"What makes earth feel like hell is our expectation that it should feel like heaven."

                                     1.

My boots pound against the steel floors as I pump my legs to go faster. Beads of sweat running down my face. I hear the guards hot on my tail which pushes me to run faster. I couldn't let them catch me, I'm only 16 they would put me in the box for 2 years and review my crime at 18. And there's no way they would let this one slide. No way in hell. 

I can't help but think this would never of happened if Jack would've kept his mouth shut, I should've known though. He was a member of the guard, he didn't care about me like he claimed. But that was obvious for other reasons. He was just using me this whole time and when he found out what I was doing he snitched. But that wasn't what was going to get me in huge trouble. It was that I had killed two guards in the process. I'm so dead.

That was just a haunting memory now, I had ran into a dead end and they had me trapped. I got put into the box and that was the end of it. Until now, I'm 17 soon to be 18 in two weeks. I know they are going to float me, to be honest it scares the hell out of me everyday. But I did what I had to do.

A clicking sound snapped me out of my thoughts and I turned to see my cell door opening.

"Prisoner 636 stand against the wall, hands behind your back." One of the two guards who were now in my cell ordered.

"What's in it for me?" I joked. They didn't find it too funny.

"Now." I saw his hand resting on his taser stick and walking closer to me.

"You touch me and you're dead just like the other two." I smiled up at him and for a second his eyes flashed with fear. But it went quickly and he gained his composure.

"I'm going to say this-" I cut him off by punching him square in the jaw and knocking him to the floor. The other guard tried to grab me as I tried running out of the cell so I slammed his head into the wall and kneed him in the gut. I guess having an ex boyfriend who was on the guard came in handy sometimes. I ran out the cell and it was chaos. Guards were leading all the other prisoners out of their cells. Some were resisting and some were just plain knocked out.

"T!" I whip my head to see Monty with his hands behind his back and a guard leading him my way.

"What's happening?" I ask him.

"I don't know." He looks worried and I can't help but think that they are going to float us all to save their asses.

"You're going to the ground, sweetheart." My heart stopped and I turned to see Jack standing in front of me. The ground? Before I could say anything, let alone think, I felt a sting in my wrist and one in my neck. Everything went blurry and then black.

A jolt woke me up and I hit my head against the back of my seat I was in making my head pound even more then it already was. I take in my surroundings and notice I'm on a drop ship among all the other prisoners. Jack wasn't lying, we really are being sent to the ground.

"Good morning, sunshine." I focus my eyes and see Monty again but this time Jasper is sitting right next to him. I smile despite the circumstance.

"Jasper! I've missed you!"

"I've missed you too, T." I grin widely at my nickname. Jasper and Monty have been my best friends since we were little. Although, we grew up in different stations we still saw each other all the time because their parents were friends with my parents. They actually got locked up before me and I haven't seen them since I was 15.

We all hear a weird noise and I realize that it was the atmosphere.
"So the rumors are true. We're going to earth." Jasper says.

The TV monitors turn on above our heads and everyone looks up.

"Prisoners of The Ark, hear me now. You've been given a second chance. 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." Chancellor Jaha starts to speak and I continue to watch.

"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."
I roll my eyes at his comment. Expendable? Really? 

A male voice speaks out, "Your dad's a dick, wells." Wells? Why in the hell is he here? Just as I thought the chancellor couldn't get anymore cruel. He sends his own son down here, talk about daddy issues. Had some of my own though.

I choose to drown out his voice and lean my head back against the seat.

"Spacewalk bandit strikes again. Go, Finn! Check it out!" I hear someone yell and I lift my head up to see a guy with dark brown shaggy hair floating in the air. What a dumbass, he's going to get himself killed once we enter earths atmosphere. I've heard about Finn numerous times. He wasted two months of oxygen for an illegal spacewalk, I didn't get the point of why he did it. I didn't find space interesting at all. It's hell up here. At least when you're living on the Ark.

"Your dad floated me after all." He says to Wells while crossing his arms. I couldn't help but laugh at that.

"You should strap in before the parachutes deploy." Wells warned him. I couldn't imagine what would happen if he was still floating around when they opened up. I guess I spoke too soon because all of a sudden the ship jolted and Finn and the two other idiots who followed him went flying into some pipes making them bust open with steam. Everyone was freaking out, I'm guessing the parachutes must have deployed. All of a sudden the noise stopped and everyone got quiet.

"Listen, no machine hum." Monty said.

"Whoa, that's the first." Jasper looked at him in awe.

"Rough landing." I huff throwing my head back.

"The outer door is on the lower level, let's go." A voice called out. I unbuckled my seat belt and got up along with everyone.

"Hey, just back it up guys." I see a tall man with slicked back black hair standing by the door and the handle. He's very attractive. But he's also part of the guard, clearly I have a type... I wasn't digging his hair too much. He has a tan complexion with freckles lining his cheeks and dark brown eyes. Who is he?

"Stop! The air could be toxic!" A girl known as Clarke called out. She use to help her mother out in the medical wing, the only reason I know that is because I use to help my father in the medical wing as well.

"If the air is toxic we're all dead anyway." He did have a point, we wouldn't have enough air in here.

"Bellamy?" A petite girl with long brown hair cut through the crowd to get to him.

"My god, look how big you are." He smiled as did she.

Monty, Jasper and I watched the exchange in front of us and stayed quite.

"What the hell are you wearing? A guards uniform?" She looks in disgust at his attire and I let out a little laugh.

"I borrowed it to get on the drop ship. Someone has got to keep an eye on you." I stand back along with everyone else in confusion.

"Where's your wristband?" Clarke interrupts their exchange.

"Do you mind? I haven't seen my brother in a year." What? No one has a brother. As if someone read my mind a guy speaks out.

"No one has a brother!"

"That's Octavia Blake the girl they found hidden in the floor." I've heard rumors but never knew if they were true or not. So that's the infamous Octavia. Octavia charges towards the girl in anger but Bellamy holds her back.

"Octavia, Octavia no. Let's give them something else to remember you by."

"Yeah? Like what?" She questions her big brother and he smirks.

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

"Ninety seven!" I cough and Bellamy glares at me as I smile sweetly. Octavia grins as he pulls down on the lever. Well, here goes nothing. As the drop ship door drops a light shines through making me squint and hold up a hand to my eyes to block it. It dies down and soon we are met with a forest of tall green trees and colorful flowers. The warm sun still seeps in through the tree branches and it looks beautiful.
Octavia slowly walks down the ramp turning her head every which way to take it all in. Finally she jumps down on the dirt. We all are silent watching her; waiting. For what? I don't know.

"We're back bitches!" She throws her hands into the air and everyone runs out. That's what we were waiting for. I step down and breathe it in. It smells amazing, for the first time I smell fresh air. For the first time I feel the sun on my skin. I close my eyes and enjoy it for a moment. After a few seconds I open them up and look around. I see lots of people gathered to my right so I decide to walk over to where all the commotion was going on with Clarke.

"Hey, hey, hey, hands off of him. He's with us." I hear Murphy call to Wells. From what I've gathered Wells pushed jasper. What a bitch. And since when has Murphy ever even talked to Jasper?

"Relax. We're just trying to figure out where we are." Well tells them not trying to cause a huge scene. Too late.
Bellamy walks up and chimes in, "We're on the ground. That not good enough for you?"

"We need to find Mount Weather. You heard my father's message. That has to be our first priority." Wells explained looking at all us.

"What, you think you're in charge here, you and your little Princess?"Bellamy questions.

"Do you think we care who's in charge? We need to get to Mount Weather not because the Chancellor said so, but because the longer we wait, the hungrier we'll get and the harder this'll be. How long do you think we'll last without those supplies? We're looking at a twenty-mile trek, okay? So if we want to get there before dark, we need to leave now." I have to admit Clarke has a way with words, I was almost hooked as well as the whole camp. Some were nodding with her speech and some were rolling their eyes.

"I got a better idea. You two go find it for us. Let the privileged do the hard work for a change." Bellamy smirked and everyone went crazy with shouts.

"You're not listening. We all need to go." Wells groaned in annoyance.

"Look at this, everybody... The Chancellor of Earth." Murphy held his hands out laughing at Wells and causing some snickers from the crowd. I don't think I'm going to like this Murphy kid. Wells isn't his father so no one has any reason to hate him for what his father does. 

"Think that's funny?" Wells spat angrily.
They both started going at each other while everyone started to gather around cheering; desperate to see a fight. Before any more damage could happen Finn jumped down from the top of the dropship.

"Kids got one leg, why don't you wait till it's a fair fight?" Finn speaks to Murphy and Murphy rolls his eyes and backs away.

"Hey, space walker, rescue me next." Octavia shouts to Finn and now it's my turn to roll my eyes.
Everyone clears out and I'm close enough to hear Bellamy's and Octavia's conversation.

"What? He's cute." She says and I laugh quietly.

"He's a criminal." Bellamy tells her.

"They're all criminals." When I hear that the realization sinks in. We all got locked up for a reason. Some kids stole, some assaulted, and some killed. Well in Octavia's case, she was born. But either way none of this can be good.

Deciding I didn't care to listen to anymore of their conversations I walked toward Finn and Clarke.

"So when are we leaving for this field trip?" I say interrupting their conversation with Wells. They look at me a little confused and I realized why.

"Oh sorry, I'm Taylor." I give a friendly smile, I need to make friends down here, I don't want to be on anyone's bad side. Although I can hold my own, like Octavia said, we're all criminals.

"Taylor Queen?" Wells asks eyeing me curiously.

"The one and only."

"You're the one who killed those two guards and-" Wells started but I interrupted.

"So where are we headed off to?" They give me curious glances but decide to drop it, thank god. I hate talking about what I did. 

"We need to get to Mount Weather and we need to leave now." Clarke explained to me and I nodded.

"Alright, well let's get going." Wells said trying to stand up but faltering because of his injured leg.

"You're not coming." Clarke stated, they both stared at each other and I could tell there was tension there.

"Yes I am."

"No you're not."

"You three can't carry enough for 100 people." Wells had a point.

Finn looked around until he turned around and grabbed Monty and Jasper by their shoulders and brought them over.

"Fine, now let's go."

"Sounds fun, I'm in." Octavia says joining us and smiling. I look to my right to see Jasper swooning at the girl and I almost laugh.

"Just like old times, Queen." Monty said throwing his arm around my shoulder. I laugh.

Clarke pulls me to the side and whispered, "Actually Taylor, I need you to stay here. I don't trust Bellamy and we need someone to watch the camp while we're gone."

"You want me to babysit Bellamy? Why me?" I groan and cross my arms. Who even is she to tell me what to do.

"Not babysit just keep an eye on him and I chose you because your boyfriend was Jack foster." My eyes widen at his name and I glare at her.

"What the hell does he have to do with anything?"

"I know he trained you, meaning you know how to defend yourself. We need you to stay here. Please." She begged and I knew I couldn't say no. I just don't understand how she knew he trained me. Her mom is Abby Griffin though, She's patched me and Jack up so many times from training that she probably mentioned it to Clarke.

"Fine. I'll stay." I tell her and she nods in appreciation and starts to walk away.

"Clarke. I'll keep an eye on Bellamy but keep an eye on Jasper and Monty for me, they are all I have down here." I say and she nods her head again and walks away. I see them start to gather their backpacks and walk off into the unknown.

"Hey, Taylor, we're getting stuff from the drop ship to make tents out of. You might want to take what you can before its all gone." A guy tells me. I think everyone calls him Miller but I have no idea how he knows me.

"Thank you, Miller. Where are you setting up?" He points to an area surrounded by trees off to the side away from everyone and I couldn't of picked a better spot.

"Mind if I set up over there too?"

"Of course not, if you need help let me know." He walks away with his stuff and towards the area to set up. I walk towards the drop ship and go in, I see some parachute left over so I grab it and start ripping it apart to take enough for a decent tent. I also see some rope in the corner and some blankets thrown across the seats. I take everything in my hands and walk out toward Miller and set my stuff down a couple feet from him.

"Miller, how do you know who I am?" I ask him while we set up our tents in silence.

"You're Taylor Queen, you're a legend on my station back home." He tells me.

"You were part of the farming station, weren't you?" I ask him and he nods his head.

"Well I wouldn't consider myself a legend so that would be great if you would never refer to me as that again. Please." I say politely.

"But-" He starts but I cut him off before he can start talking about it again.

"Please drop it, I don't want to talk about it. Now come over here and help me or else I'll be bunking with you." I joke and he laughs.

"You're not my type, Queen." I scoff and elbow him playfully. We both laugh until we get interrupted.

"Miller, can I speak to you?" A voice sounds from behind us and we turn around to see Bellamy with a group of guys behind him. What are they? His little dogs?

"Sure." Miller sets the stuff down and tells me he'll be just a minute and I nod. Bellamy and Miller walk away while Murphy and the guys behind him step forward.

"Hello, princess." Murphy smirks. I scoff and roll my eyes.

"Don't call me that." I cross my arms and he smirks some more.

"Well, Queen, I see you're getting pretty close to Miller there, huh?" He says stepping toward me.

"Mind your own business, Murphy. Don't you have something better to do?" I take a quick glance to see Bellamy and Miller still talking and I turn back and look at Murphy.

"No, but I know you were so easy to give it up to Jack I thought maybe Miller will get lucky." Murphy states and the guys bust out laughing behind him. My hand automatically clenches into a fist and I try to control myself before I do anything stupid, I have a short temper and I've been trying to work on it. I'm not that surprised he knew about Jack. Jack likes to gloat and he's an open book and will tell you anything.

"Murphy, you have five seconds to walk away." I grit through my teeth.

"Is that a threat?" He laughs and turns around to face his group.

"The bitch is trying to threaten me." He laughs and as he turns back around I bring my fist back and punch him square in his big nose. Like I said, I'm trying to work on my temper. It's not going too well.
The guys go quite behind him and Murphy touches underneath his nose. It starts to bleed and he looks down at his fingers.

"You little bitch!" He yells charging at me. I quickly step away and grab his head when he comes near me and smash it on my knee and he falls to the floor groaning. All of a sudden he grabs my ankle and yanks me on the ground and punches me in the stomach. I grab his arm and twist it behind his back on the ground and get on top of him and start to throw punches to his face. I hear people yelling for me to get off but Murphy pushed me so I continue, he continues to bleed from his nose and I cut his eyebrow open. My hands are now bloody.

I feel two arms wrap around my waist and lift me off of him. I try as hard as I can to get out of the guys grip but he wasn't letting up. Finally I gave up and he let go, I turn around to see Bellamy.

"What is going on?" Bellamy looks between me and bloody Murphy getting up from the ground with help from his friends.

"We were just wrestling." I give Bellamy a grin and he glares at me.

"The bitch attacked me because of a few jokes." Murphy says spitting out blood from his mouth in the process.

"I wasn't so easy after all, was I Murphy?" I smirk at him and he sends me a glare.

"You two stay away from each other, another fight and you guys deal with me." Bellamy explains and I scoff and walk up to him.

"Who put you in charge?"

"I did, princess."

"You really want to go there, Bellamy?" I cross my arms and hold my stare.

"How cute, you think I'm scared of you. Now go do something useful." He demands and I laugh right in his face.

"Oh, Bellamy, I do not take orders from you." He looks around at the people who are watching, probably scared that I'm standing up to him when he's suppose to be seen as the leader.

"Watch it, Queen." Bellamy mutters under his breath and walks away. I roll my eyes and turn around to get back to setting up my tent.