"I think she's dead."

I ~ Harriet

Disclaimer: I don't own most of these characters, they belong to James Dashner.

Waring: Contains mature language.

"Come on!" Harriet yelled. "This way!"

"That's the bloody Spring! I thought we were trying to get away from there!" Sonya yelled back.

"We have no choice!" The two girls, along with Aris and Alex, were running away from odd creatures they'd never seen before, but something told them that they weren't friendly.

They made it into the open area just as the Doors closed. "Great. Now we're back to where we started. Perfect," Alex complained.

"This isn't the Spring..." Aris looked around. The Spring was snowy, and this place was, well, the opposite. No snow was in sight, it was warm, and the visible grass was dry and dead.

Shouts were heard from a nearby building. The four readied their weapons, turning to the direction of the sound.

"Every month, we have a celebration for the Newbie," a male voice with a familiar accent was saying. "And this month, that's you." He was tall and blonde, talking to a short boy with curly hair. More and more boys were leaving the building, not a single girl in sight.

"Hey who's that?" The four had been spotted. The swarm of boys made their way to them, forming a large semi-circle around them.

"A boy and three girls," one of them said. "Three girls! How lucky's that?!"

A boy with dark skin made his way through, followed by the blonde from before. "Who are you?"

"Who are you?" Harriet shot back, her knife in her hand. The boy paused, thinking.

"I'm Alby. Now, who are you?"

"Why should I tell you? I don't know you!" she yelled.

"We can fix that," someone from the crowd said. A few others laughed as if this was the funniest thing ever.

"Fine, don't tell us who you are. How'd you get here?" Alby asked.

"We were trying to escape the Maze when we ran into those things and were running away from them when we ended up here," Alex summed up.

"Wait, 'the Maze'? Like the one out there?" Someone from the crowd pointed at the now closed Doors.

"Well, for some reason, it was less... cold," Harriet told the group.

"Cold?"

"Yeah, there's ice in the one we're from."

"Ice?"

"Yes, ice. What do you not get?"

"Why's there ice in the Maze?"

"Not the Maze. Maybe... they have a Maze, and we have a Maze."

"Like two Mazes?"

"That's not possible." An Asian guy shook his head. "I know every part of that shuck Maze. There's no ice and it's certainly not cold."

Alby shook his head. "Let's discuss this in the Homestead. Keepers." He gestured for a few boys to follow him.

"But what about the bonfire?" someone complained.

"It'll have to be held back. This is urgent." With that, Alby, followed by some of the boys, made their way to what was assumed to be the Homestead. The group of four followed slowly, eyeing the crowd uncertainly.

"As leader of the Gladers, I pronounce this Gathering begun," Alby announced once everyone except the new arrivals had sat down in a chair. "Now tell us, who are you?"

Harriet looked at the Icers, then back at Alby. "My name's Harriet. This is Sonya, Alex, and Aris. Who're the rest of you?"

"Newt, second-in-command," the blonde boy with an accent said. The rest of them introduced themselves after Newt did.

"Next question: Where are we?" Harriet asked, feeling slightly more at ease with the situation.

"The Glade."

"That doesn't really answer the bloody question." Sonya spoke for the first time since their arrival. Her accent matched Newt's perfectly.

"Well, we're in a maze, as you know."

"So are - or, were - we."

"But yours was snowy, correct?"

"Yes. You said this place is the Glade. We have the Spring. It's snowy and always cold."

"The Spring..." Alby repeated to himself. "And you were being chased by Grievers, right?"

Harriet shrugged. "Not sure. We've never seen them. We have Shades that fly."

"How and when did you get to your... Spring?" Newt asked.

"Ximena, our former leader, was the first one. She got there three years ago with no memory, like the rest of us," Alex said. "One Newbie comes up a month."

"No memory?"

"Only our names."

"Same thing for us. How do you guys get there?"

"In an elevator."

"Do you also get materials in it?"

"Yeah."

"Do they say anything?"

Harriet nodded. "All the same four letters: W.C.K.D."

"WICKED..." Alby muttered.

"Um, also..." Sonya started slowly. She reached to her neck and pulled out a gold butterfly on a gold chain that hung around her neck.

"What's that?" Newt asked.

"A necklace. I had it on when I got to the Spring," she explained. "Not sure when I got it or who it's from."

"Maybe a boyfriend?"

"Maybe." Sonya tucked her necklace away. "I don't remember having one, though, but I don't remember anything, so..." she trailed off.

"When and where she got it isn't important. We've tried figuring it out, but we don't have anything," said Harriet. "That's not what we're focused on. We need to figure out how we got here and how to leave."

"'How to leave'?" Newt asked. "Why do you wanna leave?"

"We don't belong here. We were escaping the Maze when we had the unfortunate luck of ending up here," Alex stated. "If you think we're staying here, think again."

"Alright, but no one's leaving tonight." Alby looked out the window. "The Doors are closed and won't be open until morning."

"So we'll stay here tonight and leave in the morning." Aris looked at Harriet for approval. She sighed.

"Alright," she decided. "Where can we sleep?"

"We can set up some hammocks," Newt said.

"Unless that's not fancy enough for you," someone said. Alex gave him a death stare.

"Well, we just got a Newbie, so we're having a bonfire celebration for him tonight," Newt said. "Will you be joining us?"

"I don't see why not." There was a hint of uneasiness in Harriet's voice.

Ahhhh! Chapter 1 is finally done! I've been working on this since around December with @dracomalfoysapple27 and it's finally ready! I'm on the phone with her right now, actually. She just woke up even though it's 12:39 pm where I live.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Sorry it's short, the other chapters will be longer.

Keep calm and read on!