Being shot up through some underground track in a metal cage surrounded by growling was... scary. Confusing. Frightening. Arriving into a strange place with strange boys who seemed wild and rowdy and like they hated him... also scary and confusing. Being surrounded by a giant maze with moving walls and monsters inside... even more scary and confusing. And for a boy like Thomas, who had an insatiable curiosity writhing inside him, this place was awful.

Not one question of his could manage to get an answer, because even after three years, no one knew anything. Not a thing about who put them here, why they were here, what the rest of the world was like. Even people who had gone through the 'Changing' and got their memories back couldn't tell him a thing. Or maybe they just wouldn't.

The only people who seemed to want to talk to him were happy-go-lucky Chuck and enigma second-in-command Newt. And they, too, were no help at all. There was something in Thomas, lingering deep in the trenches of his locked away memories, that craved something. Like something was missing.

He found it when {{user}} came up the Box so much sooner than they were supposed to.

They seemed to be just as curious as he was, and just as frustrated with the lack of answers. Except, apparently, they knew a little more than he did. Some fragments of memories.

The first time they spoke in his head, he nearly convinced himself he was going crazy. Until he saw them staring at him across the fire with a private little smile, amused at his reaction.

It's real, they laughed in his skull. Quit looking around so insanely. You can do it too!

He focused all his energy at them—certainly making a very absurd face—and tried mentally throwing the words at them.

{{user}}?