Responsible for survival

Falling

CLARKE'S POV:

"Clarke?" a soft voice, melodic and calming pats my hand. Wait, voices can't...
"Wells?" I squint my eyes open, blinking in the bright, unfamiliar light.
"Nice of you to finally wake up... You certainly woke everyone else." He laughs, staring at me as if I'm water and he's dehydrated.
"What- W.. w.. why are you here?" Nothing makes sense. Wells, shouldn't... wouldn't? I know the chancellor's a crazy man with little empathy, but even he wouldn't?
"I got arrested for you."
"You. What." I can't even verbally respond, the shock and confusion falling from my eyes like the tears that haven't formed for months.

"Prisoners of the Ark, do you hear me?" The chancellor's voice calls. As I search for the source, I see all the other kids who were arrested. The druggies, the murderer (THAT was a scandal), the arsonist, the space walker, the possessive girlfriend, the one doesn't deserve to be here. All staring. The chancellor glows on a screen, streaming blue over those nearest to him. "This is your second chance, your chance to start again. 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."
"Your dad's a dick Wells!" someone yells from across the room. Don't know who, don't care.
"If you survive, your crimes will be forgiven."
IF.
"Your one responsibility is survival. You are being dropped on Mount Weather, a military base from before the cataclysm. There is food and water and everything you need-"
A boy, the space walker, flips in front of us, eyes grazing our faces. "Check it out! Your dad floated me after all." Wells rolls his eyes and looks away, flushing slightly. "Heyy.. YOU'RE the disgraced councillor's daughter. The traitor."
"YOU'RE the idiot who used up a month of air for an illegal space walk. Sit down." He rolls his eyes and floats along to Wells, who appears to be counting, fingers dropping like flies.
"The chutes should deploy in-" The ship shudders and bounces. Wells's arms fly out and grab Finn roughly by the shoulders, yanking him onto his lap. Two other boys who'd followed Finn slam, unmoving, onto the floor. We tumble through the atmosphere, temperature rapidly increasing until a solar flare could be cold. And then we stop. A spine shattering tremor explodes through the ship.

Silence.

"No machine hum." I can see that one. Monty Green, farm station. Long black hair and eyes that hurt. Smart but turned to drugs with his friends. He's right. There's nothing more than our breathing, ragged and choking. I leap out of my seat to the boys. No pulse, no breath. Dead.

I'm the first down that ladder, who knows who else could be injured down there. Instead I am faced with a crowd of peers. Faces I'd thought I'd never see, and faces I've never seen. A man in a guards jacket is at the doors, holding people back . "STOP!" I yell, "The air could be toxic!"
"If the airs toxic we're all dead anyway... Princess?"
The man turns around. I'd recognise those eyes anywhere. Warm and brown, flecked with hazel. Thick black hair, badly gelled up. And the freckles, and the chin and-

"Bellamy!" A shorter girl pushes through the crowd, long black hair wild over her shoulders. She leaps into his arms and my heart shatters. Who's that?
"My God, look how big you are!"
"Bell... why are you in a guards jacket?" she questions, tugging at the sleeve.
"Someone had to look after you..." his eyes leave her face and meet mine.
"Who are you?" I ask, pushing my way forward past people I thought I'd never see again... Miller, Monroe...
"I'm Octavia. Octavia Blake."
"My sister." He smiles at me, and I almost hug him there and then... but then whispers start. Nobody has a brother. It's forbidden. The one child policy, it's the biggest rule on the Gaia Doctrine. And yet, here stand a set of siblings. She leaps forward, as if to sucker punch the girl nearest to us for it, when Bellamy grabs her, pulling her arms back. "Stop, give them something new to remember you by." His red tipped hands close around the lever, and gently slams it down.
The golden light pricks my eyes, and I can see nothing beyond shimmers all the colours of the rainbow and beyond. It hits me, a tsunami of scents, a strong choking smell of wet pencils and warmth. Sweet perfume coats my throat. There is nothing to hear, beyond shaking, out of synch breathing from the 100 of us. Crashing feet collide with blinding metal. Octavia. She marches down the ramp, feet slamming every step; vibrations sending our hearts crazy. She stops at the bottom of the ramp. Kids begin to surge forward but Bellamy shoves them back with an outstretched arm. We watch as her knees bend, and she leaps off the edge of the ramp. The thud is the loudest sound we've ever heard. She steps forward, before punching the air with both hands. "WE'RE BACK B*TCHES!"
The cheers around me push me forward with the rest. I leap off the side of the ramp, half a metre off the ground, onto a dew coated green bush. Dust puffs out like steam from an engine. The smile that explodes is uncontrollable.