Barricade- John Murphy

Chapter 10

Episode 10:
I Am Become Death

Murphy's POV

I stumble through the trees, Artemis leaning heavily on me. "Come on Arty. Come on." I mutter leading her through the trees. My body was screaming at me to stop. But I couldn't. I had to find the camp. Not for me, but for Arty. She needed Clarke to help her out. I could care less if they stitched me up.

I trip over something and curse tugging Artemis up. "Come on baby. Walk with me. You can do this." I say as she whimpers, pushing herself to stand more. "We have to be close." I mutter softly. Gunshots go off and barely miss us. I fall with Artemis when she trips. "Hey. Hey, stay awake. Arty." I say tapping her cheeks.

Running feet come closer and I look up seeing Octavia and a few others. "Help her." I say quickly. Her eyes fall on Arty and she gasps. "Nate!" She yells as she comes helping me up. He runs over and freezes seeing me, then gasps seeing her. "Help her. I don't care if you help me, just help her." I plead.

They could see me as weak, I don't care anymore. "We will. Nate, grab her." Octavia says as they help me stumble inside. Everyone stares at me, before gasping when they look behind me. They get us into the dropship, and as I lean against the wall, Arty starts thrashing and screaming in Nates arms.

"Set her down." I yell at him. He puts her down, his eyes wide. "Arty. Hey, Goddess look at me. Focus." I say grabbing her face. Her eyes meet mine, wide and full of terror. "We made it. We're at camp. In the dropship. You're okay." I say and her eyes shift around us eyeing everyone. "Arty?" Octavia says sadly. Her eyes snap over to her and fill with tears.

"Tavi?" She chokes out. She hadn't spoken in two days, besides screaming. So finally hearing her talk made me sag in relief. Octavia moves closer slowly, but Arty scrambles back in a panic. Her cries break my heart as I hold her to my chest soothing her. My back drops against the wall behind me. We made it. She would be okay now.

Nate's POV

I leave the dropship, trying to block out the image of my best friend. She was beaten and bloody. Just as the sun started to rise the gates open for the others. "Bellamy. We need to talk. Clarke, get into the dropship. They need you in there. ASAP." I tell them and Bellamy pauses. She heads past us as I sigh.

"I need you to listen before you go bursting in there. Everyone's been basically guarding the dropship since last night. So you'll be lucky to get in before I give them the okay." I tell him and he looks confused and lost. "Okay... what's going on?" He asks me confused.

"Arty and Murphy are back. We found them just outside camp last night." I say and he tenses up. "Bellamy listen to me. I know you want answers, we all do. But listen." I say and he huffs angrily. "Something happened to them. We know for sure they were beaten. Maybe even tortured. But something else is going on." I say and he eyes me.

"What do you mean?" He asks me. "No! Don't touch me! No!" Screams are heard from the dropship and I flinch. "That. Arty won't let anyone touch her besides Murphy. When anyone tries she screams. And when we tried to move Murphy to clean the blood off him, she started screaming and crying." I explain and he curses.

"Just... tread lightly with anything you say." I tell him and turn heading for the dropship. Everyone sitting outside moves as we go inside. "Arty, hey. It's just Clarke. She wants to help you okay? You're hurt." I hear Octavia and see Arty cowering back into Murphy staring at Clarke wide-eyed.

"Arty it's okay. She's safe." Murphy says quietly. "Clarke, O, Nate, Miller stay. Everyone else clear out." Bellamy says, staring at Arty. They all slowly leave as Artemis slowly scoots forward. When Clarke reaches to clean her face she flinches. "It's okay. You can tell me to stop whenever you want." Clarke tells her gently.

"Can you move your hair so I can see your entire face?" Clarke asks her softly. She whimpers and Murphy shifts behind her. "Arty. It could get infected. You need to let her help you." He says quietly. She sniffles but finally nods and ducks her head as she pulls her hair back with a ponytail on her wrist.

She looks up at us and my heart drops. A deep cut goes down her face, from her eyebrow and across her nose to her cheek. "What the hell happened?" Bellamy asks as Clarke starts cleaning her face. "Grounders. They got us the same night you banished me." Murphy answers.

"They could know things about the grounders. Things that could help us." Miller points out. "Help us? We hanged him. We banished him." Bellamy says. "Bellamy he's right." Clarke cuts in as she moves to help Murphy. After assuring Arty she wouldn't hurt him. "His fingernails were torn off. They tortured them." She tells us. "You and the grounders should compare notes." Finn says appearing next to me.

"What did you tell them about us?" Bellamy asks him. "Everything. I told them whatever they wanted just so they'd leave her alone." He answers, his eyes locked on Arty. I shift, carefully walking over, and sit on the floor with her. "Hey." I say gently and she looks up at me.

She doesn't answer, but I don't care. As the others talk I hold my hand out to her. On the Ark when she was anxious or anything, she'd play with my fingers to distract herself. She looks from me, down to my hand and back up again. She ducks her head as she reaches out messing with my fingers.

"What are you doing?" Clarke asks me. "It's an anxiety thing. She'd do it on the Ark too. It calms her, gives her something to distract herself with." I shrug at her. "Here." She says holding out a pen they had found. I take it and hold it out in Arty's view. She pauses and eyes the pen, slowly taking it from me.

I listen to the others talk as she messes around drawing on my hand. Soon, everyone else filters out except me. Octavia insisted she'd be back later. "Thank you." I hear and shift my gaze to Murphy. "For what?" I ask him. "Helping her. I didn't give two shits if any of you helped me. Just as long as she got helped." He says staring at Artemis.

She paused her drawing looking over her shoulder at Murphy. "I'd never leave you out there." She whispers and Murphy smiles. "I know you wouldn't Goddess. But in that moment. I only cared about you getting help." He tells her. She nods, ducking her head as she starts drawing up onto my arm.

After a while, she shifts back over to Murphy and curls up next to him. Clarke rushes in making her flinch and scramble away. "Murphy. How did you guys get out? How did you escape the grounders?" She urges him. "I don't know. I woke up, and they forgot to lock my cage. Arty was just sitting there, so I grabbed her and ran." He explains pulling Arty back to him and she relaxes.

"They let you go..." She mumbles as Bellamy comes in. "Bellamy, stay back." She tells him. "Did he do something to you?" He asks her and sees Murphy bleeding from his eyes. "What is this?" He asks. "Biological warfare. You were waiting for the grounders to retaliate for the bridge? This is it. Murphy is the weapon."