The Volunteer

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's Note: I've recently been hooked on 100 and this is basically an OC introduction and how he would influence the 100.

"Talking"

In the depths of space, in a glorified lifeboat, in a room that wasn't supposed to be occupied, a group of people gathered for inauspicious reasons. This group of people consisted of the lowest and yet highest on a self-imposed caste system. Men, women, boys and girls screamed in communion as they formed a circle around two brave lads who fought for the pride of their stations, the love of the people, and of course for currency or anything of equal value. In this circle were two teens on the cusp of manhood who circled each other bare chested and shoeless as to rule out any chance of foul play. One boy was taller and barrel chested and radiated a sense of confidence that comes from being bigger than anyone else since birth, this boy was named Christopher and he was a son of the Factory Station. His opponent seemed to be the opposite, the teen was lean but obviously fast and he danced on his feet to make up for his lack of height and muscle, this boy was named Drake Knight and he was an orphan.

Christopher made the opening move and threw a right jab which connected with Drake's face and Drake naturally took a few steps back and reevaluated his opponent as he wiped the blood from his now split lip. Christopher, despite his size closed the distance and let out a flurry of punches that would have cut down a man twice the size of Drake but Drake had experience and speed so he moved just enough to dodge a punch but not in exaggerated movements that would have tired him out.

A smart man would have placed a hefty wager on Christopher as he seemed to be running at peak efficiency and preformed like a champion race horse of old. A wise man; however, would have went all in on Drake as he met Christopher head on and seemed to just disappear every time Christopher threw a punch. After a full two minutes of throwing punches Christopher stepped away from his opponent sweating and panting as he kept his guard up and tried to catch his breath while Drake continued to move from one foot to the other.

"What now? Tired already? That's what happens when all you do is pull a wrench all day bolt jockey." Drake goaded and although Christopher was incredibly gifted in the physical department he was not equally gifted in temperament and he roared in frustration and swung with a reckless right hook and Drake seized the opportunity.

With almost contemptuous ease Drake grabbed Christopher's wrist and pulled him using his own momentum forward while simultaneously side stepping and punching with his own right hand. The blow was like running into a metal wall and Christopher fell down unconscious with blood dribbling out of his mouth. The fight was over and tomorrow Christopher would have an accident where a piece from the assembly line had somehow flown off the track and hit him in the jaw hard enough to break it.

The winners cheered, the losers grumbled, and money exchanged hands. Drake quickly pulled on his thin shirt and went to the bookie to collect his earnings from the fight. Sam "Four Fingered" Flint nodded and handed him a pouch full of food chips and Drake nodded in thanks. He didn't bother counting it as they had known each other for a long time and Drake had earned Sam quite a lot of money so trust between them was solid. One by one the crowd dispersed through the corridors of the forbidden section that ran throughout the whole length of the Ark. Drake had been exploring them since he was but a babe and was intricately familiar with the maze. It was this knowledge that allowed him to avoid the guards, the ones that could be bribed and especially the ones that couldn't.

Drake was thankful his frame had remained lithe and small as he climbed through the air vents. Within an hour he had reached his housing unit. With care he pulled the air grate out of the ceiling and lowered himself through the small opening before landing quietly on the metal table right below. Looking around to make sure he had woken no one he went on his tip toes and pulled the grate back to its original position. He climbed off the table and made sure that his movements had not moved it in the slightest before finally breathing a sigh of relief as he looked around the room filled with sleeping children.

These were the children who were orphaned through various methods, accidents which had led to the death of one or two parents, a particularly bad flu that had gone through the Ark a couple of years before, or perhaps worse because their parents were floated for crimes. Each child was schooled but only the ones that could work did and the specific one was Drake himself as the rest were below the age of 12. Drake was fifteen and was viewed as brainy but his loose clothes and general demeanor portrayed a kind, gentle, and overall classic "nerd" persona. Which suited him just fine as it took the suspicion off of him being in the underground fighting circuit and made the improbably into an impossibility. So Drake did the normal thing during the "Day" doing odd jobs around the Ark, making him well known in the engineering circuit and during the "Night" he would fight bare knuckled against whoever got him the biggest earnings.

Silently he stepped over the sleeping children and went to the donation plate where the kindness of others was usually overshadowed by their own needs which was fine. Drake understood that so he opened the pouch and emptied it into the donation plate leaving only three meal chips to get him through the next week. Finally with everything done he made his way to his own tiny corner of the room and laid down. The air was cold tonight but the fire from his lip and the pain in his hand kept him warm.

***The Next Day***

Clad in his usual day to day clothing Drake walked the halls of the Ark calmly. His destination laid not too far away which was proven as he turned the corner and saw the recreation hall. It was one of the rare locations where, like the name stated, recreational activities took place. One of which was his favorite past time, chess. The doors opened as he swiped his I.D and as he walked into the room his eyes found his friend sitting two tables away. With a smile Drake approached and sat across from him.

"I was worried you wouldn't show up today." Wells Jaha, son of the Chancellor, said with a smile.

"And miss the chance to beat you once again?" Drake said with a reciprocated smile which made his lip ache and so caused his smile to fall.

There was no more talk as they set the pieces up, white on Drake's side and black on Wells side. Wells and Drake had met during a class on Earth Survival Skills the year before. They quickly become close friends due to their equal passion in returning to Earth. A year was long enough so that Wells knew not to ask about the split lip or the angry purple bruises on his knuckles and so instead of that Wells focused on the game as Drake pushed a pawn forward.

The game was intense in the way a battle of minds could be. There were mistakes on both sides and each one pushed forward to capitalize only to realize that it was a feint as they were flanked. Eventually the battle of attrition finally ended with putting the final piece in its place.

"Check mate." He said respectfully as Wells sighed and held out his hand and Drake shook it.

"Good game. Oh! Clarke." Wells waved in greeting as his closest friend since childhood came over and sat heavily down next to Drake who moved over to give her some room on the bench.

"Hey Wells…Drake." Clarke said as an after-thought but Drake didn't mind as he carefully arranged the board for another round.

"What's up Clarke, you seem a little troubled." Wells said with concern as an upset expression appeared on her face.

"Nothing, just…" Claker looked at Drake pointedly and Drake made to move but was stopped as Wells put his hand on his wrist.

"You know Drake. He can keep a secret. Trust me." Wells vouched and Drake felt slightly surprised as Clarke nodded and gestured for him to sit back down.

"Alright, but this cannot leave this table. I overheard a conversation between my parents…the Ark's life support systems are dying. My father said it was a complete systems failure." Clarke let out a heavy sigh and both Drake and Wells could see how troubled Clarke felt.

"Can't we just fix it? Your dad is the chief engineer and he's pulled off miracles before." Wells said hopefully.

"No. Drake whispered and Clarke and Wells focused on him. "I've taken several classes from your father Clarke and the man is the most gifted engineer we have. If he says it can't be done it means he's tried everything that can be done." Drake finished as he stood up.

"You're not going to tell anyone are you? I heard my mom say that anyone trying to break the news will be floated." Clarke said worriedly.

"I promise I won't tell anyone." Drake said placating as he pulled away. "I have a class to go though. It may be the end of the world but just in case it isn't I'd like to make something of myself." Drake said with a smile and with a nod from both Wells and Clarke he exited the room.

Unknown to Clarke and Wells, Drake had already known the Ark was dying. He could feel it in every tremor in the air vents, he could hear it as he worked odd jobs in engineering, and he could see it in the children in the orphanage. The air was already bad but it had recently gotten worse and a few of the weaker children had begun to show symptoms of oxygen deprivation. He had hoped that someone would fix the problem in time but with Clarke's revelation he knew it was over and only one thing was left in his mind as he passed his classroom and continued through Alpha Station.

***Council Room***

"Councilors, we've been through this." Chancellor Jaha said wearily as he rubbed his eyes. "The simple fact is that this is not the usual break down of the life support. It is a total system failure. Our engineers are doing their best to fix it but their estimated repair time, if they can even repair it, is well beyond the oxygen we have left. We must begin talking about how we can buy time. Already we've begun to go half oxygen in different sections of the Ark in rotation and that's projected to save us an extra month." Chancellor Jaha finished leaving the floor open to anyone who wished to speak.

"Chancellor…I know this is a difficult if not morally questionable subject to bring up but if we begin to cull our population now we can easily save weeks of air at a time." Councilor Marcus Kane said carefully.

"That is not an option before we've exhausted all other courses of action." Chancellor Jaha said firmly and Marcus, as well as the other councilors, nodded in agreement.

"What if we-" Councilor Abby Griffin was interrupted as the doors to the room were opened and two guards and a single teenage boy walked in in handcuffs.

"What is the meaning of this? I've asked to not be disturbed unless it was a matter of the utmost importance." Chancellor Jaha said angrily and both guards lowered their heads in apology.

"Sorry sir, but you were the one who ordered us to bring in any civilian if they showed they had any knowledge of the current status of the Ark's life support systems." The more senior member of the guard explained and immediately the backs of everyone in the room stiffened.

"So you know?" Chancellor Jaha asked and the teen nodded as Jaha took in his features.

The boy was short and very skinny but other than that he was fairly nondescript as he wore well-worn clothes that covered his frame. His hair was cut short to his scalp and despite the cut on his lip he had relatively handsome features. His eyes though caught Jaha's attention as it shone steel grey and held a strong gaze as if they were looking into Jaha's very soul.

"Who is he?" Jaha asked as Abby began to pull up his file.

"Drake Knight. Age fifteen. Orphan. Showed moderate levels in engineering and is the same in other classes except Earth related skills where he rates in expert levels." Abby read off her screen before looking back up at Drake who stared unflinchingly at the council members.

"So now we know who you are. Now tell us where you came across this information." Jaha demanded.

"I came across it myself Chancellor as I was exploring the forbidden sections of the Ark." Drake readily admitted and Kane's mouth formed into a thin line.

"Adding more crimes onto your one?" Kane asked.

"What's one more crime when the sentence for knowing what I know is life in a sky box and death if I ever attempted to reveal it?" Drake asked and Kane seethed silently as he stared at the teenager.

"Enough. We have what we need. Guards take him to the Skybox and hold him in solitary." Chancellor Jaha ordered and the guards began to move him back toward the doors.

"I know what you plan to do." Drake said over his shoulder.

"Stop!" Jaha ordered and the guards paused. "Bring him back." Jaha said cautiously and the guards dutifully followed his command as they came back to the center of the room and after a brief pause Chancellor Jaha sat back and sighed.

"So tell us what we plan to do." Jaha raised his hand to stop the others from protesting. "Go ahead." He gestured before sitting back.

"You're already attempting to fix the life support but the life expectancy of the people on the Ark won't last that long. So you'll try to extend it by limiting air to certain sections of the Ark, possibly in rotation so that nobody becomes too suspicious of why the air quality is so poor. Naturally that won't be enough so you'll stop all unnecessary physical activity and sure that'll save a few weeks' worth of oxygen but we both know we need months. So you'll try every oxygen saving idea until it eventually comes time to cull the population. You'll start with the expendables first. You'll cut the skybox's air when they're all asleep and claim that there was a malfunction in the life support system to that area. A tragic yet unavoidable accident. They'll be the first and as the air begins to get even worse the weak will die. The old, young, and the sick. Hopefully when you reach the estimated time for the life support systems to be fixed you'll all be alive to see it, that is, if the rioters don't get to you and float you all." Drake finished and each member of the council found it hard to swallow and even a few were sweating from the accuracy of Drake's predications.

"So…what do you propose?" Jaha asked much to the surprise of the other Council members.

"Jaha! You can't be serious! Why are we even listening to this boy?!" Kane exclaimed.

"Because he seems to be the only one not afraid." Jaha said simply and Marcus made to protest but instead he opened his mouth and nothing came out, slowly he pulled back and rested his hands resignedly on the table.

"I have a proposition. Send me to Earth." Drake proclaimed and the entire room went quiet, even Abby Griffin's ever moving stylus paused in midair.

"What?" Jaha asked with a confused look on his face.

"Send me to Earth with a radio. If it's habitable I'll radio back in and we can begin to recolonize the Earth." Drake explained.

"You're basically asking a suicide by Earth." Abby stated.

"I'm asking for a chance to live. I'm asking you to spare lives. If Earth is habitable we no longer need to stay on the Ark. We can go home." Drake defended.

"No. We've listened enough to this." Kane said shaking his head but Jaha just tilted his head curiously.

"Say we agreed to send you. We have nothing for a safe trip for a single passenger." Jaha stated and Drake shook his head.

"That's where you are wrong. Since I learned of the system failure I began to look for a way for myself and the orphans to get to Earth. I've combed through megabytes of data and found in the original manifests of the twelfth space station a recovered single man dropship from the thirteenth space station after its destruction. Of course it was misplaced and eventually forgotten but I've been combing the forbidden sections of the Ark and managed to find it. I was able to do some repairs on my own but I've hit a roadblock and eventually scrapped the plan but if I had someone like the Chief Engineer helping me, the Drop Ship should be capable of getting me to the ground alive." Drake explained and the councilors looked back at Jaha to see how he was handling the proposal.

"What made you come forth now? Why not when you first found out?" Jaha asked and Drake smirked.

"I had to wait for you to become desperate. If you weren't you would never have been opened to this and I'd be placed in the Skybox anyway. I had a chance and I took it." Drake said honestly.

"Abby." Jaha said getting Abby's attention. "Call your husband and tell him to report to the council chambers." He ordered and Abby nodded as she stood up and went to the nearest intercom.

"You're are a brave boy Drake Knight." Jaha said honestly as Abby walked back in.

"He'll be here shortly." Abby declared as she sat back at the table.

"Guards remove his handcuffs and guard the doors please." Jaha requested and the guards did as they were told before walking out of the room just in time for Jake Griffin to arrive.

"What's this about? I got five minutes before I have to get back to the-Drake, what are you doing here?" Jake asked.

"He's the reason you're here Jake." Jaha announced and Jake looked at the teenager confused.

"It seems Drake has come to understand our situation and offered a solution to our problems and we need your expertise in making it happen." Jaha said before summarizing the proposal Drake had given them just a few minutes before leaving Jake shaking his head.

"Even if we get the ship working are we really thinking of sending him? He's just a kid." Jake exclaimed in disbelief.

"A kid who knows a very dangerous secret, a kid who will be the first to die in the culling. He's volunteered to take this risk because he knows he's expendable." Kane supplied and Drake nodded.

"Wait-Culling!? I thought we weren't going to do that unless we absolutely had too." Jake said angrily.

"We haven't decided on it yet Jake but, as the council we must keep it as a possibility. At least this way he has a chance…we might all have a chance." Abby said soothingly.

"This-we-we don't even know if the Drop Ship will work." Jake stalled.

"But we do know that we won't live to see the system repaired. We have little over half a year left." Jaha said definitively. "I'm ordering you to get that ship repaired and ready to drop in three days." Jaha ordered and Jake's mouth nearly fell open.

"Three days! You want me to get a heap of junk ready for reentry in three days?" Jake asked dumbstruck.

"It's a ridiculously generous amount of time. You were the one pressuring us to find another way and we've given it to you. Now will you accept this project or not?" Jaha asked and Jake silently nodded.

"Good. Drake, show Chief Engineer Jake where the drop pod is. I want you to start work ASAP." Jaha ordered.

"I'll be sending one of my guards with them." Kane said and Jaha nodded in agreement.

With that, a path was set and Jake and Drake went to walk it.

***Three Days Later***

Drake looked at the drop pod and sighed. This was it. His stomach rolled as he finished the painting he had worked on since the start of this morning. The door opened and he turned to see Jake, Abby and Jaha walking in with two guards.

"Drake." Jake said in simple greeting as all five new arrivals came to a halt in front of him.

"Vanguard?" Jaha asked as he read the newly painted name on the drop ship with a chuckle. "Surprisingly appropriate." He said simply.

"Chancellor." Drake said respectfully.

"Jake informed me of the readiness of the dropship last night." Jaha said as he gave it a once over.

"It's ready sir." Drake said firmly.

"The question is are you?" Jaha asked and Drake nodded once more. "I believe you." Jaha said.

"We don't have time to wait. We've managed to secure a drop window that was relatively nearby for where we wanted you to land. There's a nuclear bunker in Mt. Weather and it was said to have enough supplies to last a group of three hundred for two years. The only thing we can do now is get you as close to it as possible." Jaha said wearily.

"How close?" Drake said as a pit of dread filled his stomach.

"About two hundred miles of the target." Jake said grimly and a sense of dread filled the room.

"A lot can happen in two feet. Two hundred miles?" Drake questioned as he rubbed the back of his head.

"We understand that it's a lot further than our previous estimates so now comes the time to decide. Do you still want to drop or do you want to go to the Skybox and wait again for the drop window?" Jaha asked and Drake frowned.

"That's not an option. We-I need to go now. I drop today." Drake said with a determined look on his face.

"We had this prepared in case. It's not much but it will serve you well. It will not only send your vitals back to the Ark but it also serves as a Geiger counter." Abby said as she walked closer to him and opened a bulky looking wristband with needles extending around the inside.

"This is going to hurt isn't it?" Drake asked as he offered his left arm to Abby who nodded slowly.

"If I had time I could make it smaller and more streamlined but…it was a rush job." Abby apologized as she clamped down on his wrist causing Drake to hiss in pain.

"Thanks." Drake said as the sharp pain faded into a dull throb.

"The ship is loaded with what we could spare and we have supplies to last you the journey. You have a month to get to Mt. Weather. However, the radio you requested will not be given. We simply do not have the resources to spare." Jaha said as he took a backpack from the guard behind him and handed it to Drake who took it solemnly. "Good luck Drake." Jaha said as he extending his hand and Drake shook it.

"Just do right by me and make sure the orphans are taken care of." Drake said and Jaha nodded.

"Take care down there Drake." Jake said as he shook Drake's hand.

"Here's to hoping I don't die the second I open the door." Drake joked and Jake did his best to smile at the very real possibility.

"We'll be monitoring you." Abby said simply and Drake nodded in thanks knowing Abby had no idea what else to say.

"Well…no time like the present." Drake said as he turned toward the dropship named Vanguard.

***Six Months Later***

Clarke sat in the middle of her cell and scratched out the image she saw in her mind. Her cell was filled with drawings of anything that would provide an escape. Most of her drawings consisted of the galaxy or landscapes she had seen in pictures of the Earth. Suddenly her cell door opened and two guards stepped into her cell and fear began to set in as she scrambled backwards.

Abby entered the prison once more and followed the familiar path toward solitary confinement. It was time to send the 100 to Earth. It was survivable at least for a time. It was more time than Clarke would have if she stayed here. Just as she reached her daughter's cell she saw a familiar streak of blonde rush out of an open cell door.

"Clarke! Stop!" She called out and her daughter turned to face her with panic clearly written on her face.

"Mom? Mom!" She cried out like a little girl as she reached out and Abby rushed up to hug her. "What's going on? What is this?" Clarke asked as she watched a guard grab a nearby teen boy and shove him away.

"They're killing us all aren't they?" Clarke said as she broke the embrace. "They're reducing population so that there's more time for the rest of you." She said her voice cracking in fear.

"Clarke. You are not being executed. You're being sent to the ground. All 100 of you." Abby explained and a look of disbelief fell on Clarke's face.

"What? But…it's not safe. No. No. We get reviewed at eighteen." Clarke denied.

"The rules have changed. This gives you a chance to live." Abby said reassuringly and paused before she continued. "Your instincts will be to take care of everybody first. Just like your father but be careful, I can't lose you. I love you so much." Abby whispered as she nodded and a nearby guard shot his tranquilizer gun at Clarke's back and she fell loosely into Abby's arms.

"Earth Clarke, you're going to Earth." Abby whispered as she watched Clarke's eyes close slowly. "If Drake is alive he'll find you." Abby whispered as her daughter's eyes closed shut.

Well that's the start of this story. I hope you've all enjoyed it.