The end of the world as we know it

Everyone had all seen it coming and yet they had done nothing to stop it. However the final blow was dealt in the form of nuclear war and the fallout of this had been the world had no longer been habitable. So to ensure their survival every country has built spaceships able to house as much people as possible so they could all live in space. A few years later the countries has decided to come together and so merged and became what we know 97 years later as the ark. Where life was good, you were only allowed to have one child and any and all crimes were punishable by death and if you were younger than 18 then you were kept in prison until you were 18 then like every other criminal you would get floated out into space.

And this brings us to here, a prison cell or as I know it, my home for the past 7 years.

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"Rise and shine Elliott!" Someone shouts. I open my eyes and am met with the sight of chancellor Jaha, the leader of the ark, staring at me.

I groan as I rise from my bed. "What brings you here so early Jaha?" I ask as he takes a seat at the end of my bed. "For our daily chess game of course." I frowned as while it wasn't unusual for him to come here so we could play, it was usually much later on in the day as he had many duties to attend to and while he was clearly trying to hide it, he looked sad.

I repeat my question again, clearly not believing him waiting for a sincere answer. After a sigh he told me "I can't exactly explain why but this may be the last time we see each other." My frown deepens and I can't help but wonder why that is but I knew it was futile to ask as he clearly isn't able to tell me no matter how much it troubled him.

Not able to deal with how upset he appeared to be, I forced a smile and asked "are you prepared to lose to me old man?" It seemed to work as he began to laugh and argue that he wasn't really that old while setting up the chess board.

A few hours into playing there was a knock on the door and two armed guards entered the room. I stood up and allowed myself to be taken but not before saying goodbye to the chancellor.

As we left I saw that all the other juvenile offenders in lockup were also being forced to go somewhere. Then I felt a sharp pain in my neck and realised to late that I had been hit with a tranq.

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I awoke to find myself in a room with my fellow offenders strapped down with seatbelts and my right wrist feeling very odd which I realised was due to a metallic bracelet that someone had put on me. Taking note of my surroundings I saw that everyone seemed as immobile as I did. As I continued my observations I saw a boy who I recognised as the chancellors son, Wells from when he occasionally came and visited me with his father and a girl most likely Clarke, a girl he had asked advice about on many occasion, murmuring to each other and it was clear she was less than happy to see them.

I was brought out of my thoughts when the room began to shake and I came to the conclusion that we were in a spaceship which seemed to be heading somewhere, though most likely earth yet I couldn't understand why we would be sent there. Perhaps this had been a new form of punishing prisoners by making them fend for themselves?

Almost in response to my questions Jaha's face appeared on all the screens across the ship and then he began to tell us of the real reason we were here and what was really going on. As we were all criminals and therefore would be floated at 18 the powers that be had decided that we were expendable enough to be sent to the earth and see if it was habitable and if radiation was no longer a danger. Hence the metallic bracelet which monitored our life signs and reported it back to the ark, most likely so they knew whether it would be safe down here.

"Fuck." I couldn't help but whisper to myself. So this was what the old man had been talking about, he couldn't control himself as he began to laugh almost insanely. After being resigned to the idea of dying from the age of 10, he wasn't prepared for the idea of being free down on earth. Though he wasn't very religious he muttered a silent thank you to whoever might've been listening and followed that with a silent promise. To live his life to the fullest and to never allow his freedom to be taken away from him ever again.

I realised that I had been in my head longer than I thought as when I began to pay attention to what was going on, I saw three guys had unbuckled themselves and were floating around while everyone else was cheering them on especially one of them who looked like your cliche pretty boy, who I assumed to be the Finn everyone was cheering.

Before I could call him out of his stupidity, the ship began to shake causing all three boys to drop and we began to descend quicker and sparks to fly around us. So I put both my hands up and began to cheer as we fell.

Once we stopped moving no one moved. "Do you hear that?" Someone out of his view asked "No machine hum" they finished.

Everyone began to unbuckle themselves, so I followed suit and began to make way to the entrance of the ship, sparing only a glance to the three idiots who had decided to have some fun mid flight, and saw that while Finn appeared to be alive his two accomplices were almost certainly dead. Idiots.

As I barged my way through the huge group of people to the entrance of the ship I saw a guy in guards uniform at the front and just as he was about to open the door someone shouted "Stop." I turned around to be met with the sight of Clarke making her way to the entrance. "The air could be toxic" she explained. I couldn't help but sigh in frustration at being so close to freedom yet being denied.

"Sure, but if the air was toxic wouldn't we all end up dying anyway" I countered as I leaned against the wall. That seemed to end the argument as she remained silent and I looked at the guard and nodded, waiting for him to open the door.

"Exactly" he said in agreement. Yet before he could open the door there was another interruption in the form of a question. "Bellamy?" Someone asked and from the way the guard reacted it was clear that he knew whoever asked him.

He turned to face the voice, prepared to give them a piece of his mind however as soon as he saw who it belonged to his words were stuck in his throat.

There making her way to the front of the ship was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, though that didn't exactly mean much considering the fact that he had been in prison since he had been 10. She had fair skin though somehow she also appeared slightly tan, luscious black hair yet it was her eyes that had managed to leave him speechless, beautiful brown eyes with flecks of green in there.

I couldn't help there feeling of jealousy that rose in me as she walked past me straight to the guard, however as soon as he heard him comment on how big she had gotten did he realise how much of an idiot he was being, as it seemed like they were siblings rather than in a relationship.

He didn't like this. It wasn't like him as he usually had a good control over his emotions even in the most extreme situations, as his father demonstrated.

I brought myself out of it as I heard someone in the sea open people shout out "No one has a brother" and I frowned as I realised it was possible she was here just because she was born.

"That's Octavia Blake, the girl they found hidden on the floor" someone else in the mass of people revealed. She must've been well known from how people began to look around and whisper to each other and it was clear from her face that she didn't appreciate whatever they could be saying.

"So what!" Someone shouted and everyone fell silent. It was only after my mouth began to open again that I realised that it was me who had shouted "I killed my own dad" I said as nonchalantly as possible and was met with a few gasps and stares. "From here we're not gonna be known for our crimes but as the first people on earth in almost a century"

I had not only done that to help Octavia though that was a big reason but also to hopefully make them all aware that we were all similar and would need each other. I turned back to Octavia and Bellamy and nodded once again to Bellamy to open the door. This seemed to knock him out his stupor as he opened the door. "Let's give them something else to remember you by" he said to her, however from her face it was clear she didn't understand. "Let's make you the first person on the ground in a hundred years"

With that the doors lowered and everyone seemed to unconsciously hold their breath until the doors were fully open. As Octavia made her way out of the ship I couldn't help but look around from the inside. He had never seen this much green in his life, no matter how many books he had read while locked up nothing could truly prepare him from the beauty that was nature.

The Moment Octavia touched the ground the world silenced, almost as if it was waiting along with us to see what would happen. "We're back bitches!!" She screamed.

As soon as those words were uttered we all began to run out of the ship and I couldn't help but cheer along with everyone else.