Elastic Heart

She paced back and forth along the length of her dark-stricken chamber, counting the number of steps it took her as she went. Eleven in total. A sardonic smile graced her dry, chapped lips. Ironic, she thought. In eleven days she would be celebrating her eighteenth birthday, which subsequently meant she would become eligible for flotation; the ultimate punishment for criminals aboard the Ark.

A punishment that resulted in death.

Puffing out her colorless cheeks before releasing the air in an audible sigh, the brunette paused mid-stride, halfway between her fourth and fifth step. Sinking to the concrete floor beneath her feet with her legs crossed and arms folded resting lifelessly upon her lap, she stared up in wonder out of the far-reaching window above her. Despite looking out of the same window every day for almost a year, the view of earth still somehow managed to leave the young girl breathless.

Only eleven more days, she told herself, and then she would be on the opposite side of the glass. Floating.

As she sat she wondered who, if anyone, would miss her once she was gone. After her mother was floated when the girl was only two, her father became the only family she had left. Picturing his face the last time she had seen him as he was forced to watch on helplessly whilst she was taken away, a single tear fell from the girls sunken blue-eyes. Leaving a small stain in the thin layer of dust that had built up over her months in solitary confinement.

Even if no-one else missed her, she knew that her father most definitely would.

It was that loving notion alone that brought the girl comfort as she laid herself down on the bitter cold ground and gazed up at the stars, slowly drifting off into another night of unconsciousness.



The girl awoke to the muffled sound of her name being spoken and a hand on her arm, gently rocking her into the land of the living. Her eyes fluttered open, slowly adjusting to the sudden brightness within her usually dark and gloomy cell.

"Sweetheart, wake up." The voice was clearer now and she sat up immediately to become eye-level with the man knelt down beside her where she lay.

"Daddy?" she questioned warily, unsure of whether he was really there or whether she was dreaming he were like she had done so many times before. "What's going on? What are you doing here?"

Her father smiled and stroked a strand of hair away from her face, tucking it into its rightful place behind her ear. "We don't have long. I made a deal with Commander Shumway so that I'd get a few minutes with you to say goodbye."

His words gripped the girl with a sudden wave of anxiety. "What? I don't understand. Goodbye? It's not even my time yet."

Hushing soothingly, her father cupped her face, forcing her fear-ridden eyes to meet his. "They're sending you to the ground, Bea. All one hundred of you."

Her fathers words echoed within her mind like a ricocheting bullet. They're sending you to the ground, Bea. All one hundred of you.

"No, they can't be. The earth still needs another hundred years to be-" Before she could finish her sentence she felt a sharp scratch on the side of her neck, causing her to engulf a sharp intake of breath. A burning sensation swept through her body like wildfire, leaving her entire anatomy feeling numb and train of thought blank.

Her father caught her as she fell into his body, no longer able to support her own. "Everything's going to be alright, baby-girl, I promise. You're gonna be just fine."

His voice grew distant and faint as gradually, the darkness consumed her.



Suppressed voices and a stinging sensation in her wrist drew her back-round and out of her induced slumber. All around her sat people, some of which she knew and others she could not place, but all of them sporting a sizable bracelet around their wrists.

"Finally decided to join us, Sleeping Beauty?" a deep and unfamiliar voice spoke from beside her.

It was only as she turned to look at the boy on her right that the girl realised she was strapped tightly into her seat, unable to move. "What? I don't-"

Words failed her.

The boy beside her chuckled. "No need to look so scared, princess. You're strapped in tight for a reason."

Ignoring him as he poked fun at her expense, the girl let her eyes cast around at the faces surrounding her. Eventually landing on one face that made her feel overcome with relief. Atom.

His eyes found hers from across the dropship, and the girl watched as a relieved smile found its way onto his lips too. Best-friends and partners in crime since early childhood, she couldn't help but let the happiness she felt wash away her earlier fears.

"Is that your boyfriend, Sleeping Beauty?" the boy from beside her spoke again, indicating towards Atom with his dark, and rather unnervingly alluring, chestnut-brown-eyes.

"He's more like my brother. And I'm no longer sleeping," she quipped.

"True. Luckily you're still a beauty though."

Before the girl could so much as blush at the comment made by the older boy beside her, the dropship she'd found herself placed upon began to wrench and shake, signalling it's detachment from the Ark.

As the dropship descended towards the ground and hurdled through earths atmosphere, the girl squeezed her eyes tightly shut, blocking out the words of Chancellor Jaha on-screen and screams of panic coming from the delinquents around her.

I'm going to be alright. I'm going to be alright. I'm going to be-

Her mantra was disrupted by a voice she now recognized. "Open your eyes for me, Aurora."

Sealing herself to her fate, she forced her eyes open. Laying on her side in a now empty dropship, the girl instinctively placed her hand on her head, attempting to null the unforeseen pulsating pain. "Ouch. What happened?"

A customary chuckle came before the boys explanation. "Rough landing. But don't worry, you were lucky. Your head took the brunt of the blow."

Hissing in pain as she lifted her hand from her head, the girl scoffed a laugh at the sight of her blood trickling down it. "Gee, lucky me."

"Cheer up, Bea, it could've been a lot worse. You could have died," Atom said as he entered the dropship and rounded the corner, startling the two crouched close together on the metal floor as he suddenly came into view. At the sight of Atom, the girl shakily rose to her feet, thankful for the unnamed boys' steadying hands as he rose with her, supporting her whilst she slowly recovered her sea-legs. "Besides, when did you ever let a little blood stop you from doing anything."

For the first time in what felt like an eternity, the girl smiled. Granted it didn't quite reach her eyes, but it was a smile nevertheless.

"So, what's it like?" she asked, not needing to say anymore for the boys to understand what she was referring too. Their answering grins telling her all she needed to know.

Removing his hand from her arm, the boy held his hand out towards her in indication for her to take. Warily glancing between the boy and Atom before letting her eyes fall upon his outstretched hand, she begrudgingly placed her hand within his.

"Name's Bellamy," he said. His substantially larger hand enveloping hers.

"Blair."

"In that case," Bellamy began, the humor clear within his voice. He led her out from the darkened corner she had been sitting in and into the opening of the dropship door where she stood, instantly basked in the warmth and glow of the sunlight filtering through the gaps within the trees from up above.
"Welcome to the ground, Blair."