The first thing you remember waking up to was darkness. Darkness, and an eerie creaking sound that echoed throughout the room.

You sat up, letting out a quick, sharp gasp.

Where were you?

You tried to speak, but the words got jumbled up, and just came out as a kind of strangled scream, like someone had taken them and stuffed them roughly back down your throat.

"H-hey!" you sputtered, pulling yourself up on shaking legs, using the grated wall for support. Beads of sweat ran down your neck and forehead, despite the freezing cold air that was rushing past you, and you stumbled backward as your room hit some kind of bump that shook the floor.

You were moving. Fast.

"H-help!"

Your head was pounding.

The small room continued to shoot upwards, and you fell onto your hands and knees, unable to keep your balance any longer. It was in this way, you scrambled over to the nearest corner and pulled your knees to your chest.

It was nauseating, the sinking feeling you got as you sat there, in the pitch dark, listening to the grinding of mental and trying not to fall over at every little bump or lurch. You were pretty sure you'd been moving up for a good amount of time... maybe half an hour.

Really, there was no way to tell. The minutes stretched into hours. The seconds felt like years.

You racked your brain for any memory -- any recollection of how you could have gotten into this situation, but nothing came. Anything you tried to recall from before the moment you woke up was muddied and unrecognizable.

A loud, blaring alarm brought you back to your senses, and you tried to stand up again, but failed miserably as your box came to a sharp halt, throwing you headfirst into the grating on the opposite side of the room. You groaned, rubbing your bruised cheek tenderly, tasting the metallic tang of blood on your swollen lip.

A thin line of light appeared in your peripheral vision, and you looked up to see it shining right down the middle of the ceiling. Muffled voices sounded from outside, and you felt relief flood through you. Your ride was over, and now you knew you weren't alone.

The line expanded and light flooded your room. This was a huge contrast from the darkness you were huddled in for so long, and your hands flew over your face to shield your eyes. From the hole above, you could make out a group of figures crowded together, and looking down at you. They were murmuring amongst themselves.

You tried to focus your vision, but the effort only made you dizzy, and you squeezed your eyes shut to try and soothe your spinning head. A clang sounded beside you, and you jumped in alarm.

"A-another one?" 

Someone was leaning over you. You buried your head in your knees, refusing to look up at them.

"What's she look like?

"Are they just sending us girls now?"

Everyone started shouting and whooping all at once. You felt like crying.

"Is she okay?" an authoritative voice resounded clearly above the rest.

"Hey, you alright?" a voice sounded in your ear. It was masked by a thick, strange accent, and you furrowed your brows in confusion but didn't answer.

Another clang shook the entire cage.

"Hey!" someone else called. They grabbed your arm roughly and pulled you to your feet. You yelped in protest.

"It speaks!" was the next exclamation.

"Alright, let's get her out," the kid with the accent said, offering you his hand. You shoved him off and reluctantly gripped the side of the wall, where you hoisted yourself up, disregarding any hands offered to you.

Once you were up, you were immediately swarmed. People were laughing, patting you on the back and slurring questions at you. Now, you felt tears sting your eyes, blurring your vision.

Looking around, you fixed your gaze on the first thing you saw: a large wooden hut.

And made a break for it.

Shoving the boys blocking your path out of the way, you dashed towards the building. The blood roared in your ears, almost drowning out the whistles and cheers coming from the crowd you'd left behind. Almost.

"Run, little lady!"

You did.

Panting, you slammed against the door, fumbling with it and yanking it open. Once inside, you tore a long, loose branch out of the wall, and slid it inside the handle, effectively locking it in place.

Now, you could finally catch your breath. Turning around, you took in the wide room. It looked a bit like a church, with rows of benches lined up, one behind the other.

"What the..." a quiet murmur sounded, and you spun around. Standing in one corner were two boys, and both were staring at you in shock.

"It's a girl...?"

"What, like the girl in the coma?"

"No slinthead, she's an alien."

"Er..." you stuttered, backing up and pressing yourself against the wall.

"Who are you?" One of the boys asked, stepping forward. He was Asian, with short cut hair, and heavily muscled arms. The sleeves of his shirt had been rolled up, and you could see the cuts and bruises that littered his large biceps.

You felt like you recognized him.

His eyebrows were raised, and he held his hands out in front of him like he was expecting you to spring on him at any moment. Turning around, he whispered something to the boy behind him. You couldn't make out what he looked like, but you saw him disappear farther into the shadows of the room before it became silent again. You realized there was probably another door to this place.

"Leave me alone!" you spat, pushing farther into the wall, and wincing as a branch that was protruding from the center dug painfully into your back.

"You're bleeding," he said.

You reached up and touched your lip, looking at the blood that tainted your finger. "Why don't we get the med-jacks to take a look at ya, okay?"

At this point, you really had nowhere to go, so you nodded, letting him slide the branch out of the door handle and swing it open.

There were a small group of boys waiting outside, who erupted into a clamor of noise as they saw you come out.

"Oi!" The boy who had helped you out of the box earlier ran up to you. You noticed he favored one leg over the other. "What were you thinking? Running off like that?" He looked you up and down. "Guess you're our new Greenie, ay?" You nodded absentmindedly, studying his face and tuning out most of what he said. You could have sworn you'd seen him before. His dirty blonde hair was tousled and flecked with dirt, as was his face. Wrinkles formed at the corners of his thin mouth as he turned it up in a small smile. "Hello?" he called waving a hand in front of your face. "Anyone in there?"

Then, it hit you like a ton of bricks.

"Newt," you whispered. The amusement faded from his face instantly, replaced by one of surprise.

"What did you say?"

"Your name... it's Newt, isn't it?" you told him. He raised an eyebrow and stared you down, searching your eyes.

"Have... I seen you before?" he asked slowly. You didn't answer.

Really, you had no idea why you knew anything about this place. Or any of these people, for that matter. It just felt... familiar.

The Asian boy stalked up beside you, a blank expression on his face. You turned to him, still in your trance.

"And you're Minho," you said, pointing a shaking finger at his chest. He looked taken aback.

"Who-" he started but was interrupted by loud cheering. The rest of the boys were running up to you, cheering and shouting.

Newt shook his head, forcing a small smile.

"They don't mean any harm," he told you when he saw you tense up.

Now, you noticed just how bad your head was pounding, and you began to see black forming at the edges of your vision. You swayed on your feet.

You reached out to grab whatever was near to keep your balance, latching on to someone's shirt.

"Whoa Greenie," you heard someone say, before you felt the last of your consciousness fading away, and everything went black.