"I think I have vertigo."
Avery's voice slurred as she spoke, her feet stumbling over the ground and her arms flailing to stabilise herself. She looked down to her wrist, desperately trying to pull at the bracelet that had permanently clamped there.
Only moments before, the girl was pulled from her cell by two very violent members of the Guard. They had explained nothing to her; simply ordered her to turn and face the wall - addressing her only as Prisoner 302 - and piercing a bracelet onto her wrist.
She furiously tried to fight against them as they dragged her from the cell and out onto the corridor. Her eyes scanned across the Sky Box, spotting other prisoners being taken from their cells just like her.
It was then that a tranquiliser was stabbed into her arm, with no warning. Hence, the so called vertigo.
"You don't even know what vertigo is."
Avery scoffed at the insult, looking up from the spinning floor to meet the face of the person who spoke. Their face came into focus after a few slow blinks to reveal Abby Griffin.
Of course she had something to do with all of this.
It had been a peaceful year and two months in the Sky Box - as peaceful as prison could be - and it made no sense as to why she was being taken from her cell now. She wasn't turning eighteen for another few months: three months, and twelve days to be precise. Not that Avery was keeping track or anything.
"What the fuck is going on Abby?" She hissed, struggling to keep her drooping eyes open.
The woman in front of her remained calm, motioning for the men to back off. When Avery looked around, she could see the other prisoners being shunned from their rooms, all wearing the same bracelet as her.
"You're killing us." She said bluntly, not finding a single shred of emotion in her own voice, despite her fear.
"No. We're sending you to the ground."
"Wha-?"
Before she could pettily curse the woman one more time, she found herself finally dropping into unconsciousness. And despite not believing Abby, she was telling the truth.
It had been ninety seven years since humans had been on Earth. A nuclear apocalypse killed everyone, and left survivors on space stations floating in orbit around the planet. Now, only the Ark remained, the twelve stations having merged together to form the place.
This meant that there wasn't an awful lot of oxygen for everyone. To try and sort out this minor issue, their Council decided that every crime would be punishable by Floating (death) unless you were a child.
This is exactly how Avery and ninety nine other kids found themselves in the Sky Box. Most of them were locked away for stupid reasons - including her, in her opinion - but the girl counted herself lucky for not yet turning eighteen. She would be reviewed at that age, and in her case, most likely sentenced to death.
But somehow, when Avery woke up, she found herself on a dropship headed straight for Earth.
No being floated for her, instead, an inevitable death from radiation on the planet Earth. Or in a terrible collision with the ground upon impact.
Opening her eyes, she found herself attached to a seat by a seatbelt strapped across her body. The ship was already shaking and jolting, clearly in motion, and despite her desire to leave her seat her fear kept her from unbuckling her seatbelt.
"Can you stop wriggling? It's annoying as fuck."
The girl sat beside her spoke bluntly and Avery couldn't help but laugh; both nervously and from amusement. The one who spoke had long brown hair hanging around her face, sparkling eyes and an unimpressed look on her face. When Avery looked to her, she immediately recognised the girl. How could she not?
She's the only person on the Ark who was ever hidden under the floor.
"You're Octavia Blake." Avery blurted out. "The illegal child."
Octavia scoffed, but her defensiveness didn't succeed in hiding her upset. Obviously, she hated that she was known for that; for something she couldn't help.
"What a nice way of putting it." She replied sarcastically, and Avery winced.
As much as she may have pushed away people back on the Ark, she could turn it around now. She could finally find friends; maybe even a family.
But maybe she had already failed. Octavia was already angry with her, and she didn't even try upsetting her. What was the point in making friends?
Shut up, internal monologue. There's a lot of reasons to make friends. It's just convenient that I can't think of any right now...
"Sorry, I shouldn't have said it like that." Avery muttered, but she made sure she spoke loud enough for the other girl to hear.
Octavia looked her once over, not giving anything away in her expression. Then she nodded stiffly, adjusting the seatbelt over her so she could hold her hand out to shake. Avery took it gratefully, unable to keep a smile from slipping onto her lips.
"You're Avery Taylor."
The girl felt taken off guard by the fact Octavia knew her name. From what she knew, she wasn't particularly well known around the Sky Box, despite having a reputation for being rude.
"I didn't know I was famous." She joked, and Octavia briefly smiled.
"You're not. My mom was sleeping with the Guard you assaulted. It's a good reputation you got there with the Guards."
Oh.
The lights flickered then, and the whole ship jolted. A few screams were audible from across the ship, and as annoying as Avery may have found them, she couldn't blame them for being scared.
As the lights turned on again, screens around the ship turned on too, revealing Chancellor Jaha on a recorded message. His glowing excitement seemed a vast contrast from the terrifying situation they had been forced into.
"Prisoners of the Ark, hear me now. You've been given a second chance, and as your Chancellor it is my hope that you see this as not just a chance for you, but a chance for all of us, indeed for mankind itself."
Why are we the experiment in this? We're kids.
Jaha wasn't helping the prisoners dislike for him. Most people in the same place as Avery hated Jaha. He could easily be blamed for the position of all of them, and for the destruction of many of their families.
Looking across the ship, she recognised only a few people. Clarke, Wells - Jaha's son - and Octavia from first glance. There was not much chance she'd know many others, considering they only got one walk a day around the Sky Box, and they very rarely bumped into other prisoners.
"We have no idea what is waiting for you down there. If the odds of survival were better, we would've sent others. Frankly, we're sending you because your crimes have made you expendable."
"Fuck you!" Avery couldn't help herself from yelling out, hearing other laughter and anger bounce around the walls of the ship.
"Your dad's a dick, Wells!"
Avery's eyes drew to where Wells was sat, his figure hunched in a way where it was clear he was trying to become less visible to everyone. The problem was: when you're the Chancellor's son, it's impossible to become invisible.
"And if, you do survive, those crimes will be forgiven, your records wiped clean. The drop site has been chosen carefully. Before the last war, Mount Weather was a military base built within a mountain. It was to be stocked with enough non-perishables to sustain 300 people for up to two years."
Jaha's message was too long, and too boring for any of the Delinquents to want to listen. Finn Collins, another criminal the girl knew of, was being entertaining enough to drag away Avery's attention.
"The return of the Spacewalker!"
He was out of his seat and floating in the air in the middle of the ship. Avery watched in amusement as he slowly backflipped, gradually stopping in front of Wells and Clarke.
"Check it out, your dad floated me after all."
Wells avoided Finn's snarky comment and instead instructed him to strap back into his seat. Octavia let out a harsh laugh, clearly finding Wells' seriousness hilarious.
"Hey Finn! That's your second spacewalk. You're a lucky bastard not getting floated either time."
Finn flipped Avery the finger, but the girl merely chuckled. The scene was funny to watch: Clarke and Wells trying to stop others from copying Finn's stupidity, and three boys now all floating around the ship.
Octavia's hand went for her seatbelt then, but Avery could hear the ship whirring away. She could gather that the ship was about to deploy the parachutes, and so she stopped the girl in one quick movement.
"Trust me, you don't want to do that."
She was proven right in less than a second.
The parachutes deployed, and the ship was thrown into anarchy. Finn and the two other boys were sent flying into the ceiling, crashing awkwardly and painfully.
Sparks and smoke erupted in front of Avery's eyes, and shouts and yells of panic filled her ears. But the girl kept quiet, simply hoping that somehow - somehow - she could make it to the ground.
She didn't belong on the Ark, but maybe she belonged on the ground.
Octavia didn't look fazed beside her, only grinning as the ship rocketed towards the ground. The engines were deafening but Avery swore she could hear her own heart thudding out of her chest over all the noise. They jolted again, and this time, the engines seemed to groan to a stop; finally falling silent.
"Listen," The girl's attention fell to a boy only sat across from her, his eyebrows furrowed adorably in thought. "No machine hum."
His dark hair was swept across his forehead, and his eyes were a deep brown. Avery found herself staring at him for a few moments too long, and felt like she had been caught in the act when he made eye contact in return.
She panicked a little.
"Smart ass."
Probably not the best thing to say to a boy you find cute, but Avery was too used to saying the wrong thing. His head tilted questioningly at her, a hidden smile threatening to take over his lips, but a frown settling there instead.
The girl shuffled uncomfortably, breaking eye contact first and looking around everyone else. The boy's words led everyone to take off their seatbelts. Unlike Finn before, none of them were floating: meaning the gravity was pulling them to the Earth.
They had landed.
As Avery moved in the general direction of everyone else, she noticed Finn crouching beside the unconscious boys who had earlier followed him from their seats. She almost forgot about where he had ended up during the crash, and found herself surprised he was even alive.
"They're dead, aren't they?" She asked, sensing Clarke by her side.
Finn's grave expression told her the answer.
"Hey!" Octavia nudged her then, and nodded to the ladder people were heading down. "Come down here, everyone's going outside."
She followed the girl onto the lower level of the Dropship, finding the entire group of Delinquents gathered at the entrance impatiently. An older boy, dressed in Guard uniform was keeping everyone from crowding the door.
Avery felt excitement building up in her stomach as he went to open the door. She didn't really realise she had such a strong desire to go to Earth until now. Before, her life seemed to have ended when she got put in the Sky Box. Now, she had a second chance.
"Stop!"
Clarke.
Like mother, like daughter.
"The air could be toxic."
"And where do you think we're getting our air from now?" Avery butted in, stealing away the attention of the girl and the Guard.
She took the opportunity to move through the crowds and find herself a spot besides the door, leaning against the wall. The older boy watched her carefully, a smile finding its way onto his lips.
"Just because you have something against my mom, doesn't mean you have to-"
"This has nothing to do with your mom-"
"-Bellamy?"
Octavia's voice drowned out both of the girls and Avery made sure to scowl at Clarke as she quietened. Bellamy beamed back at Octavia as she stopped in front of him.
"Look how big you are."
Avery rested her head against the wall, silently impatient by their reunion, then realising how important it was for them. She may not have known what family was really like, but they did.
As Octavia pulled back, she noticed what he was wearing. Looking over him in disgust, she didn't refrain from asking him about it.
"What the hell are you wearing? A Guard's uniform?"
"Wait, he's not a Guard?" Avery added in, hopefully.
"No, he's not." Octavia reassured, and Avery breathed a sigh of relief.
"Oh thank god."
"I borrowed it to get on the Dropship." Bellamy told her, and she nodded thoughtfully. He turned back to his sister, "Someone's got to keep an eye on you."
Octavia and Bellamy were clearly overjoyed to be reunited. But Clarke seemed more focused on something else as the siblings parted from another hug.
"Where's your wristband?"
"Do you mind?" Octavia whirled back to face Clarke, and Avery couldn't deny it was satisfying watching the girl shut her down. "I haven't seen my brother in a year."
"No one has a brother!"
"That's Octavia Blake! The girl they found hidden in the floor!"
The shouting of people in the crowds was clearly getting to Octavia, and she tried to lunge for the culprits who said it. Bellamy pulled her back, and she seethed heavily as she glared out at them all. Avery watched as the boy promised her another way to be remembered by: to be the first person on the ground in a hundred years.
He opened the door.
For a few long moments, everyone was mesmerised. The outside was like nothing they had ever seen before. Of course, everyone dreamt about it, but they couldn't possibly imagine what it was like.
Avery felt a rush of oxygen fill up her lungs. It was the deepest breath she had taken. It had never felt so good to breathe up on the Ark.
The sunlight sliced through shards shaped by wafting leaves on the trees. They were surrounded by rich, green forest, stretching for miles and miles. It was all so bright and so beautiful.
Avery watched in delight as Octavia tentatively stepped down the ramp from the Dropship, and dropped onto the ground. She let out a laugh, her smile lighting up the vibrant world even more.
And then she let out a yell, summing up exactly the excitement they all felt.
"WE'RE BACK BITCHES!"