❥

ೃ⁀➷ 𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐔𝐓
↳ ❝ 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞 ✰ 𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞 ¡! ❞
"𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞"

IF KATHERINE COULD GO BACK IN TIME, she would. All the girl wanted was to feel peace, to be anywhere but alone in a cell on the Ark. The same four walls, left alone with her thoughts.

Katherine shared her cell with no one, leaving the girl alone for the two years that she had before she would get reviewed. Every juvenile got reviewed by the council when they turned 18 years old in order to determine whether one would get floated or not based on how severe the crime was, or how much mercy the council decided to show.

The brunette girl dreamed of going to earth. To feel the warm breeze through her hair, being able to walk through the grass and pick flowers to smell damp air from fresh rain, to feel the sun's warmth grace her skin.

She would write in a notebook that belonged to her father. The notebook was small, pocket size even. It held notes about the environment and about different kinds of herbs.

All the information that a pharmacist on the Ark needed was in this tiny notebook, she didn't think she would ever need the notebook - she just kept it for memories, almost a reminder that her father actually existed or that she even had parents to begin with.

She would stay up every night, sitting on the floor beside her small bed in the four empty walls and staring at the wall - imagining what it would be like to be free, at peace with herself. With her grief.

Yet the day her cell had been stormed by three men with a baton, pressing her against the wall with sheer force she didn't even try to fight back.

"Prisoner 298, face the wall." A guard instructed, the girl stumbled to her feet having been startled by the bang of her cell door opening. She halted, turning to face the wall as she didn't want to start anything that she couldn't finish.

Katherine felt one of the guards grab her by the wrists, forcing the girl to exit the cell, stumbling over her own two feet. She peered over the balcony from her floor in the juvenile sector.

She didn't fight it when she felt a sting on her wrist, the girl winced slightly at the sudden prick on her left wrist. By the time she had been escorted out of her cell she had been too exhausted to fight back, she had a feeling it was her time yet it didn't make sense she was only 17. Why would they review her now?

"What is going on?" The brunette turned her head to glance back at the guard who just pushed her forward in return, "Quiet." He demanded.

The Hale girl gazed around and watched as a collection of guards escorted other juvenile prisoners out of their cells. She felt an unactivated baton that had been pressed against the small of her back, not daring to say anything else as she felt a pang in her chest at the familiarity of the situation, her hands behind her back as she was being escorted by a guard.

The skybox was chaotic, the juvenile delinquents were attempting to escape from the guards to which some succeeded and got tazed in the back. The other 99 prisoners being escorted in the same direction, it didn't make sense, where were they going?

Katherine slowed down a bit to look at where everyone was going, however she was stopped when she felt an immense pain course through her back. It was the deactivated baton hitting her spine which forced her to keep walking.

"Keep walking." the guard barked, he looked young, at least four years older than Katherine herself, she recognized his face and sent him a dirty look.

"Who even are you dude?" She spoke in an unimpressed tone, trying to mask her pain with sarcasm. The guard escorted her forward rather hasher than before and the guard and Katherine made their way through the hallways and sectors until the guard pushed her forward into a line.

The prisoners were standing in a line? Where the hell would they be going?

Katherine's wrists were finally released as she stumbled forward into the line. Other juveniles started lining up behind her and her eyes glancing around the corridor, trying to get a look of what was up ahead.

It was what seemed to be a large door, something Katherine did not recognize. She had taken a second to look down at her wrist that was enclosed with a metal wristband, her mind was racing faster than she could comprehend.

She had so many questions that she didn't want to go unanswered. The brunette was intelligent, yes, but she wasn't all knowing. The more she let her thoughts race, she had started connecting the dots.

No review, wristbands, Earth skills classes with Pike...

Earth skills, she realized.

Were they going to earth? She was beyond curious, the prisoners moving every few seconds down the corridor, slowly making their way towards the opened door.

The Hale girl was stopped in her tracks when she heard a guard's voice demanded, "Out the way." The man instructed and Katherine's eyebrows raised to the middle of her forehead in confusion, yet following the man's orders who passed the line of teenagers with a blonde girl on a stretcher.

She looked awfully familiar.

As two guards carried the girl on the stretcher past the other juveniles, Katherine's eyes followed - stepping forward as she waited her turn ever so impatiently.

Katherine couldn't help but massage the area above where the wristband had been clamped earlier on, trying to distract herself from the discomfort that was in the form of a metal wristband.

When it finally became Katherine's turn to exit through the door, she had been met with a multitude of seats and prisoners being instructed to buckle up. She had been directed to an empty seat, glancing around wearily and let out a silent huff before taking a seat.

However when she sat down she felt something in her back left pocket, she examined the level of the dropship through the corner of her eye, the pipes on the walls and juveniles voices filling her ears.

She paused for a brief second, lifting herself up and reaching into her back pocket to take out a familiar object. Her father's small notebook.

She had forgotten she had stored it away in her back pocket the night prior, she was a bit shocked but stowed it away again not wanting to lose it. The notebook was all she had left of her family and it meant the world to her.

The girl had buckled her seat, pulling it over her chest and strapping herself securely. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, and gazed around allowing her eyes to land on the blonde girl who got carried on a stretcher.

The blonde was unconscious in her seat, buckled up securely. Katherine had watched as more juveniles piled into the dropship, some going on the level below and seats beside filled her until she was met with a familiar face beside her, Nathan Miller.

She turned her head to the seat to her right and let out a scoff, "Miller?" She shook her disbelief, the boy glanced at when he heard her voice and his eyebrows raised and head tilted.

"Kat?" Nate questioned with a taken aback look as he laid his eyes on his old friend. The girl smiled faintly at the sound of her shortened name she hadn't heard in a year.

Nate put out his balled up fist, she glanced down at the gesture - a hint of confusion plastered on her expression. Her eyebrows raised to the middle of her forehead before the boy beside nudged her knee before she realized, letting out a soft laugh and balled her own fist and let hers and Nathan's fists bump together.

The duo giggled quietly at their own childish antics. They hadn't seen each other in a year yet their friendship felt somewhat the same, they didn't need a long meaningful conversation - in their case all they needed was a fist bump.

The rest of the juveniles had all piled onto the dropship; the door loudly compressed shut and air hissed as it closed. Everyone's attention shifted around the dropship, the pipes that covered the walls, the teenagers murmured to each other as they awaited the take off.

They were actually going to Earth.

The dropship had taken off, going down from the Ark and towards the Earth. Most of the teenagers were silent the entire time, a distant conversation between the blonde girl from earlier on and what looked like the Chancellor's son.

Katherine's gaze was fixed on the ceiling of the dropship, letting herself zone out into the empty space above her. Unlike the ceiling of her cell - the dropship's ceiling was covered in small dents that were only recognisable to the human eye if you looked close enough.

It wasn't very long until Katherine was snapped out of her daze by a sudden rumble, causing her and many others to flinch. A few high pitched screams erupted from a few of the juveniles that echoed through the dropship.

Katherine gawked with wide eyes, still shocked by the rumble - this was the first time she had ever been anywhere other than the Ark which meant even getting on the dropship was terrifying as is.

She looked towards Miller beside her who had the same expression on his face which didn't go unseen. She couldn't help but ask, "What was that?" She muttered to her friend, gripping onto the seatbelt.

"It must've been the atmosphere." Miller replied briefly before being cut off by an electronic sound, the sound grabbing the teenagers' attention as they all attempted to search for the source whilst the dropship was illuminated with a small amount of light.

"Prisoners of the Ark, hear me now." A familiar voice boomed, Katherine's eyes shifted towards the sound and they landed on a screen on one of the walls.

She refrained from rolling her eyes when they landed on an awfully familiar face, Chancellor Jaha. He was the elected leader and the person that the citizens of the Ark relied on.

"You've been given a second chance," He started as the other prisoners stared at the multiple screens plastered around the level. "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." He proceeded to explain or possibly to reason, but knowing the juveniles they wouldn't oblige.

Katherine despised the chancellor, for floating her mother, for getting her arrested.

"Indeed, for mankind itself." Katherine had been listening the entire time, taking in what the man was saying and couldn't help but feel a rush of nervousness at the realization that she was actually going to Earth.

"We have no idea what is waiting for you down there," The Chancellor announced and Katherine mentally groaned and awaited his next statement to follow through.

"If the odds were better, we would have sent others," He continued. "Frankly, we're sending you because your crimes have made you...expendable." Katherine rolled her at that comment, she despised how condescending the man sounded as if he were any better. In her eyes he was as guilty as the rest of the prisoners were.

"Your dad's a dick, Wells!" A boy exclaimed, many of the other juveniles agreed with a laugh of sheer amusement seeing as the Chancellor's son had attempted to keep his composure.

Katherine had stopped paying attention to what the Chancellor on the screen was saying and decided to shift her attention elsewhere. She gazed around unimpressed. Not long after the Hale had stopped paying attention, the dropship had started experiencing turbulence - the girl clutched her seatbelt tightly and tried to seek any sense of security.

The Chancellor's voice slowly started to come into earshot, "The dropsite 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-perishables to sustain 300 people..." The man on the screen explained.

The sound of a cheer caught Katherine's attention and when she turned to look for the source she had noticed a boy floating in the middle of the room.

"Yeah Finn!" A girl cheered as he turned into the air.

"Spacewalk bandit strikes again!" Another person cheered, Katherine couldn't help but let out a chuckle the girl had heard about the story Finn was arrested for illegal spacewalking which had wasted one month of oxygen.

She couldn't help but wonder what was going through his head before doing that.

The Chancellor's voice on the screen came back into earshot, the faint "No one ever made it there."

People cheered as Finn continued to float in the airspace, he floated more towards the Chancellor's son, "Check it out. Your dad floated me after all." Finn taunted whilst the rest of the juveniles laughed at the comment, finding the entirety of the situation amusing.

"Hey you two, stay put if you wanna live." The blonde haired girl yelled over the chatter of the teenagers. Despite being in a reckless position, Finn stayed in the air experiencing zero gravity as they descended to Earth.

"Mount Weather is life. You must locate those supplies immediately." The Chancellor stated. Katherine gripped onto her seatbelt a bit tighter as she gazed over at the screen.

The girl had glanced over to her friend beside her with a questioning look, Miller providing the same in return. She could feel a sense of anxiousness start to bubble in her chest as the realization set in, they were actually going to Earth.

After not being able to be sent to the ground for 97 years, the Ark was sending reckless teenagers, juvenile prisoners. Leaving the fate of life on Earth to juvenile delinquents? Katherine thought it was not that smart, but then again the Chancellor believed their lives were expendable.

"And finally, you're wondering about the wristbands." The Chancellor's voice started to fade a bit when the sound of a seatbelt clicked, another boy rising from his seat.

The blonde's eyes widened, "Stay in your seats!" the girl exclaimed, and attempted to warn him. Yet another boy had decided to unbuckle his seatbelt as well, and raised into the air.

Suddenly the dropship shook, the three boys flew into the side of the dropship and banged against the wall. The pipes had blown open and air hissed out of them which had caused a panic.

Katherine felt an anxiousness brew in her chest, the screams of panic erupted from the others as they experienced the major turbulence towards the ground.

Sparks of electricity had come from all over, Katherine had shut her eyes tightly, she held her breath as she anticipated something bad to happen. The ship kept shaking, air hissed even louder than before and people screamed in fear as they awaited their fate.

Sparks flew continuously as they felt the ship shake once more, the dropship flickered between pitch blackness and light every few seconds and the sound of almost a power down filled the teenager's ears.

Silence filled the atmosphere, Katherine kept her eyes squeezed shut tightly. After about a minute or so, she slowly opened her eyes. The dropship was darkened.

For once there was no machine humming that rattled through their ears, the peaceful silence that surrounded was foreign Katherine finally felt like this was what peace sounded like. What actual silence sounded like.

The silence was the last thing Katherine expected, sitting in awe she gazed around the wrecked inside of the dropship.

"Listen," A boy's voice spoke up, Katherine's head turned to see who it was and was met with a familiar face, Monty Greene. He was a boy from Argo station, she recognised him because her father used to work with his mother, Hannah Greene.

"No machine hum." Monty stated and everyone went silent, many glanced around almost searching for any disturbance yet they were met with nothing. Katherine was gazing around in almost awe, it was so different the silence was admirable.

"Whoa," The boy seated next to Monty cooed, Jasper Jordan was his name, Katherine knew him because he was Monty's best friend they acted like brothers and also since the boy with the goggles just happened to live in Argo station as well.

"That's a first."

Before anyone could chime in, the sound of the seat belts unbuckling caught everyone's attention. Katherine's head snapped down to her own seatbelt, she took a double take before taking her seatbelt off.

All of the other teenagers had raced down the ladder and Katherine was no different, she had followed the other kids down the ladder as quickly as she could hearing the distant voice of the blonde girl, "Finn, is he still breathing?"

The Hale girl took a hold of the metal ladder, not wasting any more time and climbed down hurriedly into the lowest level of the dropship. The room continued to pile with all of the juveniles, all packed into the lower level. The girl stood in between multiple people, the humidity and claustrophobic room filled up more by the second - the warm and moist air affected the way the girl was breathing.

The teenagers began to push forward as more piled into the space, a man by the door ushering some juveniles back. "Hey, just back it up guys." The man ushered and the crowd continued to push forward.

A familiar voice piped up from the ladder, "Stop!" Everyone's heads turned towards the exclamation. The blonde girl had exclaimed and stepped down the ladder, pushing herself past others and toward the front.

"The air could be toxic." The blonde pushed towards the front of the group, standing face to face with the man in front by the door. He gazed down at her unimpressed, not buying what she was saying.

"The air's toxic, we're all dead anyway." The man bellowed and he went to turn to the door before a softer voice spoke into the void of silence. "Bellamy?" Everyone's eyes wandered to the owner of the voice, a girl with long brunette hair and a look of innocence stuck out.

The girl stepped down the ladder steps and people practically cleared her path as the older boy turned back when he heard his name. Katherine's eyes narrowed in curiosity, wondering who this girl was.

The pair stood face to face, a smile creeping onto Bellamy's face.

"Oh, my god." The older boy smiled at the younger girl. "Look how big you are." Bellamy grinned down at her and the girl leaned forward taking the older boy into an embrace to which he returned without hesitation

After a moment the two pulled away and the girl glanced down to his attire as if it wasn't normal. "What the hell are you wearing? A guard's uniform?" The girl stared up at him in confusion.

"I borrowed it to get on the dropship," Bellamy defended, the girl proceeded to stare at him warily and he let a grin paint his lips. "Someone's gotta keep an eye on you." He spoke sheepishly and the girl pulled him back into a hug, the rest of the crowd staring at them as he let out a small laugh at her antics.

The rest all watched the reunion between the pair before they were interrupted by the blonde girl from earlier on who spoke up again, "Where's your wristband?" She asked, the pair pulling away from their hug and Bellamy glancing down at his wrist and then back to the blonde.

The long haired brunette turned to face her, "Do you mind? I haven't seen my brother in a year." The brunette haired girl spoke - looking the blonde up and down - before a boy yelled out of the blue, "No one has a brother!"

Katherine's eyebrows raised as she heard the word "brother", the boy was right, no one had a brother. Katherine's eyes widened when she came to her own realization.

Soon after there was a sudden intake of air from a girl, she announced, "That's Octavia Blake.The girl they found hidden in the floor!"

Katherine's eyes widened as people started murmuring around her, before Octavia, the brunette lunged forward yet was abruptly stopped by her older brother grabbing ahold of her waist, holding her back from proceeding to attack someone.

"Octavia. Octavia, no." Bellamy's arms wrapped around his sister's body, held her back and attempted to calm her down, refusing to let go of her unless she wasn't seething in her temper.

"Let's give them something else to remember you by." Bellamy glanced down at his sister and held her gaze firmly. "Yeah. Like what?" She pulled her arms out of her older brother's grasp.

"Like being the first person on the ground in 100 years." He let a grin paint his lips sheepishly. Everyone watched as the older boy took the lever into his grasp and people began to murmur frantically as they waited for the door to open. Bellamy slowly pushed down the lever, a cloud of smoke and a large gust of wind as the door began to lower - revealing a bright light and the air began to hiss.

Katherine as well as the rest of the teenagers blinked their eyes to adjust to the light as the sun shone into their faces that passed through leaves. The group were met with filled planes of greenery.

Katherine stared at the scene in awe, not daring to step out of the dropship just yet. They were on earth, the first people on earth for the first time in 100 years.

Katherine made it. She finally made it.

The wind blew into the dropship and Octavia took a step forward, and took in a large inhale of oxygen and exhaled heavily allowing herself to soak in the moment and take in the nature around her.

Everyone observed as the girl stepped forward, slowly stepping towards the edge of the now opened dropship - and let the girl take her time. Katherine had begun to become impatient. The silence was deafening as the group of delinquents watched as the girl took a jump off of the dropship, her feet finally landed the ground.

Octavia took in a large breath once again before raising her arms in the air and yelled, "We're back, bitches!" She exclaimed in full enthusiasm and everyone erupted into cheers and laughter, finally taking their chance to step into the nature that was presented in front of them.

The group of teenagers laughed and cheered as they all took their chance and all ran out of the dropship. Katherine herself ran in hurry and her feet landed on the group, she smiled widely as she took in the nature and greenery that now surrounded her.

Katherine inhaled deeply through her nose and shut her eyes, she felt the sun's warmth on her skin. She couldn't fathom that she was actually on ground, feeling the actual ground beneath her feet, feeling the sun on her face.

She felt free. Finally free.

𝗔𝗨𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗥'𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗘

𝖿𝗂𝗋𝗌𝗍 𝗈𝖿𝖿𝗂𝖼𝖺𝗅 𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋 𝗂𝗌 𝖽𝗈𝗇𝖾!! 𝖨 𝗆𝖺𝖽𝖾 𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗌 𝖻𝗈𝗈𝗄 𝗈𝗇 𝖺 𝗐𝗁𝗂𝗆. 𝖨 𝖺𝗆 𝗌𝗈 𝖾𝗑𝖼𝗂𝗍𝖾𝖽 𝗍𝗈 𝗂𝗇𝗍𝗋𝗈𝖽𝗎𝖼𝖾 𝖬𝗎𝗋𝗉𝗁𝗒 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝖪𝖺𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋𝗂𝗇𝖾 𝖺𝗌 𝖺 𝖽𝗎𝗈!!

𝗂 𝗁𝗈𝗉𝖾 𝗒𝗈𝗎 𝖾𝗇𝗃𝗈𝗒𝖾𝖽 𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗌 𝖼𝗁𝖺𝗉𝗍𝖾𝗋, 𝗉𝗅𝖾𝖺𝗌𝖾 𝖽𝗈 𝗇𝗈𝗍 𝖻𝖾 𝖺 𝗀𝗁𝗈𝗌𝗍 𝗋𝖾𝖺𝖽𝖾𝗋, 𝗂 𝗅𝗈𝗏𝖾 𝗐𝗁𝖾𝗇 𝗉𝖾𝗈𝗉𝗅𝖾 𝗌𝗉𝖺𝗆 𝗆𝖾 𝗐𝗂𝗍𝗁 𝖼𝗈𝗆𝗆𝖾𝗇𝗍𝗌!!

𝖦𝖤𝖳 𝖱𝖤𝖠𝖣𝖸 𝖥𝖮𝖱 𝖳𝖧𝖤 𝖭𝖤𝖷𝖳 𝖢𝖧𝖠𝖯𝖳𝖤𝖱 𝖫𝖮𝖵𝖤𝖲!!

𝗍𝖺𝗀𝗌: eltheria m1stywrites alycialcver (comment if you want to be added)

word count: 3884
----
date: 27 June 2024