RECKLESS [The Maze Runner || Newt || Book 1]

01 - Arrival

Warmth.
That was the first thing Clara felt, a soft warmth on her face and body. She opened her eyes, squinting slightly as the light burned them. Her hands moved around beside her, trying to grasp at anything in sight but all she felt was grass. Opening her eyes completely she looked around, noticing that she was in a field of some sort, she tried to remember why she was there, but nothing came to her.

Nothing.

She searched her mind, desperately trying to find any sort of memory, a familiar sight or sound, but she found nothing. The only thing in her mind was knowledge, the things that any human learns as they grow. It made no sense, how she was able to recall everything she'd ever learned, but nothing about herself, except her name.

Clara. She thought My name is Clara

She swung her head around frantically, trying to take in the environment surrounding her and she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. She quickly discovered that she wasn't alone in this strange place, her eyes scanned over the bodies and faces of around 40 boys who were quickly sitting up and coming to the same realization as her– they remembered nothing.

Clara stood up quickly, determined to find any sort of clue about the place they were in, but her breath caught in her throat as she turned around, a huge wall stood in front of her, taller than she thought was ever possible.

Its large grey exterior was covered in thick green vines stemming from the top all the way down to the ground. She spun in a circle, realizing these huge walls surrounded the entire field, trapping all of them inside of it.

A voice behind her drew her attention away from the goliath structure in front of her, the first boy she'd heard speaking since she woke up. She moved to face the boy, he was tall, much taller than her, with dark skin and a stern look on his face, his voice was deep as he spoke,

"What is this place."

A murmur of voices formed a response to his question, it seemed like none of them knew what was going on. It was comforting, in a way, knowing that everyone else was just as confused as one another. Another boy spoke up, he was shorter than the first, with pale skin and strange eyebrows.

"Does anyone know what the hell is going on?"

And with that question, all hell broke loose, all the boys started speaking at once, asking a bunch of different questions,

"Who are you people?"

"Where are we?"

"Why can't I remember anything?"

"Why is she the only girl?"

An accented voice asked that question, Clara's gaze fell on a skinny boy with blonde hair and a frown on his face, and a silence fell over the group. It seemed like this was the first time any of the group seemed to notice that she was the only girl. All the boys turned to stare at her, and she felt her cheeks growing hotter by the second, the attention embarrassing her as she quickly looked down at my feet. The first boy spoke again, his voice loud and booming, drawing the attention away from her again,

"Alright everyone, it's pretty damn obvious that none of us have any clue what the hell is going on here, but the way I see it there's nothing we can do about it now. The first thi-" His voice was cut off by a high-pitched whine, Clara's hands flew up to her ears trying to block out the deafening screech, she looked at the boy next to her who was doing the same thing.
After a second the screeching was replaced by a loud booming like thunder, and the sound of stone scraping stone, she circled around trying to find the source of the noise and saw something that almost made her eyes pop straight out of her skull.

The monstrous walls in front of them began moving. The middle of the walls began to separate like a door was opening. A second boom drew everyone's attention to the left, where another set of giant doors began opening, this was followed by a third and a fourth. Everyone spun around watching as the four doors opened wider and wider until they finally stopped, and a silence settled over the group.

Without a second thought, everybody began running towards the door closest to them, stopping just in front of it and taking in the site before them. Inside the opening was a large passage surrounded by more ivy-covered walls, there were several openings on either side of the passage, carefully they began to move forward to explore the winding passages.

Clara moved in a straight line down the main passage until she came to a dead-end with paths branching out on either side of her, she turned left and followed it to another dead end that forced her to take a right turn. She felt the cogs in her brain turning, trying to make sense of the mess that surrounded her, and quickly she felt the pieces fall into place, her heart dropping as she realized what was happening. She ran back to the main passageway where the first boy that spoke was looking up at the walls around him, a hint of fear on his face.

"It's a maze." She said, walking up to him, stopping a few feet away. At this point, some of the other boys had come back to the main passage as well, that same look of confusion covering their faces.

"What?"

"This thing? It's a maze. The passages leading to nowhere, the twists and turns. It's a giant fucking maze."