One In A Hundred (The 100)

Chapter 5

The flames lick my skin, the sensation is unfamiliar and oddly comforting. I watch the growing crowd around the fire as people start to line up. A girl sits down in front of the fire and puts her arm out in front of Murphy.

As he starts to pull the metal apart with a large knife, she yelps in pain, the needles tearing away at her skin. When it's finally off, she smiles as Murphy lifts the broken cuff in the air, a symbol of our new freedom.

People are cheering, ecstatic with the new feeling of adrenaline rushing through them. The crowd is rowdy and my shoulder is knocked by many others, my small form being pushed into the mass of bodies.

That's when I notice a figure not cheering. Like myself, is watching the scene play before their eyes in a daze. Wells watches as the cuff is thrown into the fire in horror.

"Who's next?" Bellamy yells in delate at the crowd. The king of his kingdom, every dying wish granted to him without a fight. That is, until Wells speaks up.

"What the hell are you doing?" He asks, limping forward, ignoring the deafening yells from the crowd and Bellamy's tough glare. When one of his henchmen takes a step forward, he puts a hand of his chest to hold him back before defending himself.

"We're liberating ourselves. What does it look like?" His army nodding eagerly behind him as he defends their freedom.

"It looks like you're trying to get us all killed." To that, Bellamy doesn't have an answer and instead looks away annoyed. "The communication system is dead. These wristbands are all we got. Take them off, and the ark will think we're dying, that it's not safe for them to follow."

As he tries to reason with them, Bellamy smiles and cuts him off.

"That's the point, Chancellor." People laugh at his nickname for the young Jaha. "We can take care of ourselves, can't we?" He yells as everyone rallies behind him, crying out in agreement.

"You think this is a game? Those aren't just our friends and our parents up there-" As he starts to reason with them, I take a step forward without thinking. In the back of my mind I know I'm only going to make things worse, but I can't stop myself.

"Some of us don't have parents, Wells." As my voice starts to ring through the now silent crowd, the people once blocking me start to shift out of my way.

I take a couple steps forward and look at Wells in the eyes. "You know why? Because you're father floated them. Some of us don't have a family to follow us." I can see the regret in his eyes as he looks back at me. Some of the others start to mumble in agreement.

"I know that and I'm sorry for it, but what about our farmers, doctors, and engineers? They are all up there and I don't care what he tells you. We won't survive here on our own." He pauses and looks away from me at Bellamy. "And besides, if it really is safe, how could you not want the rest of our people to come down?"

Bellamy straightens and opens his arms slightly looking around at the crowd of teenagers. "My people are already down." He then points to the sky. "Those people locked my people up." He than starts to take threatening steps towards Wells, each with a purpose of their own.

"Those people killed my mother for the crime of having a second child. Your father did that." For a split second, I could see the pain in his eyes before being shielded once again by the walls he builds around himself. But, in that second, he was a boy again. On a ship holding onto a secret that could cost what little family he had everything.

"My father didn't write the laws." Wells try to defend himself but it's useless as Bellamy cuts him off once again.

"No. He enforced them, but not anymore, not here." He raises his voice. "Here, there are no laws." People start yelling out there agreements. "Here, we do whatever the hell we want, whenever the hell we want!"

While I have to admit that I love the sound of that, any teenager would, I can't help but feel like this is not going to end well. It's only been one day and people are already drunk on the idea of freedom, drowning in the hopes for their future.

A lot of us have already taken the wristbands off and more are waiting. It's only a matter of time before the ark comes to the conclusion that they can't follow us.

I like the idea of being free, having no one follow us down and create our own society, but there is someone up there I can't abandon.

"You don't have to like it, Wells. You can even try to stop it or change it, kill me. You know why?" I can see Wells face start to grow weaker, his strong facade starting to drift away as he anticipates Bellamy's next words. "Whatever the hell we want."

At his closing statement, Murphy yells out in agreement, repeating Bellamy's words and starting a chorus of voices shouting in unison.

"Whatever the hell we want! Whatever the hell we want!" It takes everything in me not to join in but I am able to stand there without even opening my mouth.

I watch as Wells turns around slowly, watching as the crowd around him cheers for their newfound law, until he finally meets Bellamy's eyes once again.

They stare at each other, one carrying a small smirk and the other a broken soul. Before either of them can start fighting again, a loud booming hollars above us.

I jump at the sudden sound before looking up and being met with the most wonderful substance.

Water.

I let out a laugh and everyone starts to cheer and open their mouths for a taste of the thing we've been craving.

"Rain! Real rain!" People are cheering as they run around without caring that their clothes are beginning to become drenched. Even Wells smiles as he looks up at the sky.

I open my mouth and stick out my tongue, letting the cold liquid collect in my mouth before swallowing the much needed drink. When I finally look back at the crowd I see Wells begin to speak but I can't hear him, and to be honest...I don't care.

I'm free.

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