Prisoner 83 | the 100

chapter one

What the hell is going on?

These were the thoughts racing through a curly, dirty blonde haired, nineteen (almost twenty) year-old's mind as the metal floor seemed to shake beneath her. Her normally frizzy hair was pulled back into a once-tight braid with shorter strands falling into her light brown, hazel eyes and framing her slightly tanned, olive pigment. She shifted in her seat, finding it to be a difficult challenge wearing her favorite pair of black jeans. Her belt was digging into her small waist because of the tight hold her seatbelt had on her. The young woman's name was Hazel. Hazel Daniels, current occupant of cell 83 on the Ark. She was a prisoner in space and had spent the last two years of her life locked up in isolation.

She would not have been caught if her twenty-two-year-old (at the time) boyfriend had stepped forward and posed as a witness to secure her alibi. But he refused to step forward because then he would be thrown into jail, too. So, Hazel took the fall for something they had both taken part in. She had been caught stealing Adderall for the older man because he kept losing focus with all of the inventions he tried to create and it was beginning to affect his job performance. After much persuasion and strategic manipulation tactics (ones that included much sexual activity), Hazel gave in. That was the dumbest thing she had ever agreed to.

The curly, dirty-haired girl wearily looked at her surroundings, her eyes fell upon each of the many other young people that she recognized to be fellow criminals from the Ark. The Ark had been home to the human race for the past ninety-seven years. And now, they were no longer on it. They seemed to be in some sort of spaceship considering the many seat belts and roughness of the ride. Realization flashed across Hazel's face as she seemed to acknowledge what was currently happening.

They had left the Ark. They had left the Ark and were now being hurled toward the ground. To Earth.

Yes, Earth. The planet that mankind hadn't stepped foot on for the past century—well, at least that's what Hazel remembered from her history book. This would be the first known attempt to be made of humans returning to the ground since the nuclear war that caused the Earth to become inhabitable because of the great amount of radiation.

She was unsure of how to react, which was common amongst the others in the dropship who were conscious to know what was happening. Before being led from their cells, a few members of the Ark's elite Guard informed them that they would be making the trip to the ground. They were condemned to death, with all of the possible scenarios ending with each of the hundred criminals dying. This could go two ways. All of these people, including Hazel, would make it to the ground safely but die from the irradiated air. Or, everyone on the dropship would die from not making a safe landing.

Either way, they were royally screwed.

As Hazel tried coming to terms with this, she heard the familiar voice of Thelonious Jaha, the Chancellor of the Ark, speaking over an intercom. His public-friendly face then appeared on a screen across the dropship from the dirty blonde. He was not very popular amongst the working class and prisoners who made up a great portion of the Ark's population, but he somehow remained in charge. The dirty blonde looked at one of the many screens that displayed the Chancellor as he spoke.

"Prisoners of the Ark, hear me now. You've been given a second chance," he was trying to make the hundred prisoners feel grateful to him and the Ark's enforced laws for this new life they could possibly have, "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." Hazel rolled her eyes, never having liked Jaha in the first place, but now she hated him for trying to manipulate their current situation. Also, calling her life expendable wasn't doing him any favors.