The noise is what woke me up.
That deafening siren that echoed on forever. I shoot up and look around frantically. Where am I? Who am I? This is terrifying. The only thing that I can remember is my name; Kali. Why can't I remember anything else?! I hit my head, trying desperately to regain my lost memories. Alas, the only thing this does is hurt my head.

I set my hand on my thigh and attempt to take deep breaths. Looking around I notice that I am in some sort of cage or elevator. There is a flashing red light, hitting my eyes every two seconds. I stood up to stop it from doing so, but I find myself to be so dizzy that I can't help but to fall back down, my hands hitting the bottom of the box. I closed my eyes and held my breath, trying to calm myself down. Surely this would be over soon. Exhaling hard, I slowly open my eyes to see that the box was moving faster and faster. I looked up and saw that I was reaching the top.
This is not what I wanted. I didn't want to die like this. Being smushed into a pancake by hitting a - what looks to be - concrete wall. To top it all off, I still have amnesia! I couldn't look anymore. I turned around to sit on my ass and I shut my eyes, preparing for my demise.
However, when the siren suddenly stopped, I glanced up. It was slowing down. Only a by a bit, but it was still something.

I scooch over to the wall behind me and I stand up again. I use the hard, cold wall for support, fixing my fingers through the holes in it, holding on tight. My heart was pounding in my chest as my legs wobble like jelly.

"Stop it." I say to myself out loud.

Shakily I start to look at everything around me. There were really weird creature things on the walls. I couldn't see them properly in this light and at the speed I was going. I also kept seeing the phrase 'World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department'. It's repeated on the walls over and over again. What it was, I don't know.
Suddenly, the lift stopped, and I was pushed off of my feet and onto the metal ground. I could feel my skin start to bruise from the impact. The flashing light also stopped and I realised that the concrete ceiling I saw before was actually a door, and it was opening.

A bright light blinded me, so I raised my hand to block it out, desperate to see something. There were around 30 figures surrounding the entrance. My face contorted into one of absolute fear.

"Is that a girl?" A boy asked. I heard a large murmur from the figures.

"It looks like it." Someone else said. It was also a boy. Was I the only girl here?

My eyes adjusted to the light and I saw that I was right. Every single figure was a teenage boy. Someone jumped down into the lift and walked over to me. I rushed back as far as I could and had my legs up near my chest. He put out his arms to show that he wasn't going to hurt me.

"It's okay. You're okay." He said, his voice different from the other boys. He had a different accent. "My name is Newt and we have all been in the same place as you. Trust me." He stopped at my feet and crouched down to get to my level. "What's your name?"

I stared up at him. His brown eyes staring back at mine.

"Kali." I finally tell him. He smiles at me and puts out his hand.

"Nice to meet you Kali." I shook his hand hesitantly. "Let's get you up to the top. We can explain everything up there, okay?" I nodded at him, looking up at the crowd of boys.

Once I had gotten up to the top and met some of the boys, Newt told me that someone named Nick would show me around. Apparently he is the leader around here, but he wasn't showing up anywhere, so I stuck around Newt.

"I'm surprised you haven't klunked your pants yet, Kali." Newt told me.

"What does 'klunked' mean, exactly?" I asked him, ever so confused.

"Well you see, there are these pots that we use to go to the toilet in and when we do, it makes a noise that sounds like 'klunk'. So we use it for slang." he explained, his face turning a pinkish colour. I nodded my head slightly and made a small 'oh' sound. "You mightn't understand a lot of the things we say Greenie because of slang. Did you want me to explain the words to you?" He offered.

"That'd be grand, thanks." I said, studying my surroundings. There was a large space in the middle of four walls and the most of it was green. There was the metal lift in the middle of it and there were buildings all over the space. Some parts had fields and other parts had what looks to be a small forest. The walls surrounding the middle part were gigantic and a silvery metal. I could see that in the middle of each wall there was an opening. Perhaps it was a door?

"Well, for starters there is greenie, which I just called you," Newt started. "It is short for Greenbean. We call the people who arrive here greenbeans because they look as green as them." I wonder if I looked green. Probably. "Now we only just started saying that because you are the second person to arrive up here in that box, which we call The Box. Original, I know." he smiled.

"If I'm the second to arrive up here, how are there heaps of people?" I wondered.

"There was 30 of us who woke up here all together, myself included. We couldn't rem- Wait. Before I say anything more, do you remember anything?"

I shook my head. "Only my name." I confessed.

"Okay, good. Well, not good, but it was the same for us. We had no idea who we were, and there was people blaming others for things, so we had to make some rules. We sat around and talked about what we should do. After a while, we finally decided the rules, which are: 1. Don't hurt another glader, 2. Do your job, and 3. Don't go out there." When he told me rule 3, he pointed to the opening in the walls. "We had discovered that there were things in there, dangerous creatures that had hurt one of the boys, Jack. A couple of boys used a serum that was in one of these buildings and saved him. But he acts differently. He doesn't want to leave here for some reason, but no one else feels that way. Jack said that he remembered some things from the outside world and that they aren't any good, but he won't tell us what they are."

"Right, okay. Sorry, but what's a glader?" I asked.

"Oh bloody hell, I forgot to finish the slang didn't I? Okay, gladers are the people who live in the glade. Which is this place. Shank is friend, although it doesn't have to be used in that way. You can sorta swear by using the word shank. Shuck is the word we use to show annoyance, Slim It means calm down or shut up, Slinthead is used if someone had messed up really bad. It's used to put them down. Newbie is basically the same as Greenie, but it can be used for anyone who is new. The boy who came before you, Siggy, isn't the greenbean anymore, but he is still a newbie. Good That is used to agree with something and, finally, Jacked describes someone messed up in the head. Jack is a bit Jacked."

"Is Jacked called so because of Jack?"

"Yeah. He's also the reason for the name Medjack. They are the healers here." He explained, moving a hand through his long, blonde hair. I looked at my hair, it was a dark brown colour that was extremely long and curly. "Are you hungry?" he asked me.

"Yeah, I am a bit." I admitted, albeit I wasn't a bit hungry, I was starving. He smiled, stood up from the log and waited for me to follow suit.

"I am too. C'mon," he said. "Let's go get some food."

As I followed him to get some food, I checked out everything I could see. When I looked up, I realised that the sun and sky weren't real. It was a dome with lights and screens, making it look like it was real. I moved my head back down as we were passing the box. Someone was standing in it, others around the outside of it. Newt stopped.

"It still won't go down?" The gladers shook their heads. Newt sighed but continued to walk. "We are trying to see if it'll go down with us in it. To find a way out." he told me.

"Unfortunately, I don't think it's gonna work. Surely it would've gone down by now." I said solemnly.

"We've never really been able to try before. Every time it comes up, it goes back down before we can hitch a ride."

"I thought that I was the second one to come up here though?" I asked Newt.

"You are, but every week we get some supplies. Siggy came a month after we got here. You came a month after Siggy." I nod at him.

We walk in silence for a little bit after this. Newt was walking in front of me, leading the way. Because of this, I could see just how tall he was. He looked about 14 years old and there seemed to be boys older than he, but he was definitely one of the tallest. I almost walked into him when he abruptly stopped.

"Where here." He said happily. "Hey Siggy." he said to one of the boys.

"Newt, Greenbean." he greeted. I waved at him with a smile on my face. But it was a forced smile. I wanted to. No. I needed to get out of this place. I don't know if Newt is telling the truth or not. I won't be able to tell. I don't know if i'll ever be able to tell.

"Siggy here is one of the cooks." Newt explained.

"Newt. I was thinking about my name. I don't want people to be calling me Siggy anymore. It just doesn't feel right, you know?" Siggy started to say. "I want to be called Frypan now."

"Yeah you shank, of course!" Newt told Frypan. Frypan's face lit up.

"Thanks, Newt. Here's dinner." he told us as he scooped up what looked like mashed potato and vegetables."

"Thank you." I said. Newt smiled at Frypan.

When we were a fair distance away from Frypan, Newt spoke to me. "You may not like the taste of it by the way. Siggy's. Sorry, Frypan's cooking isn't the best. It's certainly better than anyone else's, but it still isn't great." he told me. I nodded at him, looking down at the food. "He's the keeper of the cooks."

"And a keeper is a what?"

"The leader of a certain job. Nick isn't the keeper of the gladers though. He's just the leader. Alby, - I'm sure you'll meet him soon - is his second in command. So he isn't a keeper either, but they both go to the meetings with the other keepers." Newt explained. He sat down at a long table. It could seat much more than 30 people.

"What are the other jobs?" I ask him, sitting next to him and another boy.

"You'll find out tomorrow, as well as the other keepers. Don't worry." he told me. I sighed an okay and started to eat.

The boy next to me had almost finished eating his food, but he looked like he didn't really like it. It wasn't too bad. Some of the carrots weren't cooked properly and were still hard, but apart from that, I liked it.

The boy finished his mouthful and turned to me. He had black hair and green eyes. He was fairly attractive apart from his nose which looked a bit like a deformed potato. He looked to be about 13 years old. "I'm Gally." He said with a scratchy voice. He wiped his hand on his pants and then held it out.

"Kali." I said as I shook it. He had a small smile on his face. It looked like he wanted to say something, but he turned back to his dinner and continued to eat.

Newt had shown me to where I would be sleeping. It was a large hammock, green in colour.

"Thank you for putting up with me the whole day." I told him.

"It was no problem." he told me. "Did you want to know anything else before I go?" he asked me.

"What colour are my eyes and how old do I look?"

"Hazel." he replied. He paused a little bit to look me up and down. "I'd say you're about 14."

I nod my head in thanks. He smiled and left. I looked around at my hammock and the blanket hanging on it. I took off my shoes and climbed up into my hammock. Once I placed the blanket over me, I started to cry. I tried to stay as quiet as I could to make sure that no one could see me breaking down. I just wanted to get out of here. There was a slight shuffle. It sounded like someone was coming into the room. I quickly wiped my tears away.

"Kali..." I heard Newt say. Shit. He wasn't supposed to see me like this. No one was. "Kali it's okay. I swear." I wiped my eyes again and turned to look at him.

"I know." I smiled, hoping that he would believe me. He didn't.

"Did you want me to stay with you tonight? It's no problem." he offered me. I'm not sure if I really want him to or not. He did anyway. He walked over to me and climbed into the hammock. His thumb was stroking my arm, his stomach pressed against my back. "Kali, you'll be alright. We will find a way out of here. I promise you." He whispered to me. I thought that the idea was farfetched. How on earth could he promise something like this? "I promise." he repeated. His voice was soothing and eventually I fell asleep, tears escaping my eyes, wetting my cheeks.