The Monsters of the Maze

by Annie Gray

Echo woke up in the Box. She was terrified, alone, and unable to remember anything. When the box finally opens she is surrounded by a bunch of strange boys who have never seen a girl before. She has to work hard to win their trust and fit in with them as if this entire situation is normal, when in reality, it is far from normal.

3. The Bloodhouse

I wake with a start when I feel water poor all over me. I sit up gasping and look around to see who did that. I see Newt and Alby standing over me. Newt has a bucket in his hands and Alby just looks mad.
"What was that for!" I ask
"We couldnt shucking wake you up any other way." Alby tells me while scowling.
"You are bloody hard to wake up Greenie." Newt says as he puts the bucket down.
"Get the Greenie to breakfast and then take her to the Winston. She is training in the Bloodhouse today." Alby tells Newt and then walks off.
"Well you heard him Greenie. Get dressed and then head downstairs to get you breakfast. We are running behind schedule now so your gonna have to shovel it in nice and quick." With that Newt leaves to let me get dressed.
I get dressed into some clothes that they had left in a pile beside my bed. Then I go downstairs and get some food. I look around for Newt once I get outside and find him sitting at a table talking to someone. I sit next to him and look at the other person at the table.
"Hey Greenie! Newt here tells me that your name is Echo. That true?" The guy asks me.
"Yeah. What's your name?" I say
"Winston. Cool name."
"Thanks."
"So you'll be spending the day with Winston here in the Bloodhouse." Newt tells me
"That sounds cheery." I say sarcastically
"It's not that bad." Winston assures me.
"The next couple of weeks you will be training with each of the different keepers to see if your cut out for their specific job. Today you'll be with Winston and the other Slicers. Tomorrow is Builders, then the Bricknicks, then the Track-Hoes, then Cooks, then Med-jacks, then Sloppers, and finally Baggers." Newt says
"What about the Runners?"
"You have to be chosen to be a Runner. Someone recommends you after you've been here for a couple months and then there would have to be a big meeting." He explains.
"I didn't want to be a Runner anyway." I say. I quickly finish my food and then Winston leads me over to a red barn that is in the South East corner of the Glade. Once we reach it he turns his back to the barn and faces me. He holds his arms out dramatically and says,
"Welcome to the Bloodhouse where we raise animals and eventually slaughter them all for their meet and other valuable parts!"
"If that is supposed to gross me out or scare me or intimidate me or something it doesn't. Let's just get this day over with."
"Alright. Right this way miss." He says as he shows me into the barn. I wince at the smell a little bit but other than that I am unaffected.
"So do you want to start with the killing or the taking car of the animals?"
"I am not helping to raise those animals. If I do then I would constantly be looking at all of the food I eat wondering 'is this Jimmy?'"
He laughs. "You would name a cow Jimmy?"
"I dont know it was just first name that popped into my head." I tell him and before I know it, I am laughing too.
"Alright. Let's kill some animals."

By the end of the day I have seen enough blood and killed enough helpless animals to last me a lifetime. Winston and I go and get some of Frypan's "awful" food. Winston explained that joke to me today. He talked a lot about the other Gladers. He talked about how much pride Frypan has in his cooking, how scary Alby can be, and how mean Gally can be. He said a little bit about almost everyone in the Glade. We sit down at a picnic table and restart one of our earlier conversations. After a few minutes Newt walks over to us and I see Minho following behind. Newt takes a seat next to me and Minoh next to Winston.
"Hey Minho." I say. He gives me a look and then nods in my direction. "Sorry for yesterday. I was just doing what I thought was the logical thing. I wont threaten to kill you again. I promise."
"You wont get the chance to catch me off guard like that again." He says rather grumpily.
"Well whatever. I was just trying to be nice."
"So you did well in the Bloodhouse?" Newt asks.
"Yeah she did great!" Winston tells him.
I laugh. "I guess so, but I dont think I could do that on a daily basis. It was alright for a one time thing."
"We'll just have to see how well you do with everything else."
"Tomorrow is the Builders right? Winston tells me that Gally is the Keeper of the Builders." Newt nods. "He also tells me that Gally is a bit of a bully." Newt give a small nod again. "Well at least tomorrow will be interesting."