the scent of air and darkness x b. blake

f o u r

S U R V I V O R S
O N  T H E
G R O U N D

THE FIRST MORNING THE DELINQUENTS woke up on the Ground, Wells was searching for Lilly. He hadn't seen her before he went back to sleep last night and she was still nowhere to be found. Marcus Kane had asked him to keep an eye on the brunette, and Wells was just figuring out how badly he was doing. He was kicking himself for letting the Johns walk back to the dropship with her. Lilly could deal with herself, that was made plenty clear when she killed Austin Rogers, but there were others down here with murder on their record.

As Wells limped around camp looking for her, she was just waking up in the tree she'd fallen asleep in. Lilly blinked her eyes open and took in her surroundings. It wasn't a dream. A smile spread across her face as she climbed off the branch that she'd slept in, realizing as she did that it might've been a bad idea. The ache in her back was the convincing she needed to decide to find another way to make herself feel safe at night.

"What did you do with Lilly?" The dulcet tones of Wells' voice could be heard not far from her. Looking around, the brunette noticed her best friend approaching Murphy. It was obvious his actions could quickly turn into a fight so she hurried over.

"You mean Fun Size?" Murphy snickered, looking over at Mbege and the rest of his little gang. "I didn't do anything with her. I could, though." Murphy's tone made it obvious he was joking more than actually threatening the wellbeing of the girl, but it made a shiver run through Lilly's spine nonetheless.

"Well, then, where's she at?" Wells snapped, stepping closer to Murphy to get in his face.

"I'm not her babysitter, how am I supposed to know where she's at?" However, behind Wells, he saw Lilly approaching. A devious smirk covered his features as he added, "Now that I think of it, I think I saw her go off into the woods. She's probably long gone by now."

Before Wells could start yelling at Murphy more, Lilly finally arrived next to him and snapped, "Fuck you, Murphy. Stop being such a piece of shit." Wells' gaze snapped to her, a brief look of surprise and relief on his face, having believed Murphy.

"You stop being such a stupid bitch, and maybe I will." Murphy retorted with a sneer. The two of them stand in silence for a moment, both of them daring the other to throw the first punch.

Wells was the one to break it up before anything could happen. "Come on, Lilly." He grabbed his friend's shoulder, turning her in the opposite direction and leading her away from Murphy and his gang. Once their far enough away, Wells hisses, "Where were you? I spent all morning looking for you."

"In that tree." Lilly answered calmly, pointing to the tree, which still had the crate resting at it's base.

"In the tree? Are you crazy?" Wells sends her an incredulous look.