The square

Part 18: newbie

Months passed like days and eventually we found ourselves sitting in our kitchen on day 730, exactly two years after my arrival, eating breakfast and excitedly thinking about the new box that was bounced to arrive at any moment. After a while of chatting, we both heard that familiar clanging sound and we shot ver to the centre of the square, I held Jovian back from the metal as we waited for the elevator to come up, we talked about lowering our expectations, the person that comes out of that box might hate us, or there might not be anyone at all, it wasn't as though we could expect certainty fro our captors. 

We heard a sound clunk of the box stopping at the top of the lift, the metal doors slowly split and lifted open and we saw a boy, around our age, 15, sleeping in the box. He hadn't woken up yet and we thought this was probably good, hopefully we could calm him down as soon as he awoke so that he didn't have to deal with much panic. Jovian stepped forward and opened the cage. I jumped into the box carefully, trying to give the boy space as to not scare him, but close enough to check he was ok. I knelt down beside the boy, inspecting his chest and seeing it slowly rise and fall.

"ok he's still breathing" I said to Jovian in a calm manner, still weary about spooking our new arrival. 

he was a short-haired boy, tall, African-american with dark hair, I was just turning around to face Jovian when I felt a grab on my ankle, before I knew I was being tossed about by a rampant boy, my efforts not to spook him clearly had not paid off. Jovian was just about to jump in the box to intervene when I managed to flip the scrambling boy so he was lying on his chest, with my knees either side of his torso and my hands restraining his wrists above his head. I didn't want to use any force but I couldn't risk him harming himself or me.

"ok, calm down. Everything is ok" I said, trying to calm him.

The boy was still kicking and shouting "who are you people?" "where am I?" and the occasional "why can't I remember anything.

I sat there, on the small of his back for about five minutes before he eventually started to calm himself and I knew he was open to listen so I slowly let go of his arms first, testing the water. I. then lifted myself off of him and stop over him as he wriggled over to lay on his back. He looked up at me with utter confusion and fear and I couldn't help but feel bad for him. I remember how terrified I was when I first arrived in the maze and I had to keep reminding myself that hat least he had people to explain because my mind occasionally drifted off. 

"everything is ok, just listen to me. It is completely normal what you are going through." at that moment I was still towering over him and I didn't want to make him feel anymore uncomorftorble so I stepped to the side and reached out my arm to help him up. I introduced myself, hoping to break the tension, "hi, I'm Adira, and this is Jovian"

Jovian and I had previously decided that I should do the talking while he takes in our new supplies. From our very limited experience with other people, it was obvious that Jovian wasn't naturally a people pleaser.

Hopefully I didn't ramble too much in this chapter, it feels like my writing style was a little different and maybe this didn't make sense at times. I'm not sure but I know I'm really tired so I'm going to continue writing tomorrow, I do go back to school tomorrow  though so uploads may become more random.