I was sitting on a treebranch, high up in the tree, when one of the boys ran underneath my feet. He was thin and lanky with dirty blond hair and a young face. I was perched so high, he didn't even see me and ran straight under the branch I was perched on.
"Hey, Girl! We ain't gonna hurt you!" He shouted, and I flinched.
"Shuck you're loud. Slim it, will ya?" I snapped without thinking, surprising myself. He whirled around, only noticing I was high above him when I let my legs hang down.
His eyebrows lifed. "Oh - Sorry. I'm Newt." He told me, as I clambered down. I was about eye-level with his chin and I had to tilt my head back to look him in the eye. m.
"Welcome to the glade, Newt," I said, smirking at his odd name. "I'm Thalia." I held out my hand, and he shook it.
I turned to head back toward the clearing, but he grabbed my arm and stopped me.
"Sorry, but, where are we? Who are you?" He asked.
"Why don't we wait until all you boys are together so I don't have to explain this more than once. I call this place the Glade, and I've lived here for the past month. I guess you shanks live here now, too." I said grimly.
Newt paused, seemingly mulling over what I'd just shared.
"-Just curious, but what do I look like? For some reason I can't remember anything about myself but my name, and I'm assuming there aren't many mirrors around here." He asked, frustration evident.
I looked him up and down, and I opened my mouth to describe Newt just as another pair of footsteps thundered towards us.
A tan asian boy with short black hair who looked to be about sixteen or seventeen appeared between the trees, making a beeline for Newt and myself.
When he got to us, he gasped "-Hey! - you found her!" He settled his hands on his knees, catching his breath.
I answered him, my lips settling in a smirk. "Yes, you found me, congragualtions. Do you want a prize?"
Dang, I thought, I'm really on a roll with this sarcasm. The boy looked a bit surprised, before straightening up to give me a full-blown smile.
"I like 'er. I'm Minho, by the way," he said. I smiled back.
"I'm Thalia. Newt was just asking me to describe how he looks to him." I redirected my attention back to Newt.
"As I was saying, You've got dirty blonde hair, and you're obviously taller than me, maybe 5'11''? You're probably around six-"
Yet another set of footsteps cut me off, and a dark-skinned boy with hard features made his way to join us.
"Guys! you found-"
"Yes! They found me!" I practically shouted, exasperated. "Now can I please, finish one shucking sentence!"
He then promptly shut his mouth, his eyes wide.
"Now - so I don't have to repeat this three different times. We're all probably around the same age, so teenage I'd guess. You have black hair," I turned, pointing to Minho. "You have.. no hair? Yeah, you're practically bald. Sorry shank." I laughed as I pointed to the new, dark-skinned boy. "And you - Who are you?" I said to our newest arrival.
The new boy towered over me, and he had short, closely shaven light brown hair and green eyes.
"I'm Gally," He said simply. "Hi. I'm Thalia."
"I'm Alby," said the dark-skinned boy, and I nodded my head at him.
Newt had been quiet for quite a while and he stood off to my left, rubbing his lips with the tips of his fingers.
"Yeah - Now that we're all here. Can you please explain where the bloody hell we are?" He asked, raising his hand like he was in a classroom.
The conversation took a serious tone, and I could almost feel the temperature drop.
I looked down, and when I looked up I was chewing on my lip. "To be honest, I have no idea. I woke up in a box - the one that brought you all - a month ago, and I've been stuck here ever since."
"What's outside the walls?" Alby asked.
"What's outside them? What's inside them?" Minho sassed.
"Inside the walls," I said, looking at Minho, "is the Glade, or that's what I call it. There's a meadow and a forest, and that's about it. Each week the box comes up, sets off an alarm, and I get new supplies like clothes and food, and seeds, and weapons."
"Weapons?!" Newt exclaimed, "Why do you need weapons?"
"For what is outside the walls," I answer, and start walking towards the edge of the forest in the direction of the Box. "Come with me." They followed, eagerly.
We stopped a couple of yards from the opening in the walls, and the boys craned their necks, looking upwards.
"I know it sounds hard to believe, but in a few hours, this opening will shut." I said calmly. No one spoke, and I took that as a que to continue.
"Outside these walls, is a maze. The weapons are for us to defend ourselves from the creatures in the maze." I paused, waiting for a reaction.
"..Creatures?" Gally questioned, his voice wary.
"I'm not kidding, I promise. I've gone out into the Maze and one of those shanks has almost killed me. The grievers, as I call them, are these weird gelatinous mechanical animals. Their body is squishy like slime, but they have a bunch of these metal arms that stick out with lights, knives, blades, anything you can think of, on the end of the arms. I learned the hard way that they are faster than they look."
"Wonderful," Gally spat, "Giant, mechanical monsters that are practically made to kill us." He spoke slowly and sarcastically, getting on my nerves.
"Do you remember anything from your life before? Or are you just like us and only know your name." Minho asked.
I shook my head no. I couldn't remember anything. It felt as if a piece of frosted glass blocked me from all of my memories, keeping me from reaching them.
"I only remember my name, and vague things, like things that seem familiar to me"
"Like what?" Newt asked.
I reached behind me, pulling the machete off of my back, and out of its scabbard.
"Like holding this blade." I gave them a creepy smile, before laughing. "I'm just kidding - like climbing trees. It's easy for me, like I've done it before."
I stopped talking, and took a deep breath. I looked around at the other boys who had joined me in the Glade. Whether they liked it or not, we were in this together.
"Welcome to the Glade, shanks."
- - -
After a few days, we fell into a familiar groove. The fourth day they were here, I took them all out into the Maze. From then on, Gally decided to stay in the Glade and build us a shelter, or a building, and we had taken to calling it our homestead. Newt, Minho, and I took turns running in the Maze, exploring, and simultaneously looking for a way out. We had come up with nothing so far. Ultimately, Alby grounded us. He had the slowest temper out of all of us, and he was trustworthy.
Together we quickly became like a large family. I trusted each of the boys with my life, and they trusted me with theirs. We were all equals, and we all got along easily. The supplies continually came at weekly intervals, but we started recieving other things, like pots and pans, and syringes filled with a blue-tinged liquid.
So, here we were three weeks later. Minho and I were running together today, and it was about an hour after lunch. We had probably about three hours until we had to get back. I ran in front, my hair slightly stuck to the back of my neck from sweat.
"I need some hairties" I muttered, and Minho laughed.
"What?" He chuckled, as he asked me.
We rounded a corner. "I said-" I began, but stopped dead in my tracks.
Before us, about ten yards away, lay a Griever.
"What?" He asked, and I whirled around, putting a finger to my lips. He looked past my shoulder, his eyes widening with fear.
He had never seen a griever before, and suddenly a loud metallic ring sounded behind me. I slowly turned around, my heart seemed to have stopped breathing.
The Griever had lifted itslef off of the maze floor, and taken one menacing step towards us.
I slowly raised my arm, grabbing my machete. It wouldn't do much to protect us from metal blades, but it gave me a feeling of comfort to hold it in my hand.
I turned once to look back at Minho, to tell him to leave quietly, when I saw his eyes widen even more with terror.
"Look out!" He screamed, and with a series of metal bangs, I twisted to see the Griever racing straight for us. I grabbed his arm, to drag Minho with me, but he stood their frozen.
"Minho!" I shouted, and I yanked him out of the way, just in time, as the Griever crashed where he stood a fraction of a second before.
Unfortunately, the weight of Minho's fall had pulled me off balance, and I fell in his place. The Griever's legs landed skillfully around me, not damaging a single part of me.
I flipped over, hurredly trying to crawl out from underneath it, but it quickly lashed out with a kind of needle. I felt it's sharp prick as it sank into the skin of my thigh.
A cool feeling spread from the area I had been stabbed, and my body relaxed. I faintly heard Minho shout, and the Griever slowly crawled off of me, and retreated, almost as if it knew that it's poison would wreak terrible repercussions.
At that instant, a horribly sharp pain began radiate from the spot where I'd been stung. Within seconds, it felt as though my blood had turned to acid. It quickly grew in intensity, and I let out an agonized groan, my fingers clenching into fists.
I felt arms behind my back and underneath my knees as Minho lifted me up. He began to run, whispering to me.
"You're gonna be ok. Alright, Thalia? Don't you shucking not be okay." He murmured to me, and I knew he was only saying them for his own benefit.
By the time we reached the Glade, I could barely understand what was going on. I was writhing in agony in Minho's arms, letting out short cries of pain each time I was jostled.
I heard the worried shouts of the other boys, and a few minutes the rumble of the doors put me to sleep.
I felt at peace as all of my senses slowly faded to nothing.
- -
"Thalia," a boy whispered in my ear. I felt his warm hand under the hem of my shirt, his warm fingertips softly caressing my hipbones, and I felt his familiar figure beside me, the left side of my body was warm from his touch.
I felt my lips curve into a smile. I leaned into his side. I could feel his firmly defined, yet comfortable bicep beneath my head. His breath smoothly billowed onto my cheek.
"Yes, Thomas?" I exhaled peacefully. His hand cupped my waist, pulling me to him gently. Our bodies were flush together, and our lips were only centimeters apart. He bent the arm my head rested upon, slowly bringing my head closer to his using his forearm behind my head.
He tilted his head slowly, and I breathed in his sweet breath before our lips collided gently. His lips were extraordinarily soft and they moved slowly with mine. After a few seconds, he pulled back.
I felt completly at peace and safe.
"I love you." He said, and with that he pressed a short kiss to my lips.