Part I
They woke up every couple of hours during the night, both not used to sleep this long at a time, Emori not used to a room like this, Murphy wondering if it was a mistake to come here and to take them to ALIEs Island tomorrow. But this might be their only chance at survival.
Once they tiptoed to the communal bathroom they found earlier that day to take care of their needs and drink some tab water. Other times, when both of them woke up at the same time, they shared whispered conversations. Murphy never thought he could ever have that. Lay in a bed, directly across his first girlfriend - who he met in the freaking desert on the ground - and talk just because they could, instead of having something worthwhile to say. Murphy never thought he could click with a person like this. Even if the world was ending, with Emori by his side, everything seemed just a little bit more hopeful.
Yeah, he was a sap when it came to her, but he couldn't help himself. She was still the most badass woman he'll ever get to know, that was a fact. Also a fact, he couldn't say no to her, when she started kissing and stroking him, even if he knew, they shouldn't, not if every moment anybody could come for them to call them to duty. But when it came to Emori and getting it on with her he was just a horny teenage boy. They were still kissing lazily, naked bodies hidden under the blanket, just waiting for Murphy to recover enough for a second round, when the door being opened loudly shook them apart.
"What's wrong with you?", Raven asked annoyed. "Get you ass out of bed, Murphy. We got shit to do."
"What's wrong with you?", Murphy grumbled, while Emori hid behind him, "Can't you knock?"
Raven looked at them without saying another word, pissed off and annoyed and stomped out of the room.
"Is she crazy?", Emori asked, slightly abashed. Murphy just closed his eyes and put his hands over his face, letting out an irritated groan.
"I don't wanna spend hours with them on your tiny-ass boat", he whined.
"Don't be a baby, John." Emori was already up and halfway dressed, diligent thing that she was. Murphy got out of the bed himself, strolled to Emori and kissed her flat on the mouth.
"At least you are there", he grumbled, while grabbing for his own clothes.
oo oo oo oo oo oo
The boat was a tight fit for all the people Abby brought along. Murphy got it. They needed Luna and that grounder bodyguard of hers was not debatable. Abby and Jackson were doctors, if anyone could produce nightblood it was probably them. Why Raven came along was pretty clear, too. She was a genius and spent some time with ALIE inside her head. Miller and the other two guard dudes were there to protect the brainiacs, all clear, but hell, the boat wasn't really made to fit all this people comfortably. Murphy was constantly on edge, not because he was scared that the boat would drown. Well, he was: There was still a freaking sea monster in this ocean but the was irritated because of all this people he didn't trust. Emori was itchy too. She was casting glances at the people around them, grounder and arkers alike. She didn't fit any of them. You fit me, Murphy thought, but he didn't say a word. Instead he stood beside her, while she was steering the boat in the right direction. He could already see the island, while Abby was still phoning Kane. Murphy thought it was really cool, that Kane made it this far. True, he was a dick on the ark, as much as he got to know from the others at the dropship. Responsible for as many floatings as Jaha himself, but maybe he really was born for the ground. Just like Murphy himself. And Abby and him seemed to be kind of involved with each other, the way she put the phone to her heart like a lovesick housewife, so maybe the guy really changed for the better. Huh, Murphy thought, maybe he just kinda liked Abby a bit. She feed them and gave them a room to sleep, that should count for something. Either way, he was really fucking glad, when they arrived at the pier.
"Where are the boats?", Murphy asked dumbfounded.
"Without ALIE there's no reason to be here", Emori said casually. Murphy nodded, he would rather not be here himself. This place held a lot of awful memories, but on the other side, almost every place he stayed at did that. The Ark, the Dropship, Polis, only Emori and their dozens of caves were full of memories he liked.
"According to Thelonious´ map, the lab is in the middle of the island, 5 miles straight ahead", he heard Abby explained, as Emori busied herself with attaching the boat to the jetty. Murphy looked straight ahead to the island.
"Never thought I'd be here again", he sighed quietly. What he didn't do to survive.
"Ah, you shouldn't have come. You're not fooling anyone, Murphy. You're still a dick", Raven said to him and went ahead to follow the others, leaving him standing without a chance to say anything. But really, what should he say. He probably earned Ravens hospitality, since he shot her, accidentally or not. So Murphy just shook off that Ravens comment got to him and waited for Emori to get to his side. He was really happy she was here. Emori was the only one he trusted. Dumb as it was, he felt safer with her by his side. Like he really thought, come hell or high water, they'd have each others backs. That was a new kind of thinking for him, and he still felt uncomfortable with it but he couldn't fight feeling that way. Emori just got to him.
oo oo oo oo oo oo
It sucked getting to know just once again how hurtful Emoris past had been because she was considered a frikdreina and it sucked even more to get attacked by drones for crossing a border ALIE didn't want anybody to cross. She really was a bitch. What didn't suck was, that for once he got a gun to protect himself and Emori. Either way, people died, that sucked to, but it was almost normal on the ground and at least nobody died who was important to Murphy or important for what they were trying to archive on this island. Murphy realized that the weight of a chance at surviving, not just his own but anyone's, laid upon all their shoulders. He truly got Emori when she wanted to part the group and go to the bunker. Her longing to survive was surely greater than the longing to save the human race or to belong to something greater than the two of them. Murphy totally felt like her, but he knew they wouldn't have a chance at surviving in the lighthouse bunker. Not for years, not until the ground would be survivable again. So both of them followed Abby further into the islands thick forest. It also sucked, that Abby - yeah he really kinda started to care about her a little bit - trusted him to protect her, while she tried to play bait for the drones to save Jackson. What didn't suck was that Raven saved the day by playing her brainiac magic to the drones tech to stop them from shooting at them.
"Hey, about, uh, what happened at the beach", Raven said when they started to resume their hike to wherever Abby thought their lab would be, "Thank you."
"Careful, Reyes. Emori's already got dibs on me", Murphy said cheekily. He saw Emori glancing at them and smiling approvingly. She wasn't blind and Raven was a good-looking girl. Murphy got, why Finn had been smitten with her on the ark. He knew, that for Emori, who didn't considered herself beautiful because of her abomination, it meant a lot that he told others about their relationship. Murphy fastened his steps to catch up with Emori. She didn't have a gun and he won't take the chance of her getting hurt.
When they were in eyesight of the lab, Murphy stopped along with the rest of the group.
"Uh, small question", he said unsure. "ALIE had a security system to protect this thing, right? Any idea what she was protecting it from?"
"Let's hope we don't find out", Abby said. "Just in case, Raven, get the drones back into the sky."
Murphy huffed a nearly inaudible laugh and Emori looked at him sideways but smiling cheekily. They really made it that far, the brainiacs and Luna still alive. Maybe they really would find a way to survive.
When they entered ALIES lab an artificial voice announced the initiating of the auxiliary power. Suddenly the lab was covered in artificial white light. It really looked stunning. Murphy had certainly never seen anything like this. He shared a glance with Emori and saw wonderment on her face. Maybe she was at loss at certain words in English and some things, like alcohol, were a mystery to her, but she was one of the most fearless grounder when it came to tech. Looking at her now, awe on her face, he thought this had been worth the way regardless what would happen from now on. Emori deserved to glance at a world much larger than the one she knew.
While Abby, Jackson and Raven went exploring almost right away, Miller and the other guard, Paul, went to the sidelines, put their guns away and talked quietly among themselves. It was Luna, who drew his attention. She didn't seem scared but not in awe of the lab either. Murphy thought it only looked like she didn't want to be here. He understood. If he was the last person to survive the end of the world, and there wasn't any other person there he loved, he wouldn't want to be here either. But as it was, Murphy relied on her, as did all other humans still left on this planet. So he glanced at Emori and tried to tell her wordlessly to connect with Luna. They were girls, they were grounder. But Emori pretended to not get what he wanted and went exploring on her own. Murphy once again followed her like mug. 'Course she wouldn't try to connect with her, Emori still thought all grounder would kill her in an instant if they saw her hand. Murphy shook his head quietly and looked at the monitors on the wall.
"What does it mean?", Emori asked and pointed to some figures and forms on the screen. There were swirls all over the place.
"I have no idea", he admitted. This Science stuff was way beyond him, but he liked to stand in front of these monitors, next to Emori and just watch. It was kind of soothing, he thought. Murphy took Emoris hand in his own while they looked at things they didn't understand.
oo oo oo oo oo oo
Hours later, Abby, Jackson and Raven were still heavily occupied. They took blood from Luna and got to work at the different areas in the lab. One of the guards decided to stay back with them and took charge of the entrance of the lab, while Miller, Luna, Murphy and Emori decided to hike to the house. Luna needed to sleep before Abby needed blood once again and they all needed to eat. It had been Emoris idea to make themselves useful and Murphy knew, she secretly hoped there would be enough resources to last them years in the lighthouse bunker. Murphy knew there wouldn't be, but he hoped there was enough for a good dinner for all of them.
When they arrived at ALIEs Mansion, Luna went directly upstairs to look for a place to sleep undisturbed. She hadn't spoken a word to them, since they took her blood. Murphy got her longing to be alone. If it wasn't for Emori he would feel exactly the same.
The rest of them strolled lazily through the ground floor. All the fancy and shining interior didn't get to him much. He'd seen it before and he wasn't impressed. Miller however looked at it in wonderment.
"Men", he said, "She was really loaded, wasn't she?"
Yeah, privileged got a whole new meaning, Murphy thought, while he went exploring further. When he came by he kitchen he rummaged through the cupboards. There was plenty of food in the cabinets and more of those fresh apples in the pantry, wherever they came from. Murphy took some of the packets and some fruit and brought them over to the kitchen counter. There was a book lying on it with pictures of cooked meals on the cover. Murphy opened it up by a few pages. It had even more pictures inside and, as it seemed, recipes. It was a cooking book. They had a old one about baking in the arks library. Once his mom showed it to him. She told him, that back when the earth hadn't been destroyed yet, people celebrated with pine trees, cookies and Christmas music. They even found some on the arks music database that day and listened to it, until his dad arrived after his shift and it was time for Murphy to go to bed.
"Look, not only the light works", Miller said from across the room, right before music stared playing through the speakers in the room. Murphy knew the song from his time in the lighthouse bunker. It was pretty good, heavy on guitar and vocals.
Murphy went to the stove and pressed some buttons and the ceramic glass cooktop started to heat up instantly. He turned it of once again, but now that he knew electricity was working on the kitchen appliances to, he was dead set on cooking. Murphy looked across the counter to Emori, who was watching his every move. All this has to be so new for her. Even more strange than it was for him and Miller, who flopped down onto the couch in the back of the room.
Murphy knew it was most probably a once in a lifetime chance to stand in a modern house, a fully equipped kitchen, cooking dinner for his girlfriend while listening to music. If the world wasn't about to burn, they could stay here for a while. Make a home out of it. Maybe one day the decadence of this house would fit them as well as their caves did.
Murphy opened up cans of dark red beans, white lentils and tomatoes and put everything at once in a shiny big pot, filled with a bit of water, while Emori fetched whatever spices she could find for him in the cupboards.
"Look, I found onions", Emori said and tossed one to him. Murphy set to peel and slice it, before he put it into a pan.
"Is there any dried meat?", he asked and Emori opened up another cupboard.
"It's pork", Emori said warily, as if assaulted by the idea, "In a can."
Murphy looked once again to the opened page in the cookbook. "That's perfect. Normally you make this with minced beef, but meat is meat, right?"
"Right", Emori grinned and brought over the can and some spices she found.
"Do you really need to waste all that?", Miller asked, without getting up from where he was slouched on the white couch.
"We are not wasting", Murphy grumbled, "We are cooking."
"We could have eaten that without playing around with it first." Miller got up now and went to look into the pot and the pan, where Murphy was currently stirring the onions and the canned pork he put into it.
"Feel free to get your cold can of beans, Miller", Murphy said and turned to look at him, when Miller said: „You don‘t give orders around here.“
Murphy stepped up to Miller, and even through the other boy was taller and most probably stronger than him, Murphy grabbed him by the front of his collar.
"The world is ending, Miller", Murphy hissed quietly enough, so that Emori wouldn't hear his words. "If we want to make dinner once before we die, what do you care?"
He let go of Miller, before he tried to defend himself. Miller just looked at him with a frown on his face before casting a sideway glance at Emori, who in return watches the scene on high alert. Murphy knew she would come to his aid, if Miller wanted to fight now, but at the same time she was scared. Murphy saw it in the way she held her body. Together they could take Miller, most probably, since he left his gun across the room, but it wouldn't be wise to fight at all. Not if they still wanted a chance at survival, if Abby managed to produce the nightblood.
Miller took a step back and lifted his hands. He turned to leave the room, but stopped at the kitchen entrance. "Bryan and me, we fantasized about a life after this. About a house. He wanted to raise chickens." Miller looked down, silent for a few seconds. He wouldn't start crying now, would he, Murphy thought panicky. That would be like real awkward. "We probably won't, no matter if the world ends of not. But hey, Murphy? You do you, okay?"