The Box
He looked up. He saw nothing except darkness.
He immediately felt the fear growing inside, the sense of panic.
All that murk was blinding him. The noise he could hear was quite annoying, the sound of screeching metal was rumbling in his ears.
The air was stale, it was difficult for him to breathe normally.
He tried to stand up but a strong jolt pushed him back to the wall. It was cold and hard. Everything around him seemed to be like this, only metal stuff was surrounding him.
He sat down again and he curled up.
His mind did not seem to work, he was panicking and everything looked surreal. He crawled to the edge of the room. He was sweating even if it was pretty cold. He was near to crying, curled up like a baby he let the tears fill his eyes.
One moment later the room started moving up. The motion of the elevator made him nauseous. It kept moving for half an hour before stopping with another strong jolt.
The moment the room stopped he started screaming.
“Help, help please! Is there anyone here?” He shouted.
He stood up again and tried to reach the ceiling with his hands.
A loud noise stopped him.
The light of the sun invaded the room, blinding him. A bunch of guys were looking at him curiously, some others seemed just annoyed.
“What’s your name, Greenie?” He didn’t recognise the last word but that was the least of his problems. He started thinking about his name or every other information about himself. Nothing. Absolute void.
“What the hell is happening?” He thought.
His mind seemed to work pretty well, he remembered everything about the world. He focused on the memory of a garden, probably the garden of his house. There were colorful flowers and some bees were flying around them.
So why couldn't he remember anything about himself?
“Don’t worry Greenie, it’s ok, a couple days and your name will pop into your brain.” One of the guys said with a smile on his face. “Let’s bring him up with the supplies”
Another guy jumped into the room and took him rudely out. He fell on the grass and immediately the lads surrounded him. The first one who talked and gave the order to take him out was looking at him keeping his green eyes on him. He was smiling.
The boy felt the fear growing inside, he could hear loud noise of screaming and laughing around him but everything was muffled. He didn’t even realize what he was doing but in less than a minute he was running, running from them, that strange people, running from the room, running.
“We got a runner!” Someone shouted and in that moment he fell on the grass, rolling.
Applauses and ovations started but he froze. He looked around and he saw it: a giant, massive wall surrounding the Glade he was in.
Before anything else could happen, he passed out.
***
The light woke him up.
The memories of the last hours came back to his mind like a punch on his face. The fear invested him again like a tsunami.
“Where am I?” He thought.
He looked around himself. “I am trapped, again, perfect”
He was in a cage made of rocks, mud and wood. The sun was shining in the sky over his head, warming the whole room.
He climbed to the little woody door and he looked outside. A bunch of guys, none of them older than twenty years old, were working out there. Some of them were in a big vegetable garden, some others were shepherds.
Less than thirty seconds later two figures placed in front of him, obscuring his vision.
He fell on the rocks behind him.
“Hey” The voice of a boy reached him. “I will take you out, okay Greenie? Do not run again.” He said.
That word, again. 'Greenie'.
The boy unlocked the cage and took him out.
He was surely older, probably twenty-five years old. He was tall but not really muscled. His skin was tanned and in some points sunburned, his face seemed gentle but resolute at the same time. His hair was dark brown as his eyes.
“My name is Frank.” He said. “Can you tell me anything about yourself? Any information? Anything you remember’”
The sense of panic came back in his heart. “I-I remember nothing” He answered “Not even my name” He felt so stupid and worthless.
“Don't worry Greenie, it’s been the same for all of us, you will remember your name in a couple days.”
At that moment he realized that there was another boy near them.
He was silent, arms folded, grim gaze. He was even taller than Frank and definitely more muscled. His hair was long and black.
“That’s Rabastan, my boyfriend.” Frank said with a pleased smile on his face.
He was too terrified to say anything.
“Let’s bring him to Regulus, Frank”
“We do not want him to die the first day Bas”
“W-What is this place?” He whispered at this point, with a faint voice.
“Let me show you!” Frank told him.
***
They were walking around the Glade together.
Frank was explaining something to him.
“This is our house.” He said, pointing to a shack full of cots. “We sleep there. Everything you see, we made it. We built everything, we worked to produce our own food to survive.”
He saw a boy with some cows, walking.
“Whatever we need, the box provides.” Frank kept saying
“The box?” He asked.
“Yeah” He pointed to the elevator he was in hours early. “Every month it comes back with a new guy and with provisions, this month we got you. Congratulations Greenie.”
“Why don’t I remember anything? Who brought me here?”
“We don’t know”
“Frank!” Someone said, interrupting them.
He raised his gaze on the same boy he saw when he arrived, the one with the green eyes. They were beautiful and full of sadness, he thought.
“That’s Regulus, my second-in-command.” Frank said.
“So you’re the leader?”
“Yes man, here I am”
Regulus spoke for the first time “You know, for a second I thought you had the chops to be a Runner, before seeing you falling like a dumbass” Regulus said with a straight face.
“A Runner?” He asked immediately.
Both of them looked at him and then Frank spoke: “Reg, go call Peter, please.”
The boy instantly moved to the garden. He kept his gaze on him.
“Come with me, Pete will explain everything to you, I promise.” he started climbing a wood building that looked pretty unstable. “Come on, don’t worry, it’s more resistant than it looks”
He reached the boy, climbing attentively. He was shaking, every step was difficult. When they reached the top they stopped on the edge of a little platform.
“This is the Glade, and it’s all we have. As long as you take care of this place as we do, you and I, we’ll get on just fine.”
At that moment another boy arrived. He was short and plump. He had a smile on his face, that made him look really cute and gentle.
“Hey” He called them from below. “Regulus told me that you were looking for me”
“Yeah, Greenie, that’s Peter, he will explain anything to you.”
***
“Everybody here has a job. There’s the Track-Hoes, they work in the gardens, right now we have only Sturgis for that.” Peter pointed to a really muscled boy that was watering some plants.
“There's the Builders, you can imagine their role.” Again he pointed to some guys, there were two of them “Caradoc and Rabastan, I think Frank introduced you to Bas, they are really close, such a cute couple”
Then he pointed to two redheads “Gideon and Fabian, they are literally so similar, they are probably twins and they are the Cooks, we got Dirk who is the Slicer and the Med-Jacks, Barty and Evan, please try to stay away from them if you care about your arms”
“What is your role?” He asked the guy that apparently was called Peter.
“I’m a Slopper, that means that I do all the odd jobs around the Glade. I help out when needed and have to do the jobs that no one else wants to do.”
“What’s a Runner?” He questioned, his voice immediately changing curiosity evident.
“Runners are the only people allowed to go out there.”
“Who are they?”
“Benji and Sirius” Almost as if saying their names summoned them, two boys came running into the Glade from an opening into the huge walls. “Benji is the tallest one, he is really sweet, Sirius is a bit more…Uhm…Scary, we think that he and Regulus should be related, they have the same judging gaze…”
He was actually really similar to Regulus, same green eyes, even if he liked Regulus’ ones a bit more, same dark curls even if his hair was longer and tied up in a bun. Sirius was smiling. Even the smile was similar but Sirius' one looked a bit less sarcastic and way more genuine.
That opening was attracting him like a magnet. Before realizing it, he was walking to it.
Peter reached him running. “What are you doing?”
“I’m just looking.”
“We’re not allowed to go into the Maze…”
The boy said regretting immediately the words he pronounced.
“Maze?” he repeated walking nearer the wall.
“Don’t do that, especially now, it’s dangerous”
He was confused and curious at the same time, that place was attracting him like he belonged to it. He took another step. Within a second he was on the ground, someone pushed him violently making him fall.
Peter shouted “Bas” Rabastan was in front of him.
“Don’t touch me!” He screamed.
“Hey Greenie, calm down.”
“Stay away from me” He got up again.
“Relax Greenie, I’m trying to help you”
“What the hell are you talking about!” In the meanwhile the other guys had gathered around them. Regulus was there, and he noticed him.
“Breathe please, you don’t understand, it’s dangerous.” After those words everyone stopped, a metallic and grinding noise started. The opening in the wall closed.
“Next time, I’m gonna get you to leave” Rabstan said and left them there, going back to his job.
Frank came alongside and whispered “Welcome to the Glade.”
***
What’s the worst idea ever if you're confused, overwhelmed by the situation you’re in, tired and you lost your memory? Probably taking place in a party, especially if you’re the guest of honor.
Unfortunately that’s exactly what his new mates decided to do, throw a party. He immediately disappeared, hiding behind a rock, alone.
He was happy with his loneliness, after that day, stressful and messy, he only wanted a moment for himself.
Sadly that wasn’t possible apparently. First Peter arrived and asked him if he was ok and he had to answer that, yeah, everything was great.
“How the hell am I supposed to feel good right now?” He thought.
After that Frank arrived to ask him to join the others. Some of them were sitting on some rocks, others were enjoying the party, dancing and screaming, others were in a circle: apparently a really appreciated activity in that group was seeing Rabastan kicking other Gladers’ asses.
Obviously he rejected Frank’s offer.
He enjoyed his loneliness for another thirty minutes before being interrupted again.
He raised his gaze and he saw the last person he would have expected to see. Regulus was staring at him with those green eyes. He didn’t say a word, he just sat down near him and he gave him a glass of amber liquid.
“Drink. It’s alcoholic enough to make you feel better”. He drank. Bad idea. It was disgusting. He spat immediately.
“Oh my God, what the hell is that?”.
Regulus took the glass again, drinking a sip. “I don’t know, Bas’ recipe”
“He is an asshole…” He whispered.
“Yeah, when you first see him he seems like that but he’s not that bad. You should see him with Frank, he is so kind with him. I really can’t understand how love can change someone so much.”
“I would tell you but honestly I can’t remember loving someone”
Regulus laughed for the first time. “Fair enough Greenie”
He laughed too. After that intense day Regulus was like a breath of fresh air. Talking with him seemed pretty easy and comfortable, even if he looked like the most introverted and cynic person ever. Not that he could remember meeting a lot of other people honestly.
After several minutes he worked up the courage to ask something. “Why aren’t we allowed to go into the Maze?”
“It’s a dangerous place”
“But Runners get inside”
“They are called Runners for a reason, they are fast, and smart obviously, trust me no one wants to be a Runner”
“What if I did?”
“You would be such an idiot”
“I’m not joking, I’m actually pretty serious, I would like to be a Runner, Reg” Regulus doesn’t seem disappointed about the use of the little nickname but he seemed disappointed about his last words.
“Ok Greenie, come on, get up” He got up and held out a hand. He accepted the help and got to his feet.
“Where are we going?” He asked.
Regulus meanwhile took a torch and kept walking. They arrived near a wall full of names, some of them had been erased with a line over them.
“These, Greenie, are the names of everyone who has ever been in the Glade.”
“What happened to ones with a line of their name?” He already had an idea but he really didn’t want it to be confirmed.
“They are all dead” He swallowed. “A lot of them were Runners, they entered the Maze and they never came back”
He raised his gaze on Regulus’ face. He seemed afraid, sad and deteriorated from all those losses.
Suddenly he heard some noises coming from the outside.
“What was that?”
“It’s the Maze, it changes, every night, that’s why, even if our Runners are trying to map the whole structure we’re still trapped here”
A loud and grating scream came from the same direction. “What the hell?”
“The reason why it’s so dangerous, we call them Grievers. No one had ever seen one of them and came back alive.” He swallowed again. “Right, well, that’s enough questions for tonight. You’re the guest of honor, we should be with the others. Come on.”
Reluctantly on his part, they walked back to the party.
***
By the time they arrived back the party was in full swing.
“Hey Reg what’s going on over there?” He pointed over to the center of the commotion to where a group of people had formed a tight circle.
“That’s the ‘fight circle’”
“What the fuck is that?”
“Just what it sounds like, Bas started the idea about a year ago. Every time a Greenie gets brought up we have this party. Bas thought that it needed, to quote him, ‘some entertainment’”
As Regulus finished his sentence he grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the circle.
“What are you doing?” His eyes couldn’t seem to unlock from where his and Regulus’s fingers were intertwined.
“You’ll see”.
The moment he entered the circle he felt hands on his shoulders and he was shoved into the center of the tight ring. The worst part of it all was that in the process his hand had been ripped from Regulus’s. It took him a second to realize that someone stood opposite him.
“You're in the circle now, may as well fight me” Rabastan’s voice rang out throughout the clearing.
His eyes darted to the crowd looking for the familiarity of Regulus’s green eyes.
He couldn’t find them.
His eyes moved back to Rabastan and realized too late that he was charging for him.
The impact was immediate James was toppled off of his feet and his head bashed hard against the ground.
Ringing filled his ears as the world around him slowed down and the light distorted in front of his eyes. “James…” he whispered. Then he shouted it. “James! That's my name! It’s James!”