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EIGHTEEN. ONE. EIGHT. The day of Josie Jensen's death is part of her celebration of life. Her eighteenth birthday. How ironic.

The last living Jensen always knew life on the Ark was a doomed salvation for the human race ever since they started floating people for the smallest of crimes. I mean, as long as you have one person living then the human race is still alive . . . right?

Being in solitary confinement for three years can mess with even the most sane people— only having yourself and the four walls around you to talk to. Eventually they start to seem like they're mocking you for being so alone.

At the time of early morning, Josie woke from her slumber on her eighteenth birthday. Normally she would get up, do a few push up and punch the air a few times just to keep her mind busy, but there was no use today. Because any minute now, guards would be storming through the door that has kept her locked away from freedom all these years, and bring her to her court trial that would most definitely end in her death.

Why else would Chancellor Jaha be so quick to send her into solitary on the charge of murder, even though she wasn't the one to pull the trigger— even taking a bullet in the process.

The Chancellor always gets his way. Josie learned that the hard way. But fuck him, right?

Josie had so many questions she wanted answered before she would meet her death. Will I die quickly? What happens if you don't have anyone to say goodbye to, do they just eject you into space without a single word?

She hated not knowing.

But one thing she did know is that the guards were here. They were here to take her to trial. And she was ready . . . as long as someone answered her questions.

"Prisoner 202, face the wall." Josie did as told, standing just close enough that she could feel her own breathe reflect off the wall. "Hold out your right arm." One of the guards then instructed. Josie had assumed that one of the two male guards were preparing her to place cuffs on her— but man, was she wrong.

She held her breath as she awaited the cool metal to clasp around her wrist. Josie could hear the guard get closer as his heavy footsteps grew louder. Soon enough, something metal was clasped around her right wrist.

All at once the pain of seven needs jabbed into her wrist. "What the fuck!" She violently whipped around to face the guard. "As if killing me wasn't enough, you guys had to torture me until you finally decide to catapult me into space." Josie sighed, mostly mumbling that part to herself as she rubbed the skin around her new fancy bracelet.

"Sorry miss, it's protocol." The guard who stood by the door announced. Josie looked up with irritation blazing in her dark brown irises. Guardsman number one grabbed her currently un-accessorized wrist and dragged her to the door where guardsman number two was waiting.

The girl who was falsely accused of murder stared at her fraying shoes as she stepped out into the halls of the skybox. When the sound of hundreds of voices echoed throughout the skybox, that's when she lifted her gaze.

Almost every single prisoner— if not all of them, were being let out of their cells and escorted to an unknown place somewhere on the Ark. Where else would they keep like a gazillion teenage delinquents?

Panic started to flow through Josie's veins like a fresh dose of epinephrine, her body stilling in confusion. "What . . . what's happening? Why is everyone being let out?" Josie had turned her head in the direction of guardsman number one who still had his grip on her.

The guard paused for a moment, not sparing the girl a look. He glanced over to the man on his left and sighed while pushing Josie forwards as the three of them began to move again.

"The one hundred prisoners are being pardoned for their crimes."

Well that's one way of putting it.

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Josie had many theories about the strange device on her wrist. She thought that it could be a tracking device to make sure the ex-convicts were on their best behavior— or possibly a symbol to show regular citizens of the Ark that they can show mercy to children who were once prisoners.

The list goes on.

But Josie knew that there was no mercy from the chancellor. Hell, she thinks she might have even seen Wells, the chancellor's son, somewhere in the line of prisoners.

All one hundred of them were being lead down a hallway she had never seen before and through a door that is a different style from any other on the Ark.

Truth be told, she's been in farm station for fifteen years before being locked up, in which her only door was a cold metal rectangle concealing her from the rest of the world.

She didn't know she'd miss these ratty old hallways so much. She didn't know she'd miss people this much.

Before she knew it she was at the front of the line and she had a perfect view of just about forty prisoners sat in seats with flimsy seatbelts clipped across their chests.

Seatbelts? Josie had never seen a seatbelt other than the ones in cars played on the holo-televisions. In which situation would they possibly need seatbelts on the Ark?

"You're name?" The guard to her right asked her. In the man's hand was a clipboard holding what she assumed to be the roughly counted forty convicts names'. She also took the time to realize how she has never once seen a female guard.

"Uh— Josie." The man raised his brow, clearly looking for more of an answer. "Jensen. Josie Jensen."

June wanted to hurt someone. It wasn't the first time Josie felt like this . . . truth be told, she's been feeling a whole lot like this since she got locked up in the first place. The Jensen girl likes to distance herself away from violence. But when she was accused of a murder where her finger wasn't even touching the trigger— that's when her opinions on savagery changed. Immensely.

Her brown eyes scanned the metal room, it seemed to have a ladder that lead upwards to another floor . . . where more convicts resided.

But why would anyone need seatbelts for some random room. I mean, there was some sort of old fashioned holo-television— one that had a physical screen. A television? Josie thought; it can't be a holo-television if it's not a hologram. Maybe they were giving some kind of final presentation before they let everyone go?

But those fucking seatbelts . . . what are they for?

Then she took a moment to process it. No, they wouldn't do that— unless . . . unless there was a reason the guard who helped her out of her cell was so skeptical of his wording, and a reason they were letting rapists, thieves and murderers go free of any charges.

Then she realized.

Josie spun on her heel before attempting to make a run for it. Keyword, attempting. Two guards from either side of the hall  grabbed onto her elbows and hauled her into the dropship. "No—please I'm not ready,"

The guards huffed as they looked towards the girl, who also caught the attention of the forty prisoners. "Just go and take a seat." One of the guards ordered.

Anger and fear swirled in her expression of anguish, sticking more handfuls of hatful anticipation into her stomach.

Josie had finally managed to dig her heels into the ground, forcing herself and the men to a halt. "Put in me in that dropship and I'll do everything in my power that you two come with me." It was meant to come out as a hiss under her breath, but apparently some others picked up on her words.

"Woah, no one said anything about hurdling us into space!" A boy with a middle part of brunette hair and one spiky red shoulder pad, panicked.

With that, everyone within the ship started clawing at their seatbelts and those in line were held at gunpoint by the guardsmen lining the hall. With the bustling commotion, the guard who had previously told her to take a seat had soon grown infuriated with her result of chaos and knocked the butt end of his gun into Josie Jensen's temple, rendering her unconscious.

That would be the last time Josie Jensen was up in space.

On the contrary . . . the name Josie Jensen dies on the ground— but a girl more fierce ( if that's even possible ) and much stronger arises from her ashes and she will be back. Back in space that is, but by a new name and with a whole new life threatening mission.

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CHIP SPEAKS

I fucking love cliff hangers... except in the cases that I don't.

Short chapter because I felt like you guys could use a little more on Josie.

I decided to call this chapter one. but this is more of a second prologue.

(not edited)