atomic man, john murphy.

A Lie Guarded

"This is weird," Clove noted as she watched water splash against the side of Emori's boat. "It's kind of like being in space... except this is definitely bumpier." Clove and Murphy sat on the front of the boat with one guard to their left while the most of the group sat in the back. Luna and Nyko stayed below the deck while Emori drove. "It's scarier, too."

"Scarier?" Murphy asked. They both talked in quiet voices so that everybody else on the small boat couldn't hear them talking.

"I don't know," She shrugged. "I never worried about the Ark falling out of the sky but for some reason I'm convinced this thing is going to give out and we'll all end up at the bottom of the ocean." Clove then peered over the edge again, staring into a wall of blue. "Who knows what could be down there..."

"Yeah, let's hope we never find out," Murphy said. Emori had just pulled the boat up to the dock so Murphy stood up and offered his hand to Clove to help her stand up. "Emori, where are the boats?"

"Without ALIE, there's no reason to be here," Emori explained as she hopped off the boat and tied it to the dock.

"According the Thelonius' map," Abby began, staring at the map in her hands and then looking up at the thick forest ahead of her. "The lab is in the middle of the island. Five miles. Straight ahead."

"You okay for that hike?" Jackson asked Raven, holding out an arm to stabilize her.

"Try to keep up with me," Raven joked.

Murphy stood on the dock and stared ahead of him. "Never thought I'd be here again," He admitted.

"Ah, you shouldn't have come," Raven gave him a wry smile and took a step closer. "You're not fooling anyone, Murphy. You're still a dick."

She walked away, leaving Clove and Murphy on the dock. "Well," Clove placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I'm glad we decided that you're working on Abby and not Raven."

"Yeah," Murphy rolled his eyes before the two joined the rest of the group on the beach.

They all walked diagonally along the shore until they reached a pointed pillar. Emori, who was leading the group, stopped just in front of the pillar. "What's wrong?" Abby questioned.

"ALIE's rule. No frikdreina past this line," Emori explained as she stared at the imaginary line created by the strip of pillars. "I've never crossed it."

"Frikdreina?"

"Mutants," Emori stated.

"Well," Clove exaggerated her movements and placed one foot beyond the pillar. "Good thing ALIE is gone, isn't it, Emori?"

Emori nodded slowly and held her breath as she stepped forward with the rest of the group. She let out a relieved sigh when she had made it past and nothing happened. Then, a low humming noise surrounded them.

"What is that?" Miller questioned and searched for the source of the noise.

They all turned around and saw a small drone above them. "Drone?"

"We should run," Emori urged them.

"Why? What's the penalty for crossing the line?" Raven asked. The drone answered her questioned by firing a shot into one of their guard's head. None of them wasted another second and starting running away from the drone. The drone fired more shots toward them. Everybody was too focused on running away to worry about taking the drone down, save for the guard at the end of the line. "I can't keep up!" Raven yelled.

"I got you," Murphy said, running behind her. He got her arm over his shoulder and helped her move a bit quicker. "Cover Luna! Cover Luna!"

They all kept running in different directions, which was enough to keep the drone from killing them all but not enough to keep it from firing a shot into Clove's leg. She yelled out and stumbled to the ground. "Clo!"