The Girl With No Name // the 100 Wattys 2018!!

Twenty-Nine

a/n: This is going to be a pretty short chapter. Oops, sorry. Also, since I'm feeling particularly nice I'm going to go ahead and post the rest of this story. Enjoy!

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They stayed put for the rest of the day. Murphy was still knocked out, and the others were growing restless. There was talk about heading back to the campground, and Theresa found herself conflicted. She found herself this far into the Dead Zone. What was the point of going back now? But what if she was better off going back? What if they never found the City of Light? Theresa didn't want to die in the middle of the Dead Zone. Clearly, there was a reason why they called it the Dead Zone.

Jaha stood by Murphy while the others paced back and forth. Theresa, however, had taken a seat on the ground. Murphy started to stir, and Caspian spoke, "Finally. It's about time he got up."

"Be quiet, Capsian!" Jaha shot back at him sternly.

Theresa looked over as Jaha helped Murphy up onto his feet. Murphy nodded at Jaha then looked over at Theresa, who gave him a small smile.

"If he's not okay, we're leaving him," Caspian said. "It's time to go home."

Jaha turned on his heel slowly and sent Caspian a stern look. "And where exactly is that?" he asked.

Caspian stepped forward, replying, "Sir, I understand that you're trying to get us to a better place, but look around. We've got no food, no water, and no idea how to even find it."

Murphy muttered something softly, causing people to look at him. "She said it was 'Due North,'" he said again.

"What is 'Due North,' John?" Jaha asked.

"She was talking about the City of Light," Murphy replied.

"Did she say that?" Caspian asked.

"No."

Caspian let out a sigh of frustration, turning and facing the other direction.

"Do you know how far due North, John?" Jaha asked.

"No, she didn't know, but she couldn't be sending us there if she didn't think that we could make it," Murphy replied.

"Who? The liar and the thief that robbed us and knocked you out?" Caspian asked, the annoyance in his voice clearly evident. "Sir, you can't seriously be considering this."

"John, we have no weapons and no rations. If we go North and you're wrong, then we'll all die. If we turn back, then we'll live," Jaha said to Murphy.

"So, is that it then?" Theresa cut in, causing everyone to turn to her now. She let out a sigh as she got up to her feet. She limped over to Jaha and said to him, "You've hit a bump in the road? You've reached the point of no return? You just want to give up?"

"I never said that," he pointed out.

"But you didn't not say it either," Murphy added.

Theresa stood next to Jaha now, standing on the opposite side of Murphy. Jaha looked up at the sky, pointing at the stars. "That is the North Star," he said, "After you." Then, he held out his hand and motioned for Murphy to lead the way.

Murphy was the first to walk forward. Jaha stayed with the group, turning to the others and telling them to decide for themselves: continue the journey or head back to the campground. Theresa limped ahead, finding herself next to Murphy again.

"And here I was thinking that I was finally going to be rid of your annoying ass," she muttered, looking over at him.

Murphy stopped in front of a hill, holding out his hand for Theresa with a smirk on his face. "Only in your dreams, Theresa."

She took his hand and began to climb up the hill behind him, smiling up at him.

As they were halfway up the hill, Jaha spoke up from behind them, "I believe this is what they call having faith."

Murphy snickered. "Faith?" he called back. "Nah, I've just got nothing else better to do."

The two of them continued climbing the hill, and Theresa kept slipping. If it wasn't for Murphy keeping a firm grip on her hand, she would have ended up at the bottom of this hill again. When she slipped again, she caught herself by sticking her hand into the sand. Murphy looked over his shoulder at her for a moment, then looked ahead of himself again.

"We're just about there," he said softly. "You got this."

---

A virus hit the camp.

It had to have been some sort of biological warfare, much like the acid fog that had plagued the campground since the beginning. Countless people had been falling ill, including Clarke Griffin.

Theresa tried her best not to get sick, but it seems her close proximity to the campground got to her.

She had fainted, and the last thing she remembered were tears falling from her eyes. But it wasn't tears. Blood fell from her tear ducts as she fell to the ground. Then, the world went dark.

---

"It'd sure be nice to have a sign that we aren't all marching to our deaths," some guy that was walking behind of Theresa complained.

They had been walking all day, and the sky had grown dark again. Given that they hadn't taken any time to actually sit and recharge, Theresa felt that she was walking on fumes. Also, if she had to hear this asshole complain one more time, she would take the walking stick that Jaha carried and stick it so far up his ass that he would feel like he was back in the forest it came from.

Jaha rolled his eyes and let out a sigh. "We're not," he replied to the guy. You could just hear the agitation in his voice.

"Hey, tell me if you know this one," he continued on.

"Not again, please," Murphy muttered.

The group let out a collective groan, growing tired of hearing this guy speak.

"Grounder and a Reaper walk into a bar," he started, and that was where Theresa stopped listening.

With the pain in her leg and back getting to her, combined with the utter annoyance she felt towards this guy and his embarrassingly terrible jokes, she stopped caring to listen. He had been on and on about the same eight jokes in the last thirteen hours. Either this guy thought, "Hey, maybe I haven't told this joke yet," or else he thought, "Maybe if I tell them one more time, maybe I'll get a laugh out of someone." Theresa considered laughing out of pity, but decided against it, thinking that it would probably just egg him on.

There were seven of them, including Jaha. The others turned around and left, heading back from the campground. Theresa still wondered if she should have went back with them. That was the only thing that she could think about.

"I will take Jaha's staff and beat you with it," Murphy told the guy that was walking behind Theresa.

"John," Jaha said, trying to stop a fight from happening.

"Or, this one," he started again, and Theresa rolled her eyes. But as he started to tell his equally terrible joke, an explosion went off right behind of Theresa, and she was sent flying.

She landed hard on her face, and she was knocked out cold from the impact.