Feral → newt, tmr

Chapter 1: The Glade

A confined space. Pitch black. That’s all she notices when she snaps her eyes open, a pounding headache blurring her senses. The sound of metal grinding and clashing fills her ears without end, echoing in the darkness. She reaches out, but her hands only meet cold, unforgiving steel.

Groaning, she forces herself up, her body sore and sluggish. The dim light flickers at the edges of her vision as she struggles to focus. Through the haze, she realizes she’s in a freight elevator, large enough to hold a dozen people but empty except for one other occupant. She’s moving upwards, fast, the walls vibrating as if hurtling toward an unknown destination.

She isn’t alone. In the far corner, another figure lies still—a boy, or at least she thinks it’s a boy. The shadows make it difficult to tell.

“Hello?” Her voice is rough and unsteady as she moves toward him, half-expecting an answer that might explain where they are or where they’re going. But then, with a dramatic gasp, the boy’s eyes fly open, his expression wild and terrified.

The suddenness of it makes her stumble back, her head smacking into the metal behind her. Pain flares as she cradles her aching skull, but she barely has time to recover before the boy scrambles to his feet, shouting at the top of his lungs.

“Hey! Hey! Help! Get us out of here!” His gaze falls on her, and pity softens his features. “Are you okay?”

“No,” she mutters, leaning back against the wall, pressing a palm to her temple. “Not really.” Her limbs feel like lead, and the raw panic in his voice isn’t helping.

“Where are we?” he demands, his breathing rapid. “Where’s this thing taking us?”

“I dunno,” she starts, but her voice trails off as the entire space fills with a high-pitched hum. Her attention snaps upward just in time to see a thin line of light appear in the ceiling, expanding and splitting open like a door into another world. With a violent lurch, the elevator shudders to a stop, and blinding light floods in, forcing her to shield her eyes.

As her vision adjusts, dozens of faces come into view—young men, teenagers mostly, crowding around the edge of the container, staring down at them with a mixture of curiosity and amusement. They’re caked in dirt, their expressions as rough and unyielding as the Glade itself.

“Look at that shank,” one of them jeers.

“Looks like a klunk in a T-shirt.”

“Hope you enjoyed the one-way trip, Greenie.”

Snickers and taunts break out as they take in the sight of the boy standing wide-eyed beside her, but no one seems to notice her cowering in the corner.

“Go get him, Gally,” someone calls out.

“Day one, Greenie. Rise and shine.”

A boy jumps over the edge of the container with a loud thud, landing in front of the boy. But when he glances in her direction, his eyes widen in shock. “There’s a girl, too!”

Instantly, the air shifts, and the crowd’s attention snaps toward her.

“A girl?”

“Why’s there a girl here?”

“This is so jacked up.”