INFURIATING
john murphy
chapter one ↬ we're the ones strapped to the wall
episode ↬ pilot
word count ↬ 2044
mood 🎧 ↬ fear on fire, ruelle

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WHEN LIAM HAD FIRST gotten arrested, he immediately blamed it on Monty. The little shithead hadn't replaced what they took. A little weed meant death in their community. Looking back on it now, as a random guard hauled him from his cell to his impending death, he decided that life is too short to hold grudges. Especially when you're only sixteen (- almost seventeen - he would remind himself) and about to die.

Logically, it didn't make much sense to Liam why the Ark would execute a hundred teenage delinquents on the same day, but most of the rules regarding the Ark weren't exactly logical.

"Prisoner 289," the meat-headed excuse of a guard said, breaking Liam out of his thoughts. "Please step against the walls."

Liam froze. "You must have some kind of mistake." He tried to reason with the guard. "I'm only sixteen! It's not my time yet!"

"Prisoner 289," the guard repeated. "Stand up and step against the walls."

Liam's eyes widened and he shook his head frantically. "What the hell, dude? No! I told you. I'm only sixteen."

The guard rolled his eyes and shoved him over to the wall. "If there's one thing I won't miss from this," he mused to himself. "It's dealing with little pretentious brats like you."

The red-haired boy suddenly stopped struggling and stared at the guard hard. "Wait. What do you mean by 'won't miss'?"

The guard gave him a sort of half-smirk as he applied a silver band onto his wrist. Liam hissed, as he wasn't expecting the bite of the spikes on in the inner-side of the band penetrating his wrist.

"Ow! What the fuck, man?" Liam glared at the guard as he rubbed his wrist. Granted, it didn't do much, as the wristband stayed in place no matter what which way he fidgeted with it.

The guard just sighed. "Come on, kid." He escorted Liam outside of his cell. For the first time in nearly a year, Liam was let out of solitary confinement. It was nice, until he saw that each of his fellow jailbirds were being led out, each struggling, and demanding answers.

Liam turned to the guard, his eyes wide in horror. "What are they doing?"

The guard gave him an impassive stare, and Liam didn't want to take his bullshit anymore. "No!" He said causing a few of his fellow prisoners to look at him. "You can't lead us all out of here and not give us any fucking answers! Tell me what the hell is happening!"

The guard sighed and gave him a small smile. "Sorry kid," he said apologetically before taking a syringe out of his pocket and injecting Liam with the liquid inside.

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When Liam woke up, he was strapped to the wall, in between two of his best friends. "Goddamnit," he said, startling Jasper and Monty. "Of course when we're getting sent down to our deaths, we're the ones strapped to the wall."

Jasper chuckled in agreement, and Monty rolled his eyes. "Why do you have to make everything so overdramatic, Li?"

Liam gave him a crooked smile. "Of course. If I don't, who wi -", he was interrupted, mid sentence by a huge shutter that went through the dropship. The three of them stood there, shocked.

Jasper was the first to break the silence. "What. The hell. Was that?"

Monty looked back down at his hands. "The atmosphere, I presume," he said nonchalantly, not batting an eye.

Liam was perplexed. "What do you mean 'the atmosphere'? Where are we going?"

Just as he spoke, his question was answered, as a small television set turned on, Chancellor Jaha on the screen. Liam gritted his teeth. The 'high and mighty' Chancellor had never been one of his favourite people. Especially for floating his father when he was six for a crime he didn't even commit. "Prisoners of The Ark," said Jana. "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 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've sent others. Frankly, we're sending you because your crimes have made you expendable."

Liam rolled his eyes. "Out of all of the people he could've sent, he sent kids down to Earth? Shouldn't have he sent someone, oh, I don't know, experienced?!"

Monty shook his head. "What kind of experience are you looking for? Even our grandparents haven't been on Earth. Even the people who've gotten the highest marks on Pike's Earth Skills classes wouldn't know what to do."

"Still," said Liam, slightly sulking. "What does he expect a hundred teenage delinquents to do. We'll kill each other before Jaha gets his magical answer."

Jasper nodded his head before joining the conversation. "Sorry, Monty, but I'm with Liam here. He's sending a bunch of kids who he's imprisoned. What does want us to do? Half of us hate him anyways."

Across the ship, Liam heard someone yell out, "Your dad is a dick, Wells!"

"See!" Jasper waved his hand as to prove his point. "Everyone hates him!"

Monty shushed him. "Wait, did he just say Wells?!"

Liam craned his neck, and there he was. Wells Jaha in all his glory. The three of them stared on in disbelief. "Wow," said Jasper. "The guy must really be an ass if he's willing to kill his own son!"

Screen Jaha continued to talk. "If, however, you do survive, those crimes will be forgiven, your records wiped clean."

Liam gripped Jasper and Monty's hands. "Then I guess the only thing left for us to do is survive."

"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 300 people for up to two years," said Jaha.

Liam chuckled bitterly. "What makes him think that it will even still be there? It's been 97 years. All the food's probably been eaten up by animals. Well, if any animals survived that is."

"No one ever made it there," continued Jaha "Because we spare you no food, or water, or medicine, I cannot stress strongly enough, that Mount Weather is life.

"Spacewalk bandit strikes again!" Liam heard someone call from across the room. He grinned and looked over, Jaha's droning becoming boring.

A boy had released himself from his seatbelt and was floating around in the open gravity. Liam identified him as Finn Collins, a boy who lived near his station. "Check it out," said Finn. "Your dad floated me, after all." Finn had gone straight in front of Wells when he said that.

"You should strap in before the parachutes deploy," Wells simply said. Liam admired him for that, not giving into the taunting from his fellow prisoners. He knew it would be hard for the dark-haired boy down on the ground. If the landing didn't kill him, his fellow prisoners might.

Two more boys began to unstrap them self as Finn had. "Hey, you two, stay put if you want to live." The blonde girl who was sitting next to Wells shot them a hard glare. Liam could tell that she was a no-nonsense kind of person.

Through all of the commotion, Liam heard a snippet of what Jaha was saying. "You must locate those supplies immediately."

Finn turned to the blonde girl, and Liam diverted his attention back to them. "Hey, you're the traitor who's been in solitary for a year."

Liam could see Monty rolling his eyes beside him. Out of all things he could've said.

The blonde rose an eyebrow before clapping back. "You're the idiot who wasted a month of oxygen on an illegal spacewalk."

Liam grinned. He respected this girl. It was obvious that she would become one of the non-official leaders once they were on the ground. If they even get to the ground.

Liam saw Finn smile. "But it was fun. I'm Finn."

Chancellor Jaha said some more instructions right before another shudder quaked through the dropship. "Your one responsibility is stay alive."

Suddenly, the ship started to freefall through Earth's atmosphere. "Stay in your seats!" Said the blonde. "Finn," she turned to the boy who had been thrown around the ship. "Are you okay?"

Liam gripped Monty and Jasper's hands and closed his eyes as tightly as he could. God, he was only sixteen! That's way too young to die. Liam figured that if he was about to die, at least he had his two best friends beside him.

And then suddenly, everything stopped. Liam poked an eye open. It seemed like they were still alive.

Everyone seemed to be waiting for an inevitable explosion or something of that sort. Monty spoke first. "Listen," he said. "No machine hum.

Jasper's eyes grew wide. "Whoa. That's a first."

Liam hastily threw off his seatbelt, and everyone followed that.

"The outer door is on the lower level. Let's go!" some guy said.

The blonde from before groaned. "No. We can't just open the doors."

A guard stood at the door. "Hey, just back it up, guys," he said.

The blonde tried to talk to him. "Stop. The air could be toxic."

"If the air is toxic, we're all dead, anyway," the guard shut her down pretty quick. Liam was pretty sure that the blonde wasn't used to that happening.

A dark haired girl who looked close to his age stepped forward. "Bellamy?"

A guy spoke up. "That's the girl they hid under the floor!"

What? Liam thought to himself.

"My God, look how big you are," said the guard - Bellamy - with a proud smile on his face.

The brunette scoffed. "What the hell are you wearing, a guard's uniform?"

Bellamy gave her a gentle smile. "I borrowed it to get on the drop ship. Someone has got to keep an eye on you."

Liam suddenly felt uncomfortable, as though he was interrupting an important moment. The blonde soon broke that moment quickly. "Where's your wristband?" she asked.

That was a good point, Liam agreed. The 'guard' wasn't wearing a wristband at all. Almost as if he wasn't supposed to be there.

The brunette girl gave the blonde a sharp glare. "Do you mind? I haven't seen my brother in a year."

Brother? Liam thought to himself.

"No one has a brother," said a boy, voicing Liam's thoughts aloud.

"That's Octavia Blake," a girl Liam didn't recognize felt the need to inform everyone. "The girl they found hidden in the floor. "

Octavia glared at the girl, and Liam truly felt sorry for her. It couldn't be easy, not being allowed to have a life, but then having everyone point and stare once you're free.

Octavia began to lunge for the girl, but her brother stopped her. "Octavia, Octavia, no," he comforted her. "Let's give them something else to remember you by."

Octavia gave him a defiant look. "Yeah? Like what?"

Bellamy smiled. "Like being the first person on the ground in a hundred years."

"Ninety-seven," Liam coughed under his breath.

Bellamy turned around sharply. "What was that?" He glared at the red-haired boy.

Liam suddenly felt the need to look at his shoes. "Nothing, nothing."

Beside him, a brunet boy that Liam didn't know smirked at him. Liam raised a brow. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing," the boy drawled, imitating Liam from before.

While the two had been talking, Bellamy opened the doors of the dropship. Suddenly, the annoying boy from beside him wasn't important anymore. Everything is was just so colourful. The grass was too green, the sky was too blue, the sun was too bright. It was like every sense he had ever had was heightened by a hundred.

Octavia walked to the edge of the dropship exit, and inhaled deeply. After that she swiftly jumped off with two feel onto the grass. She raised her arms above her head and yelled "WE'RE BACK, BITCHES!"

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Ugh this is basically just a filler chapter bc nothing happens, but you guys have no idea. I have so much planned for this fix you guys aren't even ready.
Xx
Alicia