Prologue
Blood pumped her heart faster than a hummingbird, her breathing more erratic than it ever had been. Adrenaline filled her veins and her feet clanged on the metal floors as she ran. Her blonde hair flew behind her, being pushed by the air that Clarke Griffin knew was slowly running out. And they floated her father for knowing.
They wanted to float her, despite her being sixteen.
The bowels of the Ark groaned as hallways that hadn't been walked in years were beaten with the stress of Clarke's desperately running feet. Twelve stations that had become one ninety-six years ago had barely survived with the minimum amount of maintenance that the Ark provided. Enough maintenance to survive any damage to the hull.
Tears blurred her vision and stained her cheeks, the image of her mother standing silently as her father was floated for knowing about the failing life support systems and disobeying the council's decision to keep the new danger from the public. They hadn't waited for a trial. Kane and Chancellor Jaha, in all their wisdom, refused to wait any longer than they had to for execution. To keep him from spilling the secret they wanted to keep.
They had broken down the door as soon as Abby had opened the door. Jake, her dad, immediately hid her underneath the bed in her room, where they had been coming up with a plan to upload a video of Jake explaining the situation to the main Ark Comm Server to show the public the truth that the board wanted to sweep under the rug.
In a way, the Council was right. Kane and Jaha and Abby were right. When the facts were found out, the Council did panic. They swarmed the place, Clarke watching as their boots heavily rushed her father and sent him crashing into her desk. Indistinguishable yelling echoed through the room until only one thing was clear: Jake Griffin was being arrested for treason.
A new pair of boots joined the rest and the voice of Marcus Kane questioned Jake about her whereabouts, but he was silent and Clarke had to bite her lip to keep from screaming and getting out from under the bed. Clarke remembered clearly that her father had told them that they'd never find her and they'd be too late to stop the video.
They dragged her father away, destroyed her computer, and Kane's boots made a twirl. Clarke waited for just a second before scrambling out from underneath the bed, only to find Kane thanking her mother for the tip and apologizing for having to follow the law. Clarke's mother turned in her father. Her own mother turned her father in. Rage turned Clarke's vision to turn red. And then she ran, pushing her mother down as guards chased her. She could only stop for the split second she watched Jaha order a soldier to open the doors and Jake Griffin was floated. Clarke kept running, even as they shot at her.
"Halt!" A soldier yelled as five of them chased her through the aged halls of the Ark. Clarke ran faster instead of listening to them. Bullets ricochet off the wall with the sounding dings of metal on metal, the sound of the gun echoing loudly through the halls.
Clarke turned the corner, slamming into a door on the way. "No no no no!" Clarke hissed quietly as she slammed her palm into the button to the side of the door. It didn't open. Clarke hit it again, frustration, anger, panic, and despair all adding to the tears that once again began to stream down her face. Clarke twirled around, desperately searching for a way to avoid the soldiers.
There. A door.
It opened.
Desperately, Clarke ran without taking any of her surroundings into account. Her vision tunneled to whether she should take a right or a left, jump over stray metal parts from somewhere, and trying to be aware of the soldiers that chased her over the groaning of the abandoned parts of the Ark that hadn't been tread in years.
Bullets whizzed past Clarke, hitting the walls in front and beside her. Clarke let out a small scream and stumbled around another corner to her left, having felt the wind rip behind her and hit the entryway to the right she had barely stepped towards to.
It was at that point that a door came down, cutting her off from the soldiers and their guns. Clarke turned around to see through a small circular window, nearly smiling in relief. The doors were thick and obviously built for withstanding heavy pressure. No bullets could get through it. Her smile didn't last. Through the window, the wall was shooting sparks. On the other side of the door, Clarke met one of the soldier's widening eyes and she felt her own widening in response as she recognized what she was in.
And then the pod dropped into the vacuum of space, pulled down to the wasteland called Earth.