Into The WICKED Maze | A Maze Runner Story (English Version)

1. Into the unknown

The ground beneath me was vibrating and suddenly I seemed to be moving quickly upwards. I opened my eyes and tried to orientate myself. Where was I?
I could not see where I was, but I could see who was with me. A motionless boy was lying next to me and for a moment I was afraid he might be dead, but then he moved and seemed to spit a load of water on the grating he was lying on and I knelt down.
Only now did I realise that I was soaking wet myself, just like he was. Where did we come from?
There were a few crates stacked around us. We seemed to be in some kind of lift that went up quickly. But where to?
"Hey, are you okay?" I asked anxiously and gave him a hand so he could stand up.
As we were both standing on our feet, the lift got faster and faster and jerked horribly. We held on to each other and I clawed at the grating wall.
Suddenly I could see lights above us and screamed as I realised we were heading for a closed hatch.
"Shit, this thing must stop," the boy cried next to me and we clawed at each other a little more.
There was a deafening noise and the lift stopped with such force that we both fell over, him landing on me. A pain went through my upper body and I lost my breath for a moment.
I stared at the ceiling and squint my eyes together as a flap opened above us and glaring sunlight fell in on us. Voices were heard and someone opened the bars above us. The boy who was in here with me leaned on his arm to be able to look up too, but he didn't get off me. I was about to say something when heads looked down at us.
A big boy with short hair jumped into the lift and stared at me with big eyes. He reached out one hand to me, completely ignoring the other, who was finally getting off me. I hesitated, but then grabbed his hand and let the stranger help me up. He was still staring at me and I wondered if I looked strange.
Only now did I notice that I couldn't remember anything and that I didn't know whether I was terribly ugly or had a particularly big nose. Was he staring at me because of something like that?
No, he looked more fascinated while he was still looking at me. With his lips he formed a name.
"Anna," he whispered and I looked at him in confusion. Was that my name? Did he know me?
I was overcome with the feeling that I had seen him before, but I didn't know when or where. How then without memories?
"Gally! Bring him up, now!" A dark-blond boy with hair almost as short as the one who apparently was called Gally peeked over the edge.
Gally seemed to come to and replied: "There are two of them, Nick. So someone else should come down!"
With these words he lifted me up and climbed back up with me in his arms, where he carried me through a small group of boys who all looked at me with interest.
"A girl," I heard some whisper.
"And two Newbies at once."
As I looked around, still in Gally's arms - which I only didn't complain about because everything really hurt me and he seemed to know me - my gaze met that of one of the boys and a stabbing headache flashed through me. Those eyes, I had the feeling I knew them. The way he looked at me with them, as if he was thinking exactly the same thing as me. This brown was so intense and I felt a tingling in my stomach.
What the...?
But I couldn't think about it any longer, because Gally carried me across the meadow in the middle of which I had arrived. I wondered what had happened to the other boy who had been in there with me, but I didn't get time to ask about him because Gally dropped me off in a shed where some hammocks were hanging.
Confused, I looked at him. "You know me?" I asked.
He nodded and looked at me seriously. "You are my best friend. Your name is Anna. And you sent me a message when I arrived here two months ago, from where we come from. Do you remember?"
I shook my head. "I couldn't even have told you my name... let alone where I came from. But looking at you now, I think you're telling the truth."
I looked at him and felt the hint of a feeling I had probably felt for him before.
Strangely enough I had just had a feeling with the other boy that had been even stronger. Did that mean that I had known him, too? Or was I going crazy and imagining all this?
"Where are we, Gally?" I asked and looked around more closely now.
From my seat I could see about half of the meadow he had just carried me across. On one side it bordered a forest, on the other a wall covered with ivy. Only now did I see that this wall seemed to extend completely around us.
"We call it the glade. Behind the wall is a kind of maze. And we call ourselves the gladers. But I'm not the right person to tell you this. Alby should do that. I just wanted to get you away from the others so I could talk to you. Klunk, I've been waiting so long for you."
With horror, I saw a teardrop run down his cheek. He pulled something from his pocket and held it out to me.
It was a wrinkled piece of paper with a note written on it. The handwriting looked somehow familiar to me. Was it mine?

Gally,
I'm here, I'm watching over you. And I'm coming to you. Soon.
You remember me. I can't tell you how happy that makes me.
There's so much I want to say, but I don't have time. Please just trust me and wait for me.
Take care of yourself, big boy. I'm right here with you.
Anna

I gasped for breath. I had written that. I could remember holding the pen and also how my hand had trembled with excitement. There was nothing more. Just that brief moment. But wasn't that at least something? At least now I knew that I had actually known Gally.
"Big boy...," I whispered and stroked the word carefully. Then I looked up at Gally and discovered another tear on his cheek.
Without thinking I wrapped my arms around him and pressed myself against him. His embrace felt like I was arriving home. No doubt, we had not only known each other, we had loved each other. And I didn't mean being in love. I meant a love like between siblings.
I sobbed. "I remember you."
It was an incredible feeling. It was as if memories came to my mind out of the shadows. I remembered only him, nothing else, but I remembered my affection for him all the more.
We just stood there and hugged each other. Suddenly he pressed me a little too hard and I groaned in pain. Immediately he let go of me and looked at me in horror.
"You are hurt. I'm taking you to Clint."
With this he supported me and brought me to a hut nearby, where I also met the boy from the box again. He was sitting on one of the wooden couches and just got a bandage around his ribs. When he saw me, he smiled at me and I smiled back.
"How are you?" I asked when the boy who had just treated him started to examine me.
"Clint thinks I cracked a couple of ribs, but it's not so bad. But you don't look too good. How are you feeling?"
I shrugged my shoulders and that hurt a little, too. "I'm okay."
The paramedic, who apparently was called Clint, reached my ribs and pushed a little on them, which made me groan.
"Hey, be careful, man!" Gally took a step towards him, but Clint waved him off.
"The ribs were broken, but that seems like a while ago. You're lucky, they grew back straight. You also have a wound on the right side of your rib cage. You have to be careful that it doesn't open again. You will also get a firm bandage around it and then it should heal well. But I have to take a closer look at your head again. You have some injuries there."