The first thing I registered was the constant pounding in my head. The second thing was it was warm and sunny.

"Damn Designers." I muttered.

I lay still trying to will the pounding in my head to go away. It didn't work. With a noise between a grunt, groan and growl, I rolled myself over, and pushed myself up onto my hands and knees. The ground teetered, and my stomach threatened to empty itself. Take a few deep breaths I waited for the wild nausea to subside. And then sat back onto my heels. I pulled my water out of my bag, pulling the mask part down and took a few sips. I kept the hood up, because of the sun and the heat.

"Shucken stupid Designers! It's windy cold and raining now it's bright warm and sunny. Get your shit together!" I grumbled. I gingerly pulled the hood down and checked the gash on my temple. It was already dried and not bleeding anymore, no need to waste a bandage. I decided not to risk a pain killer, we had limited pain meds, and I wasn't going to waist a pill on a headache.

"It's not a headache, you twat- it's a shucken bloody concussion." I muttered. I snorted and rolled my eyes, but winced when I did, the eye roll made the pain worse. "Great I'm talking to myself." I chuckled a little louder, "well I need expert advice...shuck-" I held my head in my hands, "how hard did I smack my head?"

I slowly and very unsteadily got to my feet and stumbled slowly down the stone corridor. I tripped a few times and crashed into the walls.

"What the actual hell?"

I really smacked my head hard, none of the walls looked familiar. I mean one grey stone wall was another grey stone wall. But there was something different about these grey stone walls. It felt foreign and odd. There weren't as many slashes and cuts in the walls from Grievers. There was more ivy and moss on the walls, the hall was also brighter and dryer.

Confused my squinted my eyes against the harsh sun. I pulled my hood back up, trying to shield myself. It hurt. My eyes felt like burnt squishy marshmallows, and my head felt like it was going to split open from the pounding. Tiny little hammers were slamming the inside of my skull. My stomach finally heaved, the heat didn't help, Ms my water was gone. I emptied my stomach all over the ground.

Wiping my mouth in the back of my hand I kept stumbling. I came to an intersection. I stopped in the middle. Confused I looked around. This was definitely new. Did I find a new section in the maze? I took a very slow turn trying to figure out where the heck I was.

I heard someone yelling. And the laugh. But it wasn't any of my Mappers...this was deep. This was a males voice. Panic, confusion and fear sprung to the surface. Her hand fumbled for a knife. Her head was spinning and her vision was fuzzy, it was coming in and out of focus. The heat, the dehydration and her concussion weren't helping. Just as her fingers wrapped around one of her knives two people came around the corner.

I froze. They skidded to a stop.

"The hell?" I sputtered.

"The shuck?" The one boy yelped in surprise.

I yelled, and threw my knife towards the boy who yelled. It was accurate, due to my spinning and teetering world. The boy who cursed dove out of the way, my knife still managed to slice his arm. He was fast for a huge muscled guy. My reflexes weren't as fast as they normally are either. So he managed to tackle me, he wrapped his arms around me and took me to the ground. I landed with a thud and my head smacked the ground again and I lost consciousness.

•×•

I moved my head with a groan. I lifted my hand to my head. It hurt, but definitely not as bad as it did before. I heard movement and a door closing. I must have been found by Sonya or Amy, they were scheduled to come that way though the maze.

"Leah..?" I groaned, "definitely need some pain meds!"

I heard a chuckle. My eyes shot open and I scrambled into the corner. Turning head back and forth trying to figure out where I was and who was laughing. A tall boy with a dark tan and short dark cropped hair stood by the door or the dilapidated structure I was in.

In an instant I took in my surroundings, I was in a room, it was full of plants and herbs hanging from the ceiling, giving the room a fresh earthy smell. A wall was covered in shelves, full of all kinds of medicine bottles and equipment, towels, blankets and other supplies. In the middle of the room was a big wooden table piled high with garbage, first aid supplies, clean and dirty bandages, some cups, and bowls, a chopping block with a clever, a mortar with some crushed herbs, but most pill bottles and other medical supplies. My sore head had a hard time trying to process where I was. This was not The Healers Hut and that was definitely not Leah.

The sun was shining through an open window, but it looked like it was setting, it had that orange glow to it. The boy hadn't moved. But she was on high alert. This wasn't The Meadow.

The door opposite her bed opened and a tall muscular boy with black hair stepped through, deep in conversation with a tall blond who looked oddly familiar. They stopped when they saw I was awake. I sprung from the bed, ready to fight.

"Where am I? Why am I here? Who are you?" I demanded. I knew I didn't have my long knife or my backpack. I didn't know what happened to them, but I was ready to fight regardless. I was always ready to fight. My muscles tensed and coiled.

The tall dark haired guy held his hands up, "Whoa slow down their Shuckface!"

"I'll slow down when you tell me what the fuck is going on! This ain't the Meadow! Who the hell are you?" I yelled.

My hands clenched into fists. I felt the adrenaline flowing through me, I knew I was ready to fight to the death. I hadn't seen a boy in two and a half years and the Designers sent up one and now that's all I'm seeing.

The door banged open again and a curly brown haired guy who was built like a tank stormed in.

"What's going on?"

"We heard yelling!"

"Is everything okay?"

''What happened?''

I was confused, terrified and I felt very very trapped. My eyes darted around the room. I was trapped by four boys, four teenage boys, all way taller and possibly stronger than me. Though I noticed the one boy, the tall muscular Asian had a white bandage around his bicep, and it was stained red. He was the one I must have sent my knife towards.

My flash of pride was quickly replaced with a caged fear, I needed to get out. I needed an exit; the door was blocked. While my eyes darted around the room, I spotted my large knife, and two of my smaller ones sitting on the table in the middle of the room. My backpack was sitting on the chair beside the table. My eyes then found the window. Always have an exit strategy, I knew exactly what to do.

I sprung forwards, and snatched my knives off the table before the boys could react, and grabbed my backpack. I jumped up onto the top of the table with the ease of a cat; I threw my backpack on as I jumped. Now I was armed, had the high ground and holding them ready to fight. The Asian boy and the shirt stock tank if a boy yelled and lunged for me as the only familiar blond boy laughed with the darker skinned boy.

As the two boys lunged towards me and the table, I kicked at the bowl and other things piled up. Everything went flying towards the boys. With a cry of surprise they all leaped aside and ducked out of the way of flying objects. I leaped off the table and over to the open window.

"I wouldn't do that...we're on the second floor!" The Asian boy warned, as he tried to lunge for me again.

"You underestimate me!" I yelled and I spun round, my dark hair flying and dove out the window. My body twisting in the air like a cat. I landed on my feet, my knees bent low with my hands out to stabilise myself on the ground. Looking very much like a superhero. The momentum took me forwards, and I tucked myself into a roll. I came up again onto my feet. I pushed myself up and ran.

Run. Just keep going! Find somewhere to hide!

And I did, I ran. I was only vaguely aware of other people around me. They all stopped what they were doing to watch. It was all boys. As I sprinted away, my stomach dropped and my heart jumped into my throat, this looked like The Meadow. But it wasn't. For one it was full of boys. Fear and panic kept me going. I spotted a tall fat tree that had some kind of structure built around it, some kind of free fort.

I shifted my direction to the tree.

"Stop!"
"Hey! Come back!"
"Was that a girl?"
"Dammit! She's fast!"
"Did you see her dive out the shucken window?"

I ran and didn't stop. I scrambled up the rope ladder with ease and shoved the trap door open. It was empty up here. I pulled the ladder up and slammed the door closed. Sitting ontop of the door, I tried to catch my breathing. And possibly lower my heart rate.

I couldn't...I had no idea what's going on! This was the only time in two and a half years I felt full blown panic. My hands wouldn't stop shaking.

I heard the wild footsteps of people below and the deep rumble of voices. I couldn't really understand what was being said, but it made me feel more trapped and more angry. I took my backpack off and took out the extra knives and slid them into my holster. Standing up I cautiously walked to the edge, and slowly peek over the railing.

I heard a collective gasp, about 50 sets of eyes all looked up at me. I glared down at them all.

"It IS a girl!"
"Shuck she's hot!"
"Dang she's fine!"
"Where can we find more?"
"Are all girls this hot?"
"I call dibs!"

"Touch me and you die." I screamed back.

"Fiesty little thing! Come down and say that to my face, Beautiful."

I slid a small knife out and held it pointitit at the nasty kid.

"Last warning."

"Ahh she's so cu-AHHHHH!"

I had sent my knife down towards him with a lazy flick of my wrist, I landed point down in his sneaker. He sceamed. And I smirked. The crowd of boys went dead silent. The huge bulldozer of a boy I had seen in that weird room I woke up in jumped forwards and yanked the knife out and handed the small bloody knife to a sticky bald black boy with a scowl. And then helped the bloody boy hobble away.

Eyes went back and forth between me in the top of the slapped together tree fort and the injured kid to the guy holding my bloodied knife.

"Well, she did buggen' warn him." The tall blond boy shrugged with a slight smirk.

"Newt, you ain't helpin' right now!" The boy said.

"Where the hell am I, who the fuck are you?" I yelled back.

"Jeeze, she curses just as bad as you, Min!" Someone in the crowd chuckled.

"Yeah except I'm better." The Asian guy said, folding his arms, he winced when his hand grabbed his bloodied bicep.

"How's that cut?" I called down, raising an eyebrow.

"Not as bad as my tackle, I knocked you out."

"After I already had a concussion, and dehydration you twat, but sure take credit. You need all the help you can get." I snarked.

The crowd below me ooowed and laughed.

"I think you have completion, Min."

"Hardly." I muttered.

"Will you come down?" The dark bald boy said.

"Ha. No." I called down, I scanned the crowd, and pointed to the blond who looked familiar, "he can come up and explain the the bloody fuck is going on."

"Only if you stop buggen' cursin'." He said.

"Fine. But only him!"

The blond stepped forwards and I cautiously opened the hatch, and waited until he was at the bottom of the tree to drop the rope ladder. He made his way up and I held my long knife out, if he was going to try anything I'd slice his throat open.

He slowly came up. His arms raised in surender and defense.

"All right, Love no need for violence."

"The hell did you say?" I whispered, my blood turned to ice and my sto.avh dropped again.

"I said...uh, no need for violence," he indicated towards the knife, "your holdin' a bloody kni-"

"No. Not that what did you call me?" I snapped.

"I said...alright Love?"

"The shuck?" I whispered, my eyes wide. I took a cautious step backwards.

"Is that alright?"

"It's... eerily similar to...no, never mind." I shook my head, gripping my knife tighter, and raising it higher to meet his throat.

"Explain right now. What happened to The Meadow. Who are you, where are the girls and why am I here?"

"Can we put the bloody knife away? It's a wee bit hard to concentrate with somethin' sharp pointed at my throat."

"How do I know you won't try anything?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well after what I saw you do...I ain't stupid. You shucken jumped out the second story window, clumped the tree like a cat and then lazily tossed a knife into Harold's foot."

"Fine." I spun the knife away and slid it into its holster on my thigh. I crossed my arms.

"Explain."

The boy sighed.

"Well first...do you remember your name? Or where you came from? Anything?"

"Yeah, I remember all of it. But I'm the one asking questions. You dragged me here." I pointed a threatening finger.

"Alright alright. So. Names Newt. You you are?"

"Jessie."

"Well Jessie, welcome to The Glade."