before you read:

fair warning, this book was written in 2014-2015 so there will be some cringey parts and i am sorry for that. please stick around because i promise it gets better!

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Disclaimer:

I do not own The Maze Runner, but I do own Dylan and all the scenes in which you want to strangle yourself because of how cute she and Newt are.

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When I finally came to, I realized a headache was the source of my waking. It was near unbearable, almost like my skull was being drilled and would soon split in two. I kept my eyes squeezed shut and let out a groan that was barely audible through the overpowering sound of metal grinding against metal.

Once I had gotten used to the throbbing in my head, I opened my eyes and was met with almost complete darkness. I looked around as well as I could until my eyes adjusted to the extreme lack of light. It seemed I was in a box - no, elevator - and was moving upward toward a destination that was unknown to me.

Another thing that occurred to me was that I had no memory. The only sure things implanted in my brain were that I was alive, I was in an elevator, and moving up. To where, I had no clue. I realized with a start that I didn't know my own name. My memories were faint and faceless; I could remember school but not who taught me, and friends whose images were blurred. It only increased my growing state of panic.

A groan sounded from the corner of the box, startling me when I realized I wasn't alone. My eyes flickered to the source and adjusted even further so I could barely make out the outline of a boy standing in the center of the box. A sudden, violent shudder caused him to slam to the ground with a thud that sounded painful enough to make me cringe.

"You okay?" I asked him, my voice hoarse from lack of use. I started crawling toward him but he jumped back in fright, sliding to the corner of the box and tucking his knees to his chest. I chuckled. "Hey, I'm not gonna hurt you or anything."

He squinted to see me, his eyes seemingly black in the inky darkness. His hair looked black as well and stuck to his forehead in the plainest manner imaginable. His skin was pale as anything, with a thin layer of sweat layering his face that made it appear shiny. It seemed to me that he was a decent height- his legs were long and lanky. He looked roughly fifteen or sixteen.

The boy stopped squinting as his eyes got used to the darkness. He relaxed upon realizing that I was just as confused as he was and meant no harm. His throat cleared with a rumble.

"Yeah, I'm okay," he replied, his voice higher than I expected, which took me by surprise. It had a slight croak to it as well from apparent lack of use.

"You sure? You fell pretty hard," I observed as I inched closer. When he didn't flinch or shoo me away that time, I sat about half a foot away from him and leaned against the wall next to the one he was sitting by. Our knees were almost touching.

The boy nodded. "I'm fine." He paused and his nose scrunched up like he was deep in thought. Several seconds passed before he said anything else, filled only with the annoying screech of metal. "Hold on. Do you have any memory?"

I shook my head and felt disturbed that he didn't remember anything either. It unsettled me even more than I already was- had we been injured? Was a strong blow to our heads the cause of the amnesia? Thinking about it caused a sharp pain to shoot through my deeply aching skull until I winced. "No, nothing. You?"

"Nope," he sighed, twiddling with his fingers restlessly He wet his lips nervously. "Something's coming to me, though."

"That's good." I rested my head against the metal wall and closed my eyes. The pounding in my skull was subsiding as I let it rest, which gave me more time to think about smaller pieces of information. What was my name? I hoped it would come to me. "I guess we're in this together, huh?"

"Guess so. If only we knew what 'this' was." The boy shifted uncomfortably. I couldn't blame him- the grimy metal wall wasn't the most comfortable thing to be resting against. "How long do you think we'll be in this thing?"

I shrugged. "No clue."

"Do you know where it's taking us?"

"You sure ask a lot of questions," I laughed softly. "And like I said before, my memory's wiped just like yours."

The lengthy pause in our conversation gave me just enough time to look around. The elevator was completely empty aside from the boy and I, making it quite spacious. I could now see the walls on the opposite side from where I was sitting. We were still moving up, with no sign of when we would stop, nor did we pass any lights along the way.

"Thomas," my companion blurted suddenly.

"Pardon?" I asked, turning my head to face him. He looked like the word had hit him hard, his eyes wide and lips parted slightly as he took a shaking breath and locked eyes with me.

"My name," he said quietly, a look of awe on his face. "It's Thomas."

"Oh." My lips pulled into a thin line. I was happy for him, but I wished I could remember my own. However, the more I tried to think about it, the more it sunk in that my mind was an empty void with random chunks taken out of memories that weren't really there. "Nice to meet you, Thomas."

"Likewise."

An uneasy feeling crept in, and I felt the hairs on my neck stand up. I was in a strange box with a strange boy, and I didn't know who I was or where we were headed. So I sat in silence and tried not to dwell on the fact that maybe we were being sent to die.

About half an hour passed when the elevator came to a screeching halt. The sudden, harsh jerk of the box that followed sent an unexpecting Thomas and I sprawling across the dusty floor. I collided painfully with the wall on the opposite side, grunting as my back hit the metal with a clang. Thomas got his feet under him and waited until the box stopped swaying for him to stand.

A minute passed. Then two. Nothing happened, and the anticipation was eating up my insides. I sat up, watching as Thomas started to feel around for a possible exit. I got to my feet and decided to help. My fingers ran lightly along the grimy walls. When I met Thomas halfway, he groaned in frustration and confusion. I hadn't figured we would find anything; however, it was worth a try to at least look.

I jumped a bit as his fists began slamming against the wall, causing the box to shake a bit and the sound to echo in the dark. I watched his hands pound with a ruthless endeavor. It increased the thudding of my skull until I was almost nauseous.

Still nothing.

Thomas gave up and went back to his corner while I continued to trace patterns along the cool metal. When I got bored of doing that, I rested my forehead against the wall, which felt ice cold against my skin.

"Someone...help...us!" Thomas screamed at the top of his lungs. Tiredly, I made my way to him and slumped to the ground, my head tingling from the temperature of the metal I had been leaning it against. I reached up and wiped the machine oil from my forehead with my wrist. When I rubbed my fingers together, I could feel the same substance on them from running them against the wall. My nose crinkled.

A loud clank caused me to suck in a hopeful breath. A line of light cracked in the ceiling, making me shield my eyes as it grew and filled the box with blinding brightness that turned the back of my eyelids orange. Large doors slid open and created a painful grating sound that I cringed at.

I began to feel anxious for what world I'd be faced with. So many emotions were filling me in such little time that it was hard to distinguish between them. Instead of focusing on them, I zeroed in on the voices I heard from above. They sounded roughly deep, like males, and excited.

"There's two!"

"How old?"

"That shank looks like klunk in a t-shirt!"

"You're the klunk, shuck-face."

"Dude, it smells like feet down there!"

"Why the shuck are there two? Am I the only one concerned about this?"

"Hope you enjoyed the one-way ticket, Greenies."

"Ain't no ticket back."

"Why the shuck are there two?!"

I pinched my eyebrows in confusion, lowering my hands from my face. Some of the words were completely foreign to me.

When my eyes adjusted to the light, I blinked and looked up, squinting toward the boys. At first I couldn't make out more than shadows outlined by rays of sunlight, but soon they morphed into people, some of whom were pointing at us. Others were leaning over the hole in the ceiling. As soon as they saw my face, a collective gasp sounded from the crowd before they launched into a field of chatter again.

"It's a shucking girl!"

"What?!"

"You heard me, klunk-face!"

"A girl?! Like a real, live, one?"

"No Dave, she's dead. What do you think?"

"Oh, so now you slintheads are concerned."

My vision fully cleared and I could finally see their faces. They were male- all of them (great). They seemed to be teenagers, and there were about fifty to sixty of them, all with mixed emotions covering their vaguely dirty faces. Most of them seemed to be dressed extremely plainly in only t-shirts and jeans or shorts.

A coarse, scratchy rope with a big loop at the end was lowered from above. I glanced at Thomas, who motioned for me to go first. I hesitantly put my right foot into the loop and clutched onto the rope tightly as I was yanked toward the sky. No one spoke except for the occasional whisper.

One voice spoke as they helped me to steady myself on the ground, and knew I'd remember the words forever.

"Nice to meet ya, shanks. Welcome to the Glade."

gif is "the girl"

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so, since my leo valdez story has accidentally been deleted, i decided to start this story sooner than planned. hip hip, horray!

okay bye now

~kristyn

edited july 9, 2016