"Bellamy did it." Mara's head throbbed terribly as she glanced up from the shirt she was attempting to reattach all of the buttons to. The tall girl standing in front of her had zipped her jacket up to her neck to hide the fact that she was shirtless. Her light brown hair cascaded messily down her back, reaching just below her waist, and her lips were tugged upwards in a smirk. She made no effort to hide the lust in her eyes as she recalled the events that had led to every button being torn from her shirt. "He's an animal when you get him alone," the girl winked at Mara.
"I don't really need to know that," Mara tried to speak over her yawn as she moved onto the next button.
"There's this thing he does with his –"The girl continued, uncaring that Mara was mildly uncomfortable listening to a stranger tell her about having sex with Bellamy. The girl's over-enthusiastic voice was cut off by someone deeply clearing their throat behind her.
Mara tried to hold in the tired laugh that bubbled in her throat when the girl spun around to find Bellamy standing behind her. His arms were crossed over his chest, one of his eyebrows was quirked and he looked thoroughly unimpressed. The girl was frozen where she stood, her mouth opened and closed as she floundered for something to say.
"Hello, Amy."
"Bellamy!" The girl managed to compose herself and squeaked out her surprise. "I was just, um…I was just…" she gestured wildly at Mara, her eyes wide as she looked for a way to escape the awkward situation.
"I can come and find you once I'm finished with your shirt if you have something you need to do," Mara took pity on the girl and gave her an escape route, there was no point in making her even more embarrassed than she already was.
"Yes! Um, I mean, thank you." The girl practically ran away from Bellamy and Mara. The two watched her retreating figure and once she was out of sight, Mara let herself release the laugh she had been holding in.
"You could have been nicer to her," Mara managed to speak through her laugh.
Bellamy didn't answer other than to turn his unimpressed look on her. Mara rolled her eyes at him and returned to concentrating her wavering focus on sewing the last button on the shirt. She looked at the dwindling pile of thread next to her, sighing when she realised she was going to have to spend some of her day pulling thread from the small amount of leftover parachute.
"I didn't know you were friends with her," Bellamy broke the comfortable silence, making Mara jump as she hadn't realised that he was still standing in front of her.
"I'm not, I just met her. Why does it matter?" Mara asked nonchalantly as she pulled the thread through the button.
"It doesn't," Bellamy's voice was gruff as he spoke.
"Okay then," Mara rolled her eyes slightly before she waved the shirt in Bellamy's face. "Can you stop ripping the clothes off of the girls you sleep with, please? I'm running out of thread because of you," she scolded him playfully and scoffed when he winked at her.
"I'll keep your thread supply in mind next time," he grinned and sauntered over to her to sit down beside her. He removed his handmade hatchet from his belt and pulled a stone out of his pocket so he could sharpen it. "Miller's looking for you."
"Is he okay?"
"Yeah, he wanted to know if you were okay."
Mara sighed quietly next to him. Three days had passed since Atom's death and each day Nathan would watch her as if he was waiting for her to snap. She still had flashes of intense guilt, particularly when she lay in her bed at night and her mind assaulted her with images of Atom dying. Every time she had one of these flashes she would repeat to herself that his death wasn't her fault and that she would have died alongside him if she had stopped running. Sometimes telling herself that worked and the guilt would subside for a while. Other times she wouldn't be able to shake the feeling that she was about to crumble under the weight of her guilt.
She had been getting barely any sleep. The images of Atom's mutilated body kept her awake for most of the night but when she did manage to chase them away for long enough Charlotte's screaming would wake her up again. The little girl's nightmares had been getting worse; she would wake up screaming four times a night and it would take longer each time for Mara to calm her down. She had tried to give her Bellamy's advice again but she could never remember what he had said exactly and she ended up giving Charlotte a speech about "conquering" and "destroying" her fears. She hoped that she was getting through to Charlotte because she guessed that over the course of three days she had gotten roughly five hours of sleep.
"Are you okay?" Concern hinted at the edges of Bellamy's voice though he tried to pass himself off as being indifferent.
"Yeah, I'm fine." It wasn't a total lie, but she knew that she wasn't being completely honest either. She was so exhausted that it was difficult for her to focus and she had to blink her eyes rapidly to clear the foggy haze that had fallen over her sight. "He's just worried about me. You know, after what happened to Atom."
They had had a small funeral for everyone who had died since landing on Earth: two boys had died in the dropship landing and two kids and Atom had gotten caught in the acid fog. Wells had dug the graves for the bodies they could bury (the bodies of the two kids caught by the fog had yet to be found). There had been a heavy atmosphere over the camp after the funeral. People were finally beginning to realise that all they had was each other. The occasional fight would still break out (with Murphy being the chief instigator) but it was nothing compared to the number of fights in the first few days. It seemed that the camp was finally beginning to settle down.
"I should go give this back," Mara spoke over her yawn as she finished sewing down the last button on Amy's shirt. She flashed Bellamy a small smile as she stood up from the log. "Hey Bellamy," he glanced up at her as she walked backwards away from him. "We don't know how the radiation down here is affecting the IUDs. Just be careful, okay? We don't really need any little Bellamy's running around anytime soon," she grinned at him as she avoided stumbling over her own feet as she walked backwards.
"Whatever you say, mom," he smirked at her and shook his head lightly before returning back to sharpening his hatchet.
After their night in the cave, Mara and Bellamy's relationship had shifted slightly. She wasn't sure if she was ready to call him a friend yet, she was still sceptical about some of his earlier decisions, but she certainly couldn't think of him as a distant leader either. After Atom's death, Bellamy had truly stepped into his role as a leader. He had created some rules that very few of the hundred complained about: no one was to leave camp alone or without a weapon and groups were established with various jobs to fulfil (hunting, water collection, camp maintenance and security). Mara had to admit that Bellamy was doing a better job than he had in the first few days. It seemed like he was trying to prove himself as capable of being their leader but she did notice that he still had a bit of a temper.
As Mara walked away from Bellamy to search for Amy, the throbbing in her head worsened. She was absolutely exhausted and, as she yawned again, her vision became hazier. It was a miracle she was able to focus enough to sew the buttons back on the shirt. Her eyes drifted closed for a moment, but it was long enough for her to stumble over her feet and nearly fall to the ground. She knew that if she were to fall over, as uncomfortable as it would be, she would instantly fall asleep in the middle of camp and wouldn't move for however long it took for her mind to recover.
"Mara?" she distantly heard Bellamy call out to her when she stumbled forward again. She took a steadying breath but it only served to increase her tiredness. "What's wrong?" His hand was on her elbow as he moved so that he was stood in front of her.
"Nothing, I'm just a bit tired," she could vaguely make out the rich brown of his eyes but the rest of his features seemed to be blurred together. She widened her eyes to try and clear her vision but all she achieved was another yawn.
"I can see that," his voice was confusingly harsh and Mara assumed that it was her tired mind exaggerating the way he sounded. "Go back to bed," he clearly ordered, slipping into his leader mode.
"I need to give this back," she weakly lifted Amy's shirt only to have Bellamy snatch it from her.
"I'll do that. Go. To. Bed," he punctuated every word as he began pulling Mara in the direction of her tent.
"But…I need to get more thread," Mara knew that she had to sleep but she didn't want to be faced with Atom's burned face again. "I need to…to figure out what the grounder's use to make their clothes. There must be something they use for material," Bellamy huffed in agitation next to her and tightened his vice-like grip on her elbow but she was too tired to even register where she was walking. "I can get Nathan and go into the forest, it won't take too-"
"No." His voice was intensely firm and he made no move to continue speaking until Mara opened her mouth to protest. He pulled her to a stop and rounded in front of her so that he towered over her. "You'll be no use to anyone if you go out now and get yourself killed. Stop thinking about everyone else and take care of yourself for a change."
He gave her no room for argument as he marched her to her tent. A few looks were thrown their way as they walked through the camp but neither of them cared. He swiftly drew back the tent entrance and guided Mara inside. She could feel the tiredness creeping up on her and she wanted nothing more than to curl up on her tough bed and sleep for days. She stumbled towards her bed, noticing that Charlotte was asleep in it and hoped that that meant that they would both be getting some much needed sleep. Bellamy's hand reached out and gently rested on her upper arm. She shrugged him off as she began to remove her jacket and shivered in the crisp air.
"Where's your bed?" He whispered so as not to wake Charlotte up and glanced around the tiny tent. He knew that three people slept in the tent but from what he could see there were only two beds. Mara, too tired to speak properly, and feeling the warmth of sleep penetrating the corners of her mind, jerked her head in the direction of where Charlotte was sleeping. "You can't be serious. How do you both fit?" Mara gave him no answer other than to shrug her shoulders and sit on the edge of the bed that really wasn't big enough for both her and Charlotte. "Sleep on Miller's, he can find somewhere else tonight." Bellamy tried to move her to the other side of the tent but she shrugged him off again.
"It's fine, we do this every night," she mumbled as she put her jacket on backwards to act as a sort of blanket. She saw him giving her a sceptical look but she chose to ignore him as she gently lifted one of Charlotte's legs so that she could slip in beside her. "Wake me up in a couple of hours, please. I've got stuff I need to do," she yawned again as she twisted onto her side and used her arm as a pillow. She breathed deeply and felt her eyes grow heavy as Bellamy made his way towards the exit of the tent. "Thank you," she managed to mutter before the warmth radiating from Charlotte beside her pulled into a welcome sleep. She thought she heard Bellamy speak but she couldn't work out what he was saying as she drifted off into a world void of Atom's face for the first time since his death.
As Mara slept, the world outside of her tent faced a colossal shift. There is a moment in every life when something so massive happens that it feels as if the world is about to end, that it's not possible to carry on anymore. It may be a moment of immense anguish and pain or a moment of incredible fear and trepidation. The latter was true for the members of the hundred while the former was felt intensely by one single person. There was a stirring outside of Mara's tent that she was entirely oblivious to as she rested in a land of darkness, a land where she was not plagued by Atom's death. As she rested contentedly, there was a heartbroken cry filling the air. It was a cry so horrific that it could have made the coldest of hearts begin to melt and the happiest of people slip into a state of sadness. It is these moments, when the world shifts and the heartbroken cry, that sticks like glue in the mind. It was a moment that none of the hundred would ever forget. Mara missed this moment of terrible pain as sleep continued to lull her into a false sense of security and it wasn't until she awoke, feeling completely rested, that she realised all was not well in the camp.
The first thing she noticed was that Charlotte was no longer beside her.
The second thing she noticed was the strange stagnant atmosphere that hung over the camp. She was entirely unnerved by the feeling creeping up her spine and couldn't quite pinpoint exactly what she was feeling. The camp sounded the same, the same voices she heard every day still hung like ghosts in the air, the same hustle and bustle of the hundred going about their lives was still present. Yet, something was off. She couldn't hear the distant sound of people arguing or fighting, nor could she hear the sound of anyone laughing or singing as she was so used to waking up to.
The third thing she noticed was the extra weight on top of her. She shifted onto her back and watched as a jacket slid softly to the ground. She reached her hand out and gently picked it up, noticing that it was Nathan's and that his musky scent still lingered on it. She glanced over to where his bed should have been empty and instead found that he was sitting on the edge of it, his elbows rested on his thighs and his head in his hands. He raised his head when he heard her moving.
The fourth thing that Mara noticed was the look in Nathan's eyes. The usual mischievous spark had vanished and nothing had moved to fill its place, leaving them empty and void of his usual energy. They were glazed over and seemed to not be focusing on anything in particular. Even as he looked at Mara, she got the distinct feeling that he wasn't really seeing her at all. His jaw was clenched and his fingers twitched on the side of his face as if they wanted to curl into fists but couldn't muster the energy to do so. Mara had never seen him like this; she was used to being the one to have the empty look in her eyes, to have Nathan be the one to comfort her when she looked like her world was beginning to crumble. She had no idea how to handle Nathan. In one moment he looked like a broken little boy, needing someone to hold him and in the next, he looked like a lion coiled to strike and waiting for the right moment to pounce. As Mara watched him change from desperate boy to stalking lion, she felt a shiver pass down her spine. Something was very wrong.
"Wells is dead." His voice was entirely absent of emotion as he spoke the words that had been locked inside his throat.
The two sat in silence as Mara waited for him to react. She finally understood the oppressive atmosphere she had been assaulted with upon waking up and the uncomfortable way in which there was noise that wasn't entirely familiar. Nathan's hands finally managed to clench into fists before they were released and he slid his hands down his face, pulling the corner of his lips downward and making him seem incredibly dejected before he scratched along the small amount of stubble growing on his jaw.
"What happened?" Mara was surprised by the calmness in her voice but she knew that if she wasn't calm then Nathan would have had no one to lean on and no one to be comforted by.
"Grounders," he barked out as his gaze lingered on a browning leaf on the ground. "Grounders got him."
"How?" Mara breathed out, trying to suppress the shakiness that wanted to enter her voice. She had never met Wells, had only warned him about Murphy having a knife in their fight, but the idea that grounders had killed one of their own filled her heart with dread.
"He was on watch. They must have snuck up on him." Mara had never heard his voice so empty, so lifeless, and she had no idea how to handle it. "We grew up on the same station together," he continued, anger creeping into his voice. "I've known him since we were kids," his eyes snapped to Mara's, an unfamiliar fire growing inside them. "We were never friends, but I've known him my whole life and now he's…he's dead!"
Mara sprung from her bed, wobbling on her feet as she quickly crossed the room in one long stride, and sat beside him. She wasn't sure what he needed from her, if he needed to be held, or if he just needed someone to listen. Her leg pressed against his when she sat down and his fiery eyes snapped to it. He placed his hand on her knee and as she reached to hold it, it balled into a fist and he jumped from the bed. He began pacing ferociously back and forth across the tent. His fingers twitched at his side, curling and uncurling into fists. His boots stomped into the earth and he closed his eyes as his eyebrows scrunched together. He was breathing heavily through his nose, the sound whistling round the tent, and his chest was rising and falling at such a quick pace that Mara was frightened he was going to start hyperventilating.
"Nathan-" she tried to pull him out of the anger in his head but he completely ignored her and began muttering under his breath. It took Mara a moment to fully understand what he was saying but when she did, her eyes widened at the darkness of his words.
"They have to pay. They can't kill one of our own and expect to get away with it. No, no, they can't get away with killing one of our own."
He carried on pacing and muttering and clenching his hands into fists. Mara could practically feel the anger radiating off of him.
"Nathan," she tried gently pulling him out of his state once again but when that didn't work she tried a different approach. "Nathan!" She shouted, effectively stopping his pacing as he whipped around to face her. She could see that his heart was stilling racing and his hands were still clenched into fists. "Okay," she continued in a much calmer voice. "Tell me what happened, slowly. Okay?"
He stiffly nodded his head and huffed out a breath through his nose. His jaw was still clenched and his chest was still rapidly rising and falling.
"Wells was on watch the night before last," Mara was momentarily confused, thinking she had only been asleep for a few hours. "The grounders crept up on him, stabbed him in the neck and cut off two of his fingers. They're probably a trophy or something," he spit out, his face twisted in disgust. The image of Wells missing fingers made her stomach churn. "Clarke found him yesterday, about mid-afternoon, after Bellamy made you go to sleep," his voice was growing calmer though there was still an obvious anger to it, but his heart rate seemed to be calming down the more he spoke. "I buried him yesterday. He dug everyone else's graves, figured it was only right to dig his. No one else was volunteering anyway," his anger was beginning to grow in his voice again, and even though his pacing had stopped, his hands were stilled clenched into fists.
"I'm so sorry," Mara breathed out as she tried to look into his eyes but he avoided her gaze, lowering his head to stare at the ground instead.
"I'm gonna get a drink," he mumbled before marching towards the tent flaps.
"Hey!" She called after him. "I'll get it for you, just wait in here."
He huffed again before marching back over to the bed and sitting down once more. As Mara left the tent, she caught him springing to his feet and continuing his pacing. She hadn't wanted him to leave the tent in case someone said something to him that rubbed him the wrong way and he started a fight. She had never seen him so angry before, he was usually just joking around or was worried about her or was looking after her. For the tables to be flipped so drastically scared Mara; she was seeing a side of him that she had never been exposed to before. There was something about the look in his eyes that chilled Mara to her very core.
Most of the hundred were moving around the centre of camp where the water barrels were kept. Most seemed to be carrying pieces of the dropship that had broken off in their landing or large pieces of wood and everyone seemed to have a purpose to their task. Mara watched the hundred in curiosity as she reached the water tank and began filling one of the available metal cups. It seemed that the hundred were placing the scrap materials into the ground and standing them upright. Mara had to look closer before she realised that they were building a wall. She guessed that Bellamy had ordered for it to be built so that no one else would face the same fate as Wells.
"You're finally awake," Bellamy came to stand next to her as he filled his own cup.
"Yeah, guess I needed to sleep more than I thought I did." She kept watching the hundred building the wall. They seemed to be doing it very efficiently, hardly any of them stumbled as they carried material to be added to the wall and they all seemed to know their exact purpose. She could hear Murphy shouting orders at them but they all seemed to be ignoring him as they carried about their tasks. Mara was briefly reminded of a video they had been shown on The Ark of ants transporting leaves.
"You should probably know about Wells-"
"Yeah," she cut him off, "Nathan told me."
"How's he doing?" He placed his empty cup down with a bang and crossed his arms over his chest, his face set into a scowl as he stared in the direction of the graves. Mara didn't know what to say to him. It seemed only a few hours had passed since they had been joking about his sex life but so much had changed since then.
"I'm going to get him," she avoided answering his question. "We can help build the wall; it might take his mind off of things." She glanced at Bellamy out of the corner of her eyes and saw that he was doing the same thing. He nodded stiffly before scowling at the graves and marching away from her to join Murphy.
She downed the cup of water in her hands before she refilled it and quickly crossed the camp to get back to Nathan. She hoped that he had calmed down since she left but she wasn't holding out much hope.
As she neared the tent, she stumbled across a small piece of black material left abandoned next to one of the many bonfires that had been extinguished for the day. She quickly looked around to see if anyone was searching for it. When she discovered that no one was around, she scooped it up and smiled when she realised what it was. She picked the leaves from it and dusted the remaining dirt away before stuffing it in her pocket and continuing towards her tent.
When she entered the tent, she found that Nathan had calmed down and was once again sitting on his bed but the vacant look had returned to his eyes. He was sat up too straight to be entirely comfortable and everything about him screamed empty. His hands were no longer clenched into fists but lay limply on his thighs and his breathing was no longer harsh. Mara should have been comforted by the change but the fact that he was so still was just as bad as the pacing.
"Hey," she spoke softly so she wouldn't startle him. "Here you go."
His hand reached up to accept the cup and he quickly drank the water but he gave no other indication that he had heard her. His silence and complete stillness were scaring Mara just as much as the fire and the anger had done before.
"I got you something else," she pulled the black material from her pocket, smiling lightly when his eyes flashed to her hand. His eyebrows twitched slightly as if he wanted to frown in confusion. "I thought it might get you to stop complaining about your ears being cold so much," she chuckled lightly in an attempt to make him smile but his face remained impassive, almost if he wasn't really there. "You talk in your sleep," she offered when he looked at her quizzically. He accepted the material and his lips twitched upwards ever so slightly when he realised what he was holding.
"Where did you get this?" He finally spoke as he put the black beanie hat on and pulled it down so that it would cover his ears completely.
"I found it. No one was looking for it so I figured that no one would miss it too much."
He glanced up at her as he rubbed his hand over the hat. His lips graced his face with the smallest hint of a smile that Mara had ever seen but, at that moment, it was enough for her.
"You stole it," his voice was so matter of fact that Mara was slightly taken aback before she managed to recover herself.
"I found it."
He gave her an unimpressed look before rolling his eyes at her and rubbing his hand over his new hat again.
"Do you want to go help build the wall? It might take your mind off of everything for a while." Mara hated to feel like she was walking on eggshells around him but she was still unsure if the anger would return and he would erupt.
He shrugged his shoulders but stood up anyway and allowed her to lead him towards where the other campers were. He was lagging behind her slightly but was following her nonetheless. She offered him a smile over her shoulder which he slowly returned though it was clear that it took him a lot of effort. She couldn't imagine what he was feeling. She had never had someone that she wasn't necessarily close to but had grown up with die, and certainly not in such a horrible way.
They selected a thin sheet of dropship metal from the pile of scrap material that was being used to build the wall and moved it over to where a small group were assembling the wall. Nathan and Mara didn't speak to each other as they worked but they moved in sync as they leaned the metal against a few logs that had been stuck in the ground. Mara picked up a vine from a pile that had been thrown haphazardly on the ground when she noticed what the other delinquents were doing. She and Nathan began tying the metal to the logs and knotting it as tightly as they could. They continued in silence as they moved around the wall to place a second piece of metal on the other side of the logs.
The hundred chattered around them and that seemed to be enough for Nathan. His eyes would flash with anger occasionally but each time they did so, Mara would ask him something to distract him or she would tell him a story about something embarrassing that she had done on The Ark. It seemed to be working when he eventually laughed at a story she told him about falling flat on her face during one of the Masquerade Balls when she tried to impress someone with her dancing. He eventually joined in the conversation with her and she breathed a sigh of relief when he actively started conversations with her and didn't wait for her to start first.
The peace that had descended between them didn't last for long when there was a terrible crash from behind them. One of the delinquents, Mara thought his name was Connor, dropped the log he was carrying with another boy. The name Stephen vaguely registered, she remembered stitching up his inseam after he had gotten into a particularly violent fight but she couldn't remember much more about him. Connor was kneeling on the ground, the log abandoned by his feet; he was breathing heavily and seemed to be swallowing thickly. Mara shared a worried look with Nathan before she started forward to see what was wrong with the boy but Murphy beat her to it.
"Hey!" Murphy shouted from where he was standing with Bellamy. "Do you think the grounders are just going to wait around for the wall to be finished?" He asked with a sneer in his voice. "Maybe we should let the little girl do all the lifting for you." He mocked, pointing to where Charlotte was standing. Mara moved towards Charlotte warily, she didn't want her to be dragged into whatever sick game Murphy was playing. The small amount of power Bellamy had given him had clearly gone to his head. He towered over Connor, who was still kneeling on the ground, and was smirking down at him as if he was enjoying Connor's discomfort.
"I just, I just need some water." Connor's voice was gravelly as he spoke, making it clear that he hadn't had any water in a long time.
"You just need some water," Murphy sneered, a malicious smirk appearing on his face but before he could continue humiliating Connor, Bellamy stepped in.
"Just give the guy some water," he shook his head at Murphy, clearly exasperated with Murphy's attitude before he shifted his attention to Charlotte who stood slightly in front of Mara. "You got this?" He gestured towards the dropped log, the joke clear in his voice but Charlotte took him seriously and jumped to follow her leader's order. The girl reached to pick up the fallen log and Mara pursed her lips to stop the laugh that was threatening to escape. "I'm just kidding," he reached out for the log to stop Charlotte. He smiled genuinely at her as she turned to Mara, her eyes wide and her face flushed red with embarrassment. Bellamy turned his smile on Mara as he heaved the log over his shoulder and she rolled her eyes at him as he walked away.
"You okay?" Mara asked Charlotte as she twirled the end of the girl's braid in her fingers. Mara had tried to do her hair the same as Charlotte's the day before but could never get the back quite right so she had braided the front away from her face and left the rest to hang around her shoulders.
"Yeah." Charlotte smiled up at Mara but there was a look in her eyes that made Mara question whether or not she was being truthful.
"Are you sure? You can tell me anything," she placed a soothing hand on Charlotte's shoulder and nodded her head slightly.
"I…I'm fine, mom," Charlotte's eyes widened when she realised her mistake. "Mara! I mean, I'm fine Mara."
"It's fine," Mara laughed lightly, "I used to call my teacher mom all the time by accident."
Charlotte looked like she wanted to say something else and that there was something on the tip of her tongue that she couldn't quite get out. Mara waited for her to speak, it was clearly important from the way that Charlotte kept opening and closing her mouth, trying to find the right words to say. She stopped abruptly when she glanced behind Mara and her eyes narrowed in disgust.
Mara had to do a double take to be sure of what she was seeing. Connor was still kneeled on the ground and Murphy stood behind him with his pants unzipped and was relieving himself onto Connor's jacket. Connor seemed to realise what was happening at the same time that Mara did and he scurried out of Murphy's way.
"What the hell is wrong with you, Murphy?" Connor jumped to his feet and pushed Murphy backwards. Murphy seemed all too amused at Connor's reaction and his heartless smirk grew wider.
"You said you needed a water break," Murphy's laugh made Mara shiver with disgust. Two of his followers hauled Connor away from Murphy and threw him towards the pile of scrap material. Connor ripped his jacket off and practically growled at Murphy as he stormed away. "Get back to work!" Murphy commanded, a callous spark lingering in his piercing eyes.
"What was it you were going to say?" Mara asked Charlotte but continued to glare at Murphy's retreating back. She couldn't believe what she had just seen; she couldn't believe that someone would be so disgusting.
"It doesn't matter," Charlotte mumbled.
"Are you sure?" When the girl nodded again and returned to the section of the wall she was building, Mara patted her shoulder lightly and returned to Nathan's side.
The two continued building their section of the wall but as the day wore on, Mara could feel herself growing more and more agitated with Murphy. He continued to bark orders and refused to let anyone stop for a water break. He stood off to the side with his followers, not doing any of the work and walking up to members of the hundred and drinking cups of water in their faces. He was taunting the people he was ordering around and with his followers at his back, no one was willing to stand up to him. Mara could feel her blood boil the more she had to listen to Murphy's teasing voice and nearly shouted at him when he walked up to the boy next to her and poured a cup of water on the boy's feet.
The final straw for Mara happened out of the blue. A boy building the section of the wall further down from Mara decided to try and steal some water while Murphy's back was turned but the boy crashed into the pile of metal cups and sent them tumbling to the ground. Murphy rounded on the boy and punched him in the stomach then, when the boy was doubled over in pain, Murphy punched him again in the jaw and the boy careened backwards. He landed on the ground on his back and had the wind knocked out of him as one of Murphy's followers kicked the boy's side.
"No one gets any water until this wall is finished!" Murphy shouted at the delinquents, the rage he was feeling was clear on his face.
"What a fucking asshole," Mara muttered to Nathan, who huffed in anger as he looked at Murphy's scowling face.
"You got a problem, sweetheart?" Murphy snarled at Mara, puffing his chest out and straightening up his jacket.
"Leave it," Nathan whispered in her ear.
"Why the hell are you being such an asshole?" Mara completely ignored Nathan's warning to stay back. She stepped forward so that she was out of Nathan's reach and he wouldn't be able to pull her back.
"Aw, what's wrong sweetheart? Do you not like how things are run here?" He put on a mocking baby voice and advanced towards her.
"I don't like the way you're treating us," she gestured to the rest of the hundred who were beginning to abandon the wall and were slowly approaching Mara and Murphy. She matched his steps until they were almost toe to toe. He towered over her and Mara tried not to show that she was intimidated by the way he was looking at her, as if he was a predator and she was his prey. "I don't like that you are denying us a two minute water break while you and your little friends here are standing around doing fuck all." She growled and brushed passed him to head to the water tank.
"I'm not finished with you!" Murphy stalked after her but didn't have to follow her very far before she stopped abruptly. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?" His voice was almost inhuman as he growled at her.
"Being a decent human being," she shot back as she filled one of the metal cups with water and jumped out of Murphy's way when he lunged at her. She thrust the full cup in the direction of the boy still curled up on the ground in pain. Most of the water sloshed to the ground in her haste to give it to the boy before Murphy could snatch it from her but she didn't care. She was making a statement and showing Murphy that he didn't have all of the power. He rounded on her, his face set into a violent scowl, expecting her to step away from him and a quick flash of surprise rushed across his face when she took a step towards him. They were so close to one another that she could feel the tips of his boots pressed into hers and she had to tilt her head back to look at his face. "And I don't like that you think that you're in charge and that we have to follow orders from you."
His face scrunched up in anger, his jaw clenching as he gritted his teeth together. He only grew angrier when there were mutterings of agreement from the crowd who were quickly becoming less scared of him.
"You're just a little child acting up for attention," Mara steadied her voice as he seethed with anger. She wouldn't be surprised if he lashed out and hit her so she began preparing herself for the blow.
"You son of a bitch!" Clarke's voice interrupted the quickly escalating confrontation.
The blonde shoved the crowd out of her way and pushed Mara away from Murphy. The girl shoved Murphy's chest hard and the boy stumbled backwards, completely taken off guard by Clarke's interruption.
Mara tripped over something hard and glanced round to find that she had fallen into Bellamy's chest. He had thrown his arms out to catch her and one hand gripped her arm while the other lingered on her waist as he tried to steady her. She righted herself and stepped to his side, watching Clarke and Murphy cautiously. She hadn't seen Clarke the entire day so she knew that Clarke couldn't be angry about the situation with the water.
"What's your problem?" Murphy was still clearly on edge from Mara's defiance, and being confronted by Clarke was not helping to soothe his anger any.
"Remember this?" Clarke raised the makeshift knife she was holding. The delinquents that hadn't gathered for Mara and Murphy's potential fight now made their way over to the rest of the group.
"That's my knife," Murphy snatched for it but Clarke jerked it out of his way. "Where did you find it?"
"Where you left it after you killed Wells."
Clarke's accusation hung in the air, forcing the hundred to descend into complete and total silence. Mara felt herself freeze at the thought that she had just confronted someone who could possibly be a murder and that she had willingly thrown herself into a potential fight with him.
"Where I what?" The venom in Murphy's voice had completely vanished and was replaced by a startlingly strong amount of confusion. Mara truly hoped that the confusion in his voice wasn't faked. She couldn't stomach the idea of her own people turning against each other and killing each other. There were less than one hundred of them now, and with potential danger lurking in the form of the grounders, they couldn't afford to be killing each other. "The grounders killed Wells, not me." There was so much conviction in his voice that Mara truly wanted to believe him, but she couldn't help but think off all of the horrible things she had seen him do.
"I know what you did," Clarke spit out, her voice filled with unsuppressed anger.
Murphy's eyes darted around the camp, noticing the hate-filled looks he was receiving before his eyes landed on Bellamy. Bellamy shifted beside Mara as he squared his shoulders and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Bellamy! You really believe this crap?" Murphy addressed the man, trying to show that he wasn't afraid of the way that Clarke was igniting the hatred in the crowd.
Bellamy remained silent as if he was waiting to see how the situation would pan out. Looking at the rest of the gathered crowd, Mara knew that if the situation wasn't handled correctly that it would turn ugly fast. Mara's eyes found Nathan on the opposite side of the crowd and shook her head sadly when she noticed that the fire she had worked to extinguish was once again blazing in his eyes.
"You threatened to kill him," Clarke continued as the crowd grew more agitated, "we all heard you. You hated him."
"Plenty of people hated Wells," Murphy tried to defend himself but the crowd began to mutter amongst themselves, their voices filled with poison as they refused to listen to what Murphy had to say. Mara found Connor amongst the crowd, his eyes were filled with such loathing that Mara knew that nothing Murphy could say would stop Connor from wanting blood.
"You were the only one who got into a knife fight with him!"
"I didn't kill him then either," he was growing angry again as Clarke refused to let up on her accusations. His hand clenched into a fist at his side before he scoffed lightly and took a step back.
"He tried to kill Jasper too!" Octavia shouted from the crowd.
Mara was taken by surprise at that, she had desperately hoped that Murphy hadn't killed Wells but the more evidence that was stacked against him, the more Mara was convinced. Still, she didn't like the way that some of the hundred were looking at Murphy. They had violence in their eyes and Mara could easily guess that they were after a bloodbath.
"Bellamy," Mara whispered to him and he shifted slightly so he could lean closer to her, "this is going south real quick. You need to control this." He locked eyes with her as he crossed his arms tighter over his chest. He seemed to be thinking her words over as he took in the growing looks of anger on the faces of the crowd. Just as he seemed about to speak up, Murphy messed up any opportunity he may have had of Bellamy taking control of the situation.
"I don't have to answer to you," Murphy sneered at Clarke. "I don't have to answer to anybody!"
"Come again?" Bellamy finally spoke, authority dominated in his voice, and the eyes of the crowd instantly switched to him as Murphy realised his mistake.
"Fuck," Mara whispered under her breath as Murphy moved around Clarke and towards Bellamy.
"Bellamy, listen, I didn't do this." He pleaded with Bellamy to understand but Bellamy's face remained stoic. Mara glanced warily between the two, hoping that Bellamy had a way to stop the increasingly dangerous situation.
"They found his fingers next to your knife," Bellamy murmured so low that only a few people could hear him.
Mara took an involuntary step away from Murphy at this new information. She took a shaky breath when Murphy's eyes flashed to her as he watched her retreat away from him. She could barely look at him, almost entirely believing that he had killed Wells. A small part of her still hoped that Murphy hadn't killed Wells, that it was all a big misunderstanding, and that the grounders were to blame but the more she looked at Murphy, the more she found herself believing Clarke. Murphy was cruel and vicious, he seemed to enjoy other people's pain and it made sense that he would be the one to kill Wells.
"Is this the kind of society you want? You say that there are no rules, that we can do whatever the hell we want but does that mean we have to live in a society where we can kill each other without punishment?" Clarke addressed the larger crowd, gaining their rapt attention.
There were murmurs of agreement and a few of the delinquents began nodding their heads and glaring daggers at Murphy. The energy pulsating from the crowd was terrifying. Mara could feel it chilling her bones as the crowd seemed to be vibrating with aggression. Nothing that Bellamy could do would stop the crowd from wanting Murphy's head.
"I told you I didn't kill him!" Panic emerged in Murphy's voice as the crowd very subtly crept closer to him, muttering amongst themselves about how he needed to be punished. "Bellamy," he tried to catch his leader's attention but Bellamy looked away from him, clearly sealing Murphy's fate.
"I say we float him," Connor growled as he stepped out from amongst the crowd. There was a chorus of strong agreement from his audience. Mara noticed a few of them cracking their knuckles or clenching their hands into fists, a few of them even gripped the weapons hanging from their belts.
"That's not what I was trying to say," Clarke tried to reason with Connor but it was clear that he was too far gone.
"Why not? It's justice!" Connor was growing more and more agitated the longer he had to wait before he could spill Murphy's blood.
Mara could see Charlotte standing at the edge of the crowd, panic clear in her eyes and Mara wanted nothing more than to cross the crowd and drag Charlotte back to their tent where it would be safe.
"Revenge isn't justice!" Clarke tried to argue with Connor and control the crowd that was quickly turning into a mob.
Mara tried to step forward, to skirt around the edges of the crowd to get to Charlotte, but Bellamy's hand shot forward and pulled her behind him so that she couldn't cross the crowd. She tried to catch Nathan's eye, to tell him to get Charlotte to safety, but his attention was solely focused on Clarke and Connor and his eyes were so crowded with fury that Mara shrank into herself slightly.
"It is justice!" Connor rallied the crowd to him. There was a pause in the air, as if time had completely frozen over, as everyone waited for what would happen next. Murphy's time was up as Connor spoke the words that ended any hope of keeping the situation calm. "Float him! Float him! Float him!" Connor chanted and the crowd began to join in, Mara felt sick when she caught Nathan chanting along with them.
Clarke tried to stop them but her cries were indistinguishable over the chanting mob that was no longer subtly advancing towards Murphy. The accused boy tried to run from the crowd but one of his own followers turned on him tripped him up, sending him flying into the dirt. That was the final spark the mob needed to ignite. They lunged at Murphy, raining punches and kicks on the struggling boy who was screaming his innocence.
"I didn't do it!" Murphy's screams rang through the air but his voice only seemed to anger the crowd more.
"Float the bastard!"
"Kill him!"
Murphy's screams of agony shattered Mara's heart. He was covered by the hundred beating him to within an inch of his life. She wanted to stop them, to pull them off of him. She knew that he needed to be punished if he was the real killer, but this was no way to go about it. They couldn't just kill each other senselessly, and Mara knew that they weren't killing him for Wells. They were beating him for all the wrong he had done to them: for fighting them, for refusing them a break from working on the wall, for beating them when they tried to take a drink of water, for humiliating them in front of their friends and for holding a girl over a fire to make The Ark think that they were all dying before removing their wristbands. Most of the hundred hated Wells for his father's actions so they didn't want justice for him, they wanted vengeance for themselves.
She knew that she wouldn't be able to stop them from hurting him. She was only one person and there were at least ten people beating Murphy. The rest of the onlookers had bloodlust in their eyes as they cheered with each blow Murphy sustained.
"Bellamy!" He clenched his jaw and glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes. "You have to do something. This is madness!"
"It's too late," he growled as he dismissed her pleas.
Murphy was picked up from the ground and hoisted onto the shoulders of the kids that had beaten him. Someone had gagged him, tied his hands behind his back and had tied his ankles together. Murphy was struggling against his ties, he writhed and twisted his body to try and get away but it was clear that his struggles weren't as strong as they would have been if he wasn't in so much pain. His face was covered in blood, his lip was burst and he had multiple cuts scattered across his face. His clothes were torn and ripped to shreds, his blood seeping from the tears as if someone had slashed him with a knife. He strained to keep his head raised as he was carried towards a small hill on the outskirts of the camp. His right eye was swollen shut and he had to blink the blood away from his eyes as it dripped from a gash on his forehead.
Mara found herself moving with the crowd as they threw Murphy down the hill. He slammed into the ground with a sickening crunch and tumbled towards the base of the hill, smacking his side off of a protruding boulder as he went. Mara had to force down the bile that rose in her throat as she watched the scene with utter horror.
She tried to find Charlotte in the crowd, to pull the little girl to safety. No one should have to see what was about to unfold, let alone a twelve-year-old kid. As Mara desperately scanned the crowd for her, she tried to block out Murphy's frantic pleas and spotted three kids huddled together at the back of the crowd. They looked to be the same age as Charlotte and they looked terrified by what they were seeing. They were too young to witness something so horrific.
"Bellamy!" She ran up to him and slammed her hand into his shoulder. He spun around to face her, his expression betraying his uneasiness with what was happening. "There are kids watching this!" She gestured wildly behind her, her anxious eyes pleading with him to listen to her. "They shouldn't have to see this! Make them stop!" She had to scream to be heard over the hysterical mob chomping at the bit for more of Murphy's blood to be spilled. "He needs to be punished, but not like this! Never like this."
Bellamy's cold eyes drifted to where Mara was pointing and if Mara had thought that his face couldn't have hardened any further than it already was, she was wrong. His jaw feathered before his face smoothed out and he acted as if she wasn't there, as if she was invisible.
Someone had fashioned a noose out of the vines they had been using to secure the wall and Connor wrapped it around Murphy's neck. Even from the distance she was at Mara could see the unshed tears, born of unrestrained panic, threatening to spill from Murphy's eyes. Connor pushed him to his feet before punching him again, breaking his nose, and sending him face first into a puddle of wet dirt.
The end of the noose was tugged and Murphy was forced back to his feet. He began gasping for air as the noose tightened around his neck and cut off his airways. Three boys rushed forward, two lifted Murphy up while another moved a crate into position. The two boys holding Murphy stood him on top of the crate and the noose was tugged again so that Murphy had to stand on the tips of his toes to keep his footing. Tears were flowing freely down his cheeks, glistening amongst his crimson blood.
Mara felt her own tears threatening to spill as she watched Murphy struggling to breathe. Murphy was a bastard, there was no denying it, but he didn't deserve to be treated like that. She decided that Earth's version of floating was much crueller than The Ark's. On The Ark, floating was finished in a matter of seconds while Murphy's execution seemed to be dragging on at an impossibly slow pace.
"You can stop this!" Clarke screamed over Murphy's muffled cries to be let go. Clarke shoved Bellamy as she spoke and she looked so desperate that Mara knew that Clarke never wanted Murphy to be killed as the result of her words. "They'll listen to you!"
Mara couldn't focus on Clarke's distressed pleas, her attention was entirely held by Murphy's twitching body as he tried to regain control over his breathing. His eyes were locked on Bellamy's as he tried to plead with the man to let him go, to show him mercy.
"Mara…" Charlotte tugged on the sleeve of Mara's jacket. Mara was surprised that she had even heard the little girl speaking, she was being so quiet.
"Go back to the tent," she ordered sternly. "I'll come and get you when it's safe. You don't have to see this." Mara tried to turn Charlotte around and push her back in the direction of camp but the girl wouldn't move. Her eyes were locked on Murphy, tracing the cuts on his face and following a stream of blood as it trickled from his chin. "Charlotte! Go!" Mara tried to send Charlotte away again but the girl was like a dead weight. She shook her head slowly, an unreadable expression crossing her face.
"I can't let him get hurt anymore…" Charlotte muttered more to herself than to Mara as she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth.
"Bellamy should do it!" Connor screamed to the mob as he pointed at the crate stopping Murphy from being hung. "Bellamy! Bellamy!" He chanted, the mob joining in. Mara was absolutely disgusted by the excitement in some of the voices of the crowd. They wanted to watch Murphy die in agony and gasping for air and they wanted Bellamy to be his executioner.
"Bellamy!" Mara shook her head at him, stepping in front of Charlotte to block her view. Her eyes frantically searched his face to try and figure out what he was thinking. His face remained still, unmoving, but he couldn't hold Mara's eyes for long before he diverted them to the ground. He didn't want to end Murphy's life but the mob was cheering for him to become an executioner, to have his hands permanently stained with Murphy's blood.
"I saw the way you were with Atom! I know you're not a killer!" Clarke tried to plead with him, her voice cracking with emotion as Murphy let out a strangled scream of pain. "You don't have to do this Bellamy!" She tried to pull him away from Connor but he shrugged her off. He locked eyes with Murphy before he scanned the mob of his people. His face set when he noticed Mara shielding Charlotte behind her and at that moment she knew that there was no hope for Murphy.
"Please leave, Charlotte…" Mara begged the girl she was holding back as a tear leaked from her eyes.
"They can't do this…" Charlotte whispered. The girl's eyes were trained on Bellamy's back as he stalked towards Murphy and pushed Clarke away from him.
A thin line of blood appeared on Murphy's neck where he was straining against the noose as Bellamy lunged forward and kicked the crate away from his feet. Mara let out a strangled cry as Murphy's body jerked in the air. Even over the cheering and shouting of the crowd, she could hear him choking for air. Mara stepped directly in front of Charlotte so that she wouldn't have to watch as Murphy had his life stolen from him. His bound feet twitched as he desperately tried to find something that he could stand on. His eyes were rolling into the back of his head and his face was gradually turning a nasty shade of purple. A vein bulged from his forehead and his tears streamed faster down his face.
"You should have kept your mouth shut!" Bellamy roared over the mob as he pushed Clarke away from him. "This is on you, Princess!"
"Stop! Cut him down!" Finn rushed from the centre of the mob and desperately searched for a way to untie Murphy's noose as the boy looked to be on the verge of death.
Mara felt her stomach churning but she couldn't look away from Murphy dangling in the air. What was happening to him wasn't justice, it was revenge. It was revenge for all of the horrible things he had done but it had nothing to do with Wells' death. Connor's face was twisted into a sick smile as he watched Murphy dying. Mara felt herself beginning to shake with anger and horror. What they were doing wasn't right.
"Stop!" Charlotte screamed from behind Mara but no one paid her any attention. Charlotte burst free from Mara's grip and ran into the centre of the mob. "Stop!" She screamed again as Mara tried to pull her back. She didn't want Charlotte to get hurt trying to save Murphy. "Murphy didn't kill Wells!" The mob turned their attention to the little girl as Murphy's twitching began to slow down as death began to take over. "Murphy didn't kill Wells! I did!"
Mara felt like the world had stopped. She had to repeat Charlotte's words in her head before she fully understood what Charlotte had said. Mara didn't want to believe it; it didn't make sense for Charlotte to have been the real killer. Wells was easily three times Charlotte's size. There's no way Charlotte could have killed him, there's no way, Mara's panicked thoughts swirled around her mind at an alarming rate.
Charlotte squared her shoulders as the eyes of the hundred turned to her, staring her down. Mara stared at the back of Charlotte's head, her hand frozen in mid-air in front of her from when she had tried to stop Charlotte from running away from her.
She can't be serious. She can't be serious. Charlotte wouldn't…Charlotte can't be a killer…Mara thought as she remembered how sweet Charlotte always was. Mara had never seen the girl angry, let alone violent enough to kill someone.
Mara snapped out of her daze when Clarke grabbed Bellamy's hatchet from his belt and cut through Murphy's noose. Mara didn't stop to think, she acted on pure instinct, and grabbed Charlotte's hand before the rest of the hundred could truly process what had happened. She dragged Charlotte away from the shocked mob and sprinted with her back into camp. She pushed her way into one of the tents that backed onto the forest and pulled Charlotte through after her. She spun the little girl around so she could look at her, desperately searching for some sign that Charlotte had been lying.
Charlotte stood in front of her; her hair was braided back and exposing her face. She had little round cheeks that were tinted pink, she had a splattering of freckles across her nose and her round eyes were wide and full of unshed tears. Charlotte looked like the picture of innocence as she played with her hands and tried to avoid Mara's eyes.
Mara couldn't believe what Charlotte had confessed to. This was the little girl that Mara had coaxed out of nightmares every night. This was the little girl that had gotten stuck in her seat in the dropship. This was the little girl that Mara had taken under her wing and had the unexplainable need to protect. She's just a kid, the heartbroken thought consumed Mara's mind as glistening tears gradually fell from Charlotte's eyes.
"Please tell me it's not true," Mara whispered, her voice hitching at the end. "Charlotte, tell me you just said that so that Murphy wouldn't die."
The only sound in the tent came from Mara's shaky breathing as she tried to calm the panic in her heart. Charlotte remained silent as she continued to cry but she shook her head slightly at the ground as a way of answering Mara. Mara ran a hand through her hair and had to stop herself from crying as she looked at Charlotte. She felt the need to pinch herself, to make sure that this was just some horrible dream and that she would wake up and Charlotte would be asleep beside her and Wells wouldn't be dead.
"I'm sorry," Charlotte whispered so quietly that Mara had to strain to hear but when she did hear her, she felt her heart shattering.
"Why?" Her heart was beating too fast in her chest but she felt almost numb as if she wasn't really in her own body.
"I'm sorry," Charlotte wiped some of her tears away and slowly raised her head to look at Mara. "I tried…I tried imagining that my parents are happy wherever they are but I…I couldn't do it. I just kept seeing Jaha's face in my nightmares ordering my parents to be floated over and over, and I just…" her breath hitched as she pleaded with Mara to understand. "I couldn't take it! Even when I was awake I couldn't escape! I'd look at Wells and all I could see was Jaha. I had to make it stop!"
Mara crossed her arms over her chest, hugging herself to try and stop herself from falling apart. She couldn't look at Charlotte even as the girl desperately tried to look into Mara's eyes. Mara felt warm tears stinging at the back of her eyes but she couldn't let them fall, not yet.
"Please don't be angry with me," Charlotte pleaded, her voice sounding so broken that she shattered Mara's fragile heart more than it already was.
"I am angry," Mara huffed out as she snapped her eyes to Charlotte's. "I am angry and I am disappointed," she paused, trying to collect herself. "I am so disappointed that you didn't come to me and tell me what was going on. You should've talked to me and this whole mess could have been avoided." It was Charlotte's turn to look away as a soft sob broke from her throat.
The ten tent entrance was abruptly flung open and Mara rushed to stand protectively in front of Charlotte. She knew that Charlotte couldn't get away with what she had done but there was no way that Mara was going to let Charlotte be treated the same way Murphy had been.
Bellamy burst into the tent but Mara made no move to relax her stance. She had watched as Bellamy kicked the crate from under Murphy's feet and though she had seen the way he had interacted with Charlotte before, she wasn't ready to trust him enough to move away from her.
Bellamy recognised the fire in Mara's eyes and the way she was regarding him mistrustfully. She stared him down as he slowly raised his hands as a sign of peace. She narrowed her eyes at him as she tried to gauge his intentions; she was not going to let Charlotte be fed to the wolves without a fight.
"Mara…" Bellamy began by taking a cautious step forward and freezing the minute Mara tensed and pushed Charlotte further behind her. "Mara, I'm not going to hurt her," he tried to soothe the girl that reminded him so much of the video of a mother bear protecting her cub he had seen in school. "I'm not going to hurt her."
Mara eyed him warily as she sized him up. His hatchet was missing from his belt but Mara knew that even if he was weaponless, he could easily overpower her if he wanted. It wasn't until Charlotte tugged on the back of her jacket that Mara nodded her head stiffly at him and allowed him to take another cautious step forward.
"Why, Charlotte? Why did you do it?" He lowered his hands as he spoke, his voice incredibly gruff and exhausted.
"I'm sorry!" Charlotte wiped away more tears that were making their way down her cheeks. The tent entrance was thrown open again and Mara took a step back in front of Charlotte as Clarke and Finn rushed in. "I was just slaying my demons like you told me to!"
Mara and Bellamy simultaneously sighed in exasperation at Charlotte taking Bellamy literally.
"What the hell is she talking about?" Clarke fumed and shook Finn off when he placed a placating hand on her back.
"She misunderstood me," Bellamy muttered and shared a worried glance with Mara. "That's not what I meant, Charlotte." He ran a tired hand through his hair.
"Murphy's outside," Finn began, "and he wants Charlotte handed over to him."
Mara was only slightly relieved that he was still alive and that they hadn't executed an innocent boy but she dreaded to think about what he would do to Charlotte if he got his hands on her. Charlotte gripped the back of Mara's jacket tighter in her hand and gasped when Murphy began shouting her name. He was right outside the tent but he hadn't entered yet which bought them some time.
"Don't let him hurt me," Charlotte whispered to Mara and Bellamy. She sounded so young as she spoke that Mara felt herself wanting to break down.
"If anyone has any ideas, now would be the time to speak up," silence followed Bellamy's words, only broken up by Murphy shouting for Charlotte to be handed over to him. "Great! Now you're silent."
"Those are your boys out there!" Finn countered.
"This is not my fault!" Bellamy growled.
"Stop!" Mara ordered when Bellamy looked like he was about to argue further. "It doesn't matter whose people they are!"
"You say you want to build a society, Princess!" Murphy's menacing shouts sounded from outside. "Let's build a society! Bring the girl out!"
"Don't let him hurt me, Mara…Bellamy," Charlotte whimpered.
"It's going to be okay, Charlotte," Bellamy crouched to her level and placed his hands on her shoulders to give her what little comfort he could offer.
"Okay, this is what we're going to do," Mara crouched down next to Bellamy so that they were on even ground. "You are going to stay with Clarke and Finn and we," she gestured to Bellamy, "are going to go out there and try to talk Murphy down. Okay?" She asked Charlotte, who nodded her head, her eyes quickly filling with unshed tears once more. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you. You hear me?"
"Yes," Charlotte whispered and threw her arms around Mara's neck. Mara hesitantly hugged her back, but when she did she never wanted to let her go. She knew that she couldn't let Charlotte get away with killing Wells but that didn't mean she had to be executed for her crime either.
"If we're going to do this, we have to do it now," Bellamy gently rested his hand on the small of Mara's back and guided her to her feet.
Bellamy exited the tent first and Mara took one last look at Charlotte before placing her hand on Finn's bicep and standing on the tips of her toes to whisper in his ear: "If you hear this going south, you take Charlotte and run as far away as you can."
She didn't wait for him to respond before she exited the tent and found Bellamy and Murphy standing toe to toe. She hardened her face as she walked up to Bellamy's side and unconsciously mimicked his pose by crossing her arms over her chest.
"Are you up for round two, sweetheart," Murphy hoarsely snarled at Mara. "That little bitch has to pay for what she's done."
"I understand that, Murphy, and I understand that you are beyond pissed off, but what happened to you today cannot happen again." Mara was surprised by how calm she managed to keep her voice as she spoke to the battered boy in front of her. He barked out a hollow laugh and limped back a step. He opened his mouth to speak but Mara interrupted before he could. "Listen up!" She projected her voice so that the rest of the gathered crowd could hear.
"I may not be who you have chosen to follow but you will listen to me now. What happened today, what we did today, can never happen again. The cruelty that we showed Murphy was not an act of justice, it was an act of revenge and don't even try to deny it. We beat and hung Murphy not for the crime of Wells' murder, but for being an asshole. That cannot happen again." Mara couldn't believe that the crowd was actually listening to her and that even Murphy wasn't interrupting her (though she suspected that it was because what she was saying benefitted him).
"We turned into monsters today. Look at Murphy! He is covered in the marks of our cruelty and hatred and that is not acceptable!" The crowd remained silent as Mara continued, though a few began to shuffle uncomfortably under her piercing gaze. "We came down to Earth with one hundred and one people and six of us have already died. We nearly increased that number by trying to kill Murphy. We cannot have seven deaths." She paused, letting her words sink in before she took a steadying breath.
"We are not The Ark! We are The Hundred and we cannot afford to lose any more of our people and that includes Charlotte." Murphy moved to interrupt her but she held up her hand to silence him. "She will not go unpunished for her crime, but we cannot float people. We will not execute our own people! We need to establish some form of legal system, with fair trials and fair punishments. That is when we can have justice! What we did today was not justice."
The watching mob was suspended in a state of complete silence. Tension was thick in the air as they took in Mara's words and most bowed their heads in shame. Most of the hundred had gotten caught up in the moment, had been lost in the hysteria of the mob, and hadn't had the time to truly think about what they were doing. Murphy had wronged many of them and they had wanted to see him suffer but they never stopped to think that they were helping to kill a boy. Some of the delinquents were arrested for murder on The Ark but only a few of those cases were because the delinquent wanted to kill, the rest were a result of self-defence. The vast majority of the delinquents had been arrested for petty crimes: fighting, stealing or trading their rations on the black market, but they had nearly become murderers.
She caught Nathan's eyes in the crowd and shook her head sadly at him. He looked torn, he had never shown the level of affection for Charlotte that Mara had but he had spent every day with the little girl. He, much like Mara, was finding it incredibly difficult to process what Charlotte had done.
"Bullshit," Murphy swiped his hair away from his face and took another step away from Mara and Bellamy. "Bullshit!" He screamed and balled his hands into fists. "You think a few words are going to make me okay with not floating that little bitch! Don't be so fucking stupid, sweetheart."
"Murphy!" Bellamy barked while subtly angling his body so that he was slightly in front of Mara. Murphy's face was scrunched up in sheer overpowering rage as he strode up to Mara and Bellamy with a slight limp. "Murphy," Bellamy warned, "back off."
"Or what? Are you going to hang me?" He seethed.
"I was just giving the people what they wanted." Bellamy held his ground against the boy who was quickly becoming angrier.
"You were just –" Murphy cut himself off by scoffing at Bellamy. His piercing eyes flickered to Mara, running up and down her body as he sneered at her. "You really think you convinced them with that little speech, huh sweetheart?" He took a step closer to them and Mara desperately wanted to move away from him but she wouldn't let herself show him any weakness.
The sight of his dirt covered face and the metallic stench of his blood made her stomach roll leaving her wanting nothing more than for the awful day to be over. Murphy stepped away from the two guarding the tent and menacingly laughed at them; it was a sound that cut Mara in two, fraying her nerves and squeezing her heart painfully. His laugh was hollow and lifeless but when it was paired with the inferno burning in his eyes, it became the most terrifying sound that Mara had ever had the misfortune to hear. She unconsciously tensed behind Bellamy, her shoulder brushing the back of his arm, and he responded to her movement by uncrossing his arms and letting them dangle by his side.
"Let's give the people what they want," Murphy's voice was strikingly calm as he ordered his audience. "Who here wants to see the real murderer hung up?" He shot his clenched fist into the air and stared at the crowd, waiting for them to comply.
Mara could feel her heart racing as she waited for the audience to react. She hoped that she and Bellamy would have a chance of holding off a few of the delinquents if they tried to rush the tent, but they wouldn't be able to hold off all of them. Mara hoped that Finn was listening to what was happening and had snuck Charlotte out the back of the tent.
A few hands shot into the air, all of Murphy's small group of followers, but the rest of the hundred remained still with their hands firmly planted by their sides or stuffed deep into their pockets. Mara was relieved that she had gotten through to them, or that they still hated Murphy enough to not want to do anything he said. She didn't really care which it was, she was just relieved that they didn't want to kill Charlotte.
The outcome of his vote was not good enough for Murphy. His shoulders tensed as he thrust his fist higher into the air and glared daggers at the crowd as if he could force them to agree with him.
"Fucking cowards," Murphy growled under his breath. "So it's okay to string me up for nothing but when that little bitch confesses, you want to let her walk!" He snarled at the crowd as everyone who wasn't following him averted their eyes. "Cowards! All of you are fucking cowards!"
"Murphy!" The authoritative voice boomed from Bellamy's mouth as he purposefully marched towards Murphy, leaving Mara behind him. "It's over, Murphy!"
Murphy grew quiet as he squared up to Bellamy. They stared each other down, chests heaving and jaws locked until Murphy seemed to retract into himself. The boy took a step away and threw his head back, letting out an aggravated huff.
"Whatever you say, boss."
Bellamy held his stance for a moment longer as Murphy slowly retreated into his group of followers. The crowd remained in a state of unease with tension thick in the air. Murphy was glaring at the ground, his shoulders tensed as he scraped a streak of dried blood from his nose. Mara watched him suspiciously; there was no way that someone like Murphy would give up that easily. She didn't like the glimmer of malice in his narrowed eyes. Something's wrong, she couldn't shake the troubling thought from entering her mind as she watched Murphy slowly shaking his head.
Bellamy turned his back to the crowd and began slowly making his way back to the tent. His shoulders were slumped; it seemed that the weight of being a leader was finally getting to him.
Mara couldn't take her eyes off of Murphy's visibly shaking form. She felt her body tense with fear when Murphy's head snapped up from looking at the ground to stare angrily at Bellamy's retreating back.
"Bell-" Mara didn't have the chance to finish her warning as, in a flash, Murphy had sprinted from where he was standing. The boy dashed to a large piece of wood on the ground and picked it up, swinging it into the back of Bellamy's head.
It happened so quickly that Mara didn't have time to process Murphy's actions before it seemed that the world had erupted. Bellamy was knocked face first into the ground unconscious and the hundred erupted into shouts but Mara blocked their voices out as she tried to rush to Bellamy. She felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist, constricting around her and stopping her from moving any further. She tried to thrash against the person holding her to get them to release her but they only held on tighter. She threw her head back, hearing a satisfying crunch as her head collided with the person's nose.
"Bitch!" A deep voice growled in her ear and he threw her carelessly to the ground.
"Mara!" Nathan shouted from the crowd but she couldn't focus on him as she fell.
Mara collided with the earth and winced in pain as her palms grazed along the jagged stones littering the ground. A boot collided with her side sending a searing pain through her body. She involuntarily curled protectively around herself, still in shock from the sudden change of events, preparing herself for another blow that never came. She twisted around, having to grit her teeth together to prevent a grunt of pain from escaping from her lips, and found that Murphy and his followers were marching towards the tent that Charlotte was hiding in.
"Finn!" She screamed as she struggled to her feet, silently praying that Finn had gotten Charlotte out long ago.
"Charlotte!" Murphy roared as he reached the tent.
Mara ran to the tent, trying desperately to ignore the pain shooting up her side, and grabbed the back of Murphy's jacket. She tried to haul him away from the tent but he shrugged her off, shoving her hand away from him. The boy that had grabbed her around her waist threw her to the ground again, knocking the wind out of her as her back collided with the hard earth. His nose was dripping with blood and he looked down at her with such hatred in his eyes that Mara felt her blood turn to ice.
"Charlotte!" Murphy roared again as he pushed his way into the tent.
Mara struggled to her feet, trying to catch her breath as she stumbled into the tent after Murphy and his men. Every thought, other than protecting Charlotte, left her head. She couldn't think about the pain in her side and her back, she couldn't think of Bellamy lying unconscious in the dirt and she couldn't think of the look on Nathan's face as he demanded Murphy be floated.
Get to Charlotte, stick to your promise and keep her safe! Mara had never felt such a strong need to protect anyone before but as she thought of her promise, she realised that her need to protect Charlotte felt entirely natural.
Mara laughed with relief when she saw that Charlotte was not in the tent. Finn got her out, the thought made Mara's heart sing but her relief didn't last for long when Murphy rounded on her.
"Where is she?" Murphy stalked towards her, his face turning a terrifying shade of red as his anger boiled over. Mara was forced to step back but he kept advancing towards her until her back collided with the side of the tent. "Where is she?" He screamed in her face. He was so close to her that she could feel his breath quivering against her face. The smell of his blood was almost overpowering and made her head spin uncomfortably.
"I don't know what you're talking about?" Mara managed to say, not caring about the level of fear in her voice.
"You little bitch!" Murphy pushed her further into the canvas of the tent, his body pressed against hers. His hand shot up and wrapped around her throat, his fingers digging painfully into her neck. "Where is she?" He tightened his grip on her throat, starting to close off her airways.
Mara tried to pull his hand away from her throat. Fear clamped down on her as she struggled to breathe. It was a fear so strong that she thought she would never escape it, that it would entrap her forever in its wretched claws. Her nails scraped against the back of Murphy's hand but he never flinched; his cold stare remained unwavering as tears filled her bulging eyes. Her head was pounding horrifically as her mouth opened and closed rapidly to try to fill her lungs with air. Murphy leaned his face closer to hers and squeezed her throat tighter. Black spots were beginning to cloud her vision and she could barely make out anything beyond Murphy's shoulder.
"Now you know what it feels like," he growled lowly in her ear, "and when I find that little bitch, I'm going to string her up and make you watch her die."