Chapter 1 Two Glade's One Maze
Running was all she could do as hot salty tears streamed down her face, she ran stumbling and knocking into walls as she turned the corners.
She ran through the massive maze with its incredible walls surrounding her with dark colors. She couldn't run any more she stopped abruptly breathing in heaps of air as it felt like a dam had been filled with cold flowing water.
Awful screams filled the air, as She turned her body violently towards the sounds that her arms began to start aching at the joints. She ran towards the sounds of footsteps following the screams she turned the corner and ran straight into a bright red girl whose hair was a beautiful shoulder length light brown color.
The girl screamed in surprise yelling out "RYLIE" Rylie jumped back in shock she quickly ran forward reaching for the girl's hand and grasping it. She started running and the bright red girl followed, Rylie said in a exhausting forced breath "Claire! Where's Jazzy, Brena, and Bird?" Claire's red face became distorted with a saddening look. Claire looked up and said "they got them...the..GRIEVERS TOOK THEM!" Rylie couldn't do anything she felt helpless, she thought 'maybe this is pointless, this whole thing..maybe we should just kill ourselves before the Grievers get us..' Rylie quickly pulled herself back into reality and focused on saving Claire and herself. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a large slimy hideous creature turning the corner behind them, she then heard the awful clicks and sprawling noise tailing them.
She turned corners she never seen before, before she knew it she was completely lost in a mysterious part of the maze that had never been mapped. They turned the corner with a panic as Rylie saw another slimey klunk Griever approaching them from the side. Without Rylie even thinking twice her reflexes kicked in and they turned a sharp corner.
Rylie and Claire stopped of a moment in absolute surprise as they saw two giant slabs of the maze door open leading to Who know's were.
At this point they were sprinting for their lives towards the doors opening, they heard the grinding of the doors starting to close which ensured they were running even faster. Claire stumbled and fell only Six feet away from the doors opening, Rylie was already about to go through the door when she stopped and turned running to Claire.
The doors Five feet away from closing and Grievers following so closely behind them Claire stood and ran towards Rylie. No words no warnings Rylie felt a shove backwards of extreme force, she watched as the only friend left in this God forsaken world stumbled backwards. Rylie knew what was happening when Claire looked at her with those tear stained eyes. Claire's horrified voice filled the air "LIVE FOR US.." and with that Rylie landed on the ground face up staring into the sky, crying muffled with the screams of Claire being attacked by Grievers.
Only seconds after Rylie landed on the hard dusty ground she heard yells she had never heard before, they sounded scratchy and deep. Before she could think anything else she was surrounded by faces, some hairy,some smooth, some quite young. Rylie stood up brushing herself off with tears still streaming heavily down her face, she looked around the large circle of '….boys..BOYS!' She thought. Without any warning she made her mind up she wasn't going to just stand there, she started to run towards the only opening in the crowd of boys. Breaking through the circle she ran, she didn't know where yet but she just ran.
She heard yells and hollers from behind her, she noticed all the boys had started to give chase after her. She couldn't run anymore so she thought 'might as well climb so they have to be attacking and i can defend myself better' so with that she headed for the highest place, a tall tower that stood shining over everything else, with great agility she climbed, she was half way up when the group of dirt covered boys had finally caught up. She had made it to the top and was then just sitting there with small random equipment sitting in boxes.
One of the boys yelled up at her saying "Hey what's your name? And where did you come from? At least tell us that much!" Rylie ignored the boy and stared into the sky when they boy yelled up again "My name's Newt what's your's?" Rylie thought for a moment and decided she should try to get some answers, so with that final decision she replied "Rylie my name is Rylie, Now! Tell me what this place is!" Newt and the other boys began whispering things, Newt turned to her and looked up and said "it's the Glade, now where are you from missy?" Rylie thought quickly and said "It can't be! Because i just came out of a Glade!" Newt and the other dirt ridden boys started to raise their voices some even yelling, Newt hushed them.
A boy with light very short hair caught her eye, she looked down almost completely over the side of the railings when "snap!" she went falling forward, she felt the air brushing past her or was she brushing past it? She thought. She felt like she was in slow motion, like her whole life (Well whatever life she had after she came up in the Box) it went by fast but at the same time she could feel every second tick by as she fell to her doom, her thick long half golden chestnut brown hair flicked her face violently like punishing her for being a shank and leaning against the unsturdy railing. Before she knew it she had Seven maybe Six people holding her gently as if she was a newborn being held for the first time. She was set down carefully, her legs felt shaky after almost falling to her death.
Rylie looked up examining all the boys and noticed the one who was talking to her just minutes ago before she fell, he had light dirty blonde hair and was tall, muscular, but not overly muscular, he also had brown hazel eyes. Newt noticed her staring at him, he walked up and said "we need to talk" and with that he motioned two boys to come over and grab her. She didn't resist she didn't have enough energy left, they walked over to a large building with large wooden doors, they pushed the heavy doors open and led her to a door closest to the main room. They opened the door and pointed for her to sit down, with that they had closed the door behind them and locked it chattering as they walked away. Rylie was then left to her own thoughts for goodness knows how long, all the sounds she heard all the things that happened.
She thought to herself as she felt herself getting worked up 'It's all my fault...Claire's gone and it's because of me!' I couldn't save her..I Couldn't save anyone! But by now she was yelling out loud and pounding on the small desk that sat in the corner of the quite large room.
She heard the door unlock and the door knob turning, Newt entered and followed by him was the boy she had saw before falling, this boy had Dark brown hair and brown eyes, he wasn't as tall as newt but he was tall in general, he had muscle's even if it didn't appear to be the case at first. Newt had a way of noticing when people were staring at others so with that he said "this is Thomas" she stared at him then realized that there were many people in the room by now.
Newt said with a loud voice "that asian guy in the corner, that's Minho don't let his aggressive appearance fool you he's actually really sarcastic and even though he doesn't look it he has a really good sense of humor. That Big intimidating fellow standing next to Minho is Zart he is actually really friendly although he doesn't talk lot's. Also that lovable looking shank over there is winston, he is actually more of a shank then you'd think. Then there's Gally". Gally interrupted newt and said in a funny sort of mocking tone "Rylie don't mind Newt whatever he says about me is a lie" winking as he said so with a scratchy voice. Newt grinned then turned towards his right side and said "then there's also Jeff , then there's frypan" pointing to a large hefty dark skinned boy with hair sprouting just about on every inch of his body.
A loud unkind voice rose from the group of boys, a Dark skinned boy emerged from the back of the group to the front, saying "We Don't have time for this newt!, we can save the introductory for later. The Boy turned towards Rylie and said "do you know where you are? If so Why are you here? Also what happened at the doors leading into the maze?" Rylie took a moment then sighed feeling the tears starting to form again, gently grazing her cheek as she spoke timidly for the first time in a while "i know perfectly well where i am, i'm in the Glade still..now to why I'm in this stupid mess it's because of those disgusting Grievers...they just came.. they were dragging us off i couldn't do anything, and for what happened at the doors…..it was all my fault (tears now running in a stream down her reddened cheeks) my closest friend who was left she saved me..i was to weak i wasn't enough.."(sadness left and rage now fueled her, she felt like punching something, throwing anything) Rylie turned her back towards the group of boys. Tears and sadness took over again heavy streams of tears dripped down her soft face, she felt a soft but firm grip on her shoulder. She turned and saw Newt with a sadden expression (no doubt feeling bad for her) for the first time she felt safe she felt better.
She needed to be held by anyone just to feel secure and comforted, it was like Newt had read her mind, he pulled her towards him and rubbed her head like she was a scared puppy who'd gotten lost.
For the first time being in the Glade she felt at home, her cheeks ran red when she realized how long Newt was holding her. Her tears ran down her face to many times today and enough is enough, she straightened up stopping any tears from forming looking up she said "We don't have time for this i need to leave" Alby took a step towards her saying "You can't go anywhere tonight the doors have already shut, we should put you in the slammer...but i need more information and i'm sure you need Food".
For the first time in a while she actually felt hungry and the sound of Food was a very wonderful suggestion.
she was finally able to walk freely without people dragging her, Newt followed alongside her looking up at her every now and then smiling with rosey cheeks. Alongside Newt followed Thomas and frypan. On the opposite side of Rylie Minho was walking quite close to her, there elbows brushed each other quite a few times. Every time they accidentally brushed each other both Minho and Rylie would look up at each other looking straight into each other's eyes by accident, Blushing every time they realized they were staring at each other.
By now it was getting dark outside and they had a large fire lit in a massive fire pit, Rylie sat down on a log. By now it was quite cold and she began to feel cold icy pricks all down her spine when all of the sudden a hand tapped her shoulder and a familiar face appeared from behind her, it was Newt and he must of read her mind again because in his other hand he had a large grey sweatshirt.
He handed the sweatshirt to Rylie and she slipped it on over her curly golden chestnut head, the sweatshirt was at least 3 sizes much to looked up at all the rambunctious Gladers then turned his glance back to Rylie, he opened his mouth slightly about to say something and in that moment Rylie noticed how soft and gentle his face really was when he wasn't angry or confused.
When Newt finally found the words he was looking for he said "Rylie that sweatshirt suits you, you should keep it on it's going to get freezing cold tonight" Rylie blushed both from his compliment and from the cold then with a agreeing smile she turned her gaze back to the fire. When once again she was approached by a familiar face, this time it was Minho he had a cup of yellowish water in his right hand and in his other hand he had a soft brown colored blanket, he sat on the log on Rylie's left side and handed her the odd colored water.
Minho adjusting on the log said in a grunted voice "drink it, you must be thirsty after running in the maze for so long." without even thinking twice Rylie put the cup to her lips and tilted they cup up so the yellow liquid poured into her mouth, but the moment it hit her tongue she wanted to spit it out. She controlled her reflexes that were trying to force the burning liquid out of her poor mouth, she calmly drank the liquid, she thought to herself 'i can't be picky on what i eat and drink who knows how long this hospitality will last' Minho waiting till Rylie had finished it looked quite surprised, he looked at her dead in the eye with awe and said "no one's ever been able to finished one of frypans special drinks, hmm..i guess you're more special then i thought". Rylie blushed bright red smiling as she did so, 'that's the second complement tonight, even though these boys have never seen or met a girl they sure do know how to make one feel welcomed' she thought. Minho once again started to talk this time saying "Oh yea here you go Rylie, your gonna need a blanket" standing up and putting the blanket halfway waving it in front of her.
Rylie stood up reaching for the blanket but at the last second when she had finally caught the corner of the blanket Minho tugged it towards him making Rylie go tripping forward into Minho, Minho thankfully being quite strong he was able to steady himself from falling back, holding Rylie tightly in his muscular arms, he looked down at her and blushed releasing his grip. Rylie quickly straightened her knees and pushed softly back as she blushed she bent down to pick up the now dirty blanket.
Rylie dusting off the blanket quickly noticed Newt had reddened in the face and looked a bit mad.