"I saw a ship launch! Not more than 20 minutes ago!" A voice rang out on the Ark, loud and commanding answers, as were the rest of the group gathered in the room. "Who was on it?" Another man yelled loudly. "Was it the prisoners? They're just kids!" A woman spoke out, seemingly less angry than the men, just more concerned. A woman pushed through the crowd to speak to the woman calmly stood at the front of the group. "Are they going to earth? Has something changed?" She asked pointing at the woman, skepticism in her voice.
The dark haired woman who stood before the group with her hands clasped together in front of her gave a brief nod. "Folks, as I said, at this time, we cannot confirm or deny anything." She forced a small polite smile, ignoring the taunts for information off the working people of the Ark and turned around, she made her way past the guard behind her and away from the people, her smile falling once her face was hidden.
~
The Chancellor's voice rang out, still going on and explaining what was expected of the kids. "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 nonperishables to sustain 300 people for up to two years."
Clarke's eyes had been fixed on the screen as the Chancellor spoke, but a few calls out from around her made her divert her attention. She looked to her left seeing someone out of their seat, floating around the room. "Spacewalk bandit strikes again." She heard someone mutter from behind her as she watched the boy in the beanie spin over in the air. She listened to the cheers from around her but her eyes stayed fixed on the boy. "Check it out." The boy said, laying on his back in the air and crossing his arms over his chest as he nodded to Wells. "Your dad floated me, after all." The floating boy said, almost a joke to his words.
Wells ignored him as best he could. "You should strap in before the parachutes deploy." He warned seriously. Clarke had been looking off to the side, the Chancellor's voice now a distant noise in the background of everything that was going on. The cheers coming from around her we're annoying, they were stupid if they thought it was safe to take off their belts and now it wasn't just the boy in the beanie. "Hey, you two, stay put if you want to live." She said to two boys she saw starting to get out of their seats.
"Mount Weather is life." The Chancellor's voice cut in through the brief silence, Clarke let out a quiet sigh as she put her head against the head rest of her seat, the two boys she'd warned about getting out of their seats had simply given her a mocking smile and continued to unclip the buckles. "You must locate those supplies immediately." Clarke heard the Chancellor say, her eyes going to the screen once again before the guy in the half torn beanie began speaking again. "Hey, you're the traitor who's been in solitary for a year." He said to Clarke, to which Clarke had an immediate response. "And you're the idiot who wasted a month of oxygen on an illegal spacewalk." She said, taking her eyes off him and back onto the screen. "But it was fun." He said with a smug smile. "I'm Finn." He introduced.
Clarke's eyes snapped back to him and her brows lowered slightly, she couldn't tell if he was being serious or just arrogant, perhaps both. She watched as he began to float up, the Chancellor's voice ringing through the speakers once again. "Your one responsibility is stay alive." A loud brief ringing pitched through the room, the descent to Earth was becoming rockier and Clarke knew that they'd be there soon, or that the parachutes would be activated soon. She heard the click of metal across from her and saw one of the boys floating up as soon as he'd unclipped his belt. "Stay in your seats." She warned.
A few seconds after that, the parachutes deployed, just like Wells had warned them about, the ship seemed to jerk and those out of their seats went flying. Finn flying up while one of the boys were slammed backwards into one of the metal walls of the dropship, crashing through some metal poles as he did, moments later hitting the ground with a thud.
The lights flickered, the hiss of some sort of gas filling the room from the broken pipes and a few scared cries rang out in the darkness. "Finn, are you okay?" She asked, looking over her shoulder behind her seat as much as she could to try and see him, she wasn't about to take off her belt. He may have been arrogant and stupid, but Abby was right, she always put others first. Sparks flew around the room, Clarke was certain the dropship was damaged now, her breathing quickened, her mouth open as she tried to catch her breath and calm the panic she could feel rising in her chest. She wasn't even sure they'd make it to the ground alive.
~
Back on the Ark, the woman who had addressed the worried people walked back into a room, her mouth was open ready to speak when a man walked in front of her. "Not now." Kane said bluntly. She watched him walk past her but didn't push it and listened to the report being given.
"Total system failure. That's what we're looking at." One of the men informed Kane. "All we know for sure is that they were off course when we lost contact, so..." He trailed off for a moment. Kane pressed his lips together tightly and nodded his head for a moment. "Tell me about communications." He pressed on seriously. The man shrugged slightly. "Other than the Telemetry from their wristbands, we got nothing...no audio, no video, no computer link." He told Kane.
"Everything that we programmed in to help them, is gone." He said. "They're on their own."