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Welcome to the Glade (4)

Chapter 2 - Where her life started

"Welcome to the Glade." The boy who had pulled her up said, heaving himself out after the girl. "What's ya name?"
"I-I don't know." She said. Her voice was hoarse and croaky.
"Dunno?" The boy repeated. "Ya dunno ya own name?"
"N-no. Is-is that a bad thing." She asked nervously.
"I dunno." The boy shrugged. "Just nobody's never turned up with no name. Why d'ya wanna be called?" He asked.
"I don't know." The girl said, and the boy rolled his eyes.
"Listen up ya shuck faces, we need a name from this girl 'ere." He said, turning to the group of boys.
"Clarissa!"
"Andrea!"
"Jane!"
"Megan!"
"Teresa!"
"Right then, take ya pick." The boy said after all the suggestions were shouted out, turning back to the girl.
"Uhhhh.... Teresa." She said, and the boy nodded.
"Right then, listen up 'ere ya shanks! This 'ere is Teresa, she's the new Greenie! I want ya all to give a helping 'and if ya see her lookin' lost, ya hear me?" The bit shouted, and a murmuring came in reply.
"I'm Alby." The boy introduced himself, then grabbed Teresa by the forearm and pulled her away from the group.
"Right then, time for ya grand tour, innit?" Alby said, leading Teresa over to the ransackle building that toward above everything apart from the large stone walls.
"This 'ere is the 'omestead. It's where some of us sleep and it's also an 'ospital. Round back is the toilets, they stink a bit though so watch out for the smell."
He led her back to the centre again, where the crowd of boys had disappeared and a gaping hole was implanted in the middle of the ground.
"This 'ere is the box. Each month we get a newbie, like you, and every week we get some food in it.." Alby gestured to the small building next to the hole. It was build solidly out if concrete, with a large iron door which had a round handle that you had to turn like a ships wheel to open. "
"The map room." Alby said, then led here away. It seemingly didn't need anymore explanation. He jerked his head towards some dark creepy woods in one corner.
"That there's the dead 'eads. Where we get our wood from, and graveyards behind it. Bit creepy though." He then pointed towards the other corners, explaining the farms with the crops and animals, the slaugter house and so on. Then he pointed to the large, towering walls.
"They're the walls." He began, not taking his eyes of Teresa, interested in her reaction to what he was about to say. "Our there is the Maze, in here is the Glade. Every night those doors-" he pointed to four long slits which were cut out of the walls, one on each wall. "Close up, and open every mornin'. Ya don't wanna be stuck outside them a' night though, not with the grievers and all."
"What are the grievers?" Teresa asked, staring into the gloomy Maze through the doors.
"Ya don't wanna know girl, ya don't wanna know." Alby said mysteriously, and refused to say any more.
And that seemed to be the end if the tour.
"Do you have any other girls here?" Teresa asked, noticing she had only seen boys around the Glade.
"We did, but they all seem to have....." Came Alby's reply.
"Have what?"
"Disappeared." Alby shrugged.
"Uh, do you know where?"
"Nope, ya pile of klunk. If we did, don't ya think we'd've gone and got 'em by now?" Alby asked.
"Yeah.... But aren't you worried about where they've gone?"
"Eh. We were the first couple of times, but after that we got used to it. No girl stays longer than a few weeks, at most." And with that Alby wandered off.
Teresa stared after him. What a weird life this was. Suddenly, she remembered something. Glancing down at her hand she sat the small piece if crumpled paper was still there, and smirked. She found herself a comfy perch in the branch of a tree and opened it up, smoothing down the edges before reading it. It was a simple message, printed in plain black ink on a piece of white paper that was stained partially brown by the dusty floor in the box and the mud in the glade. On it were three words.

"We are WICKED."