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THE OFFICIAL TOUR BEGAN the next day at dawn. An older boy, who identified himself as Alby was instructed to wake the greenie, despite him barely sleeping all night.
"Mornin' Greenie." He said, a slight smile on his face.
Atlas looked up above himself at the lightening sky. Orange, red and blue hues mixed together in a swirl of color as the sun began crawling its way over the clouds.
Hauling him up by the shoulder, Atlas was forced to sit up by Alby.
"C'mon Greenie, time for your tour around 'ere." He said.
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they began at the west corner of the grassy area. There was a blueprint of a small shed, with wooden beams marking out the plan of it.
"Thats the builders territory. This is where the meatheads spend their days—building." Alby said, pointing a finger to them.
A boy with a stocky build came up. Nodding at Alby and sending a small smile to Atlas.
"Alby. Greenie." He says.
Ally clapped a strong hand on the other boys shoulder.
"Gally, Atlas. Atlas, Gally." He said. Gally stuck a hand out.
"Keeper of the builders." He said with a small smile. Atlas took his hand and shook it.
"Greenie. Keeper of—well, nothing." He said, and Gally chuckled.
A distant 'C'mon man!' could be heard, and gally whipped his head around.
"Slim it!" he said, before nodding at Atlas once again and running off.
"Slim—it?" He said, turning to Alby.
"Some weird slang Nick came up with a few weeks ago. Lots of people are trying it out. Follow me, let's show you to the Bloodhouse."
When they arrived at the bloodhouse, Atlas almost vomited. The smell of animal blood was genuinely disgusting and he never wanted to touch meat again.
A boy with fluffy black hair swung down a large knife onto butchered meat. Atlas pulled his shirt over his nose and mouth.
"Oh my god. What is that?" he said, gagging. Alby laughed, a light-hearted teasing laugh.
"That is the meat Frypan serves to us in the kitchen. And that, is Winston. He's one of the slicers here."
Upon hearing his name, Winston sent up a bloodied hand, waving, before returning to his butchered animal meat.
"Here, is where the Breeders and Slicers raise and kill the animals. Then, it gets sent to Frypan in the kitchens."
Alby looked over at Atlas, seeing his face basically turn a shade of green.
"I can tell you might not be that good at this job. C'mon, let's head to the kitchens."
Luckily for him, when they arrived, Frypan wasn't frying up any butchered pig meat.
Scanning around the small room, there were tables and such, along with a small room in the back, presumably to cook things.
Nick was in the back, talking to Frypan as he tossed salad on a countertop.
"Fry! meet the greenie!" Alby said, pushing Atlas forward a bit.
He stumbled a bit, feeling hands wrap around his upper arms. He looked up, seeing nick.
"Hey Nick." He said, tip of his ears red.
"Hey, Greenie."
Clearing his throat, he stepped out of Nick's embrace, looking at Frypan.
"Quite a show, Greenbean." Frypan said. Alby chuckled.
"Well, i'll leave him with you." He said, before turning and exiting the small building.
Atlas pushed past Nick. "Not a word."
Atlas held out a hand for Frypan to shake.
"Atlas, greenie, apparently an idiot." He said, looking back at Nick who merely smiled at him.
Frypan took his hand, lightly shaking it.
"Frypan, cook, not an idiot."
Atlas smiled at him.
☀︎︎☀︎︎☀︎︎
Their next stop, was the towering maze walls. Made entirely of stone, slightly crumbling, with Ivy vines hanging down all around it.
"Those, are the maze walls. Straightforward, don't go in them. It's dangerous." Nick said. Atlas looked up, feeling nauseous. It gave him vertigo, and were vaguely familiar. He didn't tell Nick that.
"Whats—in it?" He said, stepping a bit forward. Nick pushed him back by the shoulder, standing in front of him, obscuring his view.
"The less you know, the better. Now, come on, I wanna explain something to you."
They arrived at the same tower Nick had brought him up yesterday, and they climbed it to the top.
"We have this—sort of thing in development. We just have the new greenie of the month try out different jobs, and then decide at the end of the week." Nick said, overlooking the grassy area.
There were builders in the corner building the small shed Atlas saw earlier, seeing Gally shout something at them and then getting handed something.
"We did it last month and it worked pretty well." He said. Atlas nodded.
"We begin tomorrow. I suppose you get the rest of the day off. Go do something—fun." He said, and Atlas nodded. He climbed down from the tower and began walking around, aimlessly.
One thing that he noticed, was that his gaze kept returning to the chilling maze walls, and the warning Nick had given him.
