I do not own The Maze Runner. James Dashner does. This story is based off of his literary work. It is part of the Maze Runner Trilogy

/AN/This is my first story so critiques are great. Enjoy!/

*Four years before main story line*

She woke up in a box. It's small, dark, crowded, and filled to the brim of what seems like boxes and wooden crates. She feels it jerk and move upwards. It seems to take hours before it stops and all becomes silent. A blinding light, a crack in the ceiling, doors being opened she realized. It grows wider and wider, second by second, until she can see the sky. Looking around she sees a note on the floor. It says you are the first, one more every month. Survive, beat the maze, escape. This was only day one, the beginning, and all she couldn't remember anything except her name. Skye.

Skye was scared, alone, without any memories, and she had no idea where she was. She found another note that explained how the box would return every week with new supplies. Looking through the crates she found food, water, a machete that she strapped to her waist, clothes and blankets. There were other small things that would make life easier. Finding nothing else useful at the moment she climbs the crates to the top. Sticking her head out she is surrounded by grass and trees. Turning around she sees more grass, buildings in the distance, and what looked like giant stone walls with openings at even intervals. All of the buildings were off to one side of the glade. There were cows and pigs and sheep walking around throughout the glade. She stopped. How did she know what they were called? How did she know these things? She remembered things like how to ride a bike, but not learning how or who taught her how to do it. She knew a lot of things, just not how she knows these things. She couldn't remember anything in specific except for her name. And here she was, trapped.

Time passed quickly for Skye. The first week was the hardest for her. Everything was new and terrifying. Getting a place to sleep in the glade, fixing up a house so it didn't leak when it rained, and sounds of the forest that she never heard before. The first night when the gates closed she nearly had a heart attack from fright when the grinding sound began. She had found a watch in the boxes as she was moving supplies from the box, so she could keep track of when things happened daily. The walls opened at 6 AM and closed at 10 pm. It was a constant that she could count on happening. The first supply box came with roof shingles and nails. It was almost like they were watching her. "Maybe that's what those red eyes are at night?" she wondered aloud. "Maybe they're cameras." By the end of the month Skye was pretty well off. She had a few cows rounded up in a pen for milking, and a way to get water, it had stopped coming after two weeks with a note to find her own. Suddenly a loud bell went off, deep and resonating throughout the clearing. "Well looks like the box is back again this week." But then she remembered that today was the day that someone new came up in the box.

The glader grabbed her gear and began jogging to where the box doors were located. The path was practically cut out of the grass, long and tall on the sides. The box was two metal doors opening in opposite directions, slightly rusted from the rain. The doors were closed when she got there, but she could hear a voice inside asking for help. Quickly she opened the heavy doors and began laughing. The boy was about sixteen years old, long brown hair compared to her short black hair. She looked like a boy herself and figured that she would keep it that way, long hair got in the way most of the time anyway. The boy had knocked the boxes onto himself and was stuck underneath them. She jumped down into the lift and began helping the boy free. When he was free Skye immediately had him helping get the boxes out of the lift. She hears him ask "Where am I?" she chuckles and answers. "I'm Skye, and welcome to the glade."

He woke up in a dark room, it felt like it was moving but he couldn't see anything to make sure. He backed up to the corner but hit something. That something toppled and fell on top of him. Boxes, he was buried by boxes. He sighed and began calling for help hoping someone would hear him. A light blinded him momentarily and when he could see again there were boots in front of his face. The boy, as he saw, was taking boxes off of him, helping him up. They climbed out of the hole and told him to start passing the boxes out. When that was done he climbed out as well. He found himself in a clearing, trees and grass everywhere. "Where am I?" The other boy chuckled. "I'm Skye, and welcome to the glade."

The boy's name was Abe. He seemed like a nice guy to Skye, a little shy and nervous, but she was sure that she was the same way. After giving a tour and explaining a lot of what she did, he was willing to help. Skye didn't bother correcting him when he called her a guy. It was probably for the best. Life in the glade went on. the houses were all fixed up so they didn't leak, all of the animals were rounded up and put in pens, and they started thriving instead of just surviving. Another month passed and a new boy was sent up in the box, John. He didn't take the news that he was stuck here very well. He shut down. He wouldn't talk, he wouldn't do anything but sit on his cot and stare out at nothing. A week passed before he began to function again. Not as boisterous as Abe and Skye but they have had more time to cope. After a week of him helping around the glade, Abe and Skye decided that they should start exploring the maze. They found themselves outside of the gate the next morning.

They found themselves up before dawn, the doors not yet open. Both gladers were armed with a machete and a knife, a small bag with some food and water. They were ready for anything. The sun rose over the horizon and a loud grinding sound began. All eight gates began opening, the wall sliding from left to right. They ran in wanting to use as much time as they could. They didn't want to get lost so they stayed together. They took their time looking around. the walls were huge, at least a hundred feet tall, covered in vines and a small forest near the entrance. There were no animals except for the occasional bird, everything was silent otherwise. A flash of movement caught their eyes. They stopped and turned towards it, Abe drawing his machete. They couldn't see anything before it was upon them. A ball of metal and flesh rushing past their stunned bodies. They found it horrific, like a giant centipede made out of metal and flesh. Triangular legs made of metal, a metal exoskeleton, and what looked like arms attached to it's back. The arms had claws, needles, a saw blade, and other things attached to them. It jerked towards them and seemed to study them, looking like they were the prey. Which they probably were. They froze hoping it would pass on and leave them alone. It charged, rolling at them, the arms moving out of the way to avoid being crushed in its attack. The two gladers turned and ran, they ran even when it stopped chasing them, they ran all the way to the gate and into the house. Panting, they collapsed and just sat there. They didn't realize that it was nearly dark and that the gates would close in less than an hour, or that John had been worried sick about them. When they got their breath back they told john everything. From the stone walls and the birds, how the walls began moving as you went further into the maze, to the horrifying thing that chased them back. They had also seen another metallic bug, a beetle blade they called it, it looked like a beetle with scythe like blades on its arms and bright red eyes, what Skye had seen in the forest numerous times. That was the last time they ventured into the maze for a long time. They just weren't ready yet.

The months passed and more and more people ended up in the glade, making a total of twelve now. It had been a year since Skye had shown up in the glade. All of the gladers were given jobs. One of the newer kids, a ten year old boy, was found to be a good cook so that's what he did. An older boy wasn't squeamish about blood so he became the butcher. There were runners who ran the maze from different gates trying to map out the maze, to find the exit. The newest boy was given cleaning duty while he adjusted. Everyone was happy with their lives. Suddenly John came running through a gate with a new runner on his shoulder. "We were attacked, one of those things out there hit him, he collapsed soon after. The thing just ran off when he did." "Get him to the house onto a cot, who knows what they did to him. Get some blankets on him and some water." The chime that signaled the box coming up the lift rang throughout the glade. "This can't be a coincidence." Skye said. She ran down the path to the box as fast as she could knowing that it would be there in seconds. When she threw open the doors to the box, it had just arrived. Inside there was a single small box. Tearing it open she found it filled with syringes. The syringes had a clear liquid inside them with a note that had JUST ONE written on it. She climbed out and began running back to the house where the runner was laying. She was almost there when the screaming began. Blood curling screams like a dying animal, and they were all coming from the young runner, Link, she now remembered. She rushed into the room and nearly puked. His skin was green and he was heavily sweating. There was puke on the floor and he kept screaming. She unwrapped a syringe and jabbed it into his leg. Link froze then fell asleep. He would wake up and begin screaming for three days. He barely drank and what he was given to eat, namely oatmeal, he would later throw up. When it finally ended he was different. He was a lot quieter than before. When asked what he felt when it was happening he refused to answer only said that he remembered a few things from before, before he ended up in the glade. He was different, he was changed. This was eventually called The Changing.

Eventually Skye began to run the maze daily. She wasn't needed to run everything in the glade. There were keepers now, leaders of a certain job. The runners, the farmers, the butchers, and the clearers. The clearers helped around the glade, filling positions as needed. The runners had the most dangerous job though. the ran through the maze all day, memorizing as much as they can then going home and drawing it out on paper. They did all of this in the bunker, a concrete box outside of the homestead. She ran hard that day, harder than she had ever before. She was running back to the gate after running too long. The gates would be closing soon and she was too far out. Her heart was beating fast, she could hear her blood pumping in her ears, and hear her ragged breathing. She turned the corner and saw the gate but didn't slow down. The gladers were on the other side waiting for her, she could see them standing there, Abe at the front of everyone. Then the walls began closing, slowly but it seemed so quick to Skye. She wished that they could help her but she knew that they couldn't, that they wouldn't go into the glade at night. That had been one of the number one rules after they first entered the maze. She wasn't going to make it in time, she realized. The opening would be too small by the time she got there for her to fit through it. Abe seemed to realize this too. He unbuckled his machete as she had left hers to be faster in the maze, and threw it into the maze where she could get it. "Good luck Skye, we'll see you in the morning." he said having faith that she could make it through the night. They shared a smile before the gate closed with a loud bang. It was the beginning of a long night for Skye.

It became dark quickly in the maze. Skye was as scared as she was on the first day in the glade. Every small noise in the forest made her jump. She stuck close to the gate and waited, knowing that they would come sooner than later. That's when she heard them. The grievers were headed towards her. Grievers, that's what they were called now, they were named after a glader said that they just gave them grief in the maze. Ironic. The maze fell silent around Skye, they were here. She readied her machete and began backing towards the door when one crawled down the wall in front of her. The clearing would be the best place to fight them. It was as ugly as she remembered it the first time she saw it. It shrieked at her then charged. At the last second she threw herself out of the way of its path. When it charged again, she tried dodging it again but it was expecting it this time and raked her leg with its hand claws. Seeing her wounded it shrieked its horrible shriek then began to charge again. She knew she wouldn't be able to move out of the way this time. She steadied herself and prepared to meet the charge head on. When it got close enough she stabbed at it in hope. The blade bit in between the metal plates of its exoskeleton causing it to scream like a dying animal. It began thrashing around, twitching with the machete still within it. Then it fell still. Skye began laughing when it moved no more. She couldn't believe that she had killed a griever, the only one to succeed so far. They had tried but arrows didn't work, no one had enough skill with a bow. No one was willing to try getting close and going through the changing. She ripped the machete out of the beast and walked away, stabbing it into the dirt in front of the gate. She was beginning to treat her wound when she heard a screech. There was a pinch in the back of her neck and then all was black. When the gates opened the next morning Abe found the machete, drenched in the blood of a griever, just outside of the gate. Skye, was the first death within the glade.

*Two Years Later*

In the hands of the girl was a note, it said, SHE IS THE LAST.