A/N - So Chapter 11 is up! I hope you all enjoy it!
Chapter 11
I wake up early the next morning, not having had a repeat of the dream from yesterday. I sit in bed for a moment thinking about the events of yesterday.
Thomas. He intrigues me. He is extremely curious, which is odd in this place. He wants to know everything about everything; he wants to see it all, even if it means putting himself in danger by doing something stupid, like becoming a runner. He reminds me of myself in a way. When I first got here, before I had experienced the maze. Gradually though I can feel that part of me returning, and with him here asking all the questions I want answers to… well, I thought that things were going to change. Maybe I was right.
Pulling myself out of bed I dress and head outside. Everyone but the runners are still asleep and I decide this is a good time to show Thomas the wall. Walking silently across the glade towards the hammocks I see Thomas next to Chuck, tossing and turning in his sleep.
'WICKED is good,' he murmurs in his sleep. WICKED is good? That is what the person in my dream said. Was he having the same ones? I made a mental note to ask him about it later. Placing my hand on his shoulder, I gently shake it to wake him.
'Thomas,' I whisper. Opening his eyes with a start, I shove my hand over his mouth to prevent him from waking the others. Their hangovers would be bad enough without being woken early. 'Shhhhhh,' I put my finger to my lips. Beckoning to him I say, 'Follow me,' and begin to walk towards the wall. I hear him shuffling to get ready and follow.
'It's peaceful, isn't it? I know it's hard to believe, but it wasn't always this way.' I pause and look behind me to see if he is following. He is, with a look of confusion and interest. I smirk at him and continue. 'We had dark days. We lost some boys to fear. To panic. Too a loss of faith.' I smile sadly thinking of Nick. 'We've come far since then. Established order...made peace.' I look back at him again and see him looking at me, as if trying to decipher what I'm really saying.
'Yeah. Why are you telling me this?' He asks quietly.
We've reached the wall of names now. I look up and slowly stroke the line through Nick's name.
'Because you're not like the others. You're curious. I can relate.' I laugh softly. 'But you're one of us now. You're family. You need to know what that means. This wall, every time we get a new Glader they carve their name on this wall. If something happens… well you can see for yourself.'
He looks up at the wall of names, focusing on the ones that are crossed out. 'What happened to them?'
'Like I said...dark days.' I pass him a knife, and he begins to chip his own name into the stone.
'Hey guys. You ready Kira?' Minho is standing by the wall with my vest and pack. I nod holding up a finger.
'1 second.' Turing back to Thomas I smile at his finished name. 'Newt and Chuck will look after you today. You're going to be doing the rounds, testing the jobs available. Whichever one you suit, that'll be you job. You look like a track-hoe to me, you know, if you're not a runner.' Winking at him I jog over to Minho, who is now joined by Newt, Ben and Ably.
'Hey guys.' I say taking my stuff from Minho. 'You going out on your own today?' I say to Ben. He grins at me and nods.
'Yep, seeing as you've nicked my partner, guess I'll have to.' He shoves my shoulder lightly and runs off into the maze. After watching him leave I turn my attention to Alby and Newt.
Alby pulls me into a hug, and says, 'Good Luck.' I smile at him and he starts talking to Minho. I walk over to Newt who looks at me with a grin.
'You sure you can handle it.' He says with a chuckle. 'Being alone with Minho for 10 minutes is enough for the rest of us.'
I laugh. 'I'm sure I'll manage. If he gets too bad I'll just leave him behind. He knows I'm faster than him.' We laugh together at the look on Minho's face as he catches wind of the conversation.
'Come on, we should go,' he says to me. I turn and give Newt a quick hug, pulling away and running into the maze before he can see the crimson colour permeating my cheeks. I hear Minho roar with laughter and follow.
We run for a good few hours without really talking before slowing slightly as we reach our section.
'You and Newt are hilarious!' Minho says suddenly. Feigning ignorance I look at him with a surprised look.
'I don't know what you're talking about.' He scoffs at this and sits down. 'What are you doing,' I ask confused. 'We're not done yet.' He crosses him arms and looks at me with a raised eyebrow. I decide to sit on the floor opposite him and reply with an eyebrow raise of my own. He doesn't say anything. 'What?' I bark. He smirks at me and says, 'You and Newt.'
'What about me and Newt.'
'Oh come on. You obviously like each other. Everybody sees it… except apparently you two.' He throws his arms out in frustration. 'How can you not see it? Neither of you are particularly subtle.'
'You know, for a bunch of guys, you lot do like to gossip.' I say finally.
'Has someone else said something?' Minho asks.
I hesitate about whether I should tell him. What harm can it do? 'Alby.'
Minho bursts into laughter. I look at him and wonder what he finds so hilarious. I wait for Minho to recover and ask, 'What was so funny?'
'Alby isn't normally one to gossip, is all.' I nod unconvinced. 'You really like him, don't you? Newt.'
I blush at the thought of him. How ridiculous! Blushing at the thought of someone.
'Ha.' Minho cries. 'Knew it!' I shake my head attempting to backtrack, but Minho won't have it. 'Oh My God. Everyone is going to be so excited! Glader wedding!' I balk at the thought.
'Woah, we haven't even told each other how we feel, let alone a bloody wedding!' I stop suddenly and my eyes widen, realising what I just said. Minho drops the excitable pose and leans back against the wall with a smirk. Fuck. He was playing me. 'Fuck you.' I mutter.
'Gotcha.' His smirk stays firmly on his face. I'm about to respond when loud cries echo across the maze.
'HEY! HEY! HEY! HELP! HELP! HELP ME!'
I look to Minho as we race towards the cries. 'It's coming from the Glade!' Pushing even harder we streak into the Glade to see Ben being carried away screaming from a shaken Thomas. Minho runs to Ben to find out what's going on as I run to Thomas.
'What the hell is going on?' I demand as I get closer to Thomas and Chuck.
'Ben!' Chuck started. 'He attacked Thomas! He was stung!' Stung! In the day?
'What? In the day?'' Chuck just nodded. 'Are you okay? I say quietly putting my hand on his shoulder. He doesn't say anything just shakes his head.
'Chuck, why don't you go back to work?' I smile at him, and he shuffles away. I take Thomas' hand and take him to the tree. 'Tell me what happened, from the beginning.'
Thomas takes a deep breath and starts, 'I was working in the fields with Newt. We needed more fertiliser and I was asked to go and get some from the woods.' I nod to show him I'm listening. 'I walked past a sort of… graveyard.'
'The Deadheads.'
'I was looking at one of the grave markers. Umm, George. Anyway I stood up to go back to work and Ben was there. Just standing behind me. I began to introduce myself, but he looked off. I asked if he was okay and he attacked me. I managed to push him off and run back to the Glade but he tackled me. The others came and pulled him off me. That's when they lifted his shirt and saw the sting.'
I nod slowly taking it all in. 'Did he say anything to you?'
'He said, he saw me… and that this was all my fault. How could this be my fault?' His voice cracks as he finishes his sentence.
I grab his hand. 'It might not be. Everybody worries about who's responsible for putting us here. You're the new kid. The infection probably just caused him to put 2 and 2 together and come out with that. And to be honest, no insult to you, but no teenager did this to us. It's too advanced.'
'What happened to him?' Thomas said, his voice barely above a whisper.
'We call it The Changing. It's what happens when someone is stung. It causes them to basically go mad. He's not Ben anymore. He's dangerous. He can't stay here.' I sigh and look at my lap.
'What are you going to do?'
'He broke the rules. He attacked you. We don't hurt each other.' I can hardly make myself say it. 'We have to banish him.'
'Banish him? Where?' I look over to the maze. 'In there? Overnight? You said no-one survives overnight.' I nod. 'Right.'
'It's that or kill him straight away. But he broke the rules. This is his punishment.' With that I climbed down the tree and towards the Slammer where Ben was being held. Gally stood outside with his back to Ben.
'You can go, Gally.' I said softly putting my hand on his shoulder.
'You sure?' He said dubiously looking towards the Slammer with a narrowed eye.
'Yeah, go on. Frypan's nearly ready with food.'
'Okay, you need us, just shout.' I smile at this remark as Gally leaves. I sit beside the bars of the Slammer. Ben is huddled in a corner whimpering to himself.
'Ben? It's me. Kira. Do you recognise me?' I spoke gently as not to alarm him. He nodded his head slightly. 'What you said to Thomas; what did you mean?' At Thomas' name Ben stood and bashed his hands against the gate. I jumped and slid away from him.
'THIS IS HIM! IT'S HIS FAULT! HE DID THIS TO US! HE'S WORKING WITH THEM!' Ben shouted, repeatedly smashing his head and hands against the bars.
'Hey, hey, hey. Calm, Ben. Calm.' He turned and planted himself on the floor with his knees pulled us to his face. 'Ben. Look at me. You broke the rules. You attacked another Glader.' I felt tears begin to run down my face.
Ben started rocking backwards and forwards. 'No, no please, no, no, no.' He whimpered over and over again.
'I'm so sorry, Ben.'
'I can get better. I promise. I can. Please don't.' I couldn't listen to him anymore so stood up and walked away.
After a very quiet dinner, the boys and I surrounded the gap in the wall. Minho went to get Ben as Alby and I handed out the poles.
'Chuck, can you take the younger boys into the homestead with you? You don't need to see this.' Chuck, quite relieved at this task, gathered the younger boys and took them to the homestead. We now had 20 boys. 15 were given sharp poles, whilst Alby, Newt, Gally, Frypan and Zart took long poles with a horizontal flat top. These were to make sure that Ben has no other option than to go into the maze. It was cruel, but it had to be done.
'Please, Minho!' Ben's cries extended over the entire Glade. I stood of to the side with Thomas.
'You don't have to be here, you know.' I whisper to him.
'I have to see.' He replies.
'Alby! Kira! No, please. Please, don't. Please, don't do it.' Minho pushes Ben into the centre of the huddle of boys and throws a canteen of water into the maze.
'Poles!' Alby orders. The boys all face their poles towards Ben, so he has no-where to go but the maze. This distresses him even more as he pushes at the poles trying to get past.
'Move in!' The 5 begin to walk towards the gap, pushing Ben further and further into the maze.
'No, no, no! Please! No, please! Please, don't! I can get better! Please, just listen to me! Please, stop, please!' Ben shouts and screams at us trying to get them to stop pushing. I can't watch anymore so look at the ground. Thomas' arm curls round my shoulder as a form of comfort.
'Push him in!'
'Stop! I'll get better!' As the sides of the wall begin to close, Ben shoves even harder at the poles, but they won't budge. The walls are getting closer and closer and so Ben runs into the maze to prevent being crushed by the closing walls. With one last desperate look, Ben disappears from view as the walls close completely. I look up at Thomas and see a lone tear fall down his face. Guilt. We all feel it right now. The boys lean their poles against the wall and look to Alby.
'He belongs to the maze now,' is all Alby says before heading to the homestead. He catches my eye as he walks past. The pure guilt pours out of both of us. Thomas gives me one last squeeze before leaving as well.
I stay staring at the wall for a couple more minutes.
Goodbye Ben. I can feel Newt coming up behind me.
'Hey.'
'Hey.' I look up at him to see him also staring.
'We need to find it. The Griever that stung Ben. We have only seen one in the daylight before and that was months ago.'
'You think it's the same one?'
'Maybe. Either way we need to find it. Tracking his last steps will be tricky though. He was on his own, so unless he jotted it down…'
'You know that's not how runner's operate Kira.'
'Yeah, I know.'
'It could take weeks.'
'Then we better get started.' I go to leave but Newt catches my hand. I try not to notice how our hands fit perfectly together, because I'm sad, but AHHHHH! Breathe Kira. I look back at him and he pulls me into a hug. I sigh and lean my head on his shoulder; breathing in, I realise I love how Newt smells. What a weirdo. But I do. I love it. I can't describe it with anything but Newt.
We stay like this for a good 5-10 minutes. When I step back he is smiling at me through unshed tears. As I reach up for his face a few escape onto his cheek. My thumbs brush them away quickly as he looks away from me. I turn his face back towards mine.
'You don't let me shy away. Goes both ways.' I smirk as a smile makes his way onto his face. 'This is a two-way thing. We look out for each other, right?' He nods and hugs me again.
'Thank you,' He whispers in my ear.
'Yeah.' As I step back I kiss his cheek lightly. 'You should get some sleep.'
Walking away I catch Minho's eye over by the hammocks. He stands there like a fool, wiggling his eyebrows like something scandalous just went on. I roll my eyes and head to the homestead.
'Kira. WICKED is good. Remember that. You are the start of the finding the cure. The First. Deep breath. This is gonna hurt a little.' Can't breathe. What's happening? Help! Someone! Help me!
'Wicked is good. Remember.'
Opinions? I haven't had any reviews recently so if you could just leave something small, just so I know people are still reading this. I really love writing this and probably still will even if no-one is reading, but it would be nice to have some feedback.
Anyway, have a lovely week!
Zoe xx
