Newt's POV:
He was only gone for roughly 30 seconds, when I heard a shattering scream. My head immediately jolted upwards, scattering my eye line to the forest to find the origin of the noise.
I saw the newbie race out of the green horizon, being chased by a distorted figure, thrashing through the air as if in pain.
I dropped my trowel to the ground as my feet started to pick up behind me. I sprinted to the two, still confused as to what was going on.
"HELP!" Thomas bellowed as more Gladers around us started to realise what was happening. I grabbed the shovel I noticed lying conveniently on the floor and dragged it up to the boy's chin, colliding it with his jaw as he yelped in pain. At that moment I realised who Tom's attacker was.
It was Ben.
He fell to the floor just as others around me helped me hold him down.
"What are you doing Ben?!" I yelled, trying to contain the anger and confusion in my lungs. He squirmed, relentlessly trying to escape our grip as we held him down, but there were too many of us. He was outnumbered.
After a few seconds, his body relaxed slightly as he realised there was no way he would be able to manoeuvre his way out of our clutch. His shirt tugged up slightly to reveal a purple haze resting on his lower abdomen. Alby noticed and shot his eyes at Ben's, clearly frightened. "Pull up his shirt." He demanded as Ben started to freak out again.
"NO. DON'T." He spat in return, trying to stop us from seeing whatever he was hiding. Alby took his right hand and lifted his shirt up to his chest just as his left hand continued to hold him down. The bystanders gathered around us gasped in unison as they all rested their eyes on his oozing wound.
The boy had been stung. Badly.
Alby looked stunned. Almost frozen in time, before snapping back to reality and taking charge again. "Take him to the pit." he ordered, looking over at the Med-Jacks.
"NO don't Alby please," The boy begged as Alby looked away, not wanting to see any more of his desperation. Clint and Jeff heaved Ben to his feet as his once empathetic face turned sour again.
"IT'S HIS FAULT WE'RE HERE; HE'S GOING TO GET US KILLED!" he screamed at us as he was being dragged away. My eyes flicked to Alby, searching for a look of reassurance and was instead met with eyes of fear and confusion.
Thomas spoke up quietly "Thanks guys, I don't know what happened, he just went nuts." He said, shrugging his shoulders. I looked over to the direction of Ben again, seeing how he was barely putting up a fight anymore. I turned back to Alby and Thomas again, about to ask a question when Alby interrupted me.
"What the hell happened out there green-bean? There was no way that shank would attack you like that without a reason." He explained.
He was right, I had known Ben for six months now and I had never known him to do something like that - then again, he had been stung. Thomas looked sincere as he answered, "I don't know, he just went mental and started yelling at me that this was all my fault." He said, clearly still slightly flustered from what had just happened. "But how could this be my fault? I can't remember a thing, just like the rest of you." He looked disheartened and confused, and to be honest I couldn't really blame him.
He had been here all of one day and already Gally had winded him and Ben had violently attacked him. Out of all of us he seemed to have the worst luck.
"I have no idea why he said any of that, but there must be a reason why he said it, why he looked so angry and scared." Alby responded, trying to be as calm as he could after what just happened.
"Look Tommy why don't you grab some food and-" I was suddenly interrupted again by a loud noise. Cogs turning and gears screeching, as an echoing sound erupted from underneath us.
The box. It was coming back up.
"What the-" Alby began to say, clearly just as surprised as the rest of us. He looked at me, then at Thomas and then straight back at the box. Without even saying anything, we all rushed over the box entrance as it began to stop. I reached it first and scrambled to the opening.
No one attempted to open it, they just stared, completely shocked. Why are we getting another Glader the day after we received our monthly one? Something was definitely wrong.
Alby signaled for me to open it, so I did.
Moving quickly to the bars to prize the box open, everyone anxiously waiting to see what the creators had brought us as an unscheduled gift. I pulled the doors open and hopped inside the box as my eyes landed on something rather peculiar. I stood back for a second, confused as I looked up at the others in shock.
"What is it Newt?" Gally asked, just as curious as the others.
"It's a girl."