CHAPTER ONE - PRISONER 137

         DAKOTA BEGAN TO  fiddle with the chains that bounded her hands together, her eyes lingering on her paint set across the room. She had the urge to paint something, something to remind herself about the last moments that she has spent in this pitiful cell. Her father had come early for his visit, and as he was leaving, he had cuffed her hands together. She wondered why, but she didn't the question, and he didn't explain why she needed her hands restrained.

Dakota's brown eyes scanned the room that was splashed with colors of the rainbow, beautiful stained water colors paintings covered the walls around the girl, things that she drew over the course of almost three years.

She had been counting down the days as her eighteenth birthday was right around the corner and that only meant one thing: it was nearly time to get floated.

Dakota had spent a lot of time to come to terms with what she had done, part of her thought that if she had never stole supplies for her ex-boyfriend Murphy, she would still be working along side Raven, her best-friend.

She wasn't scared of the fate that was waiting for her. She had spent almost three years in the stupid cell and after awhile of sitting alone, she had prepared herself for her fate.

Suddenly, the door burst open behind the girl and five guards plodded in, their heavy black combat boots causing echo's in the small grey cell. Her brown eyes shot up and her lips twisted up in a smirk when her eyes laid upon one guard in particular, standing behind the others with a worried expression on his face.

He was scared of her.

"Prisoner one-three-seven," The first guard whom was placing a silver box on the metal table spoke up, "Against the wall." He ordered.

Dakota stood up slowly, not taking her hands off the several officers that stood before her. "Oh, come now. I don't bite." She smiled. "You really think I could do anything with my hands bound like this, officer?" She held up her hands which were already in handcuffs.

"Don't make me repeat myself," The guard's tone hardened when Dakota didn't make any motion to move. "Face the wall." The guard repeated his demand and flicked open the metal box.

Her brown eyes caught the glimpse of a steel cuff, much thicker than the chains that were already bound to her wrists. "What's that?" She questioned.

Her body went rigid as one of the guards ran out of patience and shoved Dakota against the wall, her face squished up against the cold grey wall.

"Right arm." One of the guards were ordered to come behind and restrain her. That's when a horrified scream erupted outside of her cell block, and right then and there she knew, something was terribly wrong. Her head flew back without a warning and hit the guard behind her in the nose. She then elbowed him in the chest, gaining her the distance that she needed.

Her eyes fell upon the guard that held her, holding his gushing nose.

It didn't take long for the other guards in the room to shove her back into the wall, her head smashing against the concrete. Her eyes went black for a second as her vision began to dim, but Dakota Kane would not go out with a fight. Her leg swept out and hit a guard in the thigh, making him fall to the floor.

Dakota pulled herself off of the floor and crawled over towards the guard who was scrambling to his feet out of fear. The same guard who was standing behind the others, looking scared to enter the girl's cell.

"You must of heard the stories about me, huh?" She looked down on him, putting the heel of her combat boot onto his throat. "Do you know why they call me, The Ripper, here then?" The guard looked up at the teenager with widened eyes. His lips were trembling as Dakota let a sinister smirk slip onto her lips.

But before she could make another move, her body went completely stiff as a familiar face had rushed into her prisoner cell. "Dakota." Abby Griffin said in a calm tone. "Just calm down, we are not going to hurt you."

Dakota looked down at the man who looked up at her in complete horror, and she removed her boot from his throat before backing up towards the wall. Abby decided to slowly walk towards the girl, her hands raising in the air, indicating that she wasn't armed with a weapon.

Dakota's eyes darted across the room, stopping at each unfamiliar face. "Where's my father?" She asked, but her question was left unanswered as it was to late. Abby had stuck a small tranquilizer into the girl's neck without her noticing, and Dakota let out a grunt as her legs began to give out beneath her.

Abby grabbed hold of the girl before she completely hit the hard floor, and before she completely lost consciousness, the silhouette of her father's form entering her cell was the last thing she saw before her eyes closed.

***

"This would work better if we worked together, you know?" Dakota eyed Raven from across the room.

Raven's brown eyes stared into her own as she walked over, discarding her tools. Her eyes landed on the blueprints before her. The blueprints that Dakota had been working on. "We are working together. You're drawing out the mechanics, while I'm performing the mechanics." Raven gave her a sideways glance as she smiled at her.

Dakota rolled her eyes and shoved her away playfully before speaking, "You don't talk to me while your under there. I don't know if my instructions are working or not."

Raven shook her head at the stubborn girl, her eyes scanning over the blueprints before she walked over to the drop-ship that they were currently working to repair. "I'm concentrating." She told her and her head peeked out from the other side.

"You wanna help?" Raven looked over with a raised eyebrow. Dakota looked over at the girl with hope in her eyes. She was finally going to help her and learn more about mechanics. "Pass me a wrench, Kota." Raven smirked.

Dakota rolled her eyes as all hope had washed away. "That's not what I meant by helping you, Raven." She frowned but obeyed her anyways. Dakota got up from her stool and grabbed the wrench from the toolbox, and then sat beside her, passing her the tool before Raven disappeared.

"Fine. I'll let you work on this," Her voice was muffled under the large ship. "But if you mess up, I'm holding you accountable for the mistakes."

Dakota grinned from ear to ear, "What my father doesn't know, won't kill him right?"

***

A sudden jerk was what finally woke Dakota out of her slumber, making her jolt up in surprise. She was slammed back into her seat by the seatbelts that held her in place. She blinked wearily, trying to blink off the sedative that was used on her by Abby. She touched her neck where the needle had went in and found a little puncture whole with dried blood surrounding it.

She groaned, rolling her head on her shoulders and finally took in her surroundings. About fifty teenagers were strapped into chairs like her and they were all talking among each other.

Dakota's eyes had focused to a familiar face that was across the ship, "Murphy!" Her voice came out strained but the delinquent had heard her.

His head shot up at the sound of his name being called, and when his eyes caught her face, he had smiled. "Well, well, well, Kane. I didn't think you would make it." He yelled back as his lips twisted upwards and his eyes took in her appearance.

Dakota shot him a smirk. "You know me, pretty boy. I don't go down with a fight."

But before Murphy could answer her, the ship collided with something, electricity surges from the electronics sparked off making the lights flicker and engulf them in darkness and parts of the walls began to crumble.

Dakota put her hands over her head as the smashing continued, all around her people were screaming and panicking but she tried to remain calm although her heart was pounding. She let out a startled scream as her body lunched toward.

"What was that?" A Blondie girl asked from the corner of Dakota's eyes, and she strained her ears out to listen to their conversation.

"That was the atmosphere."

Almost instantly, the unflattering blue lights flickered on and around the drop ship, Chancellor Jaha's face flickered onto the screen above their heads. He stood tall in an empty part of the Ark, his eyes focused on the camera.

The entire crowd went silent.

"Prisoners of the Ark," Thelonious Wells voice ranged out, bouncing off the metal walls. "Hear me now. 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 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."

Dakota had rolled her eyes at his words, her rage fueling her until she could literally feel her blood boiling. We are his damn lab rats.

"Your dad is a dick, Wells," some random kid shouted at Wells.

Craning her head a bit, her eyes quickly spotted the Chancellor's son. He had dark skin, big forehead with clean, cut hair, and brown eyes. Okay, if the Chancellor son is here, then that means wherever the hell we are going can't be that bad.

"-Those crime will be forgiven," Chancellor continued on with his speech. "Your records wiped clean. The drop site has been chosen carefully. Before the last war, Mount Weather was a military base built within a mountain." The screen had now displayed it's first worrying sign of disconnection, blurring out for a just a moment before coming back. "It was to be stocked with enough non perishables to sustain three hundred people for up to two years."

Dakota's attention was brought away from the screen as a wave of encouraging shouts erupted throughout the drop ship.

"Spacewalk bandit strikes again!"

Dakota craned her neck to look up and into the crowd of criminals, only to find some idiot had unstrapped himself from the harness and was floating in the air.

"Check it out," Finn leaned back, floating in the air casually. "Your dad floated me after all."

Some people chuckled at his comment towards Wells.

"You should strap in before the parachutes deploy," Wells informed him, ignoring the comment.

Dakota leaned back into her seat and grinned at the scene before her. They haven't even landed on Earth, and things were already kicking off. Two more criminals decided to follow Finn, unbuckling their seatbelts to follow Finn Collin's lead.

"Hey, you two, stay put of you want to live," blondie said in a authoritative tone.

"You douche-bags should listen to Blondie or-" Dakota's voice was drowned out by a huge crash as the drop ship began to shake, more than before this time. This was not just passing through the atmosphere, this was pure turbulence. Dakota's head shot back causing her to yell out. Finn and the other two criminals were thrown across the ship like ragged dolls. Two of them crashed into the pipes, releasing a huge set of white smoke while Finn's body was hurled in Dakota's direction and before her brain could even protest what was happening around her, her hand had thrusted out, grasping tightly to the back of Finn's body, saving him from possibly breaking his neck.

But then, the worst was over. The dropship landed on the ground, the machines died, and then the lights flickered back on. Dakota sunk back into her chair, exhaling a breath of relief as the drop ship grew silent.

"Listen," an Asian kid announced, being the first person to speak after a long moment. "No machine hum."

"Whoa," his friend next to him with the goggles on his head breathed out. "That's a first."

Simultaneously, belt buckles clicked from all around, freeing the prisoners from their harnesses as they anxiously awaited to leave the dropship and go outside. Dakota's seatbelt clicked, freeing her from her chair. Her eyes glanced down at Finn, who was pretty much laying on top of her. She shoved him off in annoyance.

"Ow," he groaned. "Thanks."

"I just saved your life, Spacewalker." Dakota's brown eyes looked down at him as she worked on getting her shoulder straps off of her. "You owe me." She raised an eyebrow as Finn's eyes scanned down her frame. For being a total idiot, he was actually decent looking.

"I'll keep it in mind, kitten." Finn replied, a flirtatious smile growing on his face. Dakota slowly worked at taking her belts off, just like everyone else. Finn got back onto his two feet and rushed towards the criminals who were sprawled over the drop ship floor.

"The outer door is on the lower level! Let's go!"

"No, we can't just opened the doors," Clarke cried as she made her way down the ladder and started pushing her way towards the front.

Dakota was the second one to reach the ladder, following behind Clarke. She shoved her way through the people to get to the front. Immediately, her eyes fell upon a tall, dark haired man in a guard's uniform. His skin was a bronze olive colour, much like her own, and his face was littered with freckles.

"The air could be toxic," Clarke urged the man at the front of the ship, right at the doors.

"If the air is toxic, we're all dead, anyway," said the man pessimistically.

"Bellamy?"

The small voice seemed to perk his interest, and he lifted his head up and looked towards where the exclamation came from. Dakota turned her head to look behind her, seeing a girl with a great figure climb down the ladder. The crowd of prisoners cleared the way for the girl who spoke to this man, and she walked to the front slowly, her eyes wide. He was just as shocked, but more relieved than anything. The girl was petite with long, brown hair and a smooth complexion. She rushed up to the man blockading the door and he looked her up and down.

"My god, look how big you are." The girl launched herself into Bellamy's arms, hugging him tightly. After a moment of embrace, she slid down and glanced him over, a look of disgust coming over her delicate features.

"What the hell are you wearing, a guard's uniform?"

"I borrowed it to get on the drop-ship," he quickly defended himself. "Someone has got to keep an eye on you."

Again, she reached up to hug him, but their reunion was short-lived as Clarke ruined their moment. "Where's your wristband?"

"Do you mind?" the girl snapped at Clarke. "I haven't seen my brother in a year."

"No one has a brother!" shouted someone in the crowd.

"That's Octavia Blake!" another person exclaimed, remembering something important. "The girl they found hidden in the floor!"

Octavia was just about to lunge at whoever hollered the crude words when her brother held her back. "Octavia! Octavia, no!" He spoke quietly as he pulled his sister away from the idiots who were sneering at her, "Let's give them something else to remember you by." He offered with a smile on his face.

"Yeah, Like what?" She questioned as she shot dirty looks towards the crowd.

"Like being the first person on the ground in hundred years." He informed her whilst smiling happily down at her and Dakota found herself biting down on her lip, dreading the moment when those doors would open and they would all die from radiation.

Bellamy quickly turned around and wrapped his hands around the metal lever while Octavia faced the outer door. Bellamy pulled the lever.

The doors finally opened, smoke flew up from the crevices and her eyes squinted in the newfound bright light, her mouth parted in amazement as she stared out onto Earth for the first time ever. Finally, she wasn't staring at the planet from the big glass window from space, she was actually there. Fresh, sweet wind blew in her face, catching her hair and letting it fall off of her shoulders.

She watched as Octavia slowly stepped out onto the door that was now a ramp, the brunette made her way down cautiously with a look of amazement on her pretty features. She closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and felt the cool air hit her lungs. She exhaled this time, deep and slow, practically melting in the way the air felt. Things were dead silent as she walked up to the edge of the drop ships door, just shy of stepping down onto the ground.

Finally working up the courage Octavia jumped down from the ramp and onto the grass, a sense of accomplishment overwhelmed her.

She smiled and threw her hands up in the air. "We're back bitches!"