After breakfast and a quick introduction to Alby now that she could actually offer her name in exchange for him repeating his, a meeting was called.
The meeting was about Ada but she wasn't actually invited.
Instead she'd trailed behind Newt as he in turn followed Alby over to yet another small, one room cabin that was apparently reserved for important "gatherings" as the boys had called it.
"So all the bosses…" Ada started, huffing along trying to keep up with Newt's slightly unsteady and yet surprisingly fast gate.
"The keepers," He corrected not slowing down in the slightest.
"Right, so all the keepers are going to go in there and talk about if you should do what, kill me?"
That got his attention.
He ground to a halt and Ada bumped into his back.
"What? No, we're not going to hurt you."
Ada shrugged as they resumed their journey across the glade. "Sorry, apparently my mind goes to the worst place first. But what's the gathering for then?"
"Just don't worry, Greenie." They had reached their destination and Alby had already disappeared inside. "And stay here. Or better yet, over there."
He pointed to a tree a few hundred yards away.
Ada gulped, warning bells sounding in her mind. Not only were they about to make decisions about her fate without even allowing her to be present but she still hadn't had a chance to figure out what was going on with her need to be close to Newt. This could go very badly.
Still.
No point in ticking off the boys right before they decided what to do with her.
Newt must have seen the uncertainty flash across her face because he gave her a semi-comforting pat on the shoulder before pushing her gently in the direction of the tree.
Ada had only taken half a step in that direction before she felt the whoosh of air as the door behind her closed forcefully, sealing her out and maybe sealing her fate along with it.
She sighed.
This whole having no say in your own life-a life you couldn't even remember up to this point-really did stink.
Ada took her time wandering over to the tree, glancing left and right to take her first good look at the Glade as she went.
The most obvious feature was the one that she had tried very hard up to this point not to register. The entire clearing where the boys lived was surrounded by walls so high it almost seemed impossible that they had been created by man. It seemed more natural to think of them as part of the landscape, monoliths of stone sprouting from the ground like mountains, dividing them from whatever lay beyond. That clearly wasn't the case however; because Ada could see a large opening in the walls too perfect to be natural and beyond that a corridor among the stone.
She was tempted to go closer and examine this opening for herself but some unexplainable anxiety seeped over her at the very thought. There was just something wrong about all of this and as curious as she was another part of her wanted to close her eyes and ignore all the bits that didn't make sense and hope they went away.
Ada forcefully turned her gaze away from the opening and observed the gladers who were everywhere around her. From her fairly central location she could see at least five groups of gladers, some working in what looked to be a garden of some sort, some patching up the mess hall roof, and some scrubbing clothes in a large bucket outside of another building. The other two groups were clearly hard at work too but Ada couldn't quite make out what they were doing.
What she could make out unfortunately, was that most if not all of the gladers were also observing her.
Again.
Oh they were trying to be subtle about it, trying being the operative word.
One of the guys working in the garden had actually just smacked himself in the head with the handle of his rake because he was too busy watching her to realize a great big stupid stick was headed directly for his face.
Ada swallowed a giggle at the sight.
She hated the attention, hated the fact that all these people she had just met were looking at her for answers to questions about herself she didn't even know the answers to.
But she was only human. A rake to the face was always going to be funny.
Finally Ada made it to the tree Newt had directed her to and was pleasantly surprised to find that it offered more shade than she'd expected. It was a little on the scrawny side which probably explained why the boys hadn't chopped it down to build something with already. She noticed that there was a relatively small patch of woods lining the opposite end of the Glade and the trees there were much bigger. She had to admit the patch of shade this one provided was enough to greatly increase Ada's comfort level. The Glade was hot. She could feel herself sweating and knew she could probably use a shower. Of course she didn't know exactly how long it had been since her last one but she suspected the answer was long enough.
Ada let her body sink down to the ground, taking stock of the sensations that managed to feel familiar and brand new at the same time. The soft grass slid between her fingers, the rough texture of the bark as she leaned her head back and closed her eyes, the ever so slight breeze that made wisps of hair flick against her cheek periodically.
It was lovely.
And then it became impossible to ignore what she had been striving to forget.
The buzzing that had been only a slight and annoying accompaniment to the world around her began to grow steadily and painfully. It was like someone had left a television tuned to pure static and then turned the volume up as loud as it would go.
It was as if her head was the television.
Ada wondered briefly how she even knew what a television was. Did she watch television? Was that something she had done? She still had no idea. It was just like the color blue and the ability to walk, they were things she knew and recognized but not memories that had any context as they related to her own life.
That disconnect would have been incredibly disturbing to her had she been able to focus enough to really contemplate it. Instead all she could do was groan and raise a heavy hand to rub pointlessly at her forehead. It felt like her hand had to travel through molasses to get there and once it did her hopeful rubbing had no effect.
"Just tough it out," Ada told herself forcefully, hoping somewhere in the back of her mind that any gladers still watching her were too far away to realize she was in fact now talking to herself.
She didn't want to face the wrath of the boys at the gathering if she burst in now, not when her fate was in their hands. Nor did she want to make things harder for Newt, who despite his frustrating insistence on doling out answers when it suited him and not when she asked, had actually been nothing but kind to her so far.
Almost as if it knew of her mental resistance the pain in her head intensified ten fold, the buzzing increasing in volume until Ada half believed it was blaring through speakers filling the Glade with its ugly tone.
Ada dug her feet into the ground and clutched at the grass desperately, perspiration dotting her brow as she put everything she had into staying seated.
"Just five seconds at a time," She whispered to herself. "1...2...3...4...5, 1...2...3…"
At this point the searing pain reached a crescendo and both of Ada's hands disobeyed her and clutched at her head tight enough that she knew she was probably drawing blood.
All thoughts of resistance and strength were banished from her mind. In fact all conscious thoughts had disappeared all together. Instead instinct took over and Ada rose shakily to her feet, stumbling in the direction of the gathering cabin. She made it a few yards before the pain once again increased in intensity and she fell to her knees letting out an almost inhuman wail as it washed over her.
Everyone in the Glade must be looking at her by now, but there was no thought of dignity lost as Ada reached out desperately with her arms to drag herself forward. She crawled along blindly for a few moments, the pain manifesting as a bright white light that temporarily blinded her. She continued this way half crawling, half dragging herself across the grass for what seemed like forever but in reality was only seconds before her searching hand came into contact with something solid and vertical.
Her vision cleared briefly and Ada was able to use the last of her strength to stumble to a half standing position and yank the door open, immediately collapsing through it as soon as the gap appeared. She was sure her sudden appearance must have caused a stir but her hearing had faded away completely at this point except for the God awful buzzing.
Blinking away the dots that threatened to overwhelm her eyes once again, Ada spotted Newt, already rising from his seat, his mouth moving in meaningless symbolism. With an incredible last burst of effort she managed two more steps in his direction, steps he thankfully matched with his own, meeting her in the middle.
Her legs gave out just as his arms wrapped around her, catching her before she could collapse completely. The relief was instant if not complete, the buzzing fading away to allow the shouts to filter in just as her consciousness slipped out of her grasp.
"What the shucking hell, Newt?"
And closer, much closer, just above her ear, Newt's voice calling her name.
"Ada!"
"Huh," She thought as she allowed herself to embrace the encroaching darkness in front of her eyes.
It was the first time since he'd discovered her name was hers that he'd actually used it.
"No," Newt found himself shaking his head for what felt like the hundredth time during the gathering. "You can't lock a Greenie up just for showing up. We have a system for this."
"We don't have anything for this," Gally insisted, several other gladers nodding at his words much to Newt's irritation. "Three years this has been happening. Three years, nothing changes and now this? It has to mean something."
"Maybe they ran out of dudes," Minho offered sarcastically, earning him a few laughs before a glare from Alby and Gally alike shut them up.
"Even if it does mean something is changing, what do you think she's going to do?" Newt asked incredulously. "Murder us in our sleep? She doesn't need to be in the slammer."
"Just because she's pretending to like you doesn't mean she won't do something to the rest of us," Gally spat.
Newt sad red. He was normally one of the most levelheaded during these types of discussions but Gally was pushing every button he had.
He took half a step in the other boys' direction before Alby's hand interrupted his progress, resting warningly against his chest.
"Slim it, Gally," Alby ordered. "I didn't call this gathering so that we could…"
Alby never got a chance to finish his sentence.
He was interrupted by the door flying open and a blur that he vaguely recognized as Ada half crawling, half stumbling inside.
"Whoa!"
"Is she ok?"
"You ok, Greenie?"
Newt heard the shouts of the keepers present but he wasn't really processing their words. Instead he was already moving across the room which allowed him to be ready when her feet gave out to catch her, one arm around her waist the other sliding up to cradle her head.
"What the shucking hell, Newt?" Alby demanded from somewhere over his shoulder but Newt ignored his friend in favor of examining the girl in his arms for any signs of life.
"Ada?"
She didn't stir and Newt furrowed his brow in equal parts worry and frustration.
He gave her a gentle shake but gained no reaction for his trouble.
Before he could consider his next course of action the door burst open again, and a quick glance in that direction told him it was Clint and Jeff, several other gladers trying to crowd in behind as Minho in turn tried to keep them out.
The two med-jacks slid to a stop next to Newt, Clint immediately reaching out to feel Ada's forehead.
"We saw her from all the way across the Glade," Jeff explained, clearly out of breath. "She was just sitting under the tree, not doing anything, when all of the sudden she's crawling over here making all sorts of shucking noises like somebody was murdering her."
His words hit Newt like a slap in the face. When she'd barged in looking like death itself his concern and shock had blinded him to the obvious fact that this confirmed Ada's jacked theory.
If they were too far apart there were consequences.
Consequences Ada was suffering now because he hadn't wanted to deal with glader gossip.
"Sorry, I'm such a slinthead, Ada," Newt had time to think before Clint and Jeff were pulling Ada from his arms and he had to follow quickly in order to keep contact between them.
He wasn't able to touch Ada throughout her entire examination by the med-jacks but he stayed by the side of the table where she lay prone, as close as he dared earning him a raised eyebrow from Alby.
Newt merely shook his head firmly, his friend luckily trusting him enough to accept his signal and wait for his answers.
After nearly half an hour of poking and prodding, Clint and Jeff finally admitted that they were out of their depth and there wasn't much they could do for her other than a cool cloth and wait for her to wake up to see if she knew what had set off her fit.
Alby gave them each a pat on the back and shooed them out of the cabin before turning back to face Newt.
"Alright, start talking, buddy," Alby said in a way that didn't leave any room for disobedience despite his relatively friendly tone.
"Bloody hell," Newt muttered.