I'll be the Bad Guy

Chapter 1: Better to be Floated Together

My eyes gently fluttered open from the sound of metal rumbling beneath my body and around me.

"You're being sent to the ground Clarke. All 100 of you." My mom's voice echoed in my mind. What could she mean? The ground isn't survivable, it had been seeped in radiation for the past century.

As my eyes gained exposure to my unfamiliar surroundings, I quickly recognized the severity of our situation. Around me sat 100 other juvenile delinquents. Some were shouting and panicking, others had their eyes shut tightly and were mouthing prayers.

The heat from the engine lay heavy on my skin as a pain in my wrist began to throb.

I wince in discomfort grabbing my wrist to see a large metal bracelet strapped to it, barring into my skin.

"Welcome back." 

The voice to my right shot through me like 100 daggers clinging to my spine. More painful than this bracelet would ever be. I knew that voice. I abhorred that voice. Wells.

I met his eyes with fury, unable to hide my resentment.

"Look." He started.

"Wells, why the hell are you here?!" I shot back immediately.

Wells was the chancellor's son. Much like his father he was smart and dutiful. To Clarke's downfall, he would never step out of line in fear of disappointing his father. He had dark skin and kind eyes that drowned in what seemed to be regret and pity.

"When I found out they were sending prisoners to the ground, I got myself arrested. I came for you."

Unable to see the anger seething through my face, the lights of the dropship went out as an uproar of concerned voices and conversation rose in the room.

It only lasted a second before metal was scraping earth and with a final crash, we had landed. Screams echoed the room before everyone fell into a curious silence.

Still strapped to our seats, a flashing screen turned itself on. It was Wells father, the chancellor speaking.

"Prisoners of the Ark, hear me now. You've been given a second chance, and 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. 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."

"Your dad's a dick Wells!!" A boy from the back shouts as some others agree or laugh. Wells rolls his eyes.

"However, if you do survive, those crimes will be forgiven, your records wiped clean. The drop site has been chosen carefully. Before the last war, Mount Weather was a military base built within a mountain. It was to be stocked with enough nonperishables to sustain 300 people for up to 2 years. Mount Weather is life. You must locate those supplies immediately. Your one responsibility is to stay alive. May we meet again." The screen darkens as passengers begin to toy with their straps and unlatch themselves.

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(Back on the Ark)

Crowds gathered on the bay of the spacecraft orbiting earth. The fluorescent lights toned the passenger's clean skin and reflected off of their dull clothing.

"I saw a ship launch!" A man argues amidst the crowd.

"Who was on it?" Others demand.

"Was it the prisoners? They're just kids!" A mother protests, pain in her voice.

"Are they going to earth? Has something changed?"

"Folks as I said, at this time, we cannot confirm or deny anything." An official states diplomatically, ignoring the masses of concerned citizens and parents.