In what seemed like an instant, every delinquent that was onboard the dropship ran down the ramp and into the woods. Laughing and hollering, they danced around trees, taller than anything they had ever seen, high off of the freshest air they had ever breathed. It smelled so different from the cold metallic smell of the Ark, it was damp, and filled with the scent of dirt and pine.

Rachel stared up at the trees, at the sunlight streaming through them, so enthralled with being on Earth that she was taken completely by surprise when someone barreled into her from behind, nearly tackling her to the ground as they wrapped their arms around her.

"Can you believe it, Rach? We're here! Here!" Nate laughed as he spoke, lifting Rachel, also laughing, off the ground and spinning her around. "Oh my god, and we're alive!"

When he finally put her down, Rachel couldn't help but turn around and hug him too, before pulling abruptly back, suddenly fearful, "Is everyone here?"

Nate nodded, "Yeah, Monty and I were some of the first on the dropship, they took him, Jasper, and Harper up the ladder. I heard them after we landed. Sterling and Monroe were by me."

"Yeah, I saw them," Rachel said, grabbing his wrist and pulling him back to dropship, looking for their friends as they went. They spotted Jasper first, in what looked like a tense conversation with Clarke Griffin and Wells Jaha.

When he saw them, Nate scoffed, "They had to come too, didn't they?" He and Rachel had never got along with them too well; the pairs were never unfriendly or impolite, but their dynamic had unfortunately been shaped by those of their parents, and animosity soon sprouted.

Their complaints were cut short though, when Wells grabbed Jasper's arm and began pushing him away from Clarke. "We'd better go rescue him," Nate growled, already stalking towards the ship.

Rachel nodded, and followed him, but broke away to stand with Monty when they reached the ramp. Nate put a hand on Wells' shoulder and pulled, breaking the slightly taller boy's grip on Jasper's arm. "Keep your hands off of him, Jaha," he snarled, "he's with us."

Jasper stumbled over to stand by Rachel and Monty, all three watching as Murphy and Mbege's gang approached too, some of them carrying large tree limbs like weapons, all of them eager to see this escalate. But Wells just stepped back, putting his hands up, "Relax, Nathan. Clarke and I are just trying to figure out where we are."

"We're on the ground. That not good enough for you?" Bellamy shouted from behind Rachel. She turned to him, surprised to see how much his demeanor had changed in the short time since the dropship landed. He seemed infinitely more confident, a crooked, cocky smile on his face, even as he stared down the son of the Chancellor.

"We need to find Mount Weather," Wells said, walking up the hill towards Bellamy, followed by Clarke. Both were obviously nervous being surrounded by criminals, but Wells kept up his diplomatic façade "You heard my father's message, that has to be our first priority."

Octavia scoffed, "Screw your father." Wells' eyebrows scrunched, obviously shocked that someone would insult the Chancellor so openly, but Octavia spoke again before he could protest, "What, you think you're in charge here, you and your little princess?"

All eyes turned to Clarke, who ignored Octavia's jibe. "Do you think we care who's in charge?" she asked, "We need to get to Mount Weather, not because the Chancellor said so," she turned her head, facing all the delinquents who had gathered, "but because the longer we wait, the hungrier we'll get, and the harder this'll be. How long do you think we'll last without those supplies?"

Rachel scrunched her eyebrows as Clarke continued, "We're looking at a twenty-mile trek, okay? So if we wanna get there before dark, we need to leave. Now."

As much as Rachel hated to admit it, she knew Clarke was right. All that had been left for them in the dropship were a few tools and a bunch of tarp from the parachute. Not even any water or rations. She looked up at Nate, who she could tell was struggling with the same thought. But who knew what could be lurking in the woods on the way to Mount Weather, they could die before they even reached it, or worse yet, they could get there and realize it had been destroyed by the bombs. The more she thought about it, the more she thought it'd be better to wait at the dropship until they knew they could get to Mount Weather.

Bellamy apparently shared her opinion. "I got a better idea. You two go, find it for us. Let the privileged to the hard work for a change." The gathered crowd loved this, all shouting their approval for the plan. Bellamy turned his eyes to Rachel, and for a moment she worried he was going to throw her and Nate to the wolves too, but only flicked up the corner of his mouth and looked back at Clarke.

"You're not listening, we all need to go" Wells pleaded, before he was sharply pushed from behind.

"Look at this, everybody," Murphy taunted, "The Chancellor of Earth." Wells barely had time to respond before Murphy kicked his leg, sending him to the ground. Clarke dove for him, only to be held back by Mbege, forced to helplessly watch and Wells stood back up and prepared to fight Murphy. But before any blows landed, another boy jumped down from a landing on the dropship, and with a few hushed words, had Murphy walking away.

"Who is that guy?" Rachel asked Monty, watching as Octavia, with a newfound swagger she had never shown in prison, began flirting with him.

"Finn Collins. They call him 'Spacewalker,'" he said, watching as the long-haired boy sauntered away, "He went on an illegal spacewalk and released a month's worth of oxygen."

Jasper ran up behind them, slapping a hand down on each of their shoulders, "It was awesome. Hey, any of you seen Harper, Monroe, or Sterling?"

"No," Miller looked around, most of the delinquents were starting to scatter again, but he didn't see Harper's blonde braid anywhere. He looked at Rachel, then jerked his head towards the woods. She nodded in agreement. Monty and Jasper opted out of coming with, so the two walked off in the woods to look for their friends.

They didn't have to look long, all three were only a little way off in the woods, where they had found a patch of grass, longer and greener than what was around the dropship, with tiny flowers that speckled the small meadow with white. All three were lying there in the grass, laughing hysterically. When Rachel and Miller saw them, they couldn't help but grin too.

Miller ran forward, shouting "Make room for me!" before launching himself into the pile of friends, causing a new wave of laughter. Rachel followed soon after. They all stayed there for an hour, sharing the joy of being on the ground, the ground that was so lush and beautiful, and alive.

After a while, Sterling and Monroe left to look around more, and Harper fell asleep after helping Rachel take out her tight braid, letting her natural curls poof up into a caramel-colored halo around her face in the humidity of Earth that it never got on the ark. Miller reclined next to Rachel, his bunched up jacket serving as a makeshift pillow while he watched the light stream through the forest.

Sitting cross-legged and playing with the newfound springiness of her hair, Rachel found herself again thinking of the last moments she had with her father. She replayed the words he had said, and the venomous ones she had spat back at him. She cringed at the memory.

"Why the long face, Rach?" Miller asked, looking briefly away from the sky and towards her.

Rachel gave the best smile she could muster, "I saw my father before we got on the dropship," Miller nodded calmly, he was always so good at listening when she was feeling down. "What he said made it seem like it was the Council that sent us down here, but why?"

"Some kind of mass floating?"

She shook her head, "That's what I thought, but no one here is eighteen."

"Besides, they wouldn't want to waste an exodus ship on something like that," Miller uncrossed his arms from behind his head and checked to make sure Harper was still asleep, "And, you know, we're here."

"Yeah, there's that." Rachel checked Harper too, though she didn't think she'd tell anyone. They'd been careful in the Skybox that no one knew that their pardon had been prearranged, and with no guards to step in, they would have to be even more careful that no one found out. "Why then?"

"Does it matter?" Bellamy's voice came out of nowhere, and suddenly he was there, walking gracefully down the hill above them. He still seemed much different than he had on the dropship, seeing him this new way almost made Rachel forget that he probably heard their secret. He reached the bottom of the hill, standing in front of the delinquents.

Rachel quickly stood up. Nate gently hit Harper's arm, waking her up, and stood with his arms crossed behind her, ready to defend his best friend as best he could. But before his too-quick tongue could cause trouble, Bellamy turned away from him, instead facing Rachel fully.

"No matter why he did it," he spoke softly, but something in his face was hard, his demeanor different, "Kane still sent you down here knowing you would probably die." Rachel stared back at him, at his dark eyes that seemed to know how deep his words had cut her. He turned slightly, looking over his shoulder at Nate, "Your dad too, beanie."

Nate scowled, "It's Miller."

Bellamy smirked, "My point still stands, Miller." He faced Rachel, "That's not why I came to find you, though, all of you." He strolled past Rachel, and leaned against one of the huge trees that Rachel still couldn't get used to seeing. "I need your help."

After a brief moment of shock, Rachel finally spoke, strolling towards him, Nate and Harper trailing close behind her, "With what? I saw you walking around earlier with Murphy and his guys, why not ask them?"

Bellamy lifted his eyes, scanning the canopy of the tress, unable to keep his wonder in check, his confidence fading slightly, "Have you ever read The Lord of the Flies?"

"Heard of it," Nate said, "Can't say I've read it."

"My mom used to read me a bunch of old stories. Ancient history was always my favorite, but I liked some fiction too." Bellamy stood from the tree and came to stand almost uncomfortably close to Rachel, "Lord of the Flies is about a bunch of kids who get stranded on an island alone, no adults. Know what happens to them?" He raised an eyebrow, and cocked his head, not waiting for an answer, "They kill each other. Murphy and Mbege and all of those are the kids from the story. You and I are the ones who stop them from killing anyone who pisses them off."

Rachel understood, "You want us to help you be the leader."

"I want you to help me lead. Communication with the Ark is gone. I say good riddance, they're the ones who locked all of you up anyways. You heard it back there, Jaha's kid and that Clarke girl still want to follow their rules, they want to be the ones in charge. I think we're better off without the Ark, without their rules, and we definitely don't need a mini-Jaha down here. We need new leaders."

Rachel crossed her arms, mimicking Bellamy's pose, and tried her best to intimidate him down, but she was so small that even with her hair loose and large, the tips of is barely reached his chin, "By that logic, wouldn't I just be a 'mini-Kane'? Wouldn't Nate just be a new Chief Guard?"

Bellamy looked her over, and smiled. A very different smile from the dropship, Rachel noticed. This one was crooked, and came with a mischievous gleam in his eyes, "No, you two are different. I can tell." He uncrossed his arms, tried to soften his posture, "Look, I don't know these people. You do. You were raised to have the skills that I just don't have, I need you." He looked up at Miller over Rachel's head, "Both of you, too."

Rachel looked back to her friends. Miller glanced at Bellamy, then back at her. A raise of his eyebrows and a tilt of his head let her know what his answer was. It was her call; he'd follow her decision. Harper nodded along, she was down too.

"So?" Bellamy asked, looking at Rachel as if he too had understood the unspoken conversation.

She took a deep breath, turned to the disgraced cadet, and nodded. "We're in."

"Ok, I'll follow you into this, to be honest, I would've made the same choice," Nate was blabbering on as he followed Rachel and Harper back to the dropship, though neither was paying much attention to him, "but I just gotta know, why'd you say yes?"

Rachel sighed, somewhat overdramatically, and spun to face him. Her hand landed on a scratched part of one of the trees, a dark, sticky liquid coating her fingers. She wiped the sap off on a dry part of the tree bark and looked up at her friends, "Because," she took a deep breath, "He was right. Whether my dad sent me down because he thought it might give me a chance to live on Earth, he still sent me down here knowing that I'd probably die. I don't want to have leadership down here that would let parents do that to their kids, things should be different down here."

Miller pursed his lips, nodding. Harper shot her a wicked grin, "So, parents 'down here'? Who ya plannin' to shack up with?" she and Miller waggled their eyebrows and cackled, both drawing back from the half-hearted punches Rachel threw at them, laughing out their surrenders.

Rachel hit Miller one more time, then pulled away, giggling a little herself. "Come on, we need to go figure some stuff out."

They walked back towards the dropship, past delinquents climbing trees, goofing around, and doing some other…things that they certainly weren't allowed to do in lock-up. They came to the dropship, the door still down, forming a ramp that Bellamy now sat at the top of, sharpening what looked like a very rusted axe. Murphy and Mbege sat below him, both sharpening and working scraps of metal as best they could into makeshift knives. Roma Bragg sat above them, very close to Bellamy, only half-heartedly working on her own weapon. She spent more of her time eyeing her new leader.

Murphy smirked at Rachel as she walked up the ramp, Nate and Harper stayed behind, exchanging snarky quips with the rest of Bellamy's new gang. Sterling and Monroe had joined them- Jasper and Monty had apparently joined Clarke on her Mount Weather expedition -all four keeping an eye on their friend as she walked past some of the most dangerous criminals of the delinquents. As she came to the top, Murphy tugged on one of her shoelaces, and smirked, "Nice of you to finally join us, Kane."

She ignored him, instead focusing only on Bellamy, "There's no water that close to us, no obvious sources of food either. I know you don't like it, but Clarke was right. Eventually, we're gonna have to make our way to Mount Weather if we want to survive."

Diggs, one of Murphy's crew, groaned, "Let Jaha and the princess figure that out when they get back, they're working hard enough already." He threw a small stone to where Wells was setting down more firewood next to the dropship.

"Why don't you go help him," Nate said, cocking his head to one side and giving him his smuggest grin, "we don't know how cold it'll get tonight. Fire's not a half-bad idea."

Diggs, obviously affronted, swiveled to face Bellamy, who nodded, and motioned with axe to the fire, "Atom, Connor, you go too." All three boys looked like they might argue, but reluctantly stood and started towards the wood pile.

Rachel smiled, watching Miller take advantage of his apparent superior status, "Move it all inside too!" he shouted as they walked away, "Damp wood's good for nothing." When he laughed and turned back to Monroe and Sterling, she looked back down at the knife Murphy was carving, starting to brainstorm where she too could find a weapon until she noticed something.

"Murphy, where's your wristband?" she didn't know how she had missed it. Murphy, Roma, all of the delinquents surrounding Bellamy, including those that were currently moving the wood Wells had gathered inside, were all sporting empty wrists.

The smarmy delinquent looked up from his project, "Mbege and me took ours off, then helped the others," he looked her over slowly, making sure she knew he did it, "Come sit, I'll help you with yours too."

Instinctively, Rachel's hand moved to her wrist to touch the cold metal on her left arm. She had joined Bellamy because she wanted to create a society better than the one on the Ark, but taking off the wristband would mean cutting herself off from it, and her father, completely. She just couldn't do that.

But she also couldn't come up with the words to express this without sparking ridicule from Murphy, so she just shook her head and walked away.