Into the Maze

Chapter 1

She came out of the box fighting. When she had woken up flat on her back in the dark, hearing the strange sounds of metal against metal, smelling the smell of dust and damp, instinct had driven her to the corner. There she drew her knees up to her chest and was silent, fighting the nausea which threatened to overtake her, eyes staring into the darkness, trying in vain to think of why she was here.
However, when the Box stopped, she was instantly alert, and when the metal roof split and opened, revealing a bright light blocked only by a cluster of blurry shapes overhead, she was ready. As soon as two of the figures above had slid open the metal grating above her head, she leaped to her feet, before the tall, lanky boy with greasy black hair who had jumped into the Box to retrieve her could utter a sound, she had scrambled like a monkey up the walls of the box and rolled to her feet in the grass at the edge of the pit that was the Box.
The first thing she realized was that she was surrounded by boys. Too many boys to count. They all stared at her for a second, then one of the boys nearest to her, one with sandy hair, reached out towards her saying, "It's a bloody girl..."
That was as far as he got. In her terror and confusion, his gesture to steady her was a threat. With all her might, she punched him right in the jaw. As he staggered, she saw a weak point in the circle surrounding her and pushed him over, charging out of the circle. The other boys shouted in surprise, some protested, some laughed. A few reached out to restrain her, but each in turn recieved a swing to the face. Some evaded her, some didn't.
When she had cleared for herself a path through the scrambling boys, she began to run. She heard laughter behind her and someone shouted, "It's a runner, boys!"
The second thing she realized was that she had been surrounded by more than boys. Walls which seemed to scrape the sky rose on all sides, enclosing them all in a huge box of grass and trees. But then she saw her escape.
About 400 yards away, there was a huge, yawning gap in the walls, creating a giant door to who-knows-where. In a split second she decided to take her chances with the great unknown then go back to the boys, the laughter, that dreadful Box.
She sprinted full speed ahead. She was a mere 100 yards from the opening when she noticed, out of the corner of her eye, that she was being pursued. Someone was running after her, chasing her. A fresh wave of panic broke out and she quickened her pace, but her pursuer was faster than she. He charged her with a spurt of speed, colliding with her and sending her flying at least five feet. She had only a glimpse of the dark eyes of her attacker which were half-smiling, as if he enjoyed this game of cat and mouse, before she hit the ground with a thud that brought stars to her eyes and a feeling that she had just broken every bone in her body. As the grass, sky, and gap in the walls faded to blackness, her attacker said only, "It's for your own good, Greenie."
When she was finally aware of her surroundings again, instinct told her, before she even opened her eyes, that she was in a different place than lying in the grass 100 yards away from her best hope of escape. She cracked one eye open and saw a roof of sticks above her. She realized she was laying on something that was almost close to soft. She sat up slowly, feeling all the sore spots on her body cry out with pain. She saw that she was laying in a small hut on a cot with a simple blanket laid over it, another blanket over her legs. There were three or four other cots around her, each of them empty.
"Hey, Greenie. Finally awake?"
She snapped her head around to look at the speaker. It was a boy leaning against the wall. He was thin and tall with shaggy, sandy-colored hair and a purplish bruise rising on his cheek. He looked vaguely familiar. He caught her staring at the bruise and said cheerfully, "You got a good swing, Greenie."
It was then that she realized where she knew him from.  He was the boy who had tried to steady her at the edge of the box who she had punched. Suddenly, the bruise on his face made sense. A hot tide of embarrassment swept her and she stared down at her hands, feeling the blood creeping up into her face. The boy just laughed, "We all go through it, Greenie. You're in the Med-jack's hut right now, by the way. We usually put the Greenies in the Slammer, but you'll be good, won't you?" She dared to nod. The boy continued. "I'm Newt, by the way. Can you remember your name?"
She sat straight up, panic etched on her face. "I can't remember anything! Newt, I can't even remember my name!"
The bruises on her body screamed in protest as she jumped out of the cot, terror driving her. Newt was quicker, however, and before she could make another move he had crossed the room in one stride, seized her wrist and forced her back down onto the makeshift bed.
"I told you, Greenie. We all go through it on our bloody first day."
"All of you... what?"
"We've all been you."
"You all came up the same way?"
"Yep. And we all had our memories wiped too. You'll get your name back in a couple days, but that's all they let you have back."
"Who's 'they'?"
"We dunno. The slintheads that put us in here. We call 'em the Creators, and I'd like to murder the bloody lot of them."
"They put you here?"
"Yep. And we can't get out."
The memory of the giant walls floated to the top of her mind.  "But the doors..."
"You think the bloody walls are the only things holding us in here?"
"Newt." There was another boy standing in the doorway. He had dark skin and eyes and there was a commanding nature about him. "Stop telling her all this. Never scare a Greenie on their first day."
"This friendly shank's named Alby," Newt sighed, but she wasn't out of questions.
"Why do you keep calling me Greenie?" She demanded. She looked at Newt, but it was Alby who answered.
"It's what we call the Newbies who come up in the Box. We get a new Greenie once a month."
She turned her attention back to Newt. "What doesn't he want me to know about the walls, Newt?"
Newt shook his head. "He's right, I can't scare you into insanity on your first day."
Alby stepped slightly closer to her cot and said in a stony voice, "Do you wanna know who's in charge here, Greenie? It's me, and if I say you can't know, you won't know til I tell you, get it?"
She stared at him, surprised at how quickly his mood had changed. Finally, she nodded.
He said nothing else except, "Keep an eye on her, Newt. She might try to run again."
Turning on his heel, Alby left the hut.
"He's friendly."
"He's in charge, it's not his job to be nice to people."
"So it's yours?"
He laughed. "I'm second in command, Greenie, and yes, I guess that is my job."
"Newt, how many of you are there?"
Newt hesitated for a moment, as if contemplating whether this crossed the line of what Alby ordered not to be said,  but eventually, he just shrugged and said, "about 40, give or take a few, but..." his voice wavered a little.
"But what?" She pressed.
"But you're the only girl... ever."