Chapter 1: Landed
The light broke into the dropship, flooding the interior and momentarily blinding Ila. The fresh scent of forest air was overwhelming. The crowd of delinquents flooded out, rushing past - pushing and shoving - eager to see the new world. Earth. Once everyone had vacated the dropship, Ila grabbed a backpack that hung from the wall and stepped up, onto the released dropship door.
The sunlight that glittered through the canopy sprinkled bits of warmth onto Ila's skin. A breeze blew back her sandy colored hair as it caressed her skin with a gentleness Ila never knew existed. She looked down at the ground, only a foot from where she stood. She held in a deep breath and took the plunge. Her feet landed softly onto the Earth and she slowly looked back up, observing the forest around her…the freedom. She grinned brightly to herself, giving out half a chuckle before taking her first breath on Earth. She closed her eyes, opening up the palms of her hands to soak everything in before wildly opening her eyes again and taking off at a run through the trees. She raised her arms enough so that her fingertips brushed the bark of the trees with slight abrasion against her skin. The air whipped against her face, sounds blurred around her.
Her lungs felt tight as she slowed down. The sounds of the delinquents' shouts were distant now, but Ila blocked it out as she started playing music in her head. She dropped her backpack to the ground and closed her eyes once more.
Fifth position, releve' to sousou. Demi plie back down. Left foot ront de jambe back, now right foot. Tendu right foot back and arabesque. Back down to tendu, change to fourth position. Tiree' and pirouette. (Ballet…she's doing ballet)
Ila lost her footing half way through the turn and fell to the forest floor, laughing. She rolled herself onto her back and looked up at the underside of the treetops, smiling brightly. Insects floated and buzzed over her, birds flying overhead, chirping and singing with the song that continued to play in Ila's head.
"I made it, mom," Ila whispered, the smile slowly fading from her face, replaced with a gradually somber but thoughtful look.
Ila turned her head to the side and noticed a trail left behind – footprints. They were fading but still noticeable and a blood covered arrowhead from a broken arrow lay close-by. The blood had dried and sat in an area where plants had been patted down. Ila grabbed the arrowhead and stood up, grabbing her pack and throwing it over her right shoulder. She began to head back towards the dropship, nervously glancing over her shoulders to make sure no one had been watching her dance.
Once she neared the dropship site, her paranoia ceased, but she was confronted by three boys: Bellamy, Murphy and Mbege. They all eyed her suspiciously, led by Bellamy, who was the tallest and eldest of the boys.
"Where have you been?" Bellamy's words were sharp, cutting Ila out of her good mood.
"I'm sorry, last time I checked, I don't answer to you," Ila quipped, continuing, but shortly stopped by the other two boys who held up their hands to halt her.
"He asked you a question," one boy said with a smirk, his eyes cold and piercing.
"You're Murphy, right?"
"Yeah-"
"Shut up," Ila cut him off sharply, leaving him bitter with a disrespectful sneer, but retreated behind Bellamy with Mbege.
"You think you're tough because you beat up an officer?" Bellamy called for her attention again.
"I know I'm tough because I survived," Ila stood tall with these words. They were starting to gather an audience as delinquents moved in to see what all the fuss was about.
"I think it's time we teach her a lesson, Bellamy," Murphy stated, capturing Ila's even icier stare. Bellamy backed away, followed by Mbege to give them some space to duke it out.
"You have nothing that you could possibly teach me," Ila taunted. Her words made Murphy snap as he charged after her. He knocked her to the ground, smiling slyly.
"You have a lot to learn, though," Ila turned the tables on him, flipping him onto the ground underneath her, "Lesson one…"
The two fussed with each other's arms, Murphy trying to gain control, but Ila punched him in the jaw, brought him to a stand by the collar of his jacket, punched him again and tripped him so that he landed face first on the ground. The crowd that had built around them cheered.
"Learn how to pick your fights," Ila finished, playfully kicking his boot, "Lesson two…"
Ila approached Bellamy in the sidelines as he stood frowning with his arms crossed. Ila slammed her hand against his chest.
"We're not alone," Ila removed her hand and looked up at him with a furrowed brow. The bloodstained arrowhead fell into Bellamy's arms. He took it up between his fingertips, observing it. He looked back down at her in amazement and puzzlement.
"You're welcome," Ila murmured smugly.
Wells started for them upon this news, struggling to walk with his hurt ankle. He stared darkly at Murphy as he walked by. The crowd began to break up when Wells finally approached them.
"If we're not alone, we gotta let Clarke and the others know. They could run into trouble," Wells stated.
"And who's going to rescue them, you two? I don't think so."
Ila stormed off, searching around for supplies she could stuff in her backpack that may be useful. She took a large rectangular piece of dropship scrap metal and started to sharpen it.
"Are you going after them?" Wells wobbled his way over to her, plopping to the ground once beside her.
"If I'm going alone, I'm not going unarmed," Ila stated, continuing to sharpen her fore-arm-long blade.
"Well hurry up, they could get attacked at any moment," Wells urged her.
"Wells, I'd be no good to them dead. The grounders may not even be hostile," Ila continued to quicken her pace.
"They use arrows. I'd say they're hostile."
"Not if it's used for hunting. Please, just let me work on this, Wells," Ila stopped, taking a bit of ripped cloth from her backpack and wrapped it around the bottom of the unsharpened length of metal.
Wells shuffled uncomfortably next to her, attempting to scoot away a few inches with futility. Once the blade was good and sharp, Ila tightened up her backpack straps and shoved a few more bits of cloth and scrap metal into her bag along with her new blade. Murphy, however, noticed and started toward her, shoving her shoulder aside. She saw the blood smeared under his nose and his lip was busted open.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"After Clarke and the others, they need to be-"
"Bellamy has a point. You can't just go off on your own. It's not safe," Murphy folded his arms after swiping the rest of the blood from under his nose.
"Then come with me."
"Not a chance. Someone needs to help Bellamy keep order here."
"Yeah, because you're doing such a great job," Ila snapped back sarcastically, smirking at Murphy, "You and your boyfriend are delusional if you think you can keep me here."
Murphy snickered at her.
"Why follow his orders anyway? You his bitch?"
"Fuck you."
"You wish, cupcake," Ila smiled at how she irritated this punk.
Murphy spotted Mbege breaking bracelets off other delinquents' arms. Once he saw Bellamy take a couple girls into the dropship, he decided to sneak away.
"I'm out of here," Murphy ran off.
"Good riddance, asshole," Ila straightened out her backpack once more and headed into the woods after Clarke's group.
The night sky was already starting to overwhelm the forest air with darkness as Ila followed Clarke and her group's trail. The sound of the delinquents disappeared when Ila picked up another trail entirely. The footprints were large and clumsily covered to look as though they had been there a while. The distraction of the new prints caused Ila to lose Clarke's group's tracks…they had disappeared entirely.
"Damn," Ila murmured, swiping a hand at one of the fake prints, "What the hell am I tracking?"
Thirsty and exhausted, Ila headed back to the dropship where everyone was gathered around a fire as Murphy was prying off wristbands. Ila approached him.
"What are you doing?" Ila asked almost shyly.
"Freeing ourselves. Here," Murphy motioned for her to step closer, arm outstretched, palm opened and offering to take her wristband off.
"What?" Ila fumbled the word in disbelief.
"These wristbands keep us prisoners. You think they'll forgive you for your crimes?" Murphy beckoned her as he waved his hand for her to hand him the bracelet. She paused to consider, looking around at the crowd that waited for their turn. They sneered and chuckled at her.
"…No," Ila spat out determinately.
Bellamy stormed over towards Murphy after spotting Ila coming out of the woods.
"Murphy, what the hell?! I thought you said she didn't leave!" Bellamy pulled Murphy up by the collar of his jacket. Murphy kept his cool, straight face.
"Hey, she came back, didn't she?" he smiled.
"Not the point," Bellamy threw him back down, shoving Ila off to the side, signaling Mbege to watch over her.
Wells, no longer hobbling, confronted Bellamy as Mbege followed Ila around as she looked for a decent spot to set up camp. She sat down to construct herself a tent as she listened to the delinquents starting to chant: "Whatever the hell we want! Whatever the hell we want!"
At that moment, the sky opened up and poured rained upon the kids and their fire. Ila smiled briefly to herself while tying off a knot, but the smile quickly faded as the thought of her new found freedom wasn't quite free and she wasn't quite sure why. As her tent began to take shape, Bellamy casually strolled up to her, relieving Mgebe from his duty. He watched her as she struggled to get the branches tied together at the top.
"Where the hell did you go?"
"Why the hell do you care?"
"It could have been dangerous."
Ila finished tying off the top of her tent and turned toward Bellamy.
"Whatever the hell we want, right?"
"You wouldn't survive out there alone."
"Says you. You heard Murphy. I came back, didn't I?"
"Not. The. Point," Bellamy motioned for Mbege to join him as they began to follow Wells into the woods. Before Ila could go after them to protect Wells, Murphy grabbed her arms from behind.
"Don't," Murphy warned her, whispering into her ear.
"Don't touch me," Ila snarled through gritted teeth. She pushed herself back against him, causing him to fall under both her weight and the force. In the confusion, Murphy had let go and Ila ran off to go find Wells, but she was too late…they had already taken his bracelet off.
"Bastards," Ila murmured, running off to her tent in disappointment, kicking Murphy's boot as she passed him, winking at him playfully. He spat at her feet as she continued past.