atomic man, john murphy.

Earth Skills

Clove sat on a rock in front of the fire, her elbow leaning on her knee whilst her head rested on her closed fist. Fox stood behind her, braiding Clove's inky hair. Harper sat on the ground facing Clove, recounting stories from the Ark.

"...And that's how I got locked up," Harper sighed, frowning slightly.

"Damn," Clove whistled. "That suck—ow, shit Fox! Rip out all my hair, why don't you?"

"Your hair is all knotted CJ, that's not my fault," Fox defended, taking the elastic that Clove had come down from space with and tying it around the end of the braid. "I'm done anyway."

"CJ, huh?" Murphy interrupted, chuckling. "What's that stand for?"

"I'll see you, Clove," Harper smiled, standing up and dusting off her butt. Fox muttered a meager 'me too' and took off. She had already admitted to Clove that Murphy scared her, so this didn't come as a surprise to the Coleman girl.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Clove stood as she said this.

"I asked, didn't I?" Murphy answered, shrugged. His eyes flickered down to small wrist that still adorned the cool, silver metal. "You didn't take your wristband off? I thought you were cool, Clove. What is it?" He spoke, stepping closer to her and picking up the end of her braid, inspecting the hair. "Too afraid to rebel?"

Clove raised her eyebrows. "What if I'm just trying to rebel against the rebellion. I'm a double rebel."

"That doesn't even make sense. I think you're scared," Murphy smirked, dropping her hair and crossing his arms. "I'm sure you've got a nice family up there you want to bring down to Earth to save. In fact, you probably got locked up for doing something to help them. Did you steal some rations?"

"Murphy," Clove furrowed her eyebrows and raised a hand to the boy's forehead. "Are you feeling okay?"

He swatted her hand away and narrowed his icy eyes at the girl. "I'm fine."

"I was just checking. You seem awfully obsessed with me today," Clove laughed lightly. "Anyway, as much as I wish I could feed your ego and tell you you're right, honesty is the best policy. My mom's actually dead and my dad was never really the affectionate type."

"Very funny," He smiled sarcastically. "When are you going to tell me what you did to get sent to the Skybox?"

"When are you gonna tell me what you did?" Clove retorted. The distance between the two teenagers was still minuscule and Clove could feel his breath fanning over her face.

"This is the first time you've asked."

"Is it?" Clove pondered for a moment before shrugging. "I guess it just doesn't matter to me. I mean, we all got sent down here, who cares what we did up there?"

"You're gonna care when you've been cornered by one of the murderers that are among us."

She eyed him for a moment, her gaze shifting from his eyes to the strands of hair laid against his forehead. Clove tilted her head, "Whatever."

"Murphy!" Mbege called out. "We got another." Murphy's second hand gestured towards a girl in a beanie who has holding her wrist out.