Bruised Beyond Beauty // John Murphy// The 100

Chapter 8: Out of the Inferno

Soul wrenching screams filled the grounder camp for hours. Shouts for information mingled with pleas of mercy filled each and every hut and ear in the aria. The grounders hurt Murphy with everything they had looking for any scraps of information they could get. However, the weak and beaten boy had only revealed that they were not coming to get him, that they rarely left the safety of camp. Although partly true, he knew that Ace left on a daily basis; but, after what he had said, he doubted she'd even know he was kidnapped.

"P-please..... I.... I can't.... I can't....." Murphy rasped out as the grounders took a small break. He tugged at the restraints on his wrists as he curled his knees to his chest, feeling the sting from open wounds on his chest as his tattered cargo pants made contact. Soon after they began to beat him, he had broken the restraints on his ankles forcing the grounders to have to hold him down themselves.
Tears ran down his face as small hiccuping sounding sobs escaped his throat as he hid his head in his knees, he didn't know how much longer he could last, how much longer he could live. And out of all the thoughts that could have made their way into his pain ridden head, it was one of fear, fear that Ace would forget him, or maybe it was that she would find him and the grounders would hurt her like they hurt him.

***

Outside Ace sat, watching the grounder camp. She wasn't stupid, if Murphy was here, he was going to be guarded. She watched and waited for one of them to wander her way, if they got too close she would jump them, take their clothes and pray no one would catch her till she got Murphy out of there.
A woman, stocky and average height walked by the tree line where Ace sat. She had a machete at her hip with her eyes cast at the ground unaware Ace was a few feet away. All at once, Ace jumped out of the bush, grabbed the Machete, tossing it behind her into the bushes and latched her hand with a thick cloth in it around the woman's mouth and nose, dragging her with little noise back into the forest. The grounder flailed in her grasp before becoming weak and quickly passing out from lack of oxygen. Even this close, grounders were still scary looking with the black furs, armour, tattoos and completions giving off an eerie vibe that shook Ace to the core. She'd seen what they'd done to Jasper, and she knew that that would look minuscule compared to what she'd find with Murphy.
Quickly, Ace striped the woman of her armour and clothes till she was left with her underclothes before binding her hands the a tree and gagging the woman who was still unconscious.
It took a half hour, but Ace managed to dress herself in the woman's armour though it sat odd on her tall frame before braiding her hair like the woman's and rubbing some dirt in it and in patterns on her skin to make the tattoo looking marks. If she was spotted in daylight it would be obvious that she wasn't a grounder; however, in the black of the night and Murphy's haunting screams in the air, chilling to the bone, she doubted anyone would notice her. The wouldn't see what they weren't looking for.

Once Ace had the machete strapped to her waist, quiver on her back and bow over her shoulder, she waited till the grounders dissipated a little more from the aria before walking casually into the camp. She quickly adopted the grounder styled walk, brisk with shoulders slightly hunched and eyes cast low. Everyone looked uncomfortable as the walked by her and into huts for the night. Maybe they didn't like hearing a boy being tortured just as much as Ace didn't like the grounder back at her camp being electrocuted.

That was the night before she discovered Murphy was gone. She had left for a cupple of days after his hurtful words, and when she returned, she regretted not going back the next morning like she'd said. She had tracked his kidnappers tracks to the village where she heard Murphy's cries, leading her to this moment when she was walking into the hut built half in a large hill filled with grounders.

"No.... no..... I'll tell you anything.... Just...... just please s-stop...." Murphy's heavy breathing and cries rang out through the aria sending chills down her spine. She followed the sounds of his whimpers and sobs for a few minutes before she heard the horrible sound of burning flesh and an ear splitting scream.