Hiking through the deadzone with Jaha was even less fun than Murphy had thought.
After walking over dunes for so long Murphy had almost forgotten what it was like to not be tired. He longed to be back in Arkadia, even if it was mopping floors.
Coming over a large pile of sand, he saw the first sign that life had ever, of would ever, be existent in the deadzone, a cart, small if it was being towed by a horse but large if it was being pulled by people. It had large wooden wheels, and an open-topped wooden box on top, inside were a few blankets, and several gallons of sand. As they neared it, a small figure jumped out, a girl, brandishing a knife, "STAY BACK OR I'LL KILL YOU!" she threatened. "We're about to be killed by a midget." concluded Murphy's very exhausted brain. He stood back as Jaha spoke to her. She told them her sob story and that her and her recently deceased brother were travelling to the city of light, at which point Murphy had already been distracted by intrusive thoughts, he started thinking about when the 100 first landed on the earth. Until he was snapped back to reality as Jaha called for water. Murphy started forward, reaching for his canteen, when Caspien grabbed his arm, "Wait, we hardly-" Caspien started, but Murphy's head had immediately clouded over from anger, "Another person who thinks they can control me! I'm going to freaking kill you! I'm giving her the damn water!" he screamed internally, "Touch me again and I'll end you." Murphy stated instead, turning to see Jaha give him a disapproving stare. "Let me fix that" he thought, "In a non-criminal way." he amended. He stepped toward the girl, giving her his full attention for the first time, immediately he realized she was super hot (in more ways than one). He hands her the water, which she drinks fiercely, "Heh, you look like you haven't drank in weeks!" Murphy was about to say, but stopped himself because he realized how dumb it would sound, as she probably hadn't. She hands him back the canteen, as Jaha asks her name, "Emori." she responds. Murphy thought that there might be more important questions to ask her, like "Are you single?", but he blocked those thoughts out of his head, "You don't even know this girl, you are NOT into her." He told himself, but he couldn't help feeling a little happy when she offered to take them to the city of light, at the low cost of them pulling her cart.
As they walked, Murphy and Emori fell into stride next to each other. After about half an hour, he broke the silence "So, what made you leave your village, and try to cross the beach from hell?" He asked...silence…"Come on, take my mind off all the fun we're having," he urged. "If I told you, you would not look at me the same." Emori responded, "Yeah maybe, but then again I might surprise you." he said. Murphy paused as emotion swirled through his head, he was embarrassed that she had noticed him looking at her, and he was kind of annoyed that she had crushed his attempt at small talk, he also felt an insane attraction to her right then, because as he discovered, her being a fellow outcast was a major turn on to him. He pushed those feelings down, to be replaced with curiosity. "Now I'm interested, what'd you do?" he continued, trying not to blush or stutter, or anything else that would cause crippling humiliation, because he really didn't want to have to run away further into the dead zone, to shrivel up and die... he was actually kind of against dying. "It was not my decision to leave." she said quietly, staring at the ground. He didn't want to push her, but his curiosity won out, so he asked "Kicked out?", she shot him a look, opened her mouth to say something, but she seemed to think better of it, "What about you, why are you out in the deadzone?" she said quickly, obviously changing topics. Murphy closed up like an anemone being prodded, responding with the truth of what he was thinking, "As you're one of the people who doesn't hate me at the moment...I don't think I want to blow it…". Emori looked at him, a mischievous look in her eyes that Murphy found incredibly attractive, "Now i'm interested." she dared. God, everything that she did made Murphy's crush on her grow. "You really wanna know? Fine. I killed two people, tried to kill two more...I had my reasons but nobody cared...I'm the bad guy." he stated, letting the words hang in the air, Emori just looked at him, "See? Told you I'd blow it." he said, feeling like his heart was being swallowed up by a snake with led spikes in its throat. He attempted to walk faster so he wouldn't be able to see the look of disgust inevitably forming in her eyes, but she stopped, sticking out her arm in front of him. He steeled himself up and looked at her, Emori waited until the rest of the group passed them by. Murphy couldn't help but feel a little horny at being alone with her. She moved her arm over to her other hand, and started unwrapping a strangely shaped glove Murphy had not noticed before, the fabric fell away revealing that Emori's hand was horribly disfigured. She watched him, searching in his face for what he thought. He was surprised, yes, disgusted, no. He did indeed find it slightly weird, but all he could think was that Emori was forced out of her home because of a birth defect, he wanted to punch the people who did that, in his eyes there was nothing wrong with her...he hadn't even realized she had began to speak, "My people saw me as a stain on the bloodline, a frikdreina." she said, "Screw 'em'' Murphy responded, "I think it's pretty badass." Emori had started walking away, but she looked back to say "Liar", she had a tiny smile on her face.
They didn't talk anymore after that, though they did get a shift of pulling the cart together. Murphy thought about what she'd said. "Imagine being betrayed by your people...I don't have to, I have been, more than once...Imaging losing everyone you care about...I don't have to, I only ever really cared about my parents, and they both died...I'm not an outcast 'because I'm disfigured, I'm an outcast 'because of my charm, and personality I guess… she's a survivor, well so am I." he thought. They were so similar you'd be hard pressed to find a difference. He felt like they got each other, or atleast have known eachother for way longer than one day…"Stop it." he chided himself, but he couldn't stop thinking about her. The way everything she said sounded like sarcastic humour. The way her body moved, oh, that made him hard. Sneaky little thoughts of ripping off her clothes kept popping into his mind, that he would beat back with an imaginary hammer.
After pulling the cart around for 3 hours, he was about ready to ditch it somewhere, but he thought Emori probably wouldn't let him. They crossed six huge dunes, and made it to a small, flat area that looked like a dried up lake, completely surrounded by taller sand piles. Almost immediately after they enter a man on horseback appears on a dune in front of them, "THAT'S FAR ENOUGH!" he yells, everyone in Murphy's group, who has a gun, points them at the man, Jaha yells for them to lower their weapons, though none do. "NOBODY MOVE!" yells the man on the dune, Murphy thinks to himself "well...fuck.". Before he can even react physically, Emori grabs him and thrusts a knife against his throat! "WHAT THE HELL!" he wants to scream. She had betrayed them...she had betrayed him...just like everyone else has, but just for the sake of doing so he rasps out "what are you doing?" she ignores him, snuffing out any small glimmer of hope that he had. "Everyone put your weapons and supplies in the cart!" Emori orders, "and no one gets hurt!". Murphy was faintly aware of Jaha attempting to reason with her, and the stranger on the dune, but he was mostly trying to hold in his anger, and not slit his own throat on the blade against it. 70% of his mind was crumbling, and breaking down. 25% of his mind was a raging ball of fire that wanted to destroy everything in a 20 mile radius. But that small 5% of his mind left was simply realising that this was the first time he'd touched Emori, he could feel her chest rising and falling beneath him. Even though he was bent backwards, with a knife at his throat, and a traitorous bitch behind him, developed a huge boner. He was really hoping his choice of baggy cargo pants hid this because he really didn't need to add to his own embarrassment, "'John Murphy, 17, Killed by his crush. Though he was killed, he went down with a huge boner.' yeah, that would suck." he thought.
He escaped his own thoughts long enough to spit a few words at Jaha, "How's your faith holding up, Jaha?" he wanted it to be a biting remark, and also be sick last words but he couldn't tell the effect because Emori immediately hissed "Shut up." and pressed the knife a little further into his throat. Sadly Jaha responded to Murphy's words with "Unwavering.", and then proceeded to say "You don't want to do this, let's find the city of light together!", "Thanks, but no." Emori responded, rather politely. Murphy quickly tried to twist free, resulting in Emori wrapping her free arm around him, her hand sliding under his shirts. His eyes grew wide, and a hot spike of lust shot down his back. He swiveled his head slightly to glance at her, and she met his eyes, a moment of sexual need passed through both pairs eyes, Emori quickly averted her gaze, and pushed the knife against Murphy's throat, forcing his head further backwards. The man on horseback shouted for Emori to hurry up, "Now, everyone back away from the cart and get on your knees!" she ordered. Jaha and the others shuffled away from the cart. All, except Jaha, knelt. "You too." she growled at him. Murphy was waiting for the moment when she would say "Now, to make an example…" and slit his throat, but to his surprise she didn't, instead, she quickly loosened her hold on him, spun him around, and shoved him to his knees in front of her. He felt so vulnerable. Prey to her every whim. He fixed her with his most intense and angry stare. "Surprise...you're just like everyone else." he spat. He was so wound up in his own hurt, that he almost missed her expression change from a sad "I gotcha" look, to a hungry/longing one, as she quickly raked her eyes over him, though she tried to hide it by plastering on a poker face.
She knelt beside him for a few moments, whispering, then stood, "Good luck, John" she said, and then slammed the hilt of her knife into his head, knocking him out.
He came to several hours later, her words immediately started buzzing in his head. He shouldn't trust her, that much was obvious, but he wanted to, and he had a strange feeling that this time...she spoke the truth.