Gladiolus ~ The Maze Runner

1~1: I Go Through All Five Stages of Grief in the Span of 25 Minutes

(A/N: for my impatient people if you want to get right down to the Thomas/Hanna interactions, skip to part 1~5 to start at present time. you will miss some info because 1~1 - 1~4 is a summary of the years in the Maze before Thomas comes, but if you want to hop into the story, go for it!)

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I woke up drowning. Well, technically, I was just choking on a build-up of unknown fluids, because drowning would mean I was underwater.

Whatever. Both situations require that my lungs are screaming for air while I splutter about, simultaneously gasping for oxygen and retching out whatever the hell is inside of me.

My two greatest fears surround suffocation and tight spaces. So, vomiting lung water and being unable to see my surroundings sent me into a frantic screaming spiral of panic. My vision blurry, I could faintly make out flashes of red lighting around me. I heard an animalistic screech that sounded both far away and right beside me.

Where the hell am I?

Finally, my lungs are emptied, and I suck in my first shaky breath of air. Now having some control over my breathing, I grasp the metal grating underneath me. I'm sprawled across a flat, albeit uncomfortable, surface that seems to be ascending.

Must be an elevator of some sort? Of course it's an elevator, you idiot. I hope it's taking me to heaven.

Wiping tears from my eyes, my pupils dilated to let me make out the shapes around me. A lot of boxes, some things covered in tarps. Nothing was moving, thank God. The last thing I needed right now was some creature to come racing at me while I am in a very vulnerable state (physically and mentally). 

The blaring of a siren has been going off in intermittent rounds, so loud that I thought it would blow my eardrums out. Obviously, I'm being dramatic. The sound was just pissing me off.

After what seemed like hours but was realistically only five minutes, the cage halted jarringly. Light engulfed the space, blinding me. Holding one hand over my eyes to shade the unforgiving light, I fiddled around with the grate above my head until I was able to find where it opened.

With a big push, the first side flipped open. The second side followed. Using the crates as a makeshift staircase, I hoisted myself out onto grass. Woah.

A green square of space was surrounded by huge stone walls. Directly ahead of me was a large opening in the wall, leading to an ominous pathway that eventually turned a corner. Turning my head, I counted three other openings like these. On one part of the green was a small, wooded area, the rest a flat plain.

"Hello?" I shout, then immediately clap my hands over my mouth. Having human company might not be such a good thing in a place like this. I mean, sure, no one wants to be alone AND having company could increase survival chances, but what if I'm in here with really bad people? Shit, what if this is a prison and I'm in here with murderers and shit? I'm fucked man.

On the other hand, survival is honestly not even my biggest concern right now because I'm too busy freaking out over the fact that I cannot remember anything. I mean, I remember animals, the sun, the sea, books, and basic stuff like that, but I don't know anything about me. I don't know what I look like, how old I am, where I came from, hell, I don't know my own name.

With this reality setting in, I really start to freak out. I've only made it two feet from the cage in the ground and all I can do is sit as tears are falling and I'm gasping because I just can't get enough oxygen. My vision tunnels and my ears are ringing while I'm tweaking like a fish out of water.

Now, I know what you're thinking. This girl is a whiny bitch and needs to get a hold of herself. I know, I know. In all honesty, though, how would you realistically react? Not to worry though, because eventually I get my bearings and force myself to talk out loud to get some control of my situation.

"Okay, I saw that there was stuff in the cage with me, so let's take a look at what's in there. Maybe there's food." Relax, fatass, there's more to worry about than just food.

I jump back down into the box and take in the sight around me. I nose around in one of the crates and find basic medical supplies. That's good, at least. The crate underneath had some clothes and toiletries. The next crate had plastic packages with food inside. Good news, I won't starve. Yet.

I look in the other boxes, finding other survival supplies, and I pull back the tarp that concealed the other equipment brought up with me. The tarp seemed in place to be preserving items that could otherwise be damaged by weather, like packets of seeds. I whooped at the sight of infinite food but shut up when I realized I don't know the first thing about farming.

I shrug, replacing the packets into their crate. I'll figure it out. I leave everything in the cage I arrived in because, so far, it seems like the safest place for me to retreat to.

Hopping out back onto the grass, I decide to explore the rest of my new space. I did start at one of the doors, but then got spooked and decided to confine my explorations to the greens, because I'm a bitch. Those doors are just so damn ominous, alright? 

The wooded area wasn't very impressive, but it was still pretty peaceful. There was a running stream through the woods, starting randomly from a spout on one of the stone walls and stopping unnaturally in the middle of the woods. Otherwise, there was no running water. As long as that spout worked though, I should be fine.

I finished exploring and realized how loudly my stomach was rumbling, so I grabbed a packaged meal and ate, sitting at the edge of the box, legs swinging. I was quiet for about an hour when suddenly, a harsh wind swept in from all four open doors.

The sound of grinding stone with metal filled the once hauntingly quiet area as I watched the doors start to close. Spooky. Eventually, they all shut, and the silence resumed. Now I'm trapped.

In what I think was an hour (because I don't really have a semblance of time right now), the sky darkened. I took that as my sign to catch some sleep. I crawled back into the box and set up a sleeping bag that I had found earlier. I laid there for a bit, flinching at every sound I heard, especially terrified of those screeches that seemed to come from outside of the walls. Maybe those doors shutting was a good thing.

Eventually, my sight went dark and my mind quieted for a bit, only to start back up again with unsettling dreams. I woke up gasping and in a sweat, just as the sun painted the sky with pinks and oranges as it began to rise for the new day.

WICKED. That word, printed in white letters on walls, appeared in my mind last night. Blue laboratory lights. A playroom. An older woman speaking incoherent words to me. A boy. He showed up the most. His facial features were fuzzy, and his hair was brown. 

What was particularly creepy was the fact that these dreams I already have associated emotions with. It's almost like I was really there, truly experiencing fear or frustration or affection.

The weirdest thing, you might ask? My name. That boy kept saying it, over and over. It was the one word that I could actually comprehend amidst the other muddy lectures that I could not make out.

Hanna.