As I lay on my bed, hands behind my head and eyes scanning the view outside my window, I could hear raised voices and scuffling outside the door.

I closed my eyes and sighed.

I still had a few months to live, if you could call it that. You see, the Ark has very strict rules when it comes to the law.

No matter what the crime you committed was, if you were over eighteen, you were killed, or floated, as they preferred to call it.

For those who aren't over the legal age, we're kept in confinement until we are eighteen and the we are given a retrial. Although, we all know that nobody pretty much ever gets pardoned for their crimes.

"Prisoner 222, stand and face the wall." I hadn't noticed the guard come in.

I looked up from my perch on the bed and I felt my heartbeat rise in fear. It wasn't my time yet.

"There must be some kind of mistake. I'm seventeen. It's not my time." I panicked, looking from the door to the officer, thinking about running. It probably wouldn't have mattered anyway. There was no where to go in this tin can. We were all trapped.

"Be quiet and face the wall," the guard said menacingly, steppinig forward.

I started to hyperventilate as I was pushed up against the wall, the surface cold against my flushed skin.

I felt a sharp stab of pain as he clamped something on my wrist.

"Take off the Ring," he ordered.

"What? No, it was my mothers," I cried out.

"Take it off now or I will be required to use force," he said, pressing his arm into my back harder as a reminder of his authority over me.

I shook my head defiantly and clenched my hand into a fist. That way he couldn't get it off.

The ring was dainty. It was shaped like a branch and it had small leaves and stars growing out of it. It had been in out family for generations. Since before the war.

I raised my other fist and brought it to the guards head, knocking him backward from the force.

Before he could fully recover, I kicked him in the gut as hard as I could and quickly got out the door.

There were prisoners everywhere. Some of them were fighting against the guards and others obeying commands without problems. They were being herded somewhere and I suddenly had a thought.

What if they're killing us all off to make more space and time for the rest of them?

I didn't have much time to think about what I could do or where I could go as the guards were getting more suspicious by the second.

I was suddenly tackled to the ground and I let out a groan as my head came crashing down to meet the floor.

I felt my arms being restrained and I began to panic. They can't have my ring.

"Officer, what's going on?" I heard a voice ask from somewhere behind me.

"The prisoner refused to remove her  ring and she assaulted me, Sir," the guard responded from where he was lying on top of me, restraining my arms.

"Let me go," I seethed, feeling rage fill my gut and cloud my judgement.

"Let her keep it," the officer said, walking forward and handing the guard something in a syringe.

"What is that?" I asked, fighting even more against the restraints.

I heard the officer chuckle and there was a sharp, cold pain that suddenly blossomed in my neck and I hissed.

I felt an icy fluid start to make its way into my system. My muscles slowly became lax and my eyelids began to close as a strong drowsy feeling flooded my senses.

~~~~

I groaned and sucked in a sharp breath. I lifted my head and moaned from the kink that I could feel somewhere in the back of my neck.

I opened my eyes and blinked a few times, waiting for my vision to clear.

I saw a boy about my age sit down next to me without being prompted and strap himself in, the guard checked it was secure before moving towards me and checking that I was safely strapped into the chair.

Wait, what? Where am I?

I turned to look at the compliant boy. He had dark hair that I couldn't tell the exact colour of in the dark, brown eyes to match and a rather large set of goggles that were perched on his hairline.

"My names Jasper. What's yours?" He asked, finally noticing me watching him.

"Alex," I simply replied, not paying much attention to him. I was kind of busy trying to gather my bearings.

"That's a cool name," he said with a goofy smile. I couldn't help but smile in return. 

"Do you know what's going on?" I asked him, becoming serious once again.

"Not a clue. I don't think they're mass floating us though because I'm not eighteen yet," he replied thoughtfully.

"They might be. The Ark is overpopulated and we're the waste of space trash," I replied, glaring at the guard as he stepped down the ladder and out of sight.

"I don't know. I've got a bad feeling about it though," Jasper sighed, leaning his head back and closing his eyes.

All of a sudden the whole entire room began to shake and there was a loud crashing noise. The lights flickered for a minute before stabilising and returning to normal. I heard many loud whimpers and screams.

Jasper shrieked and his eyes flew open, head whipping up in shock.

A bunch of screens turned on simultaneously and Chancellor Jaha showed up on the screen.

"Prisoners of the Ark. You've been given a second chance. As your Chancellor, I have ordered that 100 of you, be sent down to the ground. If the ground is survivable, the rest of us will follow," he paused and I took the time to look over at Jasper.

He was gaping at the screen with a transfixed expression plastered onto his face.

"If the odds of survival were better, we would have sent others but quite frankly, your crimes have made you," he paused again, looking for the right word. "Expendable."

I scoffed. Thanks jackass.

"Your dad's a dick, Wells," I heard a boy yell.

Wait. The Chancellors son was arrested? When did that happen?

"Mount Weather is where you are going to land. It was supposed to be used as a shelter in the war but nobody made it there in time. It is stocked with non perishables and other survival equipment," Jaha explained.

"Yeah, Spacewalker!" I heard a girl somewhere to my left exclaim and I looked over to see a boy in a beanie, around my age, out of his seat and floating around.

He floated over to a blonde haired girl, Clarke, my mind supplied and cross his arms.

"Stay seated if you want to live," Clarke told the other two boys who were starting to unbuckle themselves, following Spacewalker's lead. 

Suddenly, the ship began to heat and I could feel myself starting to sweat. That's when I knew we were entering the atmosphere.

The turbulence got even worse and my breathing became laboured. I vaguely recognised Clarke yelling at the boys and Jasper's face appearing in my line of vision.

He was saying something but I couldn't hear over the pounding of my heart and the volume of my breathing.

My vision became slightly blurry and I could feel my breathing getting worse. It wouldn't be long before I passed out.

I clenched my eyes shut and balled my hands into fists. I felt a warm hand cover mine and my breathing became slightly easier.

There was a loud crash and I could hear yelling and screaming.

There was a shower of sparks above my head and I shrieked, turning my hand over and clutching Jasper's tighter.

There was another shower of sparks and a pipe on the other side of the room busted, steam pouring out of it. The lights flickered several times before there was a huge tremor that wrenched me forward.

The lights went out momentarily before turning back on again and I noticed my breathing had gotten worse again.

I realised that I was still clutching Jasper's hand in a death grip and I released it, watching as the skin turned red.

"Hey, look at me. You're fine. Just breathe," Jasper said, looking into my eyes and placing his hand on my shoulder.

I took a few deep breathes and I felt my constricted airways begin to loosen.

"Thanks," I said breathlessly, letting out a nervous chuckle.

After the realisation sunk in that we were not in space anymore, people began to quickly rip off their seat belts and make their way down the stairs, rushing to get out.

I followed Jasper down the stairs and I stood close to the back.

"Stop! The air could be toxic," Clarke said, following the crowd down the stairs and pushing her way to the front where an officer was pushing everyone back.

"If the airs toxic, we're already dead," he replied.

I faintly recognised the voice and I jumped up to get a better view of the guard.

"Bellamy?" I heard a tentative voice ask. I looked to the stairs and saw a girl, mid step down the ladder.

Girlfriend maybe?

I looked back over to Bellamy and he smiled at her. She made her way down the steps and toward him.

"That's the girl they found under the floor," I heard a voice say.

"Octavia, I think," another added.

"God, look how big you are," Bellamy said fondly, gripping my attention once again.

Octavia, if that was her name, wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a hug. She pulled back a few seconds later and frowned.

"What are you wearing? A guards uniform, really?"

"I borrowed it to get on the ship."

I saw Octavia's face drop but Bellamy overlooked it, grinning.

"Someone's got to keep an eye on you."

She wrapped her arms around him again but Clarke interrupted them.

"Where is your wristband?"

"Do you mind? I haven't seen my brother in a year," she hissed, glaring at the blonde. Not a girlfriend then.

"No one has a brother," someone said incredulously and I nodded. It was against the rules. We were only allowed one child. If there were more, the parents would be floated and the second child put into prison, which I thought was cruel seeing as though it wasn't the child's fault they were born.

"Octavia, no!" I heard Bellamy strain. I looked over to see him holding her back and I hid my smile. She's feisty.

"I'm always going to be the girl under the floor," she complained and Bellamy smirked.

"Let's give them something else to remember you by."

"Yeah, like what?"

"Being the first person on the ground in a hundred years," he replied smugly.