"Who is that shank?"

"How the shuck did she survive a night in the maze?"

"Why didn't the shank come through the shuckin' box like the rest of us?"

"She survived a night? Out there? What?"

"She? It's a girl?"

"She hot?"

"She's mine. I call dibs."

Voices echoed all around Mara, they sounded real, but she still felt unconscious. Every voice sounded like it belonged to a boy but she didn't understand everything they said, they all had strong American accents.

She barely recognised the half of the things they said. It was so confusing, every word mixing and drilling through her mind. What was going on? Why couldn't she understand?

"Shh. I think she's waking." This voice was different, laced with a thick British accent.

Mara's eyelids lifted, darting around the place, trying to help her come to her senses.

She was lying on the cold stone floor, looking up towards the sky. Although she couldn't see the sky; there were too many boys in the way, bending down and each peering at her with persistent eyes.

Who are they? Why were they staring her down as if they had caught their prey?

She looked at each of them, there were about fifty surrounding her. Her gaze fell upon a short, chubby boy standing near the back of the crowd, he looked at Mara with wide eyes. He didn't belong to the group of prying eyes and intimidating frowns. He was innocent.

All of the boys stood except one, who knelt at her side. He had blond sandy hair and a rather square jaw. He seemed vaguely familiar to Mara.

"Do I know you?" The pale girl asked, looking up into the blond boy's chocolate brown eyes.

The other boys began to whisper as more and more boys surrounded her. Some of them laughed, some seemed surprised, some in awe, and others, utterly terrified.

"Damn, she's hot." A voice called out, other boys agreed with him.

"Hey, this shank's got the same accent as Newt." One of the boys called out, but Mara couldn't put the voice to a boy.

"Newt we found you a shuckin' girl with your accent!" Another boy yelled, others laughing after he said it. Shucking? What were they taking about?

The boy knelling beside her reached down and held his hand out, indicating that he wanted Mara to take it.

Reluctantly, she did, and he pulled her up to her feet. There was something about him that made her want to trust him, almost as if she had met him before? But why couldn't she remember?

Every minute part of her brain itched to remember something, even just a fracture of knowledge. It was maddening. She felt so vulnerable and stupid.

She staggered around, trying to regain her balance, but the blond boy had to hold her upright. It took a moment for her to steady herself, leaning on the boy for support.

She could see the faces of the boys around her more clearly, but what she saw was daunting and unknown. Mara was in a place so confined it gave her a rush of claustrophobia, yet it was large enough to make it feel endless. It was a place that sent a rocket of mixed feelings circulating around her mind. 

She stood in the centre of the circle of boys she was surrounded by, trying to take everything in. She turned in a circle meeting the eyes of each individual boy, curiosity taking over her. They were all different in ages, but the oldest couldn't have been over eighteen.

The area she was in reached out for miles; it was a courtyard that was several times the size of a football field. Four stone walls dripping with ivy concealed the area, forming a perfect square. I must have been on the other sides of those walls. Mara thought to herself- they were identical to the wall she had intertwined in not long ago.

There was one thing in each of the four walls Mara didn't remember; each wall seemed to be split down the middle, each opening as tall as the walls were. The sky above them was bright, the sun shining down on the odd place she was trapped in. She must've been unconscious through most of the night.

"Where am I?" Mara asked, turning back to the blond boy by her side. She didn't understand, and she hated it. Her mind was dripping with knowledge, but it was just beyond her fingertips, laughing at her as she tried to grab onto it, and that infuriated her. "What is this? Who are you and why the hell am I here?"

As she spoke, a dark-skinned boy pushed through the crowd, joining the blond boy in the centre with Mara. He stopped when he saw her, confusion flickered through his face, but only for a second before his expression was blank.

"Nice to meet you, shank." The second boy said, making Mara flinch at his words. There it was again, a word Mara didn't understand. "Welcome to the Glade."

"No questions. Yet." The blond boy smirked before she had even opened her mouth, which slightly annoyed Mara. Did they know what was going on? She needed to know, why were they going to keep her in the dark about everything?

But this boy seemed likeable and trustworthy. She felt like she knew him somehow, maybe in the life she had that she couldn't remember. 

"Now, this girl's not a bloody chew toy. None of you shanks are to lay your hands on her. Touch her, and I'll personally throw you off the bloody cliff." The boy said, addressing it to the crowd of hormonal boys, who nodded worriedly in agreement.

The Cliff? What is that? There were so many things she didn't understand, so many words and phrases that just echoed around her head without explanations. 

"Haven't you shanks got work to do? Stand around any longer and next break'll be cut in half!" The dark-skinned boy snorted, and the group of boys headed in different directions, lingering around Mara before they left. The boy seemed to be in control of the group, maybe he was their leader.

They all seemed to know what to do, all heading in a different direction. Did they all know who they were? Was it just Mara that didn't understand?

Now that there were less people around, Mara could look at the place around her in more detail. It was the only thing she could bring herself to do.

The floor was made of the same stone bricks as the walls, grass and weeds grew through the cracked parts of the stone. In one of the corners in the courtyard stood an old wooden shack with a few trees dotted around it, seemingly digging into the stone beneath in search for soil and food.

The corner next to that was filled with gardens; it must have been the food source for the people living here. There didn't seem to be many other food supplies.

Across from that in the south-east corner there were wooden pens holding pigs, sheep and cows. That must be the meat source. It made sense for them to have that, but it didn't make sense as to how it was there. Why were any of them there? What about her family? What about her friends? Where were they?

She turned her attention to the final corner of the compound, which was covered in dying trees that seemed to stretch all the way back to where the two walls met, beyond view. Everything around her smelt like a farm would- dirt and manure- but it was laced with a fragrance of death.

Mara turned back to the two boys in front of her; they were standing closest to the wooden shack. She studied the leader- he looked about seventeen, but who knows? If she didn't know her age how would he know his? Maybe he did, maybe it was just her that couldn't remember. But what if they knew her? What if she had done something to them that had made them angry? They didn't seem upset, but what if they were just pretending to be nice?

The boy was wearing casual clothes- a black T-shirt, jeans, tennis shoes and a digital watch. It was weird seeing these people wearing normal clothes when they seemed so isolated from the real world. Was that even a place anymore?
What if this was the world? They could be the last people left on Earth.

He had short hair and his face was clean shaven, although it didn't seem like you would find a shaver in a place like that.

"What's the Glade?" She asked, breaking the silence that lingered in the air. That was what he had called the place they were in, or at least that's what Mara assumed.

"It's a long story, shank." The dark boy told her. "You'll learn over time. I'll be takin' you on your tour tomorrow. So till then... don't break anything."

"And no questions, remember?" The blond boy smirked.

The dark-skinned boy held out a hand, which Mara took and shook. "Name's Alby."

The brown eyed boy soon joined in, holding out his hand for Mara to shake. "And I'm Newt." He told her, so this was the Newt she had the same accent as.

"Why can't you tell me what's going on now instead of waiting until tomorrow?" The girl asked. If she was going to be here for who knows how long, she wanted to know everything. Why wouldn't they tell her? She needed to know, she couldn't let them keep her in the dark. "I have too many questions to wait until tomorrow."

"You'll find out tomorrow, Greenie." Alby said, turning away from Mara to face Newt, his demeanour becoming more casual . "She's all yours." He pointed at her before walking off.

"It'd be great if you'd forgive our klunk-for-brains new leader. He was elected leader a few days ago before that shank Nick was found." Newt's smile faded as he mentioned Nick, whoever he was. As he did, they boy that was hanging in the ivy ran through Mara's mind.

"Did you find that boy in the ivy?" She asked, thinking back to him. She hadn't been able to examine him in detail when she found him- it had been too dark to see anything, let alone the little details.

"Boy in the ivy? What the shuck are you talkin' about Greenie? We found you in the ivy upside down, no one else." He explained. It confused Mara that Newt didn't know what she was talking about, the boy in the ivy had been there, hadn't he?

"There was a boy hanging in the ivy, I think he was about eighteen, maybe. He looked dead, but he was breathing. You didn't find him?" Mara stuttered, confusion in her voice. There was no way he was in a condition to move, so he couldn't have gone far.

"Unless you mean Nick, I ain't got a bloody clue what you're on about Greenie." Newt shrugged. Mara remembered what Newt had said a few minutes ago, how Alby was elected leader before Nick was found.

"Where'd you find Nick?" Mara asked with wide eyes.

"With you, you shank. Found him lying on the floor with you're shuck-face hanging above him. Not in the bloody ivy. He's in the Homestead." Newt explained. The only explanation Mara could think of was that the ivy had snapped and he had fallen from the wall, but that would have been one hell of a fall, definitely would have killed him.

"Homestead?" Mara repeated, she barely understood him when he talked with all those words and phrases.

"You'll learn tomorrow." He winked, a smile flying across his face. It annoyed Mara that Newt wouldn't tell her much, but he seemed like a nice person. Someone she could trust. "Would give you the tour today, but Alby's focused on Nick. Make sure he's gonna bloody make it, you know?"

"Yeah." She replied, taking another look at the place she was in.

"Curious, you are. You arrive in the maze, you're a bloody girl, you're found with that shank Nick and ya haven't cried once. Rest of the boys were curled up in balls klunkin' themselves first day." He added, eyeing me.

"Doesn't mean I'm not scared." Her voice was weak and shook, she was looking down at the floor as she said it. Honestly, she had no idea what to do, everything seemed unnatural. She wanted nothing more than to crawl into a corner and cry, but she wanted to look somewhat brave. Even though she didn't feel brave at all.

"If you ain't scared you ain't human." He replied, placing one of his hands on her shoulders and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "You can stay with me for the day if you like."

"Sure." She mumbled with a smile. She liked this boy.