Defender - The Maze Runner (Book 1)

Prologue

It was dark out. And loud. The young boy couldn't even hear his younger sisters crying right beside him. He was being pushed and shoved towards a big stone building, it looked like something out of a nightmare; with huge steel bars on the windows, an impenetrable fence with wrought iron gates. He held tight to his sisters hands, he didn't want to lose them. He couldn't lose them, not after watching their mom and dad die right in front of their innocent eyes.

Masked guards with loaded guns were standing every few feet, ordering the angry crowd back. Strangers were yelling, dogs were growling and barking and thunder cracking overhead. From the distance came wild animal screams. Outside the building, it was chaos.

The little girls were frightened, grasping onto their brothers hands desperately, crying and fighting to stay on their feet. The guards were herding them through the gate and up the stairs. They didn't seem to notice the crying, they probably didn't care. They were the same guards who had shot their parents. They didn't care. They seemed inhuman.

The doors to the building slammed shut ominously behind the children. The loud chaotic noise from outside was instantly cut off. The only noise the children could hear was their own breathing and the occasional sniff or hiccup from the 2 younger girls. The instant quiet was almost worse than the chaos they just left.

Another stark contrast inside was that everything was white. While outside was dark and dirty, inside the building was clean and crisp; a pristine white. The walls were painted white, the floor was a bright shiny white tile that reflected the bright white lights. Even the odd chairs scattered around were white. Blinding white everywhere.

A side door opened and a nurse, also wearing white, with her hair pulled back into a high tight ponytail walked out with a clipboard. She surveyed the three frightened and confused children swifty, nodded her head and said in a sharp crisp voice, "Escort the girls to wing 4, rooms 2 and 3. The boy to wing 5 room 1." She didn't wait for a response, she turned on her heel and snapped the door shut.

The guards grabbed the children around the upper arm and gruffly escorted them through the winding white halls. They came to a stop, in front of big sliding doors, with a big painted number 4 on it. The door needed a swipe card and a pin entry. The siblings knew something bad was going to happen. They could feel it in their gut, something bad, very bad! They could smell the sterile odor, like a dentist office or hospital.

Once the doors slid shut behind them, the guards pulled the 2 girls down the hall away from the blond boy. The moment their hands separated the children started yelling and fighting. The guards had to pick up the girls around the waist, to keep them from squirming away. It was easy because they were so young, there was no strength to their fists and kicks. The boy struggled against his guard, yelling for his little sisters.

"I'll find you! NO! You can't! NO! Stop! I'll find you!"

He fought desperately while his little sisters were screaming, calling for him to help. But what could a small boy do against armed grown guards? He watched as the barbaric guards held his thrashing screaming sisters, walking further away. The last of his family. The boy watched as they took the girls down the hall and around the corner, the sobbing getting quieter with each step. He wiggled and fought with all the strength he had left. He managed to break free with one final yank of his arm. As fast as his legs would take him he sprinted after his sisters.

He rounded the corner, the sobbing cries of the girls were cut off sharply. A door slammed shut. He could hear the angry footsteps of the guards coming closer. He saw a door standing ajar to his left, he slipped quickly inside. It was a janitor's closet. He crouched behind the door holding his breath.

"Man that kid is fast" huffed a gruff voice.

"Ya, definitely don't get paid enough to run after brats and munnies!" another deep voice answered.

The boy stood up as the footsteps grew quiet, he creeped out of his hiding spot, and crept back towards the doors he heard his sisters go into. As he approached one of them he heard an abrupt shrill ear piercing scream. The scream of a small child in pain. Lots of pain.

"Noooo!!" He screamed.

He threw his small frame against the door.

"No! No! No!! Stop! I'm here! I'm here! I'm right here!" The boy screamed at the door.

Another piercing scream rippled down the hall. Both his baby sisters were now screaming. He didn't know what to do. His heart beat faster, his stomach clenched, and he felt hot tears welling up. He couldn't get into the rooms, the doors were locked and heavy, he couldn't help them. His baby sisters needed him and he was helpless. The tears finally fell from his big brown eyes, and slid down his dirty cheeks.

The heavy footsteps of the guards came thudding back down the hall towards him. He had to get his sisters out. He continued yelling and banging on the doors where he could hear the sobbing of broken little girls. A door flew open behind him. Out stumbled another child, being held up by a severe looking nurse. The boy had Asian features, with dark spiky black hair. He looked exhausted, his chest heaving, tear tracks on his face and the look of a nasty bruise forming on his check.

The sharp voice of a second nurse inside the room echoed through the hall. "Now I hope you will remember your name."

The boy's eyes darted around, wide with fear, they landed on the blond boy's wide watery eyes.

He whispers four words; "Run! Never stop running!"

The Asian boy was dragged through the sliding door and out of sight. The guards rounded the corner, and were on top of the blond boy, pushing him to the floor. He would never take the Asian boy's advice, he would never leave his sisters behind. The last thing he remembered as his head cracked against the cold hard white floor was the Asian boy's words and his 2 baby sisters screaming, before the black of unconsciousness took him.