13
Day One
What I wouldn't give to see the ground, Clarke thought as she looked out of the window of her cell at the world below. Her cell was different, it was the only cell in the so called sky box that was decorated. Her mother being on the council did not get her out of the space prison but it did mean that she got art supplies. The walls of her cell were covered in her drawings, mostly of Earth. She had been locked up for over a year and she was getting close to her eighteenth birthday. She was not ready to leave her mother and little brother behind.
Clarke Griffin was a citizen of the Ark, the last known survivors of the human race. When a nuclear apocalypse decimated the world ninety-seven years prior the only people to have survived were the ones that were in space. She and everyone on the Ark space station were descended from those people. Life on the Ark was hard but it was a way of life that they were all used to. She would have been happy living under the regime for the rest of her life had they not executed her father and locked her up.
She had not seen her mother or her brother since they had executed her father, Jake Griffin. Jake had been an environmental engineer, in charge of the life support system on the Ark. A year before he had found a fatal flaw in the system, proof that the station was dying. He wanted to report but his wife, Abby, disagreed. Clarke had found out and they were both planning to tell when her father was caught. On the Ark, all crimes were punishable by death, unless you were under the age of eighteen. When they were found out Jake was executed but Clarke, being only sixteen, was sent to lock up, referred to as the 'sky box'.
When she went away she had left behind her little brother Louis, who went by TJ. On the Ark, every couple was only allowed to have one child, so he was not her biological brother but he had been with them his entire life. His family had lived in the apartment next to their's and his mother had died in childbirth. Technically, his biological father still alive but he would not take care of him. the Griffins were allowed to take him in when he was only a month old and so he had never known any family but theirs.
Clarke twirled her long, light blonde hair in her fingers and thought about her family. She had gotten her sea blue eyes from her father but, as far as she knew, no one in their family had ever had light hair. Both of her parents were brunettes and her mother had brown eyes. She stood out among the people of the Ark, though not as much as her brother, who had very pale skin, a lot of freckles, glowing green eyes, and bright red hair. He was likely descended from the Irish people of Earth.
The door to her cell flew open and she was ordered against the wall before she could even figure out what was happening. They could not be executing her, she was still seventeen for another month. She was on the verge of a panic attack when they tried to take her father's watch from her. It was the only thing she had left of his. She pushed the guard but was only able to make it as far as the hallway when he mother's voice reached her, stopping the girl in her tracks.
"Clarke, stop," Dr. Abigail Griffin called, running to hold her daughter. It had been more than a year since they had seen each other and the embrace brought tears to both of their eyes. "Clarke, you're not being executed. You're being sent to the ground. All one hundred of you. Now, your brother is here. He'll tell you what happened when you land but, sweetheart, you have to take care of the both of you. Your instincts will tell you to take care of everyone, just like your father, but you two are the most important to me. I love you. Take care of TJ."
The blonde was about to object when she felt a needle pierce her neck, the fast acting sedative taking effect immediately. When her eyes fluttered back open it was obvious that she had been moved. Blinking and looking around rapidly, she found herself surrounded by old looking metal. This was no exactly a new phenomenon, as the Ark was made entirely of metal, but this seemed different somehow. She was strapped into a seat. She realized where she was, a drop ship.
Looking at everything around her she saw that she was not alone, many of the other prisoners from the sky box were on board. Her mother had said that her brother would be there but she could not see him. She did, however, see the smiling face of the boy that used to be her best friend/boyfriend, Wells Jaha.
"Welcome back," he said cheerfully. Wells was a handsome dark-skinned kid her age with an athletic body and short black hair, but kind, soulful brown eyes. She hated him. "Look-"
"Wells, why the hell are you here?" Clarke asked.
"I got myself arrested. I came for you."
He had that same lost puppy look that he always had around Clarke and it grated on her nerves. He had no right, in her mind, to try and make her love him. She had loved him once and he had betrayed her. When Well's father, Chancellor Thelonius Jaha, began talking on the ship's screen, she tuned him out. He had executed, or 'floated', her father so she could not care less what he had to say. She only began paying attention when one of the other prisoners got out of his seat, a boy her age with curly brown hair sticking out of the end of his beanie.
"You're the traitor that's been in solitary for a year," the boy said, a smile on his face. God, she wanted to hit him.
"And you're the idiot that wasted a month of oxygen on an illegal space-walk," she fired back, tone uncaring.
"But it was fun. I'm Finn."
The blonde could not help but roll her eyes before continuing her examination of the ship that they were in. she thought that there were several levels and that caused her to breathe easier, as it meant that her brother could be on a different level. She urged everyone to stay where they were as the ship landed but her warning went unheeded by two boys who decided to follow Finn out of their seats. All three were smashed up against the side of the ship when it broke through Earth's atmosphere. She began panicking then. What if they all died and she never got to see TJ again? Her brother would only be ten years old now, she could not let him die alone.
She raced out of her seat to check on the others but when she realized the two who had followed Finn were dead she raced down the ladder. She was terrified of what would happen when they opened up the doors to the outside. It might kill them all. She called out to an older, brown haired boy in a guard's uniform, "Stop, the air could be toxic!"
"If the air is toxic, we're all dead anyways," he smiled sarcastically. He had olive skin, brown eyes, and seemed to be too old, as he was at least twenty.
"Bellamy?" a girl's voice called from the back. People moved out of the way to let her come through, looking strikingly like the boy. She had the same brown hair and olive skin, though with green eyes. She threw her arms around and that is when Clarke understood who she was, Octavia Blake. Her mother had been executed almost a year ago for the crime of having a second child, her.
The words "I haven't seen my brother in a year" that Octavia said resonated with the blonde and she looked around for her own brother. She had no luck though, as even if he was there, she could not see him. She rationalized that it was highly likely that that was simply because he was much smaller than all of the others and that she would find him once they got outside.
When the door flew open and the light streamed through they took a collective gasp as one, breathing in the sweetness of the air. It was like nothing they had ever experienced. There was light and color everywhere and the day was soon disturbed by the running and screaming of the, now former, prisoners as they left the ship. She was so focused on the world around her that she never noticed the boy running towards her until he had her pinned to the ground.
It was no secret that Louis Thomas Jacob Griffin had missed his sister. She had been with him his whole life and the year without her had been torture. In the sky box they were only allowed contact with people in their same sections, so he only interacted with the few people in lock up that were under the age of fourteen. He buried his head in her blonde hair and reveled in the feeling of her arms coming up to surround him. He was home.
"I've missed you so much," Clarke cried, tears in her voice.
There was a few more minutes of hugging and crying before the siblings finally stood up, brushing off their clothes. Clarke moved them off to the side and, with one arm around her brother's shoulders, took out a map and began reading it. It was not long before she realized that the Ark, in all of their infinite wisdom, had dropped them on the wrong mountain. She pulled TJ close, kissed his hair, and tried to ignore Finn's attempts to hit on her. When Wells tried to get too close her brother intervened.
"Go away, traitor," the boy spat with as much malice as a ten year could manage. He knew what had happened, he had been there when his sister had told her then boyfriend what their father was planning. He had gotten their father killed.
"I'm just trying to help, TJ," the dark-skinned boy pleaded.
"Go help somewhere else."
"Look, the communication system is dead. I went to the roof and a dozen panels are missing. Heat fried the wires."
"Cool, a map," another boy swaggered up behind them, causing all three to turn. He was lanky and nerdy looking with a pointed face, messy brown hair, brown eyes, pale skin, and, most notably, a pair of goggles perched on top of his head. "Is there a bar in this town? I'll buy you a beer."
"Do you mind?"
Wells began to push the boy away when another, rougher group of boys approached. They were led by a pale skinned brunette boy that appeared to have an insane look permanently fixed on his face. He spoke up, getting in between the two boys, "He's with us."
"Relax, we're just trying to figure out where we are."
"I'll tell you where we are, we're on the ground. That not good enough for you?" Bellamy called from a few yards away, his sister Octavia at his side.
Clarke sighed at the arguing going on between the others but did her best to urge the others to go look for supplies. She would not be the reason that her little brother starved. When Wells and the insane looking boy began fighting she pushed TJ back and allowed Finn to intervene. She would protect her brother first before she did anything else. She saw to her ex boyfriend's ankle and then took off, leading a party to go get food that included her, TJ, Finn, Octavia, the goggle boy, and his friend. She did not want to take the young boy with them but she was not going to leave him alone in a camp full of criminals.
"My name's Jasper," the google kid said as they walked, offering his hand and a smile to the youngest of their party. "What's yours?"
"Everyone calls me TJ," the redhead said in a small voice. He looked to Jasper's friend, a boy of Asian descent, with a degree of uncertainty.
"Don't worry, this is Monty."
Clarke smiled as the two friends started a conversation with her brother about their favorite books. She could tell that she was going to like the two just by the way that they treated her brother like an actual person, rather than a child. She tried not to think less of them when she found out that they had been arrested for stealing herbs on the Ark. She was sure that they had not used them for innocent means.
"How'd you get arrested, TJ?" Finn asked.
Looking forward to make sure that Clarke could not hear him, he responded, "They executed my dad and arrested my sister. As they were taking her away, well, I tried to get to her. I may have, possibly, hit a guard.
"That's hardcore, kid," Jasper laughed. "What about you, Octavia? What'd they get you for?"
"Being born," the brunette girl mumbled, stomping off. TJ looked mildly confused and scampered off after her. When he caught up to her, she had resumed a regular pace that he was much better suited to keep up with. She looked over at him and sighed deeply. "How'd your parents get away with it?"
"What do you mean?" the boy asked.
"You're their second kid, right?"
"I mean, kind of, but I'm adopted. I'm sorry about what happened to your mom."
"I'm sorry about what happened to your dad. I'm Octavia, by the way."
"TJ, it's nice to meet you."
They rejoined the others and they all went ahead. Some ways on Clarke stopped everyone and pulled her brother to crouch down beside her, trusting the others to follow. She shushed them and pointed. Off, a little ways from them, stood the first animal that any of them had ever actually seen, a deer. It was beautiful, grazing on grass in the middle of a meadow, and it struck something in all of the children. They were truly on the ground. This magic was shattered by TJ's shriek of surprise when it turned to reveal two heads. His sister held him to her until his breathing returned to normal and they continued their journey.
For people who had never seen anything but the metal world that they grew up in, the world that they suddenly found themselves in was extremely strange. There were so many sounds and sights to see that it was hard for them to take it all in. it was like seeing color for the first time, they had no idea what they should have been focusing on. Still, the bonde urged them all on, saying that they would have time to sight see when they were not in danger of starvation.
"You know what I'd like to know," Finn started, eliciting an eye roll from Clarke. "Why now? Why send us down here after ninety seven years? What changed?"
"Who cares? I'm just glad they did," said Octavia. She hopped over a log and grabbed onto a slim tree, circling around it. "I woke up rotting in a cell, and now I'm spinning in a forest."
"Maybe they found some kind of satellite," Monty offered. "Like an old weather satellite or-"
Clarke huffed and realized that there was no use in keeping it to herself, interrupting him and saying, "It wasn't a satellite. The Ark is dying. At the current population level, there's roughly three months of life support, maybe four now that we're gone."
"So, that was the secret they lock you up to keep?" Finn asked, coming up alongside the blonde. "Why they kept you in solitary, arrested your brother, and floated your old man?"
"Dad discovered the flaw," TJ said quietly, holding on to his sister's hand. Clarke, not wanting him to have to tell it, went on, "He thought that the people had a right to know. The council disagreed, our mother disagreed. They were afraid it would cause a panic. We were gonna go through with it anyways when Wells… Anyway, the guard showed up before we could. That's why today, that's why it was worth the risk. Even if we all died, at least they'd bought themselves a little more time."
She looked down at her little brother and saw the pain in his face. Their father had been his favorite person in the world and she had not truly known until that moment how hard his death had been on the boy. She hugged him to her and kissed his forehead as they kept walking. She promised herself that they would have a long talk once they found the supplies that they needed.
TJ's eyes lit up when he saw Octavia ahead of them undressing, though not for the reason that the other boys' were. He had never seen real water in such a size and he had certainly never been swimming. He was just behind the brunette girl in stripping down to his under and jumping into the water. He was worried, as he could not swim, but the water was just high enough that he could stand and it come up to his shoulders. He laughed as Octavia splashed water on him playfully.
He looked up at the sound of his sister's shrieks and began walking the shore at her insistence. He and the brunette were moving as quickly as they could but, luckily for him, he was faster than the girl. He made it to land just as the serpent creature was grabbing his new friend and he screamed. His siter drug him up into her arms and he cried out for Octavia, wishing that he could save her. His heart stopped beating in the moments that she was under the water but he breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that his sister had a plan. After Clarke had distracted the creature, Jasper jumped in and saved her.
"Are you okay?" TJ asked, grabbing the brown haired girl's hand.
"Yeah, I'm fine, kid," Octavia smiled at him, and then at the boy that had saved her. "Thanks to Jasper."
Clarke had spent a lot of time at the clinic with her mother taking care of patients, and she learned early on that she had a talent for medicine, as did her brother. Neither were doctors but they both knew enough to keep them alive on the ground. The blonde ripped off a strip of Jasper's shirt and used it to bandage the wound that they serpent had left on Octavia's leg, not having anything sterile. She would have given anything for her mother's medical supplies but she understood that she was going to have to improvise on the ground.
Deciding that rest would be good for all of them, they found a, relatively, comfortable plot of ground and circled up, Finn volunteering to take the first watch. Clarke burrowed down and opened her arms, falling asleep with her little brother on her chest.