"Murphy!" Avery had bounded towards the boy, who was furiously pacing back and forth. She and Monty missed the monstrosity of Murphy hitting Bellamy in the head with a log and then slugging Jasper in the face. "What are you gonna do?"
She wouldn't lie, she was absolutely terrified that Murphy was going to snap and do something awful to Charlotte. She had killed Wells, yes, but she was also a child.
Completely psychopathic child though.
Murphy didn't respond immediately, his eyes glaring daggers into the empty tent that should've been currently housing a guilty looking Charlotte. His knuckles were beginning to turn white from how hard he was squeezing his fists closed, and his nails were digging into the palms of his hands, leaving crescent shaped marks.
"I'm gonna find that bitch." He finally spat out.
The girl felt her heart drop into her stomach. Murphy was determined, all right. And Avery knew there was nothing she could do to stop him from trying to find Charlotte, not after what happened to him.
Before she could reply, he had signalled to a few boys close by, and the group of them disappeared into the woods. Murphy was the first to yell Charlotte's name, and then Avery heard them all chorusing it, shouting her name over and over to try and find out where she was.
Avery was torn between taking off after Murphy instantly, or turning back to Monty. She stared between the forest that Murphy had just run off into, and the black haired boy now approaching her.
"What's going on?"
"Murphy's lost it."
Avery bit the inside of her cheek anxiously, her whole body alight with an unbearable urge to just run away and act like none of this was happening. It would be so much simpler if she didn't have Murphy to care about, or the need to help Monty contact the Ark, or the Grounders to watch out for.
If I asked Monty to run away with me right now, would he say yes?
Avery almost laughed at her thoughts. She knew she had to shake away her desires to run away whenever there was a mess in her life - it was the same as up on the Ark and there were even less places to run away up there - and she knew Monty needed to stay.
"What now?" Monty asked, eyes nervously darting over the girl's face, unable to tell what she was thinking.
"I gotta go after him."
She shrugged simply, studying Monty to try and understand his reaction. He simply nodded, smiling softly at the girl with a hidden expression of concern.
"Yeah I get it." She breathed a sigh of relief at his understanding. "Be careful."
She hesitated then, upon hearing Monty asking her to be careful. Careful.
What?
"Huh?" She questioned dumbly, watching obliviously as Monty's cheeks flooded with colour.
"Just be careful." He repeated awkwardly, looking anywhere but her eyes. "Murphy's angry, and I don't want you to end up getting hurt. I care about you."
He cares.
That fact made Avery feel like she was having a heart attack. In a good way. Was it even possible to feel like you're having a heart attack in a good way?
She stopped the smile from edging onto her lips because she could see Monty was so embarrassed. Heat was rushing into her cheeks then but she couldn't care less, because Monty cared about her and that felt like the most amazing thing in the world.
"I won't get hurt, I promise." She let her hand rest on his arm, touching it softly. "I'll be careful."
"Shouldn't I come with you?" He asked anxiously, and she let out a soft chuckle.
"I think I should do this alone." She replied, slipping her hand into his for a brief moment just to squeeze it reassuringly.
Monty met her gaze then, his eyes widening and his brain failing to work at its usual high pace thanks to the way the girl was making him flustered. He watched her disappear into the woods, still wondering if he should go with her, but knowing she'd need to speak to Murphy alone to try and calm him down, or find whatever way she could to stop him from literally killing Charlotte.
As Avery wandered the forest floor, she counted herself lucky to be able to distantly hear the shouts of Murphy and his followers, still yelling out for the young girl. She used that as an indicator of the direction she should take, carefully traipsing over twigs and leaves to be as quiet as possible as she went.
She was slightly worried about Grounders.
Only slightly, because she was convinced that if she saw one, she'd be able to outrun them. Or beat them in a fight.
Neither of these facts were close to the truth at all.
She had the determination, but not the skills. How could she? She was locked up in the Sky Box for more than a year!
And clearly she hadn't been moving fast enough then, because the distant sounds of Murphy and the others had died out. She stopped still for a moment, straining her ears to try and listen out for shouting, but hearing nothing.
Shit.
Avery refused to turn back. If anything, her determination only grew when she lost the sound of the boys.
Moving in the same vague direction the noise was coming from, she followed the path for another few minutes, to no luck. Slight panic was beginning to settle in her bones, goose bumps raising on her arms as a shiver present in her body became stronger, despite the fact she was still wearing Monty's jacket.
A cracked twig caused her to stop once again. It was the sound of someone taking a cautious step, accidentally breaking the wood into two. It was the sound of someone who didn't want to be heard.
"Murphy?" She called out nervously, hoping it was her friend instead of one of the other people who disappeared into the woods.
Stupidly, she hadn't thought it might be a Grounder.
And sure enough, it was. He was shadowed by the trees stretching above their heads, but he was so intimidating that Avery couldn't possibly miss him.
His head was shaved, and dark paint was smeared in a clear and purposeful pattern across his face. He stood about six feet tall, clothing made from fine leathers and furs and other materials they simply couldn't afford on the Ark.
For a few long moments, she just stared at him, and he just stared back. There was something about the look in his eyes that made Avery's initial thoughts of intimidation fade away.
The Grounder wasn't walking towards her. She firstly assumed he had been following her, waiting to strike, but now it had hit her that he was probably on his own way home. Obviously the Grounders would have homes to go to, and the man was clearly intent on going to his.
He wasn't a threat to her, and she didn't know why.
Then suddenly, Clarke's piercing scream of "Charlotte!" cut through the air, followed by Bellamy's yell. All at once, Avery realised she didn't have the time to just stare at this Grounder for any longer, she had more important things to do.
Taking one last curious look at the Grounder, Avery broke into a run in the direction of Clarke and Bellamy's shouts. If she had glanced over her shoulder, she would've found the Grounder leaving in the opposite direction - as she correctly assumed - back to whatever place he called home.
Finally, she broke into a clearing in the forest. Only several feet from where she was standing was a drop so far down that they couldn't see the bottom. Mist clouded the way down, and the body laying at the bottom that Avery was ever so oblivious to.
Clarke and Bellamy were at the edge of the cliff, with the girl gasping and sobbing over something Avery couldn't pretend to know, Finn was watching them both in devastation, and Murphy and the idiots he had dragged along with him all looked shocked beyond belief. Avery was just confused.
"What the fuck is going on?"
Everyone was startled to see she was there, clearly absorbed in whatever had just happened before she arrived. And then one thing became apparent to the girl.
"Where's Charlotte?"
She didn't receive a response, and instantly she felt sick. Looking back to the cliff, it suddenly felt like a horror movie - not that she had ever seen one. Charlotte, one way or another, had gone over the cliff.
"Bellamy,"
Murphy started saying, watching the older boy in fear. Avery could tell then that Charlotte had jumped of her own accord, but Bellamy still blamed Murphy for it. If Murphy had pushed her - which Avery was pretty certain he wouldn't - then he wouldn't be attempting to make excuses.
Bellamy dove at Murphy, knocking him onto the ground and immediately swinging at him. Clarke was yelling at the boy to stop, and Finn was watching on in horror, but the thing Avery noticed was the fact Murphy was taking it.
He thought he deserved it.
"You're going to kill him!"
Finn intervened then, racing forwards to rip Bellamy from Murphy, just as Avery went to put some distance between the two. She helped Murphy slump forwards into a sitting position, staring at his injuries for a few moments.
"He deserves to die!" Bellamy roared back at Clarke.
"You don't believe that." Avery countered, shaking her head at the trembling boy.
"We don't decide who lives and dies, not down here."
Bellamy looked as though he wanted to argue back to Avery, but then he stopped himself. He whirled on Clarke, jabbing a finger in her direction.
"So help me god, if you say the people have a right to decide-"
"-I was wrong before. Sometimes it's dangerous to tell the truth."
"So what?" Avery interjected, fidgeting as everyone's attention fell on her. "We go by 'whatever the hell we want' like that's been working out for us?"
Clarke called for the introduction of rules, and Avery found herself firmly agreeing. With small pushback from Bellamy, they settled on the two of them making the rules.
Avery wasn't too sure how she felt about this decision. She knew it wasn't worth debating it at the current time, and then figured that she would be heard by Clarke if she really had concerns. They weren't friends but Clarke valued other people's opinions; Avery knew this.
"And what about Murphy? We take him back and act like it never happened?"
Clarke didn't reply for an agonizing number of seconds. She studied Murphy's bleeding and bruised figure on the ground, and then glanced to the expectant girl beside him, with a hidden expression of guilt. But it wasn't enough guilt to stop her from saying, "We banish him."
Avery felt her heart drop into her stomach, her head aching with all of the stress she had been enduring through her need to protect Murphy. And she may have disliked Clarke before because of her mom, but she had a reason to dislike her for her now.
"He'll die out there." She argued in a weak attempt to change their minds.
But no one responded to her.
Bellamy seized the collar of Murphy's shirt, dragging him over to the side of the cliff and pushing him directly to the edge to intimidate him with the potential fall. Avery knew Bellamy didn't have the guts to send him over the edge, and so she just watched in horror as he threatened her friend with death upon arrival at their camp.
"As for the four of you," He addressed the boys who had stupidly followed Murphy into the forest. "You can come back and follow me, or go off with him to die. Your choice."
"Bellamy, come on!"
Avery tried to plead with the boy, but she knew there was no reason for her to be listened to. Finn squeezed her shoulder, muttering an empty apology, before dropping a knife at Murphy's feet and following the other boy and the four idiots back to their camp.
Avery waited for Clarke to disappear into the woods as well. Just then did she turn back to Murphy, who was still on the ground, his chest heaving for breath as he stared back at the girl.
She didn't know what to do, or what to say. She couldn't help him, couldn't prevent him from leaving, couldn't do anything. And although she definitely didn't condone his unnecessarily aggressive and somewhat psychotic behaviour, she also didn't believe it warranted him death.
Wordlessly, Avery stepped towards Murphy and crouched in front of him. She brushed her fingers over a cut on his face before tilting her head forwards so their foreheads could touch. Murphy could feel her shaky breath fanning across his face.
"May we meet again."
Murphy didn't say anything in return as she stood up again, tears glistening in her eyes. She quickly blinked them away as she took one last look at her very first friend.
His expression of fear ingrained in her mind as she left. And as he watched her back retreating from him, he muttered out the words, "May we meet again."
It turned out, Bellamy hadn't strayed too far from the scene. After a minute of walking, Avery found him leaning against a tree, waiting for her to return back towards the camp.
Upon spotting him, she startled, and quickly tilted her head away to wipe a tear from her cheek. Turning back to face him, she saw he had started up into a walk, slow enough that it was clear he was waiting for her to walk alongside him.
For a while, neither of them said anything.
They hadn't exactly bonded or anything since arriving on Earth, but a few small arguments felt like absolutely nothing in comparison to what had happened with Charlotte, Wells and Murphy. Avery wasn't a fan of Bellamy, which he knew, but she didn't care at that moment.
"Why didn't you just go back to camp?" She finally asked, bluntly.
Bellamy didn't seem affected by her tone, shrugging and glancing quickly towards her. She noticed that he did seem a little downcast, despite trying to hide it, and she felt stupid for thinking he didn't care about banishing Murphy.
"Figured you shouldn't walk alone considering what happened to Jasper." He said simply in return.
She nodded dumbly, remembering then about the Grounder she had seen in the woods. She didn't know why the man had only stared at her and let her move on. He had the opportunity to do anything to her, but he didn't.
But then again, why should Avery be generalising Grounders?
The man was the first Grounder she had seen, and clearly he was peaceful. There had to be more like him, just like how a lot of the Delinquents wanted peace too.
"Yeah." She forced the word out, because her mind was threatening to drift onto the thoughts of Murphy walking alone through the same woods.
"Besides," Bellamy hadn't picked up on her sudden discomfort, and without looking at him, Avery could hear the teasing smile in his voice. "I think Monty would kill me if anything happened to you."
"Fuck off Bellamy."
"Okay, maybe not kill me, but he'd definitely use some strong language. Also, is that his jacket you're weari-"
Avery shoved him, but she couldn't help but grin as heat flooded into her face. Bellamy had let out a laugh at her embarrassment, and for a moment the darkness of what happened was forgotten.
But it came back as quickly as it disappeared.
It felt wrong to smile then. So wrong when Murphy was stumbling somewhere through the woods, armed only with a knife, doomed to die some sort of painful death whether it was by Grounder or starvation.
Bellamy felt the same.
When they reached camp, they parted ways without another word. Despite Bellamy being kind enough to wait for her, Avery was still suspicious of him and whatever secret he was clearly hiding. She wasn't going to forget about it so quickly. But, she may also consider him a friend - sometimes.
After about ten minutes of mooching in her tent - Harper hadn't appeared, which was good because Avery was scared she'd snap at the well meaning girl - she was then dragged back outside in order to listen to Clarke and Bellamy relaying the story of what happened to Murphy to the other Delinquents. It was painful to listen to, especially when she pictured Murphy's fearful expression alongside it.
Monty was right by her side, silent but clearly longing to ask her if she was okay. She knew he would speak so gently, so calmly, so reassuringly. He looked so concerned by her upset, and Avery appreciated it, but she couldn't handle it.
She wasn't used to people being there for her when she was suffering. How was she supposed to get used to it now?
She felt too upset to open up, to confide in Monty, despite how sweet she knew he'd be about it all. And so, as she walked away from him, she scolded herself for pushing him away; but couldn't bring herself to go back.
Luckily for her, and it really, really was, she didn't have to go back.
No matter how much she'd try and push Monty away - which so far had only happened once or twice - the universe would always bring them back together. Or, Octavia Blake and Jasper Jordan would.
A light knock on her tent led Avery to sit straight up in bed, exchanging a confused glance with Harper upon hearing it. Avery felt very lucky to be sharing the tent with Harper: the blonde didn't judge her when she crawled into bed at the most random of times just to stare up at the ceiling.
"Avs?" Octavia's voice confused Avery further, since she wasn't usually one for polite knocking or careful words. "Can I talk to you?"
Harper gave Avery an amused smile, looking at the bemused girl from over the top of a book she was reading. Avery had no idea where she even found a book.
"Uh, yeah. Hold on."
She hopped out of bed, nearly stumbling over the corner of the frame, earning a stifled laugh from Harper. Shooting the girl a glare, Avery pushed open their tent flap - as they had no real door - and came face to face with both Octavia and Jasper.
"So, what's this about?"
Jasper grinned at her sheepishly, looking towards Octavia as if waiting for her to do something. Octavia looked back at him, nodding slightly, before the pair of them turned back to Avery.
No one had answered her question.
"Are you gonna tell me what this-"
She cut herself off when the pair of them each slung an arm around her. She was squished between them as they began walking off from her tent, talking off her ears at the same time about two entirely different and random things.
"Hold on- Can you guys just slow down?"
She was ignored and instead forced to listen to Octavia ranting on about how much Bellamy was getting on her nerves recently, and how Jasper was trying to find the right equipment for brewing moonshine.
"Hang on- Jasper, I thought Monty knew how to brew moonshine?"
They had finally stopped outside of the Dropship, and Octavia and Jasper both looked very pleased with themselves. Avery was still entirely confused, but she was far too exhausted to question it at this point, just choosing to go along with their shenanigans.
"Oh, yes, that's right!" Jasper said enthusiastically, and now Avery thought she was catching on. "Why don't you go ask him about it?"
There were much easier ways to get her to talk to Monty than dragging her across the camp with no explanation, the girl thought to herself.
"Or," Octavia casually interjected, although the girl could tell something deeper was on her mind. "You could talk to him about what happened with Murphy?"
Avery frowned, wanting to argue against Octavia's suggestion. Before she could even open her mouth, the two of them pushed her into the Dropship, and she cursed herself for letting them scheme together.
Monty was alone inside, still fussing over the wristbands as if it was his source of life. Maybe she should talk to him about Murphy; it would cause him to take a break at least.
"Hey," She called out as she neared him. "You got a second?"
Monty startled from his work, clearly he was so absorbed in it that he didn't notice her entering. He nodded, putting down the wristband he was fiddling with, and getting up to approach her.
It didn't take a genius to tell that Avery was going to talk about Murphy, but it took one to find the right words to make her feel comfortable to talk about it. Avery was certain Monty found it easy to do that, because he perfected it every time.
She never would've guessed that only an hour prior, just as she returned from Murphy's banishment, Monty was fretting to Jasper about the girl. Jasper found his friend disgustingly adorable with the way he was worrying that she may have been feeling upset. He attempted to get Monty to go talk to her, which he immediately shot down and complained that she wouldn't want to open up.
He was half right about that.
"I am really sorry about Murphy. He was your friend, and you don't deserve to feel you have to stress about him. Monty sighed, shrugging with a sad smile. "I wish I could tell you it would all be okay."
"But you can't." She replied knowingly.
"I can tell you that I've got your back. I'm always here if you need to talk."
"They left him to die, Monty." Her voice wavered in saying it, a forced half-smile on her lips to stop herself from sobbing. "I should've done something to stop it.
"Like Bellamy or Clarke would've let you do that." Monty pointed out, with Avery admitting he made a fair point.
"Shouldn't I have tried harder anyway?"
She dropped into the seat at Monty's workstation, feeling his hand brushing against her shoulder as he leaned against the back of the seat. She leaned into the accidental touch, embarrassed to be craving the small contact which Monty then repeated, purposely this time.
"Murphy would understand why you couldn't, wouldn't he?"
She didn't know if he would.
The Dropship was immediately invaded by Clarke and Finn, who were followed by Jasper and Octavia. The latter pair were shooting Avery knowing and apologetic glances; as if to say sorry for interrupting whatever she was talking about before.
Avery was up and out of the seat in a flash, the place where she previously sat being instantly filled by Monty as he grabbed a few things to check the final touches of the potential connection to the Ark. Like always, he was being a genius.
"Will we be able to talk to them?" Clarke questioned, as the others all gathered around Monty's messy workstation.
The boy was very self deprecating about the state of the table he used for his work, but Avery - somehow - found it endearing. And besides, he didn't need it to be tidy, he seemed to be doing alright already.
"No, it's more like Morse code." He glanced back at Jasper, an easy smile on his lips. "You wanna do the honours?"
Jasper stepped forward, past Octavia and Clarke, taking a hold of the wire clip Monty previously held. The other boy gestured to where he was supposed to make the connection. "That port right there."
Jasper gently fixed the clip onto the port Monty indicated, before letting go with extreme caution. It seemed that maybe he should've been more cautious, because only a few seconds later, the wristband had sparked with a loud pop.
"Shit." Avery mumbled as she felt a zapping in her wrist.
Looking to the wristband there, she knew that the pain meant that something happened. Something had changed with them. And considering the fact their connection almost exploded, she was sure it was something bad.
"What the hell?"
"What happened?"
"It didn't work." Monty admitted dejectedly. He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, clearly overworked and exhausted. "I think we fried all the wristbands."
No one could find the right way to respond. Clarke looked desperately to Finn, but the boy let out an aggravated sigh in return, before turning and storming from the Dropship. Clarke followed, and Jasper and Octavia had drifted from them, leaving Avery and Monty alone.
But the air felt so different now. The stress, the devastation, the hopelessness, had all filled the atmosphere with a tension so unbearable that even the two lovebirds couldn't find a way to properly diffuse it.
"Monty," Avery started softly, her stomach lurching upon realising how upset he was.
And then she remembered. That moment in the woods they shared when she was trying to pull off her wristband. When Monty said: some of us have families we want to see again.
He ducked his head so the sudden tears that came to brim in his eyes weren't visible. Avery felt a dull ache in her heart appear, wanting nothing more than to wrap Monty in a huge hug, not even thinking about the fact they had never done that before.
"Hey, Monty."
He met her gaze then, his eyes still round and wide and glistening, but his face a little less crestfallen. Not because he was any less crestfallen, but because he had a moment to hide it.
"It's gonna be okay. We'll fix it. We'll find a way."
Monty was almost entirely certain there was no way to contact the Ark but Avery's determination was so firm that he couldn't help but somehow believe her. He still couldn't wrap his head around the fact she had flipped onto the side of those wanting to contact the Ark so easily, and if he couldn't grasp that, then he'd definitely never accept the fact it was all due to him.
"And if we don't?"
Avery rested her hand over his; her soft, affectionate touch a vast difference from the way her eyes were burning a stubbornly determined look into Monty's own. She wasn't going to let him get away with any doubt.
"We will. I promise."
Avery didn't know if that even meant anything to the boy, but his eyes had lit up and a smile so wide had found its way onto his lips. All traces of pessimism had vanished from his system, and within less than a moment, Monty - who Avery would forever call the most hardworking person out of the hundred - had already begun to look at what went wrong with the wristbands. Avery listened to him recite all of theories of why it could've possibly failed, and these ones were just off the top of his head.
Although Finn and Clarke had left the ship, Jasper had slumped against the wall of the Dropship and Octavia had wandered over towards him. Avery then noticed something particularly amusing.
"Hey, look." Avery nudged Monty's arm, giggling quietly as she watched Octavia lean forwards and kiss Jasper.
Jasper was taken off guard, shutting his eyes after a few moments, and then the kiss was over just as quick as it begun. Monty and Avery both struggled to keep silent as they watched Octavia disappear and Jasper try to comprehend what just happened.
His eyes wandered over to the pair of them, clearly awe struck. Monty flashed him a thumbs up, grinning widely at him, and leading Avery to laugh along happily for the boy.
When Jasper finally looked down to his feet, probably replaying the moment in his mind, Avery was able to focus back on Monty. He had started back to work again - that familiar and adorable look of concentration back on his face - and the girl could feel her heart lurch as she watched him.
"Why isn't that us?"
Monty's hand slipped from what he was doing and he dropped everything distractedly. Completely dumbfounded by her forwardness, his cheeks had flooded with colour and he stumbled over finding something to respond with.
He seemed to believe they'd just continue awkwardly tiptoeing around whatever kind of tension they had, without ever addressing it. He'd address it if he had the guts - but he wasn't planning on it. Maybe he should be.
They'd had only known each other for just over a week, yes, but in a place like this; a week felt like months. They didn't really have time to waste, considering the fact they could die at any point, and Avery was already impatient with the awkward limbo between friendship and more that she was in with Monty.
"I- I don't know."
"Me neither."
And with that, she left him completely speechless. And not to mention, even more head over heels.