Chapter 8

Steam rose from the shower, and the windows were starting to fog as Taylor stepped out of the stall, hair wet and only wearing her cargo pants and the tank top that had been under her long sleeve shirt.

All that had been in the backpack Minho had handed her earlier was a bottle of shampoo and conditioner, extra black tank top, toothpaste, a toothbrush, and what looked like…a mp3 player? Nothing too helpful.

She walked up to the mirror and stared at the reflection that was staring back. Long sandy-brown-layered hair, made lighter in the bathroom's light, with random streaks of golden hair, that also seemed to come from the lights, surrounded a round tanned face with green eyes. So that's what I look like… Taylor thought as she moved her head side to side, the mirror mimicking her moves.

A small sparkle by her collarbone suddenly caught her eye when she turned away from the mirror. Turning back, she looked down to see a small silver necklace that, somehow, she hadn't noticed before. The pendant showed a silver cracking heart with a pair of wings attached. Looking closely, Taylor could see that the words, "Nothing is as it seems" were etched into the heart.

After a moment of analyzing the necklace, she shrugged, slung the backpack around her shoulder, and walked out of the bathroom where Newt was waiting.

"My god. Do all girls take that long in the shower?" He asked, exasperated, unfolding his arms.

"I couldn't have taken that long." She said as she fell in step next to Newt.

"I stood out there for 8 shucking minutes!"

"It's only 8 minutes." Taylor rolled her eyes.

"I can get a lot of things done in 8 minutes, sweetheart."

"I'm sure."

…

She was in….what looked like the glade, but something was different. Something Taylor couldn't quiet but her finger on. It was almost as if everything was warped into different dimension. People surrounded her... some looking vaguely familiar. She bumped into the person in front of her, and they turned around, revealing a tall woman in her mid-forties, with dirty-blonde hair and chocolaty brown eyes. The first word that popped into her mind was, Mom? But then the woman disappeared, and was replaced with the image of Newt. He looked at her dully.

"Who are you?" He asked. Taylor gave him a strange look. Surely he hadn't already forgotten her over three hours. He turned around without waiting for her answer, and walked away. Taylor let her eyes trail his figure for a minute before moving forward.

Squeezing through the tightly packed crowd of people, she tried her best not to step on anyone's feet. When she paused and looked around, she saw Minho. Her heart jumped, and she moved closer to him.

"Minho. What's going on?" she whispered. He turned his head almost robotically. She immediately could tell that, yes it looked like Minho, but it wasn't him. His face was blank. His eyes were without the constant mischievous twinkle, his face without the joking demeanor.

"Who are you?" he said, in the same monotone Newt had used. Okay. Now this is getting creepy, Taylor thought. She backed away slowly from him, and in doing so she bumped into another person. This time, Alby turned around to look at her. Taylor knew what was going to come out of his mouth even before they did. And it sent shivers down her spine.

" Who are you?" The same look on his face. The same monotone voice. She turned in a circle. Everyone suddenly looked the same. They all were mouthing the words, "Who are you?"

"What the hell…?" Taylor muttered, so confused that it was starting to give her a headache. Someone tapped her on the shoulder, and Taylor spun around, heart pumping in her chest. She saw a man with gray white hair, glasses, and that reminded her impeccably of a rat. He was grinning, a look that didn't seem to match his face, and trying to push something into her hands. When she looked down, her heart stopped. A black shiny gun shone in the dim light. Taylor's head snapped back up to look at the man. He grinned again, and pushed the gun towards her.

"Take it Taylor. They don't know who you are." What? How does that make any sense? Taylor's head spun as the chanting seemingly got louder. She looked up, and the people were closing in on them, their faces blurring together.

"Take it." The man repeated, the gun touched her hand, and – Taylor's eyes opened. She blinked at the bizarreness of her dream. Newt snored lightly beside her, in a hammock, similar to hers, that hung between two posts in the "room". She had found out quickly after Newt had led her from the bathroom that the "bedrooms" weren't really bedrooms at all. Just closed off areas of the fields, with a roof and, most of the times three walls.

Taylor sat up, brushing the blanket off of her legs. She looked around smoothing her wrinkled tank top, her eyes adjusting to the darkness. The door cracked open behind her, and Taylor twisted around to look.

"Hey Green bean. Ready?" A voice whispered. Her heart skipped for a second.

"Yeah. Hold on." She stood up quietly, careful not to wake up Newt, picked her long sleeve shirt off of the end of her hammock, and tiptoed out of the room.

They walked to the other side of the glade, through a little forest of trees, until they found a hut. Walking inside, she found a room that had map-covered walls, and a structure on a table in the middle. She gazed, mesmerized by the maps, but not seeing clearly what they showed.

"Those are maps of the maze." Taylor turned to see Minho sticking his head out of a trap door installed in the floor of the room. She looked back, running her fingers over the intricate lines, capturing every little detail of the maze that, to her, was still unknown. A thought came to her.

"Minho?" She called down through the trap door, keeping her eyes on the maps. She could hear ruffling before his muffled reply came back. "Where did you get the paper for the maps?" There was more ruffling before her replied, this time his voice clearer,

"Supplies come up through the box every month, with a new greenie. Water, food, paper…. Yeah. What size are you?"

"What?" Taylor climbed down the stepladder into a new room filled with shelves. Each shelf held either boxes of shoes, backpacks, clothes, little black boxes, ropes, chains, knives, and "things of all odds and ends"(James Dashner's words). Minho stood by one shelf, holding a box of shoes, looking at her expectantly. "Um…." Taylor bent down and looked at the pair of boots she was wearing. "Size…. 5." She glanced back up at Minho. He place the box back, and rummaged through the shelf, then moved onto the next shelf before he stopped at one box.

"Looks like we don't have any running shoes that size…but…shuck it, these should do." He grabbed the box and tossed it at her. She blinked, and raised her hands just in time to catch the box before it hit her face. "Nice reflexes." He remarked. "Put those on."

Taylor opened the lid, curious to what was inside, to find a pair of similar boots to what she was wearing.

"Can't I just wear the ones I have on? They're basically the same." She asked, but Minho was not where to be seen.

"Nah, the ones I gave you are lighter and better for running." His voice sounded from the back of the room. Taylor rolled her eyes but did as told. Minho reappeared from behind a shelf with a backpack, two knives, and a small black box in hand. "This has water, some shorts and shirts, that are probably too big considering that you're puny, and some other stuff. Clip these to you belt, as a precaution," he added when he saw her reaction to the knives, "and never lose this. Your life depends on it," He continued, opening the box to reveal a shiny plastic black watch. "Only the Runners get them.

Taylor strapped the watch onto her wrist, the digital face showing the time of 6:30, and clipped the two knives to the belt around her waist. When she looked up, she saw, for a splint second, Minho studying her face intently, but as soon as their eyes locked, green meeting brown, he turned away clearing his throat.

"Let's go get some breakfast and pack out lunches and we'll go."

A/N: HEyyy! So sorry about that..thanks to BookWorm237, Blackcat8539 and Embers to Ashes for letting me know about the weird...wording on the previous chapter 8! And sorry for the long wait... i typed everything in the library and posted this on my friend's computer, so everything is probably not top notch, but i'm going through and doing more edits as soon as we get back from vacay, but i'm doing this from someone else's computer, again. Mine seems to hate me and not want to work, again, so life is wonderful.

Thanks to everyone who is reading this, the 20 people who are now following, and the 10 people who Favorited. Thanks to all those awesome and kind people who have reviewed this story(not to say that you all aren't awesome and people).

And to the Guest reviewer, if you're still out there: there's a reason that Taylor is in Newts room instead of Minho's, and that reason you may or may not find out soon...*evil laugh*

Luv you all! Please Review!