Regina(On Hold) // The 100

014

November 10th, 2139 

(The above picture is the commander)

My sister asked in a hushed tone, "Where are we going?" I gripped her hand firmly and guided her through the less monitored areas of Alpha Station. "Did you tell Dad that you allowed me to come out?" she inquired.

"Not yet," I whispered to Joan. We heard footsteps approaching, so I quickly guided her into the nearest room. "Be quiet," I instructed her, and she nodded in agreement. "What will happen if the guard catches you?" I asked, speaking a bit louder. Joan remained silent, so I repeated my question.

"I will get locked up, and Dad will be floated," she answered, her voice shaking.

"Exactly, come on," I said as I opened a vent and let Joan climb in before me. Once I was inside, I secured the grate back onto the wall. "We need to keep moving."

Joan and I maneuvered through the vents in one straight stretch until we reached a vent that was already loose enough to be pushed open.

When Joan entered the room, she was shocked to find an escape pod ready to be launched just in the airlock. "Sinclair was preparing this for an Earth mission, but he still doesn't know who's going. I tricked him into telling me how to operate it."

The truth was, Sinclair always invited me with him when he had work to do because I wanted to be an engineer, so it wasn't uncommon for me to be interested in learning how such things operated.

We walked over the threshold into the airlock. Joan was silent but still climbed into the pod. "Are you sure you know how to use it?" my sister asked and I nodded. I didn't tell her the reason I wanted to take her to Earth, but I thought that explanation could wait.

I had locked myself in our unit for two weeks over an altercation I had with guards, and I was too ashamed to even show myself to anyone. Most people already believed the lie that I was locked up for drug possession. 

I locked the airlock, but then I heard pounding on the door followed by a voice over the speaker. "Who's in the pod?" my father's voice said.

Joan looked at me with fear. I told her to stay quiet as I grabbed the radio. "I'm sorry, Dad," I told him.

"Jules!" Chancellor Sydney spoke up. "Jules, get out of the pod and I'll think about letting you walk!" I ignored her.

"Sometimes doing dangerous stuff is good if it's to protect someone you love," my mom always told me.

My hand hovered over the button as people outside begged me to get out. I thought I could hear my dad start to break down at the thought of losing me.

As far as everyone out there knew, it was just me in the pod and I wanted to take it to Earth for a quick death, but neither of them, not even Dad, knew that it was to give Joan a chance to live and to save Dad from his execution.

The human race has been stuck up here for too long, and I didn't want to believe anyone when they said Earth was uninhabitable. 

"Jules, please... please come out. We can talk about this, you won't be in trouble," Dad said. His voice was hoarse, and it nearly made me break.

I grabbed the radio, my hands shaking, and said, "There's nothing to talk about. Not until I step foot on Earth and prove that we can survive."

I put the radio down, waiting to see if anything else would be said. I could faintly see the figures of the people standing on the other side of the airlock, most of them giving up, but one of them stayed.

"Jules," Dad said, "if you survive, radio back. You took enough Earth Skills to know how to survive, and..." he paused for a moment, "if you can, you shouldn't land too far from Mount Weather. Try to get there, it'll have resources you could use. Please take care of yourself."