Saviors ; 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘥

001. ꕥ Onboard

Currently, I sat in the bottom bunk of the bunk bed that I shared with my cellmate, Harper Macintyre. Harper's awesome. I love her like a sister. She has been my cellmate for the last year and a half, and to be honest, she's what kept me sane.

"Hey, what do you think about Earth?" She asked me out of the blue.

"What about Earth? The planet that's not supposed to be inhabitable for a hundred years?" I asked with curiosity to see where this conversation was going before speaking with alight annoyance in my tone. "I mean, why talk about a planet I'm never going to be able to go to. Even if we do go down in hundred years, we'll be almost a hundred and eighteen. Also known as dead."

Don't get me wrong. I want to go to Earth. Anywhere has got to be better than this hell hole.

"Come on, Jo, I know you love Earth even if you haven't stepped foot on it," Harper told me as she got down from the top bunk. I made her take that one because heights, even if it's a little off the ground, are not my thing.

"How could you possibly know that?" I asked the blonde.

"Because you have been a total of three places in your life, right? Here, the prison mess hall and your old quarters. I know if that were me, I'd want to be anywhere but here." She said, which is spot-on. "Even if it's a planet filled with radiation."

She's right. I've had no life at all. She made going down to Earth sound even better than I thought.

"This is all just a hypothetical anyway." I retorted while laying down, closing my eyes. "I mean unless you know how to get a hundred-year-old dropship to work. Can you do that, Harper?"

"Can you?" She fired back at me as she came crashing on my bed, sitting on the other side.

"I mean probably. I am the one who figured out how to get more light to come out of those damn bulbs, so we weren't living in the Bat Cave anymore."

I guess you could say I'm good with machines. When I was little, I was always fooling with Johns's remote-controlled toys to see what I could build. John would always get pissed, which just made me want to do it more. I was getting good at it until we got caught.

"Whatever." She mumbled.

Suddenly the door to our cell burst open, and I saw two guards coming in. One had their shock baton out, and the other had a metal box with what looked like brackets in it.

"Prisoners three-five-one and three-five-two face the outer wall and hold out your right arm." He said almost robotically like he's already done this before.

"Wait, what's going on? What are you doing here? It isn't meal time yet." You could hear the panic in my voice.

The second guard then came and shoved Harper and me against the wall. "Roll up your sleeve." He demanded.

"Hey, don't touch my jacket." I yelled at him. This jacket was a gift my brother gave to me right before I went into lock-up. I've worn it every day since. It was a darker green, and it's cuffed around my waist and wrist to keep it from falling around my arms because it was a little bit, but I'm not complaining. John said he picked green because he thought it would remind me of Earth.

"What the hell is going on?" I heard Harper's question, which pulled me out of my thoughts.

The guard with the box then clamped something on my wrist, and I felt a little pinch. "Ow." I hissed out even though it didn't hurt that bad.

Then the one guard started dragging me out of the cell, and the other guard did the same to Harper. When we got out of the cell, I saw chaos all around me. Kids were being dragged just like Harper and me. When I looked to my left, I saw a blond get shot with a tranquilizer. Before I knew it, Harper and I were pulled off into different directions.

"Jo! Jo!" She yelled, but they still kept dragging me away.

"Harper!" I screamed. "I will see you again, I promise." That was the last thing I said to her because, after that, she and the guard got lost in the sea of other prisoners.

"What the hell is going on?" I repeated the same question Harper asked not even five minutes ago but got no answer. "Are you killing us? Where's my brother? What are you going to do to us?"

He led me throughout the Ark, and I ended up standing in a long line of kids waiting for something. I saw a girl with long brown hair in front of me, so I asked her, "Hey, do you know what the hell is going on?"

"I don't know. All I know is they dragged me out of my cell, and now I'm here." She informed me, which wasn't all that informational.

"Thanks. That helped a lot." I mumbled. I couldn't tell if she heard me, and honestly, I didn't care. I needed to find my brother; who knows where he could be by now.

"I need to find my brother." I said out loud but louder than I meant to. The same brown-haired girl gave me a confused look when she heard me. I was honestly used to it by now. People always gave me weird looks when I mentioned I had a brother. It was just something I had to get used to.

There was a boy ahead of the brown-haired girl, and I could hear him ask to no one in particular, "Have you seen Monty? Is he already onboard?"

Onboard? What the hell is that supposed to mean?

"Hey. Hey! What do you mean onboard? Where are we going?" I tried to gain his attention, but he didn't hear me. A million thoughts started racing through my head. Are we leaving the Ark? I turned my head to a guard and yelled. "I need to find my brother. I need to find him!"

"Calm down, prisoner." He stated blankly.

"'Clam down'? I need to find my brother, and I'm not going anywhere until I find him." Now I started thinking of a way out of here, so at the next open hallway, I ran.

"Stop her!" I heard someone tell, and suddenly I was being held back by guards stopping my escape. I honestly didn't know what I would've done if I got away. All I knew was I needed to find my brother before I got "on board".

I struggled against the guards trying to break free, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a guard with what looked like a pistol pointed at me. A last-minute thought popped in my head. We could be going to Earth. The next thing I knew, my world went dark, and I had no control over what happened next.

❣︎

A/N
okay, so first chapter!!
kinda short?

i've honestly never written anything like this before, and i'm kinda nervous. sorry if it's not the best, and if there are any grammar mistakes, i'm sorry!! feel free to point any out. and i've wanted to write jo's story for a while now, and i actually got to do that today. okay, so i'm not gonna bore you with this long-ass a/n, so i'll stop there.

well that's all for now.
-annie