Chapter 20

Everyone was standing around tensely as if waiting for someone to say something or something to happen but nothing did. In the tense silence I couldn't help but think that Alby would know exactly what to do. If he hadn't had been stung in the maze by a bloody griever he would have had full control over the situation and would have known exactly how to handle it. I didn't.

I barely knew how to control a free spirited girl from running around the bloody glade without being injured or harmed in someway and now as second in command I had to control over fifty boys and make sure none of them did something stupid.

It was not a secret that I didn't like having a lot of power which is something else that had me on edge because I feared some of the boys to take advantage of my lack of experience and control and try and take over the glade in Alby's absence.

I tried to figure out how to take care of the situation by thinking like Alby but I already knew that trying to be menacing would get me nowhere since the boys all saw me as more of a relaxed person than a scary one. So instead I tried getting their attention another way,

"Jeff! Clint! Get her to the homestead now. Everyone else get back to work and keepers get to the gathering room now." I didn't raise my voice too much since there was nobody talking but I made sure every boy could hear me and thankfully everyone acted at once. Jeff and Clint got a few more boys to help move the girl while the keepers headed to the gathering room and the rest of the boys went to their separate jobs.

I spotted Thomas walking away quickly from the scene but I quickly grabbed him by the back of his shirt and dragged him backwards towards the Homestead. "You're not getting away that quickly Tommy." I said as we walked.

In the gathering room all of the boys where sitting down already and talking amongst themselves quietly as they awaited our arrival. I pushed Thomas into the chair in the middle of the circle and then took my place next to the now empty chair that Alby usually sat in.

"Anyone have any ideas as to what the hell just happened?" I asked the now quiet room but nobody replied. I sighed in annoyance and glared at the keepers as they all kept their mouths shut, I was certain this is the quietest the boys have ever been since we all arrived in the Glade.

"Alright then. Frypan tell me what you think." I ordered as I stared at him from three seats away from me.

"Don't really have an opinion. The girl seems pretty out of it to me." He said with a shrug of his shoulders

I groaned in frustration at his carefree attitude and switched my attention back to Thomas who was sitting as still as possible like a statue, probably in the hopes of not getting called on. Not going to happen.

"Do you recognise her Tommy?" I asked while every boy in the room focussed their attention on him enough to make him squirm slightly in his seat. Instead of giving a verbal reply he just shook his head no which got me even more frustrated. "Well she sure as hell seemed to recognise you." I snapped

Gally stood up from his seat on the other side of the room then, walking around the room and staring every boy in the room in the eye, apart from me who he completely ignored until his eyes settled back on Thomas.

"I knew we shouldn't have trusted you. She's probably a spy just like you. Here to destroy what little bit of peace we have here. I'll bet your working for the creators too, trying to gain all of our trust before you kill us all." He snapped

Thomas looked taken back by Gally's suggestions but didn't say anything while Gally continued to pace around the room and I sat in silence as I watched the looks on the boys faces start to change, some in confusion and some in anger.

"Think about it, everything started going wrong the second he shows up. First Davis running into the maze, then Ben being stung, Alby and Skylar getting trapped in the maze with him, both of them not waking up, and now a girl who only knows him has arrived. It all adds up." Gally said

A few murmurs erupted inside the room and I wanted nothing more than to just leave and go see Skylar for the thousandth time but I new I had to stay and decide what to do about the new girl and Thomas.

"Alright, alright. Everyone SLIM IT!" I yelled over the now shouting boys as everyone started yelling their own opinions . Everyone stayed silent immediately as I sat back down in my chair and they all did the same. Thomas was still sitting in the centre of the room, looking scared of what would happen to him although it was clear he tried not to show it too much, he was failing miserably.

"Clint, what do you think we should do?" I asked the tall Med-jack keeper who had been one of the first to start shouting after Gally's speech

"I don't think the kids done nothing wrong really. I think he's just been at the wrong place at the wrong time." He spoke confidently

"Winston." I looked to the left of Clint where Winston was sitting and shaking his head "I doubt this kid is as innocent as he seems and think he should be in the Slammer in for a week."

I went around the rest of the room, asking every boy what they thought should happen to Thomas but aside from Winston and Gally nobody else thought Thomas should be punished. Finally I got to the end of the circle where Minho was sitting with his arms crossed over his chest.

"What do you think we should do?" I asked him "I say we make him the new Keeper of the runners."

Even though nobody had been speaking while everyone had listened to each other, the room seemed to grow impossibly quieter. Everybody stared at Minho in shock until Gally and Thomas broke all of us out of it.

"Are you mad?" They both shouted at Minho from their separate seats and then they both shared a hateful glare at each other afterwards. Minho stood from his own seat and walked around the room for a while, while everybody else just stared at him until he finally started talking.

"He ran into the maze that night to save Alby didn't he? I didn't. I ran away and sacrificed Alby to save myself because I am too much of a coward to do much else. I just think if we're going to have keepers they should be the best of the best and Thomas over there clearly showed that he has the guts to be keeper."

After his little speech everybody's shouts of disapproval filled the room and sadly I couldn't disagree with them. I didn't think there was any reason to go giving a newbie such a high position after one thing that he had done as an accident.

"Are you shucking kidding me right now Minho? That idiot doesn't have a selfless bone in his body. He didn't run into the maze the other night to save Alby he ran in because I pushed him in. He wouldn't have done anything brave that night if he hadn't been pushed so why should we give him an award for doing something accidental?" Exactly what I was thinking "And he wasn't the only one who ran into the maze that night. Skylar ran into the maze off of her own accord and survived and helped Alby much better than you did!" Gally spat at Thomas and shot him a glare as he started pacing the room

"Why don't we make her keeper instead? Oh right, we cant because she's stuck in another f*cking coma probably because of you!" He finished off

After his little rant nobody said anything but Frypan and Clint both immediately grabbed Gally simultaneously and dragged him out of the room. No words where said yet again as we all watched him get dragged away despite his constant screams against it. Somehow though, Gally managed to break free of both of the boys holds as soon as he left the building and he ran back in, letting out a terrifyingly loud battle cry as he ran straight forwards and towards Thomas who just looked stunned.

His large mud clad hands wrapped around Thomas' throat and tried squeezing the life out of him but Minho quickly pulled him off and threw Gally to the other side of the room while Thomas clutched his already bruising throat and tried regaining his breath again.

"I'll stop you Thomas! Kill you if I have to!" Gally's screams faded off as five boys ran in and dragged him away and towards the slammer.

After that the meeting was basically over so the boys all started filing out of the room one by one, only murmuring to each other once they were out of the room. I was one of the first to leave, running straight to the homestead with Clint behind me so we could both go to see Skylar.

When we got there Chuck was already sitting by her bedside and holding her hand while the other girl with the dark hair was sleeping soundly like she has been for the past three days. Chuck made to stand up from the seat next to Sky's bed but I pushed him back down and sat on the bed next to her while Clint checked over the other girl and Jeff came in with a bowl of soup. I took it off of him and started feeding it to her while she lay with her eyes closed and the only way of knowing she was still alive was the slight rise and fall of her chest.

Alby was in another room, screaming loudly while he saw what nobody else would ever want to see although we knew he would probably be dead in a few days if he didn't go completely crazy. After I finished feeding Skylar I went to see him to see how he was doing and immediately noticed how big the grievers sting was on his head. All over his body was green veins and he still wouldn't stop screaming. Another med hack was applying a wet cloth to the sting when I walked in and he completely ignored me while I sat next to his bed and looked over his body for any further side affects from the sting.

"He has about three days." The med-jack said to me before he walked out of the room and I immediately knew what he meant. Alby had three days before he either died or went crazy and would eventually be banished.

I sighed and walked out of the room back to Skylar's room where Minho was now sitting and glaring at the other girl. "I don't trust her." He said as soon as I walked in. I sighed again and took my seat on Sky's bed while I looked down at her pale face. The blue dye in her hair was now completely gone because of how many times she washed it so now her hair was just brown but still beautiful. Her skin was impossibly paler than usual and there was no colour on her cheeks any more. She was the poster picture of ill.

"We don't know anything about her." I said after a while. "That's not a good enough reason to trust her." He said straight away.

2 days later

I was still in the homestead in the same place I had been two days ago except Thomas was now in the chair by her bed and staring down at her. I hadn't wanted him to be near her but couldn't think of a good enough reason to keep him away. Somehow, I had convinced myself that today would be the day she would wake up and be back in my arms again. The other boys thought it was stupid of me to have such high hopes in this situation since I had no control over what happens but I have been ignoring every pessimistic thought any of the boys have voiced out loud.

Minho had been visiting Sky everyday after he had been out in the maze and Chuck was almost always at her side when he wasn't working. Some of the other gladers had came to see her as well but I refused to leave her side for anybody.

"Dude you need to eat some more." Was the first thing Jeff said to me as he walked into the room after being with Alby who still hadn't made any progress from the thrashing and screaming which has been going on over the past two days.

"I can't leave her." I said stubbornly but he wouldn't have it. "You'll be the first to know if she does something but you need to eat."

I sighed and stood from the bed, leaving a lingering kiss on Sky's forehead before I walked to the kitchen where Frypan was preparing lunch for the gladers and he immediately handed me a sandwich with a large amount of vegetables which was rare for him to do. I took my food to a picnic bench and sat down, chewing slowly as I realised how hungry I had become after not eating properly for at least three days.

Everybody else in the Glade was still working while I sat and ate however, Thomas had spent every waking moment with the girl we found in the box so he hasn't done any work at all since he escaped the maze. I have started being more cautious towards him and I have noticed the Gladers who visit Skylar have been doing the same, especially Minho who I haven't fully forgiven for abandoning Alby.

I had only been eating for five minutes when Chuck came running towards me shouting things I couldn't decipher in his crazed state.

"She's awake!" He gasped as soon as he was in front of me. I abandoned my food and limped to the homestead and rushed up the stairs, expecting to see Skylar sitting up in her bed but instead saw the other girl standing over her with a needle in her hands. I couldn't move quick enough as the new girl plunged the needle into Skylar's chest, right above her heart.

A green liquid was pushed out of the needle and Sky's body immediately reacted, shaking wildly while the other girl crumbled to the floor. I ran forwards trying desperately to help Sky but I could do nothing more than watch her as she thrashed around wildly. The needle that had been injected into her was now empty and I noticed a second empty one in the girls other hand.

Clint and Jeff ran into the room with another Med-Jack behind them and Minho behind him. "She got Alby!" Clint said quickly, eyes wide and alert as he watched Skylar.

"How did this happen?" I growled out

"A wall fell on top of one of the boys and we all had to help him get out from under it. She must've woke up when we were out but when we got back she was running out of Alby's room and had got in here." Jeff said

"Then why didn't you get in here quicker?" I demanded "We needed to get the kid into a room safely!" Clint said with his voice slightly raised

"Just help her!" I said with defeat evident in my tone. Nobody voiced that they didn't know how and instead just got to work with the different people in need of help. Thomas, who had just re-entered the room got the girl back onto her bed, Clint took care of the boy who was squashed by a wall, the other Med-jack took care of Alby and Jeff was with Sky.

"Whatever that girl did to these two sure wasn't good." Jeff mumbled as he put a wet cloth against Sky's forehead and I stayed silent while he worked.

"I'm never getting her back." I finally spoke up when Jeff had finished doing the best he could to Sky to try to help her.

"She's a strong girl Newt, she might pull through." He said, trying to be the optimist I had been for the past two days.

"Not this time." I whispered to myself as he left the room and for once I let the tears slide down my face as the realisation that I would never hear her voice or her laugh again and never see her sparkling eyes as soon as I wake up.

3 days later

I have been with Sky every second of every day and haven't eaten in three days. Sky's shaking has slowly stopped and her breathing seemed to grow fainter and fainter each day. I made Minho throw the now sleeping girl into the slammer because of what she did so the room is Skylar's now. I haven't allowed anybody but the Med-jacks to see her while she sleeps and my trust with everybody has slowly been lessening.

Alby's screams have officialy stopped completely now but I have been assured that he is still alive and it seems like it could be a good sign since the greenness of his veins has disappeared. I was told that Thomas had been visiting the sleeping girl almost every hour of every day so far and I am starting to believe some of the things Gally was talking about in the gathering although I haven't told anybody that.

It was only a day ago that Thomas had screamed out the girls name so loud that even I could hear it from inside the homestead. He had called her Teresa and then started talking some klunk about hearing a voice in his head, or at least that was what Jeff had told me.

This on its own was making my trust in Thomas waver still but I didn't voice my opinions because I knew I had no solid proof.

While I was sitting on Sky's bed and holding her hand I was speaking to her softly about how much I needed her to pull through, I had remembered how she had told me that she was responding to my voice the last time she was in a coma but it didn't seem to e having the same effect.

For the third time that day Sky started shaking furiously but her arms and legs remained tightly at her side. All I could do was watch and call for Clint to come and do the necessary things to her with my help at some points but all he did was apply water to her forehead and have me hold her hands because it stopped her from thrashing around too much.

That time though it was different. She didn't stop after five minutes like she had done for the past three days, she continued to writhe around for at least half an hour before she threw up all over herself and Clint had to roll her over into the fatal position so she didn't choke on her own vomit.

It was torture to see the girl I loved in so much pain and I tried helping by talking to her but that juts made her shake more violently so Clint ordered me out of the room. I obviously didn't leave without a fight but the more I argued the harder she shook so I left and stood outside of the room, listening to the conversation Clint had with Jeff while Skylar started letting out howls of pain.

Her ear splitting screams where a horrible contrast to the deadly silence everybody had grown accustomed to when they visited her room. Almost immediately after her screams started gladers started piling into the homestead to check if she was okay and all I could do was send them away.

When Thomas came to check on the situation I had literally pushed him in the opposite direction to her room and he stumbled as he walked down the stairs but I didn't care.

Eventually the screaming ended and was followed by coughing and gasping and my curiosity got the best of me so I barged into the room in time to see Jeff helping a coughing Skylar sit up. Her hair was a tatty mess and she had large black circles under her half open eyes but she was still as beautiful as ever.

She looked up at me and gave me a small smile before bursting into another coughing fit. I ordered one of the Med-jacks to get her some water and he came back two minutes later with a half full glass which he immediately handed to me. Upon seeing my quizzical expression the boy explained himself.

"The rest sort of spilled from the cup when I was running back here." I only shrugged in response and handed it to Sky who chugged it down greedily.

"Alby!" Was the first thing that came out of her mouth when I had expected her to say something else completely. Her voice was scratchy and sounded like her throat was made of sandpaper but it was still hers and music to my ears nonetheless.

"He's breathing." I said simply as I continued to look over my angel in amazement, not fully believing she was with us again.

"H-how long was I out for this time?" She tried to joke with a small laugh and a smile but none of us smiled "Eight days." Jeff said

She took in a shaky breath before nodding and beckoning me over to her. I walked to her side immediately and she pulled me down so our lips smashed together and on instinct I started kissing her as soon as our lips connected. We ignored Clint and Jeff's presence altogether as I enjoyed the feeling of her lips against my own once again but it was actually Sky that pulled away first.

I rested my forehead against hers as we both caught our breath again but she ended up pecking my lips again. "I've missed you." I said and she let out a breathy laugh

"Ditto," She said and I chuckled at her as she gave me a lazy grin "but you have some explaining to do."

I gave her a questioning look and she sighed and shook her head. "I know I was out for a week and a day and everything but I do remember our last conversation was pretty." she said

I thought back and realised she was talking about when I had kicked her out of the gathering.

"I've got a lot of explaining to do." I agreed