𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐌𝐘. 𝙟𝙤𝙝𝙣 𝙢𝙪𝙧𝙥𝙝𝙮.

iii. A STROLL THROUGH THE WOODS

[third person pov]

"Where are we going?" Murphy whispered to the girl walking quietly through the woods in front of him. She had led him out to the woods as soon as she woke him up, not telling him anything but handing him a knife and telling him to get up. If he was being honest, he was barely even sleeping, all because he was still letting Scarlett sleep in her own bed, only because she was still hurt.

"You'll see," she whispered back to him, her eyes scanning the forest looking for any grounders in the area.

Murphy sighed, standing next to the girl. "Are you sure you're ready to walk around out here, Scarlett? If we run into grounders, I won't be much help."

"I've killed grounders with three arrows in me before," she glanced towards him, seeing his face features growing to surprise. "they put a bounty on my head, I won't give any of them the satisfaction of killing me, I'll kill myself before I let them get rewards for killing me."

Murphy laughed, shaking his head at the girl as they walked forward, her stopping them every once in awhile when she would hear something.

She suddenly stopped them completely, pointing to the tree. "You see the x's carved into the tree?"

Murphy nodded, noticing the five x's carved into the tree about nine feet away from them. He noticed the marks had small nicks around them, and he realized that this was probably where she trained.

"This is the average height for the grounders around here, the top one replicates their head. The middle two; heart and stomach, and the two on the bottom are for legs, if you don't want to kill them, just make them slower."

As Scarlett explained, Murphy couldn't help but stare at her. He couldn't help but notice how strikingly blue her eyes were, and the cute little smile she had on her face. He couldn't lie, she was very attractive, and he was very attracted to her, but it didn't matter. One day, soon, he was going to leave, and hopefully return to the drop ship.

"Hey, Murph," she smiled up at him, "you listening?"

He nodded, before she grabbed his hand, bringing it up and opening it, placing her knife into his hand. "Throw it, and aim it at the chest area."

Murphy faced towards the tree, standing incorrectly making Scarlett move his leg with her foot, "that was the wrong way." He chuckled, shaking his head before he was ready to aim.

His tongue stuck out just a bit, concentrating as Scarlett couldn't help but stare. He whipped the knife towards the tree, before the knife landed next to the chest mark.

"Congratulations," Scarlett slowly clapped, before facing Murphy. "the grounder was faster than you, tackling you and now you're dead."

Murphy shook his head, a grin on his face, before motioning towards the tree. "Let's see you do any better,"

He knew she could do better, he just wanted to see it. Scarlett took up the challenge, jogging over to the tree and grabbing the knife, walking back over to stand next to Murphy. She grabbed her other knife, before quickly hurling the first knife towards the tree, before turning around and throwing the other, both landing in the middle of the chest mark, and the other in the middle of the head mark.

"Well, looks like you can do better."

The pair spent hours out in the woods, Scarlett training Murphy of the accuracy of throwing knives, and she even let Murphy use her bow. It was calming, surprisingly. She didn't understand how, usually, she was on edge for grounder, hoping and praying that one day there will be to many for her to handle. But today, having someone else with her was a calming time, especially with Murphy.

As the two walked, Scarlett suddenly placed her hand onto Murphys chest beside her, stopping him instantly.

She listened to her surroundings, as Murphy stared at her confused. She heard the other footsteps that sounded kind of far from them, but they started getting closer. Her eyes scanned the area, before she saw the ting hole to a small cave that was beside her in the side of the cliff.

"What are y-"

Scarlett placed her hand against his mouth, silencing his words as she stuffed him into the cave, before she snuck in right next to him.

Their chests were pressed against each other, the cave so small that they could barely fit into it. Her hand was still placed against his mouth, so he wouldn't make any noises, before they suddenly heard the many footsteps of the grounders outside.

Scarlett placed her forehead on his chest, calming her breathing as she felt his heart beat fast from the grounders.

What Scarlett didn't know, was he could care less if he died from the grounders at that moment, but his heart was beating fast from how close the girl was to him. He closed his eyes tightly, his eyebrows furrowing as he wondered why he was feeling like this. He's only been with her for a few days, but man was he feeling weird about her.

Scarlett released her breath that she didn't realize she was holding, as did Murphy, but they were for two different reasons. She looked up at him, not noticing until now how close they were.

"We better get back now," she whispered, and he nodded.

They were okay—for now.