Ok OK Maybe 2 more after this...It's just starting to get good I cant stop now, I need to know how this ends..
Reviews are appreciated
...
An hour later the Skaikru trio had finished getting their packs ready and Clarke and Murphy waited while Bellamy took his canteen and weapons off his saddle. Where they were going a horse would be useless.
He threw his rifle over his shoulder and handed his handgun to Murphy. Murphy turned the weapon over in his hands and smiled, he couldn't help it but it felt good to have something other than some medieval bullshit to fight with. He was never any good at close quarter fighting, shot and run, that's his motto. He tucked the gun in his pants and handed his sword to Clarke. She looked it over, smiled, nodded and stuck it the belt around her pack that already held her sword, making both now easily accessible. Clarke was never comfortable with guns, but in the last few months she'd gotten very good with heavy weapons.
Murphy looked at Bellamy "Now that's badass" he said tossing his head in her direction. Clarke has always been oblivious to what she looks like, never knowing how beautiful or fierce she could be. Dressed now in some of Niylahs clothes, her blonde hair was braided away from her face, but left flying free down her back and she stood with her hands on her hips and the two swords on her back, she was the perfect fierce Warrior Princess. 'My warrior princess' Bellamy thought to himself, the smile leaving his face, 'not his…..not anymore, well never really was.'
"We should get going" He said walking towards Niylah and reaching his arm out to her.
Niylah gasped Bellamy's forearm, "Safe travels Bellamy." She said.
"Thank you…thank you for everything." Bellamy said as Niylah turned towards Clarke.
"Take care Clarke" Niylah said pulling Clarke into a warm hug "If it goes well you come back. You are always welcome."
Clarke leans in putting her forehead against Niylah's "thank you for all you've done, and for being a friend." She kisses her lightly and whispers "And I'll make sure John, makes it home to you."
Niylah smiled a bit "If that is what he wants. Now go."
Clarke and Bellamy step off the porch and start walking slowly towards the woods.
They hear Murphy and Niylah talking and Bellamy turns to see the two in a passionate embrace.
Bellamy grunts in surprise causing Clark to look back "Don't stare Bellamy, it's rude." She pulls his arm "let's give them some space, Murphy can catch up."
"So that doesn't bother you, the two of them?" Bellamy asks as they walk slowly towards the tree line, he realizes that its none of his business and he can't believe he said that out loud.
"Them? No… No Niylah and I are good friends, no romance."
"I..ummm was referring to you and Murphy."
"Whoa… Me and Murphy?" Clarke looks stunned and nods towards the couple "they are much better together, trust me. She's good for him."
"So you and Murphy …. You haven't…. You aren't with Murphy; I mean …you know …... "
"Spit it out Bellamy" Clarke said with just a bit of an edge to her voice.
"..Slept with him, have you slept with Murphy?" Bellamy raked his hand over his face "…not my business, sorry"… he paused "but Murphy!?"
Clarke feeling fairly indignant and rightly so took a deep breath "Well yes, actually I have, every night for the last 3 and a half weeks, in caves, under trees, in run down shelters, a barn or two. Hey I even spent one night with Nyko," her voice elevating a bit "You wanna hear about that too!"
Bellamy closed his eyes trying to compose himself and his thoughts "I'm sorry" he said opening his eyes "It's just that you seemed pretty close" he shook his head "just chalk it up to the head injury"….he reached out and took her arm "I'm sorry."
"Look Bellamy, he took care of me. I don't know what I would have done the last 3 weeks if not for him." Clarke looked back at the kissing couple "And if you must know there was one night….the 2nd time we were here, I had a…. another nightmare, Murphy was trying to calm me down and Nyilah came out, we were staying in the shed and she said we could stay inside with her since I was so upset, that's when they hooked up. I just …. was…" she smiled sadly "Just along for the ride. So yea you could say we did and I'm not saying I didn't enjoy myself…." She looked back at Bellamy "but for the record he calls he Little sister. So it's not what you think."
"And it's not like I can be with anyone, not in a real relationship, it wouldn't be fair them." She shook her head "I can't…. I don't want…. Never mind" She put her hands out in a 'whatever gesture' and started again towards the woods.
"What, Clarke? You don't want 'what'?" Bellamy said walking beside her.
Clarke felt heavy tears welling up for the first time in a long time, sad tears, and the kind that can choke your soul. The kind that if started she knew would never end. She took a deep breath, stood a little taller and turned her head to look him in the eyes "I don't want to 'want' what I can't have" she sighed "so I don't 'want' anything. It's just better this way."
She turned away "Murphy if you're staying, stay, but if you're coming we have to go." She slung her pack over her shoulder and headed for the trail.
Murphy jogged a bit to catch up and quickly past Bellamy and turned back to as his former leader turned adversary turned somewhat tolerable friend who was just standing there "come on man, what's the hold up, this is your party we're going to."
Bellamy walked quickly into the woods to catch up to his friends and Niylah just stood in porch and watched as they walked deeper into the woods and murmured the travelers blessing "hashta yu soujon, Mebi oso na hit choda op nodotaim" She spoke only to the wind and watched until they were long out of sight "Ai hod op yu, John Murphy kom skiakru."
…...
They wandered through the woods for several hours, before Clarke motioned for them to stop. They had come to a small field well off the beaten track "Here," She gestured to a raise in the ground near a hillside that nature had all but obscured. After she moved back some brush and leaves she revealed a round entrance that extend about a foot above the ground and was covered with a heavy iron top.
Murphy rolled his eyes and tilted his head to the left "The sewers? You couldn't find us a nice reaper filled transit tunnel?" he helped her move the heavy cover to the side, leaving just enough space to slip through "even after 100 years it still smells down there."
"Quit whining Murf and get in" Clarke took his pack and tossed it down the hole.
"Me? Why do I have to go first?" Murphy crossed his arms and looked at her.
Clarke huffed loudly, tossed her pack down and started to put one leg over before he stopped her….
"Fine, I'll go first but you owe me." Murphy got both legs over and started down the ladder.
Clarke insisted that Bellamy go next and then she followed and she struggled to get the cover back in place before she climbed the rest of the way down.
"This sewer line leads all the way into Polis and we should have you inside the city by early morning." Clarke said as they began walking using only Bellamy's flashlight to illuminate their path.
"Do reapers use these tunnels?" Bellamy asked. Remembering his time with Lincoln in the tunnels leading to the mountain and seeing the reapers up close.
"I think so, but it's rare. I heard stories when I was out here after….. after the mountain, but I haven't ever seen any in the sewers. But you do run into them in the tunnels. I guess not all have been cured and frankly I think their more dangerous now that they can't get the Red. I don't think all of them can be cured. A lot of them were on the Red a long time; it had to have done some permanent damage to their brains."
Murphy set his pack down and took out a flint and lit the torch that Niylah had fashioned for them from oiled cloth and a sturdy stick.
Clarke took the torch and gave him the flashlight "I'll take the lead; I'll recon a bit. Murphy you stay back with Bellamy." And with that she lengthened her stride and had it not been for the light of her torch she would have been out of sight.
"Hey not too far Clarke." Murphy called. "Stay within calling range."
He bent down and picked up his pack and slung it over his shoulder "She gets like this, likes to walk alone." He continues talking as they walk "Says it clears her head, but usually it's the opposite, her mind wanders and then she walks up on a snake or a bear or worse." He grunts "like when she walked up on grounder camp…..that was fun. Come on lets catch up."
Bellamy cocked an eyebrow wondering when John Murphy actually began worrying about someone other than himself.
…...
They walked in silence letting Clarke lead for nearly an hour before Bellamy finally broke the silence.
"So why are you helping Clarke? If you only needed her to get out of Polis why are you still with her? Clark says there isn't anything going on between you two?"
"Nothing going on? Well I am hurt." He sensed the King tense up, yea you never could tease him about the Princess "relax; there isn't….I mean there was that one time. But I'm guessing you don't want to hear about that." He said with a smart ass grin on his face.
"Why did you stay? Once you were out of the city you could have gone anywhere?"
"Well I didn't do it for you. I still think you're an asshole." He looked at Bellamy.
Bell nodded "Noted. But I still want to know why."
Murphy waited a moment, shrugged and said "Because she's better than us….me and you put together …she's better than us."
"Not that she's perfect. She's too damn serious, all the damn time. And she can be a little self-righteous and bossy…fuckin' bossy."
Bellamy snorted a little and smiled in the darkness at his description mostly because it was exactly right.
"But she's been the one to make the hard choices, maybe they were wrong choices, I don't know, but no one else was making them that's for damn sure. And twice she didn't let you kill me, twice she made the choice to defy you and let me live. And I didn't deserve it. And because she doesn't think she deserves anything ….and I trust her. So I don't care if you think you're still the fucking King or not,…..
I… do not… care. But she loves you and if you hurt her I will kill you. Killing isn't hard for me. Not if I think it's justified."
There was a long pause "Just watch your step….."
"Is that a threat Murphy?" Bellamy said his voice hard and annoyed at the direction this conversation had gone.
"No…..Really watch your step. There are rats in here the size of Jahas head." Murphy walks a bit faster and calls ahead "Hod up Clarke, ai lead nau."
Bellamy watch them exchange their lights wondering if he had heard Murphy right…did he say Clarke loved him?
…...
They bunked down for the night at a junction in the tunnels. The main line they walked down was still tall enough to stand in and a smaller one to the left just big enough to crawl through but not much. There was wood here probably washed in by rains, or perhaps brought here by grounders who used the tunnels occasionally.
They built a small fire and Clarke took the first watch. They only had a few hours till sun up; she would rest when they had gotten Bellamy safely to Kane. She sat where she could see in both directions and into the smaller tunnel and let her thoughts wander. She looked at Murphy sleeping peacefully on the other side of the fire…."You're up Clarke, I'm tired." He said after he got the fire started. He dropped his pack a little bit away and laid his head on it and was asleep in moments.
Bellamy sat to the right of her leaning against the wall chewing on a dried cake that Niylah had packed them.
"You should get some rest Bellamy; we have a lot of ground to cover in the morning."
He listened to Murphy's soft snoring and he took a sip of water from his canteen. "Listen I want to tell you I'm sorry about Lexa, I didn't like her and I didn't trust her, but you did and so I'm sorry that you lost her. I know she…meant something to you."
"Thank you" Clarke said not knowing what else to say "You were right by the way, about Lexa, always putting her people first."
Bellamy didn't say anything. It one point, a few lifetimes ago, he had hoped he was wrong about that.
"It's who she was. She couldn't help herself. That's how she was programed. It's what has kept the grounders alive and surviving since the bombs."
"What do you mean 'she was programmed? That she was trained to be that way?"
"Yea maybe, but mostly I think it was the AI…." She looked sideways at him "I've thought a lot about this, if the Artificial Intelligence was implanted in her at the time she became Heda, and that same AI program had been in all the other Commanders over the last 97 years, then it's like it gathered all the data collected from the previous commanders and fed it to her, in a sense she merged with all the other commanders, including the first one, the one who created the original program."
"She stopped being Lexa, the real Lexa when she received implant. That's what the conclave is about, getting that AI implanted into a new commander. Passing that data long, keeping it alive. She said that death wasn't the end, that's what she meant, that she would live on, her memories or maybe just her thought patterns, but something of her would live in the next commander. Murphy said that Allie, the AI chip that Jaha has is looking for her up grade, Allie 2. I think when you get back to Arkadia, Pike might not be your biggest threat."
They sat in silence for a while before Bellamy chuckled and Clarke looked at him "What? What's so amusing?"
Bellamy just shook his head and sighed "'cause that's what we need another threat, something worse than the grounders and more insidious than the mountain. When do we get a break Princess, a chance to just breathe and enjoy being on the ground. So far it's not been the party they promised it would be." Bellamy let his head fall back against the wall and closed his eyes. His breathing slowed a bit and she watched as he drifted, not asleep but not awake. That place he would always go to rest, but still keep everyone safe.
And she smiled and bit her lip….he called her Princess, oh she'd had missed that. She glanced at him and reached her right hand up to gently cradle his face and to encourage his head to drop softly to her shoulder, her hand rested on his knee as she listened to his breathing and kept watch.
Bellamy, though the fog of a light sleep felt her soft hair against his cheek and felt more at home than he had in a long time.
…...
Clarke watched as the fire burned itself out and except for her flashlight it was dark and except for the soft breathing of the two men on either side of her it was eerily silent. She waited another hour before waking Murphy to take the next watch and then she settled next to Bellamy and closed her eyes.
It seemed to Clarke as if only a few moments has pass before she felt Murphy shaking her shoulder with one hand , his other over her mouth and whispering in her ear "Shhhhh…someone's coming"
She sat up slowly and whispered "Any idea who?"
"Listen…." At first she didn't hear anything, and then she heard the sounds of running, metal clinging and the shouts of …
"Reapers!" Clarke exclaimed as she reached down to wake up Bellamy only to find him already on one knee.
"We need to get the hell out of here" He said as he stood up reaching for his pack and his weapon.
They begin running through the tunnel, headed towards Polis, but the reapers were on them fast. They felt arrows flying past their heads and Clarke was doing her best to stay with up the guys. One of them seemed to have her arm at any given time, dragging her along, she was fast, but they were faster. She turned her head to look back to see how close the mutant grounders were and she stumbled and took a hard fall. She gasped and was already scrambling back up when Bellamy ran back, he grabbed her and propelled her towards Murphy and away from the reapers.
The reapers are close and just as Bellamy shoves Clarke towards Murphy one of the reapers tackles him and Clarke screams "Bellamy, No!"
Murphy turned, his sidearm already drawn and gets closer to get a clear shot, the reaper falls on top of Bellamy, who claws his way out from under the dead creature as Murphy takes aim and kills another.
Clarke calls out to them "Here …Here. Shit!...NO!" The men reach her as she shines her light on a pile of debris that is blocking the tunnel. "Crap" Bellamy says "Start digging, we have to get through this."
"No …No time" Murphy says pointing towards the tunnel and hearing the terrifying sounds coming down the tunnels. He points to another small tunnel "Climb in, hurry" he yells as an arrow shoots past them.
Bellamy and Clarke turn towards the tunnel as Murphy again raises his weapon "Murphy come on" Yells Clarke.
"No" Murphy said pushing Clarke towards the small tunnel "You two go that way; I'll lead them away….."
"No!" Clarke exclaimed "No Murphy, I'm not leaving you to the reapers."
Murphy looks at Bellamy and nods towards the tunnel "Get in and take her with you"
Bellamy nods and hands Murphy his rifle and takes his handgun "Think you're going to need this more than us."
"Clarke they're coming, you have to get Bellamy to Kane. I promise I'll see you there. NOW GO!"
Clarke pauses throws her arms around him "Don't you dare die Murphy, don't you dare!"
Bellamy pulls her into the small tunnel and they crawl as quickly as they can away from the sounds of gunfire and reapers yelling and then they hear screaming and rapid gun fire and then silence. Clarke stops, and listens but can't hear anything else. The silence is deafening and telling. She starts crawling again and the tears slowly roll down her face.
...
Oh my Murphy! Damn Muse! He is always damaging my calm - Makes me cry and stuff -
I hope you're enjoying reading...I know I am enjoying writing. Let me know what you think.
Namaste
ce
