RISE ; NEWT (TMR)

The Metal Box

CHAPTER ONE
"they say newcomers have a certain smell."

Gasping for air, she awoke to the feeling of cold steel against her skin. The air surrounding her was cold, and in result, the metal clinging together was so loud she couldn't hear her own teeth were chattering.

Shivering, she sat up. What's going on? Why do I have such a horrible headache? She wondered, her head grasped in her hands. Her brain racked for logical solutions, but she couldn't come up with a single rational answer as to why she would be trapped in a... in a what, exactly?

She finally built up the courage to look around, though it only succeeded in her freaking out more. Everything had been moving so fast... her chest, it was heavy, it felt like something was pressing down on her, making it near impossible to breathe... perhaps she was dying? No, it was probably just a direct result of her current situation—whatever said situation was.

It only took a short moment of observation for her to decide on what was going on. From what she was able to tell, she was trapped in a box. Trapped in a box designed to ascend upwards at an abnormally fast rate until she died from impact. At least, that's what she had convinced herself of, and so she braced herself for the inevitable death that awaited her cold, shivering self.

But that never came. Because, much to her surprise, the box came to a sudden and very much relieving stop. With that, came the stop to the product noise of metal and speed and the beginning of only more confusion.

When the light flooded in, she almost missed the darkness that had her near engulfed just moments before. She squinted against the brightest light she'd ever seen—the brightest that she could remember seeing, anyway.

The high pitch squeak of the metal cage doors opening filled her ears, and suddenly, there was a blond boy jumping into the cage with her like it was nothing.

What's he doing? Doesn't he know he could be locked in here, too?

"Well, whatcha see?" A voice laced with impatience from the crowd of boys she'd just come to notice spoke up.

"It's... a girl." The blonde boy, much to her dismay, observed her like she was some kind of extraterrestrial that belonged on an entire other planet. Had she belonged on an entire other planet? Or would that be too east of an explanation?

"A girl? You sure?"

"Finally!"

"You're kidding?"

"Come on then, share her with us!"

"Quiet down!" Shouted another boy. His words silenced the group, as he'd sounded not at all happy with the reaction the already clueless girl had received. Thank you, the girl thought, flooded with an odd mixture of fright and relief.

Her attention was brought back to this blond boy when he spoke again, his voice no louder than a whisper, "don't worry, they're just... surprised, is all. You'll get used to 'em—I had to. Newt, by the way." His words had the girl even more confused and wanting to ask him what he was talking about, but she couldn't find the will to speak right now, and he continued, anyway. "Do you know your name?"

Her name? What kind of question was tha—?

What is my name?

She shook her head in disbelief; how does one forget their own name? She would have been embarrassed in any other situation, but right now, she had a flood of other emotions instead—mostly confusion and fear, but other emotions nevertheless. Why didn't she know her own name, the one she'd been raised with all her life? Newt knew his name, so why didn't she? Surely she hadn't hit her head really hard on the ride up?

"It's okay," Newt tried comforting the now even more confused girl, catching on after seeing the look on her face. "That's perfectly normal. It'll come back to you, alright?"

Forgetting her own name was perfectly normal? Maybe being an extraterrestrial from another planet would be better than this reality. Barely a moment later, he and another boy, the one that told the boys to 'quiet down' helped her out of what she still believed to be a box.

Once lifted out, she was immediately subjected to the dirty, hard ground, but it didn't matter to her, who was content with anywhere away from that box, anyway. She took a moment to look around and noticed the other boys, who were scurrying away, some looking over their shoulder at her with curious glances. They were all walking in different directions, which probably meant they had different places to get to.

"Greenie," the tallest of the two boys greeted. "Name's Alby."

Alby had short black hair and a dark complexion, the way he spoke told her that he was likely dubbed a leader around here—unless they all spoke like that. She hoped not, the thought of alby having authority over the other boys was a comforting one after what she'd witnessed after not even five minutes in this place. "You'll get used to the other Gladers here, soon enough." And before she could mutter a simple thanks in response, Alby had already walked off to Who Knows Where.

She gazed over everything she could see—from the makeshift shacks, to vines travelling up stone walls—in awe until the boy beside her cleared his throat.

Ah, she'd forgotten someone was standing there.

"I know this all must be a little odd for you, but I promise the Grand Tour'll have you feeling a bit better about everything, eh?"

She furrowed her brows, "the Grand Tour?"

"Yep," newt gestured around him, "there's more to here than what you'd think, Greenie."

Oh, I hope so, she thought to herself, looking around once again. I don't want to stay here much longer.

gonna be straight up w everyone: i wrote this ages ago. like three chapters have been on my draft for nearly a year (the title of this work has been called 'my mum is a lovely person' literally from the moment i started it, because it's true, she is), and edited them at one point, and then stopped using wattpad not long after. but i logged on here out of nowhere for some reason and kind of feel like uploading this?? i don't plan on writing more, but i do have a lot of love for the maze runner and writing, so maybe that'll change? i don't know though. tell me what you think, maybe?
thanks for reading!!