A/N - I know it's been a while since I posted. I have been super busy but here it is Chapter 8 and the arrival of Chuck!
Nick
A couple of weeks passed without any more daytime Griever sightings. I'd like to say that it became a distant memory. No such luck. The guilt of not telling Alby or Newt about the incident was beginning to become unbearable. Ben was feeling it too. We argued about it most days. Today was one of those days.
'I'm telling them! When we get back tonight. I'm telling them.' Ben was pacing back and forth in front of me.
'It's been two weeks and no-one has seen a Griever in the day again.' I try to reason with Ben. 'Why should we worry them!'
'THEY NEED TO KNOW! Something is changing. You and I both know that. We can feel it.' I look up at him. He has stopped pacing and has an odd look in his eye.
'Ben.' I say. I can tell he is having an internal argument. 'Whatever you want say, you can say it.' He surveys my face sighing obviously coming to a decision.
'It's Nick!' Nick? I wasn't expecting that? 'He can feel it. He's getting restless. He keeps talking about doing something to get out of here.' I look at him confused.
'What do mean, something?'
'He won't tell us what his plan is but I'm sure it's something stupid and dangerous.' Ben's face falls.
'I'm worried.' I nod. I am too. I need to talk to Nick and find out what he is planning.
'Yeah okay, let's go back now and I'll talk to Nick. Try and find out what's going on.' Ben nods and wordlessly starts to jog back to the Glade. As much as I hate to admit it, I may have been wrong to keep the Griever a secret. I should tell Alby and Newt. The other runners should probably know too.
'Ben!' I call after him. He stops and turns to me. 'I'll tell them. Alby and Newt. I'll tell them.' A smile starts to form on his face.
'Thank you. I don't like lying.'
'I know,' I sigh. 'I'm sorry I asked you too.' He walks back to me and takes my arm in his. We walk together back to the Glade bracing ourselves towards what we are about to do.
As we enter the Glade, I see Nick over by the homestead. I turn to Ben, 'In 20 minutes, gather Alby, Newt and the other runners in the Map Room. I'll them all at once.' He nods and jogs away to find everyone as I walk over to Nick.
'Hey,' I call to him as I approach.
'Hey,' he smiles back. There is something forced about it.
'Can we talk?' I ask gesturing over to the Treehouse. The Treehouse is Gally's latest architectural gamble. He has made panels all the way up the tree so that it makes it easier to climb. It's pretty cool actually. Once at the top, I sit down dangling my legs over the side of the panel we are on.
'So what's up?' He asks sitting beside me.
'Maybe I should ask the same question.' I say flatly. His eyebrows bury in confusion but I continue to stare at him. His expression suddenly changes to one of acceptance. 'Ben told you didn't he. About 'the plan'.'
I nod, 'Except he didn't know what the plan was. Only that it is probably stupid and dangerous.'
Nick's is looking at his hands. He won't make eye contact. 'Maybe we need a bit of stupid and dangerous.'
'What are you planning?' I need him to tell me. I can't lose someone else.
'I doesn't matter.' He stunts my questioning. Getting up he looks down at me. 'You'll only try and stop me.' And with that he climbs back down. I sigh. What am I going to do! I can't watch him all the time to make sure he doesn't kill himself attempting to get out of here. I drop my head into my hands. 'I can't do this' I whisper to myself. 'I'm going to get them all killed.' Newt's face consumes my vision. I can't lose him.
I suddenly remember I'm supposed to meet Ben and tell them all about the Griever. I groan as I get up and climb down through the branches. This really needs ladders. I'll talk to Gally about it later. Walking towards the Map Room feels lie the longest journey of my life. When I get there, everybody is already settled inside looking very confused. When they see me they go to stand. 'Don't' I say holding up my hand. 'You need to be sat down for this.' I catch Alby's eyes and I can tell he already knows that I have fucked up. I stare at the ground not being able to meet anyone else's eye. Especially Newt. I can feel the runner's eyes on me. I take a breath and look up.
'You may be wondering why I got Ben to gather you. Umm.' I hesitate. 'A couple of weeks ago, on my first day running again, Ben and I encountered a Griever.' I rush through the sentence not even taking time to take a breath. Small gasps and whispers fill the room. 'As you all know this is the first time we have encountered a Griever in daylight. We haven't seen another one and I'm assuming none of you have either. Correct?' I direct this question to the other runners. They all shake their head. I nod. 'We decided… I decided not to tell anyone about this as not to worry you. However maybe that wasn't the right decision.' Alby scoffs at this statement and I glare at him, not worried about his reaction anymore. 'I did what I thought was right at the time and now have changed my mind and told you.'
I turn towards Ben and he continues, 'This is where we first saw him and he tracked us to here.' As he talked he pointed to the whereabouts in question on the model the runners had built from memory. I caught Newt's eye. He knew what had happened there.
'We thought you should know. Just keep an eye out when you're in there. Be cautious.' Silence falls when I have finished speaking so I quickly leave, before questions can be asked.
Shutting myself in my room I sink to the floor and let the tears fall. I can't cry out there. After today though, god do I need to cry. After a moment, I push myself up and walk over to the wall by my bed. Pushing the bed out of the way I sit down and look at the 1,459 lines spread over it. Tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow we get another Glader. Tomorrow… 'tomorrow I have been here 4 years. 4 years and I'm still here. Not sure if that means I've done something right or something wrong.' I laugh bitterly. A familiar body settles next to me. 'Alby's pissed isn't he?'
Newt nods. 'Yeah. He thinks you should have told us sooner.'
'What about you? Do you think I should have told you sooner?' I stare straight at the wall not being able to bring myself to look at him. He sighs and shrugs his shoulders.
'It doesn't matter. What's done is done. We know now.' He states, his voice making me shiver. I pull my eyes away from the marks and look at him. He is looking right back at me. I can see the concern.
'I'm fine. It was good to revisit the area. It would have been better under different circumstances sure, but I'm fine. I feel the same now as I did back then. We have to make our life better for ourselves because no-one else will. And we have.' I get up to look out the window. 'Look out there. We did this. All of us. We made the life we have, and it's great.' I smile at him. His eyes are shining with pride as he looks over the Glade. It's almost beautiful in a way. It's a shame he doesn't smile more.
'What?' Newt asks quietly.
'Hu.'
'Never mind.' He shakes his head and continues looking out. There's something missing. Something that would make this moment perfect. Alby. I need to apologise to him. He is the only reason all of this exists. I have to talk to him.
I turn to go and find Alby when Newt says something that stops me in my tracks.
'Are we ever going to get out of here?' I stop, turning to see Newt looking at the floor. 'Why would someone put us in here and not give us any indication of how to get out? You've been here four years and we still don't know. People have died. Surely that defeats the point. It seems like a stupid plan to put children in a maze, not tell them how to get out and watch them die trying. What's the end-game? What's the reason?' He sits down on my bed still looking at the floor.
'I don't know why we are here. I don't know if we will make it out. But were sure as hell not going to stop trying. None of us know what is out there. I like to think we all have families waiting for us.' I smile at him. 'We are going to get out. And soon. I can feel it.' And with that I turn and leave the homestead to look for Alby.
I find Alby sulking by the far edge of the Glade. 'Hey,' I say getting his attention. He opens his mouth to say something but I stop him by holding up my hand. 'I know I should have told you about the Griever, and I know it was probably too early for me to start running again. But I had to start sometime and now I'm back to ultimate fitness. I mean, I'm faster than Ben!' I find myself almost pleading with him to understand. I stop talking and walk over to sit beside him. I wait for him to talk.
'I'm still pissed.' He mutters.
'I know, but I really am sorry.' I lean my head on his shoulder. 'Please just have a little faith that I know what I'm doing.' He laughs.
'Faith is not something I have in short supply. I trust and believe in every decision you make. I may not show it but I do. I think we have been a team for such a long time now that it's hard when things change. You running; a griever in daylight. We can all feel it. Somethings going on. We just don't understand what yet. And I'm struggling with that.' His head falls.
'Yeah me too. I'm so terrified by what's coming I forget to appreciate the now. We both do. Let's not waste these weeks by arguing. Please. It's not the same without you.' I look up at him as he puts an arm round my shoulders, pulling me in for a hug.
'All families argue.' He states simply.
I smile at him. 'How do you know?'
'I dunno. Guess I just feel it.' He pecks my forehead and stands up. 'Need help?' I smile at the gesture and take his offer of helping me up.
The next day, I wake up to a strange feeling in the Glade. I'm not sure what it is but the tension is palpable. After getting dressed I walk out of the homestead to see what is causing the weird atmosphere. There is no-one about. Odd! What's going on? The sun is up, the doors are open but nobody is around? I walk around and check all the buildings without any luck. I then notice a couple of the boys heading off into the trees. I follow silently. Creeping through the forest I begin to hear a plethora of voices. One in particular. Oh Nick, what are you up to?
Peering round a tree I see a large clearing filled with boys. However noticeably Newt, Alby, Jak, Frypan, Ben and Gally are all missing. My eyes finally rest on Nick who is in the centre of the circle with a number of ropes. It looks like he is talking about knots? What the hell? Winston walks up to Nick and stands as a model as Nick wraps the rope around his waist. Winston then climbs to the top of the nearest tree and with the help of Nick and some kind of pulley system to works his way down the smooth bark. What is this some sort of activity? A game that Nick has invented. If so, why would he not tell me about it? And why would they all meet in the woods? Something strange is going on and I had to tell Newt and Alby about it now! I ran back towards the homestead to wake up Newt when the claxon sounded to welcome the new Greenie. I watched as all the boys came running out of the forest towards the box. Most had a look of excitement on their face but I could sense some nerves. What was happening?
'You ready?' Newt asks as he comes up behind me. I stay quiet and frown at the scene before me. 'What's wrong?' I feel a hand on my shoulder.
'Somethings going on. I don't know what, but somethings wrong.' I feel Newt's hand tighten on my shoulder. Before anything else can be said, Alby strides past me and towards the box calling for me to follow.
'We'll talk about it later, okay?' Newt says quietly. I nod following Alby. It's his turn to jump in and make the original welcome, so I stand with Newt at the edge of the box. Inside is a small, chubby kid. He looks young. Really young. 14 maybe? I can hear Alby chatting with him quietly as my brain wanders back to what I saw in the woods. My attention is suddenly brought back when I hear my name being said.
'Kira is the boss. You do as she says and you will get along fine.' Alby teases pointing up at me. I raise an eyebrow and smirk at him.
'He's kidding. We'll get along fine.' I offer a hand into the box to help him out. He takes it and with a bit of awkward scrabbling he emerges over the side. The boys all jump into the box to empty it of supplies so it can go back down again. 'They're in a hurry?' I say to Newt who also is looking at the Gladers with a raised eyebrow. I shrug and put my tour hat on as I walk off with the Greenie and Alby to give him the tour.
About 30 minutes later, I hear Newt shout. I run towards the noise the Greenie in tow. As I get closer I see the boys surrounding the box? The box went 10 minutes ago? What are they looking at? I run faster. I push my way through the crowd shouting to Newt. 'WHAT'S HAPPENING? WHAT'S GOING ON?' I only hear one word through all the mayhem. Nick!
'Shit,' I curse as I reach the box. Before me lies the deep hole from which the box comes from. I can see a rope over the edge and several boys holding one end. It all starts to click into place. 'NO!' I scream. I grab the rope trying to pull Nick back up. Gally, Winston and Jeff run to my aid. 'DON'T YOU THINK I HAVE TRIED THAT YOU IDIOT? STOP! YOU'LL GET…!' The tension on the rope breaks and I fall back to the floor. A blood curdling scream echo's round the glade.
The boys begin to pull on the rope as I stand up and lean over the edge. What I see makes me want to throw up. I tell the boys to stop pulling. 'Newt.' I beckon him over. 'Get the younger boys into the homestead. They don't need to see this.' Immediately he does as I ask and although reluctantly the boys follow. Only the older boys are left now. 'Okay boys, bring him up.' They begin to pull on the rope again faster this time. It only takes a few seconds for Nick's torso to be hauled over the edge of the box hole. Without the legs. The boys drop the rope with different reactions. Winston is sick, Jeff faints and Gally just stares, all the blood having left his face.
'Fuck!'
