Survive, if you can // John Murphy

//39// Swarmed and Hypnotized

WARNINGS: swearing, violence.

I'm being pulled up and dragged forward. I'm about to ask what's going on before I hear the buzzing. Little, sharp points are sticking into my skin one at a time. I'm still being pulled forward and into the woods. It's still dark so I can't see what exactly is attacking us. Jackson lights a flare to scare off the spikes as we continue to run. I stop in my tracks as I see two metal towers parallel to each other. Shaw keeps his pace, rushing between the pillars. Sparks flicker off him as his body falls to the ground. Clarke rushes toward him, pulling him through the fence. She stands and he grabs her foot, telling her something roughly. She goes to the bottom of the tower and does something I don't see.

"It's off!" she shouts to us.

I rush through the pillars and kneel beside Shaw. I realize that his entire face is covered in pink boils. Something tries to come up my throat and I move away from him. My hand covers my mouth as I fall on my knees with my back turned from everyone. I shake my head, breathing in deeply to get some fresh air into my system. Someone's hand is on my back, soothing me.

"It's okay, Cam."

That's Bellamy's voice.

"Sorry," I say quietly, wiping my mouth even though there's nothing on my lips.

"He's dead."

I look over my shoulder to find everyone standing away from Shaw. Raven will be devastated. Just like I will be devastated when Marcus dies. I probably shouldn't be thinking about that.

"Are you alright?"

I stand quickly to face Clarke who spoke. "Fine, thanks for your concern."

She frowns. "Can you stop hating me?"

I step closer to her, shaking my head. "Decidedly not."

I look away from her to see the sun rising over the valley we're in. Tall bushes are arranged in rows but they're completely abandoned. And I can see that now since the light is pouring in over the trees. I see a mountain off to the right. It seems to have a path running up the side of it.

I point toward it. "Looks like there's a path. Someone has probably colonized it."

The group looks where I'm pointing as Clarke nods. "Any guesses on if they're peaceful?"

"We'll just have to find out," I say, nodding too.

After we bury Shaw, we climb the path of the mountain. It takes a while, needless to say. The slope is large and the road is long. I ignore Clarke and John arguing after the first few minutes of it. Bell seems to be on her side but I'm not sure about the others. I've been tuning them out though. It's easier to pretend I can't hear rather than join in and probably get hurt. There is a lot of heartache in my life she could choose from to bring up and I'd rather not give her the opportunity.

When we reach the top, I see a wooden staircase. I walk up it and stop at the landing. A town is sitting before me. A town with houses made of different colours and a little pond in the centre of the gravel square. That's not even the shocking part. Two yellow staircases wind up to a castle. A castle with different sized towers climbing from the bottom. A huge, circular, orange door sits at the entrance with a balcony in front of it.

"Woah," I breathe.

I feel John close to me. "Look at all the rooms we can do it in."

I laugh. "If I can get the door open..."

"You can," he says, following everyone who has begun to fan out.

I cross the large square and head towards the staircase. The town seems to be abandoned. At least, I can't see anyone from where I am. There's a better vantage point from the balcony but I still see no one. I go to the panel next to the door and open it. The wires in here are confusing. There are also thread-like wires hidden behind the thicker ones. I grab the knife from my boot and use it to poke around between the wires. I wish Raven were here since she's better at this than I am but she's up there. She can probably do a lot more good than if she were down here.

"Any luck?"

I turn to look over my shoulder for a second to find John walking up the right stairs. "Not yet but I'll get it."

"I found something," he says, holding up an electric device.

He taps on it for a few seconds before a song comes on. I hear him mumble an explanation about how he knows it but I'm not really listening. I can feel this awkward feeling in my gut. Like I'm itching to do something. To get out of my skin.

He starts to sing along to the words but I focus on my wires, shaking my head a little. It isn't cool of him to distract me like this. Now his hands are on my waist and my jaw is clenching in annoyance.

"Come on," he says, pressing his lips to my shoulder. "Dance with me."

"No," I say quickly.

"Please," he says, looking up at me with love in his eyes.

I frown. "Go dance with someone else, I'm busy."

He raises his hands in surrender and walks away from me and down the stairs. That ridiculous song is still chorusing in my ears. He must've turned the volume up a lot. I attempt to shake it from my head but it's much too loud. Doesn't he realize that I have to focus in order to get these doors open? Doesn't he realize that we have to get these doors open to survive? Doesn't he realize what a big deal this is? Does he even care about our survival? No. He's just a self serving ass who only cares about himself.

I can feel this anger burning in my chest. It's this hot rage that I just need to release somewhere. My hands have begun to shake with madness as I try to clear my head. I'm ultimately unsuccessful, letting the heat spread throughout my body. It isn't long before my entire body is shaking too.

I pull myself from the electronics, storming down the stairs to where he's dancing. I grip the knife tightly in my hand as I glance at the eclipsed sun in the sky. My eyes pull away from it as John turns to look at me. I let out a shout, sending my fist at his face. His expression goes shocked as I knee him in the stomach so he falls to the ground. I move to straddle him and bury my knife in his shoulder. Someone is dragging me off him but I continue my shouting as I try to stab him again. He grips my arm tight as I'm pulled to a standing position.

"You son of a bitch!! I'll kill you!! Let go of me!!" I scream, lurching against the hands holding me back.

Something sharp is stuck in the side of my neck and I suddenly feel heavy. I give one last struggle before my muscles relax completely. Before my eyes shut entirely, I see Bellamy holding me up. I think I breathe a quiet insult to him before I feel everything go numb.

WORD COUNT: 1248

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