Jay groaned when someone woke her up that morning, rubbing her eyes to see Nick standing there, motioning her to follow with a torch. Her body was hurting from last night. More so now than then.

She hadn't realized how hard he had gripped her at times, but she was certain there were going to be bruises. Though she supposed that could wait until the sun actually rose.

Quickly she dressed herself in the dark of her room, before following him out to the wall. She was too tired and in too much pain to ask questions, despite her eyes following the small silver snake like things that glowed red. She almost tripped at even that, shaking her head and focussing on walking, where she stepped and lifting her legs up instead of dragging her feet.

This was an excellent day to start work, she thought to herself sarcastically as she stood at a point of the wall, next to him. He pulled away vines to reveal a window, and she raised an eyebrow.

A window in the wall made no sense to her. No sense what so ever.

However shortly afterwards she saw something out of the window. Something large, horrifying and difficult to explain. Her eyes squinted as she tried to get a better look at the… creature, while Nick held the ivy out of the way for her watching her reaction closely. She edged forwards slowly, until she was about a step away from the window.

It was at that point that the almost awkward looking machine noticed her, and she instinctively took a step back as if preparing for it to attack. The moment it launched itself at the glass she launched herself behind the wall, preparing for the case that it might break through.

It didn't.

Deep breaths, she thought to herself as she tried to slow her heart rate down. Nick had dropped the ivy, and had moved to stand in front of her now.

"Thought I'd show it to you before you get any shuckin' ideas of goin' out there to see if you can find a way out of this place," he told her, and she met his gaze and took a final breath before nodding in response.

Flashes of images went through her brain. Creatures that were equally as, if not more terrifying than the thing she'd just seen.

"What was that?" she asked, once she felt confident that her voice would come out confidently. More images flash, things that were half human but then half something completely different. A five headed monster that breathed fire from one head. Women with snakes for legs. Massive, black dogs. Many other… things that she couldn't begin to describe.

"We call 'em Grievers," Nick told the girl, starting to head back to the Homestead. She followed him, looking at her hands as she thought.

"And they're always out in the maze?" she questioned, daring to look at the boy's face for some kind of indication as to whether or not she was right. What she was wondering was whether or not he'd tell her the truth or not.

Sighing, she noticed as Nick clenched his jaw, shaking his head in disbelief. "Yes Greenie, they're out there all the shuckin' time. If we're lucky, they don't come out durin' the day. If we're unlucky, our Runner's have to run for their lives." The words were spat out harshly, and Jay nodded in response. She wasn't scared.

At least now she had a plan.

And she already had two runners on her side.

Or at least as friends.


Working with the Slicers hadn't been fun. And she definitely wasn't going to stay with them, Jay had decided that the moment Winston had showed her how to gut a sheep. She'd managed to fight back the urge to throw up, which had meant she'd at least proven herself.

Jay knew from the moment that she had started that she had to succeed. If she didn't the boys that lived here would never accept her.

But the moment Winston sent her away, she had a shower.

In fact she'd stayed in the shower almost an hour, ignoring the boys banging on the door that she'd managed to jam shut. The boys didn't know how she'd done it. But they weren't happy with her for doing so, that was obvious. Despite that Jay had barely noticed their banging, or what they yelled, too busy desperately trying to scrub the blood off of herself. Even once it was gone she could feel it, and images flashed through her mind. Things that didn't make sense. Holding a boy who was dying. Seeing his blood on her hands. In her hair.

A shiver ran through her body again, causing her to shake her head and turn off the water. Grabbing a towel she wrapped up her hair first, before grabbing another one to start drying herself off.

She hadn't looked in the mirror as she dressed, all too aware of the scars that she had found on her arms and torso. Instead she left the bathroom almost immediately after she had finished dressing, throwing her hair up in a messy bun to stop the wet hair from sticking to her. Everyone else was already at dinner she realised as she managed to quietly pass by and into the Homestead to drop things into her room.

The blonde wasn't exactly sure how she managed to get to the room unnoticed, but she was definitely glad that she had. It was now that she was slowly working up the courage to go downstairs and join everyone for dinner.

Although she wasn't that hungry….

The moment the thought of just going straight to bed went through her head, her stomach gave a painfully loud growl, vetoing her head's decision. A soft groan left her lips as she thought about that mocking comments that were definitely going to come. Why did she have to be the only girl there? And why did she seem to be the only one with any memories of her past?

'You're special,' the male voice echoed through her head the moment she thought the last question. The voice that made her feel comfortable, and yet on edge at the same time. Somehow it was familiar to her. She knew that much. But… if she was being honest she was also slightly concerned that she was finally losing her mind.

Jay didn't want to know what would happen to her if she did go completely insane. In a place without proper medical help, she was screwed. If she was lucky they'd just keep her locked in the room that they gave her.

'You're not insane Jay, you have to trust me,' the voice said in her head once again. 'But you can't mention this to anyone… what you have to know is that I will do everything I can to help you.'

'Who are you?' she thought to herself, looking around the room. But no one else was there, and no sign of the bugs that the creators used either. And this time, the voice didn't respond to her.

"Thanks," she muttered sarcastically as she sighed, standing up and heading down to have dinner with everyone else.


A/N:

Hello there everyone, I'm so sorry that I took so long to update this story once again, but being home has meant school stuff and work and all that fun stuff. But here's the newest chapter, and I hope you guys enjoyed it. Hopefully there'll be more soon.

May A Chance: Yes, yes Jay is, but one would hope so considering she survived a war already. Fun fact, she was originally going to win the fight, but I decided that wouldn't be good as part of character development. So she didn't. Oops?

GraffitiArtist14: Thanks so much for your kind review, I hope you liked the update!