Memory Games - Newt TMR

The first thing I noticed when I woke up, was the sound. I think it was the thing to wake me. A grinding, high pitched scraping, complimented by metallic rattling and inhuman groaning. It was too dark to make out anything clearly, but there seemed to be crates and boxes of sorts all around me, and the floor felt to be moving upwards at quite a speed. My stomach flipped as it suddenly jolted, and the low height of the ceiling became apparent as I tried to get up, banging my head and going straight back down to the floor. It was all entirely disorienting and as I tried to collect myself, I realised that I didn't even have a self. Who was I? How long had I been in here?

I could remember nothing. Not how I came into this situation nor who I was before it. Not even a name came to mind. My chest started to tighten and I started to panic, and then suddenly the tiny room came to a stop. The metal stopped whirring and I was plunged into an eery silence for just a second until the roof was suddenly thrown open - light cascading in and temporarily blinding me. The only relief was the cool air against my skin, which was starting to dampen from the stuffiness.

My relief didn't last long though. As I gained my vision back and the sky became blue instead of piercing white, I too realised that there were fifty pairs of eyes staring down at me - all talking and shouting over each other, their voices becoming a deep unintelligible blur. All that was clear was that they were all boys - all of them - and it filled me with even more dread, instinctually defensive and fearful of the opposite sex. Even if I couldn't remember anything specific about where I'd come from, I knew that men were dangerous.

Desperately, my eyes scanned the crowd for any feminine faces but there were none. Instead I was being gawked at by a mirage of young boys and men, and it terrified me. Then one jumped into the box, the ground shaking as he landed. He had short hair and a stocky build, and his outreached hand was dirty, covered in callouses and mud.

"Yeah it's definitely a girl." He called out to the others before turning back to me, bending down slightly. "Come on, get up."

His words seemed to stir further commotion, and his tone was not polite. I flinched away from him, my heart going a hundred miles an hour, but knew I didn't have many options. I could either fight or run, and there was no way I could fight someone that big, so...

With a deep breath I stood myself up, my legs shaking uncertainly, and looked around, seeing the group around me more clearly. None of them bore any familiarity or comfort, none struck me as safe, until I locked eyes with a blonde one, stood authoritatively in front of the crowd. His eyes were brown and his build was lanky, and I could've swore I knew his face from somewhere, itching in the back of my brain annoyingly. Before I could focus on him any longer though, the big one suddenly touched me - a light tap to my arm, perhaps trying to get my attention. Perhaps trying to see if I could speak or move, after all I felt as if I'd been in that box for hours now. If that were his query he was quick to get his answer, as in a move of instantaneous fear, I threw the hardest punch I could and then ran before I could see the result, catapulting myself out of the hole in the ground and through the crowd - set on running until I found anyone to help me.

But I was soon in shock again, looking around and taking in the scene and realising that I had nowhere to run. Three hundred foot tall, giant walls of concrete surrounded the space in a square, intimidating against even the height of thick trees I could see growing in the distance. There were small wooden structures around, yet no real buildings, and boys seemed to run around the place like ants in a colony - holding tools or food in their hands and rushing from job to job. Something about it seemed familiar and yet so unfamiliar - scary and prehistoric.

Some of the boys rushed after me; the big one, the blonde one and some ones I hadn't yet processed, and so I continued to run, ignoring their shouts. They were quickly gaining on me, and soon I found myself pinned to the ground, gasping for air and screaming as the big one held me down with one hand, looking around with furrowed brows. I couldn't tell if he was confused or annoyed.