I saw Ben approach me, it had been almost a week since I had seen him. I knew he was avoiding me, but I tried not to read into it too much, I knew the stress he was facing from Mihno and the rest of the Glade. He approached me and I could already see that he felt guilty.

"Hey," he said keeping his head down.

"Hey."

He pointed to the tree," How many days are you at now?"

"Eighty."

"Wow... feels like yesterday when you came to the Glade."

"Yeah," I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the rough bark.

"I remember, when I first got here...," I don't really know why I was talking out loud, but I was. " You were the first person I saw."

"Yeah, I-I was the one who helped you out of the box," he chuckled," You were... very angry," he sat down beside me.

I smiled," I was, wasn't I?"

"Yeah, no one knew what to say."

"And then... when you trained me as a Runner, I was terrible," I opened my eyes.

"You really weren't that bad," Ben smiled. "Could have been worse."

"My first few days here weren't the best," I admitted. "Sleeping in the Slammer. Getting the flu."

"When you fell asleep in the Deadhead."

My eyes widened," I totally forgot about that," I laughed. "Yeah... I did. And everyone thought I had like ran away or something."

"Yeah, I heard the whole Glade was looking for you."

"Well, they found me."

"Yeah," Ben chuckled and we both got quiet again.

"I remember when you wanted to give up on your name..." Ben mentioned in his distant voice.

I remembered that too, I had been in the Deadhead with Ben. He was looking at Nick's grave and I told him I was thinking about giving up, he told me not to.

"I remember that... and yet, here I am...giving up again."

"But this time, you at least tried," he consoled me.

"Yeah, I guess..."

"Listen... I'm really sorry for-..."

"Forget it, Ben. It's okay."

"I feel awful."

"It's not your fault."

"But it is my fault. I keep... holding back... and it... it's bottling up inside me."

"Holding back? Holding back what?"

Ben turned to me, his eyes were scared," I can't tell you."

I sat up straight, now worried," Tell me, Ben."

"I can't."

"Ben... please."

He closed his eyes and rubbed his face.

"If I do... you can't tell anyone."

"I won't. I promise."

Ben moved t sit in front of me," I'm serious. No one. Not Jackson. Not Fry. Not Joseph. No one!"

"I won't tell anyone."

What could it be? What could he be hiding from everyone? What if he found the way out... wouldn't he be excited to tell me? What happened? Ben looked at me closely, making his final decision, he moved around the other side of the tree, I followed him. He got on his knees and started to dig. What the hell...

"Ben?," I was starting to get really scared, but he kept digging.

Finally he pulled up an object covered in cloth, he unwrapped it and relieved something I had never seen before. It was about the size of his forearm and it was a silver, metallic color. It was some sort of tube, with a needle at the end, something that looked totally out of place here in the Glade.

"What is that?"

"Ben set it down on the ground and let go of it carefully, like it might explode or contaminate him.

"I'm not sure... but I think it's a stinger."

"Stinger? What stinger?"

Ben looked to me then back to the object," A Greiver stinger."

I immediately moved back from it.

"No, listen, it's okay. It's okay."

"How did you get that?!"

"I... I found it. In the maze."

"And you brought it here?!"

"Yeah... I just, I don't know why, but... I don't know."

"Are we infected now!?," I panicked and looked at me skin for a sign.

"No, we're not. I promise. Just calm down, don't be so loud."

"Ben, why do you have this?"

"I... I don't know. I found and I grabbed it."

"But why? Why would you want it?"

"I... I don't know."

"That thing kills people," I pointed to the needle.

"I know. I know that."

"Then why would you bring it here? It can kill you."

"I don't know," he said again, carefully rewrapping it and placing it in the hole.

"Who knows about it?"

"No one! No one knows! And you can't tell anyone!"

"Ben... that is serious. Really serious."

"I know," Ben packed down the dirt. "That's why no one can know. If Alby knew... I could... I don't know."

"I think he would go easy on you. I mean... maybe it-..."

"No! No! No one can know! You promised," he looked frightened.

"I promised," I repeated.

"So you can't tell anyone."

"I won't... I promise."

A greiver stinger... I had never seen a Greiver before... but Gally had said they were big and scary. Looking at the place where the stinger was buried it made me scared. The thing buried underneath that spot had killed people, Gladers before me, it would have killed Gally if they didn't have the serum to save him. And now Ben had one... he brought it into the Glade and hid it from everyone. Why does he have it? Why keep it? Why even touch it.

"It won't hurt unless you get injected. Just don't touch the needle."

"I'm not going anywhere near that thing!"

"Good, don't."

"Ben... I-I-I just don't understand."

Ben sighed," I can't explain it."

"Ben."

He looked to me, his eyes now sad and tired. "I don't know... I just feel better to have it. It... makes the Grievers seem more... beatable? I don't know. How else would I have found it, it must have fallen off of a Griever or something, so that means they shed or fall apart or something. They can be destroyed... it makes me feel more confident going into the maze everyday knowing that."

"Okay... but why bring it back here?"

"A reminder, I guess... I'm not sure."

"Ben, this could be dangerous."

"No one is going to find out, you promised!"

"What if someone decides to dig here or something? Make a new building, water line, whatever and they touch that needle, they will get injected and maybe die."

"No one is going to come this far into the Deadhead for any reason, no one besides us."

"I see people back here all the time," I countered.

"But they don't just start digging," he argued.

"Ben, this is really dangerous."

"I know. I promise, no one will get hurt. I promise."