Hey everyone!
I don't have any big news for you guys today, so here's chapter 14!
-Plerfstacks :)
P.S. If you have any ideas for one-shots or other stories I could write, I'm still happy to hear suggestions!
Chapter 14
Later that day, once the shock of what had happened wore off, Anna and Newt began working out what to do with the Greenie. Anna couldn't figure out whether to punish him or try to exploit his apparent ability to discover things that they'd been looking for (and failing miserably) for two years. Since neither she nor Newt could come up with a solution, they called a meeting of the Council. Anna decided to let the Greenie come, too, because the whole point of the meeting was centered on him. She had told him; however, that she wasn't gonna let him defend himself at all, because he would mess up the decision. Minho would tell the story, and Thomas had better hope that he was in favor of him.
"Hey," Anna shouted, as had become customary at the beginning of a meeting. "Guys! I thought we'd been over this. Shut up!"
The Gladers shut up, and she glanced over at Newt. He gestured with his chin over at Minho, and Anna nodded.
"Minho," she said. "Can you tell us what exactly happened?"
Minho went on to tell the long story that he'd told Anna earlier, and once he was finished, the Gladers each had a different expression on their face. Some were full of awe, some were disgusted, some were confused.
Anna figured that they wouldn't get anywhere trying to discuss this as a whole, so she decided to take a vote. Each Glader submitted their suggestion, and then they would vote. Anna was personally in favor of putting the shank in the Slammer for a week or so, and then letting him back out to go find a job. Newt, on the other hand, wanted Thomas to spend just a day in the Slammer, and then he could begin training to become a Runner.
Anna looked at him in disbelief. A Runner?, she asked him silently. He nodded slightly but didn't say anything. She figured that she shouldn't judge, but she couldn't see the Greenie ever becoming a Runner.
Newt's vote won. Anna was completely taken off guard by the whole thing, and, alright, she was a little annoyed with Newt for suggesting it.
To top the whole shuck problem off, Gally had gone nuts during the meeting and had threatened to kill Thomas. After his brief temper tantrum and wrestling match with Minho, he'd run into the Maze. For some reason, Gally seemed to hate the Greenie even more than he hated everything else, and Anna wasn't sure why.
She'd figure out what to do with him later, though, because Newt had told her something that the Greenie had said to him that was a bit unsettling. Apparently the kid had been feeling like he'd been to the Glade before, and had wanted to be a Runner from the beginning. Newt had told him to wait for him while he went to talk to Anna, and since she had no idea what to make of it, she and Newt went together back to find the Greenie.
"Newt told me what you told him," she said as soon as she walked up to him.
"You're sure this hasn't happened before?" Thomas asked. Newt gave an exasperated sigh.
"No, Tommy. That's why I went to go get shucking Anna."
"We need to go see the other girl," Anna decided. "Maybe Thomas the Prophet here can figure something out."
She turned and walked towards the Homestead, gesturing for Newt and Thomas to follow her. They met up with Clint at the door, and when Anna asked for an update on the girl, he just shrugged and said that she'd been mumbling stuff in her sleep.
"What sort of stuff?" Anna asked.
"The same old thing," Clint said. "And… she keeps saying "Thomas" over and over."
Anna glanced over at the Greenie, who looked confused and slightly overwhelmed. She said nothing, however, as Clint showed them the room that they were keeping the girl in.
Anna, Newt, and Thomas filed in and stood awkwardly around the bed for a moment.
"Alright, Thomas," Anna said after a moment. "Are you getting anything?"
He didn't say anything, but continued to stare down at the girl lying on the bed before them. His eyes trained on her face, but Anna couldn't see any recognition in them. Suddenly he blinked and looked at Anna and Newt.
"I know her," he said. "I remember her from somewhere."
"Where?" Newt asked. The Greenie knit his brow and stared back down at the girl.
"I don't know."
"Well that's not much bloody help, now, is it?" Newt said in exasperation.
Thomas didn't retaliate but continued to concentrate on the unconscious girl's face. Suddenly his eyes opened wide and he jumped slightly.
"What did you say?" he asked Anna, spinning around to face her. Anna frowned.
"I didn't say a shuck thing."
"I heard a name. Teresa." he told them.
"That must be her name, then," Newt said excitedly. "You must've remembered."
"I heard it, though," Thomas protested. He looked confused for a second, but then the expression on his face was replaced with surprise and fear as he spun around two or three times and stared around at Anna and Newt, wide-eyed.
"What's wrong?" Anna asked.
"I'm hearing voices," Thomas said. "In my head. You can't hear that?"
"No, Tommy. What're you on about?" Newt asked. Thomas didn't answer, but instead jumped back and knocked over the lamp sitting on the table beside the bed. It fell to the floor and shattered, spraying Anna's legs with broken glass. She glared at him and grabbed his shoulders, forcing him down into a chair.
"Slinthead," she growled. "Get a hold of yourself and talk to us."
"The girl's talking to me," he cried. "In my head."
"What?" Newt asked.
"It's like I'm hearing a voice," Thomas tried to explain. "But you guys can't hear it. I'm telling the truth."
He then jumped up from the chair and ran from the room. Anna ran after him, but he'd run all the way to the Maze before she could stop him. Realizing she wasn't gonna catch him, Anna watched him go, disappearing through the West Doors.
Suddenly she felt a hand press down on her shoulder, and she looked over to see Newt clinging to her.
"Newt!" she said. "What've I told you?"
"Sorry," he replied. "You ran off. It was an instinct." He let go of her shoulder and winced as he shifted his weight onto his left foot. He glanced down at Anna's feet.
"You're bleeding," he told her, pointing. She looked at her legs. Sure enough, a few little rivulets of shiny, dark red liquid were streaming down into her boots.
"Oh, yeah," she remembered. "The shuck lamp broke on me." Newt nodded, frowning.
"Where's Tommy gone?" Newt asked after a moment.
"He ran into the Maze," Anna responded, not making eye contact. "I don't know whether he's coming back."
Newt groaned and swore, pushing his blond hair out of his eyes.
"What's up with that kid and the bloody Maze? He's run in there twice now and it's been like three days since he got here."
Anna shrugged.
"That shank's either really, really dumb… or crazy… or he knows something we don't."
"I'm betting it's the last option," Newt answered softly.
Thomas showed up about an hour later, and Anna had some choice words for him. She yelled at him for about ten minutes before she released him to go do whatever shuck thing he wanted to do.
He went straight for the Deadheads, and when Anna went looking for him a couple hours later, he was fast asleep, leaning against the Maze wall. Anna looked at him for a second, and as she did so she realized that he was just a normal kid. Not a spy, or some sort of bringer of certain doom. He was just a teenager without any recollection of his life before the Maze. Taking pity on him, Anna walked to the Homestead and returned with two or three blankets from the supply closet. She placed them awkwardly on top of him and crept silently away, careful to be quiet for fear that Thomas would wake up and realize that the scary, menacing leader of the Glade was actually a pathetic softie.
The next morning, Anna and Thomas resumed their usual relationship—that is, ignorance of one another unless otherwise necessary. Of course, it was hard for Anna to interact with him that day, because Newt had locked him in the Slammer after breakfast. Anna still thought it unfair that the Greenie only had to spend a day in the Slammer when they'd Banished people before on the same offense, but she was no longer opposed to him becoming a Runner. She figured that it was the best job for a kid who seemed to have a knack for solving problems that Anna and the rest of the Gladers had been puzzling over for two years.
He went running with Minho the next day. Anna was a little worried to see their gold mine of information running out there to risk his life, but she figured that he couldn't be a gold mine if he were cooped up in the Glade with the rest of them. He returned from running without anything interesting, though, so she was sort of disappointed.
When Anna opened her eyes the next morning, she could tell that something was wrong. At first it was just a feeling nagging at the back of her head, but when she walked outside she could tell that there was something very off. The sun had completely disappeared from the sky, leaving a drab gray canvas, almost like a screen. Anna looked around, trying to figure out where the sun had gone. Once she'd decided that she wasn't gonna find it and she was stupid to be looking for it, Anna went and told the Runners that they were still running that day, even though the sun had mysteriously disappeared. They could use their wristwatches to figure out what time they should get back.
The Gladers were all in a panic by the time that Anna got back from monitoring the Runners (and the Greenie), and it took her a good five or ten minutes to get them to stop running around. The schedule continued as normal once they'd gotten situated and calmed down, and Anna dedicated her time to helping Zart with harvesting the crops that were big enough to eat. The sun was gone, and with it went their food source. They needed to get up as much as they could before the plants died. She'd also instructed Winston to try and ration their meat supply, as well. By the time they were finished, she and the Track-Hoes had unearthed about a week's worth of scrawny, premature radishes and potatoes.
Anna remembered suddenly that the supplies were supposed to come that day, and she practically sprinted over to the Box in hopes that there would be food for them to add to their now-limited supply. Instead she found a pair of metal doors, shut tightly without any sign of being about to open up. She gave a small, involuntary groan of despair as she added this to her list of huge problems.
She found Newt and informed him of the recent development, and the two of them spent the rest of the day telling the Gladers about it and instructing them to try and get as much work done as they could.
The Runners returned at the right time that night, despite the missing sun. As soon as they'd come out of the Maze, Minho and Thomas tracked Anna and Newt down to tell them of a recent discovery that they'd made.
Apparently, they'd been throwing rocks off of the Cliff, and they had confirmed once again that there was a hole there (the Griever Hole, as Thomas had named it) into which Grievers could jump. Possibly they lived there, but there wasn't any evidence supporting this claim.
"Well, that's nice and all, but we've got bad news," Anna said. "The shuck supplies didn't come up today. They've come up on the same day every week for two years and now they're not here."
"Shuck it," Minho muttered. "That's not good."
"We've already told the whole Glade," Newt said. "We're gonna ration as well as we can."
Minho nodded. They lapsed into silence, but were suddenly interrupted by Chuck running over and yelling,
"She's awake! The girl woke up!"