madeline kane is a criminal. she and her best friends, finn and raven, attempted an illegal spacewalk and used up three months worth of oxygen on the space station known as the ark.
madeline was locked away by her father--the same man who had ended...
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MADELINE'S POV: a riot was threatening to break out. we tried to issue a quarantine for everyone who was symptomatic at camp, but it wasn't proving to be completely effective.
a guy who had just appeared to be entirely healthy started to bleed from his nose. people nervously began to grab rifles and aimed them at each other.
i stood at the edge of the dropship, watching as our own people fought. i wasn't sick or bleeding yet, but knew that it would only be a matter of time until i was. i had been around too many who had been infected to walk away unscathed.
the calamity showed no sign of slowing down. i grabbed a gun that rested at my feet and fired it into the air.
three shots rang out, and momentarily everyone was silent again. i walked closer to where the hundred stood, but still far enough away so that i couldn't touch them.
"this is exactly what the grounders want. don't you see that? they don't have to kill us if we kill eachother first," i was trying my best to walk everyone through the logic of that idea. the grounders may not have advanced weapons or computers, but they weren't stupid. they knew more about battle strategy than we probably ever would.
"they won't have to kill us if we all catch the virus," a boy who looked to be only slightly younger than myself shouted. "get back in the damn dropship!"
he was pointing his rifle at me, but was thrown off balance as bellamy seized the weapon and thrust the butt of it into his forehead. i would have laughed if he had done that under any other circumstances, but thought better of it now.
"not to state the obvious," bellamy said slowly as he approached, "but your quarantine isn't working."
bellamy's words faded as my vision started to blur. i dropped my gun and decided to let momentum take over when someone came up behind me and threw an arm over my shoulder. it was clarke. she had just come from inside the dropship.
"she stole your moment," i joked with bellamy as i righted myself. i felt something on my face as i put a hand to it. the corner of my mouth was bleeding, and tear-like stains of blood had begun to flow from the ducts in my eyes.
only a matter of time.
"clarke," finn said from beside raven. in that moment, i felt as if the years of friendship meant nothing to the boy i had eaten dinner with, played tag with, and gotten arrested with. clarke was the only person he saw and would continue to see as long as we remained down here.
he came to clarke even as she still held me and took her into his arms. i watched from far away as raven stared unblinkingly at their embrace. she is the person who actually has a right to be upset, i reminded myself. not me.
i sat down on the edge of the dropship's platform. bellamy also started towards me, but i held up a hand.
