"Newbie! It's time to wake up!" the voice was extremely loud in Thomas ear, causing a moment of utter confusion. The sealing was so white it hurt to look at it, but the voice had sounded so urgent, Thomas didn't dare to close his eyes again, so instead he blinked a few times and turned his head towards the sound.
There was a boy standing beside his bed, his skin was dark and his expression matched the hardness in his voice. To the newly waked and venerable eye, he looked terrifying.
"Ye hearing bad? Get up, I said," the voice continued, a little lower now that the boy saw Thomas open eyes.
By using all his willpower he managed to sit up, swing his legs over the side of the bed and once again meet the other boy's eyes.
"Are you Alby?" Thomas asked, remembering the name that man had given him earlier. The boy, Alby, nodded and rolled his eyes. Thomas hurried to stand up, the room spinning as he did so. The confusion was still present, taking up a huge part of his mind. "Who was that man?" he didn't know if Alby would understand him, but for the moment he didn't have enough power left for explanations.
The other boy was now standing at the end of the room, by the open door. He didn't seem to be waiting for Thomas, just coldly counted on him to follow. Thomas head was throbbing painfully with every step he took, a fact he was trying to ignore as he followed Alby out of the room and into a long corridor. This whole place seemed to be decorated in a nature-theme, the walls were painted to reassemble trees, and the sealing looked like a blue sky. Alby was walking with long, urgent steps in a speed Thomas had a hard time matching. The other boy stayed silent for a few moments before he spoke up to answer Thomas earlier question.
"Grossman, he's the manager of this place." Alby seemed to know exactly to whom Thomas was referring to, which was a relief. This corridor was very long and the tall boy in front of him took big steps, Thomas had to focus all his energy at keeping up. Alby clearly knew where he was going, which was good because Thomas felt lost.
Suddenly, they entered a huge staircase, bright light from the outside spilled in from the huge windows that covered the front of the building, making the white steps shine. It seemed like all different floors were joined together here, and as it turned out they were currently on the second floor. A sign hung on the wall next to the exit, telling Thomas that this was the infirmary, making him wonder what kind of school this was that needed one entire floor for injuries.
He was suddenly woken from his thoughts as a loud shout echoed between the walls and floors. It was Alby's voice, clearly trying to catch the attention of someone higher up in the building. "Newt!" he screamed, his eyes focused on a spot a few floors up. How high was this building? "Newt! We've got ourselves a new Greenie!" a light smile played with the older boy's mouth, his eyes shined with a kind of mischief that made Thomas slightly nervous. He joined the other boy out on the plateau in the huge rectangular staircase and looked up, trying to get a glimpse of what might be hiding upstairs. Slowly, Alby turned towards him, the hint of a grin had escaped his face, instead he looked just as serious and bored as he did the first time Thomas saw him. This made him silently wonder if this boy even knew how to laugh. It didn't seem like it.
"Dining hall, gym and Grossman's office is downstairs. Griever's as well, so if you wanna live, shank head, don't turn right down these stairs," Alby's voice had a scary tone to it, one that made Thomas promise himself that he would never, under any circumstances, turn right at the ground floor. But still, he couldn't help but ask.
"What's a Griever?" his voice sounded raw from not being used, his throat hurt a little from even making the sounds. Alby gave his question a hard look and started climbing the steps towards the next floor. "The janitor," came as an answer, and Thomas felt like he didn't need to know anything else, the two words that Alby had used spoke for themselves. "Down on that side, you'll find the teacher's quarters," he pointed downwards, towards the other side of the staircase on the floor they had just left. "And here you have your classes," he stopped on the plateau splitting the left and right side of the third floor and pointed a finger in both directions, not bothering to tell Thomas any details before he headed up another flight of stairs. "Newt! You shank head, get down here!" Alby's voice echoed between the walls, making Thomas jump. He wasn't quite sure if he wanted to meet this Newt kid, if he hung out with people like Alby, big and absolutely terrifying, Thomas thought he might pass.
"What classes will I take?" he couldn't stop the questions from jumping out of his mouth, this whole experience was just so bizarre, and by asking questions he hoped it all would start making at least a little sense. "Are the teachers any good? Won't it be weird for me to join you in the middle of a semester?" his own voice bounced toward the steps ahead of him. There were many steps, many stairs, and Thomas's legs were already shaking from exhaustion. His body was still weak, his mind still spinning. It didn't matter how much he tried, he still couldn't recall the incident that had brought him here, an upsetting thought.
An irritated sigh escaped Alby's lips as he came to rest upon the plateau of the fourth, and clearly last, floor. "The regular I guess, no, and no – classes have barely started," he paused and folded his arms to his chest. "This is the dorms, and the common room is here," he waved his hand toward a huge room at the left side of the staircase. "You'll be sleeping down this hall, sharing room with Chuck," Alby gave a small laugh as he said the boy's name, it sounded almost like a bark, like something he rarely used.
Alby started walking into the corridor on their left, the same corridor that Thomas would be sleeping in. To get to the dorms, you had to cross the common room, which turned out to be a huge space filled with sofas, a TV where some boys were playing videogames, a table where some were busy playing cards and a small bookshelf filled with colorful books. The corridor on the other side was smaller than the one they had been walking down before, but not any shorter. It ended with a great window, the sunlight colored the wooden floor and seemed to be the only source of light for the moment.
Alby stopped by the second door to the right and banged it hard with both of his fists before he flung it open. Thomas tried to peak over his shoulder, but without succeeding, the boy's broad shoulders blocked the view.
"Newt! You made me do the whole bloody tour by my own!" Alby shouted into the room. Thomas could hear a rumble, almost like someone falling of a bed, and before he knew it, a blond head appeared in the doorway. The other boy, who had to be Newt, peaked over Alby's shoulder before pushing him aside completely, stepping out into the faint light in the corridor. He was a bit taller than Alby, but his boy build was nothing near as terrifying as his friends. While Alby looked like he could pick Thomas up and throw him away as easily as one can throw a paper plane, Newt looked as if he would crumble and collapse by just thinking the thought. He had long legs and a thin torso, accompanied with a set of small shoulders and a long neck, he looked like a young tree. A short laugh escaped from the new boy's mouth as he let his green eyes sweep over Thomas's body.
"As if ye can't handle a bloody tour by yerself," Newt said, clearly to Alby, and when he continued he had his eyes locked with Thomas's. "So ye're the new Greenie, welcome to hell." He wore a small smile, Thomas couldn't determine if he was being serious or not. "I guess this shank head didn't even bother givin' ye a proper showing of this place, we'll take care of that tomorrow." He shrugged his shoulders and started walking down the corridor, only to stop a few doors down. Newt mimicked Alby's behavior when knocking on this other door, causing a slight tumult to occur on the other side of the dark wood. The walls in this corridor were painted green as well, the sealing blue. Thomas still felt as if he was trapped inside a huge forest and wondered if he would ever see a real one again. Luckily, before he could let his thoughts grow even more depressing, the door in front of him flew open and revealed a slightly younger boy, at the age of twelve or thirteen, in the doorway. His black curly hair was tangled in one enormous mess and his round cheeks seemed to be stuffed with crackers, judging by the crumbs on his shirtfront.
"Yeah?" the young boy said, and then his eyes caught sight of Thomas, standing awkwardly in the background. "A greenie?" he asked, excitement filling his voice.
"Don't piss yourself, Chuck," Alby said from the background, but Chuck didn't seem to hear him. Newt gave his friend a hard stare before he spoke up. "Thomas, Chuck," he waved his hand between them before he turned to Chuck again. "I guess ye ain't the Greenie anymore, shank," he even smiled a little as he said so. Thomas still hadn't figured out their way of speaking, they all seemed to have a bit of an accent he couldn't quite place, even though Newt's was extreme, and they used words he'd never heard before. Like shank, and Greenie. Thomas sighed inwardly, another new place, another new way of life to learn. Even though he had to admit that he hadn't quite felt this kind of excitement at any of the other schools he had attended, which was clearly saying something.
"Well, I'm starved. Let's see if this newbie can find his way to the dining," Newt said and gave Thomas a hard pat on the shoulder, hinting something of a smile as he did so. Thomas couldn't help but wonder why a guy like Newt had ended up in a place like this. And frankly, he wasn't even sure he wanted to know.