Disclaimer
I do not own The 100. I do own Grace and her storyline, along with some of the other characters mixed into this story that is not in the show or the novels.
✧
Grace Parker awakes to the same boring walls that have kept her imprisoned for the past six years with a shallow sigh.
Things haven't changed. She doesn't really know what she was expecting in the first place, but it wasn't this. The room is still an irritating pale grey. The bed beneath her is an incredibly thin mattress covered with a few thin sheets and one tiny pillow. The floor is bare. The vent above her bed squeaks for repair, begging to be fixed.
Grace looks around the room in displeasure. Everything is exactly the same, despite the fact that she's spent the last six years locked in here. A frown spreads across her face as she realizes how small of an impact her stay would make on the next prisoner to reside in her room. After today, when they sent her flailing through the airlock, she would be gone and there would be nothing left to remember her by.
Perhaps her sister would remember her. She would know that some redheaded girl had taught her to read, to take care of herself, to hide when the guards came, but would she keep her memory alive? It was possible. She was the reason Grace was here, and something like that wasn't something you could just forget, right? Grace hopes so. But, then again, she also hoped that her sister would forget everything about her so that she would be safe.
She pushes the thought away. Sitting up with a low, dissatisfied groan, Grace adjusts her tank top and lifts her hand to tug out the knots in her fiery hair. She wondered what time it was. It had to be early in the morning, seeing as none of the guards had woken her up for her morning breakfast of slop and water. She wondered if they would even give it to her. It would be the humane thing to do, but then again throwing a newly eighteen-year-old out of an airlock wasn't exactly a moral thing to do, either.
A soft hiss issues from her door. The big hunk of metal blocking her from the outside world slides open, revealing two guards dressed in bulky black clothing. One of them is an older, physically fit man who's balding, and the other is a significantly younger man with a thin figure and little to no muscle. Grace frowns when she notes that they only carry a single electric baton and another smaller item that Grace can't see.
Grace plucks her jacket from the foot of her bed, shrugging it on with three swift movements. She pulls her curls out from under the thick blue jacket, her eyes never leaving the guards. It was clear that they were here to bring her to the airlock, what else would they be doing?
The older man steps towards her with no expression on his face. Grace doesn't recognize him. "New guys, huh? What, was Shumway too nervous to face me?"
The smaller one seems furious with her comment. "You almost broke his wrist."
"Almost?" she pouts. "Well, that's not what I was hoping for."
"Up against the wall, " Big-Man orders. He seems almost bored, but with a few broken nerves. She wonders just how quickly he'll want to get this done. She wonders if her sister will be there, and then decides that that is selfish and she hopes that she isn't.
Grace does as she is told. She knows the drill. After this, they'll bring her down to the airlock where Chancellor Jaha, Vice President Kane, Dr. Abby Griffin and more will take her belongings (the little bit she had, which basically consisted of her jacket and nothing else) and then send her out into space. Maybe Clarke Griffin will show up to say her goodbyes, but Grace knows that is unlikely. The blonde had probably completely forgotten about her.
"Hold out your arm," Small-Man says, sort of in a soft tone. Grace, startled by the gesture, brings her arm up quickly. He clamps something metallic down on her wrist. She hisses at the little pin-like stabs in her skin.
Grace rips her hand out of Small-Man's grip. Her eyes widen as they drift over the thick bracelet. "What the hell is this?" she demands. Big-Man grabs her shoulder, shoving her towards the door without a proper answer. "Don't touch me! What do you think you're doing? Let go of me!"
Grace pushes the man back, nerves making her jittery as she rocks back on her heel. Small-Man grabs at his electric baton. Grace sends the heel of her hand into his chin, knocking him backwards. Grace whips around to dash out of the open door, but Big-Man yanks her back by her shirt.
Before she can react, Small-Man presses the baton into the small of her back. Her body convulses. Her knees give out. Her chin smacks against the floor, hard. He doesn't let up until her eyes roll into the back of her head as she drifts into unconsciousness.
✧
Grace wakes up with a dull ache at the bottom of her chin. She briefly wonders about whether or not the blow will leave a bruise, but when her eyes wander over the group of teenagers surrounding her, the thought is thrown away.
Prisoners are seated in black, plastic chairs, secured with thick red seatbelts. Others stand against the wall, strapped in with the same amount of protection as everyone else. Grace recognizes some of them from Earth Skills, a class she had been forced to take (and didn't mind) two weeks ago and that had ended the day prior.
Her eyes widen in surprise. Was that why they were in a dropship of all places? The Council was sending the prisoners to Earth, a planet that has been bathing in radiation for almost a hundred years? It was possible. The Council was anything but worried about the prisoners and their lives, despite them all being teenagers or children. Once you commit a crime on the Ark, you're worthless to them. Nothing but a waste of oxygen.
Her pointer finger comes up to massage the tense area on her neck as she tries not to think about it. If things went as she was sure they were going to, everyone on this ship would die in a couple of hours.
Her mind travels elsewhere once more. She glances to her left and spots a young boy — younger than her by at least a year — that she doesn't recognize. To her right is a girl with pin-straight, raven-coloured hair and an olive complexion. Grace smiles at the sight of her.
"You haven't changed at all," Octavia Blake tells her, smirking.
"I can't say the same for you," Grace replies.
It was true. Octavia had grown out of her baby-faced features, her cheekbones more prominent and her eyes void of her innocence. Within the last year, Octavia had changed drastically and Grace, well... she had remained the same.
"You've been out for a while," the girl tells her. "I saw the guards bring you on board unconscious and thought, 'Hey, I know that girl!', so I followed you to this seat."
"Smooth."
"Very." Octavia laughs. She pauses, let's her eyes drift over the commotion of the rest of the prisoners chatting, then turns back to Grace. "Have you heard where they're sending us?"
"Not really," Grace admits, shifting in her seat, "but it's kind of obvious. Anywhere other than Earth is years away. We'd never get there before we shrivelled up and died of old age — or starvation. Plus we had to take 'Earth Skills', so that helped."
Octavia hums in amusement. "So, how long do you think they knew they were going to send us to our deaths before they actually told us?"
"At least two weeks."
"This is crazy. How are you acting so calm?"
Grace shrugs. "I was supposed to die today, anyway. Radiation wasn't really high on the list of ways to go, but I guess it'll do."
Octavia scoffs in disbelief, but doesn't say anything about Grace's dark humour. As they were former roommates, she was pretty used to Grace and her morbidity. "Yeah, yeah. Happy birthday, by the way."
"Thanks."
Grace tenses as the dropship shudders beneath her, stomach rolling. Octavia makes a face at the redhead. "You're not going to throw up, are you?"
"Of course not," Grace defends, but she's honestly not sure. She's lived on the Ark her whole life — the ship never had rough movements and, if there had been, it was likely an incident on one of the less fortunate stations, like Factory. Grace had grown up on Alpha, hidden away with the Privileged.
Tiny screens around the dropship flicker to life with a short, static sound. The irritatingly calm voice of the chancellor flows through the speakers. "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."
"This'll be good," Grace mutters. Octavia snickers.
"We have no idea what is waiting for you down there. If the odds of survival were better, we would've send others. Frankly, we're sending you because your crimes have made you expendable."
"Your dad is a dick, Wells!" Someone screams.
Grace's eyes snap to the side, to the direction of where the voice came from. Wells Jaha was arrested? And to make it even more incredulous, Clarke Griffin is sitting right next to him.
Grace's stomach rolls once more at the thought of them both being down on Earth with her. Would Clarke even remember her, or would Grace have to pretend that they've never met? She wasn't sure which option she preferred.
"These 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 nonperishables to sustain three hundred people for up to two years."
Finn Collins unbuckles his seatbelt and begins to float outside of his seat. His name is vaguely familiar for a reason Grace isn't too sure of. She watches curiously as he makes his way across the dropship.
"Spacewalker strikes again!" someone shouts. Octavia 'whoops' in response, arms raised above her head as excitement courses through her veins.
Finn rests in front of Clarke. He watches the blonde in amusement as he stretches out, arms behind his head. His gaze slides to Wells as he says, "Check it out. Guess your dad floated me after all."
Wells' expression hardens. Not wanting the situation to escalate, Wells tells him, "You should strap in before the parachutes deploy."
"Hey, you two," Clarke shouts to two other kids following Finn out of their seats, "stay put if you want to live."
Grace's heart hammers in her chest at the thought of the three imbeciles dying on impact. But what had the Council expected? They were sending a bunch of children to Earth. Things wouldn't go as smoothly as they were hoping it would, she was sure.
"—You must locate those supplies immediately—"
Finn says something that Grace can't hear, and then the two kids finally succeed in unstrapping themselves. She calls to them before she even registers herself doing so, the panic clear in her voice as they laugh and eagerly begin to spin.
"Strap back in!" Grace shouts. "Hurry, before the—"
The dropship lurches forward. Screaming and trying very hard not to puke, Grace grabs Octavia and hopes the old ship doesn't break into a million pieces before they land. Before they even manage to see the Ground.
With one, final shudder, the ship stills. The Hundred hold their breath, wait for something to happen. One second. Two seconds. Nothing. No massive explosion or internal combustion — nothing at all. The thought made Grace's stomach churn. If not now, when?
"Listen," one boy says, "no machine hum."
"Woah." The kid next to him tightens the grip on his belt. "That's a first."
Click. Grace slides her seatbelt off uneasily, watching as Octavia moves towards the hatch leading to the lower level. She huffs in annoyance. Couldn't she just wait.
A quarter of the way down the ladder, Grace can hear Clarke shout, "We can't just open the doors!" at someone else.
Another, deeper voice responds, "hey, just back it up, guys!"
Octavia stops halfway down the ladder. Grace shouts out in surprise, fists tightening around a rung to stop her from stomping on Octavia's hands. "Woah!"
Octavia doesn't answer the girl, instead of letting out a choked: "Bellamy?"
Grace's brows furrow in confusion. If the girl could remember correctly, Bellamy was Octavia's brother. She could still remember the stories Octavia had told her about him; the endless piggyback rides; the stories about the Gods and Goddesses; the way he had protected Octavia from everything and everything. He practically raised her.
Then how the hell was he here?
Octavia is down the ladder and shoving through people in seconds, desperate to reunite with her brother. Grace scrambles behind her, shoving and pushing people out of her way. No one objected, they knew her reputation after all.
As the redhead reaches the front of the dropship she stops a couple of feet behind the now embracing siblings. Grace is actually startled at his appearance, expecting nothing but a lanky boy with the messy brown hair that Octavia had described in her stories. Much to her shock, Bellamy seemed the exact opposite.
His dark brown hair was slicked back, the hair that every guard had, along with big brown eyes filled with mixed emotions. Freckles are dotted everywhere across his face, kind of like the stars that Grace could remember seeing on her way to the showers on the dropship. And for the lanky part, Bellamy was anything but lanky. He has a very muscular build, basically the exact opposite of what Grace had pictured him.
Not that that was a bad thing, mind you.
"My God, look how big you are," Bellamy mutters, staring down at the girl with a proud smile on his face. Grace's heart swells as she watches their reunion, ecstatic for the two.
When Octavia pulls away, her eyes rake down her brother's body, squinting in anger when she saw what he was wearing. "What the hell are you wearing? A guards uniform?"
Yes, well, Octavia, that's definitely what it looks like.
"I borrowed it to get on the dropship," he mumbles, smirking slightly. "Someone's got to keep an eye on you."
Octavia pulls Bellamy back into another bone-crushing hug, only to be interrupted by the one and only Clarke Griffin. "Where's your wristband?"
Octavia pulls away, sending the girl a glare. "Do you mind? I haven't seen my brother in a year."
"Nobody has a brother!" a male voice shouts from somewhere amongst the crowd.
"That's Octavia Blake, the girl they found under the floorboards!" another girl informs them. Grace steps forward to threaten the girl when a small hand curls around her wrist and tugs her back. Looking back, she finds the big blue eyes of Clarke Griffin staring at her with a look that said 'don't make it worse'. Sighing, Grace turned back to the siblings.
Bellamy holds his sister back, eyeing the redhead in confusion. His gaze drifts back to his sister as he tightens his hold. "Let's give them something else to remember you by," Bellamy says.
"Oh yeah? Like what?" Octavia asks in annoyance, pulling away from the man and adjusting her jacket.
"Like being the first person on the ground in a hundred years."
Octavia grins at her brother and nods her head enthusiastically. Bellamy grins and steps towards the lever that will open the dropship doors and either lead to death and misery, or brilliant life. Maybe even both.
Bellamy pulls the lever slowly, the 100— 101 now, Grace guessed— all sucking in breaths as they're instantly flooded with light. Wisps of airflow through the air, small hisses coming from the air leaking inside.
Grace squints and allows her eyes to adjust to the bright light. When they do, she realizes with a start that she actually was down on Earth. She was back there now, surrounded by trees, and overwhelmed by the overpowering fresh air instead of radiation there was rumoured to be. A wide grin stretches on her face as she takes it all. Her eyes find Octavia's, who looks back at her for reassurance.
Octavia's hand twitches at her side and Grace realizes that she was tempted to pull Grace towards her so that they could both be the first together. Grace finds herself shaking her head slightly as a silent no. Octavia, she knew, had to do this herself. She needed to be the first one.
Octavia returns her attention to her brother for a moment, watching as he grinned at her excitedly. Octavia smiles and steps forward. Grace keeps her eyes on her best friend, watching every movement with an itch to run out and join her as Octavia had wanted, but she knew the girl had to do it alone. This wasn't about Grace right now. The raven-haired girl continues to move at an agonizingly slow pace, taking her time at her surroundings as she descended the ramp in long strides.
Finally reaching the end, she sends Grace one last fleeting glance to which she gave a thumbs up and then stepped forward and onto the ground. The actual ground. With to feet now planted on the ground, she raises her arms and lets out a shrill, "we're back bitches!"
A loud laugh left Grace's mouth at Octavia's antics. This was why she was her best friend.
The redhead lurches forward, desperate to touch the soft soil and the roughness of the trees. She's by Octavia seconds later, laughing excitedly as the girl pushed her away. "Go! I know you've always wanted to run—"
Grace didn't even listen to the end of her sentence. She was already bounding away from the girl at high speed, loud laughs leaving her mouth as she ran through the surrounding trees.
On The Ark, Grace could only dream about making down here. The bright blue sky, soft brown soil, and beautiful flowers were merely read or imagined, the girl never even believing she had a chance she would be there now, running swiftly through the trees with a talent she didn't even know she had. She moved with grace, almost like her mother had known she'd be sent to Earth to do exactly what she was doing now and decided to name her with her special skill.
The other delinquents are shouting with glee as well, pulling at their friends or touching the ground or even kissing each other despite probably only have to know each other for like 20 minutes. Grace couldn't help but push it to the back of her mind as she ran. She was always at ease when she ran, and right now, as selfish at it may have been, she didn't think of anybody but herself.
Because Grace was alive today, on the day she was supposed to die, and although her room on The Ark may have been bare for the next prisoner to reside in it, today everything was different. She was no longer surrounded by those boring grey walls or the uncomfortable mattress with the few thin sheets. She no longer had to think about that stupid vent that squeaked for repair.
She was free and she was on Earth.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
IM BACK, BITCHES!
So, I'm literally so excited for this book and this is just me editing chapter one but I have up to like chapter 13 done and unedited ahh I'm so happy. This book is going to be the most amazing and I hope you enjoy it.
Vote, comment, whatever the hell you want! ;)
Also, add me on Snapchat! I'm going to have a group chat for Saviour, and the sequel Courageous, so add me and I'll add you to the group chats.
Don't worry, they're separate so there won't be spoilers!
Snapchat: mhi4289