Something Unexpected

Chapter 3

     Eventually, night fell upon the two once again. Clarke managed to start a small fire with some branches they had picked up along the way. Murphy was currently out looking for more.

     It was extremely cold that night. Clarke was bundled in her jacket with her head in her lap. Her pack and Murphy's were laying side by side in the sand next to her. Suddenly, a hand pried her head from where it was resting and covered her mouth. Clarke instinctively reached up to unlatch her attacker's hand from her mouth, trying to yell out as she did, but she knew she had failed when she felt a sharp, stinging pain on the right side of her head. Her vision went blurry, and then she fell over onto the sand.

     Murphy had managed to collect about five twigs the entire time he was looking. He decided he probably wasn't going to have any more luck than he already had, so he headed back to their makeshift camp fire.

     When he arrived, he noticed Clarke laying on the ground. He figured she was sleeping, so he walked around the fire to throw in the sticks he had gathered. He glanced to where they had put their packs, and then back to the fire. And then his eyes shifted to the dunes in front of him, and finally back to where they had their packs. They were gone.

     He gave the spot a confused look before horror drowned out his confusion. He slowly looked over to Clarke once again, this time noticing the dark pool beneath her.

     "Dammit!" He ran over to her, taking off his own jacket and lifting up her head. He put his jacket on his lap and layed her head there as well.

     After doing that, he wasn't sure what he should do. When he felt her blood staining his clothes, he ripped some of the lower section of his shirt off and attempted to tie it around her head. He breathed out in relief. It looked as if it would hold.

     But then he noticed that the thick liquid wasn't coming from her head. Well, not all of it. He carefully flipped her over onto her stomach and tugged her shirt up, being sure to keep anything that she would want covered, covered.

     Blood was pouring out from one place on her lower back. Murphy couldn't tell why; He couldn't see through all of the blood. He untied the piece of his shirt from her head and tried to wipe most of the blood away without hurting her. Once most of it was gone, Clarke started shifting. Murphy froze. When she regained consciousness, her hand shot to her head in pain. "Uggh..." she groaned. Then she seemed to grasp the situation. "Murphy? Oh my god!" She started to freak out and flipped over onto her back, apparently getting sand in whatever wound she had.

     Clarke practically squealed in pain. Murphy could see tears welling up in her eyes as she tried to move into a different position. "Clarke, just stop moving." But she still struggled, clenching her eyes shut. He reached over and lifted her up a bit, turning her around so he could help her.

     During Clarke's freak-out, her shirt had moved down. Murphy lifted it up, once again respecting her privacy. Since most of the blood was gone, Murphy could start to make out an injury. He began to try removing the sand, but Clarke didn't seem to want to let him. She flailed around whenever he touched the patch of broken skin.

     "Clarke, you have to stop that. I'm trying to help you."

     "I know, it just-" She bit her lip hard. "It hurts so bad."

     Murphy sighed and brought one arm around her body so that it was holding her right arm down. He held her left arm down with his left leg.

     "Murphy- Murphy, what are you doing?" Clarke asked frantically.

     "You'll thank me for this later." He said.

      "Wha-" Clarke didn't get to finish, however, before she shrieked. Murphy was brushing all of the sand out of the wound. The pressure hurt like a bitch.

      Murphy almost lost his grip on her multiple times. The Princess was strong, that was for sure.

     By the time he was done, she was just twitching a bit. But she was crying.

     He immediately let go of her when he was finished and pulled her into his arms. She latched on and tried to calm down. His hand went to her hair. "Hey, can I take one more look? Please?" He asked her softly. He felt her take a deep breath, and then she nodded into his shoulder. She understood that doctoring wasn't easy when your patients wouldn't cooperate, so she helped him out a little.

     She turned around and carefully sat in the sand, holding her hair out of the way of her back.

     "The Hell?"

     "What?" She asked, still a bit choked up and still in pain.

     "It looks like whoever did this carved their fucking logo into your back."

     "What?" She asked once again. She was freaking out on the inside even worse than she was on the outside. She had something carved into her back?

     "You heard me." He put her shirt down and plopped down so he was laying behind her in the sand. "I'm sorry, Griffin."