𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯 · 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘥 ¹

𝟏.𝟏

『 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞 𝐦𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥,
    𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐯𝐚𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞 』

- 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 // 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘯 -

𝙈𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙤

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     Another day, same old shit. Was that what they used to say? It didn't really matter because the truth was that was how things were going these days. Quick recap, I had been there for what seemed like a hundred years, but apparently, it had only been twenty-five months and 18 days -which is ironic, considering today is my 18th birthday. Some may have expected me to be excited about it; excited about the party, the people, the presents.... not in this lifetime. Living in the Ark was... different to put it simply.

It was especially unconventional considering I was in jail and the laws of the Ark meant that if you were locked up when you turned 18, you got floated —aka murdered, but the high spheres would never refer to it as such; to keep up appearances, I supposed. No matter the crime, everyone's hearing at 18 went the same: guilty and sentenced to death.

I wasn't sure exactly when that new law had been passed, but I was certain it hadn't been there since the beginning, since Earth died around 100 years ago and the human race was forced to live in space —which I had always thought was horrible in ways I could explain in two words: recycled water.

There was also the inconvenience of always being watched, for there was no way to escape the scrutiny of the guard. We were floating in a ship in space, so even if you got out of it, there was nowhere for you to go. Just the immense vastness of a dark nothingness. I had always hated it.

I knew the day would come before I realized, the day of my hearing. I wasn't surprised but I had expected, hoped to feel some way about it: it wasn't exciting —being murdered, but my lack of emotional response worried me; not that that would last long, but still. What did feeling nothing about the day I was to die say about me? I wasn't sure, but I also couldn't find much in me to care.

I had wondered how being floated would feel like. It sounded fun, leaving the ship, being light as a feather around the universe; that is until you realized you weren't going to have any oxygen in you and you'd die. Everything always had a trick.

"Prisoner 366, stand back and hold out your left arm." A voice as robotic as they came stated from the outside of my cell. Oh well, what now? Oh, it's probably the time. "Prisoner 366, st.."

"Do you think I went deaf since yesterday?" I snapped, eyeing as the door opened from my makeshift bed. "Why are you in such a rush? It's not like I could escape from this anyway."

"Today may be your lucky day." The guard walked into my cell, eyeing me with something in his eyes I couldn't exactly read.

"Well, I've heard that before and I never liked where it went," I retorted getting up from the bed and facing the man. "And the one who says it usually doesn't end up well."

"Hold out your left arm. Now."

I didn't move. If he wanted to do something to me, he would have to fight me first. He could probably kill me in two seconds, but hey! it wasn't as if I had anything to lose and maybe I could get some fun out of my last hours, right? He started moving towards me as another guard entered the cell.

"A party for three, great!" I hoped they could get the sarcasm. "Should I expect anyone else?"

"We are not here to kill you. You just need to extend your arm and let me put this on you, ok?"

Was pity what I caught in his voice?

"What the hell is going on?" I raised my voice but not enough to alarm anyone that could've been outside, standing tall in front of the armed men. "I'm 18 today, that means you are going to float me."

Before I could react, the first guard moved behind me and everything went black. The last thing I felt was something being secured around my wrist, puncturing my skin, and arms around me. This is it. This is dying.

━━━━━━┛ ✠ ┗━━━━━━

Where am I? What is that noise?

I tried opening my eyes slowly, attempting to move my body but I couldn't. I tried to move forward up for I was sat somewhere, but I soon realized I was strapped down in place. So I couldn't move, but what I could do was hear plenty of voices around me from people I didn't know. I had always thought hell would be warmer. As my vision began to focus and my hearing became decent again, I started to put faces to each voice.

"Stay in your seats!"

A girl screamed from the other side of... Wait, where the hell are we? I looked around me and found two guys standing but strapped to the wall next to me. How comfortable. I wonder how they ended up in here, I mean, they don't look like criminals. But who knows, looks are deceiving.

"Hey, you! The one with the goggles." I gained their attention, both moving their heads to look at me like they were the same person. "What's going on?"

"Oh, welcome back! We thought they had killed you."

"Yeah, that burn on your neck does not look very good, if I'm honest."

I furrowed my eyebrows as I moved my hand up to my neck; it was warm. Those idiots electrocuted me. That explained why I had passed out.

"I'll deal with this later." I sighed, allowing my hand to flop back down over my legs. "Can any of you tell me what's going on?"

"Well, you missed Jaha's speech for about 10 seconds, he was lecturing us again about how we..."

"Cut it, Jasper!" His, I assumed friend, cut him off. "We are going to Earth!"

"To Earth? What have you taken before being strapped down?" I scoffed, shaking my head, looking around. "How in hell are we going to Earth? Isn't it dead? Dangerous? No air to breathe? And most importantly, why?"

"Seems like we are... what did Jaha say?" Jasper turned to the other guy, whose name I still didn't know, moving his hand in the air as if trying to physically evoke the word.

"Expendable," answered the other mocking the way Jaha talked. "I'm Monty, by the way."

"He finally went completely nuts, I see. I had been wondering how much longer till his brain melted." I turned my gaze back to the boys. "My name is Samantha."

"I think I'll call you Sam if you don't mind."

"If you want to call me that, you'll have to gain my friendship first, and that's not easy these days."

I peered carefully at Jasper watching his expression slowly change. Did that upset him?

"Jasper, sounds like you almost just made a friend!"

Monty tried to hold back his laughter as he emphasized the word almost, but I could see the smile starting to creep onto his features. I laughed as they did. That whole situation was just purely ironic.

"We will become friends, just give me time to..."

Jasper's confident statement was cut short by a piercing noise that took over the whole ship. I put my hands over my ears to try and minimize it. It was horrible; it was the only thing you could hear. I felt my body sinking onto my seat as we entered a gravity zone was again, assuming we had entered Earth's atmosphere. I felt heavy and my body fought the restrains that kept me down because of the amount of force that pulled us down. I couldn't help but wonder if something had gone wrong. If we'd crash instead of land. And suddenly, dead silence.

It seemed we had landed. That or I was dead and making it all up as I went.

Immediately, I took my seatbelt off, and after quickly glancing towards Jasper and Monty to check if they were ok, I approached the dropship's stairs to make my way down towards the lower level alongside everyone else.

I could hear voices shouting, distinguishing some talking about a girl under the floor and whether or not we should open the doors.

A girl under the floor? Are we back in second grade? We have more important stuff to worry about. I rolled my eyes. For example, do they not realize we are dead either way? It doesn't mind if we open the doors or not. It doesn't take much to understand that we either die from radiation or of hunger and thirst. I know which way I'd rather go.

When I finally got to the lower level, and before I could step a foot out of the ladder, a sudden rush of wind hit my face.

"We are back bitches!"

I rose my gaze towards the light source, seeing a girl throwing her fists into the air as she screamed.

The first human to step on Earth since forever ago, not bad. I smiled. We won't die of radiation, at least not immediately, so that has to be some good news.

I watched everyone getting out of the dropship after her while I stayed behind thinking.

We could die in a couple of days, though. We may as well just enjoy our time without those idiots back on the Ark. You know what I wouldn't mind right now? Knowing where the hell are we going to get water and food.

I finally stepped out of the ship, only to see everyone already being a chaotic mess. The girl from before, the one who had been giving orders inside the dropship, was drawing lines on a map with a guy who seemed awfully familiar. They both looked familiar, actually. Why do I think I know him from somewhere? And her?

"Cool, a map." Jasper approached them from behind. "They got a bar in this town? I'll buy you guys a beer."

I chuckled at his comment, but the guy did not seem to like it as much as he started shoving Jasper back threateningly, almost as if he were going to start a fight. And I was not in the mood.

"Hey!" I screamed at him. "Who do you think you are?" I strode towards him, helping Jasper out of his grip, making sure he was alright before I turned to the guy. "We just landed and you are already bullying the poor kid."

He looked at me. I didn't know if he was surprised there was someone still inside the dropship or if he was trying to think of an answer, but before he could, a group of guys walked towards him.

"Hands off of him, one of them addressed him. "He's with us."

"Relax. We're just trying to figure out where we are."

"On the ground. Ain't that good enough for you?" A tall guy mocked him, walking towards us with the girl who stepped the first out of the ship following closely behind.

"We need to find Mount Weather. You heard my father's message, that's our..."

I knew it. What is even my luck? Only two Jahas but somehow I keep running into them.

"Wait a second, you are Jaha's son." I chuckled as the realization finally hit me, Wells nodding at me. "Well, very nice to meet you. Your father and I are good friends." I stated with as much sarcasm in my voice as I could. "I'm Samantha." I put my finger on my temple as if I were thinking, eyeing him as I tilted my head. "Maybe you know me. He locked me up personally himself."

"What?" The girl who had been checking the map with him looked at me confused.

"Which means you must be Clarke." She nodded almost imperceptibly. "I suppose you do look like your mother."

"You are the girl who gave him that black eye?"

"Oh, yeah," -I laughed as I answered Wells. "And had it been a fair fight, he'd have gotten something else."

"Why?" Wells now seemed confused. I wasn't sure if he was mocking me or he was thick as a brick.

"Oh, please, don't even try. I'm pretty sure you know who I am and why I'm here, so drop the act."

"Listen, I'm sorry for what they did to you and your gra–"

"Don't you even dare to mention anything about that day." I interrupted him, closing the space between us. If he wants a fight, he will get one.

"Look," He took his eyes away from mine. "I understand what you did and why you did it, but you could have approached the issue from a very different perspective..."

"A different perspective? Like what? Talking to the guard?" I threw my hands up in the air as a dry scoff left my lips. "Please, don't make me laugh." I crossed my arms over my chest. "I did what I had to do."

"You are wrong, you should have–"

"Don't try to boss me around, okay? I'm tired of you people. You may be the Chancellor's son, but in case you haven't noticed, we are on the ground, and we..." I pointed around me "...are all delinquents here. We are more than you privileged so if someone is going to be giving orders around here, it will be us." I looked directly at him. "To you."

"I agree with Samantha." The girl who had stepped first off the ship turned towards me. "I'm Octavia, by the way." I nodded at her, a pleased smile on my lips.

"Do you think we care who's in charge?" Clarke looked at me. "We need to get to Mount Weather, not because the Chancellor said so, but because the longer we wait the hungrier we'll get and the harder this will be. How long do you think we'll last out here without supplies? We need to leave now."

"Well, maybe both your parents should learn where to point their expendable criminals at," I emphasized the word expendable while I said it looking from Wells to Clarke. "Besides, how do we know for sure that Mount Weather will have those supplies? I mean, we know nothing about this place. They sent us here to die and, somehow, we are alive. So why are you so sure the rest of that information is actually up to date?"

I knew we needed those supplies, but first I wanted to make sure she knew what she was doing.

"We don't know, but we have to go. There's nothing here for us."

Before I could answer her and tell her about my thoughts, someone spoke.

"I got a better idea. Find it for us. Let the privileged do the hard work for a change." The guy next to Octavia spoke before everyone else chanted in agreement.

"And how do you think they are going to bring enough water or food for all of us?" I couldn't help it, it irritated me. "They are two and we are 98, do the math please."

I faced him; he looked confused. Was he not expecting someone to dispute him or what? Before either of us could say anything else, Wells spoke.

"Sam is right, we all need to go."

Did he just dare to call me Sam?

"Hey you, Chancellor's son." I turned to face him. "Just because I agree we need food and water, not to even mention shelter, doesn't mean you can start nicknaming me."

Who the hell does he think he is?

"Well, my name isn't Chancellor's son so if you don't mind."

"Do I seem to care?" Of course, I knew his name, but not because he had introduced himself or anything, so I decided I liked my game better. "It's not like I have the pleasure of knowing your name." I air quoted the word pleasure for him. "Would you rather me calling you Chancellor of Earth? Mr. Chancellor?" I started counting the nicknames I was giving him with my fingers. "How about Chancellor Junior? Junior Chance? Or wait! I got it! How about–"

"My name is Wells!" He shoved me back out of the blue and completely unprompted, taking me by surprise which meant I almost fell on my ass at the unexpectedness of his action.

"What the fuck do you think you are doing?" I was about to push him back and give him a piece of my mind, but the guy from before who had come to Jasper's aid talked before I could act.

"Look at him everybody, Chancellor of Earth." He shouted, looking around us and gaining laughter from the crowd. "That sure is a good nickname, Samantha." He winked at me and I raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm Murphy."

"You think that's funny?"

Wells walked furiously towards Murphy. Everything happened so fast I almost could not keep up: instead of answering, Murphy kicked Wells on the leg, making him fall to the ground on his back; the people around us started chanting for a fight as Wells stood back up, but he could barely support his weight with one leg. Before they got to fight, someone jumped between them both.

"The kid's got one leg. How about you wait until it's a fair fight?"

Guess we have a new competitor now.

I shifted my weight from one leg to the other, waiting for the new fight to unravel, but that didn't happen. Instead, Octavia said something flirty making everyone laugh as I wondered if that was really the time for that.

After that, it was like everyone forgot about the boys measuring themselves to one another; the crowd dispersed in different directions, so I did the same, wandering around the place we had landed on.

Everything is so green, it looks so unrealistic. It's almost like it's fake.

I placed my hand on a tree, feeling the rough trunk against my skin, almost as if making sure it was real and not a hologram. But it isn't; this is real.

I spotted Monty and Jasper not far away from where I was so I made my way towards them, making myself known and waving hello, gaining excited answers from both of them.

"Hey, Sam!" Monty hit Jasper with his elbow, who was clear to clear his throat and correct himself. "Samantha, sorry."

I started laughing. They look so innocent. So child-like. It was hard not to like them, even if what I was used to doing was avoiding conversation, I decided to stay. I could even consider trusting them at some point in the future. Maybe become friends? I was about to tell them so, but somehow I always got rudely interrupted.

"Four of us." The spacewalker guy grabbed both Monty and Jasper. "Can we go now?"

"Excuse me," I tapped him on the back making him turn around. "Where are you going?"

"To Mount Weather" Clarke answered for him, her eyes landing on mine and all I could think of was what exactly had happened since we landed for her to look so pissed.

"Well then, count me in." I glanced around. "Anywhere is better than this chaos." She thanked me silently with a nod of her head and half a smile.

"Sounds like a party," Octavia's voice made me turn around and smile. "Make it six."

"Hey, what the hell are you doing?"

The same guy that had practically been her shadow since the first moment I saw her, strode towards her with demeanors of grandeur. Why does he keep following her?

"Are you like her nanny or something?" I eyed him up and down. "We are going for a walk. She will be fine, calm down."

"I'm her brother."

My eyes widened in shock. Her brother? No one was allowed more than one kid in the Ark; having a second child was punishable by law. It didn't make any sense.

Hold up. The girl under the floor? Well, see? Now everything makes sense. Except for one thing. From what I have heard, the stories said that he was older than 18. How come he is here? And he was kicked out of the force, so he must be posing as a guard; they'd never let him back in. So there are two things that make no sense.

I regained my composure hoping no one noticed my lack of it a few seconds ago.

"And how are you here? From what I've heard you are older than 18, so if you had been locked up like the rest of us, you would have been floated a long time ago." I stood defiantly in front of him. "So how come you are alive and on Earth?"

A flash of anger flew over his features, but before he could answer, Clarke started talking, raising her voice.

"Were you trying to take this off?" She grabbed the space walker's arm. "Finn?"

"Yeah, so?" He broke away from her grip.

"This wristband transmits your vital signs to the Ark. Take it off and they'll think you're dead."

"Should I care?"

"Well, I don't know. Do you want the people you love to think you are dead? Do you want them to come down with us in two months? Because they won't if they think we are dying."

So that's what this is for? I looked hesitantly at my wristband. I'm taking this off as soon as I get a chance. I don't need the rest of the privileged coming down and locking me up again. I got enough of that back in space.

Finn simply shrugged his shoulders, ending the conversation without saying anything else, and marching away from the ship and toward who knew were. Clarke followed him with the map, so I assumed that was our cue. Octavia gave a kiss on the cheek to her brother and came up to me.

"C'mon, Samantha, this should be fun." She laughed as she walked past me. I glanced back at her brother.

"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on her. Besides, what could be out there?" I saw a smile begin to creep into his features, but he seemed to change his mind and kept a straight face.

"Yeah, whatever."

He didn't even look at me and started walking back to what now was supposed to be our camp. What a dick. I ran to catch up with Octavia and the others.

"Hey, Octavia! Wait for me!"

"C'mon, Samantha, we don't have all day!"

"Listen, you can call me Sam. Samantha is my business name, and besides, it is way too long." I winked at her and placed my hands behind my head as she started laughing.

"Hey! How come she can nickname you but I can't? I've known you for longer!" Jasper seemed hurt as he turned around to look at me.

"If Finn hadn't interrupted us back at camp I would have been able to finish our conversation and–"

"What does that have to do with this?"

"Would y'all stop being so incredibly rude and allow me to finish my phrases?" I argued after Monty cut me off. "I was about to let you guys know that I liked you and thought I could attempt to trust you. So, you both can call me Sam." I glanced at them with a smile on my face. "There, I said it; now, you may speak."

"I told you I would succeed"

Jasper looked at Monty and the both of them started laughing loud enough to make the birds around us shoot flying up towards the sky. I felt the smile crept onto my lips before I even became aware I was sporting one caused by both friends and the excitement of experiencing Earth for the first time, everything I had ever read about our home planet resurfacing in my head. I had so many questions. So many things I wanted to see and do, but for the moment, I'd settle for what I had: my freedom.

I could get used to this.