Chapter 1: Freefall

The paranoia had gotten to be too much for my parents. After Octavia Blake was placed into the Sky Box, I was no longer allowed to leave the Den unless there was some sort of emergency. Just the thought of being trapped in the tight space day and night, cramped and always cold, made my stomach churn. I wouldn't be allowed to go to school on Wednesdays anymore. My father had apologized to me profusely. "It's for the best, Elodie," he had murmured. "At least for now."

Eden mostly just seemed happy she could participate in the Wednesday plays, but she did bring my food into the Den every meal time, a guilty little smile on her lips. Our new routine was painful, especially for me, but it eased my parents' minds, it made Eden happy, and that was all that mattered, wasn't it? That was what I tried to tell myself, at least, until a week passed, and then another. My back ached from being shoved against the metal wall for so long, and my eyesight blurred dangerously since I had been reading by a lone sliver of light for hours. Finally, I couldn't take it any longer.

I pushed the metal slab off of the wall and toppled out into my parents' closet, my legs tangling in their threadbare wardrobe. My chest was heaving, and my tattered, long-sleeved blue shirt clung to me with icy sweat. Anger thrummed through my veins, as much a part of me as my actual blood. Never before had I disobeyed my parents like this. My father was working on an important surgery with Abby Griffin, and my mother was off gathering laundry to clean from our section of the Ark.

I climbed to my feet, the muscles in my legs protesting. I had to lean against the wall for a few moments, trying to ease my breathing and gather my bearings, and then I threw open the door of the closet and stumbled out. My parents' bedroom was tiny, shaped a bit like an egg. Everything was painted an unassuming beige color, and the furnishings were sparse. We weren't considered upper class members of the Ark, but we didn't exactly live in squallor, either. My father was a huge asset to the medical team, aiding Abby and Jackson in every way that he could. Though my mother's job was much further down the ranks, the Chambers family was well-respected and liked. Of course, no one knew our little secret...

I stretched and walked into the area that doubled as a living room and in the far corner, Eden's room. The house was empty, as far as I could tell, and the only noise was the humming of the Ark all around me. I sank down onto the couch and and massaged my temples, trying to control my hysteria. My sister would be home from school soon, and I had to beg her to let me trade her spots, even just for a day. I needed the freedom. I needed to see the Ark and not breathe such stagnant air. I needed to not feel trapped, discarded.

Before I knew it, I had drifted off to sleep, the exhaustion and longing weighing too heavily on me. I awoke to the front door sliding open with a hiss, the room no longer tightly airlocked. I groggily swiped my hand over the back of my eyes and glanced over at the door, fully expecting to see my sister. It wasn't my sister.

There was a boy standing in the doorway, his dark hair askew, pushed back by a huge pair of goggles. He had an angular face, fine boned with dark eyes and a full set of lips quirked up in a mischevious grin. His skinny frame was leaning against the open doorway, jittery in a way little kids were if they stayed up too long, and I could tell that he hadn't noticed me yet. I tried to sink down into the couch, wondering why the hell the boy was in my house. He looked proud of himself, wearing that grin, and it took me only half a moment to realize that he had broken in, somehow managing to disarm the built-in keypad on our door.

He was still leaning in the open doorway when he cupped his hand around his ear and whispered. "Yeah, Monty. I'm in. I passed the Chambers girl on the way here-she was heading the other direction. We're good to go."

I tried not to curse. I couldn't pretend to be Eden if he had already seen her walking the opposite way. And there was no way I could get up off the couch without drawing attention to myself. I was trapped. I tried to even out my breathing as I watched the boy shut the front door behind him and swagger to my parents room. I could hear him rummaging through drawers, and the finally, he gave a tiny exclamation of: "Yes! Got it, Monty! I knew the doctor's helper would bring some of his goods home. What? Yeah, I'm aware. I'm leaving soon, calm down. Just imagine Nygel's face...we can get so much off of these narcotics, 'cuz I'm pretty sure this is the good stuff..."

The boy trailed out of my parents' room, his thin frame hunched forward slightly. He was struggling to fit some clear vials into the small backpack that was hanging off of his shoulder, one hand fighting with the zipper of the bag, the other trying desperately to hold up his too-loose jeans. The white light above made his features stark, and I had a hard time gauging his age. Fifteen, maybe? He seemed younger than me, but already, he had opted for a life of crime. He planned on stealing drugs from our household, drugs that my father used to treat his patients. All the medical personnel were only allowed small doses at a time, anyway, and now this boy was taking what little my father had been allotted.

I wanted to stop him, but I couldn't move. Unfortunately, it seemed, it would have been better if I had just stayed in the Den, because a second later, the door opened with a familiar swish, and my sister walked into the room. Eden was dressed in dark jeans and a black, skin-hugging T-shirt, one of her favorites. Her dark hair was braided, unlike mine, which hung in loose and tangled waves around my shoulders. Her school bag fell to the floor with a thump when she saw the boy standing there, only a few inches away from the couch where I was crouched down. "Jasper?" she asked in disbelief, and it was odd that she knew this boy's name and I didn't. She normally told me everyone's name, that way, if they approached me, I could easily act as Eden. "Jasper Jordan? What in the hell-?"

Jasper was shaking now. He backed into the couch in his haste to move away from Eden, and he rammed into it so hard that I was sent crashing to the ground. My head slammed against the floor, and I blinked hard, trying to clear my vision as I scrambled backwards. Jasper, already startled, whirled around and took in the sight of me lying, disoriented, on the ground. His chest was heaving, and his brown eyes were wide with alarm. He looked from me, to Eden, and then back to me. "You," he choked, edging slowly away from the couch, from me. His back hit the wall. "There are two of you," he said breathlessly into the open air.

His acknowledgement of this sent fear careening through my system. I pulled myself up off of the ground, probably looking wild. And it was true, wasn't it? I was the untamed version of my sister.

Eden looked terrified. Our secret had been blown wide open, and we were all as good as dead. "You can't tell anyone," I rasped. "Please. Please, just think for a second. It's-Jasper, right? I haven't done anything wrong, and they'll lock me up, they'll..." I didn't get to finish, though, because the boy was running now, pushing past my sister to get out the door. He was gone before I could say another word.

"Elodie." I turned to look at Eden. Her eyes were narrowed. She looked tired and scared all at once, and the tilt of her lips was accusatory. "Why weren't you in the Den? Mom and Dad said-"

"I know what they said," I seethed, banging my fist against the couch. That shut her up quickly. "Believe me, Eden, I hang off their every word. But not now. Not now, okay?!" I wound my fingers through my hair and squeezed my eyes shut. "I was tired of sitting in there, surrounded by darkness. Everything hurt, and I was tired. I was tired of hiding, Eden."

My sister stormed toward me, her hands balled into fists. She was pissed. "Just because you were tired doesn't mean you get to ruin everything, Elodie! It's been this way for sixteen years, and then you slip up and in ten seconds, everything goes to hell!" She was an inch away from my face now, and everything shallow in her fell out of sight. She looked like an avenging angel. " God, why were you even born?!"

The words hit me hard, and I took a step back, gritting my teeth. Tears burned in the back of my eyes, but I wouldn't let them fall. I swallowed hard and forced a terrible smile onto my lips. "Nothing can be perfect, Eden. Not even your life, no matter how much you want it to be." Then I shoved past her and went back to the Den, letting the darkness settle on me like a second skin. I was waiting for the inevitable.

But it didn't come until two days later.

XxX

Some part of me had hoped that Jasper would look at our situation and have mercy, especially after he had stolen from us. My parents had agreed to not breathe a word of his theft if he kept his knowledge of my existence secret. But after two days of being on high alert, the pounding on the door finally came. In some ways, it was a relief. It was like someone had taken a weight off of my chest. There would be no more worrying, no more hiding, no more crawling into the Den.

My father opened the door slowly, and then guards were pouring into our home, one after the other. My mother was sitting on the couch crying, her face buried in her hands. I tilted my chin up and met the guard's eyes, silently daring them to be rough with me. Eden was cowering next to me, her arms wrapped around her torso like a security blanket. Some of the guards stared at us in wonder-they had never seen twins before, let alone two that couldn't be told apart. The others eyed us stoicly, their hands resting on the electric rods on their belts.

My mom and dad were placed in metal cuffs and lined up side by side with their faces pressed against the boring beige wall. "Moira and Zander Chambers," intoned one of the guards gravely, "you have broken one of the most important laws of the Ark." Her shaved head and obsidian eyes made her look incredibly unforgiving. "By harboring another child illegally, for stealing more rations for this child, and for deceiving the members of the Ark time and time again, you are hearby sentenced to Float tomorrow morning at dawn. You will say your goodbyes now."

Something broke inside of me, and I lunged forward and grabbed the woman's arm. "Please, you can't do this! We haven't done anything to anyone, please-!" The woman gave me a disgusted look and shook my hand off of her arm.

"Don't test me, girl. I'm not afraid to give you a little jolt." She grabbed the electricity rod at her side, making it crackle dangerously. I flinched, but I did not step back. "

Eden was strangely quiet. I glanced over at her, fully expecting her to scream and start crying, but she continued to look at the ground blankly. She must have been in shock. "I love you, both of you," my father panted as the guards dragged him off of the wall. He looked defeated. "My girls. My miracles." He leaned his forehead against mine for a moment, and for the first time in my life, I saw my father cry. "I didn't make a mistake, keeping you, Elodie. Remember that." His eyes searched mine, and as he leaned in to kiss my cheek, he breathed: "Keep fighting, my special girl."

The guard pulled him away a second later, before I could say a word, and then he was out of sight, being pulled down the hallway. I tried to burn the image of him in my mind as tears leaked down my cheeks. I didn't want to cry, but everything was so terrible. It wasn't fair, to punish our family. But fairness didn't matter to the Council and the Chancellor, did it? It was all about the law.

My mother was next. Her red curls clung to her cheeks with the tears she was shedding. She leaned her head awkwardly against Eden's shoulder, murmuring something indecipherable to her. The cuffs around her hands looked bizarre. My mother was a worker, a survivor, and even if she hadn't shown me much love, she had allowed me to live when my father had begged. That had to mean something. When she pulled away from Eden, bleary-eyed and breathing raggedly, I didn't expect her to even look at me. It was my arrogance, after all, that had sentenced them to float.

But something had broken in my mother, and all the resentment she had felt for me over the years seemed to drain out of her in an instant. "Oh, I am so, so sorry," she whispered to me. She strained against her cuffs briefly and then squeezed her eyes shut. "I would have been better, in another life. I know I would have been." She choked back a sob, biting her lip. I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around for the first time in years, and I held her tightly. "Goodbye, Elodie. May we meet again."

It was the first time she had ever said my name, and the realization only made me cry harder. The guards pried me off of my mother a second later and dragged her down the hallway behind my father. I was livid now, full of a pain so burning and intense that I couldn't contain it. One of the more familiar guards, a man known as Guard Commander Shumway, grabbed my hands and cuffed them behind my back before I could resist. "I can see why they kept this one locked up," he grunted to his companions. "She's wild."

The woman with the shaved head cuffed Eden a second later, but my sister barely blinked at the development. She was a dead girl walking.

They had to physically drag me from my house, and I went kicking and screaming all the way, even as one of the electrical rods was jammed against my ribcage. Eden was handled far more gently behind me, but she kept her head low, in either despair or embarrassment, I wasn't sure.

People were staring. Of that, I was very aware. I could feel everyone's stares burning holes into the back of my head, scalding my skin as I snarled and thrashed. It took two more shocks to push me into submission, and even then, I made them drag me like a rag doll for all to see. I was being locked up after years of already living in a cage. There was nothing fair about this, and I wasn't going to pretend that being a prisoner in the Sky Box was better than being a prisoner in my own home.

I caught whispers that floated toward me, broken and indistinct. 'Another illegal child?' and, 'That one looks like the other girl.' and, 'They're identical twins-that hasn't been seen in half a century, has it?' I kept my chin up and stared straight ahead as they pulled me along. The Sky Box awaited.

It wasn't that long of a journey. Over half the Ark was prison cells, no matter what they like to call it. Shumway pushed me down the hallway, past row after row of clear glass cell doors. Some of the delinquents peered out at me curiously. There was one little boy who looked no older than twelve that regarded me with solemn eyes as I passed. Shumway finally stopped in front of an empty cell and punched something into the keypad. The door immediately opened with a hiss, and before he could shove me inside and slam the door shut without a word, I craned my head around to try to see Eden. But she was already gone.

I let Shumway push me into the cell.

In the corner was a tiny cot covered with a sparse blanket, and a toilet was wedged beside it, trying its best to look inconspicuous. The walls and floor were a dull gray, the material looking strangely similiar to concrete. I let myself sink to my knees in the middle of the room, staring at the naked fluorescent lights above me, imagining that there was sunlight warming my skin.

I didn't want to sleep. In the morning, my parents would be Floated, and it would be my fault. In the morning, I wouldn't wake curled up in the Den, but in this unfamiliar place that wasn't made for me. In the morning, people would remember that Eden Chambers had a sister, an identical twin sister, at that, and they would whisper about me, saying my name like it was a dangerous word on their lips: Elodie Chambers.

In the morning, my mistake would come into the light fully, and I didn't know if I could take it.

I pulled my knees up to my chest and cradled my head on my legs, closing my eyes tiredly. Keep fighting, my special girl.

That was one thing I could do.

XxX

~11 months later~

I was asleep when they tried to kill me.

At least, I thought someone was trying to kill me. I had been cocooned in my blanket, completely unaware that anyone but me was in my cell until I felt a warm hand jerk my arm up.

I was immediately in motion, swinging up my other arm to defend myself, but my blow was completely intercepted by Nell. She was the same guard that had taken my parents away to be Floated nearly a year before, and she looked almost the same, except her shaved hair had been allowed to grow out into a mass of corkscrew curls. She was beautiful in a fierce, scary sort of way, like one of the poisonous flowers we had read about in our textbooks in school. Her brown skin had golden undertones, and she was taller than most men aboard the Ark, built of solid, graceful muscle. Her obsidian eyes regarded me with distaste.

Nell took her job very seriously, and I was normally her least favorite prisoner to deal with. Mostly, I think, because cooperation wasn't in my programming, and she lived for order. I didn't really blame her for using more force on me, because she was never cruel about it. Not like Thatcher. Nell was just cold, and cold I could deal with.

"You could have given me some warning," I grumbled, relaxing easily. "What, is it shower time? I'll just wait until tomorrow, I think..." I tried to lay back down, but Nell wasn't having any of it. She pulled my arm, hard, and I was forced to climb to my feet. Normally I was quiet with the guards, but something about Nell's always-silent demeanor inspired conversation.

"Face the wall, Prisoner 297."

I blinked. It took me a moment to realize that Nell wasn't the only one in the room. Two guards flanked the doorway, their uniforms pressed and clean. They didn't look like they belonged in this part of the Sky Box.

My eyebrows furrowed. "What's going on?"

Nell didn't answer my question. She simply held out a metal object in the palm of her hand. "Hold out your arm, girl. Make this easy on the both of us." Nell's voice was soft, and the deafening silence that followed nearly killed me. I took a step back.

"I don't-I don't turn eighteen until November. You can't Float me yet." I looked toward the guards, my stomach leaden with dread. "You can't Float me yet, I have a chance for review!" My spine was pressed up against the wall behind me now, and I was aware of the hysteria in my voice. This was illegal, surely.

Nell gave me an exasperated look that would have eased my nerves any other day. "Hold out your right arm, 297. For once, just do as you're asked."

I hesitated. Maybe I was condemning myself to a terrible fate, but I didn't really have much of a choice. I held out my arm reluctantly and Nell snapped the object onto my wrist, making me flinch slightly as the metal bracelet dug into my skin. Nell nodded to the two other guards by the door, and they approached me carefully, like I was a rabid animal. I was notorious for causing trouble when there was more than one guard involved, and it seemed like these two had gotten the memo. I glanced over my shoulder at Nell, who had her hands on her hips and was watching me with her hawk eyes, and then I took in all the papers taped to my walls, filled with obscure poetry that I had memorized, and some that I had written myself.

I offered both guards one of my arms, as though they were escorting me to a ball instead of my impending doom. They both eyed me warily, each linking one of their arms through my own. And then I was being led out of my cell into complete chaos.

There were tons of other delinquents around me, each being led by a guard, all being shuffled toward the lower levels of the Sky Box. I instantly began to panic. This was a mass culling, by the looks of it. It wasn't until a blonde girl wrecked into me from behind, nearly knocking me to the ground, that I really began to be afraid. The struggle freed me for half a second, long enough to realize that the frantic girl was Clarke Griffin, Abby's daughter. Her blue eyes were wild. I had no idea why she was among us, of all people. She was wrestled back by guards a moment after Nell caught my arm, steadying me, and I watched as Dr. Abigail Griffin herself pushed through the crowd of teenagers and guards, commanding her daughter to stop and listen.

"Clarke, you're not being executed," I heard Abby murmur, and relief pulled in my chest until she finished. "You're being sent to the ground, all 100 of you."

My eyes widened, and I felt Nell jam the electrical stick she carried against my spine. "Keep walking, 297," she muttered.

I tried to twist around. The sea of jostling teenagers was distracting, but my chest now felt hollow. I needed answers. "She's being serious, isn't she? You're not Floating us-you're sending us to Earth."

The disbelief in my voice was palpable.

Suddenly, I would rather be Floated. At least that was basically painless. Going to Earth, which had toxic air and toxic land-that was a worse death. A punishment made for real criminals.

"So they are trying to kill us," I whispered, standing my ground.

Nell prodded me in the back a little more forcefully this time, but I didn't budge. "Chambers," Nell warned, and I knew she was being completely serious now because my last name was involved. When it became clear to her that I wasn't going to move, Nell turned up the electricity as high as the law allowed and shoved the rod against my spine.

My nerves ignited, and every cell in my body screamed in protest. I fell to the ground, convulsing, and the prisoners that had been unlucky enough to be standing close to me scurried back in horror. My vision was tunneling when Nell scooped me up into her arms like I weighed nothing more than a small child, and the crowd parted around her when they saw what was happening. I blinked and blinked, each second dragging on torturously. I watched as one of the guards shot Clarke with a tranquilizer dart, and she fell to the ground limply a second later.

She didn't have the pleasure of watching the guards round us up like cattle and take us down to what they were referring to as the Dropship. I was still disoriented when Nell strapped me in, but I managed to get out two words, slurred though they were: "My sister...?"

Nell sighed, a deep, exhausted sigh that sounded like it physically pained her. Her grip on my shoulder was tight, and she met my eyes steadily. "Eden is aboard too. You all are getting a second chance."

I let my head loll to the side and tried to nod, but my mind was still fuzzy and everything was buzzing annoyingly. Time seemed to ebb and stretch as I watched the others around me be strapped into their harnesses. Most of them looked terrified. Some looked entralled. I felt sick, especially after the Dropship disengaged from the Ark and started to gather speed. Not long afterward, we hit Earth's atmosphere.

Everyone was jolted around, and I swallowed hard to try to keep the bile in the back of my throat.

A second later, a T.V. in the middle of the Dropship clicked on, revealing the face grave face of our Chancellor, Thelonious Jaha. I wanted to spit at just the sight of him. "Prisoners of The Ark," Jaha intoned, and everyone fell into a hushed silence. "You've been 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, indeed for mankind itself."

"What a load of bullshit," huffed someone next to me. I looked over to my left to see a tiny girl with a nearly white mane of hair glare up at the television screen. I silently agreed with her.

"We have no idea what is waiting for you down there," Jaha continued. "If the odds of survival were better, we would have sent others. Frankly, we're sending you because your crimes have made you expendable."

I gave a bitter laugh just as a boy a few feet away from me shouted: "Your dad is a dick, Wells!"

Sure enough, when I looked over to my far right, Wells Jaha was strapped down next to Clarke, his mouth set in a firm line. I blinked and blinked again. If Clarke being accused of something criminal was odd, the Chancellor's son being charged with a crime seemed insane. What kind of parent sent their own kid to die?

"Those crimes will be forgiven," Jaha promised. "Those records wiped clean."

"Oh, fuck you!" The little pixie girl beside me spat, practically wriggling in fury. "They've been cleared because we'll be dead soon!"

Jaha stared ahead and droned on. "The drop site has been chosen carefully. Before the last war, Mount Weather was a military base built within a mountain. It was to be stocked with enough non-perishable food to sustain up to 300 people for up to two years."

That peaked my interest. So if we didn't die of radiation poisoning, at least we knew we woouldn't starve to death.

My thoughts were interrupted when a body floated past me, propelling itself toward Clarke and Wells. It was an unfamiliar boy, close to my age, by the looks of it, with a mop of brown hair tucked into a beanie. He twisted in midair and several of the others hooted, obviously intrigued with his bravery. Or his stupidity.

"Spacewalk bandit strikes again!" someone yelled, and another kid laughed. "Go, Finn! Check it out."

I rolled my eyes. The idiot obviously was craving attention, otherwise he wouldn't have been stupid enough to take off his harness. The spacewalker, Finn, twisted in midair again and offered Clarke and Wells a smile. "Your dad Floated me, after all," Finn said to Wells, raising his eyebrows slightly.

Two more boys, Glen Dickson and Jericho Summers, who I recognized from school, followed Spacewalker Finn in his quest of idiocy and took off their harnesses as well. They did flips and cartwheels through the air, crooning for others to come and join them.

"You should strap in before the parachutes deploy," Wells suggested to Finn dryly.

The girl next to me mumbled curse after curse in a low, steady stream. I was surprised she hadn't run out of breath yet.

Clarke strained against her harness and narrowed her eyes at Glen and Jericho, who were now pretending to shoot each other. "Hey, you two, go back to your seats if you want to live."

The boys paid her no heed. I adjusted myself so my harness wasn't digging into my ribcage.

"Mount Weather is life," Jaha said, nearly wrapping up his speech. "You must locate those supplies immediately."

Finn, who had been hovering thoughtfully in front of Clarke and Wells, narrowed his eyes at the Griffin girl and stared at her appraisingly. "Hey, you're the traitor who's been in solitary for a year."

Clarke's mouth twisted in distaste, and I fought the urge to snort. The girl beside me didn't. "And you're the idiot who wasted a month of oxygen on an illegal space walk."

The pixie girl gave a tinkling laugh, something that didn't quite fit the language that had been coming out of her mouth a minute earlier. "Hey assholes,"she called, and everyone looked over in our direction briefly. "Take a seat, why don't ya? You can compare dick sizes when we land, m'kay?"

Several people laughed, and Jericho scowled and flipped Pixie Girl off.

It was only by sheer luck that I heard a panicked voice over the din. "My-something is wrong with my harness!" The words were shrill, and the voice was very familiar. My stomach sank to somewhere in my toes. It wasn't long before I saw her. Eden was floating, too, a desperate look in her eyes. She was thinner than I remembered her, all angles and skin and bones. A year hadd chamged the both of us. Her dark hair fanned out around her head as she moved. "I need an empty seat. My harness is broken. Is there an empty seat somewhere?"

My sister drifted closer, and it wasn't long before people began to examine her...and then look to me. We were infamous, after all. I had almost forgotten. Eden continued to look around for a free seat, but all of them seemed to be taken. Dread coursed through me as she pushed past Jericho and Glen, searching fruitlessly.

"Your one responsibility is to stay alive," Jaha finished, and then the T.V. screen went black. The Dropship was going faster, and at any moment, the parachutes would release.

"Stay in your seats!" Clarke called, gripping her harness to her tightly. My heart was pounding in my throat as I watched Eden struggle to get back to her damaged seat.

Without warning, the parachutes deployed, and Glen and Jericho, along with my sister, were sent flying toward the ceiling of the Dropship. "Eden!" I screamed, but the sound was forcibly ripped from my lungs when the Dropship gathered speed. Wells was shouting something to Clarke a few feet away, and the girl next to me was either whispering some sort of prayer or another elaborate curse, and I could barely breathe. The lights started to flicker, and then people were shouting all at once, panicked, as the Dropship collided with the ground a break-neck speed.

Hi guys! Yet another installment! Thank you all for the follows, the favorites, and the reviews. I'm always so thankful for the support and enthusiasm, and seeing that you already like Elodie is pretty fantastic. On a side note, I feel a little bad because I should be updating Severed Shadows before this, but inspiration for this fic hit today, so here we are. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please feel free to leave a review of what you like/dislike about the story so far. Thanks so much!

~Harley