Day One

"George."

She turned her head to face the boy that had spoken, only to find the tall, brown haired teenager staring at them in shock. "What did you say?" She asked.

"George. My name is George."

She sucked in a breath and turned to the others, who all looked equally bemused. "How - how do you remember?"

"I don't know. It just - it just came to me. It feels right." He nodded to himself. "My name is George."

She bounced on the balls of her feet as her brows furrowed, and Muscles turned his attention away from the towering walls to stare at them all. She was startled at the annoyed look twisting his dark features. "Well, George, it's a real pleasure to meet you and all, but if we could focus our attention on figuring out where the hell we are that would be much appreciated." He snapped.

George opened his mouth furiously to respond, and the red headed boy that was standing beside her shook his head in exasperation.

"Okay!" She butted, raising her hands. She barely came up to their chests, but the fierce look in her eyes had them gritting their teeth and standing down. "Let's all calm down here. We are in the same boat, and someone is starting to get their memory back. This could be a good thing. Does anyone else remember their names?"

The five boys stood for a moment in a concentrated silence, before the red haired boy took a deep breath. "Luke. I think - I think my name is Luke." He was fiddling with something around his neck — a gold chain. It glinted in the sunlight.

She inhaled deeply through her nose and screwed her eyes shut, trying with all the desperation in her body to cling onto some form of relic from her life - a name, an age, where she was from, what she was doing here - did she have siblings? A family? Pets? Friends?- but it all came up blank, as if her entire existence had started when she woke up in that box.

"I got nothing." Muscles shook his head, looking disappointed.

"Me neither." She mumbled.

The dark haired boy shook his head, and the child that was with them just looked sad.

"There has to be a reason we can't remember. Did - were we in an accident? Did our memories get wiped?"

"This isn't a movie, pipsqueak." Muscles snapped, and she narrowed her eyes.

"You got any better ideas, asshole?"

"You guys really need to watch your language." The kid spoke up for the first time since arriving, and she took the opportunity to analyse his features. He was short and rail-rod thin, as if he was in need of a good meal, and his cheeks were rosy with the bloom of innocence and youth. His brilliantly blue eyes, which she suspected had once been filled with wonder and excitement at the world, were dull and empty. The emptiness in them hit her like an arrow to the heart.

"I don't give a shi-"

She shot Luke a glare.

"I don't give a fu-"

She raised her eyebrows in challenge.

"Well what do you want me to do? Mix the goddamn things together?" At the silence of the group, he groaned in exasperation. "Well shuck."

"As adorable as this little conversation is, I think the sky's gotten darker. Maybe we should take a look around before it gets too dark." George suggested. "We should split up - makes it easier to cover more ground."

"None of us elected you the leader, champ." Muscles snarled.

"Well someone has to step up and do something!"

"Oh my god, would you idiots please stop with this testosterone fest?" She rolled her eyes. Stupid boys with their stupid egos and their stupid pride. "We do what George suggested. If anyone finds something, just shout."

Grumbling with annoyance, the group dispersed - muscles had left on his own, a grumbling hunk of bad attitude and ego issues, and Luke trailed after him, shooting them an apologetic look. George had paired up with the black haired boy and had headed towards the walls to take a closer look, which left her and the young boy to explore the building.

The building itself was barren and void of life, and a quick sweep of it determined that they were the only ones to inhabit it. The place was split into four sections: half of the room was sheltered under a rickety wooden roof and filled with at least a dozen hammocks that swung from the beams supporting the ceiling, and there was a space to the left of that room which led to the benches. There was a stove crammed against the wall and an open space in the wall opposite to look out across the eating area. There was an outhouse a little way off to the side of the building, and a set of extremely crooked stairs leading off to an upstairs room, which had a single bed and was lined with shelves.

"What the hell is this place?" She asked, and the boy simply shrugged as he bounded towards one of the hammocks.

"I call this one!"

"You just woke up and now you wanna go back to sleep?" She laughed, leaning against the hammock opposite his. It felt soft underneath her fingers.

"Hey, I'm a growing lad. We're always tired." He grinned. Silence settled heavy and awkward, and he clicked his tongue. "So...."

"So." She said back.

"Not much to talk about when you can't remember anything." He shook his head, blonde curls bouncing against his temple. The ceiling creaked above them, and the distant sound of birds pierced the air.

She reached forward to fiddle with a loose thread from the hammock. "I guess not. At least we have a place to sleep - I wonder who built all this stuff."

"Well, whoever they are, I thank them. Wouldn't want to be kipping in the cold when night time comes." The young boy whistled.

"Lord knows when that would be."

The boy frowned, and when she looked into his eyes she was startled at the stark fear staring back at her.

"Hey." She caught his attention. "Don't be scared. It's alright. There's nothing here that'll hurt you."

"Yeah? How do you know that? You know as much as I do." The boy scoffed. Her heart sank. Who in their right minds would put an innocent child in a place like this, with no memory of who they are and where they came from? It was sick, sadistic - she hated them, and she didn't even know them.

"Because I'll protect you, duh. No matter what."

He looked over at her dubiously, eyes flitting over her body almost mockingly, and bit the inside of his cheek to hold in a laugh.

"No mocking," she said sternly, only a little offended. "Or I'll be sure to remind you of it when you come running for help."

"Hey! You better come see this!" George's voice carried over from the walls, arm raised to get their attention.

Sharing a bemused glance with her young friend, she got to her feet and made her way across the courtyard as fast as her legs could carry her and over to where they stood facing the wall. "What's up?" She panted.

Her young friend had given in running and was now making their way over to them at a leisurely stroll, looking thoroughly annoyed at being expected to sprint.

"Check this out." George raised a finger and pointed it at the gap between the walls, and she followed his gaze to see a pathway that seemingly led to another giant wall. "It forks off at the end, and then again, and then again. There's so many twists and turns."

"It's like a maze." The other boy mused quietly.

"Why would there be a maze connected to a giant field?" She asked, brows furrowed. "And does it loop all the way around? What about the other openings?"

"I don't know, shank, I'm just telling you what I can see." George rolled his eyes.

"Really? Shank?"

"Well your funny little friend seems to find it amusing, and the more colourful language I would have chosen has apparently been vetoed by you lot already." She turned to see the young boy chuckling to himself as he kicked a stone around on the grass.

"How far in did you go?"

"Not too far. Didn't want to get lost, but by the looks of things it goes on for miles." The stranger replied, dark eyes troubled.

She frowned as she took a step forward, rolling her shoulders. The maze walls towered over her, spewing with ivy and vines and moss, the stone cracked and crumbling high in the air. Strings of ivy looped from one side to the other, and the three crows leering down at her screamed their shrill warnings from above.

She heard Luke and Muscles join the entrance, and heard the young boy calling out for her, his voice unsure. "It's fine." She called back. "I'm nearly at the end." She heard someone jogging towards her, and turned her head in time to see Luke join her side.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"I could ask you the same question. We don't know what's out here, little lady. This doesn't feel right." He replied. They were at the end of the passage now, and she glanced to the left to see another hallway and then a fork in the path, presumably followed by another.

She felt claustrophobia settling in just looking at it.

"What the hell is this place?"

"You're asking the wrong person." Luke took a step forward, but the golden chain around his neck snagged on a branch of ivy that was swinging in a breeze they couldn't feel. "Shit—" He struggled to get it loose. "Can you help me with this thing?"

She nodded and stepped forward, fingers trembling slightly as she reached up on her tiptoes to try and untangle the chain. The metal on her fingers was cold, smooth, not like the rough calluses of flesh, she reminded herself as she tried to avoid touching the skin on Luke's neck.

They finally got it loose, but the chain had snapped, and Luke caught it in his fingers before it hit the ground. "Aw, damn it." He went to put it in his pocket, only to realise he didn't have any. "Shit — do you have a pocket?"

She patted her side and nodded, holding her hand out for the chain. It was a light weight in her pocket, one she could hardly feel as they turned once more to survey the maze. A sudden beeping sound split the air, coming somewhere to their left. There was a flash of movement, and Luke yelped as what looked like a lizard scuttled across the wall, his eyes widening as he latched onto her arm.

Something about the touch made her stomach roll, and she heard her blood rushing to her ears as she shook him off. "Don't touch me." She said, wincing at the way her voice cracked.

Luke shot her a strange look before moving forwards to examine the lizard that was crouched on the wall. There was something about it that made her uneasy - perhaps it was the way its brilliantly red eyes glowed and flickered, almost like a camera, or the way its metallic body rippled and whined as it scuttled across the stone, its movements mechanised and rehearsed.

"What in the unholy hell is that?" Luke asked, leaning forward to inspect it. He reached out a hand to poke it, but the lizard let out a rather high pitched shriek that sounded almost like clockwork and lunged, its razor sharp teeth grazing his palm and making blood splatter against the wall.

Luke hissed in pain and withdrew his hand, sucking on the shallow wound as he glared at the lizard. She frowned at the device, inspecting the eyes - it felt as if someone was watching her. This was a camera, she was sure of it, which could only mean one thing.

Someone was watching them.

"Hey!" She called into the camera. "We need help! We don't know where we are, we need a search and rescue." If she expected an answer, she certainly didn't receive one, and a thick silence followed her words.

Luke blinked. "I don't think that worked, if I'm being honest."

She sighed, tilting her head to the side. "Do you think it's the people who put us here?

"Who else? Dodgy bastards." Luke sent a rather crude gesture in the camera's direction and turned back in the direction of the entrance, where the other four teenagers were waiting anxiously.

"You shanks find something?" Muscles asked - apparently making up random words and adding them to English language was going to be a thing now - and she nodded.

"A camera!" She yelled back to them. "We think it was put here by the people who did this to us!"

"I hope you showed them that we aren't happy with them!" George called, and she turned around to see Luke pulling funny faces at the lizard and sticking his middle fingers up at it.

"I think we have that covered!"

"Well what do you think the-"

A noise - a horrible, heart-stopping, blood-curdling noise - split the air in half and shook the earth violently. The ear-splitting sound of stone sliding across stone, a wretched grinding agonising crunch, and then the earth around them shifted as the walls, those horrible horrible towering walls, began to close right at the entrance to the presumed maze.

The doors were closing. They were closing.

The other gladers let out an assortment of yelps and screams, and Luke let out a curse as he darted forward, clasping her hand in his. The skin on skin contact made something in her brain twitch violently, but she pushed the feeling back as much as possible as they took off at a sprint.

They were so far away.

Too far away.

She may not know where they were, but one thing was for certain: she didn't want to be trapped there. Neither, apparently, did Luke, who was swearing profusely under his breath.

"Fucking run, pipsqueak!" Luke yelled over the roaring of her heart in her ears, and the two ran like their lives depended on it towards the exit of the maze. The doors were closing, faster and faster and faster and faster, and George and Muscles were screaming and yelling, and the red headed boy was shaking violently, and the young lad was crying, and there were so many things happening at once she didn't know what to do. "Fucking run!"

The stitch in her side was agonising now, and she felt tears welling up in her eyes as they neared the end of the corridor. The doors to the maze were thick, and would take seconds to get through – seconds they didn't have as the doors got closer and closer together, cutting off more and more light.

Luke began panting, and cast a desperate gaze in her direction as they finally reached the doors. She lunged through, fingers clawing at the entrance, the stone pressing in on either side of her ribs. She turned sideways now, trusting that Luke was behind her, and thrust out her arm as Muscles and George lunged forward to pull her through.

But they were too far away, and her fingers grazed theirs, and the walls pressed in on her completely - the heavy stone was crushing her ribs; she heard one of them pop under the pressure, accompanied by an agonising pain in her chest.

Just as the dark began to close in on her, she felt a hard push from behind and she was shoved through the gap, landing hard in a crumpled heap on the grass. Her head smashed onto the ground, and the last thing she heard was George screaming Luke's name, and then the blackness hit her.