Author's note: Welcome to my first story, 'An Innocent Criminal'. I do apologise for this chapter as my writing tends to take a while to get going, so please stick with it and I promise it will improve. It's based on 'The 100' which is one of my favourite TV series' of all time, and I am completely obsessed with it! Please just excuse me while I take a moment fangirling over Richard Harmon and Marie Avgeropoulos... So without further ado, on with the story!
An Innocent Criminal
Chapter 1
It's been 97 years since a nuclear apocalypse killed everyone on Earth, leaving the planet simmering in radiation. Fortunately, there were survivors at the time of the bombs. There is now only The Ark, one station forged from the many. We're told the Earth needs another 100 years to become survivable again and man can go home, back to the ground. The ground, that's the dream.
This is reality...Reality sucks.
Only a few minutes ago, Skylar had been contently sitting in her cell on the skybox, trying not to think about her upcoming review. Now she was hurtling towards the ground in a 97 year old dropship. Life really sucks sometimes. The guards had barged into her cell, and attached some sort of metal band to her wrist before she could resist, and then practically dragged her out into the main area of the skybox and towards the dropship. She'd been put in solitary confinement for the second time in as many months, and the guards weren't particularly nice to people in there. Someone's voice, loud and clear with authority, pulled Skylar out of her daze, and the low murmur of nervous chatter stopped when the face of Chancellor Jaha appeared on screens around the ship.
"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. 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-"
"Your dad's a dick, Wells!" Skylar was inclined to agree with whoever said that. She had never particularly liked Jaha, or the other members of the council (except for maybe Dr. Griffin), and what Jaha was saying made that dislike grow. People - children even! - as young as fourteen were sent to the skybox for theft or getting into fights. If there was a chance they were going to die on the ground, did they really deserve to be sent there?
"-Those crimes will be forgiven, your records wiped clean."
"I doubt it, high-class jackass," the girl next to Skylar muttered bitterly. Skylar actually laughed in agreement, something which seemed very odd in the situation.
"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..." A commotion from the other side of the ship distracted Skylar from the rest of the Chancellor's speech. People were cheering because someone had unclipped themselves from their seat, and was casually floating round the ship. Now they were arguing with a blonde girl who Skylar thought might be Dr. Griffin's daughter.
Skylar closed her eyes and tried to block out everything that was happening around her. She didn't care about the fact that some kid had unstrapped himself and was floating around to make himself look cool, all she cared about was trying to keep calm and survive the descent to the ground.
"Hey," the brunette girl next to her said, pulling Skylar out of her trance. "It's gonna be okay."
"You think?" Skylar questioned, not caring how shaky her voice was. The ship shuddered and she balled her hands up so tightly she was sure her fingernails would leave permanent grooves. The brunette girl reached over and made Skylar unclench her fist, then held it tight. It was just a simple gesture but Skylar had never felt so much support.
Later on Skylar would always remember this moment as the one where it all went to hell.
The dropship started violently jolting, and the two boys were thrown against the wall. People started screaming and thrashing around in their seats as the sounds of banging echoed all around the ship. The lights flickered and smoke blasted out from random parts of the walls. Skylar had lived in fear for most of her life and yet it was nothing compared to how scared she was at that moment. It seemed to be an eternity before they were jolted forward one last time, and then...nothing.
Skylar took several deep breaths to calm herself, and she saw a lot people around the ship doing the same, many with tears streaming down her faces. The only sound was a long moment was the sound of breathing until someone pointed out what they'd all been missing.
"Hey, listen," he began, catching everyones attention, "No machine hum." It became eerily quiet as everyone listened to the silence. The noise from the machines had been constant on The Ark; no way to escape it unless you were a Zero-G mechanic out on a space walk.
Click. Everyone rushed to pull off their harnesses, the excitement of being on the ground overtaking their fear of the descent. Dr. Griffin's daughter, Clarke someone had called her, ran over to check on the boys who had left their seats. Even from the other side of the ship Skylar could tell it wasn't good. There was a lot of shoving as everyone desperately raced to the lower level, wanting more than anything to see the outside world. Apparently Clarke didn't think this was such a good idea, as she ran after the crowd shouting for them to wait. Skylar had only taken a few steps when she saw the brunette girl she'd been sitting next hadn't moved. She looked a bit banged up from the fall but otherwise seemed okay.
"You coming?" Skylar asked, gesturing after the crowd. The brunette girl didn't move, her gaze fixed firmly on the lifeless bodies across the room. "Never seen a body before, huh?" The girl shook her head slightly, and Skylar thought about how young she looked. Maybe 16, 17 at a push. By then Skylar had already seen her fair share of death, it was a common thing on the poorer parts of The Ark, and seeing someone get floated was hardly rare. Some people were just luckier than others.
Skylar held her hand and gave it a squeeze, just as the girl had done for her earier. "We can bury them later, I'll make sure of it. Come on, we can't do anything now." She gently led the girl towards the ladder, the sounds of excited voices drifting up through the hatch.
At the door there was a guard, assigned to monitor the delinquents Skylar guessed, and he gestured for everyone to movee back. "Hey back it up guys!" From her spot on the ladder Skylar saw Clarke push her way through the crowd towards the guard.
"Stop! The air could be toxic!" Skylar jumped down off the ladder to allow the brunette girl to follow her.
"If it's toxic we're all dead anyway." He turned to pull the lever next to the door, Clarke stepping forward to protest.
"Bellamy?" Everyone turned to look at Skylar or, more specifically, Skylar's friend. She was looking at the guard like he was some sort of spectre, almost not daring to believe that he was real. A quick look at the guard showed he was feeling the same.
"O?" He practically gasped, his voice dripping with relief. 'O' rushed through the crowd to him and he wrapped his arms around her. He held her out at arms length, as if inspecting that she was okay. "My God, look how big you are."
"What are you wearing, a guard's uniform?" 'O' seemed unimpressed with his attire but the guard just smirked.
"I needed it to get on the drop ship," he explained, "Someone's got to keep an eye on you." It was a rather sweet moment, and Skylar wondered what kind of relationship they had.
"Where's your wristband?" Skylar had forgotten all about them but Clarke clearly hadn't. From the back of the crowd Skylar couldn't see, but it seemed like the guard - Bellamy - wasn't wearing one.
"Do you mind? I haven't seen my brother in a year." 'O' shot back at Clarke, clearly annoyed at her for breaking up the moment. Everyone started whispering about what 'O' had just said. Bellamy was her brother?
"No-one has a brother." Someone shouted. The Ark had enacted a one-child policy in order to keep the population low, and as with everything else on The Ark, breaking this law was punishable by floating.
"That's Octavia Blake, the girl they found hidden in the floor," someone else shouted. Even in solitary Skylar had heard the story of the girl kept under the floor for most of her life, but as with any story told in the skybox, the more its told, the more distorted it becomes. Skylar had learnt to just avoid the gossip.
Bellamy had to hold Octavia back from going after the girl who shouted; obviously her past was something of a sore spot for her. "Octavia, no! Let's give them something else to remember you by."
"Like what?"
"Like being the first person on the ground in 100 years." Something close to nervousness crept over Octavia's face as Bellamy pulled away, as if fearing she would lose him again. He smirked at her as he grabbed the lever and pulled it down, fresh air billowing around the door and light spilling in. Having grown up on the fluroscent light of The Ark, the amount of sunlight shining in practically blinded everyone, and some even recoiled in shock.
Octavia tentatively stepped forward onto the ramp, one foot in front of the other until she reached the edge. There was pure silence as everyone waited, just watching Octavia. Finally, with one final timid step forward, Octavia jumped onto the ground. The silence was deafening and everyone held their breath.
There was a pregnant pause, and then... "We're back, bitches!"
Well there we go, chapter one done and dusted! I always struggle with writing the beginning of stories, particularly when I have to follow the script for a bit, but I promise I will improve. Please review and let me know what you think, it would be much appreciated and would help me out a lot. Thank you for reading!
Miss Katie Jayne xx
Question of the chapter: Do you guys ship Bellarke?
