Last One Standing ➣ Bellamy Blake [Book 1]

1.0 New Americana

Andromeda lay on her bed, like she had been everyday for the past year, just thinking about her life before she was locked up in the wretched Skybox. There was nothing that indicated to her that this day would be different than any other day except for the fact that it was her birthday. Today, Andromeda turned eighteen. Today, she died.

She made peace with this inevitable end a few months ago. The only real family she would be leaving behind was her father, and there was no love lost there. Despite this, she had this sinking feeling in her gut that she had let him down.

The sound of keys being forced into a lock broke her from her reverie before the door to her dark cell burst wide open. Four guards rushed in, three with weapons at the ready, followed by the bastard himself, Commander Shumway. 

"Why are you looking so happy Shumway? Your birthday come early?" she snarled not bothering to get up out of her bed.

"I only wish yours did," he snapped back.

Andromeda rolled her eyes and looked back up at the ceiling of her cell. She tried to ignore their presence in the room to annoy them just a little while longer but four rough hands grabbed her and hoisted her up off of her bed. Staggering to her feet she looked Shumway right in the face.

"What? Couldn't manage a red carpet on the way out?" she spat.

Shumway chuckled darkly, "Not for where you're going. I couldn't have asked for a worse punishment."

He grabbed her right arm tightly while the third guard warily approached her before clamping down a silver bracelet onto her wrist. The twelve needles pierced her skin as she cried out from the pain. The two guards holding her dragged her out of the room as she weakly struggled against their strong grips. 

Once outside of the cell doors, she saw that all of the other prisoners were being hauled out like her just without the excessive force. Dozens of teenage prisoners shuffled in orderly lines down from confinement. Andromeda craned her head trying to see where they were being lead to but she couldn't see around the bulkiness of her guards' shoulders. She struggled in their grasps and tried to kick out at their legs but before she could get a good hit in, a needle was jammed into her neck and Shumway whispered into her ear, "Sweet Dreams", as she fell into oblivion.

When Andromeda came to, she immediately started struggling, fighting her unknown captors. Her eyes came into focus enough to realize that she had been strapped into a plastic seat with seatbelts bound tight around her chest.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," she heard a voice say from her left.

Andromeda turned and saw a beautiful brunette smiling over at her.

"You okay?" the girl asked asked.

"Where are we?" Andromeda ignoring the question and looking around. They were in a metal ship full of the prisoners that had just been escorted out of their cells. Voices were buzzing in the air making her head hurt along with pressure changes in the air.

"You mean you don't know? We're on a drop ship to Earth!"

At the girl's answer, Andromeda grabbed her seatbelts even more tightly as she felt an imaginary cold liquid being poured on her, freezing her in her seat. Her hands started shaking as her grip on the seatbelt faltered and her knuckles turned white. She closed her eyes for some stability and to chase away the new sensation of nausea.

A sharp jolt shook the drop ship and they are flung around in their seats. The girl to her left let out a small scream while Andromeda lurched forward choking herself on her seatbelts. Just then, as if triggered by the jolt, the video monitors started up and she looked the most despised man on the Ark, Chancellor Jaha. Despite a sense of overwhelming hatred, Andromeda was glad to see the face of someone who knew exactly what was going on.