Disclaimer: I don't own any characters from the Maze Runner series nor any recognizable storylines from the novels/movies. I only own my character(s) and basic plot of this story. This is rated T for language and mature scenes.


day onethree years ago

She tried to absorb his words in a reasonable fashion but none of them made sense.

She was able to connect the dots and assumed the boxes that were placed in the cage with her were supplies for them, but everything else she couldn't wrap her head around.

Her eyes followed his line of sight as he gestured towards 'the Glade'. At one corner there was a garden full of ripe vegetables, crops, and ever-growing fruit trees. Along the way was a wooden shack looking to have seen better days and a half-constructed building nearly double its size resting alongside it consisting of various sticks and branches that held it together.

She recognized a few hammocks strewn about a few meters from the building, an awning resting precariously above them as makeshift protection against the weather. Some of them appeared sun bleached. A ways away from them was another shack, a bit red in color and also appearing only half finished near a pen of pigs, sheep, and cows that were contently grazing on what little grass they had at their disposal.

She felt a little sick as she took everything in. This was all they had.

"Newt's gonna take you to get some food and water. Don't want your little shuck head exploding from all the information," Alby's words tore through her thoughts. "Just get some rest and Nick'll give you the tour later. Let's go, boys."

He didn't seem nearly as surprised as everyone else that she wasn't a boy. But he also may have had a spectacular way of hiding it. She felt relieved that he was at least treating her normally – or as normal as one could in a situation that could definitely not be defined as normal – not seeming to find any reason to speak to her any differently than he did everyone else.

The boys followed along obediently behind him, hefting the supply boxes into their arms. A few of the other guys, all varying in size and stature, continued eyeing her as they trailed behind them while quietly talking amongst themselves. No one spoke to her and she was perfectly fine with that.

Soon it was only her and Newt that were left. She self-consciously crossed her arms over chest tightly, feeling out of place. She could feel the boy's eyes on her a few seconds before he approached her and nudged her with his elbow, continuing to keep a respectable distance between them.

"C'mon," he said quietly, as if afraid he'd spook her if he spoke too loud. "I'm sure you're hungry."

She didn't say anything and he accepted her silence with a slight nod and began walking towards the shacks.

Glancing every which way, she eventually trailed after him a few paces behind, watching everything around her and trying to take it all in. She just couldn't understand the purpose. Why were they there? Who chose them? Did she even have a life before this? She wanted to voice her questions out loud but part of her was too afraid of the answers to try. Maybe it was best if she just kept quiet and got some food in her stomach as Alby said, not that she particularly felt hungry. Her stomach was still churning uneasily.

"This is the kitchen," Newt said as they approached a single shack not far from the animal pens. "It's not much, but."

He cut his words short, gesturing obviously to the small hut as if he didn't need to explain.

She agreed, there wasn't very much to it. They didn't exactly lead a life of luxury, not that she really expected them to. There seemed to be a small opening somewhere along the roof as smoke rose from within and she could smell the familiar, mouth-watering scent of bacon. In the back of her head she wondered if it was safe to cook inside something that naturally attracted fire.

"Hey Fry," Newt called, leaning against the makeshift counter outside the hut's entrance. "Got anything cooked? Greenie needs some food, don't know how long it's been since the bastards fed her."

Her eyebrows rose at this, ears perking up. Who was he talking about? Did he know her captors?

"Just a mo'," a voice called back in return.

There was a pause and she shuffled her feet awkwardly as Newt watched her with interest, continuing to lean against the counter. He was tracing his lips with his fingertips absently, probably doing it without even thinking, and she found the movement quite distracting so she looked away, feeling her cheeks grow hot. In this new life, being around boys was very alienating to her. She had no doubt it was due to the fact that she was the only girl there, which was something she desperately wanted to question them about but was too afraid to ask.

Newt's voice cut through the air that had grown thick between them.

"Just wait 'til you try his bacon," he said, attempting to sound casual. "Surprisingly it's the best damn thing he makes. Sometimes I wonder if the slint has it in for us with the slop he cooks up," Newt chuckled to himself.

His comment didn't sound offensive but more so affectionate and that puzzled her. She knew she'd been around people, understood their emotions and why they said the things they did, but with her memory wiped clean it was like her mind was trying to catch up with their meanings and idiosyncrasies.

"I don't think I'm hungry," she replied quietly, rubbing her arms.

He furrowed his eyebrows in something akin to concern.

"You really should eat something," he told her. "I know it's hard to take all this in but trust me when I say you'll regret it later if you don't eat something. Last Greenie passed out when he didn't eat."

She didn't want to pass out.

"What did you mean when you said you didn't know how long it'd been since I was fed?" she felt encouraged enough to ask. "Who were you talking about?"

Newt pursed his lips and returned to his previous activity of watching her closely, like he was trying to examine her from the inside out. It made her feel exposed beneath his gaze.

"We call them the Creators," he eventually said. "Dunno who they are, never seem 'em before, but they're the ones who send up the supplies in the Box. And they're also the ones who send you," she was correct in her previous assumption that she didn't want to know the answers. "Every month they send up a new Greenie. And most of the time they're either dehydrated, hungry, or sleep-deprived. Or a combination of the three. My guess is it's because of the process of wiping our memories."

His words were bitter and she could feel anger pooling in her belly. Hearing it from Newt made everything seem so real. She had been kidnapped, or at least forced against her will to have her memories taken away. But why? What purpose did it serve?

"Order up," a boy said jovially, voice echoing from inside the shack. He made his way out the door, dark-skinned much like Alby with a kind grin. He stopped short when his eyes met hers. "Holy shuck, you're a girl."

"I did say her, didn't I?" Newt countered sarcastically.

The boy seemed lost for words. "I—has Nick said anything about this?" he asked Newt carefully, who shrugged in response.

"He hasn't even met her yet. Probably at the next Council he will, or Alby."

"Right," the boy, Fry, seemed skeptical but appeared to cover up his suspicion with a half grin as he faced her. He placed a small plate on the counter, offering it to her. "Well, my name's Frypan, Keeper of the Kitchen. What's yours, Greenie?" Newt shook his head pointedly in response even though he hadn't been asked and Frypan eyed him out of the corner of his eye before stuttering, "I mean… ahh, nevermind. Eat up."

Before she had a chance to react, Frypan disappeared back into his shack and she could hear the faint sizzling of greasy food upon a stovetop. She took a tentative step forward, uncomfortable that she had an audience. She paused near the counter and faced Newt, wringing her fingers together anxiously.

"Why does everyone keep calling me 'Greenie'?" she asked.

Newt smirked out of the corner of his mouth. "It's just what we call the newbies. Don't worry about it, love. Now eat, it's delicious."

She licked her lips and glanced down at the plate. It was decorated with a few pieces of bacon, some eggs and what looked like fried potatoes. It did smell very good. She grabbed one of the slices of bacon, remembering what Newt said, and took a small bite. It was a combination of sweet and smokey and she quickly finished the slice and went in for another much to Newt's amusement.

"Atta girl," he chuckled. "You'll fit right in. C'mon, let's go sit down and I'll grab you some water."

She didn't protest and followed him to a small clearing near the entrance of the forestry that housed the back end of the Glade. Newt motioned to a tree trunk and she silently took a seat while he retrieved her a cup of water. When he returned, he leaned up against the tree next to her and she ate in silence while he kept his gaze ahead, eyes following the Gladers as they worked in their own respective areas.

She enjoyed the peace and quiet while it lasted, feeling an aching throb in her temples. Her stomach felt sated when she finished her food and she quietly thanked Newt as she took a sip of her half empty water.

"Nick is out running right now," Newt told her, giving the word an air of importance rather than a simple verb. "He won't be back until tonight so you probably won't get the grand tour 'til tomorrow. You'll both be tired and it'll be dark by then anyway." At the confused look on her face he explained, "Nick is kind of our leader. Alby's his second-in-command. We've established order here to try and keep the peace."

"How long have you guys been here?" she asked, bringing her knees back into her chest again.

"Couple months," he answered, resting an arm on his knee. "At the beginning there were thirty kids who were brought here all at once. Nick and Alby were with them. A lot of them panicked, didn't know what to do. Most of 'em didn't survive the first couple of weeks."

The fear returned to her, settling harshly in her chest. "What happened to them?"

"The maze," he answered. She didn't understand but he must've expected that. "Nick will explain it all to you tomorrow. But since then we've learned from their mistakes. That's why there's an order. Nick and Alby have been here the longest and there's only a handful of originals left."

She rubbed her hands along her legs, deep in thought and trying to not let the terror ensnare her completely. She looked at him carefully.

"What about you? When did you get here?"

Newt sighed and leaned his head back against the trunk, gazing off into the distance.

"Five months ago," he told her. "Every month, the Box sends up a new Greenie. Every week, it sends up supplies. Exactly five months ago today I was in the same position you are," he glanced over at her, eyes boring into hers with some sort of meaning she figured she was supposed to understand. "I know you're scared," he said and she absently rubbed her hands against the material of her pants again. Yes, she was scared. "I know this is a lot to take in and I know you have questions. But it'll get easier. Not better, but easier. Just takes time."

"Does it ever start to make sense?" she asked. She felt like her mind needed some sort of logical explanation for her to be able to accept any of this. What she saw, what she was told.

Newt stared at her for a moment, dark eyes searching hers.

"No," he said finally.

She wasn't surprised.

They sat there for a few more moments in companionable silence. The sky was steadily beginning to darken as the Glade welcomed dusk. There was a bit of commotion by the eastern wall close to where she'd come up in the 'Box', as Newt had called it. She hadn't given much thought to the walls, almost afraid to think too hard on them and what they could mean. They were trapping them in and for the moment that's all she needed to know.

There were a few small figures jogging in from between two of the walls. She sat up slightly, realizing that they must have come from within the walls. Newt had mentioned a maze and she wasn't so dense that she wasn't able to put two and two together. She pondered this for a minute or two, unwilling to jump right into questioning Newt when she wasn't even sure what to ask.

Then suddenly there was a horrible, rumbling groan that emitted from where the figures had just emerged. She jumped slightly in her spot, feeling Newt's eyes on her as he gauged her reaction.

She watched the walls carefully, squinting a bit in the darkness. People were just now beginning to light torches and it was disorienting her view to see past them. But she saw enough to understand that the boys had just ran through a set of doors and those doors were beginning to close, whining and grating against her ears as they moved.

She had no words.

Newt saw how the maze doors had rendered her speechless and said quietly, "They close every night."

"Why?" she asked, a bit breathlessly. The thought made her uneasy. "Why would they need to close unless they wanted to keep us in?" Then she had a horrible thought. "Or if they want to keep something out."

Newt's lack of response set her on edge.

"Is there something out there?" she asked shakily. "Is there something even the Creators want to keep out?"

The boy was beginning to look too serious for comfort and she took his stoic expression as a bad sign.

"It's getting late," he avoided her questions. "C'mon, I'll show you where you're sleeping."

She pursed her lips in silent irritation. She wasn't sure if she was particularly angry with him for not answering her, as she was most certain she didn't want to hear what he had to say. But at the same time she was desperate for reasoning. She didn't want to be left in the dark while everyone around her remained secretive and mysterious. It only frightened her more.

"Newt…," she began, only to be interrupted.

"You'll know when you need to," he snipped, voice suddenly masked with animosity and not at all warm and welcoming like it had been.

Shocked, she snapped her mouth shut. Wordlessly he motioned her to follow him with a tilt of his head and she carefully pushed herself up and away from the tree's trunk, eyeing the blonde warily with slight contempt. As anxious as she was already she didn't have room to handle someone's hostility along with it. She had enough emotional baggage to weigh her down for a lifetime.

She followed Newt between the kitchen and the half-finished red building that stood guard over the animal pens. Fire danced along the ground in their wake as they traipsed through the high grass of the gardens, side-stepping various kids as they did so. A few greeted Newt amicably but all she was welcomed with were stares she couldn't read.

Eventually they approached the set of hammocks she'd seen strewn between the trees earlier. No one was around as of yet as they all seemed to have been congregating near the large hut a few paces to the left of them. He guided her through the swarm of hammocks until he reached one that was relatively empty around it aside from a set of blankets and other miscellaneous items she figured someone had gathered for her earlier.

"Slim it and get some rest," he told her, voice gravely and low as if to not disturb the air around them. "You'll thank me later for it. Give that shuck brain of yours a chance to breathe."

She gazed down at the hammock, eyes following the knots tied strongly with precision on each end. Her fingers grazed the rough material and she wondered idly how she'd ever be able to sleep on it comfortably without falling off.

"If you need anything I'll be in there," he pointed towards the large hut where most of the Gladers remained. "That's where I sleep most of the time. Nick and Alby are in there too."

She nodded, wringing her fingers together again out of habit. Part of her wanted to bitterly not say anything to him at all and not give him the satisfaction after he'd snapped at her, but she also knew she'd feel too guilty if she didn't at least thank him for the food and sitting with her. So she swallowed her pride.

"Thank you," she said, leaving it up for interpretation as to what for.

He accepted it as a whole with a shrug of his shoulder.

"Yeah, anytime." That half smile of his returned. "Get some sleep."

With that he backed out from under the canopy and ambled his way towards the crowd of boys that were muffled in the distance, waving their glowing torches about wildly as they laughed and talked amongst themselves like they didn't have a care in the world.

It was as if they were on a different wavelength than her, in a world that wasn't so corrupted even though they were just as confined inside the walls as she was. While she didn't know any of them personally, she still felt extremely left out and vulnerable. She didn't want to be alone but at the same time she didn't want to talk either. She wasn't even sure she knew what she wanted.

Relenting, she sighed and bent over to pick up one of the blankets. It wasn't cold outside; there was a comfortable breeze but nothing that constituted the physical need of warmth. But somewhere in the deep recesses of her mind she knew she'd feel safer if she covered up. As if the blanket were a shield that could protect her from harm. She unwrapped it, feeling its scratchy material against her fingers and wondering if it had ever been used. She hoped over time it would soften up and not feel so stiff.

She sat herself down on the hammock, pausing for a moment before she swung her legs up and covered herself with the blanket. She rested her head on the other folded blanket, using it as pillow. Already she could feel her neck protesting at the angle.

She exhaled slowly, allowing her eyes to wander without really seeing anything. She watched the figures dance in the distance, hazy and blurry as her eyes focused and unfocused. She felt physically drained and her mind was tired but she knew sleep wouldn't come to her so easily. She was lonely and afraid, trapped with all these strangers in an unforgiving world that only saw them as caged animals. She didn't have anyone to talk to – anyone to comfort her and assure her that everything was going to be alright.

She wanted to be held. She wanted someone to stroke her hair and whisper soothingly in her ear. She wanted to be told that this was all just a bad dream. That if she thought long and hard enough, maybe if she pinched herself, it would all go away. She wanted to feel safe and loved. Something about that seemed familiar to her and she wondered if anyone had treated her that way before. Maybe a mother or father or some other relative.

She didn't know who her parents were or if she even had any to begin with but she missed the thought of them. She wasn't sure if there was even anything to miss but she missed it nonetheless. She felt empty; a shell of her former self that had been lost. She needed something to anchor her, to feel like she had a reason to exist. Otherwise she was afraid she was going to float away into nothingness without anything to pull her back down. She was being smothered with so much unknown that it was near impossible to come back up for air.

Sniffing slightly, she wiped away a stray tear from her cheek as it attempted to sink into the blanket beneath her head. She readjusted herself to lie on her back, removing her arms out from under her blanket to rest them on top of it instead. She sniffed again, unwilling to let herself cry but also unable to stop the handful of tears that managed to escape. She brushed them all away, feeling her eyes burn.

Tilting her head, she faced away from commotion by the hut. Fleetingly she thought that the blanket she was resting on felt very soft.

She then jerked awake, feeling groggy and alarmed as her heart pumped madly in her chest. Had she fallen asleep?

Something had startled her awake but there was nothing out of the ordinary around her. There were soft snores surrounding her, all varying in volume and tenor but none so loud that they bothered her. It was dark and she could vaguely smell the hint of smoke on the air from the torches and came to the conclusion that everyone had only just recently tucked in for the night.

Rubbing her eyes that felt swollen and sore, she blinked tiredly around her. There were only a few occupied hammocks, four or so at the most besides hers. The area was small and there wasn't much personal space but she didn't dwell on it. She settled back into her blanket, willing her heart to slow its erratic pace, only to have the life nearly scared out of her by an echoing shriek that reverberated off the walls in the distance.

A few of the boys shifted in their sleep, one seemingly waking up with a gasp and panting for a few seconds, only to fall back to sleep a short moment later.

She clutched the blanket in her hands tightly, feeling her knuckles cramp up at the tension. The roar didn't sound a second time but one was enough to frazzle her completely. It came from beyond the walls, that much she was certain. She didn't want to ponder what it could've been but the painful strains in her heart clearly distracted her from sleep and there weren't any other means of distraction.

The night felt fouler to her after that. Every noise she heard caused a flutter in her chest that made her wince. Every shadow that cast itself upon her blankets or the ground closest to her were an immediate evil and a few times she almost cried out, certain that the shadows were closing in on her. Her paranoia was getting to her and she couldn't stand to just lie there but at the same time she was too terrified to move.

It was an ongoing battle the rest of the night. Every time she felt herself slipping away into unconsciousness something would frighten her back into reality. A few times she could've sworn she heard movement amongst the walls, a vague clanging of shifting concrete and metal, but her mind was so mistrustful and weary she didn't know what was real and what wasn't anymore.

By daybreak her eyes were heavy like weights and there was a dull throbbing in her head.

Her mouth felt dry and every joint in her body screamed in discomfort whenever she moved. She was so painfully tired that she just wanted to wake someone up and ask them to knock her out and force her to sleep. There was a continuous pang of anxiety in her chest ever since the shriek and part of her considered the possibility that maybe she was going to have a heart attack and die.

She continued to lie there, staring unblinking up at the canopy above as the sky lightened into a muted pink.

Hearing movement, she turned her head to find where it came from and saw the boys from the night before jogging down to the closed doors at the walls. Like clockwork, the moment they reached them the doors rang like grinding gears as they opened themselves. Once there was enough space, the boys ran through them and disappeared out of sight.

She meant to ask Newt about them the night before but clearly her mind had been too cluttered to remember.

Within the next half hour or so, the Glade began to wake up. She didn't move or acknowledge any of the boys as they passed by her hammock, running hands through their hair sleepily and yawning widely. She was waiting for someone to come to her and she found that she didn't have to wait very long.

She could hear the faint brushing of shoes against grass approaching her hammock and when they were close enough she turned her head to face them, squinting slightly up at them.

Newt stared down at her, eyebrows raised as he took a good look at her face.

"You look like hell," he told her honestly. She groaned, not wanting to be reminded of it. "How much sleep did you get last night?"

"About an hour or so," she said, voice scratchy. She rubbed her eyes and it felt unpleasant.

He grimaced in sympathy and didn't comment on it.

"Let's go get some breakfast in you, yeah? Nick'll wanna talk to you soon."

As tired and sluggish as she was, food sounded good and she was interested to meet this famous Nick that Newt kept going on about. She quite literally rolled out of the hammock and stumbled slightly as she stood, catching Newt's amused stare before avoiding eye contact completely as she followed after him to the kitchen.

They grabbed some leftovers as everyone had already eaten and begun their daily routines, and she fleetingly wondered if he had purposefully waited to eat with her. Maybe as a way to make her feel more comfortable. She wasn't going to complain, as it was obviously working. She certainly didn't want to eat in front of someone who wasn't eating as well.

For the better part of their breakfast neither of them said anything. It was an amiable silence. They sat at one of the tables near the kitchen under another awning that protected them from the heat of the morning sun. She was working on the last few bites of her eggs when Newt finally spoke.

"So did you heart anything last night? Anything unusual?" he asked through a mouthful.

Half of her was hoping that topic wouldn't be brought up. But the other half of her, the bigger half, was glad that it was.

"Yes," she told him, gauging his reaction. Was she finally going to be getting some information?

He didn't seem surprised by her response and she idly wondered if he'd been awake when it happened too.

"Nick'll tell you about that," he said simply and she gritted her teeth. If he wasn't going to tell her anything useful then why did he bring it up?

"What if I want you to tell me?" she countered bravely. Newt paused mid-chew, seemingly taken aback by her words, but he didn't respond. "Why did you even mention it if you weren't going to tell me anything?" she asked exasperatedly. "It's not exactly fun to wake up in the middle of the night surrounded by people you don't know in a place you didn't think existed and hear this awful… growl. I mean, is there something out there? In the maze? Are we in danger? Is that what this is about? Is that why we're stuck here?"

"Easy love," Newt said calmly, unabashed by her sudden outburst. "We're safe in the Glade, I promise you that. That's just kind of the way it works around here. Nick does all the talking, explains everything to the Greenies. You've just gotta slim it 'til then, alright?"

She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, brushing it off her shoulders.

"What if I don't want to talk to Nick? I don't even know who this guy is, he hasn't even been around. Clearly I'm not high on his list of priorities. You're the only one who's bothered talking to me so why can't you just tell me?"

"He's just busy is all," Newt said defensively. "He's working on something right now that's kind of important. Eventually you'll understand."

She had a feeling she wouldn't.

Newt finished his breakfast long before she did. She picked at the ham on her plate for the better part of a half hour while she went between watching the boys slamming nails into wooden planks against the red building and watching Newt.

Occasionally a few boys would pass by their table and mouth something to Newt who would in turn wave them off and say he'd be around later. She felt a little embarrassed that he seemed assigned to the task of babysitting her until someone else could take her off his hands.

Once the sun was high in the sky and no one had approached the two of them for a solid ten minutes or so, a boy began making his way over to them.

He had shaggy blonde-brown hair and a strong build, fairly taller than average but not overweight. He was running his fingers through the mop of hair on his head as he ambled towards them at a casual pace, nodding in her direction when he got close enough.

"Hey, you must be the greenbean," he said. He had a slight southern accent but it wasn't overwhelming. She bit the inside of her cheek, not quite understanding the terms they used on her. She nodded in reply, unwilling to speak. "Name's Nick. Sorry I couldn't meet up with you yesterday. Shitty day and all, running the maze."

He held a beefy hand out to her and she shook it, exchanging a surprisingly firm handshake.

"Alright?" Newt asked in greeting, tossing his legs out and relaxing against the table.

"Good as I'll ever be," Nick said with a friendly grin. "Get your ass outta here, you got work to do."

Newt smirked out of the corner of his mouth and stood from his seat across from her. She glanced up at him warily but he gave her a simple nod before taking both their empty plates to toss them away before heading towards the gardens. She watched him go until he was further away than was appropriate for staring.

"So," Nick clapped his hands together. "Let's get on with the tour. Got a lot of stuff to tell you and I'm sure your greenbean head is just full of questions."

She followed him through the Glade as he introduced the areas by name. The larger building was called the Homestead where the original thirty had slept. According to Nick they originally just built it for them because they didn't know others would join them, but once more and more started being sent up in the Box it was on a first come first serve basis until they ran out of room. It was less work for them to set out canopies near the Homestead than it was for them to expand the place once it was fully built, which was where she was staying. They had their own homemade cots in the Homestead but they were rough on your back, Nick said, which was why the most recent additions were given hammocks to sleep on instead.

The red building was where they prepared the meat. She couldn't remember what Nick had called it because she was too busy grimacing at the idea of having to 'prepare' the animals. The gardens were self-explanatory and then there was the Med-Jack tent for people who got injured, and then Deadheads, the burial site deep in the woods where they buried Gladers who passed away. The area was dark and murky, air thick and humid, and she couldn't have gotten out of there fast enough. As she gazed down at the vast amount of handmade tombstones that already littered the ground, she felt like she was being smothered to death inside a coffin. Her heart was heavy as she followed Nick back through the woods.

They reached the open courtyard that rested somewhere in the middle of all the buildings and Nick's pace slowed as he stuffed his hands inside his pockets.

"So," he glanced over at her and she had her arms crossed. "What questions you got? Fire away."

Her list of questions had compiled into a generous amount overnight but she didn't know what to ask first. She was riddled with anxiety and felt worried that Nick would only give her evasive answers that didn't really answer her questions at all.

"The Creators," she began, rubbing her arms in a form of self-comfort. Nick hummed as he listened. "Newt said that's what you call them," she glanced over at him. "Have you ever met them before? Do they ever come up here?"

Nick shook his head, lines hardened on his face. His nose was slightly sunburnt and he had a few wayward hairs along his chin and jawline that seemed to form a thin five o'clock shadow.

"Nah, never seen 'em," he said. "We know they're there though. They always send stuff up in the Box every week, medical stuff and random tools, sometimes blankets and extra clothes. And newbies like you once a month."

"Why every month?" she asked.

Nick shrugged. "Don't know the reason, it's just their pattern. Always at the same time of day, same time of the month, without fail like clockwork."

Her stomach twisted and clenched. "And you don't know how the whole," she swallowed, "memory wipe thing goes, do you?"

Nick squared his jaw. They circled around the perimeter of the courtyard a few times, stepping through sand before making their way towards the kitchens.

"Not a damn clue. We've tried looking for any marks that they might have left on us but our skin's basically pure as the driven snow when we're sent up."

"And… well, you wouldn't know what makes me any different, I suppose. Me being the only girl and all," she wrapped her arms tighter around herself. Her head was already beginning to swim and she felt like she may cry because Nick really didn't know any more than she did and that was terrifying.

"I don't know why they'd send you up after sending only guys up for so long," Nick said, staring off ahead in a bit of a trance. "Maybe they're going to start integrating girls into the Glade, or maybe they only want you here for some sick reason," his lip curled and she shuddered at the thought, understanding what he meant. "They're sick bastards. I've kind of learned now not to underestimate them at this point. I mean, how could I? None of us know what they're capable of. And my guess is we're right where they want us."

The conversation had turned dark much too quick for her liking and she licked her lips, wishing she could be anywhere else at any other time. She was trapped inside a nightmare she couldn't escape from, didn't know any loopholes to force herself awake and make all the bad things go away. She felt hopeless, like there wasn't anything to live for if their world was full of so much uncertainty.

Before she realized how far they traveled, Nick stopped a few feet away from the canopy near her hammock.

"Just try and rest a bit for today," he said, turning back to glance up at the sky as a wayward breeze passed through the trees. "Tomorrow starts the beginning of your new life. I'd suggest you rest up for it and try not to think too hard. Greenies have done things you couldn't imagine to try and get all the bad thoughts outta their heads. I don't wanna come by in the morning and see your skull bashed in or your eyes clawed out."

She had to suppress the shriek that darted up her throat, had to physically clasp her hand around her neck as if to hold it in place.

She wasn't sure if she was a religious person, didn't know if she believed in anything spiritual or in the validity of souls being condemned to an eternity of torment for their misgivings. But she was literally petrified of her former self if that were case, wondered what she could have possibly done in her past life, because at that moment she truly felt like she was in hell.


Here's chapter two, uploaded quickly as promised! Hopefully this will give you a better feel for the story. I like to jump between the past and the present as a way to get to know the characters and show development so hopefully that won't be a distraction to you. I've tried separating the timelines in a way that makes the transitions smooth. Thanks for reading! xoxo