chapter one | prison & earth
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In her cell, Rylee Hunter sat, counting down the final week of her sentence. Only six days remained until she would turn eighteen. She occupied herself by bouncing a ball against the wall, a token from Finn during his last visitation months ago. She had managed to keep it hidden from the guards until the abrupt opening of her cell door, causing her to drop the ball and stand up.

"Hey," she inquired, looking at the guard. "What's going on?"

"Prisoner 117, please stand against the wall," the guard said coldly, his hand resting on his shock lasher.

"What are you doing?!" Hunter pleaded.

"Prisoner 117, face the wall now," he repeated sternly, holstering his shock lasher. Reluctantly, Hunter moved backward and turned to face the wall. The guard approached, securing her restraints, but as he did, Hunter delivered a swift kick to his shin, causing him to stumble. She made a break for the exit but was swiftly apprehended by two guards, who pushed her to the floor.

"What's going on?!" Hunter exclaimed as she saw other prisoners outside their cells, surrounded by guards.

A guard knelt beside her, attaching a wristband, and explained, "You're being sent to the ground." He secured her wrists together. "No! Wait! What are you talking about?" Hunter's fear surged at the thought of being sent to a radiation-soaked planet. Death by radiation was a slow and agonizing fate, depending on the exposure. She felt a shiver of dread run through her as the guard dragged her down the corridor, hoping against hope that he was lying.

Unfortunately, he was not.

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The 100 prisoners were loaded into the dropship, consisting of two levels. Hunter found herself on the second level with her friends, Jasper and Monty, all strapped to the wall. She scanned the room and spotted a familiar face: Finn. Relief washed over her as her close friends made it onto the dropship, but there was one person she couldn't find—Murphy. She silently prayed he was on the lower level.

As the dropship doors prepared to open, two stark possibilities hung in the air:

Death by radiation. 

Or 

100 delinquents now owned the ground.

Hunter didn't know which was worse.

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Hunter glanced at Jasper, who wore a grin as he looked her way. "How come you always have a smile on your face whenever I see you?" she chuckled nervously.

"Life's too short to be angry or sad, Hunter," Jasper replied with a smile.

"Or maybe he's feeling a whole different kind of happy," Monty chimed in from her left.

"I'm going to agree with Monty here," Hunter chuckled. Suddenly, the dropship jolted, and a few screams echoed through the room. The screens flickered to life, displaying the face of an all-too-familiar figure—Thelonious Jaha, their Chancellor.

"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 yourselves but for all of us, for mankind itself," Jaha spoke calmly. Hunter wished she could reach through the screen and shake some sense into him. But Jasper's earlier comment about life's brevity kept her from succumbing to anger.

"Your dad's a jerk, Wells!" Jasper quipped, causing laughter among the delinquents. Hunter blocked out Jaha's speech, her attention drawn to Finn floating around the room.

"The Spacewalk Bandit strikes again," Jasper said, provoking cheers from the crowd. Hunter rolled her eyes at his antics and moved to tell him to get back to his seat when a blonde girl beat her to it. Two other boys tried to leave their seats, and once again, the blonde intervened. Then, the parachute deployed, causing the dropship to jolt, and the room shook with panic.

"Listen—no machine him," Monty interrupted the chaos.

"Whoa—that's a first," Jasper happily scoffed.

As the seatbelts released, and people began moving, Hunter approached Finn to check if he was okay, but the rush of delinquents heading downstairs diverted her attention.

"The doors are on the lower level. Let's go!" a boy shouted.

"No! We can't just open the doors," the blonde girl countered. Hunter reached the lower level and pushed her way through the crowd.

"Hey! Back up, guys!" a tall boy called out, dressed in a guard's uniform.

"Stop!" the blonde girl shouted as she made her way through the crowd. "The air could be toxic."

"If the air is toxic, we're all dead anyway," the makeshift guard argued. Just as he was about to open the door, someone else spoke up.

"Bellamy?" A girl called out, drawing everyone's attention. "My God, look how big you are." They embraced warmly.

"What the hell are you wearing? A guard's uniform?" she asked, her concern evident.

"I borrowed it to get on the dropship. Someone's gotta keep an eye on you."

"Where's your wristband?" the blonde girl interjected.

"Mind if I have a moment? I haven't seen my brother for a year," Bellamy's sister chimed in.

"No one has a brother!" a man called out.

"That's Octavia Blake. The girl they found hidden in the floor!" a girl informed the group. Octavia moved to confront the one who spoke, but Bellamy restrained her.

"Let's give them something else to remember you by," Bellamy told her.

"Yeah? Like what?" Octavia asked with a huff.

"Like being the first person to set foot on the ground in a hundred years," Bellamy replied with a smile. Octavia returned the smile, and Bellamy rested his hand on the door lever, taking a deep breath. They all did. As he pulled the lever down, a blinding light flooded their vision. After their eyes adjusted, a cool breeze touched their skin, and the warmth of the sun bathed their faces for the first time.

It was a tranquil moment. Greenery surrounded them, a color foreign to those who grew up on the Ark. The scent was sweet and pure. Octavia took her first steps on the ground, letting out a breath. The serenity was soon disrupted by the rush of adrenaline, and she couldn't help but cheer.

"We're back, bitches!"

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