all her life, madeline kane was told that she was wrong.
she longed to float, to venture outside the constrictive walls of the ark, a space station that had forever been the only home she ever knew.
since the age of nine, death followed madeline do...
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MADELINE's POV: i laid on the floor of my cell, staring up at the bare concrete ceiling. it had been twenty-five days since i had last been outside the doors, let alone seen any of my old friends. finn had said i had been counted lucky, that what we had helped raven do would have been punishable by death if we were eighteen. that we escaped with our lives, and that's what mattered. but that didn't mean i didn't regret our little spacewalk - that we shouldn't have done it. because we shouldn't have.
i decide to sit up straight, the chill seeping in through my thin long-sleeve shirt too much to bare. the air was starting to thin, i could tell, even in here. i wondered if everyone else on the ark was thinking the same. and then i heard a whoosh, causing my current thoughts to immediately escape my mind. doors being opened. my father was standing outside my cell.
"madeline. i'm so glad you're up," he said to me, as if i were a perfect stranger. as if he hadn't raised me. which, honestly, he truly hadn't.
i decided to give him the same treatment he had shown me. after all, family isn't just blood.
"kane, if you know what's good for you, you'll let me rot in here for another ten days." i hoped my words sounded as venomous as i wanted them to be.
he didn't seem phased. "on the contrary, i've actually come here to congratulate you."
i raised an eyebrow and slightly tilted my head, allowing for my brown braid to fall just over my left shoulder.
"what for?"
he beamed. "my dear, you're going to be one of the 100."
"who are the 100?" i genuinely had no idea, but it was like kane to keep these types of secrets hidden from me.
"all of the delinquents who are going to be sent to the ground."
i gasped. i couldn't help it. i scrambled to my feet, beginning to feel lightheaded. the air pressure, i reminded myself. but surely, it was more than that. "the ground? you mean...we're going home?"
"that you are, my madeline. that you are."
-
THE DROPSHIP : we had all been locked in place, once again confined to a small, dark, room. except this "room" was part of a pod, crammed to the max with old supplies, and one hundred other kids just like me.
i cringed silently at the new uneven number i had caused.
i sat next to a blonde, pretty girl, abby's daughter, clarke griffin. it was true, we hadn't been friends on the ark, but she seemed nice enough. even if her mother did envy my father's position, who was i to judge?
