With a loud gasp I shot up from a death-like slumber.
All around me was consuming darkness and a loud ringing and what sounded like rusty chains moving filled my ears. Once my eyes adjusted to the darkness I could make out my surroundings; I was in what seemed to be a large, moving elevator filled with cages of various items. My head was pounding and I couldn't remember anything from before I woke up except my name: Chaya.
I sat up and crawled over to sift through the crates which held food and supplies.
After what seemed like an hour, the elevator came to a jolting stop and a loud grinding sound rang through the air before a blinding light filled the small space.
I squinted, my eyes burning from the sudden change in brightness. Voices and chatter were heard as my vision returned.
"Are you ok?" A voice asked from beside me.
I adverted my eyes from the light only to be met with a pair of big, chocolate brown ones.
"Where am I?" I became frantic. My eyes darted here and there and my breathing sped up.
"Woah, woah. Calm down. You're ok." The boy beside me put his hands on my shoulders to calm me down. My breathing slowed slightly and my eyes rested on him; on his slightly tanned, diamond-shaped face he had freckles splattered along his rosy cheeks and the bridge of his nose that gave him a handsome, youthful look. His dark, semi-curly hair was messy and some pieces were stuck to his slightly sweaty forehead.
He looked at me through his long, thick eyelashes and smiled warmly at me, "I'm Jack and if you calm down someone can explain what's going on, okay?"
I nodded slightly at him, "okay." He grabbed my hand and helped me stand up before leading me out of the box (which I had heard someone call the elevator I was previously stuck in).
I looked around at the new scenery, I was in a large field with small shacks and huts built from minimalistic items like sticks and grass. The whole area was square shaped and surrounded by large stone walls around a hundred feet tall but in the center of each of the four walls was a gigantic gap or entrance to somewhere I didn't know. In one corner of the field was a small forest with a stream and there were animals such as sheep, cows, and chicken grazing the premises.
So many thoughts were racing through my head about what was going on and all I wanted to do was sit and cry, but I didn't know why. Nothing made sense. Why couldn't I remember my life before I woke up? Why were they here? Why was I here? What was here?
"What's your name?"
My thoughts were interrupted by an unfamiliar voice in front of me.
I blinked before looking up and seeing two boys looked so familiar yet so foreign.
They were both taller than Jack but held the same warm smiles.
The one who had spoken to me had a round, pale face with very defined cheek bones and the same freckles that Jack had. His dark hair, as well, was very curly and reached his jaw and stuck to his also sweaty skin.
His dark brown eyes looked at me, waiting for my answer.
"Chaya," I replied, "why is my name all I can remember?"
"It happened to all of us. I'm Finn and this," he gestured over to his companion, "is Jaeden."
Jaeden was tall and very skinny with medium brown hair and green eyes. His oval face was pale and dirty; one thing I noticed was everyone looked sweaty and dirty which was understandable considering the fact that it was a scorching ninety degrees and there was a small farm which hinted that there was manual labor to be done here.
Jaeden smiled brightly at me revealing deep dimples on either side of his mouth.
"What's going on? Where am I?" I persisted.
Finn sighed, "I'm going to let Chosen explain everything to you. It's not my job."
"What do you mean job? And who is Chosen?"
"I-" Finn was about to speak but was cut off.
"Hey, greenie!" A dark skinned boy walked up and put his hand on my shoulder and looked down at me, "I see you've met my second-in-command, Finn?"
I nodded slowly, still confused, "Who are you? And why won't they answer my questions?"
He laughed slightly, "I'm Chosen, the first-in-command here, they can't tell you what's happening because that is one of my jobs,"
He paused for a second, "come with me." And with that he began to walk away but before he went to far he turned to Finn, "go find Jeremy would ya'?"
I speed walked to catch up with him. "This is the glade," he motioned to our surroundings, "nobody here knows why we're here exactly but we do know that it's dangerous if we don't work together. Each person has their job, like I said before, I'm first-in-command and Finn is second-in-command, but there are other jobs. you met Jaeden, right?" I nodded. "He's the cook here, he makes the food we have. It's not the best but we make do. Over there," he pointed at some boys who were leading a few animals into a barn-like shack, "those are slicers, there jobs are too care for the livestock and-when the time comes-slaughter them. And then there are the track-hoes who are the gardeners and farmers here, they grow all the produce that Jaeden uses in the food." He looked over at me to see if I'm still listening, I gave him a nod to keep talking. "That small hut over there Is where the med-jack, Noah, is, his job is to patch us up when we're injured- but that's mostly the slicers." He sniggers And walks up to a tower or lookout and climbs up the rickety ladder and I follow close behind. Once we were at the top I marveled at how pretty it was. I could see the whole glade from here.
"Pretty isn't it?" He asked.
"Yeah."
The sun had started to set and a boy and a girl sprinted from the gate on one of the walls.
"Who are they?" I asked Chosen.
"Ahh. Wyatt and Sophia, they are runners, they run and map the maze to try and find a way out."
"Maze?" Confusion overtook my face.
"Out there is a maze. And we think that somewhere in there is a way out of this place." He turned to look me in the eyes, "we have rules here's and the most important one is that you never go out into the maze. No matter what."
I swallowed and nodded.
"These rules have kept us alive. We had a dark period where many people, friends, died because we didn't have rules."
There was a silence between us, and I didn't know if it was a comfortable silence.
After a minute, a rotund boy ran up to the lookout.
"Jeremy!" Chosen called down to him, "take our newbie here and show her where she'll be staying!"
"Sure thing!" The boy, Jeremy, called back up.
I climbed down the ladder to Jeremy who introduced himself as a 'slopper', which by the sound of it didn't seem like a job I wanted.
He led me over to a hut with a bunch of hammocks connected to the make-shift ceiling and showed me which one was mine.
"How long have you been here?" I asked him.
"Only a month, the box brings up a new greenie every month and this month was you," He smiled.
"What's a greenie? Chosen called me that a little while ago but I don't know what it means," I questioned.
"We have a sort of slang here and greenie means newcomer. Until you showed up I was the greenie."
Off in the distance I saw Jack talking to the runners, Wyatt and Sophia, he was laughing with them. I found myself smiling at the sight.
"Hey Jeremy, what's Jack's job?" I ask, still looking at the curly haired boy.
"He's a runner, why?"
I shrugged, trying to play it cool, "no reason."
He nodded,"You had better be getting some rest because we're having a party tonight."
