4Prior to being imprisoned, I had a good life. My mom was a mechanic, my dad a guard. I somehow turned out to have a talent in medicine, and my training begun when I was thirteen- the same year my life went to hell in a handbasket.
It started with some medicine, a blood thinner used for patients with serious risk for heart attacks and strokes. Really, I meant to help. I thought if I could just tamper with the mixture a little bit, then I could make it more effective. Turns out I was right. My new medicine worked better that the old one. Too much better.
Of course, I wasn't stupid about the whole thing. I tried it on myself first; fortunately, it never went anywhere else, because I almost died. I had thinned my own blood too much, and Abby, our head doctor, had to work for almost four hours to get my body functioning again. After that, I was locked up in prison, for the heinous crime of wasting resources.
I was only there for two years. It was about 3 months after my fifteenth birthday when guards stormed into my cell.
"Face the wall, prisoner." the one in the front demanded. Compliant, I followed the command, not wanting to piss off the guards again. Last time I did, I didn't eat for almost a week. I almost screamed, however, as I felt them clamp something around my wrist, needles tearing my skin. What the hell? This was so far beyond normal I didn't even know how to deal with it.
"What's happening?" I chanced a question, hoping the guards wouldn't mind. They didn't, but they didn't answer my question either. They just kept propelling me down a hallway towards- was that a ship?-where I could see more prisoners being loaded. I felt sick to my stomach. The only reason I could see to put all the prisoners on a ship was to float them, and I definitely didn't want to die.
"Please, what's going on? Oh god, I don't wanna die…" Yeah, I was freaking out.
"Shut up, you're not going to die, you're being sent to earth." one guard finally snapped at me. I was completely dumbfounded. Earth? The planet whose reputation was for its beauty, and it's likelihood of killing us all with massive amounts of radiation? We were going there?
"Get the hell off me! I'm not going anywhere! I'll be floated first!" I screamed this time, now more certain than ever of our eminent demise. They didn't seem to care, though, as they bundled me onto the ship and strapped me to a seat.
"Hey, I'm Monty." I turned to look at the kid next to me who had just introduced himself. It seemed like kind of an odd time, but why not?
"Amelia," I replied, finally deciding that my internal panicking had gone on long enough. Plus, the boy was majorly cute, almost squeal-worthy, which didn't hurt at all. "How are you?" Almost immediately, I wanted to slap myself. Could I sound any more ridiculous? Thankfully, he laughed.
"Well, I'm finally out of prison, and going to a planet that may or may not mean my certain death. However, I am talking to a pretty girl for the first time since I was fifteen, so how bad can I be?" he smiled here, making me blush at the cuteness. Seriously, how can a boy in his upper teens be so adorable? He had the kind of cuteness that just made you want to hug him and pinch his cheeks. Definitely not hot, but attractive all the same. And yes, I realize that I was probably using him and his attractiveness to distract me from my fears of dying a slow, torturous death, but he was probably doing the same thing.
"I've been locked up since I was thirteen- not much time for talking to guys either, and certainly not cute ones." Was this flirting? Once again, why not? It's not as if I'd have a whole lot of time to learn how. This time, it was his turn to blush.
"I'll let you know if I see any, okay?" he joked. Was that how he took my comment? I hoped not. I was trying to say that he was attractive.
"Umm..." I didn't really know how to reply to that. God, my friends used to make this look so easy! Thankfully, the awkward interaction was interrupted by another boy who was brought in by the guards.
"Monty!" he called, grinning ear to ear. He was tall and lanky, with a thin face and goggles perched on top of his head.
"Hey, Jasper! Joining the party, huh?" the Asian boy replied, seemingly just as happy to see him. They were probably friends before prison.
"Hello, I'm Jasper," the new boy said, addressing me, "Hey Monty," he turned back to his friend, "how'd you score such a pretty one?" Monty flushed even more then before.
"Shut it, Jasper," he muttered, obviously embarrassed. "Amelia and I were just talking, right?"
"Mia," I corrected, "I hate Amelia. Makes me feel like I'm in trouble." I had to admit, it was a little flattering that they both thought I was so attractive. I had never really had a boy interested in me before- granted, last time I saw a boy, I was a thirteen year old hermit who had A-cup boobs and hair I could sit on. Now, I was a 15 year old delinquent with big hips and bigger boobs. Apparently I had magically become hotter in my time as a jailbird.
"Well then Mia," Jasper said in a cheesy voice, "if my friend here's not gonna make a move, may I be the first to ask you on a date? You know, when we land, and have food, and stuff." I'm pretty sure he was kidding.
"Sorry, Jasper," I said, overdramatically, "I have fallen deeply and irrevocably in love with Monty. When we reach the ground, we were planning on eloping, but you can be the witness if you want." There was a second of silence, then we all burst into laughter, glancing at each other every so often, which just made us laugh more. "No, but, seriously," I managed to gasp out, "Monty is way more my type." I winked at him, all of us still chuckling. His blush came back with a vengeance.
"Well, uh, ummm..." he was just stuttering now. Still adorable.
"So Mia, what my apparently brain-dead friend is trying to say, is tell us about yourself."
"Well, mom was a mechanic, she worked on air circulation stuff, mostly. Dad was actually a guard, but he was a good parent. They both were. I was scouted for medical when I was thirteen-" Monty cut me off.
"You were scouted for medical? You had to have been so insanely smart... they take, like, a person a year. At thirteen, you have to have been one of the youngest..."
"Actually, no. People are usually pulled a little earlier for medical, because the training is a little more arduous. I had to learn both ark medical practices, and what to do should we ever find ourselves on earth. Kinda sucks I got myself locked up before I could learn everything, right?"
"How did you get in trouble?" Jasper wanted to know. "You don't really seem like a troublemaker.
"Experimenting." I said. "I stole some blood thinners to play around with, to see if I could make them any better. Turns out I made them too potent, so when I tried them on myself I nearly died, then got arrested for stealing medicine." Both of their eyes were wide.
"Damn, and I thought we were lame," Jasper joked. "We got busted for making drugs, you got caught nerding out." I laughed. I could just picture that, the two of them sitting in some secluded corner, trying to hide whatever it was that they made under their jackets.
"Hey, I was trying to be helpful." I protested playfully. "Not my fault they don't let us play around with chemical compounds." Their eye rolling was alarmingly synchronized. "What about you guys? I know why you're here, but what were your lives like before?"
"We grew up on farming station," Monty began, surprising me. Despite him being the first to talk to me, it seemed as if he were the less vocal of the duo. "Best friends. We were pretty much raised together. At fourteen, I was scouted for engineering-" Jasper picked the sentence up flawlessly.
"-and I was going to stay in farming. Between you and me, I hated school. Only class I was good at was chemistry. But then, when we were fifteen, Monty here," he nudged his friend, "forgot to replace the herbs we stole, so we got caught."
"And you are how old, now?" I asked, curious.
"Seventeen, Monty answered. "And you?"
"Fifteen, but-" I was cut off by a commotion from behind us. The guards were shutting the door, sealing us in. We were going to drop.
I must have paled significantly, because Monty grabbed my hand in a comforting, yet bold, gesture. Then the jolt I had been expecting came- we were entering the atmosphere.
Chancellor Jaha came onto the screens.
"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 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." ("Gee thanks," I whisper to Monty.) "Those crimes will be forgiven, 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. It was to be stocked with enough non-perishables to sustain 300 people for up to two years." The screen was flickering. "Mount Weather is life. You must locate those supplies immediately." After this, it cut off completely, and the ship started shaking. I was terrified.
Two idiots decided that it would be a good idea to unstrap themselves, following the lead of some guy who apparently used like a month's worth of oxygen to illegally go outside the ark. Turns out karma doesn't exist, because he was the only one of the idiotic trio not to die when parachutes deployed. No one had time to mourn the morons, though, because we had landed. For the first time in our lives, we would set foot on the ground. For the first time in our lives, we would be able to sit in silence, without the telltale hum of machinery. For the first time in our lives, we would be able to live as we wanted, without looking over our shoulders and stepping on eggshells constantly. For the first time in our lives, we were free.
Hey, it's me! I've tried posting before, but that didn't turn out very well, so I'm trying again! I am seriously obsessed with this show, and totally in love with Monty, so why not make him an OC? Anyway, I know this chapter is short anf kind of terrible, but really I just can't wait for them to be on the ground, so something can actually happen! Hopefully I'll get more up soon :)