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The next morning Thomas was woken up by Alby. The jet black haired boy confused to find the older one leaning over his hammock as he said something Thomas couldn't quite make out until the second time around.
"Thomas. Follow me."
And so with groggy movements he followed him, making sure to be quiet considering no one seemed to be awake at the time. This also meant it was quiet as they walked through the glade.
"It's peaceful, isn't it?" Alby spoke rather proudly. Though the pride he felt seemed to disappear rather quickly as his voice turned melancholy when he continued. "I know it's hard to believe, but it wasn't always this way." He paused as he watched the boy beside him.
"We had dark days. We lost a lot of boys to fear. To panic."
"We've come far since then. Established order... made peace." Alby told him as they reached the stone wall with everyone's name engraved into it.
"Yeah. Why are you telling me this?" Thomas asked him
"Because you're not like the others. You're curious. But you're one of us now." Alby told him, handing him the knife that everyone else had used for the same wall.
"You need to know what that means."
Thomas turned to the wall, eyes flickering across the names one by one only to land on Riley's for a moment too long before his gaze moved to another name beside hers, Maia. But Maia's name had a line crossed through it.
"What happened to them?" Thomas questioned as he pointed to one of the names that, like Maia's, had been crossed out.
"Like I said... dark days, Thomas."
Thomas was quiet as he moved closer to Maia's name. A little heart was carved into the wall underneath it, it was slightly crooked.
"Who's Maia?" Thomas asked him carefully, not too sure if he was crossing a line or not by asking. And by the look on Alby's face he was sure he had and as he went to apologize, Alby cut him off.
"Riley wasn't always the only girl, Maia had come up in the box a month after her." Alby told him, pausing for a few seconds before adding. "We lost her too."
