So this chapter is considerably shorter than the first one, but goes over a longer period. All I can say on the matter is if you are unsatisfied with the length, life sucks and then you die. I'd probably do longer chapters if people gave some reviews. Hint hint, wink wink. Also, I hope I'll update again next Wednesday, but as I mentioned in the previous chapter; I'm an asshole.
Clarke had began to lead the way to what I eventually learned was Mt. Weather. Apparently, we were dropped on the wrong mountain, and we had to walk to get our food supply. I felt like I should've been more bothered by this, but I was too overwhelmed then to even care.
Reed was overjoyed, and went through bouts of skipping, and jumped around from person to person. Octavia and the other brunnette seemed to be in their own world at the beginning of the hike, conversing deeply to each other in hushed tones.
It was an amazing walk, but unfortunately for myself I was too absorbed in the fact that I had seen Murphy to even enjoy it.
"That's it." Reed yelled, making everyone except for the older brunette jump slightly. "Let's go about. I need names people. For all you listening, I'm Reed Walters. And for those of you in the cheap seats," Reed cupped her hands around her mouth and turned around, facing Finn and Clarke whom were leading us. "I was imprisoned because my parents made me help them scavenge."
Clarke visibly cringed at Reed's words, and she started walking faster. Finn glanced over his shoulder momentarily before shaking his head, a sly smile forming on his face.
"Your turn, Miles of Riles." Reed grabbed my elbow, and I grabbed her forearm back.
"I'm Riley." I began, before being nudged sharply in the chest by Reed's elbow. "Parker. Riley Parker. I stole food, because I was hungry, and my food had been stolen from me."
"Are you two related?" The older brunette asked, and noticing the raised brow from Reed, she quickly added, "I'm June Faulkner, and I've been best friends with Bellamy and Octavia for nearly my whole life, which is how I ended up here. I'm a linguist, incase you were curious."
Reed smiled widely at June's response, and quickly dived into how my father's father was her mother's mother's brother. I exchanged a brief glance with Monty, who was smiling, and then quickly he darted his eyes to Jasper. I forced myself to look over and watch Jasper as he trailed after Octavia, then rolled my eyes, and immediately began regretting joining this trip.
Jasper swung over to the over side of the river, landing very ungracefully. Reed snorted, and I rolled my eyes at her. Jasper quickly sprung back up onto his feet, turned around to looked us. More importantly, to looked at Octavia. Octavia beamed at him, and June nudged her, which only increased her smile.
"We are apogee!" Jasper shouted, throwing his hands in the air. Everyone screamed back at him with excitement, and I grabbed the apogee from Finn. I tried to ignore Finn and Clarke, whom were staring into each other's eyes in front of me. Clearing my throat to get them to move, they didn't even look over at me as they stepped aside.
How freaking rude. They simply moved over, and I slowly moved back as I got ready to swing.
Everything that happened next happened so fast. By the time my feet were off the ground, and I was swinging in the air, Jasper had been harpooned. I heard screaming from behind me, and a sharp cutting noise from above me.
They shot the apogee with an arrow, effectively cutting it. I began falling on Jasper's side of the river, and extremely ungracefully fell on my back. My head hit the ground with a loud crack, and I knew if I hadn't gotten a concussion on the dropship, I sure did now.
My vision fluttered right before the world went black.
Most of my childhood I was hungry. The only happy times I ever had were with John Murphy. He gave me food, food that was meant for him. He shared everything with me. He even shared his father, and his mother for a time before his father died and she lost her mind.
Murphy wasn't a kind person to most people. He was protective of me, and landed himself in the skybox to protect me. His plan backfired though, and not even a year later I was in there too. He was in the more guarded section though, on a different floor, and I thought I would never see him again. He would turn eighteen before me, and get floated.
When his father died, Murphy gave me his father's ring. I gave him my mother's, who died giving birth to me. That way, we would always have something of each others. We were extremely lame kids, incase you didn't catch onto that yet. I still had his father's ring, although I was doubtful he had my mother's.
I woke up every few hours it seemed like, only to feel intense pain. It was worse than not eating for days. Instead of the pain in my stomach outweighing any bruise I could get, it was the opposite. How I wish I could go back to being hungry. Or even just go to the skybox again. Go back to longing of seeing Murphy again, but being able to laugh with Reed.
Jasper wouldn't stop screaming. Every time I woke up it was because he screamed louder than normal. My head felt like it was being crushed by a dropship landing on top of it, and his screaming was making it worse.
Don't get me wrong, at first I felt bad for him. I know he was it a lot more pain than I was. But after a while of his pain making my pain worse, it got annoying. By the time my head felt even remotely okay enough to open my eyes, I immediately regretted it.
I was tied to the base of a tree. Tiny cuts laced my entire body, and even more curiously had been covered with some sort of plant-based bandage. The cuts weren't big enough to do any intense harm, but big enough to continue bleeding through the poultice. I could still hear jasper crying, but I couldn't see him. He was close, and I had a feeling he was tied to the other side of the tree.
"Jaz?" I tried speaking his name, and it came out extremely hoarse. My whole throat felt like I hadn't had a drink in a week, and had been through a fire. And to be fair, that could all have been true. It had reminded me of when I had a cold when I was a kid, and Murphy had tried scaring me in the halls. I had screamed so loud I couldn't speak for a week after.
"Riley?" I heard him groan, and I could tell the voice was coming from behind. After groaning my name, he eventually went back to screaming. I could tell he was in immense pain, but we were both going to be in even more pain if he kept screaming.
"Remember that two headed deer we saw?" I yelled, hoping he could hear me. He either screamed in response, or just in general. "Well, your screaming is probably attracting things totally way worse than that deer." He didn't respond for a bit, until he screamed again, but this time slightly quieter. "I appreciate the effort, but screaming at all is a total no go." I continued yelling, making it all way worse, per usual.
"Shut up Parker" Jasper screeched, and I tried moving. Which was a total bad idea, by the way. Moving caused all my cuts to start bleeding again.
When the rescue gang finally showed up, I was beyond out of it. I felt almost high from lack of food, water, and blood. Also the head injury, which, I seemed to continue forget about.
Murphy was the first person I saw. He shook me awake. His warm hand rested on my cheek, and I was too out of it to even stop myself from leaning into it. By the time I felt the ropes loosen on me, someone obviously untying them, I finally was able to choke out; "Jasper first."
What I was trying to say was, 'Hey, Jasper is being a total pissy bitch who is like dying. Please save him first, I'm not dying.' But apparently it came out a lot more self-sacrificing than that.
"Don't worry, they already untied your precious boyfriend." Murphy hissed, his mood going sour as he slowly pulled me away from the tree.
I snorted at this, the idea of me dating nerdy Jasper. Of course I didn't mention that I wasn't dating him, I was pretty much high as a kite from dehydration. And the head injury, which, I seemed to continue forget about. Instead, I heard Reed mumble, "For the twentieth time, they aren't dating."
Murphy picked me up easily, to him I must've been like picking up some feathers. "Don't, I'm bloody." I tried explaining that I was going to bleed everywhere on him, and probably had already covered him by him simply picking me up, but instead he chuckled.
"Shut up, Rhy." He whispered, and even though the act of being carried made my whole body scream with pain, I was still able to smile before I passed out again.