Chapter 1 - The Glade

Disclaimer: I don't own The Maze Runner, any of the character, plot, ect. However, the OC character in this story is owned by me. Hope y'all enjoy!

I sat with my back against what felt like cold metal, in a dark empty elevator. I kept my eyes closed as the elevator ascended upward.

Heather.

The name kept flashing across my mind. It was the only thing I could remember. I sat with head between my knees for what felt like years in the darkness, until I saw a bright red light at the top of the shaft I was in. I stood up, mesmerized by the light as it continued moved closer and closer. The box came to a sudden stop throwing me to the ground. I let out a groan as I pushed myself off the ground. A blinding light filled the box and laughter followed it.

"Holy…" a deep voice started before trailing off, "I don't shunkin' believe it."

"What is it, Alby?" asked an accented voice as a second silhouette appeared at the top of the box, "Bloody hell. It's a girl."

"A girl?"

"Is she pretty?"

"Bet she's prettier than you, ya klunk-face."

The two boys jumped down into the box. I put my head between my knees.

This isn't real, I'm going to wake up any second and this will have just been a dream.

I felt like I was going to be sick. A large hand patted me on the shoulder and I looked up to see that it belonged to a strong dark-skinned boy.

He looked down at me as he spoke. "Welcome to The Glade, Greenie. I hope you like it here 'cause there ain't no way back."

My insides began to churn as the severity of the words began to set in. I felt bile rise in my throat and I turned to my right, throwing up food that I didn't remember eating.

I heard some laughs and an, "Ew, dude that's a load of klunk."

I looked up when I was finished gagging to see a pair of shoes covered in what had just been in my stomach. I winced as I slowly followed the legs up to reveal a tall, muscular boy with disheveled blonde hair and a grimace on his face.

I looked down as he spoke. "What the hell you slinthead." I could feel my face burn with embarrassment and my eyes well with tears. "Why'd you have to go and say that? The poor thing looks terrified."

I looked up with tears in my eyes. The blonde wasn't angry with me, his comment was directed toward the dark-skinned boy.

"I don't give a klunk if she's a girl, everyone gets the same welcome, no matter what," he replied with a frown.

"So? Doesn't do any of them any good to have those be the first words they ever hear? You made Chuck klunk his pants last month remember?"

Klunk? Slinthead? Chuck? Who were these people and what kind of words were they speaking?

"I don't care. It's been that way since the very beginning and we aren't about to change it now." The dark-skinned boy's frown had become a scowl as his eyes narrowed.

"Alright, Alby. Just consider it, you shank," said the blonde, patting him on the shoulder.

Their entire conversation I sat still with my head pressed up against the hard metal wall looking up at the sky, trying to hold in the tears that begged to fall from my eyes.

I didn't realize that the bickering had stopped until I felt two hands on each of my shoulders hauling me to a standing position and then pulling me up out of the room I had been in. I didn't try to fight them but I didn't help either, I was too tired, too confused.

They sat me down on the lush green grass and I began to take everything in with wide eyes. I had just been hauled from a small black box. At least fifty boys, ranging from their early teens to around eighteen, like the dark-skinned boy that had pulled me from the box, surrounded me. I looked at each face but I didn't recognize anyone. I felt a knot forming in my throat making it hard to breathe and the tears once again began to well behind my eyelids which were squeezed tightly shut.

I felt someone pat my shoulder awkwardly and I looked up at them through the tears that had finally spilled onto my cheeks. It was the blonde boy that I had thrown up on. "Hey Greenie, it's gonna be alright. Just calm down, it's normal to not remember anything." He spoke with a British accent.

How was it normal to not remember anything? Does that mean that they don't remember anything either?

A different boy crouched down in front of me. He looked about 17, had short dark brown hair, green eyes and the nose the size of a small potato, "Remember anything Greenie?" I shook my head and looked away biting my lip, embarrassed by the tears on my face. "How about a name?"

I thought back to my trip in the box. Heather.

"My name's Heather," I looked over at the blonde boy who nodded in approval. They were the first words I had ever spoken, as far as I could remember, and the voice that came from my lips sounded foreign to me.

The boy crouching in front of me extended a large hand toward me which I grasped as he pulled me to my feet. "I'm Gally. Welcome to The Glade." (P.S. Gally is 17 in my fanfiction, not 15-16 like in The Maze Runner and his description is based off the book not movie.)

- Page Break -

The crowd has dispersed after Gally had commanded that they give me some space and walking away himself. I looked around to see that the blonde was pulling off his shoes and socks with a grimace on his face. "Sorry," I said while scratching the back of my neck and looking down at my own shoes.

"Eh, it's not your fault. The bloody shank shouldn't have scared ya like that. The name's Newt." he extended a hand, he had a cute accent that I hadn't heard any of the other Gladers use.

I looked down at the extended hand, it, no doubt, still had some throw up on it, "Thanks, Newt, but I, uh, would rather keep the remainder of my breakfast in my stomach."

He let out a chuckle. "Good that."

Just then the dark-skinned boy put his hand on Newt's shoulder. They had a quick whispered conversation, their eyes staying on me the entire time.

"Greenie," he began, addressing me, "I'm Alby, leader of the Gladers. The Gladers being the people who live in the Glade." I let the confused expression fall from my face. "Normally, I would give you a tour but I have some, uh, important stuff to do right now," as he spoke a horrific shriek echoed across the glade, causing me to wince, "so Newt will show you around the Glade and you'll get the full tour first thing tomorrow. Sound good to you?"

I nodded but didn't speak, I was still afraid of Alby from our first encounter. He turned away walking over to a group of wooden buildings.

"Where's he going?" I asked Newt.

"To the homestead."

"Is that where the scream came from?"

"No more questions, Greenie, you can ask all the questions you want on your tour tomorrow. Like Alby would answer any of them though," I heard him mutter under his breath.

"You hungry at all?"

I thought for a moment, "Yeah. Considering that the contents of my stomach are now all over your shoes." I let out a laugh, it sounded weird, but in a good way.

"Slim it with that klunk won't you. A little disgusting don't you think?" I laughed before pausing for a moment and then letting out another laugh, louder than the one before, earning a quizzical look from Newt.

"Sorry, I've just never heard my own laugh before." The statement was so bizarre that it made me laugh for the third time but this time Newt joined in so I wasn't laughing alone.

"Alright, let's go to the Kitchen and grab some food." Newt put his hand on my back in a brotherly way. This thought nearly brought me to tears. Did I have a brother? Did I have a boy where I came from that cared about me? I shook the thoughts from my head and walked with Newt to the kitchen.

- Page Break -

"Hey Frypan, this is Heather," he gave me a small nod, "Got anything good cooking for us tonight?" The cook "Frypan" had excessive amounts of curly black hair and a large waist, he couldn't be older than 16. The clothes he wore were covered in food stains and it looked like he was in desperate need of a shower.

"Nothing special, I'll give you the usual," he spoke with a higher voice than I expected for such a large man, "What does the girl want?"

"Um..." I trail off not knowing what I wanted.

"She'll just have the same thing as me." I smiled up a Newt gratefully.

Before long we both had a plate with a sandwich on it and a water bottle. I followed Newt to one of the tables in the corner where Gally and two other boys I didn't recognize sat.

"Hey Clint, Jeff," said Newt inclining his head at each of them as he said their names, "this is Heather." He leaned over to me and whispered, "they're the med-jacks." I gave him a quizzical look. "The doctors." I nodded and flashed them a quick smile before taking a large bite out of my sandwich. I didn't realize how hungry I was until I had begun to eat. I devoured the entire thing before looking up to see the four of them gaping at me.

"What?"

"Nothing, I've just never seen a girl eat so fast," replied Gally with a grin.

I kicked at him playfully from under the table. "I doubt you've ever seen a girl eat before."

He nodded, "Yeah, that's the weird part about you showing up. We've never gotten a girl from the box before."

"Oh well, Greenie, I guess you'll just have to get used to having a girl around, start acting more like gentlemen." As soon as the words had left my lips all of them tensed around me.

"Why'd you call me a Greenie?" The hostility in Gally's voice startled me.

"What?" I looked at them panicked. "I thought that was what people with green eyes were called."

Next to me, Newt began to crack up. Jeff and Clint nearly fell out of their seats they were laughing so hard. I felt my cheeks burning bright red from embarrassment.

Gally lifted his head off of the table wiping a tear from his crinkled eye. "You. didn't. actually. think. that. did. you?" he asked between laughs. I just stared at him blankly.

"A Greenie is the newest shank out of the box. You don't even have green eyes." The comment started another fit of laughter.

I elbowed Newt in the side and he looked up, "If my eyes aren't green then what color are they?" He leaned closer to my face to get a better look. I felt myself getting lost in his caramel brown eyes, I felt as though I'd seen them somewhere before.

"They're blue," he replied with a smile, "you have long blonde hair, and look about seventeen, maybe sixteen, not sure." He looked over at Gally for some kind of confirmation but Gally just shrugged and went back to his sandwich. I looked down at my hair, it was indeed blonde, slightly wavy and went down to the base of my rib cage.

I smiled at Newt. "Thanks." Letting out a loud yawn in the process.

"Alright let's go get your sleeping mat and I can show you where you're going to sleep," said Newt before standing up and walking out of the kitchen, I noticed that he walked with a slight limp but brushed the thought away. I waved goodbye to Gally before scampering out after Newt.

- Page Break -

We had already grabbed a sleeping mat and a sleeping bag from the supplies that had come up with me in the box and were standing right outside the wooden buildings that Newt had called the "homestead" earlier.

"This is where you'll sleep I guess," he said motioning out to the grassy area where nearly forty other sleeping bags had already been set up.

"Let me get this straight, you want me to sleep outside with a bunch of guys that haven't seen a girl in who knows how long? You've got to be kidding me." I rolled my eyes at him.

He frowned. "Gally'll be out here and just tell me if anyone tries to do anything."

I rolled my eyes again as he missed my obvious point.

"Um, I mean, I guess you could sleep in my room and I could share with Alby if you wanted to."

I looked up at him as he scratched the back of his neck. "You'd do that for me?"

"Yeah," he replied with a smile, "the first night is always the worst, you'll probably wake everyone up with your screaming anyway."

A loud boom echoed across the Glade.

"What was that?" I asked him, startled.

He just pointed over at the walls. I let my mouth hang open in shock, the huge stone walls were sliding along the ground, shutting us in. Or keeping something out.

"They do that every night you know," he answered my unasked question with a shrug. "You get used to it, I guess."

I followed him up a flight of wooden steps and along a small hallway before he pushed open a door that lead to a small room.

"It's not much, but it's better than nothing I guess," he scratched the back of his neck, a motion that I'd come to realize meant he was embarrassed. "You can sleep on the mattress if you want, I'll take your sleeping bag to Alby's room."

I sat down on the mattress letting my feet dangle above the floor, "I'll be just down the hallway if you need anything alright Heather?"

I nodded. "Thanks, Newt."

I lay down on the mattress and closed my heavy eyelids, letting sleep overtake me.

- Page Break -

There was a woman with blonde hair and blue eyes standing before me holding a limp boy in her arms. I couldn't remember who she was but I knew that I hated her. "He's going up and there's nothing you can do to stop it, you stupid girl," she said with a laugh showing her perfect white teeth. The boy was slumped in her arms, face toward the ground, but I could see that he was older, 17 maybe. The only feature I could see was a head of sweaty brown hair.

Panic was all I felt. He couldn't go. He couldn't leave me. I needed him. "Move girl, and let me send him up. You know it's for the best. We have to find the cure."

The Cure. It sounded so familiar but I couldn't remember.

"Move now!" She screamed at me. I looked around, I had to do something to stop her. There was a black elevator behind me and I knew what I had to do. I sprinted into the elevator smashing my fist into the blue button on the wall.

I heard the woman screaming through the walls of the box. White gas began to fill the box and I took one last look at the woman holding the limp boy. She let out a frustrated scream and then, noticing that I was watching, she grabbed a pocket knife off the table next to her. I watched wide eyes as she dragged the blade across his arm, leaving a trail of blood as she did.

"No!" I screamed pounding my fists against the glass. I had been trying to protect him, not get him hurt. The gas began to fill my lungs and take over my body. I began to slide down the glass doors, "No. No. No." my body began to shake as I sobbed. I looked back out the glass. The woman wore a malicious smile. Then everything was black.

- Page Break -

I awoke in a cold sweat, tears streaming down my face as sobs racked my body. Someone opened the door and grabbed me from behind as I thrashed against them. "Let go of me. I won't let you hurt him! I need him!" The woman's face was all I could see as I squeezed my eyes shut. I pounded at the chest of the person holding me as a new pair of hands grabbed my legs and all I could see was a huge dark figure.

"Hey shhhhhh," I continued to thrash, "Heather, listen to me," the warm voice woke me from my daze and I sat still.

"That's better, now isn't it?" I felt myself relaxing into Newt's bare chest as he held me and I looked into Alby's dark brown eyes as he carefully released my legs.

I looked away from Alby and turned my face into Newt's chest, "I tried to save him, but as long as she has him he's not safe," I sobbed, knowing I was making no sense to him.

"Calm down, you're safe here." He sounded tired as he spoke, but those weren't the words I wanted to hear.

"I know I'm safe," the tears continued to roll off my cheeks, "but she still has him. She'll kill him." As soon as the words had left my lips I knew that they were true, there was no way I would ever see that boy again. I cried even harder my body shaking as I sobbed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alby's dark figure get up and leave the room.

"It was just a dream, it wasn't real." I looked back up at Newt. It felt so real though. Like I had been there; like I knew her and the boy that she held.

We stayed that for what seemed like forever until my sobs had turned into sniffles. "I'm going to go back to Alby's room now," I felt Newt's warm arms leave my waist.

"No! Please don't leave me," I begged as tears filled my eyes again, he made me feel safe and at the moment I was very weak.

"Ok, it's ok, I'm right here. I won't go anywhere," he said, wrapping his arms back around my waist with a tired sigh.

"Promise?" I asked, knowing I sounded like a scared child.

"Promise," he replied, as he stroked my hair and I relaxed into his chest. I hated that I felt weak around him but gave in to the feeling of comfort he provided almost at once.

Sleep quickly overtook me, but this time there were no nightmares and no dreams.