CH. FIVE
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Zart's an alright boy. Doesn't say much as they work in the gardens, but sometimes that's nice.
Newt's here, too. He mentioned he liked the gardens before, so now he helps her weed some plants.
"Newt?"
He keeps his eyes on the plants. "Hm?"
"What's being stung?"
Then he no longer keeps his eyes on the plants and stares at her as if she said something super weird. "How do you even know about that?"
"Nick— well, his ghost or whatever mentioned it. And Camil said Gally was stung, so I'm wondering. An explanation to his grumpiness would be nice."
Newt exhales deeply. Groans a bit. "Inside The Maze, there's creatures. Grievers, we call 'em," he starts. "It's why one of the main reasons why only Runners can attend The Maze. If they don't kill you, they'll sting."
"I imagine giant wasps right now, but that's probably not it, is it?"
"No." He shakes his head. "They're... slimy, spiky, and have an enormous tail. I can't describe it well. Just that they're awful."
"Have you ever seen one?"
His Adam's apple moves. "I have."
Immediately, her back straightens, showing she's interested. "Really? So you were a Runner?"
"Were, yes," he says.
"What ha—"
"So when someone gets stung," he interrupts, "they go through The Changing. They get some memories back, but not nice ones. Barely a few have survived The Changing, too. It's a harsh, long-lasting process."
"They died during it?"
"No. They went insane after it."
Her mouth is wide open for a few seconds, her heart sinking. "Insane? How— why?"
"The memories are horrible, as I said. Most never want to leave The Glade again."
"Have you tried—"
"If we ask them about the memories and they try to reply, awful things happen. They can't say it."
Her frown deepens, so Newt continues.
"They start stranglin' theirselves. Or anything that'll stop them from saying what they want to say. It's not... them controlling their body. It's someone else," he says. "So we can't get information out of anyone who has gotten stung."
"And Gally is the only one still walking around?"
"Yes. He hasn't lost it, but still doesn't mean he's recovered. I mean, the people who got stung remember things, get hallucinations, nightmares, or are constantly grumpy. Maybe everything."
Hallucinations.
But she never got stung. Not that she remembers, at least.
"That's awful," is all she can manage, her voice suddenly cracking. "And Minho and Ben still risk their lives out there everyday? I mean, it's good that they're trying to find a way out... but aren't they... terrified?"
"Grievers usually don't show up during the day. If they do, most people make it back to The Glade unhurt before The Doors close."
Oh, right. The damn earthquake that happens at six PM and six AM. Lovely alarm.
"And they come out at night? Would you still be able to escape them? And what's The Maze like? How come it takes them so long—"
"It changes, alright?" Newt gets a bit snappier. "The walls move, just like The Doors. They're doing everything they can. Risking their lives out there everyday, so we can't complain."
"I know," she says quickly. Almost, she takes Newt's hand, but then decides not to. He looks frustrated and she has no idea how to handle it. "Sorry. I didn't mean to make it sound like I was... complaining."
"It's alright. You're good," he assures, sniffing. "Why all the interest 'bout The Maze, Greenie? Just curious or plannin' something?"
"Just curious. I don't think I want to be a Runner," she says. "I'd be peeing my pants within one step."
Newt nods in satisfaction, then gets back to work.
"How did Gally get stung?" She blurts out, though she doesn't regret asking.
The look on Newt's face does say it's a sensitive subject. "I'm not sure if it's for me to tell you that."
She nods. "Okay." And pulls out another plant to toss into a bucket.
Eventually, Newt can only hold back for three seconds before he spills it. "He saved a Greenie."
He says the words so fast that it takes a while for her to take the information in. "Really?"
"So he's not all evil, if you thought that," he adds.
She nods another time. "And then he got stung. Because The Greenie attempted to go into The Maze. Is that right?"
"That's right."
Gosh. So much information at once. And everything as awful.
Hallucinations? Mostly grumpy? That's what she's been through so far, but the grumpiness, or rather, anger, wasn't hers. Could it be possible the hallucinations aren't, either?
No. She can't be connected to Gally. It's The Creators messing with her.
❀
"You can call me Captain Gally."
"Never in my life."
Sure, sure, he has trauma, but if he's gonna demand all kind of things that have nothing to do with Building...? Nah-ah.
He narrows his eyes at her. "Listen here. If you want to get through this awful afternoon at least half decently, shucking cooperate."
"I'm not calling you Captain Gally," she spits the words out. "Can we just start?"
"Fine." He walks away in such a fast pace that she has to jog after him again, all the way to the edge of the woods.
"Are you going to murder me now?"
"Unfortunately, things will end up bad for me if I do that," he says, face emotionless but voice full of hatred. "We're need to start building your hut."
"You still haven't started?"
Come on, she gets irritated as long as he acts stupid, and then stupid comments flop out.
"We have." He points at something. "There."
She glares... whatever that is. "What's that supposed to represent? A burned down mini sauna?"
He grunts, tosses wood in her arms so hard that she nearly falls over, and walks to the mini sauna. "You're going to hand me the wood so I can stack it into your cute little hut, yeah?"
"How's that gonna make me build? What're you gonna tell them in The Gathering if all I did was hand you wood?"
He gives her a nasty glare. "Your wrist is bandaged. What do you want to do with that?"
She catches up with his walk again. "It's my left one. I can hammer with my right one. Perhaps slam it against your head."
Then Gally turns around with such force that she takes a step back, but her arm's grabbed and she's forced to look up at him, with a bare amount of space between them. "Hand. Me. The. Wood. And maybe then we'll both survive this awful thing."
"Let go," she says. "If you think you can go ahead and touch me like that, rethink it because if you don't let go right now—"
He lets go. "Don't complain and get to work. Sure other Keepers love the sparks flying off Glade Princess, but here, you'll be treated just like other Greenies."
Irritation rises in her chest. "You take every Greenie by the arm with like three inches of space between you two?"
He tenses up. "Just hand me the shuck wood, or it's gonna seem like Glade Princess wants to sleep in Newt's hut all the time."
"Don't even start with the Glade Princess." She tosses a piece of wood at him as hard as she can, but he smoothly catches it and gets to work.
Bored, the girl sits down on a tree trunk.
"That's where the boys pee on."
And she's off it faster than light.
But according to the amused look in Gally's eyes, it was a joke. She sits back down on the edge, resting her chin on her palm. Ten minutes later, she's literally kicking the wood toward Gally when he asks for it, the boredom eating her insides.
"Can't I do something else?" She sighs. Her back's starting to hurt from sitting like this, too. And her thoughts only make her crazy. "Hand me a hammer."
"No."
She gets up and takes a hammer. Holds it, testing the weight as she twists it around in her hand, and then looks back at Gally. "I understand those buildings look like shit now. This hammer doesn't even have proper grip."
"Well, you won't have to hold it, so it can't bother you." He pulls the thing out of her hand. "Sit back down."
"No." The supplies that lie on the ground look pretty interesting. "An axe, hm?"
"To cut the wood," he groans.
"Can I do that?"
"No."
A sigh and she takes something else. "A saw. Yet the wood's always cut unevenly."
"I have a lot of things to build. Haven't got time to do everything perfectly." He also takes this out of her hand, even when she tries to take it back, and once again commands she sits down.
"Let me do something else," she repeats.
Annoyed, he shoots her a look. "If you want to help that badly, go make sure those other shanks don't get nails in their hands."
"Sure. I'll blame you if anything happens, though."
"As if anyone would believe you."
She rolls her eyes at him and walks to The Med-Hut, where most Builders are adding extra wood to so that hut will be expanded.
Apparently more kids are getting hurt through the time?
"Reassuring," she mumbles, and takes a hammer in her hand with her anger toward Gally still there, then walks over to the boys. "Hi. Is Gally always this annoying? So yes, mind if I help y'all here? So no, can I still help?"
"Sure."
"Girls can't help here."
"Yeah, you can help."
"Go back to Gally, Greenie."
"Listen to The Keeper."
There's a lot of answers, but she only turns to the boy who said something about her gender. "Excuse you?"
"Girls can't help here," he says just as casually as before. The small bit of anger rises to a whole different level. "Go do the laundry. Perhaps go to the kitchen or somethin'. Cut us some nice food."
"Sure, I'll chop your thing off," she snaps. "Wait, woah. Guys..."
One of them takes a step closer, concerned. "Everything alright?"
"Woah." She rests a hand on her forehead. "I think I just got hit with the fact that... that I won't even be able to cut his thing off because it's so fucking tiny and—"
"Let's not fight here, guys."
But the boy's disgusting face has grown full with anger. "Think you can immediately go around and insult everyone while you're The Greenie?"
She lifts her hand, but the boy beside her stops her. "Guys, let's really not."
"He's ashamed already." The boy pouts. "Knowing you won't even hit right— OW!"
"Not hit right?" The anger consumes. She tries to pull the stumbling boy back to give another punch, but she's already pulled back by some others. "I'll get you, you assh—"
"Greenie, Doug, that's enough."
Everyone seems to stop moving at Gally's voice for a second, then the yells start.
"She punched me!"
"He's a sexist!"
"We didn't do anything!"
"I tried to stop them!"
Ridiculous how all those boys get that defensive. She for sure appreciates the one who said Doug is a sexist, but still... ridiculous.
"Greenie?" Gally raises his eyebrows, clearly doing his best to hide his anger. "Mind explaining?"
She huffs. "This piece of fucking sh—"
"Calm the anger issues down before you speak."
"Oh, you're saying I got the anger issues here?" She steps forward again, her fists balling. "Well, you're the one who—"
Gally's not affected. "Get back to our work before I call Alby and you can spend another lonely night in The Slammer. I won't bother doing it." Then he looks at the other Builders. "You lot, too!"
With crossed arms, she stumps back to her unmade hut and start repeating whatever movements Gally was doing before.
"You're ruining my work," he snaps.
"You're ruining my day," she snaps back. "I had it handled!"
"Kids were holdin' you." He takes the hammer from her, which is like the millionth time this day. "I don't call that handling stuff."
"Yeah. Then how do you handle fights, hm?" She pulls back at the hammer, but his grip is too strong. "Give me that damn thing, Gally!"
"How I handle fights has nothing to do with this. Let go of the hammer and continue handing me the wood, Joan."
She is about to protest, but then her mouth falls open, her eyes widening. "What?"
"What?"
"You just called me a name."
"Yeah, isn't that your—" he stops abruptly. Shakes his head. "Never mind."
But it feels right. Joan. Must really belong to her.
"For how long have you known my name?" She urges. "Or did it just flop out?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know?" She throws her head back in frustration, annoyance, and everything at once. "I guess that means you just flopped it out. Well, thanks a lot for the info, Gally."
He places wood in her hands. "Get to work. I don't care if it's your name or not. That's not what we're here for. Neither are we here for punching people."
"Yeah, what about the times in the ring? You're punching kids all the time—"
"Glad I'm your stereotype, but shut the hell up and work."
Murmuring protests under her breath, she sits down on the tree trunk. Throws a piece of wood at him, which he catches, barely looking. "This sucks."
"Perhaps if you caused a little less trouble, I would've given you another job."
"You wouldn't have."
"True," he admits immediately. A sigh leaves Joan's mouth. "Especially because I don't trust you in the slightest."
"I don't trust you, either. Bother explain why you don't trust me, though?"
"Yes."
Did she do something in the past? Does he just not want to tell her or is that strangling issue Newt spoke about? What did she do?
She exhales again. "Can I—"
"Tape your mouth closed? Yes, please."
"Hey! I'm trying to do something useful and all you let me do is... nothing! Taking wood is something you don't need me for."
"Well, leave, then."
She jumps up. "Sure."
"Wait, no. Don't leave. Alby's gonna get pissed, especially if he finds out I already let you go," he says, the annoyance dripping off his voice. "But I wouldn't have minded."
"I wouldn't have, either."
"I'm glad we can agree on that."
"So glad." As she walks back to her place her shoe, very accidentally, hits his back.
Gally grunts. "You mind? I'm trying to work here."
"My apologies, Captain Gally," she mimics, just good enough to make the nickname sound even more stupid.
"Listen here, Greenie," and boom, he's angry again. Well, did he ever stop being angry? It's basically his whole spirit!
He towers over her another time. "One more hour until dinner. Cause any more problems and I'll personally make sure— don't even try."
He has her fist grabbed. Annoying dickhe—
"Violence ain't the answer to every livin' thing."
Joan pulls a face, her eyebrow furrowing and lips pressed together. "Look who it says!" She throws her free hand in the air, which hurts her bruises wrist, and she hisses, "Fucking piece of shit," at it.
"Neither is cursing."
"You, shut your mouth, asshole." She pulls away from his grip. Loads of anger that does belong to her, this time. "Let me live."
"As long as I'm not involved, sure. But so far, I'm pretty much involved."
"Then don't get involved." Through her furrowed eyebrows, she stares at him. "Can I go to the bathroom?"
Suspiciously, he tilts his head. "You can hold it for an hour."
"No. I need to go to the bathroom."
"And cause more trouble?"
"Oh, yeah sure. Me pissing is gonna cause a lot of problems, Gally. Just let me go, you shitting—"
He sighs, waving her away with his hand. "Fine. But make it quick."
She mimics his words as she walks away, sick of this day.