CONCRETE

1

–ATALANTA was roughly shaken awake by Minho. The sun in the glade blaring in her face. Atalanta rolled over in her sleeping bag before it was ripped from her. She shot up and saw Minho standing at her feet. She kicked him sharply before putting her shoes on. Minho bounced over sleeping Gladers until they reached the kitchens.

"Why've you woken me up so early, shank?" She said, whacking Minho on the arm as they ate breakfast.

"We're running low on Runners an-" Minho started before Atalanta cut him off.

"I'm not becoming a runner again!" She snapped, "I'm happy as a Track-hoe, let me live!"

"But we're down runners and we need more to run the maze!" Minho said.

"Then why not train a new one?" Atalanta asked, angrily.

"Because that takes aaaages!" Minho whined, "and you're the fastest runner we've had!" Atalanta sighed. Minho was always on at her to rejoin the runners and, by the sounds of how Newt was talking to her, he had gotten Newt on his side.

"I get too frustrated by the maps, Minho. I can't draw!" Atalanta retorted. It was true. There had previously been a whole pile of ripped paper that Atalanta had gotten frustrated with.

"But you run so fast it's like you were raised by bears or something!" Minho retorted. Atalanta rolled her eyes.

"Just until you train a new runner, got it?" Atalanta told him. Minho grinned.

"I knew you'd see it my way!" Minho said. Atalanta saw Zart getting breakfast from Frypan before sitting down at a table. Atalanta went over to him and sat down. "Hey Klunkhead," Zart said.

"Shuckface," Atalanta said, "Listen man, Minho's low on runners and the shank wants me to run the maze again. I'm just doing it until he trains a new runner, okay?" Zart looked at her and nodded.

"That's fine, it'll stop the new kid from slacking off, actually," Zart said, "enjoy the maze."

"It's not the maze I'm worried about,"

•

Atalanta was gathered in the map room with all the other runners. She had to admit, there was quite few of them. Minho was giving all the runners a briefing on what section they were going to run that day.

"Right, Lud is running four today. I'm running seven, Dick is running three and Al is running six. Got it?" Minho said. The some of the runners nodded. The others were about to leave before Minho called them back. "Hey, it's pep talk time!" He said. Groans erupted throughout the room. The duty of who was giving the pep talk was assigned on a rota each month. Today, it was Minho's turn and it was well known his pep talks were horrible.

"Today! We try our very best to find a way out of this shuck place!" Minho said.

"But what if we-" one of the younger runners piped up before Minho cut him off.

"Zip it, the adults are talking!" Minho snapped, "We either find a way out or we die trying, got it?"

"Yeah, brilliant Minho. Short and sweet," Atalanta said before all the runners filed out of the map room. She could see boys filing out of the homestead or rising from sleeping bags as she neared the doors. "See you, shank!" Minho called as he raced down a corridor of the maze. "Bye klunkhead!" Called Atalanta.

Atalanta sped down a corridor and another, and another until she came to section six. A sense of familiarity came over her as she slowed to a halt. The massive number six was staring down at her. She hadn't been here in months. She hadn't been here since her last day on the job.

Atalanta walked the familiar corridors, a feeling of calm coming over her as she spotted things she'd carved in the walls with her knife. Names that had suddenly sprung to mind so she carved them into the walls and hoped they'd mean something later. Matthew, Rosa, Leah, Lizzie and one recurring name around the section. Thomas.

As the light around her slowly faded, Atalanta became aware of how late it was. She sprinted through the maze until the glade was in sight. She ran through the doors and straight to the map room.

It was time to see if her patience had improved.

•

Atalanta ran her hands through her hair and clutched her scalp. She hated drawing. She knew section six like the back of her hand, but couldn't seem to put it down on paper. All the other runners had long since gone, and it was just Minho who was trying to calm Atalanta down.

"Al, it's fine! Just leave it for now!" Minho said.

"This is why I didn't want to become a runner again! This is why I quit!" She shouted. She swept the paper and pencil off the table and put her head in her hands.

"It's just a map, Al!" Minho said, "It's just one day, we can give it a miss." Atalanta ran her hands through her hair and picked up the pencil and paper. She spoke to Minho through gritted teeth, "I'm doing it." Before drawing the lines on the map. She pressed too hard with the pencil and broke the lead and before she could even ask for another one Minho put one down on the table. When the map was finished, it didn't look like art but Atalanta was just happy it was finished. She pushed her chair out and left he map room.

Atalanta got her food from Frypan, who'd owed her a favour on many occasions, who had saved her some beef steak to go with the vegetables left over from the other hungry Gladers. She took a seat next to Wilde, a Cook who was grumbling about his dish washing duties that day, Charlie, a Builder who was making his bowl dirtier, and Newt, one of the runners. "Hey how come you got steak?" Wilde asked irritatedly. Leo rolled his eyes with a mouthful of vegetables and made some mumbling sounds. Atalanta shrugged. "Frypan owes me a favour, I guess," she said. Newt looked up from his food, swallowed and wiped his mouth. "whatever it is, I want to do it," he said, "How did the map drawing go after I left?"

"I broke a pencil and almost flipped the table." Atalanta said.

"And chucked some perfectly good paper on the floor," Minho said from behind her. He sat himself down opposite Newt, but didn't get to sit peacefully for long. A loud bang disrupted their meal and they all looked over to see a ginger haired boy slamming the door behind him.

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