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( twenty-one )

At this point, Harley was positive Murphy was avoiding her. She had been a tail he didn't want around since she was better, one that he couldn't shrug off. She was full of questions, with a bunch he wouldn't answer. She didn't catch on to his irritated tone either. It was still brand new to Harley, and she was so distracted by the fact that she has a twin brother that she's never known about she hasn't thought about The Ark or grounders.

Unfortunately for Harley, Murphy had went to the one spot she wouldn't be around, the smokehouse. He knew that Harley felt sick around the animal meat when it was being skinned and cooked, and could only eat it after the process. She knew that he was trying to avoid her, but made it her mission to be right back on his track when he was finished helping Octavia inside.

Lost in her own thoughts about family, Harley at first hadn't heard the shouting. She was peeking through a hole in the wall, staring at the woods, wondering when the grounder's were coming and if there was still possibly a chance for a peace treaty. Sometimes the delinquents thought of the social butterfly as dense for thinking such a thing, and giving them hope that it could be different than what they thought, but that wasn't important. The others were shouting, and it wasn't about grounders.

Harley rushed towards the direction, following a few of the gunners that had left their posts to see what was wrong. Seconds after approaching the scene, Harley felt herself gape when coming across the incident. The smokehouse had become, quite literally, that. It was engulfed in flickering flames, smoke pouring out of the opening. The thought of the food they needed to survive inside scalding into nothing hadn't even passed through Harley's head; only if Murphy and Octavia were okay.

"Excuse me." Harley had to mumble under her breath a few times, trying to push her way through the crowd surrounding the fire. When she finally made her way past, she didn't hesitate in dashing to Murphy. She could see clearly that Bellamy was checking on Octavia, who was hacking to catch her breath, but Murphy was on his own.

As soon as Harley was kneeling in front of Murphy, she was putting her hand on his shoulder and trying to get a better look at him. He was covered in soot, reeked of smoke, and looked more angry than anything but fine for the most part. "Are you alright?" She asked him worriedly. Murphy nodded back, coughing into his fist for a second. Harley gave him a small smile, trying to lighten the unfortunate situation they were in, with losing their food and all. "What is it with you and fires?" She joked, remembering the circumstance where she met him.

"It wasn't me," Murphy muttered under his breath, glancing up to glare at another delinquent that was in the same state; Del. "It was him." Harley followed his gaze, but before she could make a move to stop him, he was on his feet. "This is all your fault!" He shouted, storming forward, starting a fight. "We told you it was too much wood!" After shoving Del, Murphy threw a punch, making the brawl worse.

Harley had wanted to intervene, but being a small girl that could hardly swear let alone break up a fight, she didn't move. Bellamy, however, pulled Murphy back while shouting and putting himself in between the two boys, demanding them to stop. He pushed Murphy back, warning him. "Save it for the grounders."

"Bell, now what the hell are we gonna do?!" Octavia exclaimed. "That was all the food!"

Sighing, Harley rubbed her forehead, feeling sweat bead on it from the heat radiating off the burning fire. After calming, she was realizing that they were without much food. It didn't matter whose fault it was, what really mattered was that if they didn't freeze to death, or the grounder's didn't kill them, then they'd starve to death. It was just another life threat.

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After putting out the fire, which didn't take long thanks to the unlimited source they had, it was revealed that there was nothing left in it. The only two options that Bellamy and Clarke knew that they had was to either sit in camp and die from starvation, die fighting the grounders from being too weak, or leave camp to hunt for more food to give them a better chance. Anyone that they could spare goes, and because Harley wasn't sick anymore, she was one of the ones that had to go.

While Harley was almost useless with weapons, it was better to have an extra person willing to hunt than to stay at camp. She knew there was absolutely no chance she could shoot a gun or even shoot, so she went for one of the spears. She wasn't exactly skillful in using it, but it didn't matter, it wasn't for grounders.

"Each group takes someone with a gun," Bellamy ordered as the delinquents piled in and out of the dropship to grab their assigned weapons. "And they're for killing grounders, not food!" He added strictly. "We don't have the ammo. Use the spears for hunting." Harley nodded, looking at the wooden stick she held upright in her hand. "Get what you can. Be back by nightfall. No one stays out after dark."

No one exactly wanted to be around Harley, not while hunting. She talked too much, was a bit annoying, and was useless when it came to killing. There was no option to go alone, clearly, and the first person that popped in Harley's head was Murphy. She slowly grinned, seeing him with a gun in hand, knowing that each group needed one person with a gun. Clover was nowhere to be found, and the only other person Harley was sure she wanted to be around was Murphy, even if he hadn't wanted her company.

The second Harley approached Murphy, she hardly had the chance to get a word out. He glanced at her briefly before narrowing his eyes, already knowing what she wanted. "No," he simply stated. "Why is Bellamy letting you go? You don't even know how to hunt."

Frowning, Harley put one hand on her hip. "Maybe I do!" She defended herself. "I'll have you know I carry a knife around." She didn't mention that she hasn't used it for any reason, and only did so because Bellamy thought it was safer if every delinquent was armed with something, even inside the walls of their camp.

Murphy snorted, rubbing his nose quickly. "Last time I carried a knife, a girl swiped it from me and stabbed the Prince of The Ark in the neck which everyone hung me for, so.." He noticed Harley grow visibly tense at the sarcastic mention of Wells and his hanging. He rolled his eyes before caving, finally. "Fine. I'll go with you." Murphy stopped, watching the way Harley suddenly smiled and beamed, excited. "But if you annoy me, I'm using you as bait."

"I won't," Harley promised, excited, as she followed him out of the dropship.

Except, being annoying was somewhat in Harley's nature. She didn't know when to stop talking unless someone told her, even when hunting. The pair had wandered a good distance from the dropship, and Murphy didn't know if Harley was aware of the danger they were in even with the gun.

"How did you know that we're twins?" Was Harley's first question as she followed him in the woods.

Murphy cocked his gun at his hip, breathing in through his nose slowly. "My mom told me," he answered, knowing that there was no way he could squirm out of these questions. Eventually, he had to face them. Harley wasn't going to let it go, and he wished he couldn't blame her. "She reminded me of it every day. Said I had a twin sister she gave up for adoption named Harley that lives in Alpha Station. Saw you in Earth Skills, heard your name during roll call, and put two and two together." He paused, looking over his shoulder to glance at her. "Wasn't told how much of a bother you were."

"Am I really that annoying?" Harley questioned, skipping over a branch to keep up with him.

"Yes." Murphy's answer was without a second of hesitation, as he looked back ahead of him.

Humming, Harley dropped her guard of being scared of the grounders that could be watching them or searching for food. She knew it was important, but she was still full of questions that haven't been answered. "What's your full name?" She asked curiously, nudging his shoulder with hers. Murphy didn't answer this time, instead staring forward. Harley paused, before answering her own question. "Mine is Harley Ellen Bostwick... Or, maybe Murphy is tacked on the end of it. I don't know.." She trailed off, realizing she didn't know how adoption worked.

"Do you actually think it matters?" Murphy asked, crude. "Would you even want anything to do with me if we weren't twins?"

Staring back at Murphy incredulously, Harley tilted her head. "Of course I would. You were my friend before." Even if he came off as obnoxious and rude, and couldn't apologize for getting her arrested, she still was attached to him.

"I was banished and you didn't care where I was," Murphy stated, harsh. "What kind of a friend does that?"

Quiet, Harley looked down at her shuffled feet and came to a stop. Murphy stopped too when noticing the girl come to a halt. "I did care," Harley finally mumbled, somehow finding the way to be quiet as she let the spear hang loosely in her hand. "I thought you were dead. I didn't think what Clarke or Bellamy did to you was right." She looked up, connecting gazes with Murphy, and seeing how startled he was by her confession. "I missed you. I didn't have to know you were my brother to feel that."

At a loss of words, Murphy decided to change the subject. What happened to him wasn't worth thinking about, it was over now. "Can I ask you something small, then?" He asked. "Can you tell me what happened to Mbege?"

Remembering Mbege, Murphy's friend, Harley gave him a sympathetic look. She didn't have to say anything, he already knew, but she did anyways. "I'm sorry," she said softly. "It was the grounders."

Trying to hide his distress, Murphy shrugged and turned around, beginning to walk again. "It's just about what I expected."

Harley regained her posture, following after him. "I lost someone too, the day he died," she admitted. "Roma. We were tent mates. I get it if you miss him. I miss her."

"It's fine," Murphy expressed sharply, indicating that he didn't want to talk about it further.

"Wait, wait," Harley suddenly spoke up, another idea hitting her suddenly. "What about our parents?" She asked curiously. From what she knew, Murphy wasn't one of the privileged, so their parents couldn't have been on the ship that crashed.

All of a sudden, Murphy stopped again. Harley, not noticing, rammed into his back, nearly pushing him over in the process. She took a step back, studying how stiff he was by the mention of their parents, making it clear it was a very touchy subject for him. "What is it?"

"They're dead." It was clear that was all Murphy was going to say on the matter. Harley felt a heavy pit weight in the bottom of her stomach, but she knew it wasn't worth crying over. She didn't know them. What hurt more was seeing how rigid and stone-like Murphy was over the mention of their parents.

Without thinking, Harley dropped the spear at her feet. She immediately leaned forward, wrapping her arms tightly around Murphy's torso, making him flinch, and pressing her cheek against his back, resting it against his cool jacket. He didn't make a move, only let Harley embrace him from behind for a few seconds before finally speaking up. "What the hell are you doing?" He asked in a mono-tone, annoyed voice.

"Hugging you," Harley murmured, her words muffled. "You looked like you needed one."

Murphy didn't reply, but he didn't have to. Harley knew he needed more than one. She was also figuring that if anyone else, absolutely anyone else, had hugged Murphy in surprise, he wouldn't have hesitated in punching them. Which, in return, made Harley feel special. She just missed the way the corners of his mouth slowly curled upwards into the tiniest smile.

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After awhile, one by one, delinquents poured back into the camp. But fortunately, a lot of the other hunting groups had come back with different types, all small and big, saving them from starving. The biggest issue was the fact that Clarke, Finn, and Myles hadn't returned back to camp from their own hunt. Murphy had disappeared inside the camp, and so Harley had chosen to finally give him his space and stay with Clover at the gate.

With Bellamy joining Octavia, Monty, and Raven to skim close by, he left Miller in charge of the gunners in case of an attack. She was peeking through an opening, but was able to see nothing except the trees surrounded by the darkness from the night. Clover held onto her gun, and on the side of her, Harley clutched the walkie-talkie that was made by Raven and given to each of the gunners to keep up with each other.

"Where are you?" Monty's voice flooded through the radio speaker.

Lost, Harley turned her head to glance at Clover. "Is he lost? I thought he was with Bellamy," she whispered, knowing the four split into pairs when they left, taking four guns with them. Shaking her head, Clover shrugged, just as unsure.

"Just keep the moon to your left and you'll find me," Bellamy replied. After he spoke, there was a sudden whirring sound coming from the walkie-talkie. Harley shook it once, unsure if a wire had come loose, but the sound continued.

Clover and her shared a confused look, as Monty spoke up again. "Is anyone else hearing this signal? I think it's the same thing we heard in the black box."

"Damn it, Monty," Bellamy cursed into the walkie-talkie next. "Pay attention. Do you see anything?" There wasn't a reply. "Report.

Sighing, Harley leaned against the wall, wishing she was out there looking for her friends. She knew it was useless, unsure of how to use a gun. They went quiet, stopped communicating, and she glanced back into the woods, hoping at any second they'd appear.

Bellamy's voice suddenly came out of the walkie-talkie again, catching Harley by surprise and holding it up again. "Monty, we're heading home."

Suddenly grinning, Harley's eyes flickered to Clover's. "Maybe they found them," she said, excited, hoping they were okay.

"Monty, can you hear me?" Bellamy spoke again, this time worried. "Monty? Monty, where the hell are you? Report!"

Frowning instantly, Clover looked over her shoulder to Miller who seemed equally concerned and lost as they were. "Maybe they didn't."

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