"I feel the sun on my face. I see trees all around me, the scent of wildflowers on a breeze. It's so beautiful. In this moment, I'm not stranded in space. It's been ninety-seven years since a nuclear apocalypse killed everyone on Earth, leaving the planet simmering in radiation. Fortunately, there were survivors. Twelve nations had operational space stations 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 hundred years to become survivable again. Four more space-locked generations, and man can go home, back to the ground. The ground, that's the dream. This is reality."

"6347, 6348, 6349, 6350, 635-"

[Door opens]

[Four guards walk in]

Guard 1: "Prisoner thirty-seven drop to the ground, face the wall, and put your hands behind your back."

She dropped to the ground, faced the wall, and put her hands behind her back.

"What is the meaning of this? I'm not going to complain, but I still have 2 years and 13 days before my execution."

Guard 2: "I'm surprised you're not fighting back, they sent 2 extra guards so we can take you in. You 3 may go, I'll take care of her."

[The 3 guards leave]

"You didn't answer my question, that is quite rude. If you decide to not tell me what you are doing with me then I shall put up a fight."

Guard: "You and 99 other prisoners are being sent down to Earth to save oxygen for the rest of us and to see if Earth is survivable again."

The guard snaps a metal bracelet on her wrist.

Guard: "Please do not take this off when you get down to Earth, it takes your vitals and transmits it back here to the Ark."

"It hurts like a bitch, so on my 7th day at noon, I will take it off. If by some chance we lose communication that will let you know that I survived the radiation for at least a week and hopefully if communication did go down they'll be up by then."

Guard: "Thank you that should be sufficient enough and I would like to give these to you. I also put two bags, and fathers katana's in a compartment underneath your seat incase any of the others try anything."

The guard hands her their father's knife with a holster that their father made and a kunai pouch with kunai's in it. She put her father's knife on her left wrist and pulled her jacket sleeve over it and the kunai pouch on her left thigh.

"Thank you brother, I really appreciate it. Mebi oso na hit choda op nodotaim. Ai hod yu in. Leidon." (May we meet again. I love you. Goodbye.)

Guard: I will have to knock you out, but you'll wake up in about 5 minutes strapped into a dropship seat. Remember everything you were taught, if you survive the radiation, find water, food, and build shelter. Mebi oso na hit choda op nodotaim. Ai hod yu in. Gouthru klir." (Safe passage.)

The guard hits her on the side of the neck an catches her when she falls.

~~~ Exodus Ship ~~~

Willow Trikova P.O.V.

I wake up and look around to see I am in the dropship my brother talked about with the prisoners. I look out the window to see the Ark getting further and further away.

"I miss you already brother and I hope Earth is as beautiful as we dreamed it would be."

I look around at everyone and listen to see if they know anything I don't.

Wells: "Welcome back."

At the sight of Wells the girl next to him tries to lunge at him.

Clarke: "...You sonofabitch!"

A safety harness holds her back just like everyone else. I look around to see that all the delinquents are terrified.

Wells: "Look, I know that we broke up, but –" Before he could finish she interrupts him.

"Must have been a terrible break up for her to be pissy like that…or she could possibly just be a bitch."

Clarke: "Wells, why the hell are you here?!"

Wells: "When I found out they were sending the prisoners to the ground, I got myself arrested...I came for you."

"Awww, how sweet."

Clarke glares at him, with multiple levels of disbelief in her eyes, but before she can respond A girl across from them says.

Random Female: "Aww, the royal couple is fighting."

Everyone around starts to laugh, but it is cut short when the ship is suddenly jolted.

Gasps were heard from all around. I gripped the safety harness.

Clarke: "...What was that?"

Wells: "That...was the atmosphere."

"Smart boy."

I looked out the window is awe but, it gets cut short when an even bigger jolt occurred. As if triggered by the bumps, the video monitors around the cabin I saw earlier suddenly flash to life with a pre-recorded message:

[on video screen]

Chancellor Jaha: "Prisoners of the Ark, hear me now. You've been given a second chance."

"Really now? I sure would hope so."

Despite this group's almost universal resentment of authority, in this moment of terror, the appearance of the ultimate authority figure provides some with relief, but not for me.

"We are either going to survive this or not, him being there on the screen, is not going to help us in anyway."

Chancellor Jaha: "As your Chancellor, it is my hope that you see this as not just a chance for you, but for all of us. Indeed, for mankind itself..."

"Of course you do Jaha and you must not care or care an incredible amount for your son to do this for him."

I see Wells reacting differently seeing his father and his eyes brim with tears. Clarke looks over, but he refuses to meet her stare as she whispers something to him.

Random Male: "Your dad's a dick, Wells."

~~~ Outside the dropship ~~~

The dropship, like the Ark, has been cobbled together. Three levels stacked from largest to smallest. Pyramidal. Right now, it's in free-fall, sparks becoming flames as the heat shield meets the thickening atmosphere.

~~~ Inside the dropship ~~~

Chancellor Jaha: "You have just begun the descent into Earth's atmosphere. I won't lie. We have no idea what waits for you down there..."

"I wouldn't see how you would know, that pretty obvious."

Chancellor Jaha: "If the odds of survival were better, we would have sent others. Frankly, we're sending you because your crimes have made you...expendable. If, however, you do survive, then those crimes will be forgiven. Your records wiped clean. No execution upon your eighteenth birthday. No review. No probation. A second chance. This is not, however, a waiver against future crimes. While unsupervised, you will adhere to the laws of the Ark, or you will be punished under them. You have one job, ladies and gentlemen, one responsibility... Stay alive. Two months. That's how long it will take to be certain that it's safe for the rest of us to follow..."

"Of course I'm going to stay alive and that will be done best by staying by myself."

Just then, a severe jolt opens a storage compartment. A few rolled maps spill out, floating weightlessly overhead and I grab one incase I don't have one in the backpacks brother was talking about.

Chancellor Jaha: "In the meantime, some of you may be tempted to strike out on your own. Don't. Your drop site has been chosen carefully."

"I think I'll have a greater chance at surviving on my own Chancellor, everyone else will slow me down."

A face in the crowd gets my attention and his ruggedly handsome face lights up when he sees the floating maps.

Finn: "Oh, hell yes." With that, he draws a shiv from his boot and cuts the straps of his harness, floating out of his chair, loving it.

"Stupid boy, he's going to get himself hurt. I got mine because, I could reach it. Had I not been able to, I would've waited till we landed to get it."

Chancellor Jaha: "Before the Last War, Mount Weather was a military base built within a mountain in order to shelter the government of the United States..."

Finn launches himself, soaring enthusiastically through the air and the crowd cheers.

"Spacewalk Bandit strikes again!"

"Whoo!"

"Go, Finn!"

Two more boys follow his lead, cutting loose, then flying.

Chancellor Jaha: "...No one ever made it there. According to the archive, it was to be stocked with enough non-perishables to sustain three hundred people for up to two years. Because we could spare you no food, water, or medicine, you must immediately locate those supplies."

Finn drifts over to Wells, hovering above him...

Finn: "Check it out. Your dad floated me after all."

Laughter comes from the delinquents, but not Wells and Clarke, a slight smile.

"Wow, that boy is not only stupid, but a dick as well."

Chancellor Jaha: "I cannot stress this strongly enough... Mount Weather is life."

Clarke: "You should come down before the parachute deploys. All of you."

Chancellor Jaha: "It is from there, God willing, that the next age of man will begin... with you."

Finn turns his attention to Clarke. Because he ignores her warning, so do the other two now-somersaulting floaters.

Finn: "You're the traitor who's been in solitary for a year."

Chancellor Jaha: "Finally, I'm sure you're wondering about those wristbands..."

Clarke: "You're the idiot who wasted a month of oxygen on an illegal spacewalk."

Finn lowers almost to her lap, floating on his back...

Finn: "Yeah, but it was fun. I'm Finn."

Chancellor Jaha: "They are not punishment. They are a lifeline. They are how we will –"

That's when I feel the parachutes deploy. Sudden rapid deceleration ends the boys fun in an instant. The awful sound of metal tearing comes from all around the dropship. The video monitors go black and the floaters slam to the floor with bone-crushing force. The two boys who followed Finn are killed instantly, thankfully they only went through a brief moment of intense pain. Finn was near the floor when we crashed so he survived it.

Wells: "Clarke, stop! The harnesses won't release until we're on the ground!"

Clarke: "Finn! Are you okay?!"

He nods, shaken but unharmed from the looks of it. She points to the others.

Clarke: "Check on them!"

Finn is making his way across the unstable floor, but before he could reach the boys, an explosion comes from below. Another huge jolt and another collective of screams.

Wells: "It's okay! Just the heat shield popping off! Retro-rockets are next! Three seconds, two, one."

Nothing happens. Wells is suddenly terrified...and so was I.

"They should have fired by now."

As if reading my thoughts Wells says the same thing.

Wells: "... They should've fired by now."

As I listens, it dawns on everyone with a brain, that we might be dying a lot sooner than we thought.

Wells: "... Clarke, there's something I have to tell you…I'm sorry. All I did was ask my father a question. To this day, I have no idea how or why that got you and your father arrested."

She holds his stare and from the look in her eyes she can't believe he's doing this now.

Wells: "Please. I love you. I can't die knowing that you hate me."

Clarke: "They didn't arrest my father, Wells. They executed him...I do hate you."

"Hot damn that was a bit harsh, even if he's the cause, he thought he was helping. If anything you should hate Jaha for implementing the law and our ancestors for making us come up to space."

The rockets finally fire. It sounded like a volcanic roar. Again, bodies react to the sudden deceleration, but then flight begins to stabilize.

"Of course, as soon as I start to believe that I might actually make it, the worst of it begins. Shaking unlike any others that have come before. This isn't turbulence, I know it isn't, it's something else and I have no idea what is going on. Hundreds of individual collisions, but we are not yet on the ground. They could possibly trees, but we will find out when we finish crash landing. A few more terrifying seconds and...silence. Gradually, it becomes clear that we are actually on the ground."

Random Female: "... Listen. No machine hum."

Finally, and all at once, the harnesses release. Clarke starts instantly for the boys lying on the floor as, all around her, people are slowly rising.

"I will wait until this is mostly clear so nobody sees me getting my things."

I think as I stand and put the map in my back pocket for now.

Random Male: "The outer door's below! Let's go!"

Nearly to the motionless boys, Clarke hears that and whirls.

Clarke: "No! We can't just open the door!"

I see Clarke climb down and I can hear her pushing her way threw the crowd of people.

"I guess it's cleared out enough to get my things."

I crouch down and open the compartment underneath my seat to see everything my brother left me.

"Thank you again brother."

I gather my things starting with putting my katana's on my back (it's two swords in one sheath.) so I can't reach it and place the backpacks over them. I hear Clarke yell and decide to make way down with everyone else.

~~~ Lower Level ~~~

Clarke: "STOP!"

Everything stops. The young man turns. He seems to be six or seven years older then me. His shirt and pants are splattered with blood.

Clarke: "The air could be toxic!"

Bellamy watches Clarke force her way through the crowd.

Clarke: "You're hurt."

He turns back to the door to avoid her hand.

"Hmm, I wonder what happened to him."

Bellamy: "If the air's toxic, we're all dead anyway."

He grabs the lever again and yet Clarke still tries to stop him.

"I don't see why. I mean I agree with him, we would."

Octavia: "Bellamy?"

Bellamy turns to see Octavia frozen on the ladder. His face softens at the sight of her. Seeing that it's him, she jumps down and rushes toward him.

Bellamy: "... My God, look how big you are."

Octavia: (leaping into his arms) "What are you doing here?"

Bellamy: "Someone had to keep an eye on you."

It's a nice moment that Clarke has to ruin by noticing he doesn't have a wristband on.

Clarke: "Where's your wristband?"

Octavia: (openly hostile) "You mind? I haven't seen my brother in three years."

Random Male: "No one has a brother..."

Random Female: "Why do you think they locked her up?... That's Octavia Blake, the girl they found hidden in the floor."

"How rude, that was a wonderful moment and everyone has to ruin it by putting their opinions in. So what if almost nobody has a brother or sister, it doesn't mean you have to saw something about it."

Octavia's infamy, unlike Finn's, induces pity not admiration. Enraged, she recklessly lunges at the last person to speak, but Bellamy holds her back by the waist.

"I would have wanted to do the same thing."

Bellamy: "Octavia, no. Let's give 'em something else to remember you by."

Octavia: "Like what?!"

Bellamy: "Like being the first person on the ground in a hundred years."

With that, he finally throws the lever. Daylight streams in. The sight of trees. A breeze. It's the same in all of their faces. For a moment, no one can move. They just stand there gazing out in awe at...

Clarke: "... A forest."

The crowd surges, but Bellamy stands his ground, blocking the door as he gestures for his sister to lead the way. Octavia hesitates, but just for a moment, before seizing her chance to make history. Octavia steps out, looking around in wide-eyed amazement. Behind her, the others are waiting, mainly because Bellamy won't let anyone follow. The ship has come to rest in the middle of A prehistoric forest. Fallen trees are everywhere, many still smoldering. Taking in everything, Octavia milks her "one small step for man" moment for several long seconds, before finally thrusting out her arms and yells.

Octavia: "WE'RE BACK, BITCHES!"

It incites a mad rush from the ship. The stampede forces forward, but thankfully I'm further back. I wait for everyone before I make my way out. The feel of the sun on my skin. The scent of real air in their lungs. The sight of so much green. Already I sense something primal happening here.

"As much as I want to enjoy the view, I need to find out where I am and where the closest water is."

I pull out the map I had in my back pocket and look around to see I need to climb a tree to see what mountain I am on. When I get to the top I look around and I notice something.

"They dropped us on the wrong mountain. I guess it isn't bad for me since I planned on leaving them anyways."

I figured out we landed about twenty miles away from Mount Weather. I jumped down to the medium branches to listen to what everyone was saying, but not being seen.

Finn: "Why so serious, Princess?"

She looked surprised that someone was talking to her, she looks over, sees Finn already perched in a neighboring tree.

Finn: "It's not like we died in a fiery explosion."

She looks back out, back to the map...

Clarke: Tell that to the two boys who followed you out of their seats."

"Ow that's got to hurt and by the look on his face it probably did."

She points over to Mount Weather.

Clarke: "You see that peak over there?"

Finn: "Yeah."

Clarke: "Mount Weather. There's a radiation soaked forest between us and our next meal."

"Well at least she knows how to read a map, but I think if the radiation was going to hurt us, I think it would have already."

Clarke: "They dropped us on the wrong goddamn mountain."

Finn looks back out.

Finn: "Shit, A good view spoiled by the realization that they are well and truly fucked."

"As if she seems like the Negative Nelly kind of person. Oh shit, I just realized I listened in on a private conversation. "