Tragedy ✧ John Murphy

• Chapter 2 •

"Okay. Now let's go." Clarke said and she, Finn, Monty, and Jasper all started to head off. Octavia looked towards Bellamy.

"Go on." He confirmed and Octavia grinned and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Have fun!" Julia called out to her as Octavia ran off after the group.

Bellamy turned to his youngest sister. "You sure you don't want to go too?" He asked her. Julia shook her head.

"Nah. I want to stay here and spend some time with my big brother." She nudged him in the side and shot him a playful glance.

Bellamy just smiled and hung his arm over her shoulder before they turned and started walking back to the rest of the group.

~~~

A little while later, Julia was standing and talking with Bellamy when she took notice of a confrontation between Murphy, John Mbege, and Wells.

Bellamy also noticed this and the two of them walked over just as Wells walked away from Murphy and Mbege.

On the side of the drop ship, Murphy and Mbege had carved in the message "First Son, First to Dye".

"If you're gonna kill someone, it's probably best not to announce it." Bellamy voiced as he and Julia walked up to them.

Murphy chuckled. "You're not really a member of the guard, are you?" He questioned and Julia realized something.

"Oh, I haven't properly introduced you guys yet. Murphy, this is my brother Bellamy. Bellamy, this is my best friend John Murphy. And that's John Mbege." Julia introduced them before adding on, "And no, he's not actually a member of the guard."

"The real guard will be here soon unless we stop it. You don't actually think they're gonna forgive your crimes. Even if they do, then what? Guys like us, we're gonna become model citizens now, get jobs, if we're lucky, maybe pick up their trash?" Bellamy spoke.

"You got a point?" Mbege demanded. "No, I got a question. They locked you up, dumped you down here like lab rats to die, so why are you helping them?" Bellamy asked.

"The hell we are." Mbege responded defensively. "You're wearing those bracelets, aren't you? Right now, those things are telling them whether or not it's safe to follow us down." Bellamy explained.

"Okay. You said we could stop it. How?" Murphy asked him. "Take them off. The Ark will think you're dead, that it's not safe to follow. You follow?" Bellamy responded.

"Right, and if we do, I mean, what's in it for us?" Murphy questioned, glancing between Bellamy and Julia. He knew if she had been the one to ask, he would've done it no question, but since it was her brother, he wanted to know what they'd get out of it.

"Someone has got to help me run things." Bellamy answered before turning around and walking off. Julia stuck around with Murphy and Mbege.

"You know, your brother's pretty persuasive." Murphy spoke and Julia glanced at her brothers retreating figure. "That he is."

~~~

It was dark out and the fire the group had built climbed high. The group was gathered around it as one-by-one people came forward to get their wristbands taken off.

Julia stepped forward and crouched as she placed her right arm on a stone block. She locked eyes with Murphy, who was the one taking off the wristbands.

She gave him a quick nod before he stuck the metal bar under the wristband and pushed, prying it off. It was a little painful as the metal bar dug into her wrist, but soon the wristband propped open and fell off.

Julia smiled largely as she stood up, tossing the wristband into the fire. Bellamy looked over at his sister, smiling proudly. Then she went to stand behind Murphy as he went to take the wristband off the next person.

He had just taken the wristband off and thrown it into the fire when Wells returned and saw what they were doing.

"Who's next?" Bellamy called out to the crowd. "What the hell are you doing?" Wells demanded as he advanced closer to Bellamy.

Mbege went to move forward to Wells, but Bellamy reached out his arm, blocking him. "We're liberating ourselves. What does it look like?" Bellamy responded.

"It looks like you're trying to get us all killed. The communication system is dead. These wristbands are all we got. Take them off and the Ark will think we're dying, that it's not safe for them to follow." Wells tried to warn the crowd.

"That's the point, chancellor. We can take care of ourselves, can't we?" Bellamy spoke out to the crowd and there were a chorus of "yeah"s, including one from Julia and Murphy.

"You think this is a game? Those aren't just our friends and our parents up there. They're our farmers, our doctors, our engineers. I don't care what he tells you. We won't survive here on our own. . . And besides, if it really is safe, how could you not want the rest of our people to come down?" Wells questioned.

"My people already are down. Those people locked my people up. Those people killed my mother for the crime of having more than one child. Your father did that." Bellamy told Wells, and Julia agreed.

There was no one on the Ark that she cared about or that cared about her anymore. Growing up, the only people she knew was her mom and her siblings. Then, once she got put in lockup, she met others.

But everyone she met in lockup and both of her siblings were on the ground. The only person that wasn't was her mother, who had been executed. So she fully agreed with what Bellamy was saying. Her people were the ones already there.

"My father didn't write the laws." Wells stood up for his dad. "No, he enforced them, but not anymore, not here. Here, there are no laws. Here, we do whatever the hell we want whenever the hell we want." Bellamy started his speech and people cheered, agreeing with his words.

"Now, you don't have to like it, Wells. You can even try to stop it or change it. Kill me. You know why? Whatever the hell we want." Bellamy finished.

"Whatever the hell we want!" Murphy yelled out and soon the entire crowd was chanting those words over and over.

After a few moments of chanting, there was a clap of thunder and rain started pouring down on the group.

"Oh my God, Murphy! Rain! Real rain!" Julia exclaimed as she grinned. She tilted her head up towards the rain and spread her arms out, twirling in a circle as she laughed.

Murphy, who had been jumping and cheering along with the rest of the crowd, moved closer to Julia and scooped her up into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck to keep from slipping as he continued jumping and cheering.

If someone had told Julia yesterday that she would be on Earth in the rain today, she would've laughed in their face. The thought alone was ridiculous. But it was true. She was really there, and she was loving every minute of it.