Libby was playing checkers with her cousin, Jasper, in the common area when the guards marched in and started grabbing prisoners.
"Hey, wait!" Libby leapt to her feet when one of them grabbed Jasper. "None of us is eighteen! What are you doing?"
"Chancellor's orders," the guard said.
"Are you going to float us? What's happening?"
"Chancellor's orders."
"You said that." Another guard grabbed Libby from behind, and she tried to elbow him in the gut. "What's going on? Are you going to float all of us?"
"Hold out your right hand."
"Why? Ow!" Libby's right arm was wrenched from her side against her will, and another guard clapped a white bracelet around it. Needles on the bracelet's interior jabbed into Libby's skin. "What the hell?"
"Quiet."
Jasper, Libby, and the rest of the prisoners were frog-marched through the bowels of the Ark, through hallways that Libby didn't recognize.
Libby tried stepping on her captor's feet, but he was wearing heavy boots. Her arms were pinned behind her back, so she couldn't elbow him. She squirmed, but his grip was tight. She couldn't crane her neck around to bite him.
"Stop it," he said, twisting her wrist painfully.
The prisoners were taken through what appeared to be an airlock, into a large, round space lined with seats. Libby was shoved into one such seat and roughly belted in. Jasper was in the seat right beside her; that was something to be thankful for.
"You okay?" Jasper asked.
"Physically, more or less," Libby said.
The guards left the round room, which was filled with other teenaged prisoners, strapped into their seats.
"What the hell is this?"
"Are we all being floated?"
"This isn't legal!"
"Tell us what's going on!"
But the guards remained silent. The airlock doors shut, and the prisoners were left alone.
"Monty!" Jasper called for his best friend. "Monty, can you hear me?"
"Jasper!"
Libby craned her neck to the right, and saw Monty's familiar dark hair. "Monty, are you all right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine! I gotta pee, though. They caught me on my way to the bathroom."
Those who heard Monty's remark chuckled.
The other prisoners called out to friends, trading greetings, reassurances, and theories. Suddenly, the ship jolted sharply. Many people screamed.
Libby clutched Jasper's hand. "What the hell was that?"
"I think it was the atmosphere," said Jasper.
The wide screens of the wall crackled to life, and Chancellor Jaha's face filled the screen. There was a chorus of boos around the room.
"Prisoners of the Ark, hear me now," said Jaha. "You are being 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. We have no idea what you will face down there. If the odds of survival were better, we would've sent others. Candidly, your crimes have made you expendable."
"Your dad's a dick, Wells!" someone shouted.
"Those crimes will be forgiven," Chancellor Jaha said, " and your records wiped clean. We have carefully selected your drop site. Before the final war, Mount Weather was a military base built inside a mountain. It is supposedly stocked with enough non-perishable food to sustain three hundred people for two years."
"Go Finn!" someone shouted.
Libby craned her neck, and saw the infamous Finn "Spacewalker" Collins floating free through the cabin. She spotted her friend Octavia Blake across the room; Octavia was staring at Finn with an admiring grin on her face.
"Your one responsibility is to stay alive," said Chancellor Jaha, oblivious that the delinquents weren't paying attention to him. "We will monitor—"
There was a small explosion outside, and the ship lurched. The screens went black, and the lights in the dropship went out. Several people screamed, Libby included.
"Shouldn't we have parachutes?" shouted Libby.
"Probably! But this thing's a hundred years old, right?" Jasper hollered back.
Between the freefall and the fear, Libby felt nauseous.
Abruptly, the ship slammed to a halt.
"Parachutes deployed," Jasper said weakly.
Some of the lights came back on. There were screams of horror when the bodies on the floor became visible. One of them—Finn—struggled to sit up. He looked scared.
"Stay where you are!" someone shouted. "Wait until we land!"
Nobody moved, but fearful murmuring broke out.
After what seemed like hours, there was another jolt; the ship had landed. The lights flickered, and the sound of the ship's engines stopped.
"Weird," said Jasper. "No machine noises."
Libby fumbled at her seatbelt. "C'mon, let's go."
Everyone else was freeing themselves from their seats, too. A girl with light blond hair rushed to the two prone bodies on the floor.
"Hold my hand, so we don't get separated," Jasper said.
Libby rolled her eyes. "Where would I get lost?" She took his hand, though.
Monty appeared on Libby's other side, his eyes alight with excitement. "C'mon, guys! The ground awaits!"
There was a veritable mob trying to get down the ladder, so Libby, Jasper, and Monty were forced to wait a few minutes. Octavia descended the ladder just ahead of Libby. Halfway down, Octavia stopped, and Libby almost kicked her in the head.
"Move it, 'Tavia," Libby said, but Octavia was frozen, her eyes fixed on something Libby couldn't see.
"Bellamy?" Octavia jumped the rest of the way down the ladder and pushed through the crowd below. Libby made it to the floor just in time to see Octavia forcibly hug a guy in a guard's uniform.
People in the crowd were talking about them.
"That's Octavia Blake—the girl they found hidden in the floor!" someone said.
Others near the front of the crowd were apparently making less kind remarks, for Octavia whirled around.
"Do you mind? I haven't seen my brother in a year!" she snapped.
"Nobody has a brother!" someone called out.
Jasper and Monty joined Libby on the floor, and they tried to move toward the front of the ship.
"So that's the famous brother," Jasper murmured to Libby.
"Honestly, I expected him to look like Apollo, the way she talks about him," Libby said. Bellamy was good-looking, certainly, but Apollo the sun god would be bright and golden, not dark and grim-looking. Bellamy could be Hades, maybe.
Monty snorted.
Bellamy was talking in Octavia's ear. Slowly, Octavia's face broke into a wide grin. She nodded vigorously, and Bellamy returned her smile. He reached for a long lever on the wall.
"I guess that opens the door?" Libby said.
"Stop!" said an imperious voice.
Heads turned, and the blond girl from upstairs was pushing her way through the crowd. "Don't open the door. The air might be toxic."
"If the air's toxic, we're dead anyway," Bellamy said. He pulled the lever.
The door lowered slowly, like the drawbridge of a castle in one of the Ark's old books. Bright daylight lanced through the opening.
Cool, fresh air brushed Libby's face. It smelled like the inside of the greenhouse. She inhaled deeply. If she was going to die breathing this stuff, it wasn't such a bad way to die.
Octavia hesitantly stepped out onto the door-turned-ramp. The crowd behind her pressed forward; Libby was almost lifted off her feet by the crush. She couldn't see what was happening at the front. As her eyes adjusted to the light, she saw green. So much green.
Octavia's voice pierced the air, loud and jubilant: "We're back, bitches!"
The crowd surged forward. They poured down the ramp and into the bright day, whooping and leaping. Most of them had been confined to cells for a year or more; none of them had ever had so much space to move around in. It was intoxicating.
Libby was in serious danger of being trampled. Recalling something she'd read in a book, she stuck her elbows into the mass of human body and lifted her feet. Amazingly, it worked: the crowd carried her right along. Being short had its advantages.
When they reached the bottom of the ramp, Libby set her feet down again and staggered free. She gazed around in awe, mouth agape. It was beautiful, like the biggest greenhouse she could possibly imagine. So those were trees—tall and straight and laced with moss. Libby followed a trunk straight up with her eyes until her neck hurt. Oh, God, the sky was so blue!
Libby looked at the ground again, at the lush vegetation that surrounded her. Already her trained botanist's eye was at work, identifying genera and species based on books and what was grown on the Ark. Some of it would be useful.
Jasper and Monty crashed into her, cheering loudly. Jasper took one leg, Monty the other, and they hoisted Libby onto their shoulders.
"We're back, bitches!" the boys yelled, echoing Octavia's memorable salutation.
Libby shrieked, and grabbed at the boys' hair. "Put me down!"
They obliged, laughing.
"I imagine heights are terrifying for you, since you're so low to the ground all the time," Jasper said, ruffling Libby's hair.
She whacked his arm playfully.
"Where do you think the others are?" Monty scanned the crowd, which had become thin as people ran whooping into the woods. He was talking about their small circle of friends.
Jasper shrugged. "We'll find them."
"I think we should go back in the ship," Libby said.
"What, why? We've finally gotten out of a space station—why would we want to go back in?" Jasper asked.
"To scrounge whatever's useful from the ship," Libby said. "We literally have nothing, guys. No weapons, no food, no extra clothing, no bedding. We have to gut that ship if we're going to survive."
"When did you get so smart?" Jasper wanted to know.
"She's right," Monty said. "Let's go."
They turned back toward the ship. The blond girl and a tall black boy were standing right in front of the door, examining a piece of paper.
Curious, Libby walked right up to them. "Whatcha got there?"
"A map," said the blond.
"They got a bar in this town? I'll buy you a beer," Jasper quipped.
"Do you mind?" the black boy said sharply.
"Keep your hands off of him," Libby growled, lunging for the black boy. Monty grabbed her arm, holding her back.
"Relax," the black boy said. "We're just trying to figure out where we are."
"We're on the ground," said Bellamy Blake loudly from several feet away. "Isn't that enough for you?"
"You heard my dad," said the black boy—Wells Jaha. "We need to get to Mount Weather if we're going to survive."
"I'm done taking orders from your dad," said Bellamy. "You think you're in charge here, you and the Princess?"
"Do you think we care who's in charge?" The blond stepped forward. "We're not doing this because the Chancellor said so. It's because it's the right call. We'll starve to death if we don't get those supplies. We're looking at a twenty-mile walk to Mount Weather, so if we want to be there by dark, we have to move. Now."
"I have a better idea," said Bellamy. "Why don't you two go get it for us. Let the privileged to the work for a change."
There were shouts of agreement from the small crowd that had gathered around, curious about the noise and debate.
"You're not listening," Wells said. "We all need to go."
"Look at that," said a boy mockingly. "The Chancellor of Earth."
"You think that's funny?" said Wells.
The boy lunged for Wells and shoved him. Wells stumbled, and winced as his ankle twisted in a small hollow in the ground.
"Wells, don't," said the blond.
The crowd closed in, clearly eager for a fight.
Finn jumped down from the side of the ship, which he'd evidently climbed seeking a vantage point, and landed between Wells and his assailant. "Guy's only got one leg," Finn said. "Wait until it's a fair fight."
Finn and the guy stared each other down. Octavia broke the tension by stepping forward, a flirtatious smirk on her face.
"Hey, spacewalker. Rescue me next."
There was laughter, and a few catcalls, and the knot broke up.
"Are you okay?" the blond asked Wells.
"Yeah, Clarke, I'm fine." Wells stood on the ankle and winced. "Not one hundred percent, maybe, but I'll live."
"Well, you can't come along," said Clarke. "You can't walk."
"Not really," Wells admitted.
Finn approached their small circle. "So when do we leave for Mount Weather?"
"Right now," said Clarke.
"No way the two of you can carry food for a hundred," Libby said. She beckoned to Monty and Jasper. "Make it five."
"Great," said Finn. "Can we go now?"
Octavia jogged up to them. "I'm coming, too."
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Bellamy demanded, following Octavia.
"For a walk," Octavia said defiantly.
Clarke grabbed Finn's wrist. "Hey—were you trying to take this off?"
"Yeah, so?" Finn snatched his arm away. There were spots of blood on his wrist.
"So this wristband transmits your vitals to the Ark," Clarke said. "Take it off, and they'll think you're dead."
"Should we care?" Libby put in.
"I don't know," Clarke said with a hint of sarcasm. "Do you want the people you love to think you're dead? Do you want them to follow you down here? Because they won't if they think that we're dying."
"Point made," Finn said.
"Which way we headed?" Libby asked Clarke.
Clarke pointed. Monty and Jasper immediately took off, eagerly crashing through the undergrowth. Finn followed, grinning.
"Before the two of you get any ideas," said Octavia, "Finn is mine."
"Before you get any ideas," said Clarke, "I don't care."
Libby snorted.
