Thomas and Em watched as a team of gladers dragged Ben to the pits, Newt with them.
"You two need to see the med jacks" Alby said after a moment. Em then noticed the scrapes and cuts that covered her and thomas' forearms. In a daze she led the way to clint and jeff and let them bandage any and all wounds Alby soon joined them and began to ask Thomas about Ben.
"It's the changing Alby, he said that.." Em paused as she tried to remember exactly what had happened in the woods.
"He said it was all my fault, how can this be my fault?" Thomas asked getting into a panic. Newt came back along with chuck and they convinced Thomas to calm down and get dinner. Thomas watched as Newt and chuck worried over Em picking over her dinner and they all managed to coax her to eat a few bites before the gladers all stopped their evening activities. Sundown came far too soon for the glade. Em snapped out of her daze as Newt, Alby and the other keepers went to go get the poles. Minho went to the pits to get Ben.
"Come on chuck" She whispered as she stood and followed the rest of the gladers to the doors of the maze. They stood surrounding the doors and poles were handed out to the gladers except Em. She hadn't participated in a banishing since nick and she never approved of them, but like Alby said, sometimes you have to do things you don't want to do. There was no way to get Ben back, he was gone with the griever venom. Chuck and THomas stood by her and they all watched as Ben was released from his bindings and a bag of provisions was thrown into the maze by Minho. Then the winds came and the gladers all squared their shoulders and began to slowly shuffle Ben towards the maze using their poles. Chuck buried his head into Em's hair as she held him close. He had never watched a banishment and he had really liked Ben. Em watched sadly as Ben was pushed into the maze and with one final scream of desperation the doors clanged shut, leaving the keepers at the shut doors surrounded by the gladers.
"I know what you guys are thinking, that what we just did was wrong. That Ben was your friend."
Alby began to speak barely above a whisper as he looked up at Em, Chuck and Thomas.
"But that was not Ben! That was the grievers and the maze, he belongs to the maze now." He finished as he walked out of the cluster of gladers towards the homestead, followed by Newt, Winston, Gus and Frypan while Minho remained at the wall.
The rest of the gladers began to walk away from the wall and Em walked up to stand next to minho at the wall. They both just stared for a second before she placed her hand on his shoulder.
"He was a good runner Minho, one of the best" She said after a moment. "I need to go make sure Alby and newt are ok, you good?"
"Yeah now slim it" He said quietly
"Good that" She murmured before hugging him and leaving him alone. Walking back across the glade she saw the flicker of torchlight at the name wall and knew that Gally and the rest of the builders were busy scratching Ben's name off the wall. Halfway to the homestead she met up with Alby and minho, the three paused and talked for a few minutes and then Em continued to go track down Newt. She smiled when she finally found him under the canopy near the track hoes camp sitting down with two bed rolls next to him. He held open his arms and she burrowed into them and they just sat there in the silence as they both thought about what had happened that day.
"Newt?" Em asked as they lay near the fire under a small canopy after a few minutes of silence.
"Yeah em?" The boy replied as he combed his fingers through her hair
"Alby wants me and minho to go running with him tomorrow to try to find where ben might have gotten stung by the griever."
"But you haven't been running for almost a year now"
"Yeah but he knows that only minho and I know the maze perfectly."
"Are you sure Em? You haven't been in the maze since your changing" Newt's voice was filled with worry. He remembered the shaking girl he had had to comfort after she had tried to go into the maze after her changing.
"Alby needs me to do it" She said with a slight quivering of her voice.
"You will do fine, now slim it" Newt said with a chuckle and a kiss on top of her head.
"Good that" she said quietly as she began to drift to sleep with her head on his shoulder. The older boys eyes were filled worry and fear, first Ben had been stung for no reason and now Alby wanted to take Em and go into the maze. He wasn't one to believe in superstitions but he had a bad feeling about this little trip into the maze. Once the fire burned down and the other track hoes fell asleep he unrolled the two bed rolls under the canopy and settled Em onto one before settling in to get some sleep on the other. Whatever happened tomorrow he hoped it would help them get out of the glade once and for all.