─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

IT HASN'T BEEN EASY SLEEPING WELL, CURLED ON THE COLD GROUND WITH NOTHING BUT A JACKET AND A NEARLY EMPTY STOMACH. But June was able to doze off and sleep for what felt like hours and was slightly irked when she felt someone shaking her shoulder. A slight groan escaped her lips as her eyes flickered a few times, adjusting to the glow, but hearing Finn's clear voice. "Clarke, June, wake up!" She thought for a split minute that she was at camp, but when shifting, remembered the cushion beneath her. She could even feel her cheek resting on Clarke's shoulder, leaving June comfortable, but she went wide-eyed when seeing why she was being woke them up.

Finn was beside the bed they had laid Charlotte on, but it was empty, the blanket pushed to the side. June sat up, pushing herself off Clarke. "What? Where is she?" She stammered, worried that she had gotten free. There were a hundred different endings this could take.

"She's gone," Finn replied simply. June cussed lowly under her breath, pushing herself off the couch with Clarke. After a quick search, they could see that Charlotte was nowhere inside the bunker, so she had to have left.

The three grabbed what was important, and Finn was the one to take the lead as their tracker. June sucked in a deep breath when seeing how dark it was, her gaze barely adjusting, even when Finn turned the light Clarke carried on to give them more of a direction. They raced forward through the woods, as he studied the prints in the mud closely. June was no tracker, but as she leaned closer to get a closer view, she could see two different sets.

"Someone else was here," Finn noted in a mumble.

Suddenly, in the distance, there was a familiar child screaming. "No, no! Murphy!" June had felt herself stand straighter, becoming tense at the noise. It was Charlotte, it had to be. And there had to be someone with her.

On the same track as June, Clarke spoke worriedly. "Murphy has her."

The only choice the group had was to run towards the sound. June could feel her boots dig into the mood as she ran, her heart beating fast in her chest, almost feeling as if she was flying through the woods, tree branches and brushes nothing but a breeze behind her. She could hear Murphy shouting Charlotte's name, her angry screams, leaving a loud echo in June's ears. She cared, so much, and the only reason she did so was because the thought of Wells being permanently embedded in her head.

June's hurtling ceased to a stumbling when coming to an opening in the woods. She froze in place, seeing Murphy and his followers, cornering Bellamy and Charlotte to an edge of a cliff. It was too dangerous, and with how adrenaline-filled everyone was, it was only gambling with their lives.

"Bellamy!" Clarke shouted. "Stop! This has gone too far!" She moved to get closer until she was much too close to Murphy. "Just calm down. We'll talk about this," she suggested calmly, her hands held between him and Bellamy.

It was quiet, except for Murphy's panting, as he mulled over his options. Before June could blink, he lashed out, grabbing her shoulder and pulling her back to wrap an arm over her and press the blade of a knife to her throat. "I'm sick of listening to you talk," he snarled.

"No!" June cried out, lurching forward to do something; anything.

Murphy jerked Clarke back before June could get closer, pressing the knife more firmly against her skin, making her chin lift. "Stay back or I will slit her throat," he warned.

"Don't, don't," June begged, her knees becoming shaky, and forcibly using all her strength to stand. She hadn't cared how weak she was coming off, especially in front of Murphy of all people, but she couldn't watch anything bad happen to Clarke. "Please. Please, don't hurt her, I will do anything you want."

A glint flashed in Murphy's eyes, gazing away from June to Charlotte, considering the deal. The young girl was crying, pleading as well to spare Clarke. "Don't hurt her?" He repeated. "Okay, Charlotte, I'll make you a deal. You come with me right now, I will let her go," he offered, patting Clarke on the shoulder.

Charlotte softened, no longer crying, and considering the offer being given. Clarke noticed, and tried to stop it. "Don't do it, Charlotte! Don't!" She exclaimed desperately.

As Charlotte ignored her, taking a few cautious steps forward, Bellamy attempted to stop her by putting an arm in front of her. "No!" She screamed, pushing away his hold and slapping at him. "No, I have to!" Bellamy hushed her, grasping her shoulders, and giving her a pointed look.

"Murphy," Bellamy began, warning, with a single hand up. "This is not happening."

From behind Bellamy, on the edge of the cliff, Charlotte started sniffling in whimpers. "I can't let any of you get hurt anymore," she sniveled. "Not because of me. Not after what I did." She backed up, outstretching her arms.

"C-Charlotte!" June shouted, the name coming out broken as she watched, horrified, as Charlotte leaped off the cliff. She couldn't move, left paralyzed, almost unable to hear Clarke crying in grief after she was released. Charlotte was a killer, and maybe a part of June wanted her to end up like Wells, but now that she was here, she was left terrorized, alike to when she saw the noose. Nobody deserved this, and it couldn't be forgotten.

Slowly coming back to their reality, June lifted her head, seeing Bellamy stand from his position on his knees, storming towards Murphy with a furious expression. She could see the clear look of fear on Murphy's face, even stumbling back a bit. "B-Bellamy..." He says faintly.

Bellamy suddenly tackled Murphy to the ground, pinning him and swinging his fists forward, again and again, making them crack against his face. "Bellamy!" June shouted along with Clarke, desperately trying to stop him. "Bellamy, that's enough!" The shouts were barely heard over Murphy's grunts of pain and the sound of Bellamy's knuckles cracking against his bones.

"Bellamy, stop!" Clarke tried with her. "You'll kill him!"

Finn threw himself in quickly, grasping Bellamy by his back and pulling him off with a harsh yank. "Get off me!" Bellamy demanded, hoarse, and struggling as Clarke put herself in between him and Murphy. "He deserves to die!"

"No!" Clarke argued. "We don't decide who lives and dies! Not down here."

"So help me God, if you say the people have a right to decide..." Bellamy warned, heat radiating off of him from the fury.

Clarke shook her head, her eyes glossy with unshed tears. "No, I was wrong before, okay?" She admitted. "You were right. Sometimes it's dangerous to tell people the truth. But if we're gonna survive down here, we can't just live by 'whatever the hell we want'. We need rules," she declared strictly. June pressed her lips together firmly, figuring it was better they decided that now before more people were hurt or even killed by the reckless single rule Bellamy threw around.

Brushing his bloody hand across his face, drained, Bellamy retorted, unable to calm down. "And who makes those rules, huh?" He challenged. "You?"

Pointing from Bellamy's chest to hers, Clarke responded. "For now, we make the rules." Her head slowly turned, meeting June's frigid stare, almost requesting without words. June shook her head back, not needing to speak. She didn't want to be included and knew she couldn't. She was Clarke's best friend, sure, but she was no leader. June had only wanted to protect everyone, defend them, and keep them safe. She wasn't one to make decisions.

"So, what, then?" Bellamy asked, agitated and breaking the look June and Clarke were exchanging. "We just take him back and pretend like it never happened?" June was unsure of how that would go, knowing that he was already very unlikeable from his obnoxious attitude, and to add onto that, Murphy had let his anger get the best of him and resulting in the death of a child. He was just as bad as Charlotte.

"No!" Clarke decided in a shout. She took a deep breath, looking from Murphy to Bellamy and making her final choice. "We banish him." It was better than killing him, June thought, at the very least. He'd have a chance.

The decision seemed to go by well with Bellamy, who's lower lip curled before he grasped he jumped forward and grasped Murphy by the jacket. "Get up!" He demanded angrily, pulling him to his feet and dragging him towards the edge of the cliff. June took a step forward, ready to shout for him to stop, but was stopped when he gave Murphy his final warning. "If I ever catch you near camp, we'll be back here," he told him darkly. "Understand?"

After Murphy gave Bellamy one weak, broken nod in response, he was cruelly thrown to the side. "As for the four of you," Bellamy announced, speaking to the ones who followed. "You can come back and follow me, or go off with him to die," he stated. "Your choice."

June forced herself to look away from Murphy's hunched over figure and headed towards the woods. She tried not to think about Charlotte, comparing her death to Wells, and fighting the tears pricking her eyes. June knew that, without a doubt, this would just be another sleepless night.

Upon arriving at the camp, the group returning were circled by curious and wondering delinquents, wanting to know what they had gone through. June had remained quiet, hands deep in her jacket pockets and stepped to the side, as Clarke and Bellamy explained as best they could what happened. They didn't leave out any details, June noticed, figuring that this was one of the cases that they would have to inform the delinquents of. They had to know that from now on, there were rules that they had to follow if they wanted to survive.

"... That's why we've decided to banish Murphy," Clarke finished. The crowd had been quiet nearly the entire time, except shocked gasps when hearing of Charlotte's death.

"Anybody got a problem with that?" Bellamy questioned, his arms crossed over his chest. As June expected, everyone remained quiet, and she was sure nobody cared whether or not a reckless threat like Murphy was out in the woods alone, practically sent to his death.

Instead of dwelling on it for too long, June chose to join a few in the dropship, surrounding Monty. He was putting the last touches to his project, so they could inform The Ark that they were alive. Even though she no longer had her wristband on, she felt as if she needed this to work for an endless amount of reasons.

"Will we be able to talk to them?" Clarke questioned the young engineer, watching as Monty put the final touches onto his wristband.

"No," Monty answered honestly. "It's more like morse code." He turned his head, waving for Jasper to come closer. "You want to do the honors?" He held up a small cord with a clip on the end, making June smile at the kind gesture. Monty pointed to the spot he was referring to. "That port right there."

Watching closely, it was a tense silence as Jasper clipped the wire into the port. June didn't know what she was expecting, but she was surprised when the machine sparked and the others who still had their wristbands flinched in pain when their own went off. "Woah," she exhaled. "What the hell was that?"

Jasper had jumped back as if the project was on fire, his hands held up in defense. Monty observed it before he let out a short sigh in disappointment. "It didn't work," he informed them. "I think we fried all the wristbands..."

In dismay, June shook her head. She tried to relax, knowing that it wasn't anybody's fault, but now they were truly in trouble. The Ark thought they were all dead, and there was no other way to contact them. She could see Jasper leaning against the wall, clearly upset, as Octavia went to comfort him. June tried to shrug off the frightened feeling, telling herself repeatedly something good will come along.

Resting a hand on Monty's shoulder, June tried to give him comfort, seeing he expressed regret. It wasn't like he had meant to do so, same with Jasper."It'll be alright," she assured in a soft mumble. "We can figure this out. Something good will come."