Hey! Sorry I didn't write anything at the beginning of chapter 9. I missed a step when I was uploading it. I'm back now though. :D

Also, if anyone doesn't understand something in the story, feel free to PM me and I'll get back to you.

Lastly, I'm also considering writing a sequel to this- sort of a Scorch Trials fanfic. Let me know if you think that's a good idea!

- Plerfstacks :)

Chapter 10

Anna had to endure being swarmed with questions for the next few hours: What was it like in the Maze? Is Gally gonna be replaced as Keeper? When are you gonna take the shuck bandage off? Is Newt still your second-in-command, or are you his now? You're not going to Banish Gally, are you?

She realized that she was going to have to actually answer the questions, or they'd never leave her be. Every time she was asked, Anna gave an honest answer, though she would have rather yelled at them to get back to work. She had gotten used to not having anything to do all day, and while she had previously been under the impression that she'd be happier once she got back to work, she realized after a while that this was not entirely true. She did, however, enjoy the renewed feeling of being in control, which she hadn't possessed for the past week.

Newt was very thankful to her for getting the Greenie to stop pestering him, but it came at a price for Anna. The kid now wouldn't leave her alone, and she wondered whether Newt really was correct in thinking that the Greenie was crushing on her. She tried not to think about this, however, because she felt bad for the kid and didn't want to get into an awkward situation.

The Greenbean had, however, been given a job, which turned out to be Slopper. He didn't seem too happy about this, however, and he asked Anna whether he could switch.

"Sorry, Greenie," she said. "The Council picked the job that they thought you'd be most helpful in."

"How is that job helpful?" he asked.

"Well, you know, if it weren't for the shuck Sloppers, we'd be knee-deep in trash and sticks and leaves." He looked at her, his face showing some amount of interest.

"So they actually help?"

"Yeah," Anna assured him. "It's one of the most helpful jobs."

She was lying through her teeth, and she knew it, but she felt bad for the kid and was trying to sugarcoat the job's duties for his sake. Apparently, Mark was pleased with this, and he began work the next day. After he'd been given work to do, he was a lot less clingy, and Anna began to wonder whether he was really all that bad. Maybe he just wanted to feel useful.

In other news, Gally was out and about again. He had been allowed to leave the Homestead the day after Anna was. He was acting weird, though, wandering moodily around and completing his tasks absently, scowling the whole time. Anna wondered if he'd ever snap out of it. They did call it the Changing, and she was worried that Gally would never be his old self again. After about a week and a half, Anna had lost all hope in Gally ever really changing back. She felt like she'd lost a friend, which she sort of had. Gally's new brooding attitude wasn't at all like he used to be, and Anna could tell that she was going to have a hard time getting to know him again.

The Gladers received a new Greenie about two days later. Anna jumped into the Box to get the kid out, and was immediately astonished at his age. The boy looked to be about twelve, and was easily the youngest Glader there. Seeing the kid cowering in the Box gave Anna a new anger towards the Creators. For all Anna knew, the Glade was a prison, and the Gladers (including her) had all committed felonies, but the kid in the Box couldn't have done anything that deserved imprisonment. Anna felt sure then that the Creators were playing a sick game with them, and she wished she knew who they were so she could destroy their whole demented scheme.

Anna pulled herself back into reality. She offered her hand to the kid, and he used it to tug himself into a standing position.

"Hey, Greenie," she said. Then she turned around and yelled up to the Builders, "Pull us up!"

Anna and the Greenie grabbed the rope and were yanked up onto the grass.

"What's going on?" the kid asked fearfully.

"This is the Glade," Anna answered. "We're all in pretty much the same boat as you are. None of us know how we got here and why we did in the first place, but we've sort of set up a community here as soon as we get out. My name's Anna, by the way."

The kid looked completely bewildered by the information that had been given to him.

"Um," he said. "Okay then…"

Newt walked up to them, half-smiling.

"Don't listen to her," he said, addressing the Greenie. "She'll just confuse you."

"Shut your hole, Newt," Anna muttered. When she said Newt's name, the Greenie had the same reaction that Anna had when she'd first met him. That look of surprise followed by a casual expression. Anna smirked. Newt didn't seem to mind, however, and he glanced at Anna and asked her a silent question. Do you want to show him around or should I? She shrugged. I don't care.

"Alright, Greenie," Newt said out loud. "Anna'll show you around. Come get me if you need me."

The crowd dispersed, and Anna and the Greenie were left standing by the Box. They stood in awkward silence for a moment before Anna broke it.

"So," she said casually. "I never caught your name."

"Chuck," the Greenie answered. Anna nodded, beginning to walk towards the Homestead. The Greenbean stumbled over his feet slightly and followed her.

"So this is the Glade, like I said before," Anna began. "We live in this area all around here. The kitchen's over there, the place where we sleep at night is over there. We've only got three rules here, so they'll be easy to remember: Don't hurt anyone, don't be lazy at your job, and don't ever go beyond those walls. Oh, and Newt and I are in charge if you need anything. "

Chuck blinked.

"Okay," he said, apparently able to follow the lecture. Anna was impressed at his listening skills.

"That's pretty much all you'll need to know for now. We'll be assigning you a job soon, after you try out all the different positions, but you don't need to worry about that now."

"What are the different positions?" he asked.

"Well, let's see…" Anna tried to think of all of them. "There are the Track-Hoes; they're sort of like farmers, the Builders, the Cooks, the Sloppers, who clean up stuff, the Slicers, the Med-Jacks, and the Runners."

"Alright," he nodded.

"Okay. Now we just need somebody to give you all the details, cause I've got to get back to work." She scanned the Glade for her second-in-command. "Newt!" she yelled. He turned and walked over to them.

"What is it, Anna?" he asked.

"Can you go get Mark for me?" she requested. Newt gave a small frown.

"Why?" he asked.

"Cause he was the old Greenie. I need him to show Chuck here all the ins and outs. I can't, I'm busy and so are you." Newt nodded.

"Alright," he said, turning and walking off. He returned a few moments later with Mark, who looked confused.

"What do you need me for?" he asked, with noticeably less hyper energy than he'd had before.

"I need you to show Chuck around," Anna told him. "I've shown him the basics, but I need to get back to work, so can you give him the full tour?"

"Sure," Mark agreed. "C'mon, Greenie." He had a smug look on his face and Anna could tell that he was pleased to be able to use that term on another person. Mark and Chuck walked off, leaving Anna and Newt standing there.

"Okay, Newt," she told him. "That's all. You can go back to work."

"Sounds good," he replied. "See you later, love." Anna stood on tiptoe to kiss his cheek before he left.

"Oh," she said as he began to leave. "Wait, one more thing. Should I wake up early to go show Chuck the Grievers, or do you want to?"

"I don't care. I could if you don't want to."

"Okay, then I'll do it. I wake up early anyway." Newt nodded and walked away.

Anna spent the rest of the day supervising the others, as Clint, Jeff, and Newt had all told her that under no circumstances would she be doing manual labor. She was okay with this, though, because she had no intention of spending another week bedridden in the Homestead.

The first rays of sunlight had not yet begun to pour into her window when Anna woke up the next morning. She was about to go back to sleep when she remembered that she was supposed to show the Greenie the Maze. Rolling out of bed, she changed into her only other outfit and slipped on her boots. Tying her hair up into a ponytail, she walked outside and went to go wake up the Greenie.

Anna pressed her hand over Chuck's mouth so he wouldn't wake anyone else up, and whispered his name. His eyelids snapped open and he blinked rapidly, panic flashing across his face for a split second before he realized who it was. Anna held a finger to her lips and removed her hand from his face. She stood up and motioned for him to follow her. Tiptoeing across the ground, avoiding stepping on people, they reached the East Door. Anna gestured towards a small window in the wall.

"Look," she said softly. Chuck leaned forwards and peered into the Maze.

"I don't see—" he began, and then he jumped slightly. "What is that?"

"We call them Grievers," Anna whispered. "They're big blobby slug things that live in the Maze. They mostly come out at night, but they're sometimes around in the daytime. As long as you stay out of the Maze you'll be fine, but it's better to just stay as far away from those shuck things as you can. We've had some… recent incidents." Chuck turned away from the window and stared at Anna's heavily bandaged face. He looked horrorstruck.

"Is that…" he didn't seem to be able to form words. Anna nodded.

"Yeah," she confirmed. "I'm not the first, either. I'm only showing you this, though, because you need to know. You can't go in the Maze."

Chuck nodded. He seemed scared out of his wits.

"Okay," he finally said. "I won't."

They were silent for a moment. Then Chuck slowly turned to look at her again.

"Can I— Can I ask you what happened to your face?" Anna gave a small laugh.

"Yeah. It's okay. Basically Gally decided to be an idiot and run into the Maze, and he started yelling for me. I ran over and saw that he was being chased by a shuck Griever, and so I went in and tried to get it off of his trail or something. I don't really know what I was thinking. Then I turned around and it was getting ready to stab him, so I shoved him out of the way and it got me instead. Don't remember much after that, but Gally got stung, so it was all kinda for nothing."

"Stung?" Chuck asked.

"Oh, yeah," Anna responded. "Forgot to mention that. If they sting you with their needles, you have to have this stuff called the Grief Serum or you'll die. If you get the Serum, you'll go through the Changing, and you'll never really be the same."

Chuck had gone pale.

"Okay," he squeaked.

"Maybe this is too much for one day," Anna muttered. "Alright, Greenie. You can try working with the Slicers today. Have fun." She turned and walked off.

"What do I do?" he yelled after her.

"Find Mark," she called back. "He'll tell you what to do."

The Greenie didn't like working with the Slicers. Nobody did. (Except for the Slicers.) Anna was thankful that she'd been one of the first to get to the Glade, if only so she didn't have to try all the different jobs, one each day.

"Hey, Anna."

She turned.

"Oh, hey, Newt. How's it going?"

"I got no bloody sleep last night," he yawned.

"How come?"

"The shuck Greenie was tramping about outside with Mark for almost three hours. Apparently they were having trouble navigating."

Anna laughed. She wondered how she'd missed that.

"Sounds like fun," she said sarcastically. "I'm glad I slept through it."

"I wish I had. How does one manage to trip over every bloody person in the bloody Glade, huh?"

Anna noticed absently that Newt used a lot more of his slang when he was feeling irritable. She tried to put on a sympathetic expression, but it backfired when she began laughing at the infuriated look on Newt's face.

"What are you laughing about?" he asked, scowling.

"Nothing," she said, stifling her laughter. "Look, love, why don't you go back to bed for a few hours? I can run the place."

"No, it's alright. I just needed to vent," he admitted. "I'm good now."

"Alright, then," Anna said. "Have it your way. But when you fall asleep in your shuck sandwich later, I'll tell you that I told you so." Newt grinned.

"Alright then."

Anna decided later that day that it was time for her to get rid of the shuck bandage that had been bothering her for what seemed like forever. She borrowed Clint's mirror, walked into her room, and began to assess her face. She tried to figure out if she looked normal enough to go out in public. Eventually she decided that she didn't care, and sauntered right out. She was met with some amount of staring, but she didn't really care.

Newt caught up to her.

"Lemme see," he said. She turned around and Newt whistled appreciatively. "I like it," he told her, grinning. "It makes you look tough." Anna laughed.

"It's not too bad, is it?" she said.

"I definitely like it," Newt decided. "You look good. I mean, you always look good, I think you're really pretty, and… I'll stop now."

"Good idea," Anna replied, smiling.