Our way to earth

Chapter 1 Clarke

The doors slid open and Clarke knew it was time to die.

Her eyes locked on the guard's boots, and she braced for the rush of fear, the flood of desperate panic.But as she rose up onto her elbow, peeling her shirt from the sweat-soaked cot, all she felt was relief.

She'd been transferred to a single after attacking a guard, but for Clarke, there was no such thing as solitary. SHe heard voices everywhere. they called from the corners of her gloomy cell. They fill the silence between her fast heartbeats. They screamed from the deepest recesses of her mind. It wasn't death she carved, but if that was the only way to silence the voices, then she was prepared to die.

She'd been confined for treason, but the truth was far worse than anyone could've imagined. Even if by some miracle she was pardoned at her retrial, there'd be no real reprieve. Her memories were more oppressive then any cell walls.

The guard cleared his throat as he shifted his weight from side to side. "Prisoner 319, please stand." he was younger than she'd expected and his uniform hung loosely from his lanky frame, betraying his status as a recent recruit. A few months of military rations weren't enough to banish the specter of malnutrition that the colony's poor outer ships, Walden and Arcadia.

Clarke took a deep breath and rose to he feet.
"Hold our your hands please," he ordered, while pulling a pair of metal cuffs from his navy blue uniform. Clarke shuddered as his skin brushed against hers. She hadn't seen another person since they'd brought her to the new cell, never mind touch one.

"Are they too tight?"he asked, his tone frayed by a note of sympathy that made Clarke's chest ache.
"No." She shook her head.

"Just sit on your bed and wait for the doctor.He is on his way."
"They're doing it here?" Clarke asked, the words scraping against her dry throat.If a doctor was coming, that meant they were forgoing her retrial.It shouldn't have come as a surprise. According to colony law, adults were lashed ten times then executed an miners were confined until they turned 18 and then given one final chance to make their case. But lately, people were being executed within hours of their retrial for crimes that , a few years ago , would have been pardoned.

Still it was hard to believe they'd do it in her cell. In a twisted way, she'd been looking forward to one final walk to the hospital where she'd spent so much of her time during her medical apprenticeship - one last chance to experience something familiar , if only the smell of disinfectant and the rank smell of the ventilation system -before she lost the ability to feel forever. The guard spoke without meeting her bright blue eyes. "You must really sit down ,Clarke ".

Clarke took a few baby steps and placed her stiff bottom on the edge of her narrow bed.

Today had to be Clarke's 18th birthday and the only gift waiting for her was a long see-through syringe that would paralyse her muscles until her heart stopped beating. Afterwards, her lifeless body would be released into empty nothing ness.