Kingdom Of Heavens - The 100 [1]

Chapter 4

Arrested? But how could that be? I had to find out on what grounds she was arrested. She would never assault a guard, never harm anyone or steal anything. Skylar wasn't a criminal, she wasn't the type of girl to go against the law. So, what could she possibly be arrested for then? I had to find out, I just had to. But, sadly, today was not the day.

Grandmother was having a faith meeting today, and I already told her I'd go – like every other week. Some people think it's all crazy stuff, just false hope for those who attend. But I disagree. That little tree she has, it's the only piece of nature I've seen, and probably will ever see. I came to terms with that years ago, knowing it would not be my generation returning to the ground. But now, with the Ark 'dying', I wasn't sure if there'd ever be a generation returning to the ground.

I had seen Abby early that day, before the faith meeting. She told me that there has been no wristbands that have gone out in almost a week now, meaning the ground might be stabilizing. Still, it wasn't solid proof. I knew my father's agenda, what he wanted to do to give engineering more time to fix whatever was wrong with the Ark. He wasn't going to stray from that agenda without firm proof, and with how many of the 100 already have dark tiles, no wristbands going out yet would be enough evidence. Part of me just wanted to sit in the monitor room and stare at the faces. It's as if a small part of me believed that if I stared at Neil's tile, it would keep him safe. That was the only thing left I could do for Skylar now.

The faith meeting was small today, and that vile woman Nigel was playing chess not far away. I didn't know her that well, but I did know she took every chance to poke fun at my grandmother and these meetings she held. Those who didn't attend these meetings, who didn't see how much they lifted the spirits of people didn't understand the meeting's true purpose. It wasn't to hope that we, our generation, would return to the ground. It was just hope. And today, I felt like I really needed hope.

I had a nightmare last night that put a thought in my mind that wouldn't go away. Suppose John really was dead? I was confident he had taken off his own wristband, but there could have been something vicious down there that could have killed him afterwards. A beast, starvation, dehydration, or one of those criminals he was sent down with. Or perhaps his wristband going out really did mean he was dead before he had a chance to remove it.

And then there was Skylar. With population reduction a possibility, she would no doubt be one of the first ones on that list of 300 people. As long as she was locked up, she wasn't contributing to the Ark, just taking up vital resources as my father would see it. She was only sixteen, but still. So many things have changed that I know feared immensely for her possibly execution. I couldn't go on knowing my breathing was possible because hers had stopped.

I sat in the front row, taking in every word my grandmother said. She had this talent of making people feel good. Good about life, about themselves, everything. Most people can do this with one person or a small group, but my grandmother could do it with a room filled with people, and she wouldn't miss a single person. Her voice alone could make me smile.

"Our ancestors built the Ark to be our salvation, and our test. We have faith that our people will return to the ground one day." Our test, I wondered for a bit what she meant by that. And also, if that means that we are failing our own test. Afterall, when someone breaks the law, we don't give them another chance. We just execute them. That doesn't sound like a way to pass a test to me. I noticed my grandmother had stopped for a second. I glanced behind me, trying to see where her attention had shifted to. I quickly faced back forward when I made eye contact with my father.

"Are you here to join us?" She asked, hopeful that this time he would. I couldn't remember the last time my father attended one of these meetings, if ever. When I was younger, my grandmother told me it was because he was always busy with the council and therefore didn't have the time to attend. I know better now. I had not one single memory of sitting beside him at one of these meetings. Surely he saw it as many others did: a joke.