Chapter 4
A few months later,
Charlie was running out of the Maze. Will greeted her as she entered the Glade.
"Find anything different?" He asked her. She shook her head. Then she noticed he was acting strange.
"What's going on?" She asked him. He looked at her weirdly.
"You just came through the doors, right?" He gestured towards the doors. She nodded. He kept going.
"Look at your watch." He told her. She looked down.
"It's 7:15. Wha-?" She began, but Will didn't let her finish.
"But the doors are still open." He said, pointing at the wall.
She realized what he was saying.
"Why haven't they bloody closed yet?" She asked him. He shrugged.
He looked calm, but she could see panic in his eyes.
"I've already ordered the Builders and Bricknicks to build barriers around the other doors." He said. Charlie looked at him sharply.
"There's other doors?" She asked. He nodded.
"They just opened." he said.
"Well shuck." Charlie said as she stared at the four gaps spaced out around the Glade. Then they heard the Grievers. They looked at each other in panic, then Will said, "hide." And he ran off to tell the others. Charlie glanced around, then rushed off towards Homestead. On her way there, she bumped into Joan.
"What's going on, Charlie?" She asked. Charlie grabbed her arm.
"I'll tell you when we're safe from the bloody Grievers." She said, and pulled Joan along with her. When they reached Homestead, Charlie looked around, then pushed open the door and rushed inside.
"What the shuck is going on out there, Charlie? Let me go and tell me!" Joan yelled at her. Charlie glanced at her.
"The buggin' doors won't close." She said stiffly.
Then she dragged Joan upstairs to a window. The Bricknicks and Builders were quickly blocking the doors, and the track-hoes and some Runners were handing out weapons. Then the first Griever came. It scuttled down the long corridor of the Maze, and rammed into the barrier. At first it held, and knocked the Griever back, but it whirled around and charged, smashing right through. They heard shouts and saw other grievers breaking through the barriers.
"Bloody hell." Charlie muttered under her breath.
The Grievers had started attacking the Gladers. She saw the Grievers picking up kids and taking them back into the Maze, saw them stinging others, and others they just sliced through with metal claws. Then they heard a loud shout, louder than the others. They whirled around and looked out another window.
A Griever had pinned down Abraham.
He had been handing out weapons: shovels, hoes, knives, and spears. He had been heading towards the Homestead, when he heard a clicking noise behind him. He whirled around just as a Griever pounced on him. He shouted and whacked at its claws with his shovel, trying to keep it away from him.
It roared, and a new set of weapons burst from beneath it's skin. They snapped and clicked, sharpened and grew until he realized there wasn't any way he'd survive it. The Griever was about to slice down, when it's body jerked forwards a little.
A spear pierced it's body the long way, the sharp tip only inches from his face, and covered in Griever goo. The Griever let out a high pitched scream, and flopped over, dead. Gabe was able to push it off, then he looked up and saw who threw the spear.
Me.
His face was complete shock. He took in my clean clothes, washed hair and bandaged side. His mouth was moving, but he wasn't saying anything. He just stared at me. I smiled.
"Hey there, Gabe. It's been a while." I grabbed his arm and pulled him up.
Then we ran for Homestead. When we got there, I shoved open the door and pulled him inside. It was really good to be back, after spending a month or two unconscious.
Of course, it felt like I never left, but I knew they'd thought I was dead, and have been for the past three months. We ran upstairs, and were greeted by the shocked faces of Joan and Charlie. They seemed just as surprised to see me as Gabe had.
Then eventually the shock passed over, and they pulled me into a giant group hug. They had tears streaming down their faces, and they were squeezing me like their life depended on it. Gabe was actually the first person to speak.
"Where the hell you been, Cleo? We all thought you were dead." I turned to look at him, my eyebrows raised.
"Seriously? There's a Griever apocalypse going on outside, and you want to know here I've shucking been?" I asked him.
And as if on a cue, a kid screams outside, and they heard distant Griever roars.
Then Bits bursts through the door. She skidded to a stop as soon as she saw me.
"I'm not even going to ask." She said. She turned towards the others.
"You guys need to be quick and come with me. Will's been stung."
That got everyone out in a hurry. We sprinted towards the Maproom, where the other Gladers were hiding out.
I led the way, a spear in my hand. I was jabbing and deflecting Grievers with it. Living solely in the Maze for a while had taught me not to be afraid of them, but also how to kill them. They had a mechanical heart, and if you destroyed that, the Griever died.
We reached the Maproom, to find a Griever crawling on top of it. The Gladers inside were trying to help Will, but also shying away from the Griever. I turned towards my friends.
"I got this. You guys go inside." They nodded, and ran towards the door.
I took a deep breath, then shouted at the Griever. "HEY YOU! OVER HERE YOU WICKED PET!"
And I ran at the Griever and slammed my spear into its head. I missed the heart, so it roared and whirled around, trying to dislodge me. I yanked out my spear and jumped back. Then I flipped around, and ran at a tree. The Griever followed me, which is exactly what I wanted it to do. I ran faster, then propelled myself up the tree. The Griever slammed into the trunk. I launched myself off the lower branch and stabbed my spear right through it's heart. It screamed, then collapsed. I jumped off it's back, then ran back to the Maproom. I was hoping the others had prepared the Gladers for the fact that I was not Griever chow, but apparently not. I burst into the room, and shut the door.
I turned around and found about 35 people staring at me. Will had already recovered enough from the sting that he was sitting up in the makeshift bed. I noticed the bandage on his leg, and from where the sting was, I could tell it hadn't made contact with major blood vessels, which meant he wasn't going to go through the Changing yet, for a few minutes anyways. He was just sitting there staring at me. I turned to look at Gabe.
"You guys didn't tell them I was coming?" I asked him. He shrugged.
"I wanted them to experience the same amount of shock we did." He said mildly. Will got his voice back.
"That was a shuck amount of surprise you experienced, then." He commented drily. Charlie snorted.
"She bloody saved this shank from one of them demon monsters out there." She turned to look at me.
"I don't know where you've been, but whatever happened, it made you into a complete badass." She smiled. I smiled back at them.
"I wasn't a badass before?" I asked lightly.
Then I heard a loud thump outside. I turned towards the door.
"Duty calls. See you guys later." Then I ran out the door, right as Will began the Changing.
After all the Grievers were gone, Charlie called a Gathering. Will had been propped up on a chair so that if he wanted, he could still voice his opinion. Charlie whistled, and the whole room went quiet. She stood up.
"You should all be aware of the fact that Cleo's back. If you didn't know, she's right there." She gestured towards where I was standing. There were a couple cheers, and I felt myself blushing slightly. Charlie walked over to Will's seat.
"I know you're probably in a load of shucking pain right now, but we need your opinion." She demanded him. He slightly opened his eyes.
"Fine. get on with it." He groaned. Charlie nodded.
"You all know I was appointed Keeper of the Runners after Cleo never came back." She said, deadpan. Some of the crowd nodded. She started pacing. Then she stopped and faced Will. "She's still alive, so does that mean she goes back to being the Keeper?" She asked him. The crowd went silent. Will sat up a little higher.
"Well, I think that might be something the two of you can talk about." Joan spoke out. Charlie considered this, then nodded.
"Alright, we're going to take a bloody vote. All in favor of Cleo being Keeper again, raise your hand." She demanded. Half the crowd raised their hands. Charlie bit her lip, thinking. Suddenly Will spoke up.
"I think we should make her second in command of the Glade." He suggested. Charlie turned towards him slowly.
"What?" She asked.
There were quiet murmurs in the background. Then Addy spoke up.
"She's been in the Maze for a couple of weeks from what I can tell. Why didn't she come back?" He shouted. I glared at him.
Out of all the things about the Glade, he was the one thing I didn't miss. I stood up.
"You rather me be dead, you slinthead?" I shot back at him.
His faced flushed, and he started stuttering. I held up my hand.
"No, don't even try." I turned around to face the rest of the crowd.
"You've seen what damage the Grievers did, how many Gladers they killed." I meet each pair of eyes.
"They're going to keep coming back. We need a plan on how to defend ourselves." I crossed my arms across my chest and waited. Bits spoke up then.
"What if Runners stayed in the Maze at night, now that the doors don't close?" She suggested. Charlie nodded.
"If those buggin' doors won't follow the routine, neither will we." She was about to keep going when Addy shouted.
"But what are we going to do with her? She's been gone for two months, and she comes back, and you make her second in command?" He pointed at me. Will nodded.
"Well, I trust her to run things better than most of these shanks." He waved his hand at the crowd. I smiled. Charlie nodded.
"Then it's settled. Since Will's gonna be out of commission for a while, and Cleo was just announced as second in command, Cleo's in charge until Will recovers. And Runners will stay the night out in the Maze. Mapper's working twice as hard, too. We need to get out of here." She nodded towards Joan and the other Mappers.
The crowd cheered, then they all went to work on repairing the damage the Grievers had done.
I organized the Bricknicks and the Builders on repairing buildings and re-building the barriers. The track-hoes were to salvage the crops that weren't trampled or covered with Griever slime. I didn't know what to do with the few Griever bodies, so I ordered the Baggers to take them to the Maze entrance and leave them in a pile. Hopefully scare away a couple of the things. A kid came up to me. I didn't know his name. I guessed he was a recent Greenie, came up after I was trapped. He seemed really nervous.
"Hi, um, I was just, um, wondering if you, were, um, the Cleo who, um, sort of, um, got taken by a, um, Griever?" He sort of asked quietly.
I said sort of asked, because the kid said um so much, it was hard to follow what he was actually saying. I sighed.
"Unfortunately. What about it?" I asked. He wouldn't meet my eyes.
"It's just, um, that guy over there said he needed to, um, talk to you." He pointed over my shoulder. I turned around and saw Addy leaning against a tree. I sighed. This is going to be fun. I nodded stiffly at the boy, then got up and walked over to the tree. I lifted my chin.
"What the hell do you want?" I asked coldly. He sneered.
"Already comfortable with being leader, Cleo?" He snickered. I sighed.
"I have fought and killed shucking Grievers, Addy. I'm not afraid of you." I turned around to walk away.
"You know you can't hurt me, or you'll get banished!" He called after me.
"So would you!" I threw back over my shoulder. I heard him laughing behind me.
I rolled my eyes. That guy was so weird.
Later that day, I was sitting around a bonfire with Joan, Bits, and Gabe. Charlie was out in the Maze, and Will was still resting at the Med-jack's. I'm still a Runner, just not the Keeper anymore. It felt weird, following orders from Charlie, when it used to be the other way around. But I guess I can't complain, since I'm still alive. Anyways, I was sitting there, and then one of Addy's friends walked up.
"Have you guys seen Addy?" He asked. I squinted at him. He seemed to be awfully polite, not common for an Addy worshipper. Joan shook her head. The guy's frown deepened.
"I haven't seen him since this afternoon." He said worriedly. I shrugged.
"The slinthead is probably fine. Stop worrying and go do your job." I said. He glared at me.
"Like you guys are doing right now?" He gestured towards the log we were sitting on.
"My friend is missing, and if you shanks won't help, I'll find somebody who will." The guy turned around and began to storm off.
I rolled my eyes, got up and grabbed his shoulder.
"Kid, where the shuck do you think he'd be right now? He's not stupid enough to go into the Maze." I told him.
He eyed me suspiciously, then turned around and started walking off. I heard a rustling sound, and I turned to look at the woods. Addy was walking calmly out. I pointed at him, and shouted to the kid.
"See? He's fine." But as I said it, I noticed something was off. What I had at first took in as calmly strolling, I realized he was limping slightly. He kept shaking his head, and his arms were spazzing a little. My friends got up.
"What the shuck?" Gabe was staring at him. Addy was stumbling, his feet seemed to catch on every piece of grass. Joan snorted.
"Looks like he had too much of his liquor." She commented drily. Addy looked up, and I saw the veins in his neck.
"Holy shit, he's not drunk. He's been stung." I get up fast. I whirl around.
"Somebody get the Med-jacks. Now." I command. I turn around, and Addy has covered a considerable amount of distance, since he was limping so hard. Gabe grabbed my arm.
"We should stand back. Remember Vic." He said gently. I nodded. We all slowly backed up. Our movement must have caught his attention, because Addy looked up and saw us. He grimaced, and held up a hand. I squinted, and realized he was carrying something. Then I saw it was covered in slime. Griever slime. That's when it hit me.
He was holding a Griever's heart. He smiled at me in a triumphant way, then his eyes rolled back in his head, and he collapsed on the ground. We rushed forward, and saw him shaking on the ground. His arms and legs were flying everywhere. His breathing was ragged and wet. Gabe cursed.
"He needs a Med-jack, now." He said. I nodded.
As I was turning around towards homestead, Addy's arm shot out and grabbed my ankle. I yelped and shook my foot, sure it was just a spazzing reflex. But I guess not, because then Addy yanked and pulled me down. I flipped around and was able to shake him off.
"What the hell, Addy?" I yelled at him.
His body was convulsing so hard, I thought he'd bite off his own tongue. Then he looked up at me. He sneered, which wasn't very pretty.
"I just proved you're not any better than the rest of us. I should be in charge!" He snarled.
I kicked him in the head, knocking him out. The Med-jacks arrived, and I stood up, brushing myself off. My friends were staring me. I looked at them.
"What?" I asked. Gabe shook his head.
"It's just I feel like this had something to do with that secret talk you two had earlier." He said, eyeing me suspiciously.
I sighed. If I tell them the truth, they're going to blame me. If I don't, they'll know I'm hiding something. I opened my mouth to say something, then I heard somebody shout:
"Hey, the Runners are back!"
I turned towards the nearest door, and saw Charlie and a boy who's name I forgot, running out of the Maze. They bent over to catch their breath. We jogged over to them.
"Hey. You shanks find anything interesting out there?" I asked as we got closer.
Charlie straightened up. "Was that Addy we just saw?" She asked, completely ignoring my question. Gabe nodded.
"He went into the Maze to kill a shucking Griever and prove he was better than this slinthead." He said, playfully nudging me. I glared at him.
"Are you implying that it's my fault he got himself stung?" I demanded.
He avoided my eyes. "No, but it would have helped if you hadn't come swingin' in killing Grievers left and right." He responded.
"Well then, maybe next time I'll just let the damn thing kill you." I snapped before walking away.
"Wait, Cleo, I'm sorry. I didn't mean-" He started after me, but Will grabbed his arm and shook his head.
"Just let her be alone for a while, man." He said gently. Gabe paused, then nodded slowly.
I took a walk around the Glade to calm myself down. After traveling from the box to Homestead to the Slammer, I realized I was re-tracing the path I took on my first day in the Maze. I went down to the Meatrack barn, the gardens, then up to Bonewoods. I only realized how long I'd been walking when I reached the graveyard.
I swallowed hard, then walked over to Victoria's grave. It wasn't hard to find, considering that most of the dead Glader's bodies were never found. I kneeled next to the cross and started to cry.
"Victoria, I miss you so much. I wish you were here. " I sobbed, my tears making dark spots in the dirt.
I had been sitting in the forest for a while, my elbows resting on my knees and my face buried in my arms. I was crying so hard, I didn't hear the approach of footsteps behind me. It wasn't until Gabe kneeled down behind me and wrapped his arms around me that I realized I wasn't alone. I leaned into his warmth, glad he was there. I sniffed and looked up at him.
"Gabe, I'm sorry, but-" I started to apologize, but he shushed me.
"It's okay, Cleo. I know this is hard for you." He said quietly.
I rested my head in his lap, and he stroked my hair.
"Sometimes I wonder what they did to me." I muttered right before I fell asleep.