~𝓐𝓴𝓻𝓪𝓼𝓲𝓪~

0.1

     I duck into a building through the front door, not stopping to let my eyes adjust to the strobing lights of the rave going on beneath its roof. I dance my way through the crowd, doing my absolute best to blend in with the drunken teenagers. I get to the back door, squeezing between the two people talking against it. "Sorry." I mutter rolling my eyes once my back is to the couple. Come find me then, bitch. I think climbing the small fence and smirking to myself when people start flooding out of the building, the sirens of 'police officers' who are no doubt tracking me by now alerting everyone at the party.

I've run in the past. It's not entirely because I'm looking for my bio family. I say fuck them. They didn't want me and I don't need them. My little brother is my main focus as of right now. He seems to have gotten himself in trouble yet again.

     I've had a few different names. My current, however is Athena. A girl from the compound had told me of the goddess of war. Right now I'm going into a one and I'm outmatched so I figure why not use the extra luck of a name? A name they've never heard on me at that.

The organization WCKED have been taking kids, all ages now. It used to just be from three to eight but now they've got toddlers and teens coming in every day, training us for combat, teaching us certain skills, getting us ready for something. Something big that I don't need Newt involved with.

    They fed us and gave us shelter from the flare virus, or that's what they told us all.

I was six when they brought me in with my four year old brother, Newt and my sister Elizabeth who was ten at the time. We were happy in their compound for about a year but then the older kids started disappearing. I've always been nosy, always wanted to know what was happening. I followed them one day.

I grew up pickpocketing with Lizzie, it was more than easy to get the guards key card. I was small enough then to fit in with the new arrivals if I were to be caught. A few of them they would bring to a different section of the polished prison. Those same ones would disappear in about month almost like clockwork. Three kids at a time for two years. Lizzie was taken the third rotation. Newt the twelfth. Most of us were too oblivious to see it, but I had made a friend. He knew exactly how many were disappearing and when. He knew names and vent patterns, exactly how to get out. He knew I was next. I'm to be taken on the seventeenth rotation. He is to be taken on the twenty-third.

     Dr. Paige, the woman who runs this wretched place has been looking for me with her rat-faced goon, Janson. I left at nightfall through the Medic's hall's vent two days ago. They took Newt, and I don't know where Aris went. They said they transferred him but he wouldn't have just left us like that. Now I have nothing except for finding my idiot brother, a way to get this stupid chip out of neck so I don't feel like a goddamn lost dog, and staying hidden in the best ways I can. I've decided that the city outside the compound is the safest place. They're in the middle of building huge walls around it, all the runaways like myself won't be able to get through so this is my best chance.  A fifteen year old girl against crazy old people wanting run tests on her or kill her, whichever comes first I figure.

I walk briskly through the city. Ignoring the dull pain radiating from the wound on my shoulder I enter one of the party houses filled to the brim with sweaty, drunk young people.

    I crouch against a wall to redo the makeshift bandage on my shoulder, the gash I had gotten to get into the Medic'a hall was giving me hell. Hearing footsteps and the unmistakable sound of Jansons cold, manic laughter. "Shit." I mutter as I silently pull out one of the daggers those idiots oh so stupidly gave us at the compound for training whatever the hell it was for, I don't really give a shit. I slide down the pillar more and turn a little bit. "You can stop trying to hide. I know you're here Georgette!" That's not my name, dick. I can hear him getting closer and closer until he's right behind me. Before I can move I feel a needle in my neck from the opposite side. "I could've sworn I taught you to watch all directions, my little Paige." Is the last thing I hear before I black out from whatever fucking drugs they gave me this time, the music pouring from the outdated speakers fading in and out of my ears.

         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

      Screaming, high pitched, like...deafening screaming is all I hear. No it's not screaming it's not human. It's metallic, earsplitting screeching. The sound of metal on metal feeling as though it could rip through my skull itself. I open my eyes and turn onto my knees, coughing up water. Unsure how that got there, I sit back down and take in my surroundings trying to catch my breath. I'm in a wire cage of some sort, and going up, fast.

Elevator. The word coke to me but I can't put any context to its

Alarms are blaring all around me. I pull up the hood on my jacket and get to a corner hiding myself in the dark of the shadows, resisting the urge to cover my ears and cry like a child. Where am I? What is this place? Where the fuck is newt? Is he safe? Why the hell am I in the cage? Where the hell is it taking me? What's waiting for me there? The thought bombard me, panic settling even deeper than before.

    Blinding light. Doors opening. Voices, male as far as I can tell. I instinctively reach down my leg and find three daggers strapped a few inches above my knee, I grab one not sure if I'm going to need it or even if I know how to use it really. "You can't stay down there forever greenie!" I hear a strangely cheerful voice shout from above me. Watch me. I stay silent and clutch my knife harder. "Give him a break Alby, he's probably scared. I mean look how tiny he is!" Another one laughs. He? "Shut up you shanks!" A deeper, gruff voice shouts. I hear feet clanging on the metal, one of them are jumping into the cage.

"Look at me, greenie." He says softly, trying to take the knife out of my hand. I lift my head raising the knife at him and he freezes. "You're a- a girl?" His mouth hangs open like a landed fish. Do I look like a teenage boy? I roll my eyes seeing these boys are harmless now. Standing up in the box. "No I'm a fucking cucumber." I say my voice laced with sarcasm. I hear a chuckle from above us. "I like this one." A familiar accent makes me look up and my whole world freezes. The other boys don't exist anymore everything is muted. I see mouths moving but don't register anything.

It's him. "Newt? Where the hell have you been, you asshole?!" His eyebrow furrow, seemingly unable to speak. I climb out of the cage not even noticing the hand that was held out to help me, and take him in my arms, "I was worried about you." I mutter into his shoulder. "Really? I can hold my own, I think you're the one who taught me that." He tries to joke, tears brimming his eyes. I'm not sure why. It seems like I just saw him last week. "Why are you crying?" I ask, bringing my thumb to swipe under his left eye. He scoffs lightly, "it's been almost year since I've seen you." My face drops a little. "You're joking right? Please tell me you're joking." My voice was quiet, almost afraid that it would break if I spoke any louder. I just hug him tighter instead. "I'm so, so sorry." He shakes his head and went to say something else but someone clears their throat and suddenly everyone else exists again.

    "Mind telling us who this is Newt? And while you're at it why she remembers you." A dark skinned boy who seems to be more aged than the rest of them asks...rather fucking rudely, I might add. Newt looks as if he's about to answer the boy but I beat him to it. "I don't know who the fuck you think you are, or for that matter who the hell I am...but honestly? I don't give two shits. I do know that this little asshole is my brother and no one speaks to him that way." I say walking towards him with each word knife still at my side. "So you are going to watch your tongue before I cut it out and shove it so far up your ass you taste it when you cough."

The boy swallows but stands his ground. "I'm Alby, I run things around here little girl. So you are going to respect me before I throw you into the maze as an example." He threatens lowly. I shoot a can-I-get-away-with-killing-this-one? look at newt and he limps over. Limp? I think as I turn back to the boy who I now know as Ably. "Sorry Alby! She's a bit protective, always has been." He says in his thick British accent, not sure where he got it since I'm very much lacking one. "What the shuck was that?!" He exclaims, watching as Alby begrudgingly walks away from us. I shrug with a little smile. "I'm the only one who's allowed to be a dick to you." I say reaching up to to ruffle his already messy blonde hair.