Chapter 34: Caves

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Murphy

I looked at her, frozen. Rose was staring at me, I felt her eyes burning into my soul. She looked around at the stuff and then at me, I was holding half of the torn photo in my hand, "I'm sorry," I mumbled looking at the floor, "I saw something glinting-"
"Save it," Rose weakly said, "I've come to get you, we're gonna play a game," Rose told me and she turned around, I grabbed her arm and she looked at me.
"I'm sorry," I repeated, looking into her eyes.
She shrugged me off, "It doesn't matter, it's just a stupid cave with some stuff in it."
"It was your cave," I softly said, "yours and Melody's."
"Let's go," she ignored me, I grabbed her arm again, stopping her from leaving.

I looked her sternly in the eye, "What are the experiments?" I asked her.
Rose stared at me, "Let me show you something," Rose said, I stared at her expectantly. She took off her hoodie, and grabbed my torch, she shone it on her left arm. I looked at it, there was a human bite mark on her arm, it was bright red and surrounding it was green flesh, that looked like it was rotting away, it had lumps and bumps on it, it was on her forearm. And going all the way up her arm was more red dots and small green patches, "It's disgusting, I know," Rose shook her head and put her jacket on.
"It's not," I shook my head, "It's bad ass," the thing I said to Emori on many occasions.

"The reason why we can live on Earth without dying of rads," Rose began to explain, "is because we were injected with radiation, from being babies. Every three months until you're three, then every six months until you're eight and then once a year up until you're eighteen, then supposedly every five years until you reach sixty, " she looked at me, "Not everyone has the treatment, there's risks like cell mutation and infection and dying. A lot of babies die from it. Back in England, a year before I was born, they already knew England was survivable, already sent some eighteen year olds up to investigate and they've been surviving, my father found that out," Rose informed me, "then they sent us, some criminals, some not, and we survived," Rose looked at me, "the only thing is: our people don't know we survived. The radio blew with the plane. Kinda shitty design to be honest. It's why we need to get to The Mountain. But your people say it's destroyed?"
"Yeah," I nodded, "they were using grounders for blood, it was really messed up."
Rose looked at me, "Let me show you something," she said and she walked towards the back of the cave.

I followed her to the back of the cave. She walked to the back wall and shone her torch in it, there was drawings on the wall, more maps of this place as well as some photos. There was a photo of a person, they're eyes vacant, covered in blisters and their skin slightly greenish, they were chained to a bed. The person was a girl, her hair falling out, her lips blood red, her eyes white and kind of illuminating. "What happened to her?" I asked.

Rose bitterly laughed, "We call them Zombies."
"Like from the movies?" I asked.
"Kind of," Rose said and then she looked at me, "too much radiation causes you to get this disease. I don't know the name, we just say it's Zombie-itus. I think it's called Radical Infectious Zombolocal Disease phase one is like a typical cold, you get a Sore Throat, Runny Nose, Fever," she looked at me, "hardly recognisable, and week two starts Headaches, Vomiting, cold shivers - still like an ordinary cold or virus," she looked back at the wall, she sighed, "Week 3 just makes you really tired, Exhaustion, blood shot eyes, which isn't uncommon living in caves, lack of vitamin D from the sun and working long hours. But Week 4, the disease shows itself, it's horrible, Black outs, vomiting blood, blood red eyes, chapped lips, pale skin. Horrible." Rose shook her head, she then lifted up her arm and pointed to her scar, "And if you get bitten by a person infected or come into contact with their blood or body fluids, you get it too. Horrible," she lowered her sleeve and continued, "the final curable stage, but only rich or royal get cured, your skin goes green and flakey, you get spots. You're still vomiting blood and passing out, some die at stage 4, most do. You also get nightmares and your speech slurs, also get a bit violent and lash out," she then looked me dead in the eye, "if you haven't been killed, at week 6, you get blisters, burning fever, like you're on fire. There's also seizures and you lose the ability to talk. And finally, your lips are blood red, like the eyes," Rose then looked back at the photo, "after that, you find home."

"Home?" I asked her.
"Death," Rose sadly said, her eyes meeting mine, "it's what we say: May We or You Find Home," Rose then looked back at the wall, "This place was purposely creating people like this and trying to fix it. Using their own people, grounders, us. They have no limits, and if people had mutations, like born with them, grounders say they're a stain or something, Charles would take them on, trying to cure it. But mostly, killing them." Rose said as her voice cracked and I saw a tear roll down her face. "The experiments were brutal, so painful," her voice broke and I came and put my arms around her.

She placed her head in my chest her tears soaking my shirt. She then pulled back and sobbed, "I'm sorry for crying, it's just-"
"Don't be sorry," I gently said as I pulled her face back into my chest, resting my chin on her head before whispering, "You were one of them?"
"Yes," she croaked, "He kept me locked up for a day or two, and that's when Melody came to save me. We were going to escape, going to go to the most beautiful place we knew."
I looked at her, and I softly asked, "How come you didn't get infected?"
She swallowed and then answered, "Because I'm immune. It's because of my genes. My grandfather was from above - grounders, you'd call them. And my mum, she came from the sky."

"When we get out," Rose said, and she pulled back to look me in the eyes, "I'm going to take you to the most beautiful place I know."
"Where's that?" I asked.
"It's a shopping centre - you'd call it a mall," Rose smiled, "It survived a nuclear war, which is amazing," she laughed, "but it's beautiful, it has trees growing inside it and a river, it's amazing."
"Well, you best get us out, then," I smiled. And then suddenly I felt her lips press against mine.

She quickly pulled away and blushed, "I'm sorry," she mumbled as she faced the waterfall, walking away, "We best get back," she said, not looking at me. I grabbed her arm and she turned to face me.
"Don't be sorry," I told her and I kissed her back. I know I shouldn't, Emori is still out there. I picked her up, her legs around my waist, I rested her against the wall next to the fur blanket and kissed her lips, aggressively, until she was breathless.
"What are we doing?" Rose whispered, between kisses and breaths.
I kissed her neck and whispered in her ear, "What do you mean?"
"What about Emori?" Rose mumbled. I ignored her and kissed her lips, so she couldn't speak. I unzipped my jacket and threw it on the floor and did the same with hers. I sat her down on the cave bed, ontop of the fur blankets. She dangled her legs off of the rock. I stood up, still kissing her as I undid the golden clasp of here black belt and threw it the ground. I took off my shirt and threw that on the ground too. She stared at my chest, "You like?" I laughed.
"It's alright," she playfully laughed. I kissed her on the neck again and then I put my hands up her shirt, feeling her stomach and then I lightly squeezed her boobs, she shook her head. "What?" I innocently said and then I lifted her black vest top off and she came close to my ear and she whispered, "this is only temporary..." I Ignored her and lightly pushed her down, so I was laid on top of her, her chest touching mine, she was wearing a black bra. Her eyes bright in the dim torch light, her hair golden in the light she shook it free, fading from red into a light-brownish colour. I removed her leggings and kissed her stomach and then her lips. She rolled me over, so she was sat on me. She took off my jeans and we were both laid making out, her on top of me, our bodies radiating warmth. Both of us breathless. I didn't care if this was temporary, I still loved Emori. It will always be her. But I couldn't deny my connection with Rose. Our underwear was on the floor, kisses more heavily... "You're amazing..."

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Author's Notes: Rose is actually blonde but dyes her hair red and if she was in The 100 I would cast Chloe Moretz to play her. Also this is the most intimate chapter I've ever wrote and idk how I feel about it lol.
I'd also cast Chloe Bennet as Riley Melody Moon.
And Clara would be Alexandra Daddario but with brown eyes and blonde hair.

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