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OCT 23, 2149 DAY FORTY ONE ON THE GROUND
HURTS LIKE HELL━━━ FLEURIE & TOMMEE PROFITT
" i loved, and i loved, and i lost you. "
THE GROUP HAD BEEN QUICK TO RETREAT BACK INTO THE DROP SHIP, OCCASIONALLY PEEKING out of the curtains to maintain a grasp on the unfortunate grounder situation they had found themselves in. Fallon sat on the floor, listening to their conversation as she counted bullets and tried to figure out a way to make this work. But they all knew why they were here, and the one way to make them leave.
"They're not moving any closer." Murphy observed.
"They're staying out of range. They'll be waiting until it's dark." Bellamy declared, marching slowly around the drop ship as he racked his brain for what to do.
"If we hit them now, at least we'll take them by surprise." Murphy determined, the hotheaded blonde nearly chuckling at how inspired he sounded.
"We don't even know how many of them are out there." the Griffin girl pointed out.
"I'm not hearing any better ideas, Clarke."
"We'll give them something." Raven's scarily austere voice stated, her jaw locked as sweat glistened on her forehead, despite it being cold.
"All they want is Finn." the Blake boy shrugged.
"Finn wasn't the only one at the village."
Only then did Fallon look up from her pile of assorted bullets, her lips parting as the atmosphere grew so instantaneously tense you could cut through it with a knife. Everyone held their breath as Murphy's face gradually began to fall.
"What are you talking about?" Clarke voiced seriously.
Bellamy took a slow step forward as he spoke. "Raven, hold on."
"Woah, woah, woah. Raven I came here to protect him. You were the one who wanted me to come, you—" Murphy paused as it dawned on him, the dark look the girl was sending him only confirming his epiphany. Bitterly, and with hints of nervousness and disappointment, he chuckled ruefully and gave a sour smile. "That's why you asked me to come along?"
"Enough grounders saw him at the village. They'd believe he was the shooter." she declared, so wound up she looked moments away from snapping, as if she were elastic. Silently, Fallon rose to her feet; everyone's eyes shifting uneasily around the room.
"Raven, you don't mean this." Clarke shook her head.
Bellamy added on with desperate eyes. "You know what they do to people."
"They want a murderer? We'll give them one. Drop your gun!" she commanded as she lifted the automatic rifle to him, aiming at his chest and brushing off the the way her voice had wavered on the last few words.
Fallon found herself irrationally angered with Finn in the heat of the moment. She didn't want him to die, and she had every intent to protect him and abide by her promise, but this was happening because of him. Regretful or not, he was the one who had massacred an innocent village, and now he stood here saying nothing as Raven rested her finger on the trigger that would take someone else's life in his place. The hotheaded blonde shot flaming daggers at him before carefully laying a hand on Raven's arms, feeling her tremble as she took matters into her own hands.
Very few times you could find Fallon Walsh speaking with no sarcasm in her voice, but this was one of them. "You're not stupid, Raven. This isn't the right move and you know that. This is not what's going to help Finn, and you are going to regret if anything happens to Murphy because of this." she slowly, steadily spoke; not gaining any response.
Boldly, Murphy took a few short steps towards her and the gun pointed at his heart; never breaking eye contact with the girl. "Go to hell, Raven."
"Put it down, Raven. Like it or not he's one of us." Clarke argued, working to remain calm; no one was getting through to her, and she seemed to be growing more serious about this by the second.
"I said drop it!" the mechanic maliciously growled, shoving the nose of the gun harshly into his chest.
Only then did Finn step in, grabbing the gun and harshly pushing it away from the boy with a yell; wedging himself between the two. "Stop! Stop!" He turned to the group, who were out of ideas and running out of time. "We're not doing this. They've got us surrounded. The only thing we can do is stay, and defend this place."
"I'm with you." Bellamy declared after a beat, moved by the miniature, inspirational speech.
Clarke and Raven both nodded in agreement; everyone looking to the hotheaded blonde next. Her gaze drifted over Murphy's beaten expression, his betrayed and angry eyes glossed over with tears. Logically, she knew defending the drop ship with only the six of them was bound to end with their bodies bloodied and in need of burying; but the desperate look in Raven's eyes and the promise she had made earlier took precedent.
"What the hell, we all die anyways. Let's do it." she shrugged with a sigh.
"Murphy?" Finn asked tentatively to the boy who had almost become grounder bait.
"Yeah?" he bitterly responded.
"Go upstairs, watch the rear. I'll take the lower level. You four, take the front gate. That's the plan, alright?"
They nodded, Fallon's eyes flickering over to Murphy once more before heading out the drop ship curtains. It wasn't long until she was once again crouched outside behind a large pile of brush, this time next to Raven as they all focused carefully on the tree line; on high alert.
