I stumbled up the stairs of the homestead.
God my leg.
Gosh my head.
Goodness my life.
I knocked on the second door on the left. The door opened to reveal Victoria and Jeff. Honestly, I don't even know why I came here. I guess I only came because I didn't know what else to do. I thought Alby and Nick would have told me all of this stuff during the tour. But apparently not.
I actually wanted to sleep, but despite the assumed late hour, all of the gladers seemed to be up and awake. Are these people invincible, like I've never seen them sleep.
"Well I guess that whole 'on-your-own-strong-independent-woman-thing' obviously didn't work out for you." Victoria said laughing at my appearance. After my weird, yet comforting talk with Newt, I had to walk all the way back through the deadheads. Which by the way, is a lot harder to do without adrenaline.
"Very funny." I mumbled, closing the door behind me.
"How's your leg newbie? I heard about your great escape earlier." Jeff chuckled.
"My leg? Yah it really hurts, thanks for the meds this morning." I plopped down onto the bed, "What am I supposed to do now?"
"Technically you can get a hammock and sleep in the same area as everyone else, but if you're really hurting we can let you stay here one more time." Jeff gave me a small smile.
"Then what?" I asked, wanting his reply to be 'nothing'. I really really want the answer to be nothing.
"Then you work and live like the rest of us." Victoria's eye's flicked over to me and then back out the window, "Any idea whatcha' plan on choosing for a job?"
"Don't know, don't care."
"Come on, you must have a preference."
"I barely know the difference between sloppers and runners." Jeff and Victoria both turned to face me, "I'm joking. I know the difference," They turned back around, "Kind of."
"I could see you as a gardener." Jeff said, as he scribbled something on a piece of paper.
"Or as a cook."
"Maybe even a bagger!" I shouted with a fake smile.
"Do you actually know what a bagger does?" Victoria asked me.
"Maybe."
"Did you even listen to Nick and Alby?" Jeff asked, with a weird belittling tone to his voice.
"No." I muttered, rolling my eyes, "Listening to someone else's orders, isn't one of my specialties. Sorry."
"You literally beg to be hated by Nick." Victoria laughed throwing a balled up wad of paper at me. She missed.
"Don't even get me started on him." I said, glancing out the open window.
"Don't talk too loudly," Jeff said as he held a finger up to quiet me, "Nick sleeps at the end of this hall."
"He gets to sleep inside?"
"Course. His glade, his rules. Only medjacks, the sick, and the leaders sleepin' indoors."
"I'm shocked Nick even lets Alby have his own bed." Victoria said.
"Why does everyone listen to Nick? What makes him above any of us?" I asked the question that had been floating in the back of my mind since I woke up in the box.
"Well first off, he's our leader. And second, he's been here the longest. He's the buggin' smartest one here." Victoria answered as she pulled her hair up into an elastic.
"You sure about that? Wisdom doesn't always come with age." I said sarcastically. There was no way Nick was the smartest. I mean, the kid barely knew how to speak correctly. Nobody here spoke correctly.
"Go to sleep, shuckface. You have work tomorrow."
"I do? Since when?"
"Since about 2 o'clock when Alby told you, ya' did."
"Like, legit? I have to work tomorrow?" Are you kidding me? I am having a midlife, give or take a few years, crisis. I don't have time for work.
"Yah, Alby'll be here in the morning to take you to the blood house."
"The blood house." I whined, dreading tomorrow already.
I won't be there for long. That I know for sure. I listened to the tour just long enough to know that killing animals didn't really appeal to me.
"You're gonna work a day with each keeper-"
"Yah, yah, and by the end of the week one of the jobs will just stick with me." I recited the same thing Alby told me earlier.
"They always do." Me and Jeff said this at the same time.
"Oh, the newbie speeches." Victoria chuckled laying back in her bed, "Alby should really revamp them."
"Haha, but then Gally would get offended. He likes everything to always stay the same."
I kind of dropped out of the conversation as Jeff and Victoria became invested in a full on debate about whether some Gally kid was stronger than Nick.
Today was horrible.
Absolutely horrific.
I can't even begin to think about living here for the rest of my life. Like, how do these people survive?
Between Nick's power trip and the heat and the work, how do the gladers even cope?
This place just wasn't normal.
How could it be hot, yet there be no sun, anywhere in the sky?
How do the walls around this place just automatically close at the same time every night?
And how the heck is it that nobody has ever found a way to leave?
I mean, I'm not a genius, not even close without my memory, but I know enough. This glade isn't normal. This isn't just 'how I'm supposed to live.'
It didn't matter how many times Nick or Alby, or Victoria and Jeff, or even Newt told me that I was sent here to live out my life. I know that this isn't everything. It can't be.
I sighed rolling over in the bed, so that I faced the wall. I thought back to my chat with Newt earlier.
That wasn't normal either.
I mean I hate people. Especially the people here. But for some reason talking to Newt felt familiar and nice. I don't know how or why, but it did. I had this irregular urge to tell him all of my thoughts. Since when am I that open with people?
Everything that had happened today just reestablished the fact that I didn't belong here.
And then that dream. What the heck was that? Was that a legit dream or a flashback?
If it was real then, who's Thomas? Who's Teresa? Better question, why were they talking to me about Newt?
I yawned. My life seemed to be a never ending spiral of unanswered questions. Questions that I hoped would eventually receive a positive answer.
~~~~~~
~~~Author's Notes~~~
Helloooo to all of the lovely people reading this! I am so sorry for my lack of updating, like y'all don't even know. Every part of my day is dedicated to school. I have no time. So I just like ughhhh.
BUT hi!!! I just need to make a statement that I should have made a long time ago: Thank you to everyone who is voting/commenting on my story. Whenever I get a notification, it makes me so happy! Like people are actually taking time to read this?! I'm beyond blown away *thats a weird phrase* by the feedback on To Love. So ily guys! I read and see every single comment *I sound really creepy, like ignore that please lol.*
SO YAH, Tbh: I feel like Brianne is really whiny in this chapter, I don't know, don't judge, she's just an emotional wreck. She's had a rough couple of days. But don't worry she'll be back to her usual sassy self in the next chapter.
Haha, ANYWAY, ILY ALL and I will talk to y'all in the next chapter.