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The grinding of the metal gears woke him, and his body was thrust to the ground with unimaginable force as the box he was trapped in thrust upward. He scrambled across the floor, his heart racing in his chest as his mind scrambled for answers.
"Hey!" he shouted until his throat was raw with pain. "Help me!" he couldn't move, the force of the box was too fast. He hunched over some nearby crates and tried to take in his surroundings but it was so dark he could barely see anything. He heard the squeal of an animal across from him, and every other second light flashed to his left, but other than that he was left helpless to fend for himself.
"Help!" he shouted again, but the box stopped, sending his body into the air. The box made a horrible screech, and the doors above him were hoisted open. He lifted his hand to block the sun and realized a crowd of people had surrounded the opening of his cage. One of the people jumped down in the cage with him, but he couldn't make out their features, still blinded by the light that appeared so suddenly.
"Day one Greenie, rise and shine." their hands grasped the collar of his shirt and lifted him to his feet. Everything was beginning to come into focus, all of the people that surrounded him were all young boys and girls, teenagers if he had to guess.
"Where am I?" he asked, while simultaneously trying to take in all of his surroundings.
"We call it the Glade," another boy approached and helped the boy out of the box. "and it's your home now, Greenie." he looked around at all of the boys who were surrounding him, all of them had distinctly different features, different hair lengths, skin color, height, he couldn't believe it. Most importantly he could believe what he was looking at. The Glade, so they had called it was a big beautiful patch of greenery. One end held a forest with buildings just out of the treeline, and the other held what looked like some sort of self-constructed building. There were other things few and far in between but what had really caught his attention were the walls, giant grey walls at least hundreds of feet high disappeared into the clouds above.
"How did I get here? Who sent me here?" he asked, slowly spinning in a circle to try and catch a glimpse of everything.
"We dont know." he looked around at all of the other boys. "I'm Alby." he extended his hand for the boy to shake, he did. "What's your name? They take all of our memories, but they let us keep this."
"Thomas." the boy replied, though he didn't remember ever knowing this. "I'm Thomas."
"Well, Thomas. Welcome to the Glade." he looked around at the boys who surrounded them again. "Newt! Where's Newt?" he asked into the crowd. A tall slim boy emerged from the crowd, his hand grasped a strap that crossed diagonally across his chest.
"Gone blind already, Alby? I was standing right in front of your bloody face." Alby placed a hand across Newt's shoulders as the others dispersed back to their own jobs.
"Greenie, this is Newt." he said, ignoring the blond's earlier comment. "He's second in command when I'm not around." Newt nodded at Thomas, and looked him up and down. Thomas felt his heart begin to pick up in his chest, the unfamiliarity of the accent was so unironically familiar.
