FIRE AND GOLD ▸ JOHN MURPHY (editing)

thirty-eight; broken machine

I wanted it to work but I had a feeling it wouldn't.

I grab Clarke and push her aside from the others.

"Don't freak out." I tell her. "I don't think he's who Emori says he is." I whisper looking back at the man and noticing John and Emori looking at us.

"What do you mean?" She whispers back.

"I don't know. I just... I have a bad feeling about this."

"It's the only way." Clarke tells me.

"I know, that's why I didn't tell you earlier." I say as we walk back to the group.

Everyone was close to the man but Murphy and Emori who were looking at us from the upper level.

I look at them, my eyes looking with John's before I look away swallowing hard and looking at the man.

Finally, the man is put into the machine, everything was going fine. It was working. Jackson was already on 2.500 and the man was still fine.

Suddenly his heartbeat starts racing.

"Wait." Abby orders.

"No..." Clark mutters as I breathe in. "Turn it off." She orders noticing that his skin is starting to burn.

Jackson does as he's told but the man keeps screaming.

"En's sting in!" He keeps screaming. (It burns)

"Get him out of here!" Abby goes to the machine but me and Jackson grab her.

"Wait! It's not safe yet!" He tells her as the man starts choking on his blood, never stopping his screams.

I curse to myself. We were all going to die. Great.

He releases the last scream and then he's dead.

Everyone looks away and silence fills up the room.

"What have we done?" Abby mutters more to herself than to anyone else.

"Try to save the human race. He's dead. Get over it." I reply as I walk away. "Happy?" I ask Emori before going back to explore the building.

Looking at the dead man or what he went through didn't face me a bit. The only thing in my mind was how we were going to survive.

I had killed so much that I had lost count. In the beginning, I would ask myself if their life was less than mine. Why would they die for me to live when I'm no use to anyone or anything. After a few, I stopped asking that. The food on my table was there at the end of the day. Now I don't care, I don't even think about the lives I took. I'm still here. They're not. End of the story.

I arrive at what seemed like a living room on one of the other floors. I get in and start looking around.

"Inanna," I hear Abby calling and I look at her confused about why she's here. "Can we talk?"

"I would rather not to." I tell her.

"I never got the chance to apologize for turning your father in." She tells me and I take a deep breath. "I'm really sorry. Logan... he was a big friend of mine."

"It's a shame you got him killed right?" I give her a sad smile. "If he didn't die... everything would be different."

"There's nothing I can say that will make it better, I know that, but I want you to know that I wouldn't do it again." Abby gets closer to me but I step back.

"There's really nothing you can say." I agree and she swallows hard as I walk past her.

I notice that she's in the same place, probably thinking about the man.