My eyes open, but my lids and too heavy so I close them again. What the hell... I shift and feel my hands and legs are tied down, but my head is too groggy to really comprehend what all is happening. I groan and I try to open my eyes again, this time they stay open for a few seconds before they slide shit once more.
"Is she awake?" a voice sounds muffled and distant.
"No, she's been like that for a while. I think it'll be soon."
My head is still humming but I open my eyes again, the light is dim, but I adjust to see I'm in a small room. There are beds beside me, I can see my hands are tied to the bed I'm lying one. I pull at the restraints, but they are too tight. Where am I? I groan loudly as I turn my head, there were voices. I see a blurry figure walking further from me, should I call out? But wait why am I here? Maybe they know... What happened to me?
My brain is pulsing and it feels like if I overpower it, it might just explode. I turn back to face the beds, I'm here because... because... they...want...to... they want to kill me. Kill me! They want to kill me!
Adrenaline surges through me as I rip at the ties around my wrist and ankles.
The voices hear me struggle," She's awake! She's awake!"
"Go get Alby!"
Alby? Alby? He... He's the one who wants me dead! No!
"NO!," I scream loudly, loosening the grip on my left wrist, pulling my arm free. I reach from my right wrist and pull on the twine to let my hand slide through. Everything hurts, my head is two seconds away from exploding, my wrists ache and m legs are still bound. My vision hasn't improved, almost everything is a blur of color.
"Relax. Just relax," the voice returns.
"NO! NO! NO!," I see it approach me, so I tried to tackle it. My legs still being bound, I just through myself off the bed, my hands hitting the floor. "NO!"
"Please, calm down!"
"NO!," I can't move my legs won't let me and my body is twisted. I tr to reach my ankles from my position on the floor, but I can't, it's out of my grasp. I feel something grab me," NO!," I try to claw at it, but it doesn't let go.
I am sung back up on the bed and I finally see what it is, it's a boy. He looks young and nervous but also determined, he grabs my arms and push them above my head, making me immobile. He looks small, but he is strong and doesn't waver from my constant struggling. I realize that I'm stuck again and fear is replaced by acceptance, which quickly transfers to tears.
"Please! Please! Please!," I beg him, but he doesn't look at me. He ties my hands together at the wrists above my head, once he is done he steps back. Instantly, I pull my arms, but they don't follow. I thrash in bed, feeling for a weakness, but I don't feel one. I am trapped once more.
"Just try to relax," the boy says, but I drown him out by screaming.
"LET ME GO! PLEASE! DON'T! PLEASE! PLEASE!."
The boy takes another step back, clearly horrified by me. He glances to the door, "Alby, she's awake." Alby steps into the room and sees me, his face is unreadable. When I see him, I struggle more, trying desperately to get away before he hurts me, before he kills me.
"NOOOOOO!," I scream and the other boys cover their ears. "PLEASE! NO!"
"She won't stop, Alby! I don't know what happened!"
Alby approaches me," Please no! Please don't! PLEASE!"
"What do you remember?," Alby asks calmly.
My tears don't stop," Please don't! Please! Please!"
"Don't what?," he asks before taking another step closer. I don't answer, I just cry loudly, trying to hid my face from them. "What do you think we're going to do to you?"
I choke back my sobs, but my breathing is shallow and random. "Please... Please don't!" Alby is now next to my bed, but I don't pull away, my adrenaline is gone and I'm left to face facts. I'm dead now. "Don't," I whisper looking at him.
"We aren't going to hurt you. I promise. You are safe."
His face has softened, he look me deep in the eyes, without blinking when he talks. His tone is soothing and I relax against the bed beneath me, Why am I fighting it? It'll happen anyway... no matter what I do.
"Just do it."
"Do what?" Alby asks softly.
"Just kill me."
Alby doesn't hesitate in his response," Is that what you think we are going to to do? Kill you?" I don't say anything, I just stare at him, waiting for him to confirm my suspicions. "We are not going to kill you. I promise, you are safe."
"How can I trust you? I don't know you I don't even know myself! You took that from me."
"You can trust me when I say we don't want to harm you in any way," Alby reaches towards me, I flinch and draw back. "I'm going to untie you're hands," he says as he releases me. I brush the hair from my face and wipe my tears away, I feel cold and exposed. The eyes of everyone in the room is on me, but I don't make eye contact with any one, I stare at the bed while I shiver.
"Is that why you ran?," his voice causes me to glance in his direction. "You thought we were planning to kill you."
I swallow the ump in my throat, "Yes."
"Why did you think that?," Alby never once raised his voice. He stayed collected and true, I knew he was trying to calm me down and deescalate the situation. I twas working, my heart was slowing, my breathing was returning to normal.
"I thought, maybe there is a reason there are no other girls..."
"That we had killed them?," I nodded as Alby finished my thought. "If I untie your feet, are you going to do something crazy?" I shook my head and he produced a blade and cut the binding at my feet. I immediately pulled my legs to my chest. "We don't want to kill you, I promise."
Can I believe him? Is he just saying that so I let my guard down and he can kill me? Why would they kill me... Maybe they don't want to. But who are they? They must know more than they are saying!
"I believe you," I say quietly.
"Good," Alby gives me a comforting smile, "Let Clint and Jeff make sure you're okay, alright? Don't attack them," he says sternly.
I nod in agreement, before Alby walks out of the room. The boy who pulled me from the floor approached, he handed me a rag before telling me my mouth was bleeding. I could taste the blood and held the rag to my lip.
"Thank you," I said shakily.
"You're welcome," he nodded.
After my debriefing from the Med-Jacks, I was greeted by Zart again. He was standing by a torch, so I could barely seem him in the flickering light. I could tell he was unsure what to say to me, his eyes darting from place to place before he finally decided to scold me.
"You can't just run off like that. The Glade is the only place that is safe. There is a reason that we have these rules and you broke two of them today, that is really serious."
"The rules? Help each other, don't hurt each other, stay in the Glade?"
"Yes, you ran out of the glade and you almost knocked another Glader out" Zart exclaimed.
My eyes fell," I didn't want to hurt Jeff, I was just scared, I guess. I didn't know where I was or-..."
"Jeff? No, not Jeff. When you ran into the maze, you ran right into Ben! The collision knocked you out cold and Ben was close to. He was dizzy and light headed for a while, but he should be okay."
I searched my memory, but there was nothing, all I saw was black. "Really? I don't remember that."
"Well, it's still not okay," he huffed.
"Zart?" He huffed again in response. "What was that meeting about? The one with the Keepers?"
Zart sighed," Well, we were discussing you." I knew it. "We don't really know what to do, we've never had a girl, so we don't have any rules concerning them. W were just discussing what to do, but we weren't going to kill you."
I looked away," I didn't know that. This place is new to me, I don't know any of you and it's hard to believe that we are all just clueless to everything. I'm overwhelmed by all of this and my mind went into panic mode."
"It happens to some of the Greenies we get. I understand, but you can never do it again," Zart eyes found mine and I saw how serious he was, even under the dim light of fire. "You can never leave the Glade, Greenie. Do you understand that?"
"Yes," I said quietly. "I understand."
"Good," Zart coughed. "Well, since we don't really have a place for you to sleep, Alby thinks it would best you just sleep here in the Med tent."
"Okay," I pause but Zart says nothing more so I walk back into the Med tent and lay on m bed. My eyes easily shut and sleep comes quickly.