"So, what did you tell Fry?" Qiufeng asked as she bit into an apple and plopped down beside Newt, leaning against his side. She held out a bowl with the other hand, the steaming hot stew of a slightly bigger ratio compared to the other gladers around them. The blond raised an eyebrow at the large portion as he took it slowly, and she caught onto his suspicion. She made a face as she sat up and glanced back to face him properly, taking another bite of her apple. "What? You saved my ass this morning."
"I just told Fry you were klunking out a big klunk, and was so sore afterwards you had to sit down." Newt shrugged as the nonchalant expression on Qiufeng's face changed into one of disbelief. He grinned as she eventually just rolled her eyes. She couldn't really say anything to rebuke him, Fry would've had her head otherwise this morning.
"So, what's happening in the glade today?" she asked, settling back against him.
"Nothing much, except that shuck face Gally pummelled his finger with the hammer again," Newt answered as he started digging into his food.
"So that was the scream I heard." Qiufeng looked up thoughtfully as she recalled the sudden yell from across the glade that had made her jump and almost drop the knife she was holding.
"Apparently," he replied in amusement. "He's being patched up by the Med Jacks now, I think it's the third time this week."
"You would think that a builder would have more patience." She laughed out loud.
"It's Gally, that shank will never have patience." The blond chuckled. "Besides that, we're hoping that Minho comes back today with news of some kind." Newt spoke again, capturing her attention immediately with his name.
"…Isn't that just every day?" She let a wistful smile settle on her lips.
"Well…" His voice was uncertain as he took a moment. "I haven't told you this, but Minho has been venturing out into the outer rings since last year."
Qiufeng had no reaction, because she already knew. She had a bad habit, she knew, of eavesdropping on their meetings occasionally and just so happened that one of those meetings had fed her that information. She felt an urge to protest, but she couldn't afford to reveal herself and they were right after all. The runners needed to make progress if they wanted to get out eventually. She tried her best to remain oblivious about it, worrying silently every single morning the Korean boy left the glade.
"Oh." She managed, failing to sound surprised.
"You're taking this rather well." Newt glanced over, but with her sitting against his shoulder he couldn't see anything but the back of her head.
"Why not?" She laughed a little too cheerfully. "Since when was it that the oh-so-great Minho couldn't handle things on his own?"
He stayed silent for a little, contemplating her words. Qiufeng had never been too great of a liar ever since the day she arrived in the glade, but and most could tell. It was either she stayed silent about what she knew, or she gave it away in a voice too light-hearted. It was often the former, and only someone that talked to her as often as he did would know that she was frequently hiding things from them.
"Yeah." He got up without warning, making her fall over unto the log with a surprised squeak. "Well, I gotta get back to work."
"You go ahead." She smiled as she waved him away, one arm resting lazily over her forehead.
After Newt had left with a shake of his head, she lay there for a while until her eyes could no longer take the brilliance of the sky. Qiufeng then sat up, letting her vision adjust to the sudden change of brightness and saw that a couple of gladers were resting nearby, a mixture of the several sections. They waved her over upon realizing she was done spacing out.
"Was wondering how long you were going to sunbathe shank." One of them said upon her nearing them.
"Not as long as you taking a shower Zart." She laughed as she plopped herself on a log beside the group.
During her free time she hung out with the other gladers, just to make sure she wasn't isolated from the group. Although she had to admit that being around Newt and Minho was a lot easier, she couldn't stick around them all the time.
She remembered joining a group of boys for the first time when Newt was busy and Minho was out, sitting herself quietly on the edge of the log. The boys got a bit awkward at first, throwing uncertain glances at each other. It made her so uncomfortable that she was ready to just get up, leave and spend the rest of her life here without other friends, but then someone spoke up.
"Hey Greenbean."
She started and looked up towards the source of the voice, catching sight of a blond haired boy with dark eyes. That was Zart, keeper of the track-hoes. "Y-yes!" She had stammered, a little terrified that they had addressed her directly.
"So…" He paused nervously, as if wondering how to approach her. "How's the glade been for ya?"
She stared at him for a moment, and then took a quick look around her. The boys had all but stopped talking amongst themselves and watched her hesitantly, uncertainty flickering in their eyes. And then it was like a revelation had hit her in the face and opened her eyes.
These boys, it wasn't that they didn't want to talk to her, they didn't know how.
That by itself made her burst into laughter out of nowhere, making all of their expressions simultaneously change into one of bewilderment. They stared at her as if she had gone crazy, but then someone else giggled and the whole group was soon roaring in laughter for no reason. She couldn't really remember what happened afterwards, except for Alby walking past and giving the hysterical teenagers a weird look.
After that they soon realized that she was just another human being, just with some slight differences. That never really bothered them though, and treated her as though she was another boy.
"So you got any new tricks for us today?" another glader, Stan asked, pulling her out of her thoughts of the past.
She shook her head as she stood up, bringing her leg behind her head in a graceful arc. "I think I wrung out almost everything my body can do actually."
Qiufeng was a proud girl, and couldn't help showing off her flexibility when the topic arose one day in free time. She showed them new tricks every time she found out about one. From air splits to kicks and bends that they would probably never dream of even doing, she could pull off. It made for a great entertainment sometimes when the boys tried to do it themselves, competing against each other to see whose leg could stretch the farthest.
"Are you sure?" A boy named Tim spoke, his blue eyes sparkling with mischief. "I bet it cou-"
"HELP!" Before he could finish his sentence, a raw scream echoed through the glade and they started, heads all turning in the direction of the yell. It came from the maze.
They got up cautiously, making their way down towards the slope. Qiufeng stayed behind the group as they jogged downwards, dread creeping up on her as her mind instinctively predicted what had happened. The screams were becoming more and more desperate, pain wrought and hysterical as they neared the entrance and the girl braced herself for a terrible sight.
As they came into view of the passage way the runners ran into every morning, she noticed something wrong immediately. One of the runners, Albert, was attacking another runner, Lester. Albert was acting in a way they could only describe as stung, raw animalistic snarls coming from his wide snapping jaws and a crazed look in his bulging eyes. They were scuffling on the floor a good distance away from the safety of the glade, and there was a moment as Albert managed to get the upper hand, his teeth sinking into the other's neck. Lester screamed as he tried to tear the frenzied boy away, but once he saw the group standing in shock near the entrance hope lit up his eyes as he started to direct his screams towards them.
However, no one moved.
A cold realization hit her in the face as she remembered that no one was allowed to leave the Glade except for runners.
Glancing around in panic, she realized that some of the boys had left to get Alby already, however she knew by the time they had returned, Lester would've been torn to shreds by Albert. They were slightly sideways, and she could see visible bite wounds around his neck, blood spurting out as the other exerted himself in order to stay alive. She ought to feel sick, but somehow the sheer horror of the situation kept her strangely alert.
"C-can't somebody help?" She frantically asked as she pushed her way to the front.
"We can't leave the Glade." Zart whispered, his voice deathly quiet, eyes fixated on Lester.
Qiufeng opened her mouth to protest, but nothing left it as she couldn't find a reason to give.
She just stared.
And then she felt something hard and cold against her fingertips.
She glanced down without thinking, realizing her hand had slipped into her apron pocket unconsciously. There was a flash of silver as sunlight reflected off the small kitchen knife.
And then the solution was clear.
Qiufeng brought out the knife, trying to keep her hands from trembling. Her eyes looked straight forward, to the pair of scuffling teenagers on the group. Lester was steadily losing strength under the bigger boy. His voice came out in whimpers and sobs now, having stopped screaming completely after realizing the gladers weren't going to step out to help him.
She stepped back, grasping the knife by the tip and raised her hand, when someone caught it.
"What're you doing?" Zart whispered furiously.
"He's dying." Qiufeng breathed out the words in desperation. Her voice shook, painfully strained. "We can't leave the glade, but we have to do something."
"What if you hit the wrong person?" Zart's voice trembled, but he knew she was right.
"It's better than not trying at all." She spoke through gritted teeth, suddenly finding it difficult to breathe.
Zart let go of her hand, and she positioned herself once more.
She took a deep breath and stepped backwards, holding the tip of the kitchen knife and took an aim at Albert whilst trying to ignore Lester's hapless expression.
Then suddenly a thought struck her, making her hand hesitate. She was going to injure or even kill someone. Qiufeng faltered, her hand lowering slightly as her eyes never left the pair on the ground. Lester looked up, his frantic eyes searching for hope again from the glade. Their eyes met, and her grip tightened.
There was no choice.
She flung the knife with all her strength.
For a second both teenagers were shocked still on the ground, the knife having obviously having made its mark. However it was difficult to tell who it actually hit, the two boys locked together closely in a life or death struggle.
A moment passed.
Qiufeng's eyes darted about wildly.
Another moment.
Albert's body twitched.
Then finally, the larger boy fell to the ground on top of Lester in a series of spasms.
His hair fell away, revealing the knife that was embedded in the side of his neck, and Lester scrambled out frantically from underneath with one hand clutching a wound on his neck. He leaned against the nearest ivy covered wall and glanced up at her, his face flushed red and chest heaving rapidly.
However she didn't seem to notice, her terrified eyes fixated on the end of the passageway.
Minho stood there, his eyes wide at the sight of the writhing boy on the ground.
Qiufeng just stared, his stricken expression burning itself into her memory. Then her vision blurred out. Hot tears spilled out from her eyes as she collapsed to the ground in hysterical sobs, unable to speak, unable to breathe. Her cries were raw and distraught, her body somehow shutting down completely except for the pain in her chest. She could hear the boys around her panic, and then felt someone hauling her up. When she couldn't stand, she was carried. The reality of what she had done hit her hard.
She had murdered someone.
In front of Minho.