Season One, Episode Two: Elizabeth
Alby paced outside the meeting hut, anxious for news on the newest arrival to the Glade. The girl one, that was. Gally, though obviously temperamental, was less of a concern than the girl. She hadn't even given them her name before blurting all that stuff about the Maze and the cure for the Grievers' poison. She seemed sincere enough, but that could just be a trick for the Glader's. Whoever sent them here was cruel enough to isolate them from the world and steal their precious memories, Alby knew they weren't above stunts like this. Still...he wondered.
"Are you going to do that all day?" A voice broke through Alby's thoughts. He stopped pacing and looked over at Newt, who was standing a few feet away, watching him. Alby shook his head.
"Nah, I was just thinking."
Newt ran a hand through his hair and got straight to the point: "Do you think she's telling the truth?"
Alby didn't respond at first. Instead, and kicked at the dirt beneath his feet and grimaced. Newt patiently waited for an answer as while his friend struggled to find one.
"As of right now, we don't have a reason to believe her," Alby finally said, "but we don't have a reason to disbelieve her, either."
"What are you going to do with her?" Newt wondered. Alby shrugged.
"She'll get her own hut without a roommate, and live like the rest of us, I suppose," he responded. Newt crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at the other Glader.
"You don't think there will be any problems with that?"
"No, why should there be?"
Before Newt could respond, Ric came running up.
"She's awake," he heaved. Running was not one of his strong suits. Newt and Alby looked at each other, then followed the younger boy to the living huts. Many were half-built, and the ones that were completed were shabby and sloppily-made. Most of the boys didn't even have the luxury of a hut. There were two boys to a hut, roommates were decided upon who came up the Box next. If they had one, Ric and Gally would be roommates, seeing as Ric was the Greenie before Gally. It was a system that seemed to work fairly well, but Newt noticed Gally busy with constructing a new hut, no doubt cursing them all for the lack of a proper room. Close by was Dalton, who was teaching him all the ways of the Glade.
Ric led Alby and Newt to one of the older, more stable huts. Minho and Ben had been generous enough to let her use it until they could figure out what to do with her. Minho was standing just outside, and he greeted Alby and Newt.
"She's awake then? Has Nick been told?" Alby asked, Minho rolled his eyes.
"Nick doesn't want anything to do with her, and yeah, she's awake."
They opened the door and went in. The girl was sitting at the edge of the cot on the left, watching them with grey eyes as they piled in. She was surprisingly calm for someone who had just lost her memory and was now surrounded by a group of complete strangers. Her hair was blonde, and short-falling only to her chin in a cut so bad it must have been done with a crude instrument, maybe a knife.
"My name is Elizabeth," she said, and held out her arm. There was a bunch of writing in ink running from the inside of her elbow to the palm of her hand
"I don't remember writing this, but Minho thought you might be interested in reading it," she continued. Alby took her hand and they all read the words.
Rmembr-vial has antidote 4 griever only 1 use couldt get more get out of maze its a test immunes only world in chaos i wasnt suposd to get out i want 2 help you. i write this in the box dont trst them dont trust them remember. iwill no longer be wickedmother
"Are we supposed to understand any of this?" Alby asked. Minho shook his head.
"I don't understand it either. I don't remember. I don't know why I don't remember, but I do know that I'm not supposed to be here." Elizabeth withdrew her hand.
"'Immunes only world in chaos.' What's that supposed to mean, you think?" Newt mused.
"It means the world's in chaos, obviously," Minho said. "Maybe we're all sick and they're trying to help us.
"Or maybe it's all a bunch of lies," said Nick, stepping in through the doorway. "I mean, 'I will no longer be wicked mother?' Who's mother is she supposed to be?"
"Yeah, it's weird, but maybe that's not what it means," Newt pointed out, ever the peacemaker.
"Besides," Elizabeth added, "If I had a baby, I don't think I'd just leave all those responsibilities to come here."
"What if you were desperate?" Newt asked.
"Even if I was desperate. Mother's don't leave their children behind."
"Unless they were forced to," Minho said. "And you did call yourself wicked. Maybe you were a bad parent or something and this was the only way to give your baby a chance."
"Man, that doesn't even makes sense to me, Minho, you shank!" Nick said.
"May I remind you that I don't even have a baby?" Elizabeth pointed out.
"How do you know?" Alby challenged her. "Or did you not lose your memory like you said you have? You said we shouldn't trust them, but maybe we shouldn't trust you."
"I'm not the enemy!"
"Says you." This time Nick grabbed Elizabeth's arm. She stood up.
"She's right," Newt said, shoving Nick out of the way. They all turned to look at him. "She's right, because who we were before the Maze isn't who we are now. It doesn't matter, anymore. Who we are now, that's what matters."
"What idiot built these houses, anyway?" Gally grumbled. He plunged the piece of wood into the dirt and used the hammer he'd found to ram it into the soft soil. Since arriving in the Glade, he'd already updated one of the huts and had decided to start on one of his own. Of course Ric would have to share it with him according to these freak's rules, but if he made it big enough, it shouldn't be a problem.
"You're pretty good at that." Speaking of Ric, here was the little turd, now. Gally grunted and continued working on his project.
"Hank likes to build stuff, too." Ric remarked, admiring Gally's handywork.
"Look, kid, do me a favor and leave me alone." Gally finished with the wood and tested its strength by wiggling it with his arm. It held.
"I ain't no kid...Greenie." Ric was immensely pleased that he was able to use the nickname on somebody other than in reference to himself. Gally glared at him. Ric ignored him. "You should consider joining up with the Builders. We only have two of them: Hank and Doug."
"What are you?" Gally finally asked. He began tying a piece of rope to one of the the piece of wood, attatching a longer stick to it.
"I'm a Track-hoe," Ric said proudly. Gally looked at him.
"A what?"
"A Track-hoe. We're famers, basically. Zart's the head and sometimes Nick joines us, though he's usually more interested in what the Runners. They're the ones who go in the Maze and try to find a way out."
"I heard about those," Gally said, not wanting to admit he was interested in what Ric had to say. "What are the other jobs?"
"Will and Ben are the Baggers who basically bury the dead people. Dave's our Bricknick. You already know about the Runners. Minho, Newt, Dalton, and P.F. do that. And then there's Alby who's a Mapmaker. He work with the Runners and make a map of it, but apparently nobody else has seen it. That's pretty much it for jobs, until we get more people, that is."
Gally didn't respond, and Ric watched him in silence as he worked hard on his new project. After a few moments, Gally held out a hand towards Ric.
"Hand me that branch," he said.
P.F. wiped the sweat off his brow. It was almost time to call it a day. With both Minho and Newt gone, he and Dalton hadn't made as much progress as usual. Thankfully the Grievers weren't giving them much trouble today, otherwise things might be really bad. As he rounded the next corner, he pulled out a slip of paper and a broken pencil while running and marked a tally beside the number 8.
"Yo, P.F! You gettin' tired?" Dalton shouted over his shoulderl. P.F. grinned.
"You wish," he said, speeding up.
"We'll have to make a hut for you," Alby said. "Otherwise you'll be sleeping out in the open with a bunch of guys who snore louder than a herd of elephants."
"Oh yeah," Minho snorted, uncrossing his arms. "Because that's totally what she was worried about the most."
Elizabeth abruptly stood up.
"I have an important question," she asked. The boys refocused their attention on her.
"Yes?" Nick asked impatiently. Elizabeth bit her lip and shifted her weight uncomfortably.
"Is there a bathroom in this place?"
Newt's eyes widened; he hadn't been expecting that. He exchanged a worried look with Alby and Minho. Even Nick grimaced.
"We hadn't thought of that," he said. "We may have a problem."
"What sort of problem?" Elizabeth asked.
"Well, you see...we don't really have separate bathrooms or anything like that. Basically there's a clearing with some buckets and a row of showers that whoever put us in here set up," Newt explained.
"Oh," was all Elizabeth said, "that is a problem."