Chapter 3: The Glade
AN: Hello, fellow Gladers and followers! Glad to welcome you again into the world of Stephanie and our boys! I had some griever-ous (pun intended!) problems with my internet connection, but thankfully it's all settled now. This chap is still more on the calmer side of things, but I promise that from Chapter 4 onwards, things are going to get interesting, especially in Chapter 5 *hint, hint*. I'm going to add my own little touches to how the Glade is constructed since those changes are going to be important in how Stephanie's story develops.
As we recall, a new girl named Stephanie has come up with the Box. Everyone's deeply confused, Steph is frightened and she's made fast friends with Chuck. Now let's not dawdle around and join the greenbean on the tour around the Glade, shall we?
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It was early in the morning and most of the Gladers were still fast asleep when the tall figure stopped in front of Stephanie's hammock. The girl was curled up, her dark hair spread around her. Her expression was serious. Her brow was furrowed, stormy thoughts seemed to swirl behind her eyelids. Stephanie's lips seemed to quiver, but whether she was thinking of something painful or just felt cold, they couldn't tell. Then the figure bent down to wake her.
Stephanie woke with a start when she felt a hand clamp down on her mouth, muffling the scream wanting to escape her lips. Still half groggy from sleep, she started to kick out at her attacker and tried to free herself from his grip until she heard his voice: "Hey, relax! It's just me, greenbean!" It was one of the voices that had welcomed her yesterday into… Relaxing a little, the girl squinted into the dusk and recognized Alby, his dark complexion almost melting into the shadows around them. Finally remembering where she was, Stephanie let out a relieved sigh and pushed herself up on her elbows.
Confident that his newest Glader wouldn't start screaming again, Alby removed his hand from her mouth. "Couldn't you have been a little nicer? You scared me half to death there…", Stephanie chuckled mildly. "Get up. It's time for the obligatory tour around the Glade. Hurry, Newt is waiting for us. Remember him?", Alby ordered in a friendly voice, but not accepting no for an answer. To thus avoid the older boy's wrath, Stephanie sat up and swiftly untangled her hair with her fingers. After slipping into her shoes, she followed Alby out into the Glade.
Newt was waiting for them by the Box. "Sleeping Beauty finally woke up, eh?", he chuckled. "You don't look too awake yourself, dude.", the girl grinned back, taking in his dishevelled hair, his tired face and the goosebumps on his exposed skin. The boy smiled. "We got ourselves a feisty lass, don't we, Alby?", Newt asked his friend. "It seems so.", he answered, quietly, "Let's go. The others will soon wake up. And no dumb questions allowed during the trip, is that clear, greenie?" Although she furrowed her brows in confusion, Stephanie gave him a thumbs up.
"Ok, Stephanie. Welcome to the Glade. I know it's a lot to take in, but pay as close attention as you can. The sooner you get accustomed to everything, the better. We need every hand on deck around here. No one is allowed to slack off if we want to maintain our community.", Alby's second-in-command started explaining and made his way through the grass to the big wooden building to the North West of them. The girl approached it with a quiet fascination. It looked worn and windswept but gave off an air of protection and homeliness.
"This is the Homestead. It's where some of us sleep, but it's mostly used as a place of reunion and decision-making. There's also an upper floor where the Gladers are quarantined when they get… extremely sick.", Alby explained. Stephanie had the impression that he had wanted to say something else, but Newt had shot him a dark, warning look. "Ok, the Homestead for sleeping, gathering and quarantine for the especially sick.", she quickly resumed. The boys grinned, satisfied, and continued their tour.
As they made their way to the Gardens, which Stephanie deduced were located in the North East section, she caught a glimpse of a dark room with a heavy padlock on its door at the back of the Homestead and the girl felt goosebumps on her skin. "Wha- I mean, that doesn't look very inviting…", Stephanie commented and quickly restated her phrase when she noticed that she had almost asked a question that would probably have sounded dumb. "Isn't supposed to be.", Alby grumbled, "That's the Slammer, our jail for Gladers who did some klunk." She nodded obediently and hurried along.
The Gardens were an extensive square area in the North East, where Stephanie saw rows of vegetables, fruits, corns and herbs being planted. She could also make out the silhouettes of a few sleeping Gladers. "The Gardens provide most of what we need. The Slicers provide the meat and the rest comes up with the Box. The water for the plants and the kitchen gets pumped from the ground, but there's also an artificial lake in the forest where we get the water for the showers and laundry from. There's also electricity, by the way.", Newt lowered his voice as they walked through the rows of produce and slumbering boys. The girl recognized a spacious wooden building with tables and benches surrounding it as the kitchen, which was situated a few miles to the west of the Homestead. The showers Newt had mentioned were located east of it.
"Speaking of the Slicers, this is the Blood House.", said Alby, approaching a sturdy barn in the South East of the Glade, "This is where we raise and… kill the animals… Shuck it." But Stephanie had already jogged towards the barn's occupants, greeting them gently. As she kneeled down to pet a young calf, Newt and Alby threw each other a half touched, half grim look. "That's gonna be hard for her, huh, Alby? She doesn't look at all like a Slicer to me.", the blonde muttered quietly. "She may or may not be, but everyone has to go through this.", his friend replied, "Rules of the Glade."
Alby stepped towards his newest Glader and patted her on the back. "Alright, Steph. We're not done here yet. You'll come back later anyway. Let's go, before the others wake up.", he pressed her. The girl put down the chick she was holding reluctantly, but then quickly followed the boys to an impressive forest to the South West, which covered almost all of the area. "It's absolutely impressive. Whoever designed the Glade must be a genius. The arrangement of everything we need…", Stephanie mused aloud.
The dark-skinned leader stopped dead in his tracks and whipped around like an angry snake. He grabbed the girl by her dress and hissed: "Listen up, you little shank! Everything you see was made by US! Built with OUR own hands! The Creators may have stuck us in here, but the Glade is our work, our community! And I promise you, whoever expresses interests that may come to harm us as long as we are here, I will throw them to the Grievers with my own two hands! Have I made myself clear?!"
Stephanie was frozen in shock. Never had she seen someone blow up like that. She couldn't even nod or utter a single word. Then she heard Newt's calm voice: "Alby, that's enough! She didn't know any better. It's her first shucking day here, give her a bloody break. If she speaks like this in a few weeks still, do whatever you want with her. But let her go. You're hurting her." The girl flashed him a terrified look. The boy had a tense, worried expression in his eyes, his skin was a little pale- quite the opposite of his serene voice. He lightly touched Alby's arm but looked ready to tear his friend away from her if needed. After a few seconds, Alby released her with a growled "Fine!" and entered the forest.
The teenager felt tears coming to her eyes and she quickly brushed over her collar where the Glade's leader had grabbed her, feeling for bruises. "Are you alright? He did not go easy on you…", Newt asked, putting his hands around her shoulders with a gentle protective touch. A few quiet sobs escaped her as she stammered: "I'm… I'm so sorry! I had no idea that Alby would react this way! I just… I just thought it was awesome how the Glade is constructed, so strategic and how you can survive here as a group…" Newt sighed deeply: "Glad you see it this way. But the way it sounded was as if you were praising the shanks that put us there. Alby had no right to blow up like that, but the community is all we have. If mistrust and anarchy break out among us, we might as well go cuddling with the Grievers…"
"Grievers, Grievers… That's all I hear about! What is a Griever? Why are they so important to you all?", Stephanie exclaimed, irritated and desperate, "And yeah, I know, I asked a question. So, sue me…" Newt quickly raised an eyebrow, surprised by her sudden aggressiveness, but then sighed and told her as he gently pushed her into the forest: "Trust me, Steph. You're going to discover that soon enough, promise. But come on now. We still have a few things to show you." Stephanie nodded reluctantly, wiped her tears away and followed Newt's lead.
"These are what we call the Deadheads. You see, in the years we've spent here already, not everyone made it…", the blond explained, his accent thickening with memories. "Luckily, they've never been much, but it happened mostly to the ones who came first, who still had no idea about how to survive in the Glade, how everything works. It was mostly… the fear that got to them.", he continued, "The desperation of never getting out again…" Newt suddenly tensed, his voice dropping to almost a whisper. Stephanie felt this change but didn't dare to ask him what had caused it. The teenagers stopped in front of a little clearing, where Alby was already waiting for them.
Stephanie gasped. She was looking at a barely sunlit area, with wooden crosses and coffins partially protruding from the ground like deadly mushrooms. "The first few years were the hardest on us. That's why the order we established here is so shucking important, greenie. So that we don't lose any other of our Gladers ever again. To ignorance, arrogance or despair…", Alby said gravely, looking at Stephanie directly, but also flashed Newt a quick dark look. "I apologize. I didn't mean to sound like I don't appreciate your work, I'm actually glad you have managed to build up such a stable community.", she admitted, "So you really… This is actually a graveyard?"
"Why else would we name that place Deadheads? That's everyone who has died here. Our latest loss was Stephen.", Alby chuckled darkly and pointed to a cross to the slight left of Stephanie. It was a simple wooden cross, the name of the boy painted in white across the parallel beam. The girl wanted to say a little prayer, just when a sparkle caught her eye. It came from a grave to her right side. Curiously, Stephanie approached it to examine it closer- and instantly wished she hadn't. The sparkle had come from a glass pane on top of a small grave, way smaller than the others. And as Stephanie peered through the dusty glass, she saw why: Inside was a nearly completely rotten body, the lower half missing…
"Let this half-shank be a warning to you all: You can't escape through the Box Hole.", she quietly read the inscription etched into the glass. "Yep, that's right.", Newt answered her unspoken question, "The Box you came up in has to lead somewhere. But this one shank paid the price for trying to find out. About ten feet in, he got sliced up by something invisible. No one ever attempted that stunt again…" Suddenly, the Deadheads seemed a little too dark, too small for the new Glader. "Uh… Surely there are still more things you got to show me.", she pressed, nervously licking her lips. "Yeah, no one likes to hang around here for very long.", Alby agreed and broke into a slight jog, Newt and Stephanie following close behind.
"You'll have to go through being a Bagger though. They are in charge of taking care of everyone and everything that dies here. Usually, nothing happens, but Greenies need to try all the jobs here, that's just the rules.", the black teenager explained. "Oh no! Well, try to be kind and don't die on me while I'm trying out!", Stephanie half joked and the three laughed. A few minutes later after running south through the forest, they came across a lake, which Alby clarified was artificial and served as water for washing and showering and other necessities. The newcomer secretly wondered how that would turn out, but she didn't dare ask. She figured it would come up soon enough.
After breaking through the woods and introducing Stephanie to the final building in the Glade, the medical unit where Jeff and Clint worked, they finished where they had started the tour, by the Box. "Thanks for the tour, guys. It's fascinating that this space contains all that you need.", the girl thanked them. "I leave her to you, Newt. You know the routine.", the dark-skinned leader of the Glade simply told his second-in-command, "Welcome to the Glade, greenbean." He gave Stephanie and Newt a curt nod and disappeared into the Homestead. "Ok, I have one last thing to show you…", Newt turned to her, his brown eyes serious. Stephanie nodded curiously and followed the blond boy.
He led her to the West Wall, where the doors to the entrance of the Labyrinth were still firmly shut. However, Newt didn't aim for the doors but instead stopped a little to the side. That part of the wall was covered in thick vines. "There we are.", he murmured. "A wall. You wanted to show me a wall?", the girl stated, an upcoming giggle making her throat vibrate. But Newt just grabbed the vines and pushed them to the side, revealing a small dusty window inside the stone. "No. There are three rules in the Glade. One, everyone does their part. Once you're assigned to a job, you stick to it. No slackers. Two, never hurt another Glader. And three, the most important one.", Newt explained, pausing for effect, "Don't ever, EVER, go outside the Glade, unless you're a Runner. I'm gonna show you why. Approach."
Her curiosity awakened, Stephanie did as he said and peered through the window. At first, everything she could see was darkness. But after a few minutes had passed, a strange flickering light started to appear in the black, covering her and Newt's faces with shimmering spots. "Patience, one is bound to come soon…", the boy murmured. Just as Stephanie was about to ask what would come exactly, she saw it. She felt her breath leave her lungs in one swoop and her throat dried up as if she had swallowed the Sahara, her mouth fell open. The girl felt fire in her stomach at the same time that icy chills began to shake her. She wanted to scream, but no sound came. What. Was. That?!
It was a monster, slowly moving forward with whirring and clicking sounds. Its round shape was covered by slimy looking dark greyish flesh, giving it the appearance of an oversized bulbous slug. But that wasn't even the most horrible thing about it. The creature was covered with a terrifying array of spikes, shears, rods and other torturous looking equipment. Suddenly, it seemed that the beast became aware of their presence through the window and its slothful behaviour changed from one second to another. It hissed in an almost human expression of anger… and accelerated its pace to throw its thick body against the pane of the window. The glass vibrated, but it held out the attack. The impact was so sudden that it sent Stephanie to the ground and she released the scream she was holding.
Whatever that thing was decided that its lunch was unreachable and slowly retreated back into the shadows, clicking and whirring. Newt, who was pale but hadn't moved an inch during the entire encounter, covered the window with the vines again and looked down at her, his expression at the same time compassionate and serious. "Wha- what in damnation was that mo- monster?!", Stephanie stammered, shaking, her blue eyes wide. "That, greenie, was a Griever. They are the reason why only the Runners go into the Labyrinth and the rest of us stay here. Runners are the best, the fastest, the cleverest of all of us. Runners have the best chances to survive out there and they need us to support them. So that one day we just might have an opportunity to actually find our way out of this shucking Maze…", Newt explained, his eyes staring at the walls as if in a trance.
Before the newest Glader could ask why he was acting so strangely, he snapped out of it again and grinned at her, stretching out a hand to help Stephanie up. "But this isn't important now, greenbean. What matters most to you right now is to find a place for you. You're going to work with each Keeper, the head of each job in the Glade, and after that, we decide where we put you. I can't wait to see what you'll become. We still have like fifteen minutes before everyone wakes up, but then prepare. It's not going to be easy…", Newt told her. Stephanie nodded cautiously and followed the boy when he moved.
The Box was still there when they reached it, the last boxes getting heaved out of the elevator. A dark-haired boy was inside, scribbling something on a piece of paper. "Hey, Scott, can the newbie also get something?", the blonde casually greeted him. "Sure. What do you want?", Scott replied after a quick pause, "You see, the Creators send up stuff with the Box that we don't have, every week. Greenies come up once a month. And they let us ask for things if they're not unreasonable. Anything for you?" Stephanie didn't have to think long. "I wish for a notebook and pen. That should be easy. I feel like it's going to help me a lot. Yes, a notebook, please." The boy smiled and wrote it on his list. "That should be all. The Box can go down again.", he announced and put the piece of paper on the floor before climbing out and shutting the doors. After a moment, they could hear the elevator rattling down the shaft.
In the meantime, the Gladers had begun to stir. The sun was now a bright yellow ball in the sky and warmed their faces. From out of the Bloodhouse, a rooster was singing his song. Newt grinned at Stephanie and mumbled: "Now's your time. Impress us." The boy named Scott patted her on the shoulder and wished her good luck before disappearing in the washrooms. The girl tied back her hair with a leather band around her wrist and rolled up her sleeves. She was ready to become a Glader.
END CHAPTER 3
EN: The baby is born, the cake is baked, the chapter is DONE! With my second to last trimester of university beginning and Pride Month (but especially uni), I was once again thoroughly unable to write as much and quickly as I wanted to. But Chapter 3 is here, an extra-long chapter.
Since Chapter 3 ends in sort of a cliffhanger, it's going to be easier to transition quickly into Chapter 4, you surely won't have to wait as long. In Chapter 4, we'll finally see Stephanie become a full-fledged Glader and discover one of her dark secrets…
Thanks for being patient, I'll try to write quickly.
Kisses and cake,
Yuna McHill