chapter eighteen | fire & the hunting party
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Thanks to Hunter's intervention, Murphy received permission to remain in camp, although not everyone welcomed his return. The camp had set up a smokehouse to preserve their hunted meat. Octavia, Murphy, and Hunter were assigned the task of assembling it.
Hunter's motivation for joining the effort was to stay close to Murphy, a sentiment he shared. However, their labor inside the smokehouse was marred by the challenging meat they handled – thin, wide, and far from appetizing. Hunter lamented the lack of gloves as her sticky hair clung to her face, and her meticulously braided locks unraveled.
"Hey, let me help you," Murphy came over and took her hair out of her face and fixed her braid. Hunter looked at him and smiled, and continued to hang the food.
Del, another delinquent, arrived with logs for the fire. Octavia, cautious about the fire's intensity, offered advice.
"You don't want the fire too big. So maybe just try and knock it down with some wet leaves," Octavia suggested.
"You get that from your boyfriend, Grounder Pounder?" Del snapped back.
Hunter scoffed, "No, it's common sense, now get out of here before I throw you out," Hunter turned back around and continued hanging the meat.
"She's right," Murphy added. "A hot fire is not gonna preserve the meat as well,"
"You can't take the heat, get out of the smokehouse," Del looked at Murphy. "You should be kissing our asses for being allowed back in this camp,"
Hunter stopped and grabbed Del by his collar and threw him out. "What did I say?" Del looked back at her, with the camp now looking at the display. "Now get back to work!" Hunter turned around and went back into the smokehouse.
"Your brother couldn't get you a better job?" Murphy asked Octavia. "Anything would be better than working in the meat furnace,"
"Oh, probably," Octavia smirked. "That just means someone else would have to do it,"
Hunter and Murphy both smiled at each other, "Any reason I couldn't get a better job?" Murphy asked.
"Oh, I'm not I'm charge of assigning jobs, just making sure they get done. Now, go get some wet leaves, to bring down this fire," Hunter told Murphy as he left the furnace.
But it was already too late as the fire got caught on the logs and everything went up in flames. Octavia was taken out by Bellamy, and Murphy ran back in and grabbed Hunter's hand and brought her out, and she fell to the floor. Murphy rested a hand on her back. "You okay?" Hunter nodded and watched their food go up in flames. Then Del stood in front of the fire, and Murphy stood up, "this is all your fault! We told you it was too much wood," Murphy grabbed Del and started fighting with him.
"Murphy!" Hunter tried but ended up coughing instead.
Bellamy stood up and broke them apart, "Hey! Hey! Save it for the grounders,"
"Well, now what the hell are we gonna do?" Octavia spoke aloud. "That was all the food!" Clarke stood next to her, looking at Bellamy.
They managed to put the fire out, Hunter, Bellamy, and Clarke looked at the remains of the smokehouse.
"Any idea what happened?" Clarke asked.
"Murphy said that Del kept feeding the fire. Mostly because Octavia told him it was a bad idea," Bellamy informed.
"And we believe Murphy?" Clarke asked, Hunter looked at Clarke, giving her a look. "No offense,"
"I do, yeah," Bellamy looked up, Hunter gave him a small smile.
"We have some wild onions and nuts in the drop ship, it's only enough to last us maybe one or two weeks." Clarke sighed. "What's left here?"
"Nothing," Hunter stepped in. "It's all burned." She looked at them both. "We're gonna have to hunt, anyone we can spare goes out," Hunter turned to leave and Bellamy grabbed her arm.
"With the whole grounder army out there?" Bellamy asked.
"Look," Clarke stepped in. "She's right, we can't defend ourselves if we're starving,"
Majority of the camp formed hunting teams armed with guns and spears, prepared to return by nightfall. Bellamy asked Hunter to remain behind to watch over the camp.
Finn walked over to her, "You ready to go?"
Hunter looked at him, "I'm not going,"
Finn furrowed his brows, "Why not? You're one of the best Hunters we got." Finn softly smiled, "Pun not intended,"
"So I kill a panther once, and I'm the best we got?" Hunter softly smiled. "Besides, Bell asked if I could stay behind, watch over camp,"
Finn sighed, "You mean watch over Murphy?"
Hunter looked down, "Look, not exactly everyone is happy that he's back in camp,"
"You can't protect him forever, Lee," Finn tried.
Hunter smiled and shook her head, "I know, I know," she took a breath. "But he's all I got, so I can try,"
Finn stepped closer, "He's not all you got, you know that." He looked at her, "You got me,"
Hunter's breath trembled, and she quickly grounded herself and stepped back. "Clarke's going, and god knows she needs a good tracker," she took a breath. "You should go with her,"
Finn sighed and nodded, "Okay," he gave her a small smile and walked over to Clarke, and they both left with another delinquent, Myles.
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Hunter spent most of the day sorting through the rations, trying to make as much food as she could. She was frustrated and restless. Her hair kept falling out of her braid and kept getting in her face, she growled and grabbed her knife and started cutting away at her hair.
Murphy, who was carrying some logs for the campfire, saw her cutting her hair and that she was restless. He put down the logs and walked over, "Hey, let me," Hunter looked up, slightly startled. And slowly gave him her knife. She sat up, and he started cutting her hair.
"If you hated my braid so much, you could've just told me," He smiled.
Hunter smiled, then sighed. "Sorry," she took a breath, "I've always hated my long hair, but my dad wouldn't let me cut it," she felt her eyes starting to well up, "Said it reminds him of my mum," Murphy slowly stopped. "But now we're down here, and he's gone, so, no one's holding me back, right?" Tears started to slowly stream down her face, she tried to wipe them away, but they kept coming. Murphy finished cutting her hair, it was shoulder length, a messy job, but he could tell that she suited it. He grabbed the tie that used to hold her hair together and started doing small braids throughout her hair and broke up the tie into smaller ones to secure it.
He always enjoyed doing Hunter's hair; they usually always sat in silence. It was the only peace they ever got when they were together. He took a breath, and walked in front of her and knelt down, Hunter looked at him, with a sad smile.
He wiped away her tears and held her hand. "Your dad loved you, Riley. He would be so proud of you,"
Hunter smiled at him, "Your dad would be too, Murphy," Murphy's smiled faded.
"I'm not so sure about that," Murphy stood up.
"Hey," Hunter stood up, and grabbed his hand. "I mean it," Murphy went to say something, then heard that the hunting party was back.
"Finn," Hunter softly spoke as she turned her head around. Murphy sighed and walked off. Hunter turned around and saw him go, "Murphy," he kept walking. She sighed and walked over to the group to help them with all the food.
Later it was revealed that Clarke, Finn & Myles didn't come back with the others. Bellamy, Monty, Octavia, and Raven left to search for them. They found only Myles.
But in the midst of it all, Monty disappeared.
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- love me a lil cute moment between murphy & hunter