p style="text-align: center;"strongI'm back! For good this time. No more long breaks. I'm going to get this story finished. Daily uploads everyday. I have a goal this time. I will get this done by the end of next month. Then, a week after I will start on Scorch Trials. So please, enjoy the rest of the story./strong/p
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p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-align: center; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"CHAPTER 34/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dib awoke to a weak, lifeless light. His first thought was that he must've gotten up earlier than usual, that dawn was still an hour away. But then he heard the shouts. And then he looked up, through the leafy canopy of branches./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The sky was a dull slab of gray—not the natural pale light of morning. He jumped to his feet, put his hand on the wall to steady himself as he craned his neck to gawk toward the heavens. There was no blue, no black, no stars, no purplish fan of a creeping dawn. The sky, every last inch of it, was slate gray. Colorless and dead./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He looked down at his watch—it was a full hour past his mandatory waking time. The brilliance of the sun should've awakened him—had done so easily since he'd arrived at the Glade. But not today./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He glanced upward again, half expecting it to have changed back to normal. But it was all gray. Not cloudy, not twilight, not the early minutes of dawn. Just gray./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The sun had disappeared./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dib found most of the Gladers standing near the entrance to the Box, pointing at the dead sky, everyone talking at once. Based on the time, breakfast should've already been served, people should be working. But there was something about the largest object in the solar system vanishing that tended to disrupt normal schedules./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"In truth, as Dib silently watched the commotion, he didn't feel nearly as panicked or frightened as his instincts told him he ought to be. And it surprised him that so many of the others looked like lost chicks thrown from the coop. It was, in fact, ridiculous./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The sun obviously had not disappeared—that wasn't possible. Though that was what it seemed like—signs of the ball of furious fire nowhere to be seen, the slanting shadows of morning absent. But he and all the Gladers were far too rational and intelligent to conclude such a thing. No, there had to be a scientifically acceptable reason for what they were witnessing. And whatever it was, to Dib it meant one thing: the fact they could no longer see the sun probably meant they'd never been able to in the first place. A sun couldn't just disappear. Their sky had to have been— and still was—fabricated. Artificial./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"In other words, the sun that had shone down on these people for two years, providing heat and life to everything, was not the sun at all. Somehow, it had been fake. Everything about this place was fake./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dib didn't know what that meant, didn't know how it was possible. But he knew it to be true—it was the only explanation his rational mind could accept. And it was obvious from the other Gladers' reactions that none of them had figured this out until now./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Keef found him, and the look of fear on the boy's face pinched Dib's heart. "What do you think happened?" Keef said, a pitiful tremor in his voice, his eyes glued to the sky. Dib thought his neck must hurt something awful. "Looks like a big gray ceiling—close enough you could almost touch it."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dib followed Keef's gaze and looked up. "Yeah, makes you wonder about this place." For the second time in twenty-four hours, Keef had nailed it. The sky did look like a ceiling. Like the ceiling of a massive room. "Maybe something's broken. I mean, maybe it'll be back."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Keef finally quit gawking and made eye contact with Dib. "Broken? What's that supposed to mean?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Before Dib could answer, the faint memory of last night, before he fell asleep, came to him, Zim's words inside his mind. He'd said, I just triggered the Ending. It couldn't be a coincidence, could it? A sour rot crept into his belly. Whatever the explanation, whatever that had been in the sky, the real sun or not, it was gone. And that couldn't be a good thing./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Dib?" Keef asked, lightly tapping him on the upper arm. "Yeah?" Dib's mind felt hazy. "What'd you mean by broken?" Keef repeated. Dib felt like he needed time to think about it all. "Oh. I don't know. Must be things about this place we obviously don't understand. But you can't just make the sun disappear from space. Plus, there's still enough light to see by, as faint as it is. Where's that coming from?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Keef's eyes widened, as if the darkest, deepest secret of the universe had just been revealed to him. "Yeah, where is it coming from? What's going on, Dib?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dib reached out and squeezed the younger boy's shoulder. He felt awkward. "No clue, Keef. Not a clue. But I'm sure Gaz and Letter M'll figure things out."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Dib!" Zita was running up to them. "Quit your leisure time with Keefy here and let's get going. We're already late."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dib was stunned. For some reason he'd expected the weird sky to throw all normal plans out the window./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You're still going out there?" Keef asked, clearly surprised as well. Dib was glad the boy had asked the question for him./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Of course we are, shank," Zita said. "Don't you have some sloppin' to do?" She looked from Keef to Dib. "If anything, gives us even more reason to get our butts out there. If the sun's really gone, won't be long before plants and animals drop dead, too. I think the desperation level just went up a notch."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The last statement struck Dib deep down. Despite all his ideas—all the things he'd pitched to Zita—he wasn't eager to change how things had been done for the last two years. A mixture of excitement and dread swept over him when he realized what Zita was saying. "You mean we're going to stay out there overnight? Explore the walls a little more closely?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Zita shook her head. "No, not yet. Maybe soon, though." She looked up toward the sky. "Man—what a way to wake up. Come on, let's go."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dib was quiet as he and Zita got their things ready and ate a lightning-fast breakfast. His thoughts were churning too much about the gray sky and what Zim—at least, he thought it had been the Irken—had told him in his mind to participate in any conversation./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"What had he meant by the Ending? Dib couldn't knock the feeling that he should tell somebody. Everybody./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"But he didn't know what it meant, and he didn't want them to know he had an Irken's voice in his head. They'd think he'd really gone bonkers, maybe even lock him up—and for good this time./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"After a lot of deliberation, he decided to keep his mouth shut and went running with Zita for his second day of training, below a bleak and colorless sky./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"They saw the Griever before they'd even made it to the door leading from Section Eight to Section One./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Zita was a few feet ahead of Dib. She'd just rounded a corner to the right when she slammed to a stop, her feet almost skidding out from under her. She jumped back and grabbed Dib by the shirt, pushing him against the wall./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Shh," Zita whispered. "There's a freaking Griever up there." Dib widened his eyes in question, felt his heart pick up the pace, even though it had already been pumping hard and steady./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Zita simply nodded, then put her finger to her lips. She let go of Dib's shirt and took a step back, then crept up to the corner around which she'd seen the Griever. Very slowly, she leaned forward to take a peek. Dib wanted to scream at her to be careful./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Zita's head jerked back and she turned to face Dib. Her voice was still a whisper. "It's just sitting up there—almost like that dead one we saw."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What do we do?" Dib asked, as quietly as possible. He tried to ignore the panic flaring inside him. "Is it coming toward us?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No, idiot—I just told you it was sitting there." "Well?" Dib raised his hands to his sides in frustration. "What do we do?" Standing so close to a Griever seemed like a really bad idea./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Zita paused a few seconds, thinking before she spoke. "We have to go that way to get to our section. Let's just watch it awhile—if it comes after us, we'll run back to the Glade." She took another peek, then quickly looked over her shoulder. "Crap—it's gone! Come on!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Zita didn't wait for a response, didn't see the look of horror Dib had just felt widen his own eyes. Zita took off running in the direction where she'd seen the Griever. Though his instincts told him not to, Dib followed./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He sprinted down the long corridor after Zita, turned left, then right. At every turn, they slowed so the Keeper could look around the corner first. Each time she whispered back to Dib that she'd seen the tail end of the Griever disappearing around the next turn. This went on for ten minutes, until they came to the long hallway that ended at the Cliff, where beyond lay nothing but the lifeless sky. The Griever was charging toward that sky./span/p
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p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Zita stopped so abruptly Dib almost ran her over. Then Dib stared in shock as up ahead the Griever dug in with its spikes and spun forward right up to the Cliff's edge, then off, into the gray abyss. The creature disappeared from sight, a shadow swallowed by more shadow./span/p
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p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-align: center; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: bold; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"CHAPTER 34/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dib awoke to a weak, lifeless light. His first thought was that he must've gotten up earlier than usual, that dawn was still an hour away. But then he heard the shouts. And then he looked up, through the leafy canopy of branches./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The sky was a dull slab of gray—not the natural pale light of morning. He jumped to his feet, put his hand on the wall to steady himself as he craned his neck to gawk toward the heavens. There was no blue, no black, no stars, no purplish fan of a creeping dawn. The sky, every last inch of it, was slate gray. Colorless and dead./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He looked down at his watch—it was a full hour past his mandatory waking time. The brilliance of the sun should've awakened him—had done so easily since he'd arrived at the Glade. But not today./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He glanced upward again, half expecting it to have changed back to normal. But it was all gray. Not cloudy, not twilight, not the early minutes of dawn. Just gray./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The sun had disappeared./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dib found most of the Gladers standing near the entrance to the Box, pointing at the dead sky, everyone talking at once. Based on the time, breakfast should've already been served, people should be working. But there was something about the largest object in the solar system vanishing that tended to disrupt normal schedules./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"In truth, as Dib silently watched the commotion, he didn't feel nearly as panicked or frightened as his instincts told him he ought to be. And it surprised him that so many of the others looked like lost chicks thrown from the coop. It was, in fact, ridiculous./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The sun obviously had not disappeared—that wasn't possible. Though that was what it seemed like—signs of the ball of furious fire nowhere to be seen, the slanting shadows of morning absent. But he and all the Gladers were far too rational and intelligent to conclude such a thing. No, there had to be a scientifically acceptable reason for what they were witnessing. And whatever it was, to Dib it meant one thing: the fact they could no longer see the sun probably meant they'd never been able to in the first place. A sun couldn't just disappear. Their sky had to have been— and still was—fabricated. Artificial./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"In other words, the sun that had shone down on these people for two years, providing heat and life to everything, was not the sun at all. Somehow, it had been fake. Everything about this place was fake./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dib didn't know what that meant, didn't know how it was possible. But he knew it to be true—it was the only explanation his rational mind could accept. And it was obvious from the other Gladers' reactions that none of them had figured this out until now./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Keef found him, and the look of fear on the boy's face pinched Dib's heart. "What do you think happened?" Keef said, a pitiful tremor in his voice, his eyes glued to the sky. Dib thought his neck must hurt something awful. "Looks like a big gray ceiling—close enough you could almost touch it."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dib followed Keef's gaze and looked up. "Yeah, makes you wonder about this place." For the second time in twenty-four hours, Keef had nailed it. The sky did look like a ceiling. Like the ceiling of a massive room. "Maybe something's broken. I mean, maybe it'll be back."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Keef finally quit gawking and made eye contact with Dib. "Broken? What's that supposed to mean?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Before Dib could answer, the faint memory of last night, before he fell asleep, came to him, Zim's words inside his mind. He'd said, I just triggered the Ending. It couldn't be a coincidence, could it? A sour rot crept into his belly. Whatever the explanation, whatever that had been in the sky, the real sun or not, it was gone. And that couldn't be a good thing./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Dib?" Keef asked, lightly tapping him on the upper arm. "Yeah?" Dib's mind felt hazy. "What'd you mean by broken?" Keef repeated. Dib felt like he needed time to think about it all. "Oh. I don't know. Must be things about this place we obviously don't understand. But you can't just make the sun disappear from space. Plus, there's still enough light to see by, as faint as it is. Where's that coming from?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Keef's eyes widened, as if the darkest, deepest secret of the universe had just been revealed to him. "Yeah, where is it coming from? What's going on, Dib?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dib reached out and squeezed the younger boy's shoulder. He felt awkward. "No clue, Keef. Not a clue. But I'm sure Gaz and Letter M'll figure things out."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Dib!" Zita was running up to them. "Quit your leisure time with Keefy here and let's get going. We're already late."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dib was stunned. For some reason he'd expected the weird sky to throw all normal plans out the window./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""You're still going out there?" Keef asked, clearly surprised as well. Dib was glad the boy had asked the question for him./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Of course we are, shank," Zita said. "Don't you have some sloppin' to do?" She looked from Keef to Dib. "If anything, gives us even more reason to get our butts out there. If the sun's really gone, won't be long before plants and animals drop dead, too. I think the desperation level just went up a notch."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"The last statement struck Dib deep down. Despite all his ideas—all the things he'd pitched to Zita—he wasn't eager to change how things had been done for the last two years. A mixture of excitement and dread swept over him when he realized what Zita was saying. "You mean we're going to stay out there overnight? Explore the walls a little more closely?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Zita shook her head. "No, not yet. Maybe soon, though." She looked up toward the sky. "Man—what a way to wake up. Come on, let's go."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Dib was quiet as he and Zita got their things ready and ate a lightning-fast breakfast. His thoughts were churning too much about the gray sky and what Zim—at least, he thought it had been the Irken—had told him in his mind to participate in any conversation./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"What had he meant by the Ending? Dib couldn't knock the feeling that he should tell somebody. Everybody./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"But he didn't know what it meant, and he didn't want them to know he had an Irken's voice in his head. They'd think he'd really gone bonkers, maybe even lock him up—and for good this time./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"After a lot of deliberation, he decided to keep his mouth shut and went running with Zita for his second day of training, below a bleak and colorless sky./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"They saw the Griever before they'd even made it to the door leading from Section Eight to Section One./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Zita was a few feet ahead of Dib. She'd just rounded a corner to the right when she slammed to a stop, her feet almost skidding out from under her. She jumped back and grabbed Dib by the shirt, pushing him against the wall./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""Shh," Zita whispered. "There's a freaking Griever up there." Dib widened his eyes in question, felt his heart pick up the pace, even though it had already been pumping hard and steady./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Zita simply nodded, then put her finger to her lips. She let go of Dib's shirt and took a step back, then crept up to the corner around which she'd seen the Griever. Very slowly, she leaned forward to take a peek. Dib wanted to scream at her to be careful./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Zita's head jerked back and she turned to face Dib. Her voice was still a whisper. "It's just sitting up there—almost like that dead one we saw."/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""What do we do?" Dib asked, as quietly as possible. He tried to ignore the panic flaring inside him. "Is it coming toward us?"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;""No, idiot—I just told you it was sitting there." "Well?" Dib raised his hands to his sides in frustration. "What do we do?" Standing so close to a Griever seemed like a really bad idea./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Zita paused a few seconds, thinking before she spoke. "We have to go that way to get to our section. Let's just watch it awhile—if it comes after us, we'll run back to the Glade." She took another peek, then quickly looked over her shoulder. "Crap—it's gone! Come on!"/span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Zita didn't wait for a response, didn't see the look of horror Dib had just felt widen his own eyes. Zita took off running in the direction where she'd seen the Griever. Though his instincts told him not to, Dib followed./span/p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"He sprinted down the long corridor after Zita, turned left, then right. At every turn, they slowed so the Keeper could look around the corner first. Each time she whispered back to Dib that she'd seen the tail end of the Griever disappearing around the next turn. This went on for ten minutes, until they came to the long hallway that ended at the Cliff, where beyond lay nothing but the lifeless sky. The Griever was charging toward that sky./span/p
p style="text-align: left;" /p
p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; text-indent: 14.4pt; text-align: justify; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 5pt;"span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: Times,serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-weight: 400; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"Zita stopped so abruptly Dib almost ran her over. Then Dib stared in shock as up ahead the Griever dug in with its spikes and spun forward right up to the Cliff's edge, then off, into the gray abyss. The creature disappeared from sight, a shadow swallowed by more shadow./span/p