There's a reason why the creators only allowed boys in the Maze experiment. Sending the girl, Teresa was a cause of debate among them. In doing so they'd risk a repeat of the Alpha trail, the first trial that included both boys and girls. This is the story of the first Maze Runners, the children of a failed experiment that in the end were erased from history to make way for the next generation of Gladers.
Alex sprinted through the giant walls the moment they opened. The vines shifted from the rush of air as she soared past. One right and two lefts, past the wall with the vines shaped like an upside down horse, though she never actually remembered when she saw a real horse she somehow knew what one looked like. It was that way for pretty much everything. She knew what things were but didn't remember how she knew. That's how the story went since she arrived here two months ago. Brought up in some box from a bottomless chasm. Voices. The door opens and sixty girls are staring down at her. All strangers. And not a memory of who she was or how she got there. There was only a name. Alex. She couldn't even remember her last name.
She slowed to a jog and reached into her side pocket in her pack and took two gulps of water from her bottle. She'd been running for almost an hour. She couldn't stop for a break until she reached the structure with the giant number two written across it. This was the fourth time she was assigned section 2. She rotated the 8 sections with ten runners including the Runner Overseer, Natalie. She was a tall wiry caramel skinned girl with jet-black hair and a noticeable upturned nose. She didn't have an ounce of body fat on her. She was fast too. Almost as fast as Alex and she was the fastest runner, which made the other girls a little jealous especially since she was the newest addition to the circle. Natalie was cool though, one of the few Overseers Alex actually liked. Approachable enough, corrects you sometimes although it's always in a constructive way rather than doing it in a way to make you feel stupid. Nothing at all like Maggie the bitch. That's a word that always comes right after Maggie's name. Bitch.
She stuck her bottle back in her side pocket. She couldn't think about Maggie the bitch right now, it was mid- morning and she was behind schedule. She picked up the pace and within ten minutes she reached the second wall with the number two telling her that she was a good hour and thirty minute run away from maze entrance. Now it was exploring time. There was no point in choosing which corridor she wanted to go. She'd already been through both. She went right, walking instead of running. Don't get her wrong she loved being a runner. It was the one job that appealed to her even when she was doing orientation on the other jobs. She loved to explore, find new things, feel the apprehension of being on the clock. But she'd been a runner for over a month now. Although the Maze changed every night it still felt like she was doing the same thing with no results.
"We have to keep trying," Natalie always told the girls at the end of the day when they met in the map room. "We never know when an exit might show up. Until then we can't stop."
Natalie's been running through this place for over four years, mapping the Maze from top to bottom. If an exit hadn't been found by now then there is no damn exit. The Creators send one girl up per month. Supplies per week. They must mean for them to stay there. Perhaps they gave them a Maze so the Gladers would have hope of escape to keep them from going nuts.
The sun was at its highest peak. Lunchtime. She swung off her pack and dropped to one knee, blowing away a strand of her chocolate brown hair from her face. She pulled out a paper bag and spun around leaning back against the hard stonewall. She pulled out a ham and cheese sandwich and took a large bite swallowing it down with some more water. She was delighted to find a banana in the bottom of her bag. Potassium for the muscles is always good. She'd forgotten that she swiped it from Mom's food storage. That what they called the kitchen overseer. Mom. She didn't know what a real mom looked like, seeing that everyone in the Glade looked no older than 18, but she had curly blonde hair, wide hips, a bit of a pudgy stomach, and she always wore an apron all the time. The word mom just came to mind whenever you saw her.
A flock of geese flew overhead in a V formation. How she wished she could be a bird. Soar through the sky, looking upon the Maze from above to see if there's an end to this place. At the very least have the freedom of flight, not stuck between thousands of walls. When she was finished with her sandwich she reached back and untied her hair band letting her hair fall to her shoulders. She shook her head a couple times to scatter it. There, much better. If only she had a brush. She did this every time she had a lunch. It made herself feel normal. Worrying about her hair, keeping it as shiny as she could manage, you know make sure she's nice and pretty for the Grievers if one showed up. She's never seen one beside the one time Brenda, the Head of Overseer, showed her one through the window her second morning in the Glade. Scariest thing she's ever seen, memory or not. They looked alien. Surely no human could ever create such a horrid monster. It's why when the sun goes down she gets a little nervous. No one wants to be caught in the Maze once the walls close. No one's survived a night out in the Maze, and no one's itching to break that loosing streak either. Alex knew one person who died in the Maze overnight, though there were plenty she didn't know. She was a runner named Nicole, the second most experienced behind Natalie, been out running for three and a half years. But she got lost and never found her way back to the gates. Her mutilated body was found at the entrance once the walls opened again the next morning. Natalie ceased all runnings that day so they could go to her funeral. Her face was unrecognizable, just a ball of torn mangled flesh like the rest of her body. She didn't stare at her for more than second. It was still enough to make her stomach churn bile.
"Let this be a lesson to you, sheeks," Natalie said back in the map room after they buried her. "No matter how much experience you've got, you can still get lost. The Maze is called a maze for a reason. It can kill you. Always, always stay sharp or else you're Griever food like Nicole was."
She was sure Nicole's death really got to her. She was the first girl under Natalie's command. Natalie kind of kept a distance from the other girls to prevent favoritism. But since her and Nicole started running together back in the day they only had each other to depend on until the next girl was deemed clever enough to join the team. They hung out all the time, ate lunch together, made the morning run plans. After Nicole, Natalie pushed the rest of them away, careful not to know the newer members too well. Alex has never had a conversation with her about anything other than the maze. When she tries to lighten the mood or change the subject Natalie brings the maze back into the conversation or excuses herself.
She stuffed her bag in her pack and left her banana peel on the ground. Always good to have a land mark even if you don't need it. She jogged through corridor after corridor. Turning left then right, sometimes climbing up boulders to the higher levels. She kept a mental image of where she was going, like a path burned into the back of her mind.
Afternoon was quickly turning to evening. She checked her watch. 2 more hours until the walls closed. Usually she waited another thirty minutes before she headed back, but she really didn't feel like going home at the usual running pace so she turned and rummaged through her brain for a pathway home. It was like a navigation system in her head, the giant arrow pointing to each turn. Navigation system, another thing she didn't remember.
She stopped. Her heart revved in her chest. Her veins coursed with adrenaline.
Something was wrong. Horribly wrong.
There should be a short pathway that takes her a good 30 yards before she has to take another right again. There shouldn't be a long corridor in front of her. She knew exactly where she was going. There's no way she got lost. She's been this way three times now. Did the Maze change or something? No she would've heard it. Walls can't move without making a ton of noise. She had to have taken a wrong turn somewhere. She doubled back and retraced her steps where she stopped, or at least she tried. She couldn't find where she decided to turn back. She didn't understand. The walls, the corridors, they weren't right, none of it was right. Panic flooded through her body, fogging her mind. She wasted 45 minutes trying to regain her bearings, and the more she walked the more lost she became. She struggled to think clearly, run through her mind to check if she missed something. This happened to her before. She thought she was completely lost when she simply made a wrong turn. But she at least was able to retrace her steps.
The sun was settling below the walls. She was encompassed in shadows. She was lost. No inkling of where she was. She thought about Nicole, seeing her mesh face and mangled body. Do the Grievers kill right away and then rip you to pieces? Probably not. They probably grab you and kill you slowly.
"Help!" she shouted, her voice echoing through the passageways. "Someone! I'm lost, help!"
No answer. There was a heated feeling behind her eyes. Tears began to pepper the dirt as she ran. She was full on panic mode. She couldn't even see. She wanted to bash her head against the walls in rage. Bust through this damn maze that was trying to kill her. By now the sun was well below the walls. She had thirty minutes at the most. She had to stop, even though her adrenaline was pushing her body in overdrive. She was exhausted. She'd been running non-stop for over an hour and a half at nearly a full sprint. The lower the sun dropped the more her body shut down as if preparing for the inevitable. She collapsed to her knees gasping for breath. Her legs were trembling and sweat was pouring down her face. She was back at the dark corridor that seemed to stretch for a mile. Not too long before a Griever came by on a stroll. She pictured the biggest and nastiest one rounding the corner just to eat her for an evening snack.
Something did come around the corner. It wasn't a Griever. No, it was even stranger. Even though she never remembered seeing one before she knew what it was.
A boy.