Everything sounded muffled. Elle felt like she was moving, but her body remained still as she slept. In her dreams, she received flashes of memories she would forget when she woke up.
Elle was by herself in a sterile, white room. One of the walls was a large window so she could easily be observed. Almost every room Elle had been inside for the last six months was identical to this one. Sometimes, instead of a big glass wall, there was a two-way mirror. She couldn't count the hours she spent staring at her reflection, waiting for someone to tell her what was happening.
This wasn't what they had promised her. She hadn't seen him since the day she made the deal.
Elle couldn't tell how long she had been sitting alone and was endlessly doodling on the plain piece of paper they had given her to keep her entertained. She had been drawing a little farm area, placed on top of lush green grass. Elle thought of a name for the drawing before writing in the slanted cursive of an eleven-year-old: the Glade.
An abrupt noise caught her attention, forcing her to look up from her drawing to see the woman with blonde hair in the white lab coat entering the room. Elle wasn't surprised to see her. This woman was familiar to her. Chancellor Ava Paige, as she was publicly known. She was the person Elle had seen most since she was taken from her family. Elle could still remember the day this woman walked into her life. At first, it seemed like Ava had all the answers to Elle's questions. She was intelligent and had an air of confidence and assertion that made Elle want to trust her. But now, she wasn't so sure anymore.
The only good thing about Chancellor Paige arriving in the room was that, for once, she brought someone with her. "Elle, this is Thomas," she introduced a boy Elle's age. He had dark brown hair and matching eyes with freckled pale skin. Elle couldn't quite make out what this boy was feeling. He was almost stoic. His face was expressionless, and it gave none of his thoughts away. "He's going to be your friend here at WICKED," Ava continued. The smile on her face was just as questionable as her morals.
"Why can't I pick my own friends?" Elle asked. Her voice was higher pitched than it was now, reflecting her youth and innocence.
"Well of course you can, my dear. But I think you and Thomas will get along very well," Ava said softly, trying to seem caring even though Elle had soon realised everything was in order.
"Why?" Thomas spoke up, finally making himself known aside from Ava introduction. Elle met his eyes, tilting her head as she observed him. He liked to ask questions, just like her. At that moment, she decided that she would get along with Thomas. Not because Chancellor Paige told her to but because she noticed that same spark of defiance in him.
"Because the two of you are special," Ava said, taking note of Elle's drawing and picking it up. "What's this, Elle?"
"Just a drawing," Elle replied. "I called it The Glade because that's what an open space in a forest is called. And I drew a little forest, there." Her small hand pointed to the trees in the drawing as Ava looked it over.
"I like it." Ava smiled. "I'll be holding on to this for you," she said, taking instead of asking permission. Even at eleven, Elle realised this was how things worked at WICKED. "Now, I have a little task for the pair of you. I need you to think of something we could use to test people. Where would you put them if you wanted to test the human mind? To find its limits and observe its responses."
They thought about it. "What about a desert?" Thomas suggested. "The harsh environment will offer multiple tasks and troubles for the human mind. Minimal shelter, water will evaporate, and there definitely won't be enough supplies to last for a long time."
"That is a good idea, thank you Thomas," Ava praised. "But for our first phase we need something simple. Something solvable. Or at least escapable." She turned her eyes to Elle. "Elle, do you have any ideas?"
Of course she did. All Elle did all day was solve puzzles and come up with hypothetical answers to the hypothetical questions the scientists at WICKED gave her. "What about a maze?" Elle suggested.
Her eyes snapped open, and she awoke with a gasp. As she slept, she must have kicked the blankets off her bed, and beads of of cold sweat had collected on her forehead. The memories in her dreams were slipping through her fingers, and she couldn't remember any of them by the time she sat up. It was a frustrating and confusing feeling, constantly thinking that something was on the tip of your tongue and then torn away before she could deliberate it.
Parched, she reached for the water bottle under her bed and realised it was empty. With a frustrated groan, Elle swung her legs over the side of her bed and slipped into her shoes to get water from the tap in the bathroom.
The sun had just started rising, and all the other Gladers were still asleep in the Homestead and outside on the hammocks. She passed by the hammocks on her way to the bathroom entrance and spotted Chuck and Thomas lying beside each other. Stopping in place, Elle glanced at Thomas when she identified him as the source of quiet whimpering. She found him writhing and kicking in his hammock, breathing heavily as he dreamed.
Frowning, Elle snuck around the boys in their hammocks and tried to gently wake Thomas up. "Thomas," she whispered, trying to wake him up without rousing anybody else. "Tommy, wake up," Elle added, shaking him by the shoulders.
He slurred something incoherent before he woke up, "Jane--" The name was so jumbled from his sleep-ridden mind that Elle couldn't quite make it out. Thomas shot up, gasping and choking on air as he looked around to orient himself. His eyes scanned the Homestead and Deadheads before landing on Elle. The burning touch of her hand on his shoulder scalded him through his shirt. "Elle!" Thomas exhaled in relief. "Hey, are you okay?"
"Are you?" Elle retorted, pushing his slightly damp hair away from his forehead in a soothing manner. "I think you were having a nightmare," she explained. "I had one too."
"I don't know," Thomas muttered. Any memory of his dreams trickled away the longer he stayed awake. "I can't remember," he admitted, dark eyes clouded with exhaustion.
"That's fine. You feel okay?" Elle prompted, wanting to make sure he was alright before leaving him. Her concern was deep in her gut, and she couldn't describe why it was so intense. Something about seeing Thomas in such a vulnerable state drew out a protective anxiety she couldn't decipher. He nodded his head, a little hesitant. "That's good. Get some rest, Tom, everyone else is still asleep."
Elle moved to get up, but Thomas caught her wrist before she could move it from its place on his shoulder. "Wait," Thomas whispered. His hand was warm and sent a similar heat up her arm and to her stomach. Suppressing a shiver, Elle met his dark eyes and paused. "You said you had a nightmare too?" he remembered, his expression akin to a startled child with large, worried eyes. Elle's heart broke for him. She couldn't wrap her head around why, but seeing him like this made her want to pull him into her arms. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Elle reassured Thomas. "You look pretty shook up, are you sure you don't want to talk?"
"Are we ever getting out of here?" Thomas wondered, spilling his guts and telling Elle his greatest fear from the get-go. "Do you think we're stuck here with nowhere else to go?"
Elle blinked, taken aback by his sudden change in subject. "I don't know," she confessed somberly. "What I do know is that everything keeps indicating we're special and different from the other Gladers." She recalled what Alby and Chuck told the pair yesterday. "I think that maybe it means that we're here for a reason. Maybe we can help everyone get out."
"Yeah," Thomas sighed tiredly. "I hope so."
"It's a maze, Tom," Elle reminded him. "There's a way out. There has to be. We just have to find the right path."
"The right path," Thomas echoed, nodding his head. "I like the sound of that." He rested his head on his pillow, exhaustion taking over. "I just don't understand anything. I feel like you get it but it hasn't clicked for me yet."
Elle nodded sympathetically. "It will, trust me," she promised. "I don't understand much either. We've barely been here for a day. We have time to figure things out so don't worry."
"We have time," Thomas echoed, humming contentedly. The way Elle's words comforted him wasn't lost on either of them.
"I wish I could stay out here with you guys though. It's a little lonely by myself but I'm not going to take Alby and Newt's kindness for granted." Elle shrugged. "Besides, there's no way that we're going to fit in that hammock together," she joked, smiling and squeezing Thomas's hand.
Thomas grinned tiredly at her. "You're right," he agreed. "What are you doing out of bed anyway?"
"I was just getting some water." Elle held up her water bottle. "I'll see you later. Get some sleep and I will too," she suggested. "Deal?"
Thomas let himself shamelessly scan Elle's delicate features. Bleary-eyed and messy-haired first thing in the morning, she was more stunning than he could ever have imagined. "I'll see you soon," he corrected her. Reluctantly, Thomas released her from his grip. "Sleep well, Elle."
"Sleep well, Thomas," Elle replied softly. He watched her enter the bathroom, exit with a full water bottle, and step inside the Homestead before letting his eyes shut and returning to dreamland.
Two hours later, Elle woke up to someone knocking on her bedroom door. "Rise and shine, Greenie!" Newt's cheerful voice lilted through the door. "We've got a long day ahead of us and the Greenies can't be sleeping in on your first day of job-hunting," he hollered. "Why don't you wash up and get some food in you before meeting up with Alby. I trust you'll find the other Greenie and don't need to be reminded where the kitchens are."
"Yeah, I've got it," Elle called hoarsely, clearing her throat afterwards. "Thanks for the wake up call, Mother Newt!" she added happily.
Newt snorted. "Don't be a shank," he scolded her fondly. "Get up, get ready."
"Will do," Elle promised.
She got out of bed and knelt on the floor, pulling out the box with her toiletries from under her bed. After brushing her hair, she pulled it into a French braid to keep it out of her face. With her toothbrush and toothpaste in hand, Elle left her room and entered her cubicle in the bathroom to wash up for the day. When she was done dropping her belongings off in her room, she ran into Thomas on the way to the kitchens.
"Morning, sunshine," Thomas greeted her with a smile playing on his lips. He watched her eyes brighten when she saw his familiar face. "Are you ready for our second day?"
"Absolutely," Elle replied, void of any excitement and enthusiasm. "God, the sun is bright out here."
Thomas stifled a laugh. "You mean outdoors?" Elle nodded, stretching her arms and back before using her hand to shield her eyes from the sun. "Come on, you'll be alright," he encouraged, nudging Elle and walking the rest of the way to the kitchens with her.
Since it was Elle and Thomas's second day, Newt and Alby let them sleep longer than usual. This meant that Elle could eat her first proper meal in peace without worrying about dozens of boys staring at her and watching her every move. The cook, Frypan, left them two plates of breakfast but was nowhere to be seen. It was a simple but filling meal that sped up Elle's process of waking up. The Greenies ate their food in comfortable silence, trying to regain their energy as quickly as possible for the day ahead.
"Hey guys," Chuck's recognisable voice greeted them once they put their dishes away and left the kitchens. "Alby's looking for the two of you."
"Of course he is," Thomas mumbled, already fed up with the day.
Elle laughed at his tone, sending Chuck an amiable smile. "Thanks, Chuck. Where can we find him?"
"Your favourite place," Chuck joked, pointing towards the opening of the Maze walls.
Thomas – pleased by this unexpected turn of events – exclaimed: "We get to go inside the Maze?"
Chuck shook his head. "You wish!" He rolled his eyes for good measure. "Just meet him by the walls."
Elle and Thomas met Alby by the Maze walls as Chuck had instructed.
"I have something I'd like to show you two," Alby greeted them. "Something that I hope will help you understand why we do things a certain way around here," he added, turning to face the Glade. Since it was already late morning, Elle could see all the Gladers doing their assigned jobs. "It's peaceful, isn't it?" Alby said, noticing Elle's gaze. "I know it's hard to believe but it wasn't always this way. We had dark days. We lost a lot of boys to fear. To panic. But we've come far since then. Established order, made peace." Something in his tone made Elle feel nostalgic and melancholy, even though she wasn't there with Alby.
"Yeah... Why are you telling us this?" Thomas asked, noticing how Alby seemed to focus on him in particular. His eyes squinted due to the sunlight beating down on them.
"Because you're not like the others," Alby admitted, shuffling closer to Thomas. Elle sighed, knowing exactly why they were given this specific speech. Long story short: Alby thought they might be troublemakers. Or he assumed they would disrupt the order the Gladers worked so hard to maintain. "Thomas, you're curious. And Elle, you're constantly coming up with answers to questions I haven't even asked yet. But you're one of us now. You need to know what that means."
Alby took a knife from his pocket and gently pressed it into Thomas's palm. When Thomas and Elle gave him confused looks, he motioned to the Maze wall behind them, smiling at the Greenies. Elle turned, looking in the direction at small carvings on the stone wall. Once she got closer, she realised the small carvings were names. There had to be over fifty names on the stone. Some of them were crossed out, but most of them remained untouched. She should have expected it, but it was slightly disheartening to only see boys' names. Carefully, Elle reached forward and traced some of them with her fingertip, mouthing the names when she was done going over them. They were written in different handwriting, but it was clear some were carved by the same person.
Thomas stepped up beside Elle, inspecting the names and saw the crossed-out ones. "What happened to them?" Thomas inquired, pointing to a crossed-out name with a frown.
Elle realised exactly what it meant, pressing her lips together and shaking her head. "Nothing good," she whispered.
Alby looked like he'd rather not say what happened to the crossed-out names, so he remained vague. "Like I said... Dark days, Thomas."
Elle knew Alby probably lost a lot of boys he cared about. Alby must have been around for a long time to be elected the leader of these boys. He may have been one of the first people to have arrived, if not the very first person. Elle couldn't begin to imagine everything he had gone through by himself. It's never easy to establish and achieve order, especially in a group of young boys who are all scared and confused.
Thomas nodded, taking a deep breath and raising his hands to start carving his name into the wall. The sharp, high-pitched sound of his knife scraping the wall was surprisingly satisfying.
"Elle," Alby captured her attention. "I just wanted you to know that you're safe here," he explained, wanting Elle to feel like she didn't have to be on guard. "The Keepers talked about it and we've encouraged the boys to try to leave you alone a little, at least until they get used to you being here. If anyone bothers you, you come and tell me right away. Got it?" His tone was serious like it always was, but Alby's eyes were kind, and his smile was genuine.
Elle agreed, surprisingly touched that they had spoken in detail about keeping her safe. "Yeah, I got it. Thanks Alby," she returned his smile.