Her Loyalties

Chapter One

Clarkes POV

   I wake to the sound of heavy fists banging against my cell door. Struggling with the thin sheets, I swung my legs out of bed.

"Prisoner 319!" A deep voice commanded from outside. "Stand against the wall!" I sighed and leaned back against the wall as the heavy door slowly swung open. Two armed guards entered and my heart beat slightly faster when I noticed the tasers at their waists. This was not the usual cell visit.

"What is this?" I asked shakily.

"Quiet!" The guard on my left commanded. "Turn around and put your wrists together." He prodded me hard and I flinched away from his touch.

"Where are you taking me?" I started to panic. "I'm not eighteen yet! I still have three more months!" I got no answer except for a shove to get moving. Suddenly panicked, I dashed past the guards and ran for the door. One grabbed me by the waist as I fled, but I twisted my arm around and punched him between the eyes.

With no one following me, I ran out of my cell and stopped short. All around me, the teenage prisoners were being herded out of their cells with their hands cuffed. Breathing heavily, I started running again, determined to escape from the guards. Not looking where I was going, I suddenly collided with someone and we both fell down with a crash.

Ready to run, I sat up and looked at who I had hit. I gasped in relief and flung myself at her.

"Mum!" She hugged me close to her chest and I could feel one of her hands stroking my hair.

"It's okay Clarke." She murmured, gesturing for the guards behind me to keep away. "You're going to be okay."

"No!" I pulled away and looked up at her. "They're killing us already aren't they? Killing the prisoners to save oxygen!" I was gasping hysterically now, and Mum shushed me gently.

"Of course not, Clarke, you're not going to die." She reassured me.

"Then why are they taking us?"

"Clarke." She pulled my face up and looked into my eyes. "You're being sent to the ground, to earth. All one-hundred of you."

"No, no but it's not safe. We'll die anyway. No!" I cried.

I felt something slam into my back at this moment, and I instantly became drowsy. One of the guards had shot me with a tranquilizer. Trying to fight off the tiredness, I shook my head back and forth but it was no use. Just before the tranquilizer pulled me under, I heard my mum speak.

"I love you Clarke."

*

There was rattling all around me, and the occasional human cry. My eyes jolted open and I tried to reach out my hands. Something restrained me and I looked down to see my whole body strapped into an upright seat. Looking around, I saw that I was in a small metal cabin, filled with teenagers I knew to be my fellow prisoners.

"Clarke." Someone whispered from my right and I flinched in surprise. When I looked over in the gloom, I saw a very familiar face.

"Wells?" I asked in disbelief. "What are you doing here, where are we?"

"Clarke, we're going to Earth." He explained. "We're on a dropship going down now." I looked around and suddenly I knew that he was right. We were heading to earth, and we were all going to die.

"They sent all of us that were expendable." I whispered. "But, why you?" I realised suddenly that Wells was never a prisoner, and had no reason to be here.

"When I heard they were sending you down, I stole something from medical and started a huge fight. I had to come down with you Clarke. They arrested me and then put me on the dropship. I had..."

"Why would you do that?" I yelled, perhaps a little too loud. A few people that were clsoe to us looked over. "Wells, we're all going to die."

Before he could respond, there was a huge jolt from the ship and we all fell silent. The dropship staretd shaking violently and there were a few scared cries from the people around me. We must be entering earths atmosphere.

There was a huge crash from an upper level of the dropship and we heard many cries of surpise but I didn't think anyone was hurt because no one was openly screaming. The entire dropship started shuddering and I knew we were close to landing. There was a noise that I think might have been the parachute opening.

"Clarke!" Wells yelled over the noise. I looked over. "If we die, please know that I'm sorry for every bad thing I ever did to you." There was no time for me to respond before someone opposite me screamed. I flipped my head around and yelled when I saw what was happening.

"What are you doing you idiot?" I screamed. One of the boys opposite me had unbuckled his seatbelt and was openly floating through the air. He winked at me before doing a flip in the air. Before he could reattach himself to his seatbelt, we slammed into the ground.

Everyone screamed and there was a lot of creaking before there was silence. I opened my eyes - not remebering even closing them - to see that everything was still. The boy that had been floating lay on the ground, not moving. 

I raced to undo my harness and tripped across pipes and I ran to see if he was okay. Everyone watched as I knelt over him and tried to find a pulse.

There was nothing.

Wells put his hand on my shoulder and helped me stand. He pulled me closer and I leant against him.

"Let's open the door!" Someone shouted and there was a sudden frenzy to reach the lever. A boy I didn't recognise put his hand out to pull it.

"Bellamy?" Someone behind me asked and the boy turned, one hand still on the lever.

A girl with long brown hair was climbing down the ladder behind me from the upper level. The boy - Bellamy - grinned widely when he spotted her.

"Octavia." He said as she wove through the mass of people to reach him. Bellamy scopper her up into a hug, ignoring the stares and whispers around him.

"That's the girl that hid under the floor for sixteen years." Someone whispered. Octavia heard this and lunged forward with a murderous expression on her face. Bellamy pulled her back.

"Let it go O." He told her. "How about we make you something memorable by something else?" Octavia looked at him, confused. Bellamy reached for the lever. "How about being the first person on earth in almost one-hundred years?"

Octavia nodded and then Bellamy pulled the lever before anyone could object. Light and fresh air flooded the dropship and we all stood, blinking in the glare.

The earth was beautiful. I looked outside the huge door and lost myself in the trees and all the green. Bushes swayed in the breeze and I could see birds flying overhead. I snapped myself back to reality when I saw Octavia take a step forward.

She walked to the edge of the door, and paused. Bellamy nodded when she looked back at him. Octavia took a deep breath, and then jumped onto the fern-ridden soil.

There was a beat of total silence.

"We're back bitches!!!" Octavia screamed, throwing her hands in the air.