Third Person's POV
The day had started out like any other. Well, at least it did for Julia Blake. She had gone to breakfast in the Sky Box's cafeteria and then was returned to her cell, like every morning.
Sky Box was the name people used to refer to the Ark's prison; the lockup they sent juvenile delinquents to stay in.
Most people in the Sky Box got to go to the cafeteria for the two meals a day: breakfast and supper. Only those in solitary confinement were given their meals in their cells.
The cells in the Ark weren't like prisons back on Earth in the days when humans still lived there. These cells didn't have bars, they were just rooms with one or two beds and a big metal door that kept them locked inside.
Once Julia got back to her cell after breakfast, she spent the time talking with her cellmate, Finn Collins.
There wasn't much else to do and he had become her friend in their time as cellmates, so that's what they spent most of their time doing. Just talking and playing games, basically anything to pass the time.
When they first met, after her last cellmate was floated and he was sent in to replace her, Julia wondered why they let guys and girls share a cell together.
She had been cautious at first, but soon found out that Finn was literally one of the nicest people ever, which helped her relax about having to share a room with him.
At the moment, they had been talking about their lives before prison. Julia was telling him about her brother and sister when their cell door opened, revealing two guards on the other side.
"Prisoners 278 and 334, face the wall." One guard spoke as Julia and Finn both looked over at them. They did as they were told and stood up to face the wall.
"What's happening?" Finn questioned the guards. "Quiet. Hold out your right arms." One guard spoke and they complied.
"Finn's not eighteen for another few months and I'm not even fifteen yet." Julia spoke, her voice tense.
Prisoners didn't get reviewed and/or floated until they were eighteen years old, but Julia was thinking that something was happening and they were getting reviewed early. She couldn't think of any other reason this would be happening.
"Quiet." The guards responded, cuffing a metal wristband onto each of the prisoner's right arms. Julia flashed Finn an anxious glance, but Finn couldn't do anything but give her a comforting smile.
Once the wristbands were on, a guard took each of the prisoner's and led them out of the cell. Julia noticed as they exited, that it wasn't just them. Pretty much every cell she saw was being opened and guards were escorting the prisoners in one direction.
After a few more moments of just watching the other prisoners as she was led along, Julia glanced back towards Finn. But he wasn't there. In the confusion with all the different guards and prisoners, they had gotten separated.
Julia looked forward again as the guard led her towards a hallway and then a different room. In this room there was a line of prisoner's being forced into a room that Julia recognized as a drop ship.
Her eyes widened in shock when she realized what it was. Why were they being herded into a drop ship? She glanced around the room for anything to help her or any way to escape, but only saw the line of prisoners and a few council members.
One of these members included Marcus Kane, whom she locked eyes with. She was surprised when she saw him looking at her with a twinge of guilt in his eyes. Oh god, what was the chancellor and council doing to them?
She broke eye contact with him a couple moments later because she was at the front of the line. The guard let go of her arm and she was pushed in the direction of the drop ship. Everyone else was just going in and there was no way to escape, so she just followed the line.
She climbed up the ladder to the second floor and found a seat, which she sat in and strapped into. Soon after, a prisoner sat in the seat next to her. She looked over and was surprised to see that the prisoner was John Murphy, her best friend whom she met a year prior when she first got put in lockup.
"Hey, Jules." Murphy greeted her with the casual smirk Murphy usually had on his face. "Hey, Murphy." Julia responded.
"Do you know what's happening? Why they're sending us to earth? Do you think this is some new type of mass execution they're trying out on us?" Julia questioned her friend.
"I fucking hope not." Murphy answered and their conversation didn't go any further as neither had any answers and there was a lot happening around them.
The next few minutes were a whirlwind as the guards finished putting the prisoners in the drop ship. Then it was sealed off and released from the Ark, letting it start falling towards the planet below.
Everyone's questions were soon answered when a video appeared on every wall for everyone to see. It was Chancellor Jaha.
"Prisoners of the Ark, hear me now. 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." Jaha paused and Julia glanced over at Murphy.
"We have no idea what is waiting for you down there. If the odds of survival were better, we would've sent others. Frankly, we're sending you because your crimes have made you expendable." Jaha paused again.
"Your dad's a dick, Wells." Someone spoke, which caught Julia's attention. Wells Jaha? What was he doing there? Surely the Chancellor wouldn't arrest and send his own son to Earth, not knowing if he'd survive or not.
"Those crimes will be forgiven, your records wiped clean. 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 nonperishables to sustain three hundred people for up to two years."
Jaha wasn't done speaking, but Julia was suddenly unable to hear when some prisoners started whooping and cheering.
Julia peered across the room, trying to figure out what they were cheering for when she saw Finn had unbuckled himself and was out of his seat, floating.
Julia rolled her eyes. Finn was one of the nicest people she had ever met, but certainly not the smartest. She hoped he had enough common sense to strap back into his seat before the parachutes deployed.
"Mount Weather is life. You must locate those supplies immediately. Your one responsibility is to stay alive." Julia caught the end of Java's speech just as two more guys followed Finn out of their seats.
Then the parachutes released. But something went wrong because they were suddenly whipped in one direction. The people strapped in were fine for the most part, but the three that were out of their seat went flying.
"Finn! Finn!" Julia shouted, desperately looking for any sign that her cellmate wasn't dead or maimed.
The drop ship was still barrelling like crazy towards the ground and inside the lights were all sparking and blowing, things were breaking and clattering, and there was smoke coming out of a pipe.
"Oh, god, we're gonna die." Julia muttered as she clutched onto the straps. "Well then, nice knowing you, Jules." Murphy spoke, flashing her a cheeky smile and a wink.
Julia let out a shaky laugh, grateful that he was spending his possibly last remaining moments trying to make her feel better in his typical Murphy way. "You too, Murph."
Then suddenly they felt resistance from below. The ship's retrorockets finally kicked in and the ship landed. Julia let out a sigh of relief as the machines powered down.
"Listen. No machine hum." A guy named Monty spoke. He and his best friend Jasper were friends of Julia's. They met through Monty. They weren't super close, but they considered each other to be friends.
And she realized, to her shock, that he was right. There was no machine hum. It was just dead silent as everyone listened.
They all lived their whole lives with the mechanical hum of the Ark in the background, they never knew any different. Until now. Then the sound of buckles clicking was heard as the straps unlocked themselves.
Julia immediately got out of her straps and ran over to where Finn was crouching over the two other guys that had been whipped across the room.
"Finn! Finn, are you okay?" Julia questioned as she crouched down next to him. She inspected his face for any signs of injury, but he looked in tact.
"Yeah, I'm fine, Julia." He responded, but didn't even look up at her. He was just staring down at the two guys, guilt and sorrow clear in his eyes.
"Finn, is he breathing?" A blonde girl demanded as she ran over. Julia recognized her immediately. It was hard not to. She was the daughter of Abby Griffin, a member of the council. Clarke Griffin, who had been in solitary confinement for over a year. They called her a traitor.
Finn didn't answer Clarke in words, just shook his head, still just staring at the two guys. "Hey, it wasn't your fault, Finn. Don't blame yourself." Julia whispered to him, trying to comfort her friend.
Yes, he was the inspiration for them getting out of their seats, but it was still their choice.
But then she saw something across the room that managed to grab her attention away from Finn.
"Oh, my God." Julia muttered before standing up. "Octavia!" She exclaimed, racing across the room towards her sister.
At the sound of her sister shouting her name, Octavia turned towards her. "Jules." She breathed out just as Julia jumped and attacked her in a hug.
"I missed you, O." Julia spoke, squeezing her sister tightly. "I missed you too, sis." Octavia replied.
They hadn't seen each other since they got arrested as they had different meal schedules and they were put in different classes for Earth skills.
The reunion only lasted a few more moments before Octavia suggested that they head down with the rest of the group who were headed towards the door on the bottom level. They both wanted to be there when it was first opened.
Octavia climbed down the ladder first, with Julia following behind her. "Bellamy?" Julia heard her sister question.
The thought of her brother being there and being able to see him for the first time in just over a year made Julia really anxious to get down the ladder.
Octavia reached the bottom of the ladder and stood beside it as Julia quickly climbed down. She stopped halfway to look towards the door where Bellamy was standing, facing the crowd. Julia noticed he was wearing a guard's uniform. His eyes locked with hers and Julia felt tears spring to her eyes.
Julia hopped down from the ladder and she and her sister weaved their way through the crowd to get to the door – to get to Bellamy.
The sisters stopped in front of their brother and they took a moment to just take each other in.
"My god, look how big you've both grown." Bellamy spoke and both sisters moved forward to hug their brother.
Octavia wrapped her arms around his neck while Julia wrapped her arms around his back. Bellamy wrapped one arm around each sister, hugging them tightly.
Julia closed her eyes as she savoured the moment with her siblings. She thought she'd never get the chance to do this ever again.
Octavia was seventeen which meant in less than a year she would've been reviewed by the council and then maybe, depending on their verdict, floated. And Julia would've faced the same thing in about three and a half years.
After a few more moments, Octavia and Julia pulled back from the hug. "What the hell are you wearing, a guards uniform?" Octavia demanded.
"I borrowed it to get onto the drop ship. Someone has got to keep an eye on you both." Bellamy answered and Julia moved forward to hug her brother again. She missed him so much and was very grateful that he was there.
"Where's your wristband?" Clarke questioned Bellamy, and Octavia turned to face her. "Do you mind? We haven't seen our brother in a year." Octavia told her.
"No one has a brother." Julia heard a guy in the crowd say. "That's Octavia and Julia Blake, the girls they found hidden in the floor." A girl spoke.
Octavia went to lunge at them, but Bellamy held her back. "Octavia, Octavia, no." He told her. Octavia always got angry when people would mention it while Julia would just let it go.
The only time she actually got angry was when people would say something rude about their mom. Then she was pissed.
Julia and her mother had a strained relationship, but hell if she was going to let some lowlife call her mom names. Especially since she was floated a year ago when the people of the Ark found out about the sisters.
"Let's give them something else to remember you by." Bellamy suggested and the sisters looked up at him questioningly.
"Like what?" Julia asked. "Like being the first two people on the ground in a hundred years." Bellamy answered.
Octavia and Julia looked at each other excitedly as Bellamy turned and pushed the lever to open the door.
The light was blinding and Julia had to blink a few times before her eyes could get used to the light. And when they did, her breath caught in her throat.
There was so much green. Julia had never seen so much green in her life. Green leaves on trees and green grass. Seeing it all and standing in real sunlight was breathtaking. And once she took a deep breath of the natural Earth air, she didn't know how she ever breathed the thin, stale air on the Ark.
Octavia and Julia walked side-by-side down the ramp. Once they got to the end, Julia grabbed her sisters hand and they glanced at each other before they both hopped off at the same time.
Their feet landed on the ground. Real soil beneath their shoes, something they never thought they'd be able to experience.
Suddenly, Octavia let go of her sister's hand and raised her arms in the air. "We're back, bitches!" She yelled out and Julia let out a loud cheer as the rest of the prisoners came racing out of the entrance to experience the world for the first time.
She looked over as prisoners ran past and saw that Murphy was standing near her, whooping and cheering with a few of his buddies.
Julia ran over to him and jumped on his back, since he was facing away from her. Murphy glanced back and once he saw it was her, he grinned and started jumping in a circle, continuing to whoop and cheer.
Julia threw her head back as she laughed joyfully, relishing in the new world with her best friend.