Chapter 2:
Clarke had been drawing when the guard barged in and turned her life upside down. She had an entire month before she'd turn eighteen, and that was evidenced by the marks she had drawn beside the small bed in her prison cell to keep track. Clarke knew that something else was going on, she just wasn't sure what until she saw her mother running towards her.
"You're going to the ground, Clarke." Her mom told her. She froze as she took in the information. She crunched the numbers in her head and knew that there was still another one hundred years before the Earth would be survivable. She didn't have enough time to worry herself over it though because before she knew it everything had gone black, and that's when she found herself now, on the drop ship, sailing through the Earth's atmosphere.
When they crash landed on the Earth's crust Clarke took a deep breath of air, equally excited and nervous to take her first step on the ground. There was a commotion on the ship as the 100 criminals that had been sent to the ground argued over who would pull the latch and open the toll.
One man stepped forward and took control of the situation. With his tanned skin, and dark, slicked back hair, Clarke did not recognize him. He was sporting a guard uniform, but she didn't think that he was truly a guard.
Her attention was taken away from the man, he couldn't have been under eighteen, she was sure, when a girl from the back came forward.
"Bellamy?" the girl called.
"O." Bellamy breathed out.
That's when Clarke was able to place them, they were the Blake siblings, the only siblings on the Ark.
Octavia Blake, was the first person back on Earth.
Time seemed to stand still as they all stepped out of the drop ship and onto the home where they were always meant to be. The forest was lush and green all around them, it was all they could see for miles. That is, until Clarke wondered behind the drop ship to see a clearing in the forest that overlooked the hilltop they were on. Across from where they were she could see a mountain peaking through the hills that surrounded it. She checked her map again, only to realized that they had been dropped "on the wrong damn mountain." as she had told Finn, the Spacewalker.
Clarke knew that they needed to find food, and fast, the problem is that she also knew most of these kids were either too young to have taken "Earth Skills" on the Ark, or when they had taken it, they hadn't paid any attention at all to their teacher, Mr. Pike. She spent the next few minutes hunched over the map and tried to figure out what action to take next.
That's how a tall, skinny boy with goggles found Clarke. When he approached, she looked up to take in the sight of him. He seemed so innocent and she could hardly imagine what he'd done to be put in lock up.
"Is there a bar in this town? I'll buy you a drink?" He asked while covering it up with a giggle. Finn shoved him away, clearly annoyed for some reason.
Clarke, having seen the boy's innocent face, was even more worried that surviving on Earth may not be possible, but she knew it was time to make the announcement, they needed to get food, and they needed to do it now.
"Everyone!" Clarke yelled to get the 100's attention. Once she saw that she had, she continued her speech. "We need to get ready to move. The Ark dropped us on this mountain, expecting there to be food, water, and supplies, but those things aren't here, not on this mountain. Mount Weather, is there." She said as she pointed towards the clearing she had found earlier. "We are talking about a twenty mile trek to our next meal." She finished, noticing the blank stares she received from the majority of the camp.
"Why should we listen to you?" Bellamy, the "guard" responded. "You think you and the little Chancellor there are in charge here too?" He was cocky as he referred to her and Wells, Chancellor Jaha's son, and her former best friend, beside her.
"No, you think I care about who is in charge here?" She asked, but continued before anyone could interrupt her. "We need food to survive and there is a radiation-soaked forest between us and our first meal!"
"No, I've got a better Idea, I say we let the privileged do the work for once!" Bellamy yelled, which excited the crowd as they all began to cheer.
That's when a tall boy with bright, but angry blue eyes stepped forward and confronted Wells, "Yeah, what do you think, you gonna do some hard work for a change?" He challenged.
Again, the crowd decided to jump in and urge on a fight. Wells was taking the bait as he prepared himself for an attack, but before it could go anywhere, Finn dropped down from the top of the drop ship.
"He's got one good leg, why don't you pick on a better match Murphy?" Finn confronted the boy with blue eyes, named Murphy.
"Save me next, Spacewalker!" Octavia piped up, which earned herself a pointed look from her brother.
After that everything seemed to calm down, but Clarke was still on edge, she had officially recruited no one to go with her to collect the supplies from Mount Weather. Wells was willing, but with his leg injury he would just slow her down.
She prepared to go by herself when Finn approached her and asked what the plan was.
He then pulled the lanky boy with goggles and a shorter, Asian boy next to him and announced that they were going to come along too.
"I'll join the action!" Octavia offered, but was immediately crowded by Bellamy as he tried to stop her.
"I've been locked up one way or another my entire life, and now that I am free, no one will control me again, not even you." She told him honestly.
"Were you trying to take that off?" It was while Octavia talked that Clarke noticed the marks on Finn's bracelet.
"Yeah, why?" He shrugged.
"The Ark is using those to figure out if the Earth is survivable, if they think we are dead, they aren't going to come."
"And?" Bellamy prompted, as the wheels in his mind began to turn.
"I don't know, do you want everyone you know and love to think you are dead?" She asked him. He didn't respond, he just looked thoughtful for a moment and made his leave.
"Alright, I think it's time to go. I won't take off the wristband." Finn told Clarke.
And so the motley crew of Octavia Blake, the girl they hid under the floorboards for fifteen years, Finn, the Spacewalker, Monty and Jasper from Agro Station, and Clarke, the princess of the Ark, set off to find Mount Weather.
A/N: Alright, so I was able to go back in and fix the spacing issues that were there earlier, and I was able to clean up some other errors too which was good. I have no beta so sometimes I catch the mistakes a little bit late. Happy Reading!