Mckenzie and The Maze

Chapter 1

I woke up to the sound of screeching metal. I sat up feeling dizzy and disoriented.

My head hurt and I had no memory. "Hello?!" I shouted for help. No one answered.

I then realised I was in some sort of elevator that was moving. The sides of it lit up, revealing the small elevator I was in. It was made of metal and there were boxes and crates on both sides of me. "Help!" I screamed.

The elevator seemed to be getting faster, and then suddenly stopped, throwing me backwards against one of the crates.

I looked up at the ceiling of the elevator and it began opening, revealing harsh light from above. I covered my eyes and when I regained my vision I saw a figure standing at the top of the opening in the elevator. I crawled to hide behind one of the large crates, but the person had already seen me. They jumped down into the elevator with a loud thump.

"Looks like we gotta new Greenie!"

"Bring the shuck face up!"

"Newt what do you see!" I heard voices from above, their vocabulary was strange.

"Get away from me!" I cried. It was a tall boy with sandy blonde hair. He held out his hand and said, "it's okay. You can trust me." He had a thick British accent which soothed me. I took hold of his hand and he lifted me up onto my feet, helping me get out of the elevator.

I looked around, taking in my surroundings. We were surrounded by 4 large stone walls, one which had an opening.

I looked at everyone who had crowded around me, some of them throwing remarks at me. It then suddenly dawned on me that I was the only girl.

"A girl?! Why on earth would they send up a girl? What use will she be?" I heard someone shout. It was a tall, muscular boy with dark hair.

"Shut your hole, Gally!" Said the boy who had helped me out of the elevator.

"Everyone get back to work!" He said in his British accent that I already loved. The group of boys walked away, Gally being the last one. I made eye contact with him, he had hatred in his eyes.

"Sorry 'bout that. I'm Newt." He said holding out his hand. I shook it.
"I'm..." I suddenly stopped. "My name! I can't remember my name!" I shouted.

"It's alright. It happens to all of us, it will come back to you soon." He reassured me.

"What is this place?" I asked, looking up into Newts eyes. He was quite a lot taller than me, at least a foot taller.
"Welcome to the Glade! He said proudly. "We eat, live and work here. It's not too bad, really. We gotten used to it." He said.

As we stopped talking for a minute, a darker boy with muscular arms came over to introduce himself. "Hey, Greenie. I'm Alby. I'm the leader of the Glade. Newts second in command." He said.

"Shall I take her on the tour?" Newt asked Alby.

Alby nodded his head, said goodbye and walked away.

Newt showed me around the Glade, and I learned that it was divided into four sections. There was the Homestead where everyone stays, the Blood-house where animals were slaughtered, the Deadheads which is basically a cemetery and the Garden where crops are grown.

The last stop of the tour was the large stone walls. We stopped at the opening, I looked inside, curious as to what was out there.

"This is the maze." Newt said. I looked at him confused.
"Maze?" I asked.

He nodded and just as I was about to ask what he meant by maze, two boys came running out of the opening. A tall boy with blonde hair and tanned skin, and an Asian boy who had short, thick black hair.

He stopped the Asian boy who gave me a funny look.

"This is Minho. He's the keeper of the runners. Everyday he runs through the maze trying to find a way out." Newt said. Minho nodded.

"A girl, huh?" Minho said out of breath, looking at me almost with disgust.
"Welcome, shank." He said to me and ran away towards the homestead.

"That's Minho. Don't mind him, he's just full of sass." Newt said. "Anyway." He continued, looking down at me with serious eyes. "We have 3 rules. Never harm another Glader, do your job and do it well, and never go beyond those walls." He said. "Understand?" I nodded slowly.
"Good that." He said and smiled at me.

I half smiled back and we both walked back to the homestead where food was being served by a larger, dark boy.

Newt left me to go and talk to some other Gladers. I lined up by myself to get some food.

"Next!" The boy shouted. I walked up to the counter he was serving the food on.

"Ah, new girl. How ya liking it so far? I'm Frypan, by the way." He said. He plopped a spoonful of mashed potato and and portion of meat on my plate.
"Thanks." I said and walked away toward the only table that no one was sitting at.

~

As I finished eating Gally came over to me. I tried to get up and walk away so I didn't have to deal with him, but he grabbed me by my shoulder before I could get away.

"Let go of me!" I shouted. By now all the other Gladers had cleared up and gone to the homestead or to sit by the fire Ably had made.

"Why'd you come here, girl? We don't need you, you're just gonna ruin things. We shoulda banished you the second we saw you in the box." The words hurt but I didn't let him see it. I tried to walk away but he grabbed me again, this time by both shoulders. I tried to struggle free but his grip was too strong.

"Let go!" I yelled and kneed him in the stomach. He groaned and leaned over in pain.

"You're dead next time I see you, shank." He said and walked away.

The threat didn't scare me. I sat down on the grass, trying to overcome what had just happened. Why did he hate me so much? I'd only been here a day and I hadn't even talked to him yet.

Newt came over to me, helping me off the ground.

"You right?" He asked.
"Yeah. Fine. Gally sure has some anger issues."

"Just try and stay away from him. He's bad news. Anyway, I've set up your bed." He said leading me toward the homestead. We walked inside and up the stairs. My room was the one at the very end.

"You will sleep alone. Thought you'd be more comfortable."
"Thanks." I said smiling at Newt. He seemed to be the only nice guy here.

As he went to walk out of the room my name finally came back to me.

"Mckenzie!" I shouted. Newt turned around, looking confused.

"What?" He asked.

"My name! It's Mckenzie!" I said smiling.

"Goodnight, Mckenzie." He said smiling at me, and shut the door behind him.

I laid down in bed with a huge smile spread across my face. I was so glad to have my name back.

As I thought about the events that had happened today and how crazy it was, I wondered what tomorrow would be like. I would be assigned a job, and I really hoped I would be a runner. I just felt like I needed to go into that maze.