The Maze Runner—The Beginning of the Glade
Author's note: I'm not James Dashner. I do not own the Maze Runner trilogy. This is just how the Glade began, with the original Gladers, with Alby as the main character. Enjoy!
Chapter 1
The speck of light above him was so faint, he had to blink several times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. He was standing on some sort of platform, and it was rising—not too steadily—upwards towards the light. The darkness had been suffocating, and the pinprick of light in the darkness comforted him somewhat, but not much.
He wondered what was up there. Guards? Great slavering-jawed monsters? You couldn't tell, at least not yet.
My name is Alby, he thought, then paused. Something was off. His name was he only thing he could remember. But that was impossible...Desperately, Alby tried to recall his past life, his parents, friends, his home. But it was as if someone had thrown a switch, and he no longer had any memory except for his name. Sure, he remembered things in his life, objects, places, but nothing about his life, nothing that could suggest to him who he was. Was it amnesia? A memory wipe? Or what? All that was left was blank white nothing, or in his case, blank dark nothing.
'Somebody! Help me!' He screamed up into the shaft. The light was becoming closer, the sound of metal against metal grinding in his ears. The platform on which he was standing on lurched violently to a stop. Alby was thrown off his feet, and he landed heavily on the platform floor. He heard voices, in the distance, where the light was.
'C'mon Franz! Put your back into it! That newbies' gonna wet himself if we don't get him up here fast!'
'Poor shank. Hurry up.'
'Okay okay, slim it guys.' Came a new voice, sounding authoritative. The leader, Alby thought. The voice spoke again, this time to Alby, 'What's your name greenie?' 'I'm Alby. Where am I? Where is this? How did I get here?' Panic surged in his stomach and he could hear a definite sound of desperation in his voice.
The guy up top laughed, but there was nothing humorous about it. 'Listen, greenie, I only know half the answers myself. But it seems obvious to me that you're coming from the Box.' Snickers came. Alby was fed up. 'Look, I don't think this is funny. And I doubt you would if you were in my place. Who are you? And what the heck is 'greenie'?'
The laughs subsided and another voice could be heard: 'I'm Joe. Answers later kid. Now, just shut your hole and grab the rope. We'll pull you up.'
Alby felt around, finding the rope a few inches in front of his nose. He grabbed it, and was jerked suddenly upwards. The light came closer, and finally breaking over his head. Four or five kids stood in front of him, all boys, two of them hoisting him up. The leader, whose voice he recognized, smiled ruefully as he dropped the rope:
'Welcome to nowhere, green-bean. For the time being, we'll call it the Glade.'
