You've been given a second chance…. No idea what is waiting for you down there….

Expendable… Second chance… Records wiped clean… Waiting for you… Expendable…

A sharp pain burst through my skull as a muddled voice droned above the hum of an engine. I fought against the heavy weight of my eyelids, struggling to lift my head. My racing heart skipped a beat as I finally pushed past the haze to find I was tied down. Or rather, strapped in. A red safety belt crossed along my chest so tightly my desperate gasps for air were cut short by nearly two inches.

The blurred figures surrounding me transformed to reveal people. Teenagers. Strapped in the same constricting belts as I was. They cast a few curious glances my way then turned towards the monitors hanging on the walls around the small cabin we had all been crowded into. Murmurs sounded from every seat, all too quiet and muffled to make out any clear conversations, but I managed to discern a few extremely unnerving words... Dead... Crash... Toxic... Earth...

On the screen, a middle-aged man with dark caramel skin stood stiffly, "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."

I helplessly tugged at the choking belt, nearly hyperventilating. My lightly streaked brown hair was tied back in a ponytail that I had no memory of doing. I could feel the irises of my silver-green eyes pulsing along with the frenzied beat of my heart. This couldn't be possible. I considered every possible explanation but came to only one conclusion. We were being sent to Earth.

"Spacewalk Bandit strikes again!" Three boys unstrapped their belts one after the other and began to float around the room followed by cheers. My belt seemed to be welded together, impossible to even loosen. A blonde girl warned them to strap back in and a small argument broke out. I ignored the conversation and tried to concentrate on the transmission, completely indifferent as to what they were talking about. Idiots.

The man on the screen continued, "Mount Weather is life. You must locate those supplies immediately. Your one responsibility is to stay alive…" The screen cut out unexpectedly as everyone was thrown in their seats.

The shuttle jerked hard, sending the boys flying through the air. The commotion slowed as my fingers began to tingle and my blood ran hot. Just as one of the boys passed across my seat, I could feel the metal connecting my seat belt burst open and without thinking, I clutched the red strap with one hand and reached out to the boy with the other. My hand closed around his arm in a death grip and I was shaken roughly as the entire drop ship began to rattle uncontrollably. The boy was thrown to the ground below me as an unbearably heavy weight pushed down on everyone in the ship.

Shrieks filled the cabin as the air became thick with heat. The violent shaking seemed to last forever. Then, with a bone jarring impact, there was silence. The boy whose arm I had been gripping squirmed. I quickly let go and wiped at the blood now running down my nose. The boy shakily rose to his hands and knees, then looked to me in shock.

"Listen." A breathless exclamation sounded somewhere nearby.

I didn't haven't to avoid the boy's intense and questioning stare for long as a silent awe filled the room. I could hear the blood pumping through my veins along with the ragged breaths of the others.

"No machine hum." Someone said.

"Woah. That's a first." A boy whispered.

Seat belts simultaneously clicked as everyone began to stand from their seats, unsure of what to do or where to go, but clearly wanting to get off of the ship. I stood, shaking, and gasping for air. I needed to get away from all these people. It was too overwhelming. I spotted an open latch leading down to the bottom of the drop ship and headed for the opening, but my gaze was momentarily drawn to the injured boys lying motionless on the ground.

"Finn, is he breathing?" The blonde girl called from a few seats away as she rushed to one of the boys lying on the ground. The boy I had caught, Finn, turned towards the corner where the second boy had been flung. He raced to his side and checked his pulse, then looked to the girl with a stricken face. They were both dead.

My breath caught as I quickly turned away and started down the ladder.

"The other door is on the lower level. Let's go!" A boy called, following me from above.

"No, we can't just open the doors." I recognized the blonde girls voice again, pleading while climbing down the ladder as well.

I groaned as I fell into the even larger crowd that was forming in the lower level. They surged forward, eager to escape the hot metal room. A tall handsome young man wearing an eerily familiar jacket stood in front of the door and held his hands up authoritatively, "Hey, just back it up guys."

"Stop! The air could be toxic." Blondie pushed through the crowd and confronted the boy head on. I was beginning to think all this girl could do was argue. A small part of me agreed with her though. She seemed to know what she was doing more than any of us, anyways.

"If the air is toxic we're all dead anyway." The boy answered annoyed and turned back to open the door. Good point there.

"Bellamy?" A confused and tired voice sounded above the murmurs and froze the boy in his tracks. I turned to see a pretty girl with long dark hair break through the crowd and approach the boy.

"That's the girl they hid under the floor." The scrawny boy next to me whispered rather loudly.

"My God, look how big you are." A surprisingly warm smile crossed the rough looking Bellamy's face as he affectionately hugged the girl.

"What the hell are you wearing? A guard's uniform?" The hug was broken as the girl questioningly looked over Bellamy. My heart dropped as I finally recognized the jacket. A guard?

"I borrowed it to get on the drop ship. Someone's gotta keep an eye on you." I let out a silent breath of relief as they hugged again. A guard was the last thing I needed at the moment.

"Where's your wrist band?" The blonde girl interrupted their reunion. For the first time I noticed that everyone had large silver wrist bands on their right hands. I looked down to my own wrist and, sure enough, felt a familiar dull pain that had only just began to register. We were all being monitored.

"Do you mind? I haven't seen my brother in a year." The girl turned to Blondie, annoyed.

"No one has a brother!" The same scrawny boy sounded off.

"That's Octavia Blake! The girl they found living in the floor!" A wave of laughter sounded through the crowd as a girl disdainfully commented on Bellamy's sister.

Octavia started to lunge, pure anger in her face, but Bellamy grabbed her, "Octavia no!"

I rolled my eyes as the scrawny kid snickered and whispered something incredibly crude. I raised my leg and kicked his own out from underneath him. The crowd immediately parted, with several curious glares settling right on me and the boy moaning on the ground beside me. I momentarily met eyes with Bellamy Blake, he looked about as shocked as I felt, but a small smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

"Hey, why don't you give them something else to remember you by?" I nodded to Octavia, sounding way more calm than I felt.

"Yeah, like what?" Somehow I felt an unspoken connection to the girl. We had both been hidden away our entire lives.

"Like being the first person on the ground in 100 years." I smiled and glanced at the lever behind Bellamy. The two siblings turned to each other and smiled, then he pulled the lever and the door burst open.

A painfully bright light exploded through the room, causing everyone to take a simultaneous step back. As the brightness faded, a wonderful breeze blew in through the crowd. My lungs contracted and I could breathe clearly for the first time in my entire life. There was green everywhere. Tall trees spiraled into the air. The sky looked infinite. Full of possibilities.

It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, yet I found my gaze drawn to the mysterious Bellamy, whose loving eyes never left Octavia as she cautiously stepped further down the ramp. She paused as she reached the edge of the ramp and everyone stilled. Then she jumped to the ground.

"We're back bitches!" Octavia raised her hands into the air, prompting cheers from everyone. People rushed from both sides of me, entering the forest without a second thought. My mind was ready to be whisked away into the endless green, but my feet kept planted to the ship.

I looked to my left to find the blonde girl in a similar situation. Trying to take it all in at once. "Nothing would be what it was…" I murmured a quote from an old childhood story. The girl tilted her head, staring at me curiously.

"I'm Clarke." She nodded in greeting and offered a smile.

"I'm… Alice." I spoke the name before thinking. It had been so long since I had chosen it and imagined it to be my true name. I had almost forgotten.

"Care to check something out?" Clarke approached the edge of the ramp and jumped down. She took a moment to savor her first steps on Earth, then looked back at me in question. I nodded yes and jumped down beside her.

I was surprised as my feet landed on soft ground, sinking in. Our landing had created what looked like a war zone, sending trees flying everywhere and setting small fires across the cleared area. None of it seemed to bother anyone as they danced around in joy and slowly began to work up the nerve to venture out further away from the ship. Everyone seemed to be high on fresh oxygen, and although I wasn't joining in their celebration, I could feel the excitement in the air, along with the fear.

Clarke led us to a small opening and I lost my breathe once again. Before us stood a cluster of enormous mountains. I had only seen pictures before and they definitely had not prepared me for this, but Clarke seemed too distracted to recognize the beauty as she pulled out a map. I had no idea where it had come from or how she had gotten it, but I was glad I had chosen to follow the girl with a map.

I truly looked at her for the first time. Her disheveled blonde hair was beginning to fall from it's braid, but it only made her blue eyes shine brighter. She wore the same similarly ragged clothes as everyone else, which brought my attention to what I was wearing. I hadn't really been paying too much attention since I had woken up strapped down to a ship crashing through space.

My attire was nothing like the stiff white gowns I had become accustomed to on the Arc. I wore a loose black long sleeve shirt and cargo pants with combat boots. I immediately pulled the sleeves down as low as possible to cover the bruises and needle marks. A small gasp escaped my lips as I felt the fabric. I turned to Clarke, thankful she hadn't noticed. They were definitely old clothes, but they felt like satin compared to what I was used to. I noticed that I had not been afforded a jacket like most everyone else, but it didn't bother me, I was used to the cold.

My toes curled in the constricting boots. Believe it or not, I had never worn shoes before. It was an extremely unnerving and strange feeling. Yet, somehow, it was empowering. It was a symbol of my freedom. I could go anywhere now. First, I had to figure out where that would be.

"Why so serious, Princess? It's not like we died in a fiery explosion." I turned to come face to face with a smirking Finn. He looked straight ahead, but he was clearly speaking to Clarke. His dark eyes lit in amusement and his long brown hair hung down just above his chin.

"Try telling that to the two guys who tried to follow you out of their seats." Clarke retorted angrily. I winced, remembering all too well.

"You don't like being called Princess, do you Princess?" I could feel the tension between the two, and decided it better to keep out of it.

"Do you see that peak over there?" Clarke asked indignantly.

"Yeah."

"Mount Weather. There's a radiation soaked forest between us and our next meal. They dropped us on the wrong damn mountain." Clarke stormed away, leaving Finn and I in an uncomfortably awkward silence.

"Really smooth." I snickered at the defeated face he wore, I bet he had never been rejected so devastatingly before. Unfortunately, that remark brought his unwanted attention to me.

"Ah, my hero! I never got a chance to thank you. Name's Finn." He stretched his hand out, waiting for something that never came. Despite his casual demeanor, I could see the sincerity in his face. It seemed that he was very skilled in hiding his emotions through humor, but for some reason he was showing me complete remorse and gratitude for what happened on the ship.

"Yeah, I got that." I looked at the hand speculatively and continued to surprise myself at how nonchalant I was coming off about the whole situation. I guess I was just in shock.

"And you are?" He smiled a devilish smile, prompting an answer.

"Alice." I kept my gaze locked on the mountains in front of us, unwilling to let into his attempts at charm just yet.

"Well Alice, I am forever in your debt muh'lady." He mock bowed, sending locks of hair cascading over his handsome face. There was something so devilishly boyish about the way he said my name. I rolled my eyes and walked back towards the camp.

I stopped just inside the landing site with Finn following close behind me. Low and behold, another argument had broken out. Everyone seemed to have stopped what they were doing and stood apprehensively around the fight.

"Screw your father. What? You think you're in charge here. You and your little Princess?" Octavia bitterly spat the words towards a good-looking dark skinned boy protectively standing in front of Clarke. Bellamy stood silently behind his sister. His thick brown hair was combed back and there was no denying the handsome features in his brown eyes, olive skin, and muscular build.

"Do 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 weaker we'll get and the harder this'll be. How long do you think we'll last without those supplies. We're looking at a 20 mile trek, ok? So if we want to get there before dark, we need to leave now." Clarke pleaded once again for reasoning. I highly doubted she was going to find it there.

"I got a better idea. You two go find it for us. Let the privileged do the hard work for a change." Bellamy spoke with the same resentment as Octavia. A sound of agreement passed through the crowds and the entire ambiance of the conversation turned dark.

"You're not listening. We all need to go." The son of the Chancellor refuted, but was cut short as a different boy stepped forward, shoving him in agitation.

"Look at this everybody, the Chancellor of Earth!" The boy circled him, chiding. This was going nowhere fast.

"You think that's funny?" Clarke's supporter challenged the boy. In return, the boy ducked down and threw him to the ground.

"Wells!" Clarke cried, starting forward to help him up, but was stopped by another boy standing beside her. Judging by the worry on her face, Wells and Clarke must have known each other long before this.

"No, but that was." The angry boy stood over Wells, waiting for him to stand. As Wells scrambled to his feet, the two circled, preparing to fight. I noticed he was favoring one foot, he must have been injured in the crash. No one else seemed to notice, or care for that matter, they all began to chant, cheering the fight on.

This boy, Wells, was the son of the Chancellor, a faceless man who had filled my nightmares for the better part of my life. I had never seen him of course, only knew that he was part of the reason I was locked away. And now the reason I was here, on Earth.

I sighed and stepped forward, placing myself between the two boys, "Kid's got one leg. Why don't you wait until it's a fair fight?" Let's hope the apple fell very far from the tree if I was going to call attention to myself and stand up for Wells.

"What about you then?" The boy stepped forward, bringing us so close we were almost touching noses. He had a very bitter look to his face, that otherwise would have been attractive if not for the malice.

"Wouldn't you like to figure out." I stood unmoving, this kid didn't know what he was asking for. The air grew static, sending my nerves tingling. A fight never occurred though, as Finn ever so dramatically jumped down from some pipes sticking out of the ship and put his hands on both our shoulders.

"I think we're done here." He locked eyes with the angry boy and they stood there battling with their eyes. Boys. All talk.

"Hey, Spacewalker, rescue me next!" Octavia stepped forward smiling. The angry mob ebbed to a sizzle as everyone laughed and found something else to entertain themselves. I gave her a grateful nod for diffusing the situation harmlessly. Bellamy, on the other hand, looked disappointed in his sister's obvious flirtation.

"What? He's cute." Octavia said simply. I averted my gaze, feeling like an intruder in their little sibling engagement.

"He's a criminal." Bellamy retorted.

"They're all criminals."

Bellamy grabbed her arm and pulled her away, "Look, O. I came down here to protect you."

"I don't need protecting. I've been locked up one way or another all my life. I am done following orders. I need to have fun, Bell. I need to just do something crazy just because I can, and no one, including you, is gonna stop me." Harsh, but I could completely understand where she was coming from.

"I can't stay with them, O."

"Now what are you talking about."

I slipped behind a nearby tree as Bellamy pulled her farther away from the camp and lowered his voice, "I did something, ok, to get on the drop ship, something that they will kill me for when they come down. I can't say what it is just yet, but you have to trust me. You still do trust me, don't you?"

"Yeah."

Before their conversation could end and they spot me eavesdropping, I slipped away with even more questions than before. There was so much I didn't know. So much I had to learn about this new world. More so the people in it than the actual planet. I had quickly learned in my short life that people could be very dangerous.

It seemed I had been sent down to Earth with a ship full of criminals. Not that it took much to become a criminal on the Arc. Bellamy wasn't meant to be on the ship, which led me to conclude that he wasn't a delinquent, or at least he hadn't been caught. He had risked certain death for Octavia, and that was fairly decent in my book, however, the warning he had just given her regarding his fate led me to believe he hadn't accomplished this by honorable means. I felt a twinge of jealousy as I remembered just how lonely it felt to have no one willing to stand up for you.

"So, Mount Weather." Finn spoke as I approached him standing over Clarke as she tended to Well's leg.

I knew I was going to regret it later, but I volunteered, "When do we leave?"

Clarke nodded in appreciation then answered, "Right now. We'll be back tomorrow with food."

Wells proposed an interesting question, "How are the three of you gonna carry enough food for 100?"

Finn smiled and turned to grab two dorky guys I recognized from the ship, Monty and Jasper if I wasn't mistaken. Monty was fairly short with tan skin, dark hair and dark eyes. Jasper, on the other hand, was a tall skinny boy with shaggy brown hair and eyes, and he wore a large pair of goggles on his head.

"Sounds like a party. Make it six" Octavia joined the small group and I couldn't help but smile at the pitiful party of misfits we had banded together.

Bellamy was behind Octavia in seconds, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Going for a walk." Octavia was becoming more defiant by the minute.

Before Bellamy could explode with anger, Clarke grabbed Finn's damaged wristband, "Hey, were you trying to take this off?"

"Yeah. So?"

"So, this wristband transmits your vital signs to the Arc. Take it off and they'll think you're dead." Clarke seemed almost desperate. A decisive thought came to mind, I had to get my own transmitter off. They had to think I was dead. I didn't know what I would do after that, but it was enough for me just to take it one thing at a time. I kept my face painfully neutral. Bellamy, on the other hand, seemed to already be developing a plan that I couldn't quite discern.

"Should I care?" Finn asked coldly. It seemed Clarke was the only person on the ship that didn't hold a grudge against the Arc.

"Well, I don't know. Do you want the people you love to think you're dead? Do you want them to follow you down here in two months? Because they won't if they think we're dying." Finn slowly lowered his head in agreement, "Ok, now let's go."

I found myself desperately searching for a plan. The wrist band had to go, one way or another, if I ever wanted to survive. Clarke didn't know how useful her outburst would be to me if I was ever going to make it. I now knew I had two months. Two months to escape my fate.

The others started to head out. I stood behind, waiting for Clarke, but found myself accidentally catching Bellamy and Octavia hugging. She kissed him on the cheek and followed the others. I caught Bellamy's worried eyes for only a second and I hoped he could read my expression. I would watch over Octavia. He nodded in understanding and something I couldn't quite recognize crossed over his face.

I turned and caught up to Clarke who was walking away from a distraught looking Wells. With merely a look, there was an unspoken agreement not to mention the strange chemistry between the two. As we caught up to Octavia, she warned, "Before you two get any ideas, Finn is mine."

I snorted as Clarke replied, "Before you get any ideas, I don't care." I had to hand it to Octavia for not letting the whole life and death situation get to her. Like she said, she was finally free and she wasn't going to let anything ruin that. Neither was I.

Clarke increased her pace, leaving Octavia and I behind, "I swear that girl's got a stick up her ass." Octavia said it just loud enough for Clarke to hear, but she kept walking, unaffected.

"So what's your story. Thanks for kicking that asshole in the ship, by the way."

"I'm Alice." Was all I offered, but she didn't pry.

"Octavia." She curtsied and busted out laughing, drunk with freedom. Nothing could bring this girl down.

We caught up to Monty and Jasper and Octavia skipped ahead, obviously trying to get closer to Finn. I fell into step with the two boys, "So Alice, how come we've never seen you before?" Jasper smiled and nudged Monty.

"I've… been locked up for a long time." It was a lame excuse, I know. But it was pretty much the truth. Thankfully, the two were too distracted by Octavia and Finn up ahead to notice any suspicion in my explanation.

"Now, that, my friends, is game." Jasper put his arm around Monty and looked approvingly to Finn who was sticking a strange purple flower behind Octavia's ear. They looked so giddy and care-free to just have crash landed on a potentially toxic planet.

"That, my friend, is poison sumac." Monty replied between snickers. I nervously crossed my arms against my chest. Despite it's beauty, the mossy forest screamed danger.

The others walked on as they discussed how they had landed a one way ticket to Earth. I slowly fell back but stayed close behind. My chest constricted as the shock of everything began to wear off. They thought the situation was bad. They had no idea.

As Clarke spoke, her concerns of radiation poisoning sent me over the edge. Radiation. Flashes of an empty bright room and beeping monitors seared my eyes. The others were too distracted to notice that the forest had stilled. I could feel the air grow stale and hear the trees creak under pressure. It went as fast as it had come as I felt blood trickle from my nose and into my mouth. I wiped at the blood in habit as my head exploded with pain. Thankfully, the blood was camouflaged by my dark sleeve, now clammy with the sweat of my palms.

As the cloud surrounding my mind passed, I gratefully found that no one had noticed my little incident, in fact, they were all crouching behind a bush. I silently approached and gasped at what had caught their attention. A majestic deer stood in the middle of an open clearing. I marveled at the beauty of its lean and strong body.

I remembered reading as many books as I could get my hand on in the miserable fluorescent lights of my small room. They weren't actually books with paper and covers like they used to be, but strange virtual codes that could be listened to on a small handheld device. One had been about a young orphaned fawn and the moment I saw the creature standing before me I knew it was the same as the little Bambi I had grown to love.

And then there was its head. Or should I say, heads. One fully formed, then another less developed grotesquely attached to the side. I couldn't help but admire it. Though it was nothing like the cartoon illustrations of Bambi, I saw something vaguely familiar in its eyes. A fellow freak.

"No animals, huh?" Finn whispered in amazement, advancing towards the grazing deer. As he stepped on a twig, it snapped in two, scaring the deer and causing it to run into the shelter of the trees beside the clearing.