The Maze Girl

Poisoned? Part Two

"How could someone come up in the Box and us not know it?" Gally said furiously while clenching his fists tightly. The question was rhetorical, as none of us knew how this could happen.

Gally, Newt, Alby, and I stood in one of the medical huts central in the Glade. I'd been in this one a couple times before; I was all too well acquainted with it.

Last night had been awful, I remembered very little of what had happened. From what the others told me, I basically tripped out and then almost died. Gally apparently saw me wandering around late at night but didn't interfere until I started acting really strange. Once I passed out, Gally ran over and took me to the med-jacks. Gally said he saw someone watching from one of the more forested areas, it looked like a Glader, but not one he recognized. After taking me to the med-jacks, Gally searched for the stranger and he saw that the Box had been sent up with all our supplies still in it.

"He's out there and he's done this!" Gally continued angrily, gesturing at me while he spoke.

Alby nodded at Gally's words, but his mind seemed elsewhere. Newt stood back from us staring blankly at the ground. It was hard for him. It was hard because I knew who he was to me. It'd taken many nights of terrible nightmares, but I finally realized our connection. He was still in the dark, dealing with the emotions and processing what he and I were, yet I knew it all. I knew he felt guilty about the incident and while I was glad he'd been the first person I saw once I woke up, his face nearly broke me.

I cringed at the thought of his pain stricken face, and I pitied the boy who I needed so much in my life. I'd brought chaos to this Glade and suffering to those who I cared about most.

Alby cleared his throat interrupting my thoughts and Gally's persistent ranting. Even Newt dared to look up from the floor and briefly met my eyes for a split second.

"The Glade has changed in these past months, even before Marie, we noticed changes." Alby said as if trying to reassure himself that this was all normal.

"This Glader is likely confused and lost, we all remember our first time coming up in the Box," Alby continued pausing slightly after the last sentence.

Newt had told me that Alby had been the very first to come up. His experience coming up in the Box was mostly likely ten times more painful than anyone's here, but still, coming up in the Box is not exactly anyone's fondest memory.  Newt never mentioned his experience coming up in the Box, and I felt it too invasive to ask.

"We will find the stranger and explain to him our ways." Alby said very matter of fact.

"You're acting like this is all very simple," Gally said whilst scowling, "This stranger is a threat and could have possibly killed Marie. He's likely the one who poisoned her!"

"Wait.." I said finally speaking up, "I thought they said it was just sleep deprivation?" I was now confused. Why would some newcomer want me dead?

"That is semi-true. You did in fact pass out because of the sleep deprivation, but there was something else." Gally said for the first time looking almost fearful.

"What?" I said, my heart pounding in my chest from the sudden change of mood.

"Grief serum," Newt replied stepping away from the shadows finally looking up at all of us.