I was standing at the back of the crowd, watching what was going on. Newt, Alby, Gally, the guy she hit, he was forming a nasty black eye, the quiet serious Asian guy and a few others all stood around the huge pile of wood. They each had a torch in their hand. Alby held his up, and the guys went quiet. He didn't have to be mean to be intimidating, the guys seemed to respect him. All eyes on him, he cleared his throat.

"We made it another month! This fire is for the newest Greenie! Welcome to the Glad Shanket!"

The guys all threw a fist into the air cheering. Alby cocked his arm back, ready to throw. 

"LIT EM UP!" He yelled. 

All the guys standing around threw their flaming torches into the pile, it lit on fire instantly. Throwing warm light all around. The guys cheered and whooped and hollered. I stood at the back, eyes flicking back and forth, trying to take it all in. They seemed to leave me alone, which I was relieved. They seemed to almost avoid me, glancing at me and then scurrying away, like I had some kind of dieses they could catch if they were too close to me.  I had my arms crossed tight over my chest, watching. Newt and Fred materialized out of no where, Newt was holding two jars of something light brown. 

"Come on Girly, lets go sit." Newt nodded his head towards the logs that were placed around the fire. 

"Come on! Stop being so...closed off!" Fred chuckled. He followed Newt. I reluctantly followed the boys. They sat down leaning against the log. Fred patted the ground in between them. I didn't want to, but Newt leaned forwards and grabbed my wrist and pulled me down, making me flop to the ground with a groan. 

"That's better. Your too up tight, relax. Here, try this, it'll put some hair on your chest." He chuckled and handed me one of the jars. It was more like shoved it into my hands. 

"What is it?" I asked, smelling it. I instantly wrinkled my nose, it smelt like rubbing alcohol.  Fred was watching me intently. Like he was waiting for something. 

"No idea." He giggled. 

"I don't even know." Admitted Newt.

He raised his own jar, and gave me an expectant look. I resigned my self to this, these guys weren't going to let me off the hook. I saw almost everyone had a jar in their hands. I looked down at the liquid again. What the shuck? I'm already in a nightmare, might as well add poison to the list. I raised mine and clinked the jar to Newt's. Fred joined in, both guys gave me a look. I slowly lifted the jar to my lips. I took a mouth full, and chocked it down. It made my throat burn and my eyes water. I felt the heat all the way down to my stomach. It really was rubbing alcohol!

Both boys threw their heads back and laughed loudly. 

"This is disgusting!" I chocked out, and then immediately took another sip. I liked the way it made my limbs warm and tingly.  

"What is it?" I asked again. It wasn't too bad in smaller doses, I mentally made a note to not take a mouth full again. 

Newt shrugged, "It's Gally's recipe. It's a trade secret." He nodded his head towards the blond Ox boy, he was standing by a table handing out the jars and ladling more into jars from a big barrel. 

"Yeah. Well, he's still a jerk." I muttered. 

I was still watching Gally when he turned and caught my eye. Instead of looking away I stared him down, I wasn't going to be intimidated by a bully. Someone called his name and he broke the star down and turned towards the boy. 

"He saved your life today. Trust me. The maze is a dangerous place." 

"I wasn't going to go inside. I'm not stupid." I snapped. 

"Snips it the right name for you." Fred chuckled. 

"The big Asian looking guy also rammed into me. Like it takes two huge guys to keep me here." I rolled my eyes. 

Newt gave me a side eye. 

"Do we need two huge guys to keep you here? Are you going to run again?" He asked me seriously. 

"I already told you! I wasn't going to go in!" I snarled.

"Your different, Snips. Not just because your a girly. Your built differently, I can see the curiosity in you, the slight rebelliousness. You ain't afraid to stand up and say something.  

I just hummed in response, I hadn't been here long, but Newt seemed to know more about me that I do. He's an observant one. 

"We're stuck here, aren't we?" I sighed, looking down to the jar, swirling the liquid inside.

Newt nodded his head, shoving his blond shaggy hair out of his face, "For the moment. But-"

"-You see guys? There, by the fire?" Fred interrupted, excited all of a sudden. 

He had twisted around and pointed to the other side of the fire. I twisted and followed where he was pointing to. Sitting in a tight group were a few guys, they all looked a little worn out, but they all looked intimidating, they each had a scowl on their faces.

"Those are the runners. That guy in the middle there, that's Minho!" Fred was almost vibrating from excitement.  "He's the Keeper of the Runners." 

"Clearly." I rolled my eyes. 

Fred raised an eyebrow at me. I rolled my eyes again. 

"He was the other solid wall that shoved me to the ground earlier, and he was standing around the fire, with Newt and Alby, I figured those guys were the leaders...Keepers?" 

Newt nodded approvingly. I waited expectantly, waiting for him to explain. I still wanted answers. Alby gave me a few this afternoon, but there was always more. He sighed, and turned back to lean on the log.

"Runners run the maze. Every bloody day when the doors open they go out into the halls of the maze, mapping it and try to find a way out of this bloody prison. They are the best of us. Have to be. Everything depends on them. They gotta be the bravest, fastest, strongest...bein' a fast runner is only a small portion of it, actually. Can't be reckless, can't be timid, either. And every day they put their life on the line, 'cause if they don't make it back before the doors close...they spend the night in the Maze. No one has ever survived a night in the maze. No one." He explained in a resigned sort of way, like he really didn't want to tell me. 

"Why hasn't anyone survived? What's so bad out there in the stone halls?" I asked as soon as he took a break to breath. I could feel the horrible anticipation rising, I knew the answer couldn't be good.  

"We call 'em Grievers. No one has seen one and lived to talk about it. But they're out there." He paused, "No we haven't found a way yet. It's not so easy, the maze walls change every night. Runners are the only ones who really know what's out there. Those nasty monsters that come out at night and roam the maze. If you listen at night you can bloody hear 'em, the odd one creeps around during the bloody day, but again, no one lives long enough to talk about it. It's awful out there Snips."

"But why?" 

I stressed the why. It was all terrifying, but I was finally getting actual answers, it seemed Fred was also getting answers, he was leaning around me to watch Newt with rapt attention. Newt was staring straight ahead, he didn't seem to notice us anymore, he looked lost in a memory. His normally light gentle eyes took on a dark haunted look. His usual smile melted into a look of stone. 

"Bein' a Runner is hard. You deal with more klunk then the rest of the Gladers. Pressure. Stress. Maze pattern different every day, tryin' to picture things in your mind, tryin' to get us out of here. Worryin' about the bloody Maps. Worst part, you're always scared you might not make it back. A normal maze'd be hard enough—but when it changes every night, couple of mental mistakes and you're spendin' the night with vicious beasts, and remember, no one lives long enough to talk about it." he whispered.

"You used to be a runner, didn't you." I said, watching his reaction to my statement out of the corner of my eye.

He flinched, and shook his head, he blinked a few times, like he was trying to rid the memory he was lost in. 

"Yeah, I was a Runner, and a good one too." he said flatly. He shook his head again, drained the last of his drink and got up, holding out his hand for me. 

I looked at him curiously. 

"Enough talk of nightmares. Your the gust of honor, Girly, come on." He smiled down at me. It baffled me how fast he could change his moods. 

I looked down at the jar clutched in my hands. I swirled it, I hadn't really drank much. 

"What the shuck?" I muttered. I raised the jar and chugged it back. I didn't really let it linger in my mouth too long, the taste was awful. It was like drinking pure fire. The jar was empty and I shuddered. 

Newt and Fred were staring at me with a mixture of amusement, curiosity and shock. 

"I think Gally and Minho have a fierce competitor with you around. That was almost a full jar you chugged back!" He chuckled. He still had his hand held out, but I ignored it and got to my feet. 

He lead me through the groups of gladers, introducing me to them, telling me who they are. 

"So that's Zart, he's the Keeper of the Track hoes." 

I choked on the second jar I had. I coughed a few times. 

"Excuse me? The what now?" 

He looked at me funny. "Zart..? Keeper of the Track Hoes?" 

I chocked again, snickering into my jar. 

"Didn't know that was a job here. Hoeing yourself out. Couldn't have one hoe for all the guys, need a whole group of hoes to keep this place running smoothly." 

Newt's eyes went wide and then groaned with understanding. 

"You aren't going to bloody let that go are you?" 

I shook my head, with a smirk. "Oh shuck no." I looked back over my shoulder at the guys. They all looked dirty, and sweaty. I snorted again. "Dirty dirty hoes." I muttered. 

Newt did his best to keep a straight face. 

"Zart, he's one of the guys who you bloody flattened this afternoon." 

I shrugged, with a smug look. "He'll learn to keep his dirty hoe hands to himself." 

Newt chocked into his own jar, he had just taken a big gulp, and had to cough it out. I slapped his back a few times. I noticed that Gally was watching, when Newt bent over to cough. Newt stood back up, coughing and laughing. 

"Shuck it Snips." He chuckled, shaking his head.  I followed on the tour again, trying to keep all the guys names straight and the weird job titles they came up with. I meet the Medjacks, Clint and Jeff. Jeff was tall with close cut black wiry hair, he looked like he had a beautiful tan, and made me kind of jealous. Clint was shorter, but built like a bulldozer. He had curly brown hair,  but when he smiled his eyes crinkled and eased the tension. They both held out their hands to shake. I gave them a quick one shack and let go. I also met Frypan. He was tall, loud but very friendly. 

His voice boomed, and almost echoed off the walls. His laugh was straight from his gut. He pulled me into a tight bear hug. I froze up, not knowing what to do. I just stood there awkwardly, while he hugged me. He let go and kept talking like me not hugging him back phased him. He flung his BBQ tongs around while he talked. I don't even know what he was talking about, but he kept going. It didn't seem to bug him I wasn't participating in this one sided conversation. 

I was roughly tapped on the shoulder, I looked around. Newt and Frypan were looking at me.

"What?" I snapped. 

Newt gave me an amused smile, Frypan cocked an eyebrow.

"I asked if you were hungry and wanted some food. Looks like you haven't eaten in a while, there ma Lil Lady." Frypan chuckled, holding out a plat of BBQ foods. 

My stomach growled and my mouth watered, in response. 

"Oh shuck ya!" I mumbled as I took the plate, stuffing a chicken leg into my mouth. 

"Well, looks like out Shanket has a good appetite! Good, I like to see my Gladers eat!" Frypan's big voice boomed over me. 

I didn't hear anymore of their conversation, I was too busy stuffing my face with food. It was really food, and I honestly couldn't remember when the last time I ate was. I felt a hole lot better with food in my stomach. Maybe I was so snappy because I was hungry. Or maybe I'm just always a snappy short tempered person. That seemed more accurate. 

Frypan took my empty plate with a huge grin, waved goodbye. I nodded in Thanks and Newt led me away, towards what looked like a group of guys standing in a big circle cheering. The closer we got the louder the cheering got. And I could hear grunts and cried, and thumps. Newt elbowed his way through, he had his hand clamped around my wrist, and pulled me with him. We stopped on the inside of the crowd. 

We were standing around a sand pit. There were two guys in the middle, throwing punches. Minho and another guy. I glanced at Newt, and raised an eyebrow. 

"Once a month, we have a bonfire. And wrestling, boxing matches. Winer stays and fights the next Glader brave enough to step in." He explained, yelling over top of the ruckus. 

I nodded in understanding. I turned back to the fight. Minho was fast and huge. The other guy wasn't going to last long. Both boys had their shirts off, every muscle tense, flexing and contracting. As I watched I noticed that when Minho went for a kick to the waist, he dropped his arms, leaving his face exposed. I leaned over to Newt and told him what I noticed. 

Newt glanced at me with another amused expression. 

The other guy dropped, Minho jumped on top and pinned him. He tapped out. There was a loud cheer. Minho got up and helped the guy up, patting his back. 

"Who's next?" He called, flexing his arms. 

Clint stepped forward pulling his shirt off. They faced off. Clint wasn't as fast, but he was a tank, looked like it was hard to get Clint to move. I watched Minho still, he was fluid, and fast. But again kept dropping his guard, making his face and chest and easy target. Minho swept his legs out from Clint and he wacked his head. He lay there for a second and held up a hand to concede. The match was only a few minutes long.

There was another round of cheers. 

"Okay, you shanks, who's brave enough now?" 

Before my brain caught up with my feet I had stepped forwards into the ring. The Gladers went silent and Minho turned to face me.