Aphonic {TMR;Newt}

[2%]

I learned quickly to what they were referring to when they used the term 'Glade'. It was far more different from where I came from. It was a wide-open space that flourished with a spectrum of green and earthy tones. It was huge, nearly the size of several football fields. However, despite how beautiful the greenery, the atmosphere felt...well, lost almost.

"Alby!" Minho shouted the name across the pasture, turning the heads of copious amounts of boys. I couldn't even begin to count how many dotted the area, especially since they were scattered everywhere. Definitely over thirty, perhaps brimming even fifty.

I looked over Minho's shoulder as to where we entered the foreign grounds. A split that emerged from between a colossal wall served as our exit. It wasn't just one either. We were encased in a pen by these giant four walls that loomed over this Glade like titans. Each one blanketed with moss and ivy. Without him noticing, I pinched my wrist. Nothing. I was still here.

"You! Hey, where's Alby?!" Minho halted in front of several others who were occupied with work I couldn't identify. I fell shy as their jaws fell slack once the eyes landed on me. Astonishment smacked straight across their features. The incredulity mirrored as if they had never seen a girl before. They examined me, suddenly I felt like an insect pinned under glass for inspection. Minho grew impatient, snapping his fingers from the hand that held my legs to snap them back into the present.

"Focus, focus!"

"H-He's with Newt and some others in the homestead-" Before the red-haired boy could finish, Minho already was sprinting away.

On the outside, this homestead looked like a low foyer, a poorly-built roundhouse located in the north-west corner between two intersecting walls. They seemed to be working with the best they had, and it looked like they didn't have much, to begin with. The blonde who had been tagging right along with us slammed against the hatch-like door that served as the entrance, shuddering the wooden planks of the structure.

"We picked up a stray." Minho panted. Pairs of heads swiveled our direction, the atmosphere being injected with a foreign intensity.

My hand that secured around his neck fastened without even thinking. It was dead silent for a moment with many eyes analyzing over me. Frantically, I looked over each one of them. A dark-skinned boy, one who was tall with sun-kissed skin, another who was short, and lastly one who was more lanky with darker toned skin. Minho moved too fast before I could distinguish faces.

"No way."

"Way."

Minho stepped down the range of steps toward the center of the structure. It looked similar to a run-down version of an ancient Rome theater, only it was down to a much smaller scale. Bleachers were carved from hardened dirt and rock, declining to a stage-like floor. Looking up curiously I noticed how it was made from long branches and sticks held together by joints of rope.

"Sit er' down." The dark-skinned boy ordered. He was fairly handsome with a sheer head of hair and a clean-shaven chin. He wasn't necessarily stout, but the proportions of his stature made him seem slightly shorter than others while being muscularly bulk.

"Bloody hell, what happened to her?" I flinched as a weight pressed on my back. Looking behind me, I noticed it was one of them placing a blanket over my figure to warm me up. Gingerly I grabbed the hems, latching them together over my chest to pull it tighter.

"Thanks, Jeff." The dark-skinned thanked the boy who gave an acknowledged nod. I wanted to thank him as well, but when I opened my mouth to speak the absence of words was still there. I still couldn't speak. Shamefully, I lowered my head.

"Where did you find her?"

"She was curled up next to a wall in the maze like a shuck kitten. We almost ran right past her. Hasn't said a word." Minho explained, taking a rest against one of the several wooden poles that supported the ceiling. He crossed his arms and stood directly behind the boy who bent down in front of me.