7/3/2015

7:34pm

The Fallen

Chapter 1:

Clarke held her face in her hands. Praying. She was descending to the earth, with a hundred others. No where to go, no place to hide. She was packed in that tin can like a sardine.

She was sweating, her pores weeping from the heat. Clarke just wiped her face on her sleeve.

She looked into her hands...her mother, her people had left them to die.

The people around her were barely into adulthood.

The colony that hung above the clouds was far from heaven. And everyone here were their prisoners.

Clarke gripped the seatbelt. Gravity gripped their shuttle, pulling them desperately closer to the ground. Clarke eyes panicked, her breath fast and quick. They should have been slowing down. Something blew. Smoke started to fill the cramped space. Fire. They were on fire. Falling in a blazing glory.

People were unbuckling their seats. Pounding their fists into the walls. Screaming. The flames spreading. Clarke just clutched to her seat.

"If you want to survive," She yelled, "hold on tight, or the fall will kill you, if the fire doesn't!"

But no one was listening. They just kept banging on those walls. Clarke covered her ears. She felt like she was in an oven.

For a moment, everything was still.

Then impact.

For a moment everything was black, as Clarke choked on the smoke. She gripped her ears, wincing, as she fumbled with her buckle. Her head pounding, as if she'd fallen into the pavement. Stumbling up, she quickly reached for her seat, steadying herself.

Everything was burning, but she heard a scream.

She stumbled blindly toward the screeching. She saw a girl with her leg caught under some shrapnel. Clarke grasped it, as it bit into her skin. Her hands stung, but she lifted. It raised, just enough for the girl to scramble away and Clarke let it drop. She helped the girl up, taking her arm over her shoulder, as they limped from the wreckage.

They couldn't see anyone. The smoke was so thick, that Clarke felt along the wall until they found an opening. It was tight, but they got through. Clarke saw bodies littering the ground...some less than whole.

The girl next to her breathed hard, turned to the side and vomited. Clarke held her hair out of the way. Clarke heard a someone yell, and looked up. A boy approached them, in a guards uniform. Clarke eyed him, on alert. Waiting.

"Octavia!" He rushed over.

He crouched next to her. Examining. His eyes missed nothing. There was a nasty piece of metal lodged in the girls leg. She vomited again, clinging to Clarke.

She looked up at him, immediately letting go of Clarke.

She clung to him, "Bellamy, they're dead! They're all dead!"

Bellamy held her, kissing her forehead. "You don't know that. There was a hundred of us. They can't all be gone. Octavia wait here, we'll search the ship."

Octavia was quick to retort, "Let me help."

"No," he said sternly, "You're hurt."

Clarke examined the wound, "He's right, you've got some metal in your leg, you should be fine for now, but one wrong move and it could be bad, very bad."

Bellamy paused, "How do you know?"

Clarke replied quickly, "My mother was a doctor, I learned stuff like that on the Ark, I thought it was cool. Never thought I'd have to actually use it."

Bellamy nodded, "Can you help me search?"

"Yes," was the simple answer.

Clarke rolled up her sleeves, limping to the people on the ground.

They didn't find anyone else, it was just them. They had made it to the ground, but at what cost? Everyone was dead. They had set up a fire for the night. Next to their dead friends...even though they had started to smell, rot polluting the air. But they couldn't bring themselves to bury them. It was too soon. Everything was too soon.

Clarke looked up to the clouds. It was like she dreamed...too bad it was a nightmare.

That night Clarke let herself cry. She pulled the jacket tightly to her body, watching the flames, it was like their people had never stopped screaming.

….

She stared at the bracelet on her wrist.

She wondered if it still worked, if her mother knew if she was still alive.

What was she meant to do now? The Earth was liveable, but the was here, alone. She balled her fists, maybe she should just tear it off, because even though she was on the ground...right now...she was as good as dead.

It was dawn, and the sunrise was so beautiful, it was overwhelming. The sky stretched on forever. No walls, no bars. There was only her and an endless world. She could go anywhere and it wouldn't matter. No more chains. She had often longed for the pull of the world on her shoulders. To feel the ground beneath her feet.

But she didn't think it would ever happen like this...

She was here, whilst her people floated on, watching down in longing for a life on the ground.

And all she wished was to back up there. Away from this death...and in her room, drawing the world she wanted, not the one she'd plumeted to.

Clarke looked to her companions.

They were still sleeping, holding one another. The wreckage was smoking, but still there. A suitable coffin for their shattered hopes.

It was then Clarke heard the horn. Her eyes widened. What was that?

A beast? An enemy?

She thought that they had been alone. They had to be. What humans could survive the wasteland that had befallen the earth after the Nuclear War?

It was then that she heard the galloping, more horns sounding.

Clarke picked up a branch, but she was still limping, sore all over.

Whatever was coming, she was going to lose, something she couldn't afford.

She saw them, shadowed figures, as they rode on their beasts...horses. She watched as they were surrounded.

Bellamy and Octavia woke. Bellamy stood, quickly. Fists at the ready, but his face fell as he twisted and turned. There was nowhere to run.

One rode forward. A young woman, with her head held high. She looked down on them, looking to the misshapen mess that surrounded them...and the bodies.

She stopped in front of Clarke, "Did you battle?"

Clarke tightened her grip on the branch, hold it steady, ready for anything. "No, we fell."

The woman nodded, her face wasn't giving anything away. "From the sky?"

"Yes,"Clarke replied. "We came down...and we're all that's left."

The woman had a calculating stared, "We would like to salvage what's left of your home. In return, we'll give your people their last rights, and a home, if you wish it."

Bellamy glared at her,"You'll take any means of survival from us and take our dead!"

Clarke silenced him, "They're offering us a way out! You really think we'd survive out here on our own? We're injured, hungry, and we don't know the first thing about this world. The earth has changed, they can show us how."

Bellamy just shook his head, kicking the ground in frustration. Octavia, tried sitting up, but she winced. She looked worse than yesterday. Her wound weeping, Bellamy looked down at her, she was getting worse.

He paused, looking to the woman, "If I agree, will you help her?"

The woman merely agreed, "We will as best as we can Skywalker."

He just nodded, "Okay, I'll join you."

The woman merely looked down to the girl holding the branch and smiled. The girl clung to the stick as though it would save her life. It was all she had, so she stood her ground. She had a warriors spirit and she could respect that.

"What about you Skywalker?" She questioned the fierce young woman.

Clarke just looked up at her and the surrounding warriors. She suddenly felt foolish and let the branch fall. "I'll agree to your terms, for now."

The woman nodded, smiling softly, "I'm Lexa, Commander of the Grounders."

Clarke nodded looked up at her, straightening her back, "I'm Clarke...just Clarke."