphy's face to keep his eyes locked on him,
"Getting you to that ship." He watched as Murphy let out a long, pain-filled sigh,
"You're going to be okay."
"That's not true..."
"Yes, it is. We'll get you to that ship, and Abby will fix you up and you'll be okay, man; I promise."
"I can't let any of you help me any further; you need-you need to save yourselves," Murphy moved his gaze away from Bellamy's eyes, unable to look into them any longer.
"Hey," Bellamy lowered his voice and turned his friend's face back towards him,
"Look at me, damnit." He waited for Murphy to look at him, but when he still refused to, Bellamy took a different approach, one that he didn't think he would have to, but he knew his friend well enough by now to know what was going on inside his head,
"You're not worthless, Murphy." He watched as Murphy's eyes closed at his words,
"You're not worthless. You know why you're not? Because you're a hero. You're a hero, Murphy."
"That's not true," Murphy tried to object.
"It is true. You're a hero," Bellamy repeated as he waited for his friend to finally meet his gaze and he was greeted with nothing but pain,
"You're also a friend. Our brother. Our family. And you can push us away as much as you want by trying to steal your own side of the ship, but..." He attempted a smirk for Murphy's sake and was relieved when he let out a small laugh, although it was filled with pain,
"You can try that all you want, but it won't change anything. You've been through a lot these last 7 years, buddy, but you've survived all of it."
"Bellamy, stop," Murphy tried to object and he winced at the pain shooting through his whole body.
"You survived what happened to your parents, the Ark, you survived everything that I did to you when we first landed, the Grounders, Jaha's journey across the desert, Ontari, the City of Light...you survived the Death Wave 6 years ago...and you survived those years back on the Ring. Now you will survive this." Bellamy's eyes never left Murphy's as he spoke, attempting to permanently engrave it into his brain,
"All that time, you have saved us in more ways then one; now let us return that favor by helping you to that ship." Tears sparkled in Murphy's eyes and without a second thought, he pulled his friend tightly to his chest and rested a hand on the back of his head,
"Let us help you survive this." He felt Murphy nod his head against his shoulder and with a small sigh of relief, Bellamy pushed him back and placed his hand again where the bandana was still being pressed against the gunshot wound,
"I've gotcha," Pulling Murphy's arm over his shoulder, he nodded over at Clarke who wasted no time in taking his other arm to drap it over her other shoulder. Both of them gripping him tightly, Bellamy and Clarke where just pulling him to his feet when loud gunshots where heard from behind them.
It all happened so fast, none of them had time to properly react until Murphy's unmistakable cry of pain sounded from beside them and all 4 heads turned as he collapsed once again to the ground.
Whirling around in rage, Monty pulled out his gun as he saw the unmistakable figure of McCreary coming towards them. The man was still alive...but how? Hatred towards this man filling his gut, Monty aimed his gun right at McCreary's head and before the bastard could take another step, he let out a loud scream and pulled the trigger and fired multiple shots until he finally went down. Tucking his gun into the back of his pants again, he raced over to where Emori, Bellamy and Clarke where now kneeling beside Murphy again.
Only this time, it was worse.
Much, much worse.
Murphy was drifting in and out of consciousness by the time he heard the voices of his friends above him, yet all 4 of them sounded like they where miles away. Searing pain sliced through every part of his body and the voices above him - Bellamy? - where growing further and further away from him where he couldn't even make out what they where saying anymore.
Except for unmistakable shouts of someone calling his name.
But he couldn't even force himself to open his eyes all the way to look up at them; the pain was too much to bear. Every now and then, he would allow his eyelids to flutter, but they almost instantly closed each time, and he couldn't even speak up when he felt someone start to lift his body off of the ground, but soon put him back down on the forest floor. In the far distance, he was just able to barely make out the sound missels being fired. Heat, combined with the pain, consumed him; he was fading and fading by the second; all energy, all will, all attempts to try and remain conscious had faded, just like the life was slowly fading from his body.
The darkness was starting to take over him and as his ears where just able to make out Bellamy cry out his name one last time, the volume of it was getting quieter and quieter, along with the crackling of the fire. He vaguely was able to feel someone grab hold of him and just hold him to their chest, and by that time, he knew it was going to be over soon.
The darkness seemed to be beckoning to him like an old friend now, and unable to take the pain, the agony anymore, Murphy reached a hand out and grabbed hold.
Emori was shaking madly and she covered John's body with her own as the missels came raining down from the sky and sparked the large fire not far from where she and their friends where huddled. Before too long, it would spread; the entire valley would be destroyed and they would all be dead.
"We have to go! Now!" Bellamy screamed and Emori removed herself from John's body, looking up as her friend was just starting to lift John into his arms.
"Bellamy...it's too late..." Emori uttered, terrified at what she was about to do; but this was the only choice if their friends would make it back to the ship alive. John was fading; he was fading fast. And it was tearing her heart to shreads knowing there was nothing else she could do.
Nothing she could but be there with him and not leave his side.
"Emori, don't even suggest it-" Monty started to object, but Emori cut him off she quickly leaped to her feet and pulled out Monty's gun that he had just stashed away and shakily aimed it at her friends.
"Get out of here. All of you," She leaned down at John's side and aimed the gun at all 3 of them,
"Now, before it's too late."
"Are you insane?!" Clarke cried out, stepping closer, but Emori moved the gun to her head,
"Emori!"
"There's nothing to be done now; you know there isn't," She couldn't stop the tears from streaming from her dark eyes,
"He's fading quickly, if you try and bring us back to the ship...none of you will make it in time...Go. Please!"
"I can't leave you two," Bellamy choked out, looking from Emori to Murphy's lifeless form and it was then that he no longer could see the rise and fall of his friend's chest and his heart sunk,
"I can't do that-"
"I'm going to stay with him; if we have to die...we're going to die together," Emori softly sobbed, lowering the gun as she looked up at the sky. More missels could be fired at any minute, and if their friends didn't leave now, they would be caught in the crossfire,
"It's what John would want for you to do now, Bellamy."
"I can't...It's possible we can still save both of you," Bellamy continued to try and object, but stopped when Emori just shook her head.
"Do this for us, Bellamy," Glancing over at Clarke pleadingly, Emori begged,
"Get them out of here, Clarke."
Silent tears streamed down Clarke's face and she looked one last time at Murphy's too still form, then at Emori's pleading eyes, and she knew in her gut it was what needed to be done, no matter how much it would hurt all of them. Choking on a sob as she closed her eyes, she reached over and grabbed Bellamy's arm and then Monty's,
"We have to go. Now."
"No..." Monty shook his head, looking back and forth between all of them. How in the hell could this be happening? None of this was supposed to happen.
"Go!" Emori screamed, raising the gun one more time at her friends,
"Go! Take them and go, Clarke!" She kept the gun on them as Clarke, with the strength and bravery she always admired her for, finally was able to get Bellamy and Monty to follow her. It wasn't until she saw them start running and disappear from sight that she lowered the gun one last time, dropped it to her side, and looked down at John. Finally letting out a loud gutt-wrenching cry that shook her entire being, she grabbed a hold of him and held on fore dear life. She could no longer feel his heartbeat through his shirt; and she knew right then, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was forever lost to her. Gripping him around the shoulders tighter and burried her face in his chest, she felt the heat of the fire growing closer.
"I love you, John," Emori whispered into his shoulder,
"I never stopped loving you." As she sobbed and held on as tightly as her small arms would allow, the next missels where launched from the sky at the foot of the tree.
The tree where two lovers, two former outcasts, two halves of one soul, lay huddled.
Emori looked up right as the missel aimed at her and John and she smiled brokenly through her tears. It was almost over.