The next day Sadie woke up in her bed to Chuck trying to yank her blankets away while she begged him for five more minutes. When he finally managed to get her up and going Sadie could tell something had happened the night before. The mood in the Glade seemed to be a somber and grumpy one. It took a bit of pestering and questioning but she was finally able to weasel it out of Chuck as he walked her to her second day of work.
"Thomas was… attacked by a Glader last night." Chuck mumbled his cheeriness fading slightly. Even though Chuck was lovable and slightly hilarious in Sadie's eyes she could tell he didn't have a lot of friends, Thomas was important to him.
"But he's okay now right?"
"Yeah, the Green bean's fine." He answered his lips cracking into the slightest smile. Sadie chuckled softly as they padded through the Glade's thick grass towards the Gardens.
"Who attacked him?" Sadie questioned wondering if Alby or Newt had finally been driven insane by Thomas's constant questioning.
"Some guy named Ben, I didn't really know him all that well… But apparently he tried to gut Thomas and Alby banished him." Chuck finished with a small shrug.
"What do you mean he banished him? Banished him where?"
"In the Maze. Tonight"
"Oh." Sadie didn't need any more of an explanation. She shuddered inwardly at the Glade's harsh sense of justice. Had Newt been there when they made this decision? She wondered, slightly angry at the thought of anyone being left out in the Maze. Now that's not fair. He tried to kill one of your best friends. Sadie reasoned to herself. And besides it is one of the main rules here. Never hurt another Glader. Even though I have in fact punched, kicked, and even flipped a few myself. Sadie smiled dryly at the memory. She of course hadn't been banished obviously, whether it was because they understood why she had or because it was a girl perk. Ah yes, getting seconds and being offered first place in the mess hall lines where perks. Extremely annoying ones.
"Is he alright? Thomas I mean." Sadie asked when they finally reached the large acre of crops known as the Gardens.
"The klunk's been acting grumpy all morning." Chuck griped jabbing his thumb over his shoulder. "See for yourself." And sure enough Thomas was grumpy and indifferent, as he silently worked beside Sadie and Zart in the Gardens. He'd barely spoken to her at all aside from asking how Teresa was.
"Still in a coma." Sadie answered as Thomas nodded and fell back into his brooding silence. Finally Sadie couldn't shucking take it anymore. As soon as Zart seemed sufficed with their work he wandered off to perform his own Keeper duties. Leaving Sadie to her own devices. She smiled devilishly as she grabbed a large clod of dirt and mud and chucked it right at Thomas's back. Thomas let out a loud yelp and whipped around fixing an outraged glare on Sadie as she tried to hold in her laughter. Without breaking eye contact Thomas slowly grabbed his own handful of mud and slung it directly into her face. Two throws led to more and pretty soon the two of them were in an all out mud war. The both of them were laughing like lunatics when Zart finally returned. He was… well mad to say the least. And forced them to pull weeds and load wheelbarrows in six other crops. When he finally let them leave Sadie was so exhausted she felt like her arms and legs were going to fall off.
"That." Sadie panted her back slumped against Thomas's. "Shucking sucked." She whined trying to move as little as possible while her muscles screamed in protest. Thomas mumbled in agreement trying in vain to rub the dirt off of his hands. The shade of the tree they sat under did little to improve Sadie's tiredness, and to make it even better her stomach was rumbling loudly. Echoing the sounds of dying whales and angry moose.
"Hungry much?" Thomas teased nudging her with his elbow.
"Shut up… and I'm starving." Thomas laughed and climbed to his feet yanking Sadie up with him. "No! Moving is evil!" Sadie hissed looking down longingly at the soft grass.
"Come on let's get some food and then we can go check on Teresa again." Thomas said. Sadie snickered perking up a bit.
"Yep I mean god you haven't seen her in like what? Half a day? Holy shuck, half a day without seeing your girlfriend! Must be torture!" Sadie exclaimed full out snorting when she saw Thomas blush.
"Shut up Sadie." He growled.
"Oh come on Thomas I was only-"
"No seriously shut up." Thomas said his eyes focused on something in the distance. Something coming out of the Maze. She followed his gaze and saw a boy sprinting out of the East entrance; he stumbled into the Glade a bit before collapsing. The two watched, there mouths hanging open. It was finally the guy that sent them into action.
"Don't just stand there, go get Alby or Newt!" He yelled breathing heavily as he lay in a heap on the ground. They snapped out of their daze and ran to the older boy and kneeled beside him.
"Um hey man are you okay?" Thomas asked. The poor guy looked exhausted, and was breathing like he'd just run a marathon. The guy was tall, muscled, and seemed to be Asian.
"I'm fine." He looked up at Thomas and Sadie with a confused stare. "Who the klunk are you?"
"Oh I'm Thomas. I've only been here a little less then a week." Thomas replied, the guy's eyes passed from him and focused on Sadie widening slightly.
"Hey you're one of those chicks that showed up in the shuck box right?" He asked looking her up and down. Sadie rolled her eyes.
"No of course not. Names David, been here for months." She snapped her voice dripping with sarcasm. The guy just snorted and pulled himself to his feet.
"Well aren't you charismatic." Before Sadie could come up with another smart-ass response Alby jogged up to them his face grim.
"What you doin' back Minho? What the shuck went wrong now?"
"Slim it would yah?" the Runner replied bending over on his knees trying to catch his breath. "Now could you get me some shucking water before I pass out?" Alby seemed to smile for a second before planting a firm kick on the guys leg.
"Tell me what happened!"
"Get me some water slinthead!" And to Sadie's surprise Alby jogged off leaving the three of them alone while he went to get the Runner some water.
"I can't believe he let's you talk to him like that." Sadie commented watching Alby's outline disappear into the kitchens.
"Freakin' Newbies." He replied. Sadie glared down at him angrily she'd known the guy for a total of five minutes and she already wanted to kick him herself. "Name's Minho." He announced sticking his hand out for Sadie to shake. She ignored it.
"Just because we haven't been here that long doesn't make you or your shucking leader Alby any better than us." She hissed but Minho just chuckled and looked at Thomas like, Can you believe this girl?
"Listen chick I admire your attitude. But Alby ain't our leader. He's more like our Admiral. Yeah Admiral Alby.'' Sadie glared in wonder at him not quite sure if he was joking.
"Why are you back anyways?" Thomas asked crossing his arms.
"Slim it man. We gotta wait for Admiral Alby to come back." He answered less rudely this time.
"Fine. But we want to hear what happened when he does come back." Thomas replied his voice hard. Minho looked at him with grudging respect and shrugged.
"Ok Greenie. Whatever you say boss." He didn't seem to be lying. Hm maybe he's not such a jerk after all. When Alby came back he gave the two of them an annoyed glare.
"Ah let them listen Alby! They're going to shucking find out about it anyway." Minho said waving his hand dismissively.
"Fine, you got your water. Now talk." Minho took the water bottle from him and chugged the whole thing before answering.
"I found a dead one." Alby furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
"A dead what?"
"A dead Griever."
Apparently it was a rare thing. Alby scoffed in disbelief crossing his own arms.
"A dead Griever? No kidding?''
"I'm dead serious man." The sun was quickly fading behind them and pretty soon all of the Runners were back.
"Are you sure? We need to send a party and go find it." Alby muttered pacing in front of the group.
"That's what I shucking came running back for. We need to go check it out tomorrow." Minho said impatiently. The sun was already touching the horizon, washing the Glade in a bronze and orange glow.
"But first we need to deal with something else tonight." Alby said looking up at the sky taking notice of the fading light. "Sadie go back to the Homestead." Alby ordered.
"Why?"
"Because we're gonna hold a Gathering and we have some business to take care of slinthead." He answered. Sadie sighed grumpily and stomped off, remembering what Chuck had said about the banishment.
As soon as the Gathering was over all the Keepers had come to the agreement that Alby and Minho would go scout out the dead Griever tomorrow morning. Newt still couldn't believe what Minho had told them. The word dead and Griever didn't go together at all in Newt's mind. He slowly limped out of the meeting room and towards Homestead to keep an eye on Sadie. Alby's orders of course, but hey Newt wasn't complaining. He climbed up the old splintering wooden stairs and knocked on the doorframe of the girls' room. Sadie was sitting in a chair trying to feed the other girl, a brooding look splayed across her face.
"Hello love." Newt chirped pulling up a chair beside her. Sadie remained quiet glaring down into the bowl of soup she held. Newt waited patiently knowing all to well that she wasn't one for silence.
"Am I allowed to leave Homestead yet?" She muttered looking down at her lap angrily, and letting her hair fall in front of her face like a curtain. Newt's hand twitched and he had to resist the urge to brush her curls out of her face.
"Afraid not." He replied leaning back into his chair and peering around the small cozy room. Newt had slept here himself back when there was only a few Gladers. He had hated it. The room back then seemed bare and lonely. He much preferred to sleep out under the sky, but it didn't seem so bad with Sadie here. Even when she was sat brooding in her chair she still had a warm glow to her, making the place seem comfortable and homey.
"Why not?" She quipped angrily slamming the bowl down on the nightstand.
"It's official Glader business."
"What? Banishing someone? And here's a news flash Newt I am a Glader!" Newt blinked in surprise at her outburst.
"Who told you?" Newt sat up and pulled Sadie's chair closer to him turning it so they were now facing each other, giving her no choice but to look him in the eye.
"Doesn't matter." She snapped meeting his gaze with her unreadable and warm brown eyes. "And it seems cruel." Newt couldn't help but agree. He had known Ben personally sure the bloke had been a bit annoying but it still seemed harsh to banish him. But no he had tried to kill another Glader and rules were rules.
"I know but there ain't a bloody thing we can do about it sunshine." Sadie rolled her eyes, something she seemed to do quite a lot.
"I still don't see why I'm not allowed to leave this shucking room." She mumbled pulling her knees up to her chest. Newt frowned and scooted forward in his chairs and rested his elbows on the arms of Sadie's chair.
"Because I asked Alby to make you stay in here." Sadie looked at him with narrowed eyes but Newt could see the tiniest hint of a smile tugging at her lips.
"Why's that?"
"Because I didn't want you to see it. You already have nightmares." Sadie snorted and shoved his shoulder.
"Please, I'm perfectly capable of witnessing a silly banishing. Anyways what are they going to do about the dead Griever?" Sadie asked gently moving Newts elbows off of her chair and turning it back around. Positioning it so she could lay her head on Newt's shoulder. Newt froze when he felt the warm weight of her head press against his shoulder, and her soft hair tickle his neck. Do I put my bloody arm around her? Newt thought panicking slightly at the action.
"Y-you know about that too?" He asked trying to distract himself from looking down at her small nose and bow shaped lips. Holy. Shucking. God.
"Yeah, Minho told me and Thomas. You'd be surprised by all the things I know." She responded with a yawn. Newt swallowed and wondered if he should tell her or not. Well it wouldn't bloody hurt anyone.
"Is that so? Well, Alby and Minho are going to go out looking for it tomorrow."
"Oh. I'm guessing you don't really see a lot of dead Grievers?" She asked. Newt could feel her voice vibrating through his chest with each word. Bloody hell.
"Never."
They sat in silence for a bit. Newt figured that they were probably done with the banishing by now, but he didn't really want to go.
"Sadie if you want me to I can stay?" Newt suggested feeling his cheeks start to flush. He waited for a while but she didn't respond. He looked down at her questioningly. "Love, you awake?" He asked peering down at her. But she was already sound asleep curled up against his arm. Her hair fell in tangles across her forehead. This time Newt couldn't help but tuck the stray strands behind her ear. He smiled warmly down at her and chuckled softly.
"I guess I'll stay then."