01| STEPPING ONTO EARTH

[ Chapter One ]

❝ Because fuck you! I'm not eighteen yet.❞

[Pilot]

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Blaring sirens jerk Carina out of her head where she'd been dreaming of better days. She sat up in her meager bed, staring at the walls where she'd doodled with her chalk set that had been a present from Bellamy when he'd actually deigned to see her. Her back ached from months upon months of lying on the bed that shouldn't have even passed for a bed.

Her eyes flitted around her cell and she grabbed a piece of chalk, hiding it in her sleeve. It wasn't too pointy but she had a feeling it would hurt if she stabbed it in the right place. She shoved the rest of the set under her mattress in a corner that she knew no one would ever look.

As the door to her cell creaked open, she blinked against the fluorescent light that streamed in from the hallway. A guard stepped into the room and immediately looked around her cell to see her various doodles and drawings covering the walls and floor but he didn't say anything.

Carina lifted her chin in defiance and starred the guard down before he spoke.

"Carina Samuels. Prisoner two-sixty-two, turn around and face the wall." The guard instructed.

Carina's confidence shattered but she didn't let her face or voice betray as she spoke, "No way in hell."

The guard pulled something from his boot and Carina almost gulped as she saw a shock baton in his hand. Carina wasn't going to back down though. She wasn't going down without a fight. And boy would she fight.

She lifted her face and looked at the guard, tilting her head in mock concern, "You don't seriously think you can scare me, do you?"

"Turn around and face the wall or I will make you." The guard spoke threateningly.

Carina shook her head, "No."

The guard grabbed her and pushed her into the wall before snapping something on her wrist. Carina gasped as her head hit the wall and pain began to spread throughout her body. She looked down at her wrist to see that the guard had put some sort of metal bracelet around it.

"What the hell is going on?" Carina asked, trying not to let her obvious fear show.

The guard ignored her and pushed her away from the wall and out of her cell. Carina looked around wildly to see that other prisoners were being forced outside of their cells and she immediately began to panic, "Where are you taking us? Is this some sort of mass purge? Because fuck you! I'm not eighteen yet. I don't turn eighteen for at least two more months. Let me go."

Carina bagan pushing against the guard and screaming as loud as she could but other kids' screams were just as loud and no one seemed to care.

The guard in charge of her was pushing her forward until she reached a line full of other kids around her age and some even younger. She looked around for a form of escape but guards were blocking every exit and were forcing the kids to walk. The place that they were being led to didn't seem familiar to the girl but then again she had been locked up for years and her memory of her home probably wasn't as good as before. She looked around for any clue if anyone else knew what was going on but the other prisoners looked as clueless as her.

Carina focused her attention straight ahead where she saw two Council Members. Abby Griffin and Marcus Kane. She fought the urge to spit at Kane's feet as she was led past. She knew it would do no good and probably get her into more trouble but boy did she want to humiliate him.

A door rose up in front of the teens and as Carina was led inside she noticed that it was a ship. She tried to run but a guard pushed her into a seat and strapped her in with the red seatbelt. She watched as the guards forced the other kids into the other seats and then closed the door behind them.

They were sending them to Earth.

They were sending kids to a planet soaked through with radiation where they could die, horrible painful deaths.

Kids.

Some of the kids looked no older than thirteen and they all looked terrified.

It was hard to believe that they had all done horrible things in order to be locked up because at that moment they all looked like scared teenagers.

Her head spun as she felt the ship pull away from the Ark and then drop. Her legs flew up and she gripped her seatbelt with her fingers until they grew white.

"Prisoners of The Ark, hear me now." Chancellor Jaha's voice sounded through one of the monitors on the side of the ship. Carina clenched her teeth as she watched him speak. "You've been given a second chance. And as your Chancellor, it is my hope that you see this as not only a chance for you, but a chance for all of us. Indeed for mankind itself. We have no idea what is waiting for you down there. If the odds of survival were better, we would have sent others. Frankly we're sending you because your crimes have made you expendable."

"Ass." Carina mumbled just as another person yelled, "Your dad's a dick, Wells."

Carina's ears pricked at the mention of Wells Jaha. What crime could he have possibly done to get sent to the ground? He was the Chancellor's son. Surely Jaha wasn't as cold-hearted as that. Or maybe he was. He'd sentenced men and women to death for meager crimes so maybe he was truly heartless.

Jaha continued, "Your 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 non-perishables to sustain three hundred people for up to two years..."

Carina's attention was driven away from their Chancellor to a boy floating past them. Carina glared at the boy who was clearly fooling around with the anti-gravity.

"Spacewalker!" Someone cheered and others joined in.

The boy shot some people a wink and locked eyes with Carina who just gave him a glare in return. Two other boys followed him and snapped out of their seatbelts.

"Hey. Stay put if you want to live." A girl's voice shouted at Finn.

But her words were cut off by a sudden violent jolt. The lights in the ship flickered as the ship shook violently. Carina's hands flew back to her seatbelt and she grabbed onto it for dear life. Screams of terror sounded as sparks flew around them but Carina was able to hear Jaha's final message, "Your one responsibility is to stay alive."

"Yeah easy for you to say." Carina shouted at him as she couldn't help it. She was angry at everyone who had had a hand in sending children down to Earth. Sure, a lot of them had done horrible things but did they deserve to die a death by radiation? Carina didn't think so.

The ship was plummeting towards Earth and didn't show any sign of slowing down. The kids were still screaming in their seats and Carina had lost sight of the boys who had been floating. She assumed that they had fallen down and she wasn't excited to see their dead bodies if she made it out of this. Smoke fills her nose and she squeezes her eyes shut as the ship jerks and then stops.

Carina opens one eye and then another and listens for the sound of the engine but it is silent. A small smile spreads on her face as she realizes they made it. They're alive and on Earth.

Carina quickly unbuckles her seatbelt and drops to the floor of the ship. She looks around her to see other kids doing the same.

A girl rushes past her to kneel beside someone on the floor, but Carina doesn't look to see what she is looking at and instead heads for the stairwell to move down to the ground floor of the ship.

It doesn't take long before others follow suit and as Carina arrives on the bottom floor she is immediately swarmed by other kids all trying to open the door at once.

"Wait." Carina speaks but no one listens to her until another girl yells from the ladder, "We can't just open the doors."

Carina tries to see over the crowd and curses her short height. Instead, she pushes some of the kids aside in order to get a little space. She can see someone in a guard uniform up ahead but she can't see their face. She rolls her eyes and murmurs, "They sent a guard with us?"

The blonde girl from the ladder pushes forward, "The air could be toxic."

"If the air's toxic then we're all dead anyway." A man's voice that sounded very familiar shoots back.

Another girl's voice immediately rings out above the crowd causing everyone to fall silent, "Bellamy?"

Carina's eyes widen as she whispers, "Blake?" She looks to see a girl with chestnut brown hair push through the crowd. Carina recognizes her as Octavia Blake, someone who she used to be super close with and would have put her entire life on the line for. She watches as Bellamy responds, "O? My God, look how big you are."

Octavia throws herself into her older brother's arms as they hug in front of all the delinquents. Tears threaten to fall down Carina's cheeks. She never thought she'd see two of the people she'd cared about most again and she thought her heart would break despite all the walls she'd forced herself to put up.

The girl from the ladder suddenly interrupts and stares at Bellamy, "Where's your wristband?"

Octavia pulls away from her brother and glares at the girl, "Do you mind, I haven't seen my brother in a year."

Confused murmurs ring out as Carina moves forward but is still concealed by the crowd.

"No one has a brother." Someone says.

"That's Octavia Blake, the girl they found hidden in the floor." Someone else says.

Octavia lunges at the owner of that comment but Bellamy pulls her back, "Octavia no. Let's give them something else to remember you by."

"Yeah? Like what?" Octavia glares at the crowd who were all still staring at her like they'd never seen a girl before.

"Like being the first person on the ground in a hundred years." Bellamy smiles at his sister. Octavia grins back and jumps excitedly as Bellamy pulls the lever down, opening the ship's door. The door slowly opened, giving the delinquents their first real glimpse of Earth.

Carina moves forward again, and closes her eyes inhaling the smell of fresh air before she opens her eyes to take in the sight. It looks like they landed in the middle of the woods as trees tower over the ship. She'd never seen this much green in her entire life. Or this many vibrant colors. Her eyes were overwhelmed as they tried to take everything in at once. Carina had only ever dreamed of being on the Earth and she couldn't have ever dreamed that it was this beautiful.

Octavia cautiously stepped down the ledge until she reached the very end and she paused before jumping down with both feet. Carina held her breath half expecting her friend to burst into flames but everything seemed fine.

Octavia held up both her arms to the sky and shouted, "We're back bitches."

Everyone started laughing as they ran out of the ship and started running and screaming in joy.

Carina took a cautious step outside after most of the kids had left but when she felt the ground beneath her feet, all thoughts of caution left her body as she followed her fellow delinquents into their new home.

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Word Count: 2023

Hey guys and welcome to the first chapter of Constellation! I am so excited for this one and all the trouble my baby Carina is going to get up to. 

(The gif at the top was made by me. Please do not steal it.)

What did you guys think? What about Carina so far? 

I love you all and will see you soon with chapter 2.

POSTED ON:

5. 16. 20