Ada wasn't prepared for the room to fill with light the following day. Having arrived in darkness, she lazily expected the place to be just as dull as she saw it that night.

It definitely wasn't.

She woke up, buried in thick white covers, and her eyes stinging from crying so much before she fell asleep. Sitting up, her eyes caught instantly on the window to her side, where the sun was shining through and hitting her directly in the face.

Peering outside, she could only see the blue sky and what seemed to be a gigantic stone wall. Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion, and she threw the covers from herself to get up and approach the window, to look closer.

But she wasn't mistaken.

Right in front of her eyes, past the grass and fields, was a one hundred foot tall stone wall, smothered in patches of ivy. Her heart sunk down to her stomach, and she swallowed the lump forming in her throat.

We're trapped in here, aren't we?

It would make some sense. Why there were no adults, why the wooden shack was creaky and modest, why they had a teen leader and second-in-command.

The door suddenly opened and she let out an involuntary yelp, moving away from the window as she jumped out of fright. Newt's blonde head popped out from around it, eyes innocently wide.

"Hey there Greenie."

"Why do you keep calling me that?" She hissed, before she could stop herself.

She didn't mean to be harsh, and the flash of pain that passed across Newt's face only made her guilt grow. He straightened up, moving past the doorway so he could lean against the wall.

"It's what we call our Newbies. You got a name?" He raised his eyebrows, watching her expectantly.

"Yeah, actually." She shifted so she was standing more proudly, and a ghost of a smile passed her lips when she saw Newt's eyebrows shoot up. "Ada."

His face settled with a smile now, and he swung the door open wider. "Well Ada, your breakfast is ready. Cooks aren't gonna be serving all bloody day."

He turned abruptly on his heel, stalking out of the room, and left her to jog and catch up to avoid getting lost. She quickly caught up, following his long strides down the corridor and down the stairs, as the smell of food grew stronger and stronger.

She could hear a chatter rising up from the bottom of the Homestead, and as she reached the bottom of the stairs, it all came into view. The boys were all sat at long wooden tables, plates piled with bacon, sausages, and eggs in front of them as they chatted away and shovelled food into their mouths.

Newt had sidled over to where the food hall connected with the kitchen, to talk to one of the boys behind the counter. Ada didn't move from her spot, frozen in place as she stared at all the boys, most of whom stared back.

"Alright Greenie?"

"Come sit over here sweetheart!"

A few boys began calling out to her, making her chest tighten with nerves, and she shifted on the spot uncomfortably. Her eyes drew to the open doorway that led outside. Now it was daytime, she could see everything.

Her jaw dropped when she realised that the stone wall she saw from Newt's room was not the only one. Her feet moved before her brain could register it. Newt hadn't noticed she had wandered outside yet.

She moved quickly, as though someone was going to notice and stop her - which they would but she didn't know that yet - and only paused when she was right in the middle of the grass. She spun in a circle, sucking in a breath as she took in the four stone walls encasing the grassy area.

They have barely any space here.

A few fields laid to the left of her, and a small forest of trees to the right that encased almost a quarter of the square. One of the walls in particular caught her attention.

It was parted.

Moving swiftly towards it, she didn't look behind to see that Newt had finally noticed her absence. Or that Alby had quickly made off in a jog towards her.

She approached the wall, standing on the patch of dirt that led directly to the opening of it. Behind the walls was a corridor made of the same stone, with ivy clinging in places and rubble piling at the sides.

Did it lead somewhere?

"Hey!" An aggressive yell pulled her out of her thoughts.

Upon spinning around, she could see that Alby was marching towards her with a deep frown set on his face. She stood rooted to the spot, but turned her head again to look out at the corridor.

"Don't move!" He growled again, and when she turned back, he was right in front of her. "Do you understand me Greenie?"

"I didn't move." She responded calmly to his outburst, which only seemed to make his anger grow. 

"Alright slinthead, just get back inside." He snarled once again, pointing towards the building she had come from impatiently. She remained still for a moment, chancing another glance out and then looking back to Alby. 

"What's out there?" She asked curiously, to no reply.

Alby waited for her to move before moving himself, hand hovering near her back to make sure she didn't run off, although she wasn't even planning on it. She was smart enough to know that if he was trying to keep her out of the corridor, there must be something out there worth staying away from.

He personally escorted her straight to a table, where Newt sat beside an empty seat with a full plate of food, waiting for her. Her eyes shone as her stomach growled; making her notice that she was actually quite hungry.

The leader and the second-in-command sat with her as she finished the entire plate of food; eating so quickly she was sure she'd choke. Once she was finished, Newt took the plate from her to bring it back to the kitchen, and Alby caught her attention as he leaned his arms on the table towards her.

"We have three rules here, Greenie." He started, and Ada rolled her eyes to correct him on her name instantly. She didn't think about that fact that Newt wouldn't have told him yet so he would have no idea of it; as they'd have been more preoccupied earlier when she approached the Maze wall.

"Rule number one: everyone does their part. Everyone has a job, and no one - and I mean no one - slacks off. Good that?" 

Ada only had one thought at Alby's warning; Never let Alby catch me slacking off.

"Rule number two: Never hurt anyone. We're stuck here together. We need to trust each other, and get along." She nodded along at his words, in agreement. She sensed that she was a peaceful person, always had been, and so this seemed pretty easy to her.

"And rule three, never leave the Glade."

The Glade?

"This place, is the Glade." 

Ada had finally caught on to the fact Alby was going to start explaining everything to her, and immediately clamped her mouth shut to listen intently. She'd finally get some answers, she wasn't going to ruin that.

"It's our home, and as much as you may not like it, it's yours too. Now, I'm gonna give you the tour, you're going to wait to ask questions until the end, and then you're gonna start work. Good that?"

She realised she was supposed to respond and so she nodded quickly, her mouth still shut firmly. Alby abruptly got up from the table, and she moved swiftly to follow, as his fast pace was hard to keep up with. He launched immediately into a monologue as he strolled across the grass.

"We get a Newbie every month, and they all come up in the Box." He pointed to the iron doors now lying flat on the grass, encasing the elevator shaft the Box arrives in. "Usually, the Greenie's a boy. But of course, you're not."

He stopped for a moment, letting her inspect the Box carefully, as he looked over her suspiciously. It baffled him that a girl arrived instead after so many boys. But of course, he would just roll with it. Alby always did.

"Supplies come up in the Box every week. We can request things, and the Creators usually give it to us, as long as it's reasonable."

"The Creators?" She echoed her thoughts before she could remember Alby's demand of waiting until the end to ask questions. A flicker of annoyance passed over his face, and then disappeared just as quickly.

"The people who put us in here. We call them the Creators. Obviously none of this is a shucking accident."

Why didn't I think about that?

Alby explained the jobs of the Glade swiftly and with no interruptions from the girl who only listened in awe. She took in all of the information about the Keepers, and the Slammer, and the ways of the Glade. 

She picked it up quicker than any Greenie Alby had ever seen before.

So he decided not to waste that. After a short break, he ordered Newt to find her some work to do, and then it had all really sunk in.

She was going to become one of them.

Newt had her working firstly with the Slicers. The Slicers - as described so eloquently in the name - effectively killed animals for the cooks to then cook for their meals. 

It was brutal.

She was working in the Blood House; a red barn in one corner of the Glade, with pens of sheep, cows and pigs tightly packed alongside it, all of whom were eating away obliviously. The barn was quite picturesque in itself, but Ada couldn't bring herself to find it cute when she knew exactly what happened inside.

Ada wore an apron tightly around herself, and within minutes of following Winston's detailed instructions, its once white material was now a crimson red. She wasn't squeamish, but the job clearly wasn't for her, if her wrinkled nose was anything to go by.

One look from the Blood House over to the gardens, from Ada to Newt, told the second-in-command that she wanted to be absolutely anywhere but in that farmhouse slaughtering innocent animals at that moment. She chose not to think about the fact she was happy enough eating them during breakfast.

Luckily for her, Newt took the hint from her helpless glance, and made his way over to 'see how she was getting on'. He then swiftly told Winston that she wasn't going to be a good fit for the job.

After lunch, Newt moved her to the Gardens to let her try her hand as a Gardener.

He missed her grimace as he explained what the job entailed - planting, weeding, harvesting - and strolled over towards the fields before she could even ask to try a different job instead. The only thing that made it a little better was the fact he would be working beside her.

And if the pair was being honest; she didn't really do much work.

Newt introduced her to Zart - the Keeper of the Gardeners - and soon after setting off on planting some seeds, she had dived into a monologue of why they should build a giant ladder to get over the walls, with neither boy actually listening to what she was saying. 

Not that she'd notice.

She was so deeply passionate in the explanation of her 'ladder plan' that she didn't notice the strange looks shared between the two others throughout, or the awkward chuckle after she suggested climbing the ivy on the walls. 

By now, Ada was fully standing up, her elbow resting on the shovel. She hadn't spoken so animatedly since arriving, but Newt and Zart made it easy for her to just spill out her thoughts and ideas. All they did was just stand there.

"Listen," Newt finally decided to put a stop to the rambling, temporary at least. "you don't need to worry about the Maze, and the walls, Greenie. You're gonna be in here. Out there?" Newt nodded to the wall, his previous smile now set in a straight line. Then, something she hadn't seen on him before emerged.

"That's Minho's job."

"What is?"

The Runners.

Ada had never heard of such a nerve-wracking, worrisome and tiring job. Day after day after day, Minho and the Runners would run the corridors of the Maze, trying to map out each turning, each pathway, each section, to try and find a way out. 

Her eyes almost bulged out of her head when she found out that the walls protecting the Glade were part of a Maze. That a twisting and shifting labyrinth was only separated from her by a thick chunk of a stone.

"Of course, it's incredibly dangerous." Newt told her casually, missing how her eyes grew.

"What? What do you mean, dangerous?"

He winced, as if he had said something he wasn't supposed to. And Ada was sure that he had.

"Well," He paused from where he was raking the ground, and leaned on his tool, twisting around to face the Maze walls. "You see that?" His finger indicated to the gap in the stone walls. 

He turned back to Ada with his finger still raised, checking for her confirmation. She nodded, and he continued to explain.

"That gap closes at the same time each night. If the Runners don't make it back, they're trapped in the Maze overnight." Newt's expression suddenly darkened and Ada felt a shiver run down her spine. "And no one's survived a night in the Maze."

"W-what? Why?"

She was really spooked now. As safe and peaceful as it seemed in the Glade, it seemed the complete opposite out in the Maze. And although it seemed restricting in the Glade, she felt perfectly happy with staying safe inside as opposed to out in the Maze.

"The Grievers, of course." Zart butted in, and Ada didn't miss the scowl that Newt sent his way.

"Grievers?"

Zart definitely just said something he wasn't supposed to.

"The Grievers," Newt glared at Zart again who adverted his gaze instantly. "are creatures that live in the Maze. They sting you, if they can get their claws on you. And once you're stung," Newt broke off, shaking his head. 

"Game over." Zart butted in, earning a string of curses from Newt that involved many repeats of 'bloody' and 'slinthead'.

Ada looked between the pair with wide eyes, barely clued in to what was going on. She still didn't understand the danger of the Grievers fully, and she didn't understand the bickering happening between the two boys.

"You're going to scare her-"

"-She should be scared!"

"What do you mean, 'game over'?" She had to summon something deep within herself to speak louder than them both, but she just managed it, and they both broke off their own sentences.

Newt took another deep breath, glaring at Zart for the thousandth time, who now seemed more agitated by the boy than scared, which was admittedly more prevalent previously. 

"If you get stung, you go through the Changing. It causes you to go shuck mad, and no one's ever the same after. Some are worse hit than others. They lash out, or hurt people, and sometimes, we're forced to Banish them." He shrugged as if it was their only choice, and it was clear the weight of his words was affecting his energy.

"Banished?"

Before Newt could reply again, a voice came cutting through the Glade in a sing-song tone, yet equally exhausted as energetic.

"Newt!"

Newt's head immediately swivelled round to see Minho had run in through the entrance to the Glade. He was resting his hands on his knees as he regained his breath, but he was looking around the Glade to catch Newt's attention. As soon as the Runner caught the blonde looking, he waved enthusiastically, making Newt roll his eyes fondly.

Ada couldn't help but grin at the pair, Zart catching her eye and fake gagging, making her narrowly avoid laughing. She cleared her throat to break Newt's stare on the other boy, and then nudged his shoulder as a way of asking him to introduce her.

His cheeks tinged pink a little, but he obliged, limping over towards Minho who watched in amusement at the boy and the girl following him like a puppy. His arms were now folded over his chest, his biceps flexing and a smirk invading his expression.

"Alright Newtie?" He teased the blonde, who blushed in return, punching the boy playfully.

"This is Minho, our Keeper of the Runners." He told Ada, who suddenly felt shy under Minho's eyes.

He was intimidating. He gave off an infinite aura of confidence and cockiness, not seeming to be scared at all of Grievers, let alone Alby or Newt. His cockiness would probably come back to bite him in the ass at some point in the future, but for now, it seemed to be working smoothly.

He grinned at the girl, thrusting out his hand for her to shake. "Nice to meet you Greenie."

She took it apprehensively, his hand warm and his grip firm as he shook it once then dropped his arm. Newt glanced between the pair, seemingly amused by the exchange.

"It's Ada actually."

"Name back already, huh?" Minho asked Newt, who nodded to confirm.

As if I'd be lying, Ada thought to herself. She wouldn't say it out loud, knowing Minho would probably have some sassy comeback to throw at her and shut her up. She simply just nodded, and Minho smiled approvingly.

"You know if we're having a bonfire tonight? For the Greenie?" Ada rolled her eyes at the fact Minho didn't resort to her name, but her sulky thoughts were interrupted by the boy once again talking, "I mean, for Ada."

He looked at her expectantly as if to say, you heard I used your name, right?, and Ada couldn't help but chuckle at the Runner's antics. Newt looked deep in thought for a moment, eyes still fixed on Minho as he ruffled his hair and stretched out as if he was planning to move.

"I don't know. I better go find Alby."

As Newt limped away, head swivelling madly as he searched for the leader, Minho watched after him. He tilted his head to the side, smiling fondly, and Ada raised her eyebrows at the Asian boy.

"You are so gone for him." 

The words escaped her before she could stop it. She wouldn't have been so bold if she thought about it before she spoke. She had only just met the boy.

But Minho only snickered, his eyes still on Newt's retreating figure. "You've only been here five minutes and you're the only one to have noticed - including Newt." He paused, and Ada swore a flicker of upset passed through his eyes, before vanishing as quickly as it came. 

"He's got a nice butt."

Ada wrinkled her nose up in disgust, but she had to admit that Minho's words were more funny than they were gross. He glanced to her, to see if she was laughing, and seemed satisfied with her stifled giggles.

"Anyway, now that you know my darkest secret, we are forced to become friends." He slung his arm over her shoulder rather enthusiastically, and began to steer her in the direction of the Homestead. "And I will make sure you have that bonfire, Greenie."

"It's Ada."

"Whatever, newbie."