"Greenie!" Alby's voice carried far across the Glade and into my ears as I grabbed a plate from Frypan. I spun around shocked at the sudden shout. I fixed my eyes on him as he swept his arm behind him gesturing to the homestead. Handing my plate back to the cook, I paced myself as I trotted towards the rickety building.
Looking around the empty hallway, I saw that Alby had disappeared. Gradually, I approached the door to the room where they held gatherings, the door was slightly ajar. When I pushed the door in a little, I could see Alby standing behind his desk, rifling through papers. Dreading what was about to occur, I shuffled to in front of his antique workspace. "You've been here about three weeks now, Greenie." I repositioned my arms several times trying to find comfort in the anxiety. He spoke in a miffed tone that made me shrink where I stood. "It's time you were assigned a job." This topic was one I would readily discuss any day.
"Yes, sir. I actually wanted to talk to you about that. I-"
"I ain't done yet, Greenie," Alby interrupted, then he drew in a long breath and continued, "I know you told me and Minho you wanna to be a runner but Greenie's like you don't just pop up in the maze and become a runner the next day."
"Except for Thomas," I muttered under my breath but Alby still heard me and raised a disapproving eyebrow, then resumed.
"Minho told me that you have been training every morning and you'd be ready soon. The truth is, the other keepers are getting irritated that you are not working." I knew what was coming and I also knew I wouldn't like it. Inhaling another deep sigh he finished, "I have decided to put you with the builders." As the sentence sank in, I couldn't help but imagine Gally making my life a living hell by giving me arduous chores. My face ran pale but Alby seemed to still have more to say. "I told Gally he has to give you jobs that involve you running supplies between the builders. As soon as Minho thinks you are ready, we will hold a gathering, and vote you in as a runner." Taken aback by the sudden rush of words, My mouth dropped open. My eyes started to tear up then I choked them back realizing how ridiculous I would look if I started crying right now. Composing myself, I nodded respectfully towards Alby, thanking him, then left the room. The joy that started to bubble up inside me took over and I darted out of the homestead and into the bright, morning glade. I ran as fast as I could across the glade. I felt the grass whip on my ankles, the sweat begins to bead on my temple, my heart pounding. Once I got to the part of the glade that has the tallest grass, I tucked in and rolled a few feet. When I stopped, I gazed up at the blue sky. My clothes felt wet and sticky from the morning dew on the grass.
Newt appeared above me, staring at my goofy smile with curious amazement. "You okay, Greenie?" I giggled for a second then rolled over and pushed myself to my feet.
"Never better! I'm starved, Frypan still has breakfast out, right?
"No, but I grabbed your plate just in case you didn't make it back in time. What did Alby need you for anyway?" We started walking back to the cooking hut as I explained Alby's plan.
"Wait, don't you already know? You are second in command, aren't you?" Newt had a stone cold expression on his face as I explained. Why wasn't he happy for me? I have been talking about wanting to be a runner since I found out about the maze.
"Go find frypan and ask him for the plate I asked him to save," Newt explained as he walked away from me and towards the homestead. The abrupt attitude change caused me to believe that Newt was not informed of this decision. When I came back from my night in the maze, Alby had said something like 'you are the person I trust most.' If that were true, why hadn't he told him he was going to make me a runner?
Grabbing my plate from Frypan, I left en route to my favorite tree. This time, instead of sitting under it, I climbed to one of the sturdy branches that would conceal my spot to anyone looking. My cuts, bruises, and injuries all ached as I climbed but I ignored their cries.
Gally's voice abruptly called up to me which startled the now empty plate out of my hands. It fell to the ground with a slight thud on the decomposing leaves. "Greenie! Get your shank ass down here. You have work to do!" His voice was laced with smug enjoyment. As I climbed down, I felt my left leg reluctantly following my commands. It still twitched with pain as I descended. Before I was even five feet from the ground, Gally grabbed my left ankle and yanked hard towards the ground. I fell in a heap with a girlish yelp. He let out a vicious laugh while reaching down and seizing my wrist. A burst of pain came from the place that Ben had grabbed a few days ago. He dragged me to the spot in the woods where most of the builders were chopping dead trees. "Carry that pile to Frankie over by the med jacks hut." I glanced over to the ever growing pile of wood, a shiver descended my spine as the anger rose in me.
"Those logs are twice my size, how do you expect-" Gally cut me off with a dismissive swing of his hand.
"Not my problem, greenie." I decided that Gally of all people would not be the person that stopped me from being a runner. Grabbing a log I quickly realized that this wasn't going to work. My arms were toned but not built even though I assume that I had done kickboxing for years because of my experience. I glanced around, trying to find a wheelbarrow or something to move the heavy chunks of wood.
I found nothing so I sprinted to the homestead. Inside, there was a closet full of supplies. Searching around the old storage space, I picked out a sturdy, ten-foot rope, an old, thick blanket, a pocket knife, and a small iron hammer.
When I reached the pile once more, I planned out my next move. I made a square on the ground out of four termite-hollowed logs. Examining the work site, I spot Gally as he takes a nail from his work belt. He must keep them in there.
I approached Gally, cautious to stay out of his eye line. He was trying to write something down on an old piece of paper as he leaned against the work table that sat on the side of the site. As I reduced the distance between us, I tried to keep my footsteps as quiet as possible. I gracefully slid my hand into his pocket and, careful not to jostle them around, grabbed a handful of nails. I rapidly turned and ran back to my square of logs where I proceeded to hammer them together. Once I had finished hammering, I slit the corners of the blankets and double knotted it to each corner of the square. Then I rolled a few of the heavy logs onto the sled. After I wiped my sweat, I continued to tie the rope to two of the wooded corners of the sled. Testing my contraption, I gave the rope a solid tug and realized that it slid with ease.
I pulled the sled behind me and made my way to Frankie. When I got there, I rolled the logs off less than gracefully, then went back to the site to reload.
I repeated this process a few times until all the logs had been delivered. "Okay what neared?" I asked Gally while wiping my hands on my pants which just irritated my now burning hands.
Gally glanced over at me then rolled his eyes, "you can't possibly be done. Go finish." The anger boiled up in my again and I forcefully grabbed Gally's broad shoulder and forced him to look at me which earned me an extremely irked look on his face. He opened his mouth to yell at me but his eyes glanced up to see the spot where the massive logs had been.
"How- damn, Greenie." I was shocked to see he didn't look angry that I had completed his arduous task but rather in awe. He glanced down at me suspiciously, "no one helped you, right?" I shook my head then repeated my previous question. "Uh, I mean you could go help- actually, you can draw can't you?"
"I guess so, Minho seems to think so, I help the runners draw their maps somethings." His now gentle tone was a drastic difference from his usual, hostile and vicious character.
"Grab that pencil over there, and I'm going to dictate a building to you and I want you to draw it." I did as he asked and he explained to me that the other builders are thick and don't take direction well so maybe if they have a picture, they can follow it. Once I had finished the sketch, Gally took it and nodded his head with satisfaction then took it to show the other builders.
The rest of the day, Gally treated me like every other builder, except he gave me slightly easier jobs. Maybe this won't be so bad.