TO LIVE FOR

0.2 HERE IN THE GLADE

Marie looked to Nick's outstretched hand and questioned weather it was a trap or it actually offered trust. Her face was still blank as her gaze shifted from Nick's face to his hand. Did she really have a choice? What was she going to do? Fight a group of people off by herself with only a little knife? That is if she could even make it out of the box. 

Reluctantly, she let go of her knife and let him take her hand. Nick pulled the girl off of the ground and then called to the boys above for a rope. Not a minute later, a rope with a loop at the end was lowered into the elevator. To Marie, it very much resembled a hanging noose.

Nick guided Marie over to it and instructed the girl to cut her foot through the hoop and moved her hands to hold onto the rope. Marie didn't like how much he touched her instead of just telling her what to do. Maybe he thought his touch was comforting. "Hang on tight." He told her before cupping his mouth and shouting, "Okay, we're good! Pull her up." 

Marie's eyes darted in every direction as she lifted into the air. Her mouth was sealed shut, too afraid to open and say the wrong thing. Although she had a million questions and no answers, she couldn't bring herself to speak, because if she spoke she might say the wrong thing and make the strangers angry and/or violent. 

She could find answers on her own with time but she didn't know if she could defend herself if she were to provoke the group. They could all be insane and savage for all she knew. What she needed was to get away from everyone and calm her thoughts. 

Finally reaching the top, she climbed onto the solid ground and crawled a few feet away from the elevator shaft. Getting to her feet and ignoring the crowd around her, Marie inspected her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was the four large stone walls that stood in a huge box and reached three hundred feet high. She gaped at her new box and spun in a full circle to get a better look. That's when she noticed the openings in those wall. They were huge and led into a hallway of stone and ivy. That was her way out. Those substantial 'doors' were how she was going to leave and find her own answers. There were four in total, one in each side.

Inside the the box around her were fields and poorly built buildings. It looked like a small community. A fresh scent filled her nostrils and the sound of a farm entered her ears. There was woods to one side and animals and fences to the opposite side. Crops grew in one area and a kitchen with picnic tables in another. It looked like everything had a good order. 

But none of that soothed Marie's troubled mind. Her heart still hammered in her chest and her breathing still came in harsh staggered inhales and exhales. Her eyes still held worry and her body still trembled. 

'Calm down. You can't show your scared. You will find you answers.'  Marie's mind told her. 

"Hey there greenie, can you tell me your name? Can you remember anything?" Nick cut off the girl's thoughts and moved to stand in front of her. Marie's eyes flashed to the boy with furrowed eyebrows. How did he know she couldn't remember anything? Was he apart of her losing her memory? Was he the sick psycho that did this to her?

"Is she mute?" Came a voice from the crowd. Marie looked for the owner and saw that there was about forty people gathered up surrounding her. And all of them were boys. Marie searched desperately for a girl but to no avail. Everyone was so much taller than her and they seemed to be moving in. Her pulse was skyrocketing by the second. What was happening? Why is it happening? 

"Okay, we're not getting anywhere like this." Nick mumbled to himself and then turned to the crowd and spoke, "Everyone! Back to work! Leave the greenie alone!" With that, everyone but a tall dark skinned boy left. 

"Greenie, this is Alby, my second in command." Nick introduced, gesturing the boy over. Alby was a muscular boy with a stiff posture and looked to be about seventeen. His dark eyes did a quick body scan of Marie as he stuck his hand out for the girl to shake. Marie hesitantly grabbed his hand, did one quick firm shake then let go. 

"And I still didn't get your name." Nick pressed, turning to the girl and waited for a reply, a warm smile played on his lips. It wouldn't hurt to tell them. I'm sneaking away anyway.' Marie thought to herself, mentally going over a plan. She would wait until nightfall and then go through one of the huge gaps in the stone walls. 

"Marie." She whispered with a stern expression but a cracking voice. She felt like she was being buried alive. Too overwhelmed and stressed to full grasp what was going on. Her blank mind haunted her, begging for clues. Or better yet, answers. 

"Who are you?" She interrogated. Marie couldn't help but let one question out of a million slip.

"I already told you, Greenie. I'm Nick and that's Alby." Nick chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. 

"Yes, I caught that, but who are you? Like... what-" Marie cut herself off, not quite knowing how to explain her question, or what her question even was. 

"Well Marie, we're Gladers. This is the glade. And everyone here is just like you. Woke up in the box with no memory. Only difference really is that you're not dumping a boatload of questions on us." Nick explained, gesturing around him with his arms outstretched at his side, as if preparing to be scanned.

"Why am I the only girl?" The girl asked, growing slightly less panicked. Slightly. 

"You aren't. We have one other girl, Magen. Came up in the Box exactly a year ago." The blond explained nonchalantly. 

"Came up in the Box? I'm not the only one?" Marie asked, her intentions of staying silent almost forgotten, they were pushed back by the intense urge to know more. Or just to know something.

"We all came up in the Box." Nick said crossing his arms over his chest.

"But we'll get to explaining everything later. At the tour." Alby spoke for the first time, directing his statement more toward Nick than to the girl in front of him. 

"Right," Nick clapped then rubbed his hands together, "Let's get you settled in and fed."

It wasn't until Nick had mentioned something that Marie realized how tired and hungry she really was. so, with a nod, she followed Nick and Alby to a unstable looking building that seemed to be made entirely of splinters. 

Inside the building was a small kitchen and some picnic tables that also littered some of the grassy field out side of the building. 

After scarfing down a ham sandwich and meeting a nice boy named Frypan, the three, Nick, Alby, and Marie, made their way over to a small hut near the beginning of the tree line. (JUST ABOVE THE DEADHEADS, AND BY THE WEST WALL. THE FRONT DOOR TO THE HUT FACING THE HOMESTEAD.)

"Okay, here's where you'll be staying." Nick told as he walked up to the crooked door of the small building, "Megan doesn't like any shanks in there without her so I'm going to leave you here. Let you get settled in and such. She's a builder and will be done with work in about twenty minutes. Okay, bye." And just like that he, along with Alby, were walking away; leaving Marie very confused and scared on her own. 

With a deep breath, Marie turned around and grabbed the door handle to enter the small hut. Just as she was about to open it something silver flashed in the peripheral vision of her right eye. Marie turned to see what it was but nothing was there. However, her eyes caught sight of something else. The West Door,  as Nick had called it in a conversation with Alby, was sitting there in all it's glory, almost luring Marie in. 

Marie looked over both shoulders before making her way to the opening. She knew she had a twenty minute window before anyone would notice she was gone. That would be enough time to get away. Marie ran just on the inside if the tree line to avoid detection. It took less than three minutes to jog over there without being seen and an extra two of scouting to make sure the coast was clear for her departure. 

Marie went out of the trees into the open just in front of the door and looked over her shoulder one last time. No one was behind her. With an almost imperceptible smirk, Marie turned to face the door that lead into a stone corridor, but was knocked over by a force colliding with the front of her body.  A gasp escaped her throat as he landed with her back to the grassy floor.

"Oh shuck, I'm so sorry." A British accent reached her hears.