Chapter: What Are We Becoming? Part 2

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After questioning about the group within her mind, Arla runs back to the camp and she saw that everyone was crowding around Bellamy tent with Murphy in front of everyone.

"Bring out the girl, Bellamy!" Murphy shouted, pacing in his spot.

Arla stood away from everyone, slightly hidden by bushes as she watched this whole thing take place. There was no way that Murphy is going to let this go, even if it was just a little girl, Murphy was an unbalance individual.

"Bring the girl out now!"

There is muttering inside Bellamy camp, almost sounding like an argument was going on.

"You want to build a society, princess? Let's build a society. Bring her out." Murphy shouted, staring down Finn as Finn open up the tent flat to look at them before ducking back within.

After a few seconds of Finn showing himself, Bellamy appeared out of the tent and slowly begins to walk forwards, but stop as Murphy walked the rest of the way up to Bellamy with a craze look.

"Well, well, well, looks who decided to join us."

"Dial it down and back off." Bellamy firmly stated.

"Or what? What are you gonna do about me? Hang me?"

"I was just giving the people what they wanted." Bellamy admitted making Arla to slightly roll her eyes as she knew Bellamy did that a lot.

"Yeah. Yeah, that's a good idea. Why don't we do that right now? So, who here wants to see the real murderer hung up? All in favor?" Murphy turn to face the group, raising his hand in the air to take in votes that agree with his thinking process.

There is murmuring around the group, not wanting to side with Murphy as no one likes Murphy and how he acted around the camp. Thus, the only ones that raised their hands were his buddies.

"I see. So, it's okay to string me up for nothing, but when this little bitch confesses, you want to let her walk? Cowards! All of you are cowards!" Murphy shouted at all of them.

"Hey, Murphy! Murphy. It's over." Bellamy step closer to Murphy, getting into his face to firmly state this.

"Whatever you say, boss." Murphy calmly said causing Bellamy to turn and begin to walk away. But, Murphy had other ideas and not letting this whole thing go. Instead, he reached down to grab a piece of wood and slam it across Bellamy's head, knocking him to the ground.

"Son of a bitch!" Octavia shouted while Jasper tried to hold her back.

"Hey!" Jasper shouted to Murphy, but Murphy decks him in the face causing him to go down allowing Octavia to run around them and fall to her knees beside her brother.

"Come on. Let's get the girl." Murphy waved his hand for his buddies to follow him and went right to Bellamy's tent, flipping it open then throwing it down.

"Charlotte! Charlotte, I know you can hear me! And when I find you, you are gonna pay!" Murphy shouted before running towards an opening in a wall with his buddies to begin the hunt.

Arla runs her hands over her face before she walked to an opening in the wall, but a hand grabbed her wrist making her to turn around to see a crying Octavia.

"Can you check Bell over?"

"Sure." Arla nodded, letting Octavia drag her over to Bellamy, who was groaning and rubbing the back of his head.

"Let me see."

"I'm fine."

"Yeah, sure you are." Arla muttered, checking the back of his head and seeing that there was no blood, only a nice bump.

"There's no blood, only a huge bump. Got you good." Arla stood up and she stepped back as Octavia helped Bellamy off of the ground.

Arla turn away and she went back to walking to the opening, to leave this camp and to explore around. Exploring calms her mind as she couldn't stay around a camp where everyone would instantly turn on each other with just a few words. She was admitting of hating the ways her own people were.

And so, Arla walked through the forest and into the direction of where the bunker was that she had found two days ago. Scanning the ground, she paused as she saw the familiar latch and she pulled it open then enters, shutting it shut behind her.

Grabbing the lantern by the ladder, she turned it on and she begin walking towards the table in the small kitchen. She comes to a stop upon seeing another marigold on the table making a small smile to come onto her lips.

"You like?"

A scream escapes her and she swings the lantern behind her, but she missed whoever it was. Another light turned on to show Nyko making her to let out a relief sigh before catching him off guard by smacking her left hand off his chest.

"My god, Nyko, why don't you scare me some more!?" Arla exclaimed, turning away from him to set the lantern on the table while picking up the marigold with a small grin.

Nyko sets the other lantern across the room in the sitting area before he picked up another lantern to put it at the other end of the bunker. Now, the whole bunker was dimly lit for them.

"The shouts of you sky people has reached our ears."

"Sorry about that. Some craziness has been going on that I have to get away. I can't stand the way everyone is." Arla mumbled, resting her head in her left hand while she twirls the marigold by its stem in her right.

"You come here?"

"Yes. I'm thinking about moving here to get away from them. I can focus on the herbs without having to worry that one of the delinquent asshole would ruin it or steal it for their own needs. I'll be a medical help when needed to be though. But here, I can focus and not have a constant headache from them." Arla explained, looking away from the marigold to stare at Nyko, seeing that he was hanging on every word that she had said.

"Delinquent?"

"All of those teenagers were criminals back home in space. Broke the law and got locked up instead of floated, or in order words, executed because they are under eighteen. They sent a hundred down to see if Earth is livable again."

"And you?"

"I was sent down to be of medical help by my aunt. I'm not a criminal and I'm not exactly a teenager anymore." Arla explained to him, setting the marigold down and she begin to pick at her nails.

"What are your people like, Nyko?"

Nyko eyes her with his pale blue eyes before he looked away with his arms crossed over his chest.

"We are warriors that survived the harshness of what the forest brings us. There is many of us, but we have clans."

"What is your clan?" Arla sat up straight in the chair, highly interested in learning more about Nyko and the other grounders.

"The Woods clan."

"We are in your territory, aren't we?"

"Yes."

"We're so screwed." Arla mumbled, slouching in the seat and letting out a sigh.

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Nyko eyes scan over her before looking away and moving a bit on his feet before looking back at her, seeing that she was staring back at him with her bluish green eyes. She was his secret as he has been going into the forest to get herbs, but come by this bunker to see if she was around. At times, his clan leader, Indra, would have a group of them to go out and scout out the sky people.

He would watch Arla move around the sky people camp. Then he had been caught by a good friend of his that is like a brother, Lincoln.

For Lincoln, he lives on his own away from the clan's village and he has found the time to scout the sky people too. However, it appeared that Lincoln has taken interest in one of the girl's in the camp as he would only study her. Nyko knew that Lincoln will not tell anyone about Arla since Nyko knows Lincoln wanted the girl he has been studying too.

The thought of taking Arla back to the village, Nyko could simply state that she will be useful for medical needs. Even though, Nyko came to realization after meeting Arla that she was one stubborn yet determine young woman. He found her interesting and pleasant to be around.

"Your people will be in danger."

"Because of your people getting sick and tire of our antics…I figure." Arla muttered, running her hands on her face before dropping them onto the table.

Seeing how angry yet upset she was becoming, Nyko slowly stepped towards her and he pulled out the chair near her making her eyes to flicker up at him. Slowly, Nyko sat himself down and he stared at her with compassionate expression.

"Not you."

Her eyes instantly widen upon his reply.

"What do you mean, not me?" Arla slowly asked.

Nyko stared into her blueish green eyes that held so much curiosity for his comment. He knew that if his clan was to ever move in on the sky people, he would go after her and get her out of there. She was valuable in medical sense, but she was starting to become someone important too. Someone to look forwards too and someone new, who listens and has decent conversations with him.

"You're important." Nyko found himself admitting to her.

"In what way?"

"Many." Nyko replied, not wanting to go into detail about why he found her so intriguing and refreshing to have around.

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Arla stared at Nyko with raised eyebrows before she slowly nodded her head. She knew that healers were scarce to his people, but she could see in his eyes that there was something more that he wished not for her to know.

"Short answers. I feel like that is all I'm ever going to get out of you."

"Not always." Nyko replied, hiding his amusement as she narrow her eyes at him for giving her yet another short answer.

"How do you know much about plants?" Nyko asked her as he was curious about her medical background when it comes to herbs.

"When we came down from space, I had made sure to pack old medical herb usage book just in case. Thankfully I did so." Arla told him while grabbing her backpack and begin to dig through it to find the said books.

Pulling out the one that she mostly used for exploring the woods and searching for herbs, Arla held it out to Nyko, who slowly accepted the book from her. He slowly opened the book and he started flipping through, his eyes widening by the seconds at the information before his eyes.

"Helpful?"

"More than you know." Nyko lowly replied, his eyes trained on the book within his hands and flipping through pages after pages.

A small smile comes onto Arla lips as she couldn't help but study how Nyko became greatly happy and intrigue over this book. Arla continued to watch the excited Nyko flip through the book before he stopped reading through it to look up at her, realizing that she has been studying him.

"This is very helpful. Would you allow me to use it?"

"Go ahead as long as you return it safe and sound to me." Arla told him.

"Of course." Nyko nodded, glancing down at the book within his hands before looking back at her, feeling like he needed to give something to her.

Setting the book down on the table, Nyko reached into his shirt and pulled out a necklace with a single sharp canine tooth hanging off it. He had made it when he was younger. Pulling it off, he held it out to her.

"No, no, I cannot accept that, Nyko."

"Why not?"

"Because it is yours." Arla told him.

"And this book is yours. You hold onto the necklace while I hold onto the book. We will know that the other will return our things to each other because we have each other things." Nyko explained to her.

Realizing the exchange, Arla gives him a small grin before she reached out for the necklace. Accepting the necklace, Arla slipped it on over her head and she looked down at the canine tooth resting against her chest. Gently caressing the tooth, Arla didn't realize that Nyko was eyeing her with a grin as he felt happy to see that she was happy with the small gift.

Standing up from the table, Nyko grabbed the book and he started walking towards the ladder. However, he paused when he hears Arla's chair move back and then her footsteps coming up behind him.

Turning to face her, Nyko found himself looking down into her pale blueish green eyes that seem to have this extra twinkle in them. Her right hand clenching the canine tooth that was hanging off the leather rope.

"Be safe on your journey back, Nyko."

"You too. Will you be here more constantly?"

"Probably. With the way everyone been in camp and I cannot tolerate some, I will most likely be here. Or maybe soon I will be living here." Arla informed him, shrugging her shoulders and glancing slightly away from him before looking back up into his ocean blue eyes.

They stay silent for a few seconds before Nyko looked away as he knew that if he doesn't look away, he might do something that he couldn't control, or rather, will not stop. Turning to the ladder, Nyko grabbed onto the first bar, but stopped upon one of Arla hand's landing on his forearm.

Before Nyko can turn to face her, he felt the warm and softness of her lips against his left cheek before it was gone within a second.

"Thanks Nyko and see you later."

Looking at her now, Nyko stared at her and see that her cheeks appear slightly redder. Nyko felt his face heating up too, but he was slightly glad that he has a beard to hide most of his fluster state away.

"Thank you, Arla and see you soon." Nyko lowly replied before climbing up the ladder.

Arla stood back and she looked up as Nyko opened up the hatch, he looked down at her one last time holding her eyes for a while before he disappeared and the hatch shuts behind him.

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Hi Everyone,

It has been a while hasn't it.

Anyways, here's another chapter! Please keep on reviewing for future chapters.

Thanks!