We call it The Glade. Something that puzzled me at first but came to be something of the norm. And though we continue with that name, there is no suggestion as to if we are correct. For I still wonder if this place does have a more intellectual name, a year on. But I dare to question it out loud. Dare to question what was already in place when I arrived. And I always wonder where the name came from? As to what I can gather the name simply came from a simple suggestion. However thinking about it, that is one thing that seems normal here. There are plenty more things that I should question but again, try not to. I still have questions from the day arrived, ones I am eager to ask. Though they probably won't answer in truth as they don't know themselves. And by those I talk of Ashleigh and Thomas. The first and only people I have encountered. They are the other Gladers in this place. The only two left. The two who explained everything to me when I began to accept this was my life now. That The Glade was my new home. It was Thomas who spoke first, and rightly so, as he had been at The Glade much longer than Ashleigh.
"I understand that this must all be scary for you, it was for all of us, but the best thing you can do right now is just listen to me, to us, and everything will fall into place...well enough for you to understand what's going on here..." The late-teen boy, built with thin muscle and with short brown hair, stood confidently as he explained. "...I arrived here a year ago, going through the same experience as you, in the elevator. When I first arrived I had no clue what was going on but eventually my memories started to gather. This place is called The Glade, the only safe place we know, the only place we are protected. You see, we're surrounded by walls, as you've seen. On the other side of the walls is a maze, a huge one, bigger than you can ever imagine. During the first few weeks I was here I was introduced to the runners, who went into the maze each day to find a way out but never found a way out. Each evening they would come back with no progress and we would continue on our. This continued for a while and I was even a runner with the others for a few weeks, going into the maze and surviving along with the others. See, in the maze there are creatures, monsters that attack. We call them Grievers. We've lost many to them but we've also killed some back. The good thing is they never come into The Glade, they are only in the maze, and only at night. That's how we scheduled our maze runs, only during the day, when the wall doors were open. It was when a girl named Teresa came up in the elevator that things started go a-wall, and one thing led to another and suddenly we found ourselves being attacked by the Grievers. After losing half of our team we decided that it would be a good idea to escape the maze once and for all, and so we packed up our things and left. Or so that's how I hoped it would go. Just as we were leaving and the doors were closing one final time, the elevator started operating again and I had to make a choice: go into the maze and escape or help whoever was about to come up the shaft again. I chose to stay and let my team go - hoping they would come back and save me. That never happened."
I remember Thomas pausing for a moment, a short time to re-live everything he had been through. Something I granted him for, I respected him for. But that's when Ashleigh began.
"It was me who was coming up the elevator and by the time I arrived it was only Thomas left. And he is the one who looked after me, explained everything to me, helped me adjust to this life. The walls never opened again and Thomas's friends never came back. So we grew to accept life here and began to understand that we would be safe inside the Glade, away from the maze."
And although I had more questions than ever, all I needed at that moment was for everything to be summarised. All together so I could lie down on the ground, look up at the clouds and think. So Ashleigh did.
"So, we're inside The Glade which is surrounded by a maze that used to only open at night but no longer opens at all. In the maze, at night, people killing creatures called Grievers come out and kill whoever is left in the maze during nightfall. Everyone is gone apart from myself and Thomas. But now you too I guess. We stick to the rules no matter what. You break the rules and we banish you to the restricted area of the glade. We have a kitchen, beds, showers - everything you'll need but not everything you'll want."
I was glad they gave me this information but ultimately couldn't come to terms with everything that had happened, though one question lingered rightly in my mind.
"What's W.C.K.D?"
And with that questions, Thomas stormed out of the wooden room we were sitting in. Confusion arose but Ashleigh was quick to explain.
"They're the people who created all of this, the ones who designed the maze, The Glade and the Grievers…"
The rest of the conversation is difficult to remember but that no longer mattered. I was exactly where I was and it wasn't until I remembered my name was Ben that I became desperate to ask questions...
It was a year after the conversation with Thomas and Ashleigh that the doors into the maze opened again. It was a year later that the beginning of the end of the Glade began.