Earth.
It always felt like a distant dream, even though it was right there—just beyond the pressurized window. It seemed painted, peaceful, unreal… so different from the reality they all knew on the Ark.
It had been ninety-seven years since humanity was wiped out in a nuclear war that rendered the planet uninhabitable.
What was left of the human race was now on that spaceship. For three generations they had lived orbiting, following the Earth. Near it, but never touching. It was a saddening thought.
Lily Hale had always watched the place that should have been their home, asking herself if it would have been as hard to survive if they were still there, if radiation had never forced them to flee.
The Ark had been their sanctuary, but it was anything but. It was a hard life, strict and unforgiving. Rules were what kept humanity alive to them, but they were also killing humanity itself.
"Try to be kind, Lily," was one of the last things her mother had told her before dying. Her mother, Mira Hale, was a woman who had always believed in sensibility, as if that alone could save lives. It was a nice thought, but sometimes it felt difficult to follow.
The Ark and its Council and its rules and its guards made sensitivity seem so unimportant, but it wasn't. Lily wanted to believe her mother, the woman who had raised her alone for thirteen years. She was a good woman, and brave. And all her strength was based on that principle.
But Marcus Kane believed in something else entirely. And calling him "father" never felt quite right. Especially now.
In her skybox, the heaviness of their lives on the Ark hit even harder. She could not stop thinking about all the people who had been locked in the same cell for even the most insignificant crimes, waiting to be floated. Now it was her turn, and Lily was not so sure that Councilor Marcus Kane would help the daughter no one knew about after she turned eighteen. She wasn't confident about it at all. People got floated for the smallest infractions, and she had been accused of stealing. That was a severe crime.
"I just wanted to do what was right, Mum," she whispered, from where she was sitting on the ground, her legs to her chest, her face hidden behind her arms. She would cry, and think, and stay silent. Her days were all the same.
But not that one.
The sound of her cell opening made Lily gasp, slowly getting to her feet, her hand pressed against the cold metal wall, frowning as she recognized the figure stepping through the door.
"Marcus?" she asked, confused. He didn't answer. His posture was rigid, his expression carved in stone. He looked at her the same way he always had—distant, unreadable. She had spent years trying to understand him, but she never managed, no matter how much she tried.
"Prisoner 136, face the wall," he said curtly, just as another guard entered the cell.
"What's happening?" she asked, refusing to turn away from him, her voice thin but defiant. But Marcus didn't respond. He simply gestured toward the wall again.
Lily let out a frustrated breath, biting down the heat rising in her chest, and turned as instructed. She knew he wouldn't say anything until she obeyed.
"Now can you tell me what is going on?" she asked again, trying to keep her tone steady, though her hands were trembling. Nothing about this was normal. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
"Hold out your arm," Marcus said, his steps measured as he approached.
Her heart was pounding violently. She extended her arm with hesitation, fingers twitching as he took hold of her wrist. Then she winced, hissing through her teeth as a sharp sting pierced her skin. She instinctively pulled her arm back and looked down—there was a metal band locked tight around her wrist, still burning slightly where it had clicked into place.
Only then did she lift her gaze to her father.
"What is this?" she asked confused, her voice breaking as her eyes searched his face. "Marcus…"
He was observing her silently, before giving a quick look to the guard in her cell.
"You'll be sent to the ground. All one hundred of you," he said, the words flat, almost rehearsed, as he looked back at her.
"What?" Her breath caught in her throat. Her heart felt like it might explode. "Why now? We're supposed to wait another hundred years. That's what the experts said."
"Experts can make mistakes," he said, his stone cold face looking at her directly. That was too dangerous, the radiations could be strong still, they should be strong still for what they knew. And he was willing to use kids as lab rats, he was willing to let her die like that.
"If the radiations are there still we are all going to die," Lily said to him, and for a moment she thought he was going to answer, but instead he turned to the guard and gave a nod.
"No!" she screamed as the man grabbed her by the shoulders and began to drag her out of the cell. "Marcus! Stop them—this is insane! Marcus!" Her voice cracked as she fought, twisting in his grip, desperate to break free. But the moment she crossed the threshold, another guard seized her other arm, and together they forced her through the corridor. She kept shouting his name, looking back over her shoulder until the hallway turned and she lost sight of her cell—and of him.
He hadn't moved.
Her blue eyes blurred with tears of fear and disbelief as she was pulled past other cells, where more inmates were being rounded up. Some looked dazed. Others terrified. The sounds of confusion and resistance echoed against the steel walls, but it all felt muffled, distant.
Lily couldn't breathe properly. Her chest was rising too fast, her heart hammering against her ribs, her vision narrowing. She was gasping, struggling to draw air that just wouldn't come. Her whole body shook as they reached the launch bay. The dropship loomed ahead—dark, massive, the final sentence of their lives on the Ark.
The ship felt like a cage again, but far more scary. The two guards pushed her in abruptly, almost making her lose her balance. Her breath was laboured, knowing that they were all condemned to die from the radiation. Another guard took her by the arm, pushing her to the ladder, forcing her to climb up.
When Lily arrived on the second floor, another guard took her so that he could lead her toward her seat, pushing her down.
"Fasten your belt," he said firmly, before going to another inmate who was climbing the ladder. Lily could not believe what was happening. The Council was really that cruel to send a hundred teenagers to die? For what? Why now?
And she could not stop thinking about Marcus. That had been the last time she would ever see her father, and all she felt was anger and pain. How could he act so cold? How could he not try and calm her, hug her?
He never did. He wouldn't start now, she thought bitterly.
"Stop pushing me, you asshole!"
The voice came sharp, irritated, defiant—cutting through the low hum of fear that filled the dropship. Lily turned her head instinctively toward the sound, just in time to see one of the guards shoving a boy forward onto the upper level.
He had dark hair that fell messily over his forehead and a scowl fixed on his face like it belonged there. He moved with the kind of restlessness that drew attention without trying—like someone who was always either about to punch someone or make a joke at the worst possible moment.
There was a cut on his cheekbone, a purplish bruise near his jaw, and a sarcastic glint in his eyes that didn't quite hide how tense he was. He didn't look scared like the others—not exactly. If he was, he masked it with anger, with attitude, with a swagger that almost seemed rehearsed.
The guard shoved him again.
"Yeah, yeah, I heard you, Murphy," the boy muttered, throwing himself into the seat next to her with a dramatic sigh. He didn't look at her. Just buckled his belt and leaned back like this was all some twisted field trip.
As they pulled more and more kids inside the dropship, Lily watched, and it felt endless, looking at how they got pushed and pulled and forced into their seats. But when the guards finally left the level she was in, it felt too fast.
This is crazy, she thought, her legs moving restlessly. Her heart thumping in her chest—it felt almost ready to explode when she heard the metal pressurized door close with a loud noise.
Were they all going to die? A hundred years were so many to wait, that didn't make any sense. And the only question she could endlessly repeat was: Why?
Why would the Council make such a decision? There must have been a reason—them and their precious rules. There must have been a reason, for sure.
The engine started, the roar echoing inside her chest, which trembled almost enough to scare her. And then she felt it—the dropship was separating from the Ark at once.
The ship grew quiet as they went. Lily could feel the movement, but there was no way for them to be able to look outside. That was a different kind of feeling than floating in space inside the Ark. They were traveling, and Lily had never experienced something like that. But then suddenly, she let out a yelp, along with everyone else, when the atmosphere made the dropship shake violently. Lily's hands were quick to clutch at the seatbelt, tight around her chest. Her eyes were closed tight, opening only when she heard a recorded voice.
Thelonious Jaha, the Chancellor of the Ark.
"Prisoners of the Ark, hear me now," he was saying calmly. Lily could not understand that behavior at all. "You've been given a second chance. And as your Chancellor, it is my hope that you see this as not just a chance for you, but for all of us. Indeed, for mankind itself."
Lily could not understand the rush. That didn't make any sense at all.
"We have no idea what is waiting for you down there," he kept saying. "If the odds of survival were better, we would have sent others. Frankly, we're sending you because your crimes have made you expendable."
Lily shook her head, looking down. On the Ark, it didn't matter why you committed the crime, or even if you really had. Once they thought you'd made a single mistake, you no longer served a purpose in society.
Is this the kind of mankind we decided to be? She asked herself, looking back at Jaha's video.
"If, however, you do survive—"
"Your dad is a dick, Wells!" someone said, making Lily instantly look around. Why was Wells Jaha in that dropship? What could he have possibly done?
"—then those crimes would be forgiven," the video went on, "Your records wiped clean." Of that, Lily was not so sure. If there was something she had learned from her father, it was that the rules must be followed. And with the number of people who had been floated for whatever reason, she could hardly believe that just surviving would make the Council forgive them. Maybe Wells Jaha was safe, but the other ninety-nine...
"The dropsite has been chosen carefully," he kept saying. "Before the last war, Mount Weather was a military base built within a mountain. It was stocked with enough non-perishables to sustain 300 people for up to two years—"
But shouting caught her attention. People were happily talking about a Spacewalker, and looking in the same direction, she saw a boy who had unbuckled his belt and was now floating in midair—until she couldn't see him anymore.
"No..." she muttered, before she noticed a guy in front of her moving to unbuckle his own belt.
"Stop!" Lily shouted, but she was not the only one. Another female voice was speaking to someone else.
"Stay put if you wanna live!" she was saying. But they didn't listen, and as Jaha kept talking, Lily could only follow the frame of the boy floating in front of them. Suddenly, the dropship shook violently again, making her body jerk, almost hurting her.
Suddenly, a loud bang echoed through the cabin—the retrorockets had fired. The descent slowed, but the turbulence remained intense.
Lily's hands clenched the straps across her chest, knuckles white. Around her, screams and cries filled the air as the dropship continued its rapid descent.
With a final, bone-rattling crash, the dropship slammed into the ground. The impact threw Lily forward, the restraints digging into her shoulders. Then, silence—broken only by the groans and sobs of the other passengers.
They had landed.
There was a moment of silence as they all took deep breaths to calm themselves after the landing. Lily felt her heart thumping in her chest. They were alive. Or at least, they were for now.
"Listen," someone said, "No machine hum."
That was true. It was silent. It was so strange not hearing an engine, a ship alive and working. They were truly on Earth, and that was the first sign of it. So that was the first sound they heard—silence.
Lily could not deny that it was quite relaxing, that foreign feeling. And she closed her eyes to savor it for a moment.
But then, people started to move, eager to go downstairs. And when Lily opened her eyes, she noticed the boy who had unbuckled his belt before, lying on the ground unmoving. The girl moved her hands to unbuckle her belt, making her way toward the guy, kneeling at his side.
"Can you hear me?" she asked, trying to shake his shoulder. But he didn't move. Then she tried to find his pulse, but there was none.
Oh god...
"Is he breathing?" the girl's voice from before said, making Lily turn to notice a blonde-haired girl kneeling beside her. They both looked at each other. Lily knew who she was: Clarke Griffin, the daughter of Abigail Griffin, the doctor of the Ark. They had never properly talked, but they had seen each other before. Lily wondered why she was in the skybox. Both her and Wells.
"No..." Lily answered with a shake of her head. Then Clarke turned to look to her left.
"Finn, is he breathing?" she asked a guy with long dark hair, looking down at another body. And from the sorrowful look he had, he was dead as well.
"The outer doors are on the lower level, let's go!" someone said excited. That made Lily and Clarke share a look.
"They are going to open it," Lily said, but the other girl was quick to get up.
"You cannot open the door!" she yelled, and Lily and the boy named Finn were ready to follow. She was right. They did not know what was going on out there—for all they knew, the radiation was already affecting them.
When she climbed down the iron ladder, Lily noticed an older guy wearing a guard uniform. Did they send a guard with them? But Jaha had said nothing about that. And sending just one for a hundred kids seemed a bit useless.
"If the air is toxic, we're dead anyway," he was saying to Clarke. But there was no reason to rush. They could wait a little longer. If they didn't start to have any bad symptoms, maybe they could understand if it was safe or not.
"Bellamy?" a girl's voice came from behind them, and the guy seemed rather happy to hear it, as he looked at her making her way toward him.
"That's the girl hidden under the floor," someone shouted, and Lily's eyes grew larger. Octavia Blake—she had heard the story. She was a second child, and by the rules of the Ark no one could have a second child. From what she knew, they had arrested the girl and floated the mother. So, if that was Octavia Blake, he could just be her brother.
"My God," he said once she was close enough, "Look how big you are." Octavia was quick to envelop him in a tight hug. They seemed to have missed each other very much. Lily could understand what it meant to miss her own family. She missed her mother's hugs.
"What the hell are you wearing? A guard's uniform?" Octavia asked as she pulled back from her brother. That made Lily frown. Was he not a guard?
He looked down at what he was wearing, before answering softly, "I borrowed it to get on the dropship," he said. "Someone's got to keep an eye on you."
As they hugged again, though, Clarke asked a good question, "Where's your wristband?" Lily had not noticed that he wasn't wearing it like the rest of them.
"Do you mind?" Octavia asked, glaring at Clarke. "I haven't seen my brother in a year." After her statement, someone shouted that it was impossible for her to have a brother, only to have someone else shout who Octavia Blake was and why she was there with them. It must have been a sensitive point because Octavia was ready to lunge toward whoever had spoken, but Bellamy was quick to block her.
"Let's give them something else to remember you by," he spoke softly, making his sister turn.
"Like what?"
"Like being the first person on the ground in one hundred years." And then he just opened the door. Lily gasped, as the strongest light she had ever seen hit her eyes, forcing her to close them. But as darkness surrounded her, she felt something she had never experienced. It was a breeze—different from the oxygen that kept them alive on the Ark. This was lighter, cooler, and far more pleasant. Then she could hear some noises, like something rustling. Were those the trees? Real trees? That thought was enough to give her courage to open her eyes, and what she saw was beautiful.
Tall trees with green leaves above them, the ground—real ground—just a few feet from them. And the sky, that was so beautiful, clear and blue, with the sun glowing and its heat hitting her skin, giving a warm feeling in contrast with the cool breeze that was moving her blonde hair.
That was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. No photo, or painting, or story could match it. For as many times as she had dreamt of Earth, it had never been like the real one.
"We're back, bitches!" Octavia shouted, and for the first time that day, Lily could not help but let out a light, happy laugh, as everyone started to run out of the dropship.