Chapter 1

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The ceiling suddenly opens and I am blinded by the light. Where am I? I hear voices- shouting in the distance. I can barely make out what they're saying. The doors fully open, and I back up against the cage. I shake my long brown hair out of my eyes. I close my eyes and open them, this time they adjust to the light. I find that there are some boys gathered around the ceiling looking at me with confused expressions.

"It's- it's a girl!" One of them says.

"No it's not-" Another one starts as he leans over to look at me. They all get silent. Finally one boy reaches his hand out to me. I back away, and he smiles.

"It's okay, we won't hurt you." He says. I hesitate, then decide to trust him.

"Where am I?" I demand to know as soon as I am out of the box. Nobody answers, and they all keep staring.

"Excuse me? I asked you a question. Why do you all keep staring at me? Haven't you seen a girl before?" I ask. A few boys shake their heads.

"Sorry," the boy who helped me out says. "I'm Alby, by the way. But no, none of us have seen a girl before. At least, not one that we'd remember." He says. "And this here, is the Glade. I'll let Newt here give you the tour." He says before turning around to talk to some of the other boys.

I look around and begin to take in my surroundings. There are four gigantic walls around this "Glade" or whatever. I can pick out what looks to be a garden in one corner, and then in another corner there are some things that look to be buildings. Suddenly, a boy steps in front of me.

"Hey there, I'm Newt." He says with a smile. I frown. I've seen him somewhere before... I recognize him. When I don't answer, he starts talking again. I keep looking at him and searching through my mind. Who is he? Why don't I remember anything?

"Okay?" He asks. What?

"Sure?" I reply hesitantly. He laughs and shakes his head.

"You should remember your name in a day or so. That's-"

"My name is Elizabeth." I interrupt. I jump a little. I didn't know that I remembered that.

"Oh! Well that's... good?" Newt says, confused.

I ingore his surprise at me for remembering my name.

"What's going on over there?" I ask, looking at Alby talking quietly with several other boys, then leading them into a building.

"Nothing." Newt says while looking at the building.

"Newt. Please. I'm not stupid." I say.

"They're holding a meeting. We've never had a girl here, and we've been here for two years. They're trying to decide what to do." He explains.

"They're trying to decide what to do with me?" I ask.

"No, that's not what I said-" He begins.

"But that's what you meant, right? I'm not supposed to be here because I'm not a boy?"

"No, it's just strange-" he starts again.

"Strange? Strange for you? Seriously? I wake up to find myself in a strange place with a bunch of boys and have absolutely no memory of anything-" I ramble.

"Elizabeth!" Newt practically screams in front of my face. I freeze, and turn away while sitting on the ground.

"Bloody hell- Elizabeth, I'm sorry. I just had to get you to stop talking." He says while sitting next to me on the ground.

"What are we doing here? What did I- what did we do to deserve this? Can we even get out of here?" I ask. He puts an arm around my shoulder.

"Hey. Look at me." He says. I look up at him. "It may take a while, hell, it could take forever. But as long as we keep hoping, and keep doing our jobs, we can survive. That's all that we can do right now, and will keep doing. Okay?" He asks. I nod.

"Okay." I say. "Newt? Thanks... I just feel like an emotional and confused wreck right now." I explain.

"Don't worry! You're already doing better than any of us ever have. Most guys curl up in a ball and cry like babies for about 3 days." He tells me. Before we can say anything else, I hear footsteps behind us. We turn around to see a boy standing there.

"Hey. Newt, Alby wants to talk to you. You," He says, nodding at me with his arms crossed. "Come with me." Newt looks at me, nods, then gets up and leaves. I stand up and look at the boy.

"I'm Elizabeth. What's your name?" I ask with a smile. He glares at me and doesn't return the smile.

"Let's get going." He says as he starts walking away.

"Hey, wait! I just wanted to know your name." I say, running until I'm in front of him.

"Gally." He says plainly. I smile.

"See? That wasn't so hard." I say. He rolls his eyes and starts walking again.

"I assume Newt told you the rules?" He asks.

"Uhm yeah, he did." I say. I'm sure he told me the rules, I just wasn't paying attention.

"So you know not to go in the maze?" He asks, probably because I was staring at the giant stone walls.

"What? What do you mean maze?" I ask.

"The walls- everything around us. We're in the center of a maze." He says, pointing at the four doors.

"Oh my god." I say quietly. It actually kind of makes sense, for some odd reason.

"What, greenie?" He asks with his arms crossed.

"Oh, nothing. Wait - what'd you just call me?" I ask with my hands on my hips.

"You're new, so we call you greenie." He acts like it's obvious, then starts walking away again.

"Oh well that explains everything." I say sarcastically while following him. "You know, you don't have to act so tough all the time." He stops walking in front of a small shack.

"Get some sleep. You may have a big day tomorrow." He says softly. I smile and walk into the room.

"Night, Gally." I say with a smile. He rolls his eyes and walks away.

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