Tragedy ✧ John Murphy

• Chapter 6 •

Third Person's POV

It was the next day before anyone checked if the fog was gone. Murphy led the way towards the entrance to the cave, Julia following behind him.

Once they got near, Murphy peaked around the corner to see if the outside looked clear. Then he glanced back at Julia and nodded. "All clear." He told her.

Julia let out a sigh of relief before the two made their way out of the cave. Right after they exited, they heard a shout coming from nearby. "Anybody out here? Julia!"

Julia quickly ran towards where the shout was coming from, recognizing her brother's voice. After a few moments, Julia passed a corner and Bellamy and Charlotte came into view.

"Bellamy!" Julia exclaimed before running towards him. Bellamy let out an audible sigh of relief seeing that his sister was alright.

Julia jumped into Bellamy's arms and the siblings hugged tightly. "Are you okay?" Bellamy asked his sister who nodded. "I'm okay, Bell. Are you?" She responded and Bellamy set her down in front of him. "I am now."

Murphy walked over to come a little closer to the group as Jones and the other two came into view. "Lost you in the stew. Where'd you go?" Bellamy asked as they walked over.

"Made it to a cave down there. The hell was that?" Jones questioned. "I don't know. Where's Atom?" Bellamy responded and Jones shrugged.

So the group headed out in search of one of its members. It wasn't that long before Atom was found. Charlotte found him first and let out screams upon seeing him.

The rest of the group rushed over to her and froze at the scene in front of them. Atom was laying on the ground, covered in boils and burns and struggling to breathe.

"Son of a bitch. Atom." Bellamy muttered before he and his sister rushed over to him. Murphy stayed behind next to Charlotte.

Upon getting a closer look, they saw that the entirety of his eyes were a glassy blue and he had blood covering his neck and arms.

"Kill me. Kill me." Atom managed to breathe out, begging for an end to his pain and misery. Tears welled up in Julia's eyes for the guy she hardly knew. He was a good guy, that she knew. And she knew that he didn't deserve this.

Bellamy hesitated, unsure of what to do. Then he stood up, unable to do what he was asking.

Julia had never killed anyone before, mercy-kill or not, but she knew that someone had to do something. She didn't want Atom to be in pain any longer than necessary. So Julia took out her knife.

Bellamy looked down at his sister and shook his head firmly. "No, Jules. Not you." Bellamy spoke but stopped when she looked up at him with tears in her eyes.

"I don't want him to suffer." She said and Bellamy nodded and crouched down beside her, gently taking the knife from her.

"I will do it, Jules. And I'll make it as painless as I can, I promise. But I need you to go back to camp, okay?" Bellamy said and Julia hesitated a moment before nodding.

Then Bellamy stood up and turned to the rest of the group. "Get back to camp. All of you." He ordered as Julia stood up.

Bellamy looked towards Murphy and his expression said it all. Murphy walked forward to Julia and placed his hand on her back, guiding her to start walking forward, away from her brother and back towards the camp.

Julia glanced back to see Bellamy crouching down beside Atom. Then they were no longer in view. Julia looked forward again, just hoping that Atom went as peacefully as possible.

~~~

When her brother, along with Clarke, Finn, and Wells got back to camp it was dark. Clarke and Finn went off to help Jasper while Bellamy and Wells carried in Atom's body on a stretcher, his jacket covering his face.

It wasn't long before that that the rest of the group had made it back. But Julia hadn't been able to tell Octavia yet. She didn't know how to tell her older sister that the guy she had been flirting with and kissed had died.

But she realized she'd have to deal with it now since Octavia had came out of the drop ship and was making her way over.

She had seen the stretcher behind her brother and didn't see Atom, so she was putting two and two together. But she needed to see it to really believe it.

"Octavia. Octavia, just stay there. Stay back." Bellamy tried to block his sister from going any further, but she pushing past him. She knelt down next to the body and removed the jacket from his face as Julia walked forward to stand next to her brother.

"Atom..." Octavia whispered as tears started welling in her eyes.

"There was nothing I could do–" Bellamy started, but Octavia quickly spoke. "Don't!" She exclaimed, putting her hand in the air to stop him.

Octavia cried over Atom's body for a moment longer before placing the jacket back over his face and standing up.

"O, I promise, there was nothing we could do for him..." Julia spoke, desperate for her sister to understand. Octavia didn't want to listen, she just shoved past her siblings and went back to the drop ship.

Julia couldn't handle being there anymore. Her sister's reaction was too much for her and she just needed to get away.

So she headed towards the back end of the camp where there were fewer people. Murphy followed her. She was his best friend and she was hurting, so he didn't want her to be alone.

Julia walked until there was no one in sight except Murphy and then sat down against a tree. Murphy sat down next to her. She didn't want to talk right away so they just sat in silence until finally Julia spoke up.

She didn't talk about her siblings, or Atom, or the fog. She didn't want to think about any of that right now. So instead, she just spoke about the Sky Box, being on Earth, really anything but those topics. And she listened as Murphy talked.

And that's what they did. They just talked for hours about both everything and nothing. They did this until Julia finally fell asleep, leaning against Murphy with her head resting on his shoulder.

Murphy looked down at her. She looked so peaceful when she slept. The stress and anxiety of her life faded away when she was asleep and it made her look so much more calm and tranquil.

Murphy smiled softly before getting comfortable and falling asleep himself.