Chapter 19
"I saw the sea, dull and dark, just like the sky without stars."

♥ ♥ ♥

THE WRECKAGE OF THE dropship was unlike anything Harlai had ever seen before and that was saying a lot. The explosion itself created somewhat of a crater where it landed. Not only that, but the dropship was reduced to mere pieces scattered around everywhere and, unfortunately, it was the same for the people that were inside.

Harlai had to force the bile down that was threatening to creep up her throat as she stepped over detached remains of the people from their home. She knew there couldn't be any sign of life, but she still found herself looking. Her eyes shifted to see Clarke stumbling across the site and grief settled over herself. Abby was like a mother to Harlai and she was on that dropship. She had to be.

"Stay sharp," Bellamy said, his voice drawing Harlai's attention as well as everyone else that had joined them. "Grounder retaliation for what happened is coming, just a matter of when."

"Can you blame them?" Finn asked and it took everything in her to not groan, so she did it inwardly.

"No, but I blame you."

"Maybe if you didn't bring the guns-"

"If we didn't bring guns, we all would've been killed," Raven cut Finn off, but she averted her eyes.

Finn looked at her as if had been stabbed in the back. It didn't matter that she was right, he thought she was on his side. Unfortunately for him, he was wrong on this one.

"Why they're coming doesn't matter anymore," Bellamy interjected again as he looked at Finn. "It's our job to be ready when they do. We're on our own now."

At that moment, Harlai couldn't agree with Bellamy more. The past was the past and this strange feeling came over her as she recalled herself saying the same thing about Murphy.

Harlai began to walk around again and she stopped when she saw some sort of dark red liquid pouring out of a tank. She bent over to get a better look at it and when she began to breathe in a foul scent that came out with it, she began to cough a bit.

"Harlai, stop!" Raven exclaimed, making the other woman straighten up in shock.

The dark-haired woman jogged over and Harlai tilted her head once she looked at Raven.

"Rocket fuel?"

"Hydrazine," Raven responded, making Harlai's eyes widen in response.

"Shit," Harlai backed away as she grasped the bow on her shoulder absentmindedly. "Hydrazine is highly unstable in its nonsolid form.

Raven nodded. "If this stuff meets fire-"

"We're all pink mist," Harlai said a little too excitedly as Raven motioned to her arrows. "Maybe even worse."

Harlai reached back to pull out one of her freshly made arrows. Luckily, she had enough time before they made the trek here to make a handful more. She dipped the arrowhead into some of the hydrazine that had pooled on the rock beneath the tank. The brunette turned on her heel as she carefully drew the arrow against her bow's string.

"Fire in the hole," Raven exclaimed and not a second later, Harlai released the arrow which was aimed at a fire that had already started.

At contact with the hydrazine covered arrow, an explosion erupted. Harlai didn't even care if the grounders heard this. Let them hear it, Harlai thought. It would be a bad idea on their end.

"We need to clear the area," Raven called out to the rest of their crew.

"Okay, then." Bellamy said before turning to the people behind them. "We move in formation, no straggling, weapons hot. We got to get back before dark."

With that, the group began to file out of the site but not before Harlai started to feel an idea lingering in her mind. Even though the hydrazine wasn't obviously helpful, she silently wondered if they could potentially design something to use it for.

♥ ♥ ♥

MURPHY WAS BACK and Harlai didn't know whether she was happy for him or scared. The last time she saw him, they were leaving him behind in those scary ass woods. As for Bellamy, she knew he was angry for sure. She remembered what the last thing Bellamy said to Murphy was, what he would do if he ever saw him again and Harlai was scared of what he might do. After Bellamy found out, he immediately stalked over to their dropship where they were told they were holding Murphy at the moment.

"Where is he?" Bellamy demanded in a booming tone.

When they walked inside, Harlai's eyes landed on the man with a grimace. He looked absolutely horrible. She couldn't even tell what had happened to him. Blood had taken over the majority of his face which looked like it had been cut several times.

"Everyone but Connor and Derek out," Bellamy ordered and when no one seemed to move he continued with a stern, "Now!"

"He claims he was with the grounders," Derek, the red headed kid that always seemed to be wearing that black beanie, said with a gun in his hands.

"We caught him trying to sneak back into camp."

"I wasn't sneaking," Murphy said with a raspy voice. "I was running from the grounders."

"Anyone see grounders?" Bellamy asked, earning a look from Harlai.

"Maybe he got away. If he got so close to the camp, I'm sure they would have turned away," She tried to defend Murphy only to look away when Bellamy gave her a grimace. "They haven't come inside."

"Yet." Bellamy shot back, his jaw seeming to sharpen as he clenched it. When he didn't get an answer from the other two, he held up his gun to aim it at Murphy. "Well, in that case-"

"Hey, what the hell is wrong with you?" Finn pushed the gun away when he said this, Bellamy turning and seeming to size up the other man.

"We were clear what would happen if he came back," Bellamy returned his aim with the gun at Murphy.

"No, Harlai was right." Finn stepped in front of the gun's barrel, the breath hitching in Harlai's throat. "Plus, if he's been with the grounders then he knows things that can help us."

"Help us? We hanged him, we banished him, and now we're gonna kill him. Get the hell out of my way," Bellamy dipped his head so he could look scope.

"No, Finn's right." Clarke said as she walked past him.

"Like hell he is," Bellamy exclaimed when she went to kneel next to Murphy to check out his wounds. "Clarke, think about Charlotte."

"I am thinking about Charlotte," Clarke responded as she gave him a look before returning to scan Murphy with those medical eyes of hers. "It was as much our fault as his."

The blonde picked up one of Murphy's blood covered hands and she paused. "He's not lying. His fingernails were torn off. They tortured him."

"You and the grounders should compare notes." Finn said, mostly aimed at Bellamy but Harlai winced at this.

"The grounders know we're at war," Bellamy retorted before turning to Murphy and raising his voice, "What did you tell them about us?"

"Everything," Murphy actually whimpered, his eyes flickering towards Harlai.

Harlai couldn't tell what it was, but something had changed in his eyes. It looked like he had seen everything. She couldn't imagine what he had gone through.

Clarke stood and walked over to Bellamy, the space between them growing thin. Something tugged at her heart and she could only brush off the feeling.

"Once he's better, we find out what he knows and then he's out of here, okay?" Clarke suggested, but more like demanded.

Between them, it was like there was always a competition. On today's episode of Who Has the Biggest Balls, we have a debate between The Princess and The Beast.

"What if he refuses to leave," Bellamy questioned as she walked past him, making her turn around. "What do we do with him then?"

Harlai looked over at the shivering and puny Murphy. His protective outer layer had completely shed and now he looked pitiful.

"There's no way he would put up much of a fight," Harlai tried to reason with them, but as Clarke gave her a look she knew what they were about to conclude.

"Then we kill him."

Harlai couldn't believe it. With a disgusted look, she walked past both Bellamy and Clarke. It was like a never ending cycle with them. The two leaders of the delinquents that took nobody else's opinions into the matter.

She began to make her way to the gate that kept the grounders from coming into their camp, at least for now. When she reached it, Harlai felt a familiar hand wrap around her arm.

"You're not going out there."

Harlai whirled around and pulled her arm from Bellamy's grasp and she sent him a deadly glare. "Whatever you say, boss," She said before turning to walk towards her tent.

"Harlai, come on, talk to me."

For the second time, the brunette turned around so she could face him. "We had to talk you down from killing a man in there Bellamy. A human."

"He isn't exactly innocent in all of this. He killed Charlotte," Any soft expression had disappeared from Bellamy's face and it had hardened again as he said this.

"For fuck's sake, I didn't say he was, Bellamy." Harlai threw her hands in the air as an exasperated look crossed her features. "Do you understand what it's like to not be heard? Every single time there's an important decision, like some life or death type of shit, you and Clarke are the only people that have a say in it."

"That's not true."

"Yes it is," Harlai responded as she took a step closer to him. "What would have happened if Clarke didn't step in and Finn didn't move earlier? Would you have shot Finn, too?"

Harlai brought a hand up to wipe some sweat off her forehead and she began to realize how flushed she felt. Maybe it was the humidity.

Bellamy paused as his eyes scanned Harlai's face and he dropped the gun that was strapped to his shoulder, letting it hang at his waist. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Harlai took in a shaky breath only to feel something warm drip onto her cheeks.

"Harlai, what's wrong?" Bellamy closed the distance between them and he took her face into his hands. "There's blood coming from your eyes."

"W-What?" She bit back a cough that came out anyways as she brought her hand to her cheek, wiping away the blood.

Harlai took a step back as she coughed into her hand and when she pulled it away she saw a splatter of blood. She had seen something like this in a book she read before. It was similar to the Ebola outbreak in 2014 that she had seen on an old newspaper in the library.

"Bellamy, stay back," Harlai told him as he began to move closer again. "Whatever it is, it might be contagious."

As she looked to the dropship, Harlai watched as Clarke walked inside. People around them began to cough and that's when she realized this involved the people that brought Murphy inside the camp.

"Shit," Harlai mumbled before making her way back to the dropship.

When she walked inside with Bellamy hot on her trail, she noticed that Murphy was bent over coughing just as she had started to do.

"What the hell is all of this?" Bellamy questioned Clarke who was kneeling beside Murphy again.

"Biological warfare." Clarke responded and she glanced over at Harlai just as she began to cough more, her frame jolting forward a bit. "You were waiting for the grounders to retaliate for the bridge? This is it. Murphy is the weapon."

"He got out too easily," Harlai wheezed out as she pressed her back against the wall and she slid down until she felt herself rest on the floor. "Ebola killed over eleven thousand people within at least four countries and this is almost exactly alike."

Harlai turned her head to get a good look at Bellamy. He knew that he needed to stay back, but the woman looked like she was slowly going to Murphy's position.

"Is this your revenge, helping the grounders kill us?" Bellamy's tone held a poison-like venom in it.

"I didn't know about this, okay, I swear."

"Stop lying," Bellamy exclaimed as he glared at the bloodied and beaten up man on the floor. "When are they coming?"

"Murphy, think, all right?" Clarke seemed to scan his face while trying to coax him into an answer. "What can you tell us that's useful? Did you hear anything?"

Murphy only shook his head and for once he seemed to have gained his cool composure. "They are vicious, cruel."

"You wanna see vicious?" Bellamy questioned as a determined look came onto his expression and he began to walk over to the two.

"Bellamy, don't." Harlai whimpered in a hoarse tone. Her breathing was becoming ragged, the blood clotting and rising in her throat.

"Whatever this thing is, it spreads through contact," Clarke explained with a look in her eyes that told him to stay back.

"Clarke?" Finn ran into the dropship with a worried expression that contorted his features.

"Finn, you shouldn't be in here. No one should."

Harlai groaned quietly and leaned her head back against the wall behind it. Bellamy seemed like he was finding it hard to stay put, his dark eyes trained on the woman.

"I heard you were sick," Finn breathed out as he looked around at the three of them. It sure was a sight to see. "Clarke, what is this?"

"I don't know," Clarke responded with a shake of her head. "Some kind of hemorrhagic fever. We just need to contain it before-"

She was cut off by one of the kids on the other side of the dropship as he began to cough so hard, it almost sounded like he was going to yak a lung up. The guy began to seize and all Harlai could do was watch with a gleam of fear in her eyes. Her limbs felt like they were as weak as the day she was born.

Clarke stood and she started to walk past Finn and Bellamy, but Finn placed a hand on her arm to which she jerked away. "Hey, don't touch me. You could get sick. Wash your hands now."

Meanwhile, the kid began to vomit more blood as he groaned in pain. His whole body began to curl as he retched.

"What the hell is happening to him?"

"I don't know," Clarke helplessly responded. Harlai knew this was killing her, not knowing what to do.

Not even a minute passed by before the guy stopped coughing and fell back onto the metal floor of the dropship. Clarke dropped to her knees and raised a hand to feel for his pulse.

"Is he-" Bellamy began, but they all knew what he was going to ask. Harlai was wondering the same thing.

"He's dead."

Harlai whimpered and looked up at the ceiling. After all that they had been through so far, this was going to be the way they went out. Tears streamed down her cheeks, mixing with the caked on blood and dirt. This was absolute torture and she knew the grounders were going to get what they wanted.

"Here. Alcohol," Clarke grabbed a bottle of the sanitizing liquid and brought it to Finn. "Hold out your hand." With this, she poured it over Finn's hands with shaky breaths.

"What do we do?"

"Quarantine," Clarke responded in a matter-of-fact tone. That brain of hers was churning and clicking like a timepiece. If anyone was going to figure this out, it would be Clarke. It would always be Clarke. "Round up everyone who had contact with Murphy. Bring them here."

"And everyone they had contact with?"

Bellamy's voice was so soothing even when it was full of worry. She ached to be in his arms, but Harlai knew that it would bring him down, too. She would much rather die without him rather than him dying with her.

"Well, we have to start somewhere..."

Clarke's voice seemed to drown out as Harlai's eyes fluttered shut. With her last bit of strength, she turned her head so she wouldn't die from the blood clogging up her throat. Then, the darkness consumed her. The only thing that brought her comfort with death was knowing that she would meet her mom again.