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The Galders had grown somewhat fond of their monthly routine. Not fond in the way that they enjoyed being trapped by the maze, but the idea of a new greenie each month had become exciting, in fact a new greenie meant a change in the day-to-day, something they all welcomed.
When the loud siren broke the quiet chatter of the Glade everyone, save the runners in the maze, stopped what they were doing and headed to the box.
"I bet dinner he'll be young."
"I bet my pillow he'll be crying."
"Naw, he's probably passed out, I bet you my dessert."
"I bet you're all wrong, ya shanks." Gally, pushed passed the group of young Gladers who were happily chatting about the new greenie the creators were sending up. Gally was not fond of the guessing games, or the box, or the maze, or WICKED, or anything really, except for the drinks he made, scaring greenies, and building things.
The herd of boys finally arrived at the box and Gally positioned himself at the center, terrifying the greenies brought him a sweet simple kind of joy.
Alby clapped Gally on the back. "Don't scare the greenie too much Gally, we don't want a repeat of Chuck." The pair looked over at the newest boy and laughed, he was jumping up and down, trying to see the boxes entrance.
Finally, a buzzed echoed from the elevator and the Gladers swung the massive metal doors open. They expected the greenie to be afraid, confused, and possibly passed out. What they did not expect was for it to be a girl.
"What the Shuck."
The excited jabber ceased and a hushed whisper fell over the Gladers. Staring up at them from the corner of the box was a girl. She was covered in blood and wielding a hammer scavenged from the builder's supplies sent up with her.
"What the hell is going on?" She hissed.
Gally jumped down into the box, causing it to rattle, and pushed her hammer down. "You're in the Glade. Do you remember anything?" This was the first time Gally hadn't started the conversation with 'Day one greenie.' He was being careful, mostly because the frightened girl was holding a weapon, and covered in blood, both her own and what could only be someone else's. Her shorts and half of her top were saturated with what looked like her blood. Someone else's was splattered across her chest, face and hair.
"I only remember my name." She looked up at the Gladers watching her from outside of the box. "Ada."
"Well Ada, how do you feel getting out of this box? You can put the hammer down; we won't hurt you."
She raised her hammer to Gally again narrowing her eyes, "I'll keep my hammer. But I would like to get out of here."
Gally motioned to a crate, "Climb on out." He watched her shakily climb the crate and then take Alby's hand so he could pull her up. He realized he should have helped her, been more caring or something, but it was too late more blood was beginning to snake down her legs.
Once out of the box the Gladers examined her in silence.
"Klunk, you're real messed up. You all right?"
Clint rushed forward and reached towards the Ada. "Course not. She needs to go to my office right away." As Clint came closer Ada stepped back into Gally's chest.
"Don't run at me like that." She waved her hammer at Clint.
"Ada, Clint's a med-jack, he can stop whatever is bleeding. It'll be okay." Alby watched the girl carefully, as she lowered her hammer. "Will you go with him?"
She was silent for a moment, eyes narrowed as she looked him over. "Fine."
Clint nodded and motioned for her to follow him.
Gally hadn't realized his hand had been on her waist until she pulled away to follow Clint. He looked down and noticed his hand was covered in blood, her blood.
"What do you think of that?" Alby asked, breaking Gally of his thought.
"The girl?" He rubbed the blood off his hands and onto his pants. "I don't know. What are we supposed to do?"
"I'm calling a keeper's meeting. It will begin when Minho gets back. Newt, tell the other keepers."
"What happened to you?"
"You think I remember?"
Clint, was examining the area that spanned between my hip bones. It took a few minutes of him trying to convince me before I took my wet shorts off so he could do his job. "It's a second degree burn and what looks like a laceration. You'll have to shower not only to wash the blood away but to help heal the skin. I can't dress the wound until you clean off." Clint suddenly stepped away from me and began gathering a few supplies. "First take this." He handed me a cup of water and a beige pill.
"What is it?"
"A pain killer."
I decided I would rather risk possible death then live with the pain the branding was causing me. If this pill did kill me then at least I'd be dead.
Clint was in front of me again. "Put your shorts on so we can walk to the showers, it's not too far away, you think you can do it?"
"I think so. But I'm bringing my hammer, just in case anyone gets any bright ideas."
Clint laughed at that, and I felt safe with him, something about his face was familiar, the way the corner of his eyes wrinkled when he smiled. I shook the thought of familiarity and put my shorts back on.
"God this hurts." I followed Clint to the bathroom and he explained more to me about the Glade.
"Who is WICKED?"
"The creators, we're not really sure. They're the ones that send things up in the box every month." Clint opened the doors to a narrow building. "Wait here for one second." He disappeared behind the door. I could hear him yelling from beyond the wooden walls. 'Everyone get out; the bathhouse is off limits for a while!' A few boys scattered out of the building, seemingly mid shower, soap running down their faces and backs.
"You didn't have to do that." I chuckled.
"I did, you're the first girl any of us have met."
"Well that's why I have my trusty hammer." I smiled. Pain shot out across my abdomen as I went to wave my weapon, and I doubled over causing more pain. I dropped my hammer and let out a whimper.
Clint caught me before I could fall, "Klunk, we need to get you showered so I can patch you up." We shuffled into the bathroom, Clint holding my arm as we moved. "the water is going to be cold, I can't change that, I'm sorry." Clint let me lean against a sink as he turned one of the showers on. "You'll have to take your clothes off, I won't look."
"Give me my hammer first." I held my hand out as he went to fetch it from outside the door before placing it in my hand with a smile. "Thank you. Now turn around." He turned and shielded his eyes. Clint was kind to me and treated me normally almost making me forget I was the only girl in the Glade. I didn't feel as though he was waiting to undress me or make a move, he treated me like I would imagine a doctor would, his patient he needed to care for. I peeled my clothes off sucking in breath to hide my pain, before stepping into the shower and closing the curtain.
"Shuck it's cold!" I didn't know where I learned the word shuck but it felt natural rolling off my tongue.
"Already speaking like a Glader, that's good. How do you feel right now?"
I ignored Clint's question and watched the blood run off my body and down the drain. The water was frigid, but felt good against the brand. As the water washed away more words became evident, but these were jaggedly cut into my skin with a knife.
"Ada, here's some soap." Clint's hand shot into the shower, a pristine white bar of soap in his palm. I took it and washed my body and hair. After a few minutes of scrubbing and rinsing I turned off the shower.
"I grabbed some clothes for you until yours are cleaned. They're for a boy, but it's all I have. Don't worry, they've been washed and sterilized since they're for use in the med-room." He cleared his throat. "Before you can put them on though I have to dress your wound. We have to walk back."
"I have to do that in a towel?"
"I'm afraid so."
"Oh God, there's no other way?"
"No."
I was annoyed and nervous but mostly tired of standing. My brand hurt and I just wanted to sit down so I agreed. Clint and I nearly ran back to the homestead and upstairs to the medical room. Once there Clint handed me a pair of boy's boxer briefs and my bra, which had surprisingly been safe from any blood. I put both things on and let Clint work on me.
Once I was no longer bloodied, Clint figured out that I was not bleeding from the burns but from the words "Property of" that had been aggressively carved into my skin right above WICKED. First Clint rubbed a green looking mixture from a glass jar on the letters then he dressed it with gauze.
"This is only for a few days so you don't get an infection then, you won't wear any bandages." He handed me a grey shirt and capris and allowed me to get dressed.
"It's probably time for the Keeper's meeting now. They'll want you there."
I sat in the keepers meeting alone. Clint was talking to a Glader at the front of the room and I didn't know anyone else, so silence was my only option. The boys in the room seemed to be looking at me or whispering about me, or both. I hated it. I was confused and in pain and still knew hardly anything about this place, but here I was an animal in a zoo. The absence of Clint was nice. We had spent at least two hours together and I wanted to make more friends, I was sure that I could get along with more people.
A boy suddenly sat next to me. For being quite large, in the muscular sense he was stealthy. "You alright?" He looked mean, something about him screamed aggressive, but I was oddly comfortable with that feeling, as If I had known it my whole life.
"I've been better. Or, at least I think I've been better, I don't really remember."
"That's okay greenie. None of us remembered anything at the beginning either. I'm Gally." He stuck his hand out to me, and I shook it to be polite.
"What do you mean at the begi-"
"I'm here! Where is she?"
Gally rolled his eyes at the Asian boy who had burst into the meeting room, sweaty and out of breath. Everyone turned to me and I lifted my hand in an awkward wave.
"Well she is real, who would have guessed?"
"I would have guessed that I'm real, but then again this all may be some sort of strange hallucination."
The Asian boy smiled before plopping down next to me.
"Good that. Now that Minho is here let's begin. Today the creator's sent something strange up in the box, a girl, a girl by the name of Ada." The boy at the front motioned to me and I smiled awkwardly. "Ada, my name is Alby, the leader of the Glade, this is Newt, my second in command. Keeper's go around and state your name and job."
One by one the boys told me their names. Clint greeted me with a 'Hi Ada, you already know what I do.' Which elicited a large amount of hoots and whistles from the others.
"Alright Greenie, what do you remember?" Alby directed his question at me using some gladder slang that Clint told be about earlier in the day.
"Not much, the only thing I know is that I'm 'Property of WICKED'." I motioned to my bandaged waist. "And that I have a tattoo on my right wrist that says 'FaInd R'. And no, I have no idea what that means." I had noticed the tattoo while I was getting dressed but decided to keep it to myself until I thought it was important information. Gally took my wrist in his hand and ran his finger over the tattoo inspecting it. I violently yanked my arm away from him. "It's a tattoo, not a booby trap. Touching it's not going to make something appear."
Minho laughed at my outburst towards Gally. "Careful Gally she might bite." I whipped around towards Minho with a glare.
"Slim it, Slintheads. No antagonizing the Greenie. Ada, why would you sit between those two?"
"They sat next to me!"
"Alright Alright. Ada needs to find a job, Clint has stated she can only try out for non-labor intensive jobs until she's healed, so she'll try slicer, hojack, med jack, and cook first. If none of those work she can try for builder or runner. She needs somewhere to sleep, so I've decided that she'll sleep with the keepers" Alby was clearly a born leader the way he commanded the attention of all they boys was a feat I wish I could accomplish. "Now the real reason I called this meeting was to make something very clear. Yes, Ada is a girl, but that does not make her someone's property, regardless of her branding. No, no one can call 'dibs' on her. You lot are keepers, the best of the Glade and that means you are the most mature and respectable. You need to make sure that Ada is respected. Do not let the other Gladers try having their way with her. If she needs your help, then help her. If anther Glader is disrespecting her to her face or otherwise, then they spend the rest of the day in the slammer. Is that understood?"
A chorus of "good that's" echoed about the room.
"Last thing, just because the new Greenie is a girl doesn't mean that we can't have a party for her arrival. Tonight after dinner we celebrate."
A few things: Yeah Alby is a Feminist I felt like he would be. Clint is not a love interest for Ada. Most of the chapters wil be from her point of view.
Thanks to:
Zoey24: Thank you! I'm glad you like Ada, I'm trying my hardest not to make her a Mary Sue, well see. Please let me know who you like paring wise once you get a feel for them, I would love to hear what you think.
SkyeShah: Thanks for the review! Your review reminded me to update this chapter was waiting to be published for a week. oops :(
Guests: I like Minho a lot *heart eyes* but Gally may win over our Ada's heart, stay tuned to find out!
