the pilot; ❛ RULES ❜ ↷ the hundred
❝ we're back bitches! ❞

Gabriella Kane never knew peace.

At least not in this stupid metal box that sucked all of her will to live right out of her.

It has been ninety-seven years since the nuclear apocalypse killed everyone on Earth and left the planet simmering in radiation. Unfortunately for Gabriella Kane, there were survivors. Twelve nations had operational space stations at the time of the bombs. The only station left was called The Ark. Everyone was told the Earth needed another hundred years to become survivable again. That meant there were supposed to be four more space-locked generations until the human race could go home, back to the ground.

And that was what Gabriella always wanted.

To go down to Earth and finally be free from The Ark and Jaha's rules. If people knew better they would think she's your typical spoiled brat from Alpha Station. Since her father was Marcus Kane. But they knew better

Gabriella got arrested at the age of seventeen along with her best friend John Murphy for setting fire to a guard's room. She knew that if they were found out they would get arrested. And every person that commits any type of crime would be punished by death, if they were underage they'd get executed as soon as they turned eighteen. But Gabriella didn't have much to lose. She and Murphy met around the age of fifteen and they soon became inseparable. By the time she turned sixteen, she stopped hanging out with her privileged friends and only hung out with him and some kids from Mecha Station who worked with her.

She has spent years reading books about the Earth and looking down at it through the windows. She always wanted to feel what the ground felt like beneath her feet and how the rain would feel on her skin.

That was her dream.

But her reality? Today was her eighteenth birthday and she was supposed to be floated any time soon.

Gabriella has been in the sky-box for more than a year, only being allowed outside so she could attend classes. Even then, she was usually separated from Murphy, something she was sure her father made sure of.

There were a lot of things she realized while locked up. The first one was that she was pretty much in love with her best friend and the second one...she hated her father more than she originally thought.

Surprisingly, Gabriella didn't really care that she was gonna get floated today. To her, it just meant she wouldn't have to stare at The Ark walls until she died from old age. The bonus was if Marcus Kane was the one who was supposed to press the button. First doing it to his wife and then his daughter.

It would be ironic really.

And because of that, she didn't fight when the guards barged into her room. She just raised an eyebrow, put the knife she was previously twirling around in her hands, and tucked it in the old boots she was wearing. For extra measure.

"Prisoner 3-2-4, face the wall."

She did as she was told hearing the other guard say, "Hold out your right arm."

Gabriella furrowed her eyebrows, she was pretty sure that wasn't how the procedure is supposed to go, "I get it if you're into some kinky shit but I'm supposed to be getting floated, not reenact Fifty Shades of Grey."

The guards ignored her and one of them stepped forward to grab her arm, putting a metal wristband around her wrist. She felt a sting in her arm but didn't want to give them the satisfaction of wincing so she kept glaring at them.

She quickly grew confused when she saw her father walk in but that confusion shifted into anger at his blank expression.

"Came here to gloat?" she barked out but her father didn't seem affected by the venom in her voice.

Kane shook his head and placed his hands on her shoulders, "Listen to me closely. You are not being floated. You are being sent to the ground. All one hundred of you."

Gabriella furrowed her eyebrows, "What the hell are you talking about? It's not safe yet. Not for another four generations."

She saw her father's face fall before he leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her forehead, the action making her blink in surprise, "Take care of yourself."

And then everything went black.

-

When Gabriella finally opened her eyes she was strapped to a chair in a dropship with ninety-nine other delinquents. She looked around in alarm, soon finding herself face to face with a smirking blue-eyed boy who sat opposite her.

"John? Where are we?"

"Hell." He stated with an amused smirk.

She rolled her eyes and sat up more, "Explains you being here."

Murphy's smirk slowly turned into a genuine smile, "I missed you too, Ellie."

Gabriella tried to fight back a smile but failed miserably, "Of course you did. I'm awesome. What's not to miss?"

The only response she got was a breathy chuckle before the dropship lights flickered and a crash was heard. Murphy sat up straight with a slightly panicked look on his pale face, "What the hell was that?"

Trying to suppress a groan at the situation she found herself in, the Kane girl simply responded, "The atmosphere."

Murphy didn't even have time to react since the monitor turned on revealing a video with Thelonious Jaha on it, "Prisoners of The Ark, 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's 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."

Gabriella and Murphy both wore similar scowls when they looked back at each other.

"Your dad's a dick, Wells!" a male voice yelled, making Gabriella look around in confusion.

Wells was here?

She scoffed to herself and turned to look at Murphy "I can't believe Jaha would actually send his own son down here to die."

He huffed "Nothing surprises me anymore."

"Your crimes will be forgotten and records wiped clean. The drop site has been chosen carefully. Before the Last War, Mount Weather was a military base built within a mountain. It was to be stocked with enough non-perishables to sustain 300 people."

Gabriella tuned out the rest of his speech once she saw a familiar boy floating around the dropship.

"Spacewalker bandit strikes again!"

The teenager floated straight towards her as other delinquents kept cheering him on "Long time no see, Ella."

Gabriella and Finn have known each other for a while now. They met through their mutual friend Raven and stayed friends mainly through her but Gabriella wouldn't say she was close to the boy.

She still grinned cooly at him and nodded "Hey, Collins. I heard all about your spacewalk back in the sky-box."

"I'm popular even in jail. What a surprise." he joked making her chuckle lightly while he continued floating around.

"Mount Weather is life. You must locate those supplies immediately. You have one responsibility, stay alive."

In a flash, Finn and the two boys who followed him out of their seats crashed to the floor and the dropship started speeding, lights flickering even more.

"We are so gonna die!" Gabriella faintly heard her best friend panic over the loud noise in the crowded dropship.

"Everything here is over a hundred years old. Give it a minute to start working." the blonde snapped in return but gripped his hand tightly nonetheless.

There was a loud crash telling them the dropship landed and everyone slowly caught their breath. Gabriella looked around to see if she could spot any familiar faces before she let go of Murphy's hand and let out a sigh.

"Listen. No machine hum." a familiar voice was heard and Gabriella smiled to herself already recognizing who the voice belonged to.

She unbuckled her seatbelt and faintly heard another voice add a sarcastic 'well that's a first' but didn't have time to process who it belonged to because she worriedly rushed over to stand next to Finn who was hovering above the two unconscious boys on the floor.

"Finn, is he breathing?" she asked, putting an arm on his shoulder. The girl let out a sigh when he shook his head and looked towards the stairs leading to the bottom floor.

Murphy grabbed her wrist and nodded towards the door getting a nod in return. As the pair got to the first floor, they heard a familiar female voice call out, "We can't just open the doors!"

"Just back it up guys!" a deep male voice yelled causing Gabriella to furrow her eyebrows. She made her way to the front of the crowd to see an older guy dressed in a guard's uniform that made her narrow her eyes.

"Stop! The air could be toxic!" the same girl yelled as she made her way to the front, not aware her ex-best friend was standing a few steps next to her.

"If the air's toxic we're all dead anyway." the man in the guard's uniform simply shrugged.

It was obvious Clarke was about to argue but a voice from the back interrupted with a soft, "Bellamy?"

His head snapped to the sound of the female voice and his features completely softened once she walked in front of him. "Oh my, God. Look how big you are."

They exchanged a heartfelt hug that made Gabriella's eyes slightly soften. She knew who the girl was. Everyone did. But she actually remembered her from a few of her classes. The girls were not really friends but they talked a few times. It was enough to know she was a good kid.

"What the hell are you wearing?" the raven-haired girl asked, pointing to his jacket. "A guard's uniform?"

"I borrowed it to get in the dropship. Someone's gotta keep an eye on you." he told her quietly but the people at the front could still hear the conversation.

Gabriella turned around to whisper to Murphy with a small smirk, "So he is not a real guard. Which means we are gonna have freedom until The Ark comes down."

The boy mirrored her smirk. "You mean if they come down."

The duo snapped out of their little bubble when the siblings shared another hug which Clarke interrupted with another one of her unnecessary questions, "Where's your wristband?"

Way to ruin the moment Clarke. Gabriella thought with a bitter scowl on her face, a contrast to the easy-going look she was sporting before.

"Do you mind? I haven't seen my brother in a year." Octavia snapped, making the Kane girl smirk at her attitude. She already liked her.

That sentence was enough to make the crowd start whispering and Octavia quickly snapped her attention to them. The young girl was about to lunge forward but her brother held her back, leaning down to whisper, "Hey, let's give them something else to remember you by."

"Yeah, like what?"

Bellamy grinned at his annoyed sister, "Like being the first person on the ground in a hundred years."

"Ninety-seven." Gabriella corrected under her breath and heard her male best friend let out a faint chuckle.

The older Blake either did not hear her comment or chose to ignore her correction. He turned his back on the impatient crowd of delinquents and reached for the lever, opening the doors and making them come face to face with planet Earth. Bellamy made everyone get behind so Octavia could walk out on her own. She took a few small steps and breathed the air in, then made her way to the bottom of the door and finally stepped on the ground to yell "We're back bitches!"

Gabriella watched as the delinquents made their way outside while jumping around and cheering. She turned to look at Murphy who was standing behind her and watching her with a small smile. "Ladies first."

The blonde chuckled before slowly stepping down the door and breathing in the fresh air that made her smile. She looked around at the trees and flowers all around her and her smile grew impossibly larger. She was on Earth.

Before she actually stepped on the ground she turned back at Murphy and offered him her hand, "Together?"

He nodded and took her hand. "Together."

The pair took a step down and stood firmly on the ground. Gabriella turned around to look at Murphy but before she could think about saying anything he wrapped his arms around her waist and held her tight, spinning her a little in the process.

She squealed in surprise but didn't hesitate to hug the boy back, "Yeah, yeah, I missed you too."

-

"I think this is the best gift you could have gotten today." Murphy announced with a grin.

Gabriella faked a disappointed expression. "I mean I'd really prefer getting floated over being here with you but a girl can dream right?"

"Ouch." he mocked hurt, making her chuckle.

"You, mind?" A voice echoed through the camp, making the pair turn their attention to the dropship door where Wells just pushed a boy with goggles back. Gabriella recognized the boy as Jasper Jordan and the way the chancellor's son pushed him back made her blood boil.

"Hey!" The blonde called as she walked up to them with John and a few other delinquents behind her, "Back off, Chancellor Junior. He's with us."

"We're just trying to figure out where we are." He defended himself, making her scoff.

"We're on the ground. That not good enough for you?" A male voice from behind them asked.

Gabriella turned around to see it was Bellamy with his sister right next to him. Wells followed her gaze and said, "We need to find Mount Weather. You heard my father's message. That has to be our first priority."

"Screw your father." Octavia sneered, joining the discussion, "What? You think you're in charge here? You and your little princess?"

Gabriella nodded with a smirk which dropped into a scowl once again as her blonde ex-best friend spoke up, "You think we care who's in charge? We need to get to Mount Weather. Not because the Chancellor said so, but because the longer we wait, the hungrier we'll get and the harder this will be. How long do you think we'll last without those supplies? We're looking at a twenty-mile trek, okay? So if we wanna get there before dark, we need to leave. Now."

The Kane girl cleared her throat to bring everyone's attention to her and stepped closer, "Or you and your little boyfriend can go and do the hard work since you care about getting there so much. I don't know about you Princess, but we took Earth Skills for a reason. We don't need to do what Jaha says anymore. But you heard him, we're on the ground now, which means we're on our own."

Bellamy looked at the girl with a smirk before turning to look at Clarke and agreeing, "She's right. We should let the privileged do the hard work for a change."

There were sounds of agreement coming from the criminals around them, but Clarke didn't hear them since she was completely focused on the Kane that just told her off. The girls have not spoken in what felt like ages. They were inseparable since they were kids but Clarke just started pulling away and Gabriella didn't know what else to do so she just let her go. Neither of them made any effort to reconnect; with Clarke basically ghosting her and with Gabriella not wanting to put effort into a one-sided friendship.

"You're not listening. We all need to go." Wells yelled pleadingly, but Murphy cut him off by pushing him back.

"Look at this, everybody. It's the chancellor of Earth."

Gabriella chuckled at her best friend's words and crossed her arms over her chest with a small amused smirk.

"You think that's funny?"

The only response that Wells got was Murphy pushing him back further. He stumbled before he fell to the ground and twisted his ankle in the process. Murphy chuckled under his breath, "No, but that was."

Wells quickly got off the floor, stumbling a bit because of his foot. The boys got ready to fight before a male figure jumped from the dropship and between them. Gabriella only realized that that was Finn when he faced Murphy with a challenging look on his face and spoke up, "The kid's got one leg. How about you wait until it's a fair fight?"

Gabriella raised an eyebrow at the boy and shrugged. "Or Griffin here, could keep her dog on a leash and do us all a favour."

Wells made a show of scowling at her but Clarke couldn't find herself meeting her gaze and kept looking at the floor.

"Hey, Spacewalker." Octavia broke the argument by stepping closer to Finn and giving him a flirty look, "Rescue me next."

Finn grinned at the younger girl while Gabriella rolled her eyes and grabbed Murphy's arm, preparing to walk away. But before she did, she gave Jasper and Monty ( who barely took their eyes off of her since she stepped into the conversation ) a toothy grin, "Good to see you boys too."

The two best friends grinned as they watched her walk away, excited that one of their closest friends was there too.

-

Gabriella was distracted watching Clarke and Finn gather their group for Mount Weather so she didn't notice a taller male figure come up behind her.

"You're not going? I thought you were gonna be the first to sign up?"

The blonde snapped her head to the source of the voice and quickly tackled the taller male in a hug "Sam? What the hell are you doing here?"

Sam Sydney was Gabriella's oldest friend and the only childhood friend she kept in touch with. He may didn't like the fact that she was hanging out with people like John Murphy but they still kept hanging out. Murphy's dislike for him had more to do with the fact that Sam always had a thing for her than the fact that he was one of the privileged. But he never said anything about it so he remained her only friend from Alpha.

He grinned teasingly, "I thought you'd be happy to see me."

"I am! It's just ── how the hell did you get arrested?" she asked, pulling away.

"I helped Wells burn the last Ark tree. I wanted to keep an eye on you and you know Wells goes wherever Clarke goes, even now that she hates his guts." he shrugged with a smirk, "You still didn't answer my question."

"What do you want me to do? Go on a day trip with Clarke? Willingly?" she shook her head and scoffed, "Someone's gotta keep things here in place. And I'll be damned if that turns out to be the fake guard."

"Someone doesn't handle authority well." Sam said, knowingly.

Gabriella pursed her lips with a shrug. "Depends on who it is. But that guy is up to something and I'm gonna figure out what it is. I'll see you around." She gave him one last grin before walking away.

-

"Find any water yet?" Murphy asked as he, Gabriella, and Mbege walked up to Wells, who was gathering wood for the fire.

"Not yet." He looked up. "I'm going back out if you wanna come."

He turned around to continue what he was doing but the words on the drop ship caught his attention:

"First son
first to dye"

Gabriella figured Murphy and Mbege wrote that while she left them alone and couldn't help but chuckle at the terrible spelling. Murphy rubbed his nose with the hand that was still holding the knife he carved the writing in the dropship with, before he spoke coldly "You know, my father, he begged for mercy in the air-lock chamber when your father floated him."

Wells ignored his words and started walking off, bumping their shoulders together when he brushed passed him and huffing, "You spelled die wrong, geniuses."

Gabriella crossed her arms over her chest as she watched Wells walk away, addressing the two boys next to her with a ghost of a smirk, "That kid is gonna be easy to break."

"If you're gonna kill someone, it's probably best not to announce it."

The blonde turned around to see Bellamy standing in front of them. She narrowed her blue eyes at his uniform before letting them connect with his own. "Just trying to scare him a bit. There is no need to take any drastic measures yet."

Murphy nodded and chuckled, him too eying the guards uniform Bellamy was wearing. "You're not really a member of the Guard, are you?"

"No. The real Guard will be here soon unless we stop it. You don't actually think they're gonna forgive your crimes?" Bellamy crossed his arms over his chest, "Even if they do, then what? People like us, we're gonna become citizens now? Get jobs? If we're lucky, maybe pick up their trash."

Gabriella looked at him with narrowed eyes before letting a small smirk ghost her lips. For some reason, he didn't want The Ark to come down. But it wasn't for the reason he was telling them. He must've done something so fucked up to get down here. The Ark would probably kill him instantly if they found him on the ground with the hundred. She doubted that his sneaking onto that ship was legal. Especially since he was not an actual guard.

"You got a point?" Mbege snapped, getting impatient listening to his mocking.

"No. I have a question. They locked you up, dumped you down here like lab rats to die. So why are you helping them?" Bellamy questioned, faking curiosity.

"The hell we are."

"You're wearing those bracelets aren't you?" he taunted, "Those things are telling them whether or not it's safe to follow us down."

"Okay, so you said we could stop it. How?" Murphy asked, making his best friend raise an eyebrow at him. She couldn't believe he was really buying this bullshit.

"Take them off. The Ark will think you're dead. That it isn't safe to follow. You follow?"

"Right." Murphy grinned. "And if we do, I mean what's in it for us?"

Bellamy's smirk grew at how easy it was to get them to follow along with his plan. "Someone's gotta help me run things." His attention quickly turned to the girl in the group and he added, "Especially you. They seem to listen to you. You're from Alpa, right? But you are still one of them."

"Oh, I know they listen to me." Gabriella lifted her chin up to meet his gaze, "But I'm not gonna be using that to help you."

She had two options. She could take the wristband off and piss her father off which was getting exhausting since she realized he stopped caring a long time ago, and she could keep the wristband on and piss Bellamy off. The second option seemed much more appealing at the moment. She could always take the wristband off when she got bored.

Bellamy raised an eyebrow "And why is that?"

Gabriella turned to the two Johns behind her and motioned for them to leave them alone. Once they walked away far enough so they were out of earshot, she turned back to Bellamy.

"I don't know if you already realized this, Blake, but I don't do well with authority." She stepped closer so they were almost chest-to-chest. "I don't know what you did to get down here. But unless you get out of my way, I won't hesitate to find out. You aren't one of us and it's only a matter of time until they realize that. It's obvious you're only here to protect your little sister. You don't actually care about any of us. I get that. You're her big brother and that is what you are supposed to do. But I'm also pretty sure there's another reason you don't want The Ark to come down here." She swore she saw a flash of fear in his eyes which he instantly tried to cover up with anger. Her smirk grew and she tilted her head. "I'd be extra nice to me down here, Blake. Haven't you heard that a foreign king usually ends up dead?"

Bellamy narrowed his eyes, his jaw clenched tight. "Was that a threat?"

She smiled innocently and shrugged, "I don't know. Was it?"

a/n: that's it for the first chapter, I'm excited for the rest of this story!

edited