The Box alarm is going off, not even three full days after the last time.
Confusion and even a bit of panic sweep across the gathering house as everyone rushes out the door to see what's happening. Ash ends up in stride with Thomas, near the rear of the group, her eyes not leaving their destination.
"Wait— I know that sound," Thomas says, coming to halt even as most of the others break out into a sprint.
"It's the Box," Ash tells him. Minho and Chuck linger with them.
"It's coming back up!" Chuck says. He looks a bit scared, and Ash tries to give him a reassuring smile, though it turns out more of a grimace.
"It shouldn't be," Ash and Minho speak in unison, just before the latter takes off running.
The other three hurry to catch up, though Newt and Gally have already gotten the inner door open by the time they arrive. Ash struggles to push her way to the inner ring of the crowd, Thomas hot on her heels. Newt's already gone below, as Frypan asks him what's going on.
"It's a girl," he says, looking toward the only other one of those they know. "I think she's dead…"
A girl!
Murmurs rise up from the other Gladers, and Gally brings the attention to the girl's hand, fingers curled over something. Newt reaches down and gently pries her fist open to retrieve the slip of paper. The builder's eyes aren't on what's in the Box anymore, though. He's looking at Ash, who stands on the other side of the hole.
She meets his gaze, wondering if he's thinking about their conversation from a few months prior.
The promise to revisit once more girls begin arriving.
"She's the last one… ever," Newt reads the note slowly, bringing Ash's attention back to the situation at hand. "What the hell does that mean?"
No sooner has he said it, the girl gasps for breath. Her eyes flutter open, and she looks around frantically. Newt backs up a bit, and Chuck grabs Ash's arm; whether in panic, or to keep her from jumping down there, she's not sure.
Finally, the new girl's eyes lock onto one person in the crowd, and she gasps his name.
Thomas.
The girl passes out once more, her head hitting the floor of the Box with a small echo on the metal. Her eyes slip closed as her breathing turns shallow, but even.
Gally's face hardens once again when he glances back to Ash, before fixing his full glare on Thomas. She can see the anger in his eyes. He doesn't like the Greenie, he doesn't like the fact that Ash does, and this seems to be the nail in the coffin for him: another person apparently claiming to be familiar with the Greenie, after Ben's desperate Sting ramblings.
"Still think I'm overreacting?" Gally asks the crowd, before begrudgingly helping Newt and a couple others get the new girl out of the Box and to the medjack hut.
Ash springs into action once more, kicking everyone out and checking the other girl over just as soon as she's been laid down in a cot. The boys— Thomas, Minho, and Newt— are quiet as they wait just outside the hut as Ash works. Using the only flashlight in the Glade, she checks the girl's pupil reaction and sees they're relatively normal.
Once she's sure that the girl is safe, she begins packing up her supplies, putting the flashlight and other things away. As she passes the cot to put everything away, the girl's hand grabs Ash's, albeit rather weakly, and murmurs something.
Ash ducks in, only to hear her own name.
She would swear her heart stops for a moment, but she forcibly shakes herself into focus. Easily pulling herself from the new girl's grasp, she's just in time for the boys to join her inside. She can hear Alby whimpering on the other side of the divider, and frowns. Not much longer, I promise, she thinks.
"What's wrong with her?" Newt asks as soon as he sees her. "Why won't she wake up?"
"I'm a Medjack, not a real doctor," she deadpans, but then gives her best guess anyway with a sigh. "She's probably been drugged, just like I was..."
"Wait, what?" Thomas asks, not having known this. And how could he? He's only been here a couple of days, and no one really talks about Ash's Box Day much.
"I was unconscious when I came up," Ash confirms. "The boys said I was out for over an hour, 'til I finally woke up in here. Freaked the hell out, too... threatened Newt with a knife— you know, classic girl Greenie stuff."
"Apparently," Minho snorts.
Thomas has barely taken his eyes off the new girl, and Newt notices. "You recognize her?" he asks, sounding almost annoyed.
The other boy shakes his head, giving a quiet no.
"Really?" Newt asks skeptically. "'Cause she seemed to recognize you."
"What about the note?" Thomas asks, changing the subject.
Newt shakes his head. "We'll worry about the note later."
"I think you should worry about it now," Thomas argues, but he's brushed off.
Ash, however, is on his side. "How long do you think we can last without the Box?" she asks softly. "No new supplies, no new helping hands?"
With a groan, Newt replies, "We'll just wait until she wakes up, see what she knows. Somebody's gotta have some answers 'round here."
That seems to get Thomas thinking, and he starts to leave. Newt calls after him, while Minho actively follows.
"Where are you going?" Newt asks, and groans once more at the answer he receives.
"Back into the Maze."
Ash buries her face in her hands as near-silence overtakes the medjack hut. She can feel Newt's eyes on her, but doesn't acknowledge. Not yet. She focuses on her own breathing— not Alby's pained breaths, not the other girl's shallow ones. In for four, hold four, out four. Four cycles, and she starts to feel better.
"I don't think Thomas is quite right in the head," Newt says with a wry grin, and she laughs quietly.
"You might be right on that," she allows, shaking her head. After a beat of silence, she sighs. "I need to tell you something… about the girl."
Newt says nothing, his grin fading and his brows furrowing.
"She said my name, too," she admits. "Just before you guys came in. Grabbed my hand, too— but her eyes were still closed. I dunno if she knew it was me, or just… sleep talking? Either way, however she might know Thomas, she knows me too."
"Gally's not gonna like that," Newt warns, and she agrees.
"I know," she says reluctantly. "But if he's gonna go on this— this anti-Thomas crusade, then he needs to know exactly what he's getting into."
Minho ducks back into the hut, looking serious. "Hey, can I borrow you for a bit?" His words are directed at her; she knows as well as he does that asking Newt is off the table.
"I'm not going out there," she deadpans. "Good luck though." The runner nods, giving her a half-hearted two finger salute before leaving once more.
Looking back to Newt, she frowns. "I have to go tell him, don't I?" she asks reluctantly, already dreading the conversation, and he nods.
"I'll keep an eye on the girl for now," he says. He shakes his head with a brief chuckle. "Deja vu, huh?"
Ash shrugs, grimacing. "I wouldn't know. I was still asleep when y'all decided who would wait for me to wake up."
Without another word from either of them, she leaves the hut to try and track down the keeper of the builders. Chuck finds her first, however, and excitedly asks about the new girl. She informs him there's nothing to report, but he's unswayed, following her around the Glade until she tells him to go see if the boys in the kitchen needed any help. He pouts, but goes without having to be asked twice.
Deep breath in, deep breath out.
Peering around the Glade, she finally sees Gally— he's with the other three runners; well, former runners. Evidently Minho is the only official one left. The others had quit upon finding out about Alby's condition.
Ash puts on her best don't mess with me look, perfected after over a year and a half of dealing with nothing but teenage boys, and stalks over. One of the runners sees her coming, and nudges the one closest to him, and the two take off in random directions. The third one is deep in conversation with Gally, and she can hear them talking about the situation as she approaches.
"We need to talk," she says loudly, crossing her arms when they finally notice her. "It's about— you know, all the shit that's happening?"
The third runner backs away slowly, and looks for something to do. Gally stands firm, glowering down at her. "What?" he asks harshly, and mimics her stance.
"Think about how pissed you are that the girl recognized Thomas," she says, watching his gaze narrow further at the unnecessary reminder. "She recognized me, too, Gally. She grabbed my hand and whispered my name."
His eyes widen, clearly having not expected the conversation to go this way. "Seriously?"
Ash nods, and continues. "If you're gonna be mad at Thomas, then you'll have to be mad at me too. He said he doesn't recognize her… but I think I do. Maybe. Vaguely."
"What, like… a memory?"
She shakes her head. "No— more like a dream I've half-forgotten," she says. "It's like she's floating on the far edges of my brain and refuses to come any closer."
Gally's shaking, his scowl back in place, and she watches as his fists clench and unclench several times. He's not looking at her anymore, however, but rather behind her. Ash turns to see the distant figures of Minho, Thomas, and three others who don't belong, running out into the Maze.
"Get everyone back to the gathering house," he says, seething. "We still haven't finished that meeting from earlier."
"You really wanna try that when half the keepers are out there?" she scoffs. He throws her a glare, but doesn't respond before storming away.
Pinching the bridge of her nose, she decides to not go after him this time; she's not scared of her safety so much as she is her sanity. Let him stew for a bit, maybe he'll calm down, she thinks.
Yeah, right.