Chapter 1: Arrival

It seems like an endless wait as the elevator lifts me up to the Glade, the sound of metal against metal ringing through my ears the entire time, hurting them even though they're covered by my hands. I always cover my ears with my hands when there's too much noise, even though usually by the time the noises bother me, it's too late to protect my sensitive hearing from them.

The motion finally stops, and there's one last ear-piercing sound of metal scraping against metal. It rings harshly in my ears, piercing straight through what little protection my hands provide. The doors of the Box are opening, and several boys heads are peeking over the edge, looking down at me. Finally, the noise stops, the doors are open, and there's just the familiar sounds people. And sounds I've missed; nature.

I slowly lower my hands from my ears. The boys are still being loud, but it's a loud that I can handle. At least, until one of them yells, "Quiet, shanks, you're scaring him!" My hands fly up to my ears when that happens.

"Actually," I say, then hesitate. As soon as I spoke, every single one of them falls silent. They ignored the boy yelling at them, but they went quiet when I said something. I slowly lower my hands from my ears, looking around at all the ones that I can see. I know there are more, a lot more, than I can see right now. "It was just," I continue slowly, "hurting my ears…"

"Sorry about that," the boy who yelled says, his volume normal now. He smiles, "I'll try to keep my voice down then. Hang on, we'll get you out of there." He turns away for a second then, and when he turns back towards me, he lowers a rope with a loop at the bottom of it down into the box. I just look at it for a minute, then look back up at the Gladers. Suddenly, I realize what a terrible, horrible idea this probably was. I wasn't even sent, I didn't even have permission. I have no idea what I'm doing. I could ruin everything, kill everyone.

Maybe it is a terrible idea, maybe I did just mess everything up. Either way, there's no turning back now, I realize. And even if there was, I don't think I would take it. I'm here now, and I'm here for a reason, even if it's not the reason everyone else does this. And…if this ruins everything and puts everyone in the Glade in even more danger than they were already in…well, then I guess I'll have to protect them from that.

"You going to stay in there all day, Greenie?" the boy who lowered the rope down asks, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"What?" I ask, looking up at him.

"Greenie," he smiles. "It's what we call new arrivals. Come on, you can't stay in there all day."

I hesitate for another second, but then I stand up and put one of my feet in the loop, letting the Gladers pull me up out of the box. As I get to the top, at least half a dozen hands reach down to pull me over the edge, onto the grass of the Glade. I just let myself drop and lay there for a few minutes, face first in the grass, taking a deep breath to inhale the scent of green again. Gods, it's amazing.

"You okay there, Greenie?" the boy asks after a minute. Hoping my cheeks aren't turning nearly as pink as I think they are, I quickly sit up, then stand up.

"I'm fine. Sorry."

"I'm Nick. Do you remember anything? Your name?"

"Hopper," I tell him, dodging the first question. "My name's Hopper."

"Weird name," one of the other boys says.

"Yeah, very weird, Alby," a different boy says pointedly.

"Okay, Frypan," Alby counters, making me laugh a little bit. Alby smiles as he glances at me. Then he looks back at Frypan though. "What are you even doing over here, slinthead, you're supposed to be making dinner."

"Dinner's made, shuck-face," Frypan retorts. "You're the slinthead for being too interested in the Box to know."

"Alright, alright," Nick finally cuts in, chuckling. "The Box came late today, so let's get something to eat. I'll give you the Tour tomorrow. Welcome to the Glade, Hopper."