"you don't even know him"
After a couple of days, everything started going back to normal. I was finally medically cleared by Clarke after what seemed like a million years. I was still sore and covered in scars and stuff, but now, I was allowed to work and help out like everyone else.
However, I hadn't been 'assigned' a job like the others. Murphy and Octavia were designated to working in the smokehouse. Jasper and Monty were on rations. Clarke and Bellamy were telling everyone else what to do.
"Need some help in here?" I asked, opening the flap of Raven's tent. Raven seemed nice enough, and I could definitely tell she was tough. I mean, building a rocket from scrap and coming down to the ground for your boyfriend just to see him falling for someone else? That's gotta hurt.
"I'm good." She replied, seeming frustrated as she worked on pouring gunpowder from one bullet into another.
"Split loads? That's all we got, huh?" I noticed as she turned one bullet into two, halving the amount of gunpowder in each bullet.
"Until your brother can make us some more gunpowder. I saw him taking buckets from the latrine earlier. I didn't ask." She chuckled lightly.
"Our dad told us this old recipe for gunpowder he found in a book one time. I thought it was made up. Guess we'll see." I replied, sitting down on the crate beside Raven. Thinking about my dad made me upset. They floated my mom for having me, but saw my dad as 'too important' to float since he was one of the best chemists on the Ark. She gave me a look of confusion as I sat down. "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. I won't get in your way, just speeding up the process."
Raven watched as I started making the split loads, and she must have approved, because she just gave a small hum of approval and continued working on her own stuff.
After another half hour or so, the tent flap opened, revealing Raven's (ex?) boyfriend.
"And that's my cue." I quipped, exiting the tent to leave the two alone.
Outside, I spotted Octavia and Murphy in the smokehouse, Jasper on lookout and Monty at the water station.
I didn't necessarily want to sit in a hot wooden coffin and slice open dead animals, so I went over to Jasper, who was stationed on lookout.
"Hey, little sister." Jasper greeted, stretching out they 'hey', not even bothering to look beside him as he already knew it was me. "How you feelin'?"
"Great." I answered, happy that I was finally able to work now. I felt so useless before, like dead weight.
"So, are you gonna tell me the real answer now?" Jasper replied, turning his head to me, but still keeping his gun aimed outside the wall.
"That is the real answer. I feel great." I replied. Maybe it wasn't the full truth, but it was the truth I wanted to believe.
"No one here feels great." Jasper replied. I should have known better. My brother knows me better than anyone. "It's okay to be scared, Lee. The trick is not fighting it."
"I know." I replied softly, giving my brother a quick hug. All of a sudden, we heard shouts of chaos coming from the middle of camp. I turned around to see the smokehouse on fire, and immediately ran to see if Octavia was okay.
She was halfway out of the smokehouse, so I ran in and swung her arm around my shoulder to help her as she stumbled out, a coughing mess from all the smoke.
"Are you okay?" Bellamy rushed over and asked his sister. Octavia coughed and nodded.
I looked around and saw Murphy charging at a kid named Del. "This is all your fault. We told you that it was too much wood!" Murphy shouted in anger as he punched Del in the face multiple times. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying watching the fight.
Unfortunately, all good things in life must come to an end, and Bellamy broke up my only source of entertainment in this boring camp. "Hey! Hey! Stop! Save it for the Grounders." Bellamy shouted in anger as he broke the two apart.
"Bell, now what the hell are we gonna do?" Octavia asked, raising her voice over the crackling fire and shouts of delinquents. "That was all the food!"
Murphy shoved Bellamy off him and stomped off as the rest of us stared at the blazing orange flames of what was once our food. It smelled great.
***
After everything had calmed down and the fire was put out, I found Murphy getting some water.
"So, what happened over there?" I asked as I approached him. One minute, he was in the smokehouse with Octavia, working fine and then next thing I know, the food is charcoaled.
"Why do you automatically assume I did something?" Murphy replied, taking a sip from the little metal cup.
"I'm not. I'm just asking what happened." I answered, slightly confused as to why he was assuming I was assuming that he did something.
"Del kept feeding the fire, I kept telling him it was too much. Fire catches onto the wood, smokehouse catches on fire." Murphy shrugged, filling up another cup and handing it to me.
"Thanks," I replied with a small smile, taking a sip of water.
"Lee! Murphy." Jasper approached us, for some reason saying John's name with bitterness and distaste in his voice. "Um- Everyone's going hunting, and I asked Clarke and she said you're allowed to go." He informed, bouncing in his usual jittery state.
"Really?" I beamed. I hadn't been outside the walls since that time we went to the lake, and before that I hadn't been since... the Grounder camp.
"You've gotta come with me, though," Jasper added.
"Is that your rule or Clarke's?" I cocked my head to the side, knowing it wasn't Clarke's idea.
"So are you coming or not?" He shot back.
"I'll go grab my stuff," I replied excitedly with a huge smile. "Later, John!" I called out to my... friend? I guess you could call us friends. I can't stand the guy and his annoying comments most of the time, but I consider him a friend.
I quickly grabbed my pack, a couple knives and a spear out of the drop ship as Bellamy shouted the mission out to everyone. "Each group has a gun. These are for killing Grounders, not food. Use the spears for hunting. Be back by sundown. No one stays out before dark."
I gathered my stuff, holding quite a lot in my arms as I made my way out of the drop ship and over to Jasper.
"Ready to go?" Jasper asked as I handed him a knife and his pack. I nodded as I shrugged my pack that contained a canteen of water, a ration pack of berries, some cloth and an extra knife over my shoulders.
The first twenty or so minutes consisted of me rambling about how exciting it was I was allowed to leave camp, but eventually I ran out of stuff to say and the excitement died down. I would have loved it if Monty could have come too, but he had to stay and try to help Raven make walkie-talkies.
We walked through the woods in a comfortable silence, both of us focused on finding our next meal, or just anything edible, for that matter.
"So, what's up with you and Murphy?" Jasper broke the silence.
I knitted my eyebrows in obvious confusion. Why would he assume something's 'up' between Murphy and I? "What? Nothing. We're friends. Why do you ask?" I replied, confusion evident in my voice.
"Gut feeling, I guess." Jasper shrugged, his voice sort of quiet. I knew that's not all he wanted to say. But before either of us could speak, our attention was turned to a rustle coming from some bushes up ahead. We slowed in our tracks, walking cautiously, not knowing if it was an animal or a Grounder.
Jasper aimed his gun with caution, pushing me slightly behind him out of instinctive protectiveness. We creeped slowly toward the bush we heard the rustling coming from, being careful not to make any noise.
I held a spear in my left, my dominant hand and a knife in my right, just in case.
I released a breath I didn't realise I was holding when a medium sized, fawn coloured deer emerged from the bushes, not even noticing our presence. Jasper got carried away and grabbed the spear out of my hand before taking the deer's life. I grimaced at the sight, but we have to do what we have to do in order to survive.
It was too heavy for just one of us to carry, so Jasper tied it to a straight, lengthy and sturdy fallen tree branch so we could both carry it easier. And so I wouldn't have to actually touch the dead animal.
We noticed the sun was starting to set and decided to head back to camp.
"Bellamy's gonna be pretty happy with this." I commented. "You might get even higher in his good graces."
"Yeah." My brother chuckled lightly, but it seemed so forced, like something was off.
"You okay, Jas?" I asked concernedly.
"I'm fine." Jasper replied from behind me, as he had the back end of the branch. I knew something was up. It's a twin thing, I guess. When something's bothering him, I just know. And he's the same with me. "I don't like you hanging out with Murphy." Jasper blurted.
"Why?" I replied, confused as to why it was any of his business in the first place.
"I don't like the guy. He's dangerous."
"He's not. You don't even know him." I shot back.
"He tried to kill me, Lee!" Jasper argued.
"No, he didn't. He was just mad and I talked him down." I defended.
"Look, I- I don't want you hanging around him anymore. He's not good for you." This boy has the nerve to say that about the only person who can empathise with what I went through. It shocked me so much that as dropped the deer at our feet, coming to a stop.
"What?" I exclaimed. "And since when do you dictate who I can and can't be friends with?" I argued as anger began filling my words.
"Lee, the guy's not good for you to be around. He's a psycho. I don't like you being around someone like him. You're better off without him, just stick with me." Jasper attempted to justify, which was just digging his hole even deeper.
"Really? Where were you when I was being tortured and drilled with questions by Grounders? Or how about when I got accused of killing Wells and was hanged while everyone was trying to protect a twelve year old murderer? Who was there for me then? Murphy. That's who."
"I-I'm sorry I wasn't there, but those were your choices! You were the one who chose to stay back with Murphy and you were the one who was defending him when he was being accused for killing Wells." Jasper argued.
"Because he is a good person! It was the right thing to do. Jasper, you're my best friend first and my brother second, but you can't control me or what I do or who I'm friends with. What if I didn't like you hanging out with Harper all the time?" I fired back, not letting the water in my eyes fall.
"Then I'd stop being friends with her." Jasper shrugged.
As he completely missed the point, I rolled my eyes and groaned in annoyance, picking up the stick and continuing the trek back to camp. Who is he to think that he can dictate who I'm friends with?
It was dark by the time we got back to camp, and a Jasper and I still hadn't said a word to each other the whole way back. A couple kids cheered on Jasper as they saw what we had caught, and he went off to hang out with his new, cool friends.
"Long day?" Monty asked as I huffed and crashed on his bed.
"You have no idea."
"Clarke and Finn didn't come back. We're going to look for them. You wanna come?" Monty offered.
"They're probably screwing in a cave somewhere, why do we need a search party? They'll be back in the morning." I replied.
"They were with another kid, Myles." Monty answered.
"Oh." I replied. "Um, yeah, sure. I'll come."
word count: 2092
a/n: hiiiii sorry it's taken so long for me to update. i've missed writing so much. this chapter was a bit of a filler ig, but hope you liked it anyway. also lmk what tropes you wanna see in this book (enemies to lovers, one bed, best friends to lovers etc). okay, stay safe, love you all xx