Kingdom Of Heavens - The 100 [1]

Chapter 9

"Friends, this is an historic Unity Day. Every year, we mark the moment our ancestors of the twelve stations joined to form the Ark, but this is the last time we do so while aboard her. Next year...on the ground." An applause and shouts of excitement and approval filled the room, my shouts among them. It finally felt as though my life was coming back together after appearing to be falling apart for so long. John was alive, Skylar had been released from lock up, and I'd finally have my life-long dream of going to the ground come true, a dream I never thought possible. Skylar applauded next to me, the two of us standing close to the front of the crowd.

"Can you believe it? The ground. We're going to the ground!" My heart could barely remain inside my chest as it beat with excitement. It must have shown, as I could see the look Skylar was giving me out of the corner of her eye. She still believed her theory of there not being enough drop ships. Chancellor Jaha could kind of a jerk sometimes, but he wouldn't tell people they'd be on the ground if they weren't going. Or at least, I didn't believe he would.

"The first Exodus ship will launch in under 60 hours carrying the reinforcements that you need," I looked over and saw that Skylar's real smile had been replaced with one of her fake ones. I nudged her with my arm.

"I'll sneak you on in my bag if I have to. I'm not going to the ground without my best friend. Besides, Neil's excited to see you, and most importantly he needs you. You're the reinforcement he needs." She smiled at that, and I was glad. Skylar had been ecstatic to find out her brother was still alive, and even more thrilled when she got to see him. She told me how different and grown up he looks now, and I knew it wasn't him that needed her anymore, but it was her that needed him.

"But enough of that. You are all here for the pageant anyway, right? I present the story of us." Jaha stepped down from where he stood, and the crowd shifted around to make room for the children presenting this year's pageant. The music began.

"Remember when that was us?" Skylar chuckled by my side. "You were so nervous I nearly took your place. Even learned all your lines within an hour."

"Yeah, but I bet I still remember them better than you do." I gave her a smirk, and the challenge was on.

"Long ago," the two of us began softly in unison in time with the little girl, "when the Earth was on fire, twelve stations floated through space all alone. Then one day-"

"They blew one out of the sky." Skylar changed the words and added a little explosion sound effect, causing the person next to us to shoot us a glare. The two of us giggled at the joke, somehow finding joy in the tragic story behind Unity Day that is always ignored.

"Oh stop," I whispered as I lightly pushed her. "That's not what unity day is about."

"Oh please, it is and you kno-"

A loud blast cut Skylar off, and a cloud of gray smoke blurred my vision. I felt my body get tossed and flown through the air before my back struck something hard, a wall probably. I tried to scream, but all I could hear was this faint ringing in my ears. I couldn't see, I couldn't hear, I couldn't move, I was convinced I was dead. As my vision cleared, all I felt was pain. My whole body was sore and in such pain that I was afraid to move, afraid to find something broken or worse, unmovable. The ringing in my ears slowly faded away and the sound of chaos replaced it. All I could hear were the screams of those around me filled with worry and fright.

I slowly pushed myself up and into a sitting position, groaning every inch of the way there. Everything hurt, and moving only made it worse. One spot on my head hurt particularly bad, and as my hand came away from touching the spot, I could see it was covered with blood. I was horrified, but alive. My mind tried to put the pieces of the last few minutes together to figure out what had happened. One moment the Unity Day pageant was going on just as normally as it always is, and the next I'm sitting here, bleeding. It didn't take me long to remember the explosion that had occurred in the middle, and a tear came to my eye. Who would want to bomb a little kid's pageant.