Alex rounded the corner and saw 2 guards standing on each side of a sliding door. The one guard took a swipe key and unlocked the door. She saw on the other side of the door there were 2 more guards. The noise of the cafeteria hit her like a truck. She walked inside and stopped, shocked. It was full. Full of teenagers, boys and girls. Everyone was sitting in groups at metal tables, chatting and laughing, swapping stories. It was the weirdest sight Alex had ever seen!

Were ALL these kids in mazes? Or are some of these kids rescued before the maze? What the shuck is going on? It's like High school...Did I shucken go to high school? Uhg. Gross, people.

Alex took a few more hesitant steps inside. She saw a kitchen area, where cooks were handing out food.

Foooood!

Her stomach agreed, and went straight for the line. As she walked through the tables, she noticed heads turning. She wasn't self conscious before...but she sure was now!

What are they looking at? Shuck, it IS shucken high school!

She narrowed her eyes, and glared at a group at a table who wolf whistled. She growled quietly.

Shuck sakes, this is the first bloody week of the Glade all of again.

She kept turning her head as she got closer to the cafeteria line, trying to find Teresa and her guys. She picked up a tray and slid down the line. A guy came up behind her and leaned over "You're new." He said, looking her up and down, his eyes stopping at her chest.

"And you're annoying." Alex said coldly.

"Just trying to help you out. I'd be willing to...you know...show you the ropes." He flashed a smile, raising his eyebrows. He was definitely insinuating something.

"I'm fine. I have my own friends" She replied curtly, turning away to grab some food.

"I don't see anyone. You're all alone. And I will definitely keep you company" He wiggled his eyebrows.

Where is Bark when I need her? Also, Marshmallow is right. I would definitely break that promise of not using knives.. ops. That was fast...Well the one in my boot...hmmm. Is it worth it?

"I said I'm fine. Back off." She snarled, her fist clenching around her butter knife.

He slid closer again "Oh come on. I can-"

"Dude. She said back off. Take the hint!"

"Minho!" Alex smiled brightly, as she turned to see him. Minho came beside her and laid his big muscular arm over her shoulders, pulling her in close, claiming her.

She looked up to him, and he looked down at her, his coffee brown eyes sparkling. She raised up onto her tip toes and kissed his lips in a long slow kiss, slipping her tongue into his mouth, for good measure. Then she lowered back down and they both looked at the guy standing there with his mouth open, looking back and forth between them.

"Like I said, ya bloody slint head. I have my own friends and if I need anyone 'showing me the ropes', it will be him" Alex nodded at Minho, "My boyfriend."

Minho didn't smile, his face stone cold, glaring at him. He removed his arm from Alex's shoulders and crossed them across his chest, making his muscles bulge out of his tight black t shirt. He shifted his stance so he was slightly in front of Alex .

He is so bloody intimidating when he wants to be. Shuck me! Those arm muscles...drool.

The creepy guy gulped and slunk backwards. Minho turned to look at her, "You okay?" he asked, gently, his hard expression melted into one of concern and care.

Alex smiled, "Babe, you know I can handle creeps like him. I'm fine."

"Oh I know you can, but maybe punching his ugly face or stabbing him," he gestured to the knife still clenched in hand, "on our first day isn't exactly a good first impression." He smirked at her.

"True. But where's the fun in that?" She twirled the knife in her hand, smirking at him.

He just chuckled, "Come on. We weren't the only maze!"

"Yes, clearly.." Alex said drily, rolling her eyes.

She grabbed a sandwich and some water and followed Minho through the tables, eyes looking up as she passed. She did her best to ignore them, but her hands gripped the tray until her knuckles were white. Minho led her to a table at the back, where the rest of the Gaders were sitting, and two new boys at the table too. They both looked up with wide eyes and open mouths when Newt slid over to give her and Minho room in the middle of the bench. Alex gave them a small nod of acknowledgement.

Newt, cleared his throat. "You were saying?"

The one guy blinked and looked back at Newt, "Oh yeah...and there was this big, loud explosion, and guys came out of nowhere. Started shooting up the place. It was intense. They got a few of us out of the maze and here." He finished. Newt's forehead wrinkled, rubbing his bottom lip as he thought.

"What about the rest? The ones left in the maze, what happened to them?"

Alex knew he was thinking of Gally's guys.

"I don't know. I guess WICKED still has them." He answered.

The other guy hadn't stopped staring at Alex, and it was starting to bug her. She wasn't an animal at a zoo.

"How long you guys been here?" Minho asked.

"Not long. Just a day or two. That kid over there has been here the longest. Almost a week. His maze was nothing but girls."

Alex's eyes snapped to him. "Really?" she asked eagerly. Her eyes were wide, she looked at Newt whose eyes only now went wide, realising what Alex was thinking. Alex turned to look around the huge cafeteria. There were hundreds of kids..there was no way to find her in this mass. Alex would have to try to talk to him.

"Some guys have all the luck." Her head snapped around so fast she probably got whiplash.

"The shuck did you just say?" She pointed her fork threateningly in Minho's face. He smirked at her, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her close, "Come on Sunshine, you know I would be in the middle of a maze full of girls and I'd still find you." She glared at him. She could feel the eyes of the new boys on them, flicking back and forth. Minho didn't break eye contact, and kept his smirk glued on, she finally cracked a small smile.

"Good evening, gentlemen. Ladies." Janson had walked into the Cafeteria, flanked by Captain Ronin and another guard. He cleared his throat, he was holding a clipboard.

"Uhg. A rat just scampered in here." Alex muttered, to the amusement of Minho who snorted.

"You all know how this works. If you hear your name called... please rise in an orderly fashion, joining me... where we will escort you to the East wing. Where your new lives are to begin."

His smile felt forced and definitely did not reach his eyes. He looked stiff, but his eyes looked hungry, greedy. He looked down at his clipboard and started listing kids' names.

"Connor." A kid got up from a table full of kids, he high fived a few.

"Evelyn. Ev. Justin. Peter. Allison. Squiggy." The cafeteria burst out laughing at the name.

"All right. Settle down." Janson snapped. The kids grew quiet and he continued reading the list of names.

"Franklin. And Abigail." The cafeteria of kids groaned, Alex was looking around confused.

What's going on? Where are they going? Why does everyone seem disappointed? Definitely anywhere with Rat Man is not good.

"Now, now, don't get discouraged. If I could take more, I would. There's always tomorrow. Your time will come." His smile came across as creepy to Alex, but she seemed to be the only one, until she caught Thomas's eye. His eyes were narrowed, and he had an uneasy expression on his face and shook his head. Minho also looked skeptical.

"Go on, eat up." Janson said and turned to lead the kids through the door. The cafeteria grew loud with chatter again.

"Where they going?" Thomas asked the other boys, he was leaning forward on the table.

"Far from here. Lucky bastards. Some kind of farm. A safe place. They can only take in a few at a time." The one kid explained.

Thomas nodded. Alex went back to eating, she picked up a piece of bacon, scrutinising it. She took a cautious bite. She tried choking it down.

"Ugh!" Alex finally spit it out. "Gross! Hey Fry!" She said looking up, "Come here."

He looked confused, but leaned over the table, Alex stood up and leaned in, she gave him a kiss on the check, and then sat back down, expressionless. Frypan on the other hand fist pumped, "YES! I knew one day you would kiss the cook!" He fist pumped a few more times, making Alex laugh. Minho looked confused, but still high-fived Fry when he held out his hand.

"What the shuck was that? You kissing other Gladers now?" He scoffed.

"Nah, just Fry and just this once."

Minho raised an eyebrow, waiting for more of an explination.

Alex sighed and explained, "My first bonfire he wouldn't give me more bacon until I had to pull the puppy dog pout, and said I would have to kiss the cook at some point. I told him fat chance. But after whatever this piece of klunk is," Alex held up the soggy piece of meat, "I'll kiss the cook, his bacon was gourmet!"

Minho laughed and then gave Fry a proper high five. Alex laughed along with the rest of the table. The one new kid who wouldn't stop staring got cocky.

"You giving out free kisses? I'll take one, sweetheart." He slid his hands down the table to lean on as he stood up. But Alex was faster, she took the butter knife sitting beside her plate, spun it in her hand and slammed it, point down, between his middle finger and pointer finger. It was a metal table, and a butter knife, but she slammed it hard enough that it stuck an inch into the table, and stayed when Alex let go.

The kid froze. Then slowly looked down. His friend was eyeing the butter knife embedded in the table, then at the guy.

"Try it. I dare you." Alex hissed.

Minho cocked his eyebrow at the kid and folded his arms, Newt pursed his lips, stiff, his hands in fists. Frypan, Thomas, Winston, Clint, A.J and Leo all stood up. The kid looked around at the guys ready to jump to the defence of Alex, and slowly sat sheepishly down. His friend smacked him around the head.

"Dude. Seriously? Just cuz you see a beautiful girl for the first time doesn't mean you act like a tool! Obviously there was an inside joke, and clearly this dude," He nodded his head to Minho "who has muscles coming out of his muscles - and her have a thing. Come on man! You idiot!" He scolded.

Alex liked the one guy. Alex nodded a thank you.

"Also you idiot" He continued, "She quite clearly can kick your ass. Did you see her flip the knife and all her scars all over?"

Alex was good with everything he said, until he mentioned her scars. She became self conscious again, her back stiffened, and clenched her jaw. She could feel her face heating up, and her hands clenched into fists. Minho, sensed her discomfort, put a hand on her lower back, rubbing small circles and leaned in to whisper in her ear.

"Wear them with pride, Sunshine." His voice dropped an octave, and it took on a gravelly tone sending shivers down her spine, and an explosion of little butterflies. "Remember, they are your Valkyrie battle scars, and I find them shucken hot...I'll kiss each and every one of them when I get the chance."

Alex could feel her cheeks burn up, but from a very different feeling than anger. He planted a kiss on her temple and sat up straight. Newt gave her a curious look, but didn't ask about her blush- he didn't want to know, actually.

The guy who scolded his friend spoke up again, "Sorry, I never introduced myself. My name is Fred. This idiot beside me is Colin."

He held out his hand for her to shake. Which she did. "Nice to meet you. Alex."

"So you were the only girl in your maze?" He asked.

"I was, for 2...3? Months, then just before we escaped, another girl showed up, she's still with the doctors."

Fred nodded solemnly.

"Did...did you get those scars from the maze monsters?" He asked cautiously. Alex stiffened again, she felt Minho's hand on her back again.

"Something like that. Ya Maze Monster.." Newt answered, tightly. Fred got the hint, it was a touchy subject.

"I was attacked by a Glader who was stung with the poison from the 'Maze Monsters' -we called them Grievers. He was jacked from the poison, and decided to try to kill me, tried to rape me first. Mr. Muscle-on-Muscle here almost beat him to death, he was shot with an arrow to the head. And then another guy jacking on the poison from the Grievers tried to kill Tommy, over there. So I killed him first." She snapped looking directly at Colin.

She hated talking about what happened..but this idiot needed to get the point, that what he tried to do was NOT okay. Not just for her but to any girl in the possible future. You don't touch anyone without permission, you don't ever expect anything without clear permission. She was sick of boys expecting they could just touch her. Both boy's eyes went wide.

"I told you she could kick your ass!" Fred whispered to Colin. He had leaned back and gulped.

"What the hell?" Thomas said to himself. He was looking towards the one wall with a few windows to the hall. Alex followed his gaze. She saw a flash of black hair.

"Tes?" Alex had stood up along with Thomas, they both quickly made their way over to the window

"Hey, Teresa?" Thomas called, "Teresa!"

Alex bagged on the glass "TES!" She shouted.

Teresa turned at the noise, her blue eyes filled with fear, she made eye contact with Alex, silently pleading for help.

"Hey, hey, hey." A guard had come over to them, they were making a bit of a scene banging on the window, and yelling. Alex saw the doctors and a few guards escorting Teresa, push her around a corner.

"Where are they taking her?" Alex demanded, not taking her eyes off the spot she disappeared.

"They just have to run a few more tests. Don't worry, they'll be done with her soon." The guard tried to reassure them.

"Is she okay?" Thomas asked, worried.

"She's fine." the guard said quickly.

Too quickly.

Alex scowled at the guard. She knew they weren't going to get any answers. She grabbed Thomas by the upper arm and pulled him away, back to their group. When Alex sat back down, Newt, Minho and the rest of the Gladers leaned in. The other boys had left somewhere.

"What was that bloody about?!" Newt asked.

"Tommy and I just wanted to make a scene. For the shuck fun of it." Alex answered, her voice dripping in sarcasm.

"Don't you remember what Dr Prior told me? I might have to go for more tests but mine weren't life threatening? Well Tes has been with the doctors the whole time and now guards are marching her through the halls with a whole team of doctors. She looked terrified!"

"Ya, something's not right!" Thomas added. "why won't anyone give us answers?"

"For once, I agree with you Tommy. I want answers."

"Okay, ouch, what do you mean by 'for once'?!" he muttered.

"What did Rat Man want with you?" Minho asked, changing the subject.

"Rat Man?" Newt asked, his eyebrows furrowed together.

"Ya, doesn't Janson look like a rat to you? He's so twitchy, and he's slippery. And I don't trust him." Alex explained quickly.

"And for once I agree with YOU, Alex. He reminds me of a sewer rat!" Thomas nodded with a smirk.

Frypan and Clint snorted with laughter. "It's so true!"

Alex smiled at him, "Thank you Frypan. Also, ouch Tommy, just this once? Anyways. I get a creepy vibe from him, like he's not telling us the whole truth. There is something about him that sets me on edge."

"He wanted to know what I knew about WICKED." Thomas blurted. Alex nodded. "Me too."

"Really? Both of you? Seems suspicious they would ask just you two...who used to -and I use this term loosely- work for them.." Minho said in hushed tones, everyone leaned in closer, scared to be overheard. Thomas was looking as confused as ever.

"Ya, that is weird...something is definitely up." Alex leaned back, thinking, rubbing her lower lip with her thumb. She glanced at the table in the corner, the kid from the maze of girls was gone.

"Newt! We missed our chance! Shuck it! That kid could have been in Sonya's maze!"

Newt looked over, and then strained his neck to look around the cafeteria. Alex deflated.

"Well, we can try looking for him later. I'm sure at some point we will run into him." Newt said, trying to cheer her up.

"Ya." She yawned. Just then Fred and Colin joined the table again. Holding a stack of cookies.

So that's where they went.

"We brought...umm a piece offering...I'm uh, sorry." Colin muttered. Alex crossed her arms.

"My eyes are here. Not on the floor." She snapped. Fred elbowed him and he looked up, his face red.

"I'm sorry. I was an idiot. It won't happen again." He mumbled a little louder, but kept eye contact, even with Alex staring daggers at him.

"You wont try that on ANY girl in the future. We owe you NOTHING." She challenged.

The guy nodded, "Yes ma'am."

"Good."

The boys sat down and handed out the cookies. Minho put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

"I think you need some coffee...and my cookie too." He handed her his. She accepted.

"How about we share?" She asked and broke it in half, "and as for the coffee...yes. Think they have any?"

"They do, yes. At the front by the food line." Colin answered. "Sorry, overheard the coffee thing."

Minho kissed her temple quickly "I'll be back Sunshine. Save my seat and don't stab anyone while I'm gone."

"No promises." She said, yanking the knife out of the table and twirling the butter knife around her fingers.

He was back a few minutes later with a steaming mug of creamy coffee. "Here you are babe."

"Have I ever told you, you're the best boyfriend ever?"

"Nope." He popped the P. "Do it again. I like the way you said it." Alex laughed and picked up the mug in both hands. "Mmmm coffee." she muttered happily. She leaned in and whispered seductively, "Definitely the best boyfriend, Min. Ever" She could hear the hum in his chest, and heard him mutter, "shuck me." He pulled her back so she was leaning into his chest, while he sat straddling the bench. She sighed happily.

She took a sip. Her eyes went wide. The mug fell from her hands and spilt all over the table, white hot pain shot from her head through her body, she let out a small yell of pain, her head snapped upwards, her eyes glazed over and her body shook violently.

**** She was in a bright white cafeteria, with metal tables. Sitting on a bench with Minho, Newt, Alby, Gally, Frypan, Thomas and Teresa, Sonya and another girl. Everyone was clean and dressed in crisp white. Coffee in her hand sipping it and laughing. The mug had black letters stamped on it.

****She was sitting in bed, in the Glade "they have coffee here?!" She asked, shocked. "Yes, thank the creators. It comes every 2 weeks with the supplies." Newt said.

**** She was sitting at a picnic table with Newt, a plate of pancakes and a mug of coffee. The mug had black letters stamped on it.

Her head came back, her eyes big, she was still shaking, her head shooting white hot pain and her brain felt like it was burning. She grabbed her head and scrambled back off the bench. Colin and Fred sat frozen, freaked out with what they saw. Minho, Newt and Thomas jumped up beside her and the rest of the Gladers were in a half standing half sitting stance, unsure what to do, worried about her.

"Hey hey hey, it's ok. What did you see?" Minho said soothingly, rubbing her back.

"The ..the..the coffee. It's the same. It's the same coffee as before...as the Glade and before the maze... Minho! It's the same coffee!"

She was desperate for them to understand, but she was panicking and the words coming out didn't make sense. Her head also felt like it was going to split apart, the white hot fire was burning inside her head, and her body was sore. Minho pulled her to his chest, in a hug, rubbing her back, trying to soothe her. She found Newt's eyes. He seemed skeptical of her, his lips were pursed.

He doesn't believe me...or he doesn't WANT to believe me.

She looked at Thomas. His eyes were wide with worry.

He will believe me! He doubts them. He doesn't believe these people!

"Min. You believe me don't you?" She whispered.

"Ya Sunshine. I believe you." He said quietly into her hair

She wasn't sure if she believed that.

"Okay LISTEN UP!" A loud gravelly voice yelled from the front door of the cafeteria. Alex broke from the hug and saw Captain Ronin, standing with his feet planted wide apart, hands clasped behind him.

"The new group. From Maze A. Seven guys, one girl. Front and centre." He barked. He made eye contact with Alex.

"He means us. Come on guys." Alex sighed.

She laced her hand with Minho and led the group of guys towards the door. The cafeteria was silent. Every eye watching the group. She heard some whispering behind hands and she saw some finger pointing. She narrowed her eyes and clenched her jaw, she knew they were talking about her scars. And why would someone as good looking as Minho want to be with someone who looked like a Griever's chew toy?

Minho let go of her hand, her heart dropped. She knew it. He changed his mind, now that they were outside of the Glade and all eyes of other beautiful girls were watching .

He threw his arm over her shoulder instead, pulling her close. He smirked down at her, and kissed her temple. The claws around her heart loosened, her breathing was easier. She reached her hand up to hold his hand around her shoulders. And snaked the other around his waist.

"Feels like high school. We're totally the popular power couple, babe! And our posse behind us! Ha." He said, puffing his chest out and strutting the rest of the way.

"Uhg, I have a feeling I would have hated high school.." Alex complained, scrunching her nose.

"Ha! Nah Sunshine, those shanks are jealous. I have a smoke show badass warrior as a girlfriend."

"Still think I'd hate high school." She shrugged, but Alex cracked a small smile.

They stood in front of the Captain. "Alright, I'm to led you to your sleeping quarters." He growled at them. He spun on his heel and led them out the sliding door and down yet another white hallway.