Chapter Text
Ever since you arrived at the Glade, you’d found yourself drawn to the Keeper of the Builders, Gally. You remember the day so vividly, you had been terrified out of your mind the second you gained consciousness in that hell hole of a crate. The unbearable sound of the box screeching upwards at an alarming speed and complete darkness preventing you from making sense of your surroundings only served to deepen your ever growing fear.
Suddenly, the crate came to a jarring halt, the sudden silence, aside from a muffled siren coming from above you, sending a chill up your spine. It felt like an eternity had passed before the abrupt sound of the creaking doors opening up made you jump, light spilling in to reveal your surroundings. A fairly large metal cage, housing boxes of varying sizes, some with unfamiliar names scribbled on them, others with labels such as, “ Med Jack supplies ”. You instinctively scrambled back as far as you could, your back making contact with the cold metal, your fear doubling as you realized you had no way out.
“It’s a girl!” shouted an unknown voice, quickly noting the light british accent.
You look up as the doors are opened completely, leaving you with nowhere to hide, the sun momentarily blinding you. As your eyes adjusted to the sudden light, you looked around, and to your absolute horror, you were staring up at about 50 or so boys, all roughly your age. They were looking at you like a kid in a candy shop, some even whistling and hollering, “I call dibs!”. You shrunk even further into the wall, bringing your knees up to your chest in a desperate attempt to disappear from all of the preying eyes.
You remained curled up in the back of the crate for a good thirty minutes, refusing to even look at whoever climbed into the box next, each one failing to pry you out, especially when half of their tactics were to very poorly flirt or present you with offers you didn’t even want to repeat.
Just as you began to think they had given up, you heard a distant voice say to another, “Go get Gally, if she won’t leave on her own accord, we’ll have to take her out by force before the sun sets”.
A knot tightening in your stomach at the thought of a random man pulling you out of the only familiar place you had right now. Before you could stop them, hot tears began rolling down your face. You were so tired and worn out from fear but your body refused to move, your arms sore from holding onto your legs so tightly.
It wasn’t long before you heard another, lower voice, “What do you need, Alby? I’m a little busy trying to get the new room built for the greenie before we run out of sunlight”, his tone drenched in annoyance, “speaking of which, I haven’t seen him around the glade and need to get his input on where he wants his hammock, that is unless he wants to sleep on the ground.”
“That’s the thing, Gally, she’s still in the box and won’t even look at anyone we send in to coax her out. She can’t stay in-”
“She? It’s a girl? Why the hell would they send a shucking girl up here?” Gally interrupted, his voice slightly raising before being shushed by Alby. You didn’t know it then, but Gally had stayed back to continue working on your addition to the homestead, and had no idea the new greenie was a girl, let alone still in the box.
“I don’t know, but we can worry about that tomorrow. Our main priority is to get her out so she can eat and rest. We’ll go over everything with her tomorrow when she’s hopefully calmed down. I would’ve sent Newt in seeing as he has a much…softer appearance, but his leg is still healing and we can’t risk him hurting it further.”
Time seemingly stops and all is quiet again, the sound of birds and distant conversation heard above you, it almost feels safe, until you’re jolted back to reality by a large frame jumping into the crate. You look up for a split second, only to be met with a very intimidating figure, standing hardly a foot away from you.
“ This must be Gally, no wonder he was their choice to get me out, there was no way I could put up a fight against him ” you think to yourself, dread setting in as you took note of his strong arms and tall build. Your body tenses as he takes a step forward, the sound of your heartbeat drowning out the birds from moments ago. Your eyes stay fixated on your shoes, terrified to meet his piercing gaze.
“You gotta get out greenie, the suns gonna be down soon and you can’t sleep in a cold box” Gally stated, matter of factly, his voice laced with nothing but boredom. Your eyes remained in place, your soft sniffling being the only thing filling the air, afraid to acknowledge the assertive voice. Gally seemed to notice this and crouched down in a half-hearted attempt to make himself appear smaller and less threatening.
“Look, I know it must be pretty terrifying and confusing to wake up in an unfamiliar place, with no idea of who you are and 50 boys looking at you like a piece of meat,” his voice surprisingly soft this time, “but you have to get out so you can get some rest before tomorrow.” his eyes studying your face for any sign of compliance.
You contemplate his words for a minute, the mention of sleep making you realize just how worn out you really were. Slowly, you raise your head, making eye contact with the boy crouched in front of you, arms still clutching onto your knees for dear life. If you weren’t scared shitless, you’d have thought he was quite handsome, his bluish-green eyes staring into yours, freckles dusted across his cheeks. He carried an air of impatience with him, like he had better things to do than convince some girl to leave a box. Within seconds of making eye contact, he stood back up, shoving his hand out in front of you, prompting you to take it. Steadying your breath, you hesitantly grab a hold of his calloused hand, allowing your legs to push you off the crate floor. You stumble, your knees sore from being bent for well over an hour now, and without thinking, latch onto Gallys arm for support. You feel his body stiffen under your sudden movement, his eyebrows furrowed with concern.
“Think you can climb out on your own, greenie?” Gally questions, eyes glued to you as if you might fall apart if he let go.
In all honesty, you had no idea if you’d be able to lift yourself out of the box, your body already swaying with exhaustion, threatening to give out with one wrong move. You wanted to try nonetheless, so you make your way over to the edge of the box, your body refusing to stay still for even a second. The wall was a good few inches above your head, squashing any hope of you getting out without Gally’s help. Regardless, you reach above you to attempt to pull your body up and over, only managing to bring your feet an inch or so off the ground. While you were busy wrestling with the cold wall, Gally had moved to stand behind you, his sudden presence looming over you as you exerted every last bit of energy on trying to raise yourself.
“Need help?” he says, stifling a laugh at your sad efforts to get out.
“..yes” you reluctantly respond with a huff of defeat, turning back to him, quickly becoming aware of just how close he was, your eye’s level with his chest. He was honestly pretty scary looking, you might’ve shrunk away if it weren’t for the warm look in his eyes, a small smile playing at his lips.
Without another word, he scooped you up bridal style, and you couldn’t help but blush at the sudden contact and feeling of his broad chest against you and arms holding you like you weighed nothing, before lifting you up over the wall and plopping you onto the warm grass, fresh air filling your lungs. Seconds later, he pulled himself out with ease, standing next to you. You slowly stumbled to your feet, eyes taking in your new surroundings. The first thing to capture your attention was undoubtedly the massive stone walls surrounding the big, green field you found yourself in, the sun dipping behind them, trapping you in. Fear creeping back up your spine, your breathing began to speed up.
“No, this can’t be real, I can’t be stuck here” you whispered to yourself, your mind racing at a million miles an hour, “I can’t even remember my name.”, you wrap your arms around yourself, feeling like the world is spinning beneath you. In an instant, your legs give out, your body crashing to the ground.
“Greenie!” you hear Gally shout, though it sounded muffled, like you were under water. Your head was pounding at this point and against your will, your eyes fluttered shut. This was a bad move, you immediately felt every fiber of your being begging to slip into unconsciousness. But you were in an unknown place, full of strangers, you couldn’t let yourself fall asleep.
Without warning, you feel someone picking you up before hastily walking towards what you could only hope was somewhere safe. The unanticipated movement startled you at first, but after prying your eyes open for a moment, you see Gally’s familiar face contorted with worry, and instinctively lean into his warm body, allowing yourself to drift off in the safety of his arms.
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