𝙂𝙇𝙄𝙏𝘾𝙃𝙀𝙎 • maze runner

1 : ONE

CHAPTER ONE

-

-

HER EYES SHOT OPEN, but she couldn't see a thing.
Her breath was labored and thin, she was hyperventilating. Her back was laid on the bottom of the cold metal box she was placed in. Her memories wiped clean and her surroundings pitch black. She sat up and slid back into a corner, bringing her knees to meet her chin as she closed her eyes and gained control of her breaths.
'Where am I?'
'Who am I?'
'Why am I here?'
'What's that noise?'
Her thoughts were flooded with questions. She could hear metal scraping against metal. Sparks flew about, lighting her prison for only a moment at a time.
Her heart was pounding, her mind was racing, her blood was rushing. She could hear it all.
She was scared, terrified even. She had no idea where she was going, she only knew she was in a metal cage. She knew nothing else.
The girl calmed her breathing and stood to her feel. She ran her hands along all the walls feeling all the divots in it as she tried to find an escape.
She reached her arms up high, over her head, in attempt to find the ceiling. The girl found it easily as the box was quiet small.
She then began to rummage around, she knew she had felt something, or someone for all she knew, with her.
Her hands collided with wooden and plastic crates, soft material of clothes, and cardboard boxes, some heavy and some light.
Her mind calmed as she realized, she knew some things. Sure, it wasn't everything, but she knew she was alive, she knew how to think, move, count. She knew her alphabet and how to speak.
Did she know how to speak? Time to find out.
The girl cleared her throat and gulped her spit. Taking a breath in she let out, "Hello?"
Her voice shocked her. High in pitch but not annoying, even and calm. Even after it was unused for God knows how long, her voice was alive and waiting to be heard. 

She didn't get an answer to her acknowledgment of herself, but she wasn't expecting one.
Suddenly, a voice boomed in her head, repeating only one thing over, and over, and over till she understood it.
Her name.
Noah,
Noah,
Noah,
Noah.
So foreign but so familiar. She was no longer a stranger to herself.
Noah, a name meaning rest and comfort in the Hebrew dialect.
Noah, being a more popular boys name, but it fit her well. Not that she knew this bit of information just yet.

Noah sat back down on the rough ground and leaned against a crate. Her head pounded and she could hardly stand still in the viscously moving metal hell.
She closed her eyes and let the heat of the box over come her tired mind. Sweat beading on her body and falling from the force of gravity. It wasn't long until the drowsiness won her over.

-

The metal grinding ceased, one last rough clang sounded before pure and horrifying silence took over.
Noah sat upright with another gasp, still unable to see.
The box was unmoving and quiet, the girl, only being able to hear her own intakes of breath as she looked around in the still, pitch black cell.
A buzzer sounded from above and doors opened bringing in a new, blinging light.
Noah's hand shot up to guard her eyes as they adjusted. Soon, she was able to see.
Noah slowly moved her hand back to her side with a curious look plastered on her face. She looked above her and was met with gasps and lingering eyes of many boys. Fifty, at least.