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chapter twenty-one, Bugs!

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Nova and the group began walking through the woods. Miller had his gun in case they came across anyone and he stayed in position until they came across a large beach. Nova looked down at the sand and saw a huge body of water laid out in front of her. "Looks like we found the water source. Woah. Now, that's a view" Bellamy says as they walk further onto the beach and see the colorful sky with a bright red sun. "We can camp here" Bellamy states as everyone looks around mesmerized at the site.

"It looks like the suns are eclipsing" Clarke says as she squints her eyes and looks towards the sun. Nova walks up next to Clarke looks over at her and smiles looking into her eyes until she gets distracted by Murphy taking off hun and his clothes and head towards the water. "Murphy. Murphy, wait. We haven't tested it" Jackson calls out but Murphy gets closer to the water and slips his shirt off throwing it onto shore. "Your wounds haven't healed yet" Jackson shout and Murphy waves him off and takes a dip in the water and goes under. After a little while he didn't come back up and everyone started to get worried.

"John?" Emori calls out but John still doesn't come up from the water. "What the hell" Nova mumbles looking around and still see no sign of Murphy. "Something's wrong" Clarke points out until Murphy burst out of the water splashing water everywhere. Everyone lets sighs of relief to see him and let out small chuckles while looking at him. "Come on in. The water's fine" John breathes out shaking his wet hair. "Oh, who knew cockroaches could swim?" Emori questions jokingly and Murphy widens his eyes and laughs a little. "What, you want me to teach you?" Murphy asks coming closer to shore and Emori shakes her head as she realizes what he's trying to do.

"No. John, no" Emori warns but Murphy wraps his arms around her and starts pulling her further into the water. "I'm serious. John! Let me go! John!" Emori shrieks as Murphy tosses Emori under water and she comes up splashing water at him. "Ugh! Big trouble. Big trouble!" Emori shouts as her and Murphy have the time of their life in the water. Clarke looks over at Nova and Nova looks over at Clarke and Nova grabs Clarke's hand and holds it as she looks around.

The sun has now went down and Bellamy set up a fire. Murphy and Emori were cuddled up along with Jackson and Miller and Echo and Bellamy. Nova sat on a log while Clarke laid in between her legs looking up at her every now and then while Shaw tries to contact Raven on the radio. Nova looks over at Miller and Jackson and see Jackson comforting him and Nova can't help but feel bad. She made Miller do unspeakable things down there. She changed him and not in a good way but she hopes one day he will forgive her. For everything. "Everything okay?" Clarke asks breaking Nova out of her thoughts. Nova looks down at Clarke who smiling up at her. "No, I can't look at Miller and not see what I did to him in that bunker. I mean, I ruined him" Nova says and Clarke sits up and holds Nova's hand in her's.

"We've all did things to survive. All of us can relate to that. He'll forgive you or he'll at least learn to accept it. You have to give it time" Clarke says as she reaches her hand up and rubs her thumb across Nova's cheek. "One more time, Eligius IV, this is expedition one. Raven, do you read?" Shaw says still trying to contact Raven but gets no response back. "Raven'll get the radio fixed. I'm sorry I turned you in, Shaw" Clarke says looking over to Shaw who sighs and looks to Clarke. "You really wanna do this now?" Shaw asks and Murphy clears his throat. "Maybe you two should speak in private" Murphy suggests and Clarke shakes her head.

"No. I want you all to hear this" Clarke states and Murphy leans his head back in annoyance. "If I could, I'd go back and do things differently, but I can't. None of us can. For some reason, Monty thought we deserved a second chance" Clarke explains and Murphy scoffs. "Not for nothing, but this is, like, your fifth chance" Murphy states and Nova chuckles. "Yeah this like your fifth chance too Murphy" Nova argues and Murphy sends a smile Nova's way and rolls his eyes playfully, "Very good. I got watch" Murphy says standing to his feet, wiping the sand off his pants and walking away.

"You're right. Your friend Monty gave you a second chance, but now what? Salvation comes from faith and good works, what you do, not what you say. You haven't done anything yet" Shaw explains and Clarke looks down while her eyes get watery. "Wait. You guys hear that?" Bellamy interrupts and everyone quiets down and nothing is heard. Just complete silence. "Where are the bugs?" Nova asks looking around as she stands to her feet and grabs Clarke's hand helping her stand also.

"You guys gotta see this" Jackson calls out and everyone rushes over to him and looks at his jar with a bug in it and it seems to be going crazy wanting to get out the jar. "5 minutes ago, this thing ate a leaf out of my hand. Now it wants to eat me. Not only that, its entire physiology has changed from -- " Jackson explains but is interrupted by Nova swatting away bugs and Murphy killing one that was on his neck and the inside the jar seems to be getting crazier. "Oh, look at that. Your pet's pissed I killed its brother" Murphy jokes and Nova scoffs swatting away a bug flying near her but Nova is caught off guard by a slight buzzing noise. "Guys, you hear that- that buzzing" Nova says as she looks up at the sky and everyone begins listening in the direction it's coming in.

"Swarm" Clarke states and everyone looks in that direction. "It's coming from the direction of the ship. We'll never make it back" Echo informs and Nova sighs. "Everyone cover up. We're heading to the beacon now" Bellamy orders and Clarke grabs her and Nova's bags and tosses Nova's bag too her. Nova uses her bag as a shield as they begin running. "Alright. Everyone. Move, move now. Cover your faces" Bellamy shouts as the swarm gets closer and begin hitting Nova's hand. "Ouch!" Nova shouts as she continues running with the group.

"Help!" Emori shouts and Nova stops in her tracks and turns around to see Emori lying on the ground near a bunch of bugs. "Ugh!" Nova groans and fights the urge to leave her and rushes towards Emori helping her up and running with her and they. it's get closer to the group. "Thank you.." Emori breathes out and Nova clears her throat trying to keep a hold of her book bag. "Don't mention it" Nova states as Emori rushes up next to Murphy and holds onto him. "They aren't leaving!" Nova shouts and everyone stops but keeps themselves covered up. "Take the flare out of my bag. Hurry up" Shaw states and Bellamy quickly grabs the flare and lights it up which causes the bugs to fly away from the fire.

"It worked. They hate the fire. The flares, light them all" Bellamy shouts and Clarke hands Nova a flare out of her bag and she lights raising it in the air causing the bugs to stay away from the fire. "Stay together, flares at 3 corners" Echo shouts as she lights her flare and her, Nova and Bellamy follow the 3 corners rule and keep the bugs away while everyone runs in the middle of them.

"Here. It's here" Shaw says referring to the beacon and he continues running but he runs into what seems to be a radiation fence and he begins to get shocked not being able to move. Everyone stops before the fence and watches Shaw scream in pain. "It's killing him. Get him out" Echo shouts and Nova looks at Shaw in shock. "We have to help him!" Nova shouts as she keeps her flare in the air. "It's radiation. It won't affect me" Clarke says as she drops her bag and rushes into the field. Nova widens her eyes and drops her dead flare and tries to rush towards Clarke but Bellamy holds her back. "No! Clarke! Clarke!" Nova screams as she Bellamy holds her away from fence while Clarke helps drag Shaw out on the other side.

"Clarke, we're running out of time here" Bellamy calls out. Clarke runs back into the fence but it's not harming her. She climbs up the tower and puts a code in which brings the radiation fence down. "It's down! Run now!" Clarke shouts and Nova grabs her and Clarke's bags and rushes through the fence looking down at Shaw who got the worst of it. His whole body was red and he could barley breath. Clarke runs back over and holds Shaw's head up looking dwo at him. "Earn this" He mumbles and a tear slides down Clarke's cheek. Shaw breathes heavily and looks at Clarke. "Tell Raven she deserves happiness. She doesn't think she does, but...she does" Shaw says.

Everyone looks around then looks back at Shaw once they hear him stop gasping for air. He was gone.

The group had buried Shaw and continued their journey. They continued walking up until daylight and come across this beautiful colored land. "What kind of people have a radiation fence?" Emori asks while everyone walks in step. "The kind of people that want to keep something out" Clarke answers as everyone looks around not sure what to say after the death they have encountered already.

"Beacon should be right up ahead" Bellamy says and everyone begins following behind him walking alongside a slight hill. "What are we gonna tell Raven?" Clarke asks. "The truth" Nova answers stepping rocks every now and then. "We tell her he died a hero" Bellamy adds and Nova sighs.

"Look. I do hate to make this about us, but--" Murphy speaks. "Then please don't" Nova interrupts. "Yeah, Shaw just saved your life, Murphy" Clarke adds as the group continues walking. "I'm aware. I'm also aware that we just lost our pilot. Madi's still up there. You're not worried you're never gonna see her again?" Murphy says and Clarke gets angry at his words and she turns around harshly and pushes Murphy away. "Watch it" Nova says walking up next to Clarke when Emori comes up next to Murphy.

"Oh, what are you gonna do?" Nova asks and Emori drops her gun. "I don't know wanna guess" Emori asks as she pushes Nova away. Miller grabs ahold of Nova before she get close to Emori. "Woah, woah, woah. Easy!" Miller shouts as he rushes up and grabs Clarke also. "Easy, easy. Ignore him" Miller says and Murphy scoffs. "Yeah. Your Red Queen is stil up there, too, Miller. Who you gonna follow now? Oh wait, you still got your Keket" Murphy jokes and Miller grabs ahold of Murphy's collar and pushes him up against a tree. "Hey. Hey! Miller. As therapeutic it is to beat up on Murphy, Emori can fly" Bellamy says and Murphy rolls his eyes fixing his clothes as Miller steps away from him.

"Sure. Yeah. I've had one successful landing in a ship I trained in for 6 years. No problem" Emori states and Nova groans in annoyance. "Great. We're all dead" Nova points out as Emori rolls her eyes at Nova's comment and the group begins walking together again until they spot stairs right away. "Guys, stairs" Emori calls out and everyone begins to pick up the pace. "Easy. We approach slow, no hostile movements" Bellamy warns as everyone gets out there guns and Echo and Nova get out there swords ready for anything. The group walks up the stairs slowly and soon a large castle comes into view shocking them.

"They have a castle" Murphy states the obvious and Nova sighs. "No, Murphy. It's a barn" Nova says rolling her eyes as she walks up the steps. "That bunker is a barn" Murphy mumbles and Nova turns around and gives him a deadly glare before turning around and looking at the castle.