Chapter 1

I wake with a start, sweat beading across my forehead. It's dark, so I can't see anything, but I do hear something. It sounds like… whispering?

Yes, I hear voices. Male voices.

Somehow I remember that I am a female, so that's good to know, but when I try to remember anything else, how I got here, my name, what I look like, I come up blank.

I can't remember anything.

Suddenly I can't breathe, my airways tight. I gasp, bringing my hands up to my throat. The chill of fear seeps into my bones, and I shiver, rocking myself back and forth.

I feel a hand on my shoulder, and I jerk away. "Don't touch me," I grit out, my voice low. I must have sounded at least somewhat threatening because the hand retreated.

"I'm not going to hurt ya."

The person who spoke was male, I could tell that, and he had a strange accent.

I don't respond, only curl into myself tighter. I squeeze my eyes shut, though I can't see anything if they were open anyhow.

We were in a room, of some sort, though it felt like it was moving. It creaks and groans as it lifts us upward.

Voices swarmed around me, but I don't register what they're saying. I hold myself close, rocking back and forth in an attempt to calm my racing heart, which thumps painfully against my chest.

With a screech, the box shudders to a stop.

For a minute, no one moves, no one says a word.

"Well, what do we do now?" a voice speaks up.

"I'm not sure," another responds, which is followed by the box groaning as the speaker stands. "Let's try to find a door, I guess."

There are murmurs of agreement, and everyone begins to move around, feeling around blindly in search of a way out. I don't move at first, until I feel something wet hit my hand. I realize it was a tear, and wipe my face hastily.

I am not weak.

I take a deep breath, sit up, and begin to help.

There was nothing on the walls except smooth metal, so we turned our attention to the floor.

"There's nothing," someone says. I want to respond with "Duh" but I keep my mouth shut.

"Well, yeah," says the guy with the accent. "It wouldn't lead anywhere if it did. This thing traveled up."

"So that leaves..." I trail off quietly.

I can't see anything, but I could swear everyone looked up in sync.

"How are we gonna reach it?" someone asks.

"I don't know..."

"Maybe lift someone up?" someone suggests.

"I'll do it."

There's some grunts and complaints as the boy who volunteered clambers into a couple other guys' hands, smacking them in the face in the process.

"Gosh, dude!" one boy says. "How much do you weigh?!"

"Rude," the boy mutters. He lets out a weird grunt sound that makes my nose scrunch up. "Almost. There."

Crash

I feel someone land against my feet, followed by various groans of pain.

"You dropped me!"

"Because you're an elephant!"

"Okay," I say, helping a boy on the floor to his feet. "How about you try lifting me instead?"

"Wait, there's a girl here?"

I lift a hand to my head. Seriously? "I really don't think that's the main issue here."

"Right, right..." At least he sounds somewhat abashed.

The boys link their hands together, and I gently climb into them, much more careful than the previous guy. I reach upwards, finally feeling cool metal. I run my hand along the bolts until I feel a split in what I assume is the middle.

"All right, just a little higher," I say to them. "I just have to push it up, I think."

They lift me up a little more, and I push hard. The hatch opens, and blinding sunlights spills into our dark box. The boys holding me up are so stunned that they lose their grip on me. Panicked, I grab the edge before I can fall on top of them.

"You all right there, love?" asks the boy with the accent.

"Yeah... yeah, I'm fine," I mutter, suddenly embarrassed. I glance down and see him nod, still blinking a few times from the harsh sunlight.

He steps forward and gives my feet a push, helping me pull myself out of the box. Once I'm fully out, I roll to the side and lie on my back for a moment, closing my eyes. When I open them I notice the clear blue sky above me.

I frown. There's not a cloud in sight. Odd.

The complaints of the boys in the box interrupt my thoughts, and I crawl over, peering down at them from the top.

I spot a few crates in a corner, and I ask for those to be sent up, hoping that there would be a rope or something I can use to pull them out. One crate is filled with seed packets and gardening tools, one with cooking supplies, and another with building supplies. I pull out a rope, and grin.

"All right," I say, holding up the rop e for them to see, "who's first?"

~~~

After everyone is out of the box, we all stand in an awkward, lopsided circle. There's about ten of us, and I'm the only girl.

Fantastic.

"Well," says one boy, "what do we do now?"

No one knows how to answer the question.

"I guess we need search this place out?" I suggest. It seems like the only logical solution.

The dude with the accent turns to look at me. "Are you bloody insane?" he asks, crossing his arms. "We don't know what's out there!"

"Exactly. Which is why we need to find out," I tell him smartly, crossing my own arms.

He lets out a laugh and for some reason the sound makes me feel... something. But it isn't important right now, so I clear the thought from my brain.

"She's right," murmurs another boy. He holds his hand to his mouth, looking down at the ground with a furrowed brow. He looks up at me and I smiled, earning a small one in return.

"So how are we going to do it?" asks a boy with dark skin and a stern expression.

After a moment the other boy says, "Let's split into groups, cover more ground faster. We'll meet back here when we're done." He looked around at us. "Sound good?" We all nodded.

He split everyone into groups of three, leaving one guy to stay by the box and sort through the crates. I found myself with the boy taking charge and another guy who had more yellow-toned skin and almond shaped eyes.

He has perfect hair (somehow), and a sarcastic personality, which I find out very quickly.

The place is just a giant square, with cement walls trapping us in. In the middle of each wall was a split, like some sort of door, though we all decided to not go out there until the next day.

My group is searching out the corner with a large cluster of trees. The minute we step into the secluded forest I feel a calmness wash over me. Everything is still and quiet. Peaceful.

"This place is creepy!" Perfect Hair, as I'd named him internally, says rather loudly.

I closed my eyes. Yeah, really peaceful.

We walked for what seemed like at least a mile before we came to a wall.

"Guess this is the edge," Leader (also a nickname) mused, running his hand along the cement. "Let's see if we can find a corner."

So we walk alongside the giant, moss-covered wall till we reach the corner. There is some open space, with a few large rocks here and there.

I frown. Something just feels... off.

Unnatural.

"You all right there, Princess?"

I jump at the voice, turning around to find Perfect Hair standing to my left, looking down at me worriedly.

I shake my head, forcing myself to take a deep breath. Now is not the time to break down, I tell myself. So I smile and nod, then turn and keep walking, dragging my hand along the wall beside me.

I don't pay attention to how long we continue to trek through the trees, but I do notice when I feel something cool under my hand. Like... glass?

I stop, spinning on my heel and squatting down to the small pane of glass imbedded in the wall. It isn't very clean-moss covers the edges- but I can see through it, and that's enough for me.

I look through and let out a gasp. On the other side is another wall, but it splits off in the middle. I squint to see through the dirty glass, and I can barely make out where the passageway turn to the right.

The boys must have heard me because suddenly I can feel their presence directly behind me. "What is it?" one of them asks, sounding concerned. I don't look back to see who it is, because I'm transfixed.

"Guys... it's a window."

"A what?!"

I step back finally, revealing the small square of glass that sits a few feet above the ground. Immediately they drop to their knees and press their faces against the window.

"That's not very sanitary, you know," I say with a disgusted look, thinking off all the grime and germs. They ignore me, continuing to stare out the window in amazement.

"That looks like..." Perfect Hair trails off.

"A maze," Leader finishes for him.

I cross my arms, feeling the wonder of discovering something new being quickly replaced by anger. "Why would we be put in the middle of a giant maze?"

"There's only one possible reason." Leader looks at me, and I see something indecipherable in his brown eyes. Something akin to raw determination. And it makes me want to fight. "To solve it."

AN: HII GUYS!

I did it! I posted the first chapter of The Half-Shank!!!!

I hope you like it :)

This story has always been my favorite I've ever come up with, and I've been writing it for legit three years. Yea, I know.

I've been rewriting, and it's currently almost midnight on Christmas Day so I will worry about going back and checking grammatical errors later :)

Sorry it cuts off at an awkward place, I just felt like getting it out already (plus it's over 2k words already).

Please review and lemme know if you like it! I'll update whenever I get a chapter done, so don't expect a set schedule haha

Thanks for reading!

Much love,

~Mary