THE BOY, ONCE AGAIN, FELL IN STUN WHEN HE TOOK A LONG LOOK AT THE PLACE they call the Glade. The massive four Walls surrounding the place, almost completely trapping the kids out here, being forced to live in this place, the Glade seemed to have formed into a tiny settlement; the crops, farming, a couple of buildings that were poorly made, a tower, most of everything they need to survive. The longer the boy observed the entire place, the more he realized that the Glade is occupied by only boys, not a single female he had seen, nor an adult. Just a large group of teenaged boys. His questions piled more.

There was trail of boys following the boy to the hut, maybe about six of them, Nick was the one leading the boy into a hut as they were followed by a set of boys while the rest were watching on from ahead, half surrounding the hut. "Spare the Greenie a pair of shoes, if there's any from the crates that came in yesterday or ask anyone if they have any extra, even if they don't match" Nick said to one of the guys and then one of them hurried off.

There were about six of them in the hut, the boy himself as the seventh person, one of the them gestured the boy to sit on one of the cot and the boy took a seat on the cot he had slept on. "Okay, Greenbean, wanna lie down and lift up your shirt so I can take a look at your wound?" a boy with dark brown and curly hair said. The boy glanced up, seeing multiple faces looking at him, it was weird to have this many boys watching on, not that he was uncomfortable, to have this many in the same room, scattered around the room to observe and listen. The boy lifted his feet up and slowly lied down on the cot, lift up the shirt to expose the bandaged wound for the guy to check.

"You sure you don't remember anything?" Nick asked, while the guy who acts as the medical professional gently ripped the tape off the bandage, "Maybe anything snippet at all?"

The boy stared at nothing but the ceiling, attempted to recall anything, but was unable to. Nick already knew the boy doesn't remember anything, but why he questioned about it again? "No . . . I can't remember anything" he replied.

"Here's the thing, Greenie─" Nick approached the cot, crouched down beside the boy, "we haven't really told you everything . . . not entirely, about where you came from, where we found you. You see, this place we call the Glade, we've been living out here for almost three years and for these past years, we've been trying to find the way out of this place"

Three years, the boy pressed his brows together in perplex and in stun, trying to find the way out, so they are trapped out here. The walls are trapping them all here, what was beyond the walls? He did notice the gap, a sort of way out of this place they call the Glade, like an outside of the Glade. "You know what's on the other side of those walls?"

Nick didn't reply quickly, like he didn't want to answer that just yet, but he might as well get it over with. "The Maze"

He blinked, shifted his head around and turned to face Nick, unsure he heard it right, "The what─"

This time, Nick didn't answer, a Korean guy standing in the corner with his arms crossed, leaning back against the wall, "The Maze, shuck-face. You know what a maze is, right? A bunch of paths, picture a rat that you place in a maze and it's trying to find the cheese . . . well, we're the rat. Only the maze out there is bigger than you imagine"

Nick raised his brows, nodding that read what he said. The boy can hardly imagine a massive maze, without seeing it for himself, he knows what the maze is, of course. All he can picture is multiple passageways, endless of them, he can also imagine the walls being as tall as those walls that are standing outside. Nick mentioned how he didn't tell him everything, not entirely, was that it? Nick did say he'll explain everything. "So . . . the maze . . . " he muttered.

"That's not all," Nick shifted, placing a knee down on the ground to get comfortable, "for the past three years, whoever sent us up here, they bring up a new kid every month, they bring a new one through the Box, and every Greenie is always the same . . . confused, scared, no memories and they always come up through the Box, it was always the same, like a routine thing, we know what day and where to expect the new kid . . . but you . . . you didn't come through the Box . . . you came from the maze"

He furrowed his brows in confusion again. The boy didn't come whatever the place they call as the Box, he came from the maze. This was even more overwhelming, too much to process, too many questions, which question to ask first, he still unable to fully comprehend what Nick was saying, what they were saying. For a moment, he forgot that the medical boy was checking on his wound until taped the bandage back over the wound. "I don't understand" the boy uttered in perplex.

Nick didn't speak, instead the older-looking boy approached forward, "Basically, you're the strangest new kid we've got, a new kid who is two weeks early from the Greenie day, a new kid who was found unconscious and bleeding in the maze because usually, a new kid comes through the Box that stands in the middle of the Glade in every once a month. Do you even remember a thing before you fell into a coma? Or running around in the maze and how the shuck you survived out there?"

"Alby—" Nick sighed, stopping the big guy's hinted annoyance tone. It was all too much to comprehend, the boy remained confused and scared, overwhelmed with new information, having no clue what they were saying, unable to collect the words they were saying. Basically, he's not supposed to be here, isn't he?

"You're confusing the hell out of the poor shank," a blonde boy who was standing near the Korean boy stood up straight, the way he spoke like he had an accent, "one information at a time"

The boy then muttered out, "I'm not supposed to be here, am I?"

"Probably not," Nick said. "But you're here now. We all kinda hope that you remember something like why you were out there and what happened. Hoping for some answers"

The medical boy who was checking his wound nudged him, telling him that was finished, the medical boy didn't want to speak out or interrupt them from talking.

"Well, I was hoping for some answers from you guys too like what the hell happened to me" the boy replied bitterly as he slowly sat up and put his feet down.

"So that's it, huh?" The tall boy who calls himself Gally said, "he's just the same ol' Greenie like the rest of them, but one who somehow ended up in the maze and survived the night out there, a bit waste of time" he sounded disappointed.

That's twice they mentioned how the boy survived out there in the maze, what's in the maze? What makes the maze life-threatening? The way how they sounded as if disappointed, like they expected answers from the boy, just as he expected answers from them. What happened to him remains a mystery.

"That was a bit anti-climatic" the Korean boy snorted, somewhat sarcastic.

Nick stood up, "I did say to not expect something big from the kid, didn't I?"

"Unless he's lying" Gally implied.

"Whoa, Gally, c'mon now" the blond boy with an accent said.

"No, I mean, c'mon, you want me to believe that he doesn't remember shit?" Gally went on, "Some kid is found unconscious in the maze at the most random time, somehow lost his memories at a same time, the Creators don't make that kind of mistake or they intended that way to throw us off or something and not to mention, he survived the night in the maze and how?"

"You do realize that the Greenie is here listening and we're not in the Gathering right now" the Korean boy reminded him.

"Of course, I know that, Minho" Gally uttered in infuriation. "I'm just expressing my concerns, don't you?" the last sentence he expressed was sardonic.

"I can hardly care"

The boy wanted to say something, ask questions, ask why the hell they're confused over the fact that he survive in the maze, what's the damn Box, who are the Creators, why Gally is suddenly angry, and more and more. But he was getting a headache from all that. He didn't have the energy anymore, he didn't realize he was hungry and thirsty, his stomach felt weird, felt his bones trembling from hunger and he needed to use a bathroom. He doesn't even know when was the last time he ate and drank, or used the bathroom, or the last time they fed him while he was out. He didn't have the energy to comprehend at all. He needed peace and time to understand, to process, maybe talk to only one person who can explain well, one who doesn't blurt out nonsense.

When the guy, Gally settled, sighed like he gave up, "You know what, I'm going back to work, tell the others the Greenbean is nothing special, and maybe have the guys to prepare the bonfire . . . If that matters"

Nick and the big guy exchanged looks, both shrugged, like Nick's shrug was a oh what the hell gesture and the big guy responded, "Tradition is tradition"

"The only good thing coming from the Greenie, two bonfires in a month!" With that, Gally left the hut.

Now what the hell is bonfire all about? The boy was beginning to feel annoyed. "Don't mind what that guy said, that was Gally, if you hadn't known yet" Nick told the boy. The boy already knew Gally's name. "Anyway, Med-jack here is Clint, Alby here is the Second-in-Command, meaning when I'm not around, he's in charge. This is Minho, he and Ben are the Runners and the ones who found you in the Maze. And lastly, that's Newt" the medical boy was Clint, the big guy was Alby, the Korean was Minho and the blond with an accent was Newt. The boy wasn't sure if he'll able to keep with the names as too much information was already clogged up in his brain, overflowing and stuck, making the gears in his brain to stop working and turning that somewhat kept his mind going but now, unable to process everything all at once.

"You feeling okay, Greenie?" Clint asked, "you didn't rip the stitches, wound is still okay, no infection"

"Besides the painful headache, hunger and thirst? Yeah" The boy nodded.

"Right, Jeff will have something for your head" Clint stood up, "I'll get you something to eat" the Med-Jack left the hut and now there were five of them.

Nick gestured at Newt, pointed something behind him, Newt looked and there was a canteen on the shelf, he picked it up and brought it to the boy. The Greenie took the canteen, brought it to his mouth and gulped it down, almost emptying the canteen. "I know this is all . . . overwhelming and confusing. All too much to take in" Nick said.

"To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what you all said about this place and I still don't understand," the boy murmured. "So, I'm not supposed to be here. You found me in the . . . maze. Not in the . . . Box" It was rather strange to say, to say the maze, especially the Box, whatever that is or where it is. He can't really understand it all without seeing it. He might need someone to repeat everything what Nick had said.

"Yes, I'm sure it'll all begin to make sense in a day or two" Nick assured.

"I mean, nothing ever makes sense the past three years" the guy name, Minho chortled.

He ignored what Minho said, but Nick was kinda right, the boy has all the time in the world to learn, to understand this place and hopefully get to know all of these people. "Will I get my memories back? Have you all got your memories back?" he asked them.

"Unfortunately, no" Alby answered, "Sorry to tell you, it's unlikely you'll ever get them back. None of us out here have"

The boy glanced down in sullen and disappointment, cupping the canteen in his hands. To know that he will never regain his memories worried him. For the entire time, there was a part of him that want to deny everything they had said, want to refuse to believe them because no information had given him any reassurance at all. There has been no good news from these people so far, nothing but incoherent information. He suddenly felt homesick. Homesick. For a second, he wanted to cry out, almost that he felt a lump in his throat but kept it in, as if he swallowed it all back in.

"Does Wicked mean anything to you?" the boy name Newt said.

"The what—?" he looked up at the blonde boy, Newt standing near the boy.

"Wicked, it's on your arm, looking like someone wrote it . . . or you wrote it" Newt gestured at his left arm.

The boy furrowed his brows, looked at both of his arms, lifted both sleeves up, then there was faded dark splotch on his left forearm, written in three simple words; DON'T TRUST WICKED. He repeated those words in his head. Don't trust wicked. What does it mean? What is wicked? Of course it would mean nothing because he doesn't remember anything. Did he wrote it himself? He was shaking his head in response, "No. What? What does it mean by wicked?" he did knew the word and that's it. Just a word that defines something evil.

"We don't know," Nick said, "but it's written all over on our supplies, branded on all of them. We think it's them . . . we think it's some sort of an organization, a brand of sorts. Whatever it is or whoever they are, they're the ones that put us here"

Before the boy could think or respond, a dark blonde boy came in, the one with a scar around his neck, he halted by the entranceway when every eye were on him. "Any chance you remember your shoe size, Greenie?" The scar boy asked, but the Greenie made no response, "Never mind, this is the only pair I found and they're size ten. Maybe when weekly supplies come in next week, you'll get a new pair. So . . . Gally said the new kid remembers nothing, just a typical Greenie, or the Greenie might be a trouble to us all, according to Gally" he approached the boy, set the shoes down on the cot beside the boy.

Minho scoffed, "Gally's just being paranoid. Slinthead hasn't been the same since he got Stung and the Changing messed his mind up"

"To be honest, I got scared for a moment, maybe since you found this poor shank, thought something big was gonna happen, but now, I'm actually kinda relieved. Got scared for nothing" the scar boy let out an awkward chuckle. He shifted his glance to the boy, as if he forgot the Greenie was here with them. "Right, I'm Teddy, I'm one of the Med-jacks"

The boy didn't say anything, none of them said anything for a moment, the boy kind of hope that they all leave, leave him alone and need a bit of time to process through everything. "I'd like to be alone now," he uttered, lowered his head down and held it. "Collect my thoughts or try to understand whatever nonsense you all have told me"

"Sure. Alby, Newt, Minho, let's leave the Greenie be," Nick told them. The four of them left the hut, it was only the boy and the guy who introduced himself as Teddy, in the hut. Just the two of them, the boy wasn't sure if he wanted Teddy to leave just yet, he might need the guy to add more to his questions and to clarify the things they said.

His head was still hurting, so he laid down and hope the headache to go away. "I hope you're not planning to take a nap," Teddy said, he was cleaning the shelf and reorganizing. "We got big plans for you, Greenie"

The Greenie closed his eyes while still holding his head, "What plans?"

"Bonfire, it's traditional that we host a bonfire as a celebration for the Greenie's arrival. Even though, you arrived five days ago, we're giving you a proper welcome" Teddy chortled at the last word.

"That's . . . stupid" he didn't know what to say about that. He felt it wasn't appropriate to celebrate for him and to welcome him, especially what he's just been through.

Teddy laughed, "I thought the same, but then months passed, thought it was one of the best ideas they came up"

Someone came into the hut and it was Clint, bringing in food, he was followed by another boy, kind of small, same skin color as Alby's, Teddy remained being taller than those two, the three of them carry the same pouch, like they were working together. Clint set the food down near the cot, on what it supposed to be a nightstand. "Hey, Greenie. Still don't remember your name?" the boy he hasn't met yet was standing over the cot. The Greenie shook his head lightly in response. "Right. Greenie it is for now. I'm Jeff. I got something for the pain" Jeff reached into his pouch, pulling out about three pills before finding the right one, he took two tabs out of it's container, "Here"

The boy sighed, hating to sit up again, his head panged when he sat up, reached a hand out and Jeff placed the two tabs on the boy's hand. The boy examined the pills, small red circular pills. "We're not drugging you, if that's what you're worried about them" Clint chuckled and the other two laughed.

"They're just ibuprofen," Jeff handed the canteen to the boy, "Anyway, I gotta head back out there, I got a Builder I have to tend, a bit of accident at the site"

"I swear those bastards are clumsy as shuck" Teddy said.

Before Jeff left, he turned to the boy and said, "Yeah, see you around, Greenie. And welcome to the Glade"

AUTHORS NOTE

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well i didn't expect I would update this sooner, whoop... maybe again in a couple of days?? if I had any inspiration, we'll see lmao