[ chapter 01. sixty boys and three girls ]

DAWN

The first thing I became aware of was the darkness. Pitch black darkness. I blinked a few times trying to see something, but it was impossible. The world around me was a dark hole. What happened to me? Somehow I couldn't seem to remember anything.

A soft groan left my lips and I grabbed my head with both of my hands. Closing my eyes I tried to concentrate on my thoughts, but it was like staring into water. The few things that I remembered were a blurry mess, disappearing as soon as I tried to reach out to them.

Suddenly mechanic sounds echoed through the room and the ground started moving up.

Panic hit me like a tidal wave. 'Hey! Let me out!' I screamed, a numb feeling of fear pressing my chest. 'Help me!' My voice was hoarse and my throat dry, as if I hadn't spoken for days. I clenched my fist and hit the wall in a desperate attempt to escape. My fist connected with a solid iron wall and I hissed in pain but through the pain I realized how strange it was that I remembered what iron was when I didn't even remember my own name.

'Stop screaming, you're making my head hurt,' another hoarse voice spoke.

Startled, I turned around, trying to see something in the dark. 'Who are you?' I asked, wishing I didn't sound so scared.

The person shifted nervously. 'Lisa,' she answered after a long silence. 'I think,' she added, her voice shivering slightly. 'And you?' She returned the question.

A shaky breath escaped my lips. 'I-I can't remember,' I stuttered, feeling very stupid. A silence followed that was only broken by clicks and bangs as the ground beneath us still moved up. 'Where are we?' I asked to distract myself.

'No idea,' Lisa answered.

Rubbing my forehead I tried to pull myself together. I didn't know who I was but felt desperate to find out where I was. Slowly and carefully I started moving around. Feeling, smelling, searching for something that would give me an answer.

'An elevator,' Lisa suddenly said.

Confused, I stopped my movements. 'What?' I asked.

'An elevator! You know an iron thing that moves you up. That's where we are,' her voice sounded distant, like she didn't care about the elevator at all.

'Oh,' was all I said. For a few seconds I closed my eyes trying to remember something. My name, a familiar face, places, but it all was a big blur inside of my head. Resolute to at least know something, I crawled further forwards in the dark moving elevator. My hands touched something cold. 'Lisa, is this you?' I asked.

'No?' She answered, confusion on the edge of her voice.

I squinted through the darkness to try and see something when suddenly the elevator moved past a few blue lights. My hand was touching an arm that belonged to another girl. She had her eyes closed, her face was extremely pale and she lay very still. So still that she seemed to be dead. A startled gasp left my lips. The situation became more ridiculous with each passing second. Why on earth was I in an elevator with a dead girl? And why couldn't I remember anything?

'What is it?' Lisa sounded curious.

'There is a girl a-and when we passed those lights I saw her and s-she looked really dead,' I took a deep breath to keep my nerves under control but before my body was calm again the elevator jolted to a sudden halt.

'What now?' Lisa asked.

I shrugged, feeling sick from nerves and fear. 'I don't know.' But I couldn't just sit here and wait until something would happen. My hands searched in the darkness and found a cold hand. I couldn't remember who taught me this but somehow I remembered how to feel a heartbeat in her wrist. A sigh of relief escaped my mouth when I felt it. Slow but definitely present. 'She's alive,' I whispered, not knowing why it made me so relieved in the first place. Maybe because the thought of her being dead scared me more than I liked to admit.

'That's good,' the other girl replied.

Before I could do something else a line of sunlight broke through the darkness. Quickly I covered my eyes, as if it would burn me. The light was coming from above me. Voices and excited shouts reached my ears and confused me only more. Then the voices faded away and silence filled the air. I blinked violently against the light and slowly I got a clear view of my surroundings.

At least twenty boys stood above me, all staring down in the elevator like they had never seen a human being before. Or, more accurately, a girl. One of the boys seated in the front of the crowd was tall and had brown skin. The look on his face was one of pure bafflement. The one next to him was blond and had bright brown eyes. He had his eyebrows raised and looked very confused. His eyes pierced mine and a shock went through my stomach, like when you forget a step on the stairs. It left an aching pain in my chest. Quickly I looked away from him. What the hell was going on here?

I took a deep breath and slowly the aching pain faded, leaving my heart beating violently in my chest. Suddenly I remembered the girl. I looked at her and saw how pale she was when the sun shone down on her skin. 'She needs help!' I said, my voice small and scared.

They didn't even blink.

'Help us!' I said, louder this time.

The blond boy stood up. 'Klunk,' he whispered.

I didn't get it. What was wrong? Why didn't they help us?

'Impossible,' the brown boy added.

'Hey what is going on?' Lisa said, her tone angry. 'We could use some help here!'

I noticed the blond boy staring at me. He almost looked scared. My attention was taken away from him when the other boys suddenly started shouting again, turning to each other and asking all kinds of questions.

'Wait a minute! Just wait!' The brown boy yelled. Silence lingered in the air after his words. A shiver went down my spine by the sudden lack of noise. The brown boy stood up. 'Four greenies, in two days.' His voice was a confused whisper.

Greenies? Four? My head started to ache.

'Why don't you just tell us what's in there!' A voice from the back of the crowd yelled.

The dark boy looked at the blond boy. 'You tell'em, Newt.'

The blond boy, whose name apparently was Newt, stared at me. 'There are three girls,' he said loudly but never moved his eyes away from me. I felt myself grow uneasy under his gaze. 'And one of them is dead.'

I shook my head and ignored the shouts coming from the boys. 'She isn't dead! I don't know what's wrong with her though!'

Newt looked away from me, his attention moving to the brown boy, as if silently asking him what to do.

'Let's get them out,' the brown boy said in response to his questioning gaze.

'Finally,' Lisa mumbled.

Two ropes came down the elevator, the brown boy and Newt climbed inside and put the girl under the ropes. 'Come on, let's get you two out of here,' Newt said, looking at me and Lisa. His voice was friendly and had a thick accent that I couldn't quite place. Yet there was something about him that made me nervous. 'You can trust us,' Newt spoke again.

Next to me Lisa stared at him, before finally standing up and walking over to the rope. Taking it firmly in her hands she started climbing up.

I took a deep breath and decided I couldn't stay here forever so I stood up, my legs feeling like jelly as I moved forwards. I took the rope and climbed up as well. My hands were slippery and the feeling of at least twenty boys looking at me made me feel very uncomfortable but soon enough I was out of the dark little elevator and felt like I could breathe a little easier. The sunlight was even brighter up here and I was forced to shield my eyes. Slowly I let my eyes adjust and then I noticed I was surrounded by even more boys than I originally thought. There were sixty, maybe even seventy of them. And all of them were currently staring at me and Lisa, who stood next to me with her arms crossed over her chest.

I turned back to the elevator and saw how Newt and the other boy climbed up with the girl between them. After they put her down on the grass Newt stood up and pointed to a boy with brown hair, sharp cheek lines and chocolate brown eyes. 'Come over here greenie,' he said.

The boy came walking forward. When he reached us he threw a quick glare at me and Lisa before he turned to look at the other girl.

'You know one of them?' The brown boy asked.

'Know them?' The boy stuttered in confusion. 'I only know you guys-' 'I mean do they look familiar?'

The boy stared at the ground nervously before he shook his head. I could tell he was lying. Not that I knew him, but the way he was looking at the sleeping girl told me he knew her.

'Sure about that?' The brown boy asked, clearly not believing him either.

'Yes, why?' The boy said again.

'Shuck.' Was all the dark boy said and I began to wonder if I was dreaming.

'What are your names?' The dark boy asked suddenly. With the way he was behaving I could only assume he was the leader around here. Wherever here was.

Next to me Lisa turned to look at him. I noticed her whole body was tensed up, as if she could jump at the boy's throat at any moment. 'Lisa,' she answered him, her voice just as tense.

All eyes moved to me and I stared at my feet. 'I-I don't know,' I said, desperately trying to keep my voice from shaking but failing miserably.

'What?' Newt asked, more surprised than angry.

'I said I don't know,' I repeated louder this time.

'What happened to her?' The dark boy asked, pointing at the girl on the ground.

Lisa shrugged and I shook my head. 'I have no idea, she's been like that since I found her in the elevator,' I said.

Newt nodded but the other boy didn't seem to believe us.

'If you're done with your questions I would like to know where the hell I am,' Lisa spoke up from next to me.

The boys seemed surprised by her demanding tone. They shared a glare but before they could answer the unconscious girl suddenly sat up straight. She gasped for air as she looked around, her eyes wide. Then she spoke, her voice scared but still sounding loud and clear: 'Everything is going to change.' Then she fell back and with that movement her hand shot up in the air. I frowned and noticed a crumpled up piece of paper stuck between her fingers.

Newt walked forwards and took it with shivering hands. "She is the last one. Ever," he read. Confused, he looked up. The silence was deafening. I expected the boys to start yelling, screaming and ask thousands of questions but there was only complete silence. 'She?' Newt finally asked and looked at us.

I raised my eyebrows, suddenly what he was getting at. Why wasn't the letter in plural? She hadn't been the only girl in the elevator.

Then the brown boy called out: 'Med-jacks!' Breaking me out of my thoughts.

Two boys came walking forward and kneeled down besides the girl. One of them took her wrist, just like I had.

'Who said Clint was allowed to take her first?' A boy yelled and some laughed. I felt sick.

'If one of you touches the girls you have to sleep a night with the Grievers. You will be banished, I am serious,' the leader threatened. What the hell were Grievers? What did Banished mean? My head started spinning at the amount of questions I had. The boy looked around. His eyes burned with the warning. 'No one touches them! Understood? No one!'

The Med-jack, whatever that may be, seemed to be done examining her. 'She is alright. Breathing good, steady heart beat. I think she's in some sort of coma. Let's take her to the Homestead.' The two boys took her up and walked away.

The leader turned to look at Lisa and me. 'You two shanks come with me.' He turned and headed after the two boys.

I looked at Lisa but she ignored me and walked after the boy without so much as a second glance at me. A sigh escaped my lips before I headed after them. As soon as I stepped outside the tight circle of boys I noticed my surroundings and abruptly stopped walking. My mouth dropped open and I turned around in a small circle to make sure I was seeing things correctly. A wide and open meadow was spreading out around me, but it was surrounded by four huge walls. They stood tall, like huge tombstones, covered in dark ivy that abruptly stopped halfway. On each wall was some kind of door. There were a few trees standing in the corner of the meadow and buildings of wood stood scattered around the field.

My chest tightened as the reality of the situation suddenly dawned on me. I gasped for air but it didn't fill my lungs. My knees were getting weak and I started coughing. The ground seemed to disappear under me and I fell down. There was no air. I coughed again and heard panicked voices around me. A hand touched my shoulder, took me up, but I was still trying to catch my breath. The hand moved my face so I was forced to look into a pair of brown eyes that I recognised as Newt's. Having his face so close suddenly made my heart ache again.

'Calm down, alright', he whispered.

I closed my eyes and tried to forget the feeling of his warm hands on my cheeks. Slowly air filled my lungs again and I felt relief wash over me.

'That's better,' Newt said.

My eyes found his and I shook my head slowly. I took a few steps backwards and his eyes followed me, confused. This couldn't be real. None of it. Taking another deep breath I looked up at the sky, to try and forget the feeling of being locked inside four walls.

'You comin', Greenie?' The leader called out over the field.

Throwing one last glare at Newt I nodded and started jogging towards him and Lisa, trying my hardest to keep breathing as the whole world seemed to be crashing down on me.

| 𝙰𝚄𝚃𝙷𝙾𝚁'𝚂 𝙽𝙾𝚃𝙴 |

Hey guys!

So that was the first chapter! I am so excited to dive into this fanfiction and share Dawn and Lisa's story with you all. These two have become really special to me and I hope you will love them just as much!

Please leave a vote or a comment, it would mean a lot to me!

xx nelly