I can't shucking believe this. I'm actually in the maze. The maze that I've been told to stay out of. But now here I am. Running in it with Minho and the other gladers.
Completely in awe of the architect as well as the ivy vines that stayed on the walls. I can't help but slow my pace and let out a faint smile. Despite the fact for being known as a place no one wants to stay in for the night. It was breathtakingly beautiful during daylight.
"Keep up lazy daisy! We don't have all day!"
Snapped out of my senses I noticed I was behind the group a bit (who stopped in their tracks for me to catch up) I quickly ran up.
"Sorry! Coming!"
We continued our journey. A few minutes later, we stopped at a wall that looked liked it crushed something. Some sort of mechanical spider-like leg? I think that's what it is. It was sticking out of the wall and below it, was a bunch of slimy guts splattered out on the floor. That must be the dead griever they were talking about.
"That's disgusting." Zart spoke up. My thoughts exactly. The griever got crushed real good I kind of feel bad for it.
"Hey I think there's something in there." Thomas pointed out at the flashing red light in the gap of the wall. It kept letting out a repeated beeping sound. Minho slowly approached the wall and started putting his whole arm into the gap.
"Whoa whoa whoa wait what are you doing?" I asked, looking at him as if he was crazy. Minho just looked at me, not answering, and went back to focus on getting whatever is in there.
Suddenly, a short mechanical roar came out and the leg moved a bit, causing all of us to jump back a bit.
"I thought you said it was dead?!" Frypan called out.
"Was it reflex?"
"You hope." Winston replied to Zart.
I proceeded to just calm myself down silently for what just happened. Letting out a long breath before Thomas spoke up.
"Come on, let's try and pull it out."
With his command we immediately grabbed a hold of the leg and pulled with all our strength.
A few seconds later, some of us fell down and landed on our butts after finally pulling it out of the gap. Including me.
"You good Flora?" Winston held out a hand to me which I gratefully took and he pulled me up. "Yeah. Thanks Winston." Brushing some dust off myself I focused back on the now pulled out leg on the floor which was littered with more guts and slime.
Minho picked up some cocoon like organ with his bare hands, observing it a bit before shoving his hand inside to get whatever was beeping in it out of that thing. And of course some of us let out some sounds of disgust when he took it out (which by the way was covered in more slimy stuff) and dropped the remaining guts to the floor.
He was holding some kind of cylinder object with some wires sticking out of it's end, very obvious that it was man made. Probably from the creators. On the object, letters were printed on it.
W | C | K | D
"What the hell is that?" Thomas blurted out.
"Interesting..." Minho commented as he looked at the object in his hand. Ignoring Thomas's question.
"Okay whatever it is, can we take this up back at the glade, cause I don't want to meet this guy's friends." Frypan said with concern and slight fear. Minho looked around for a moment before nodding. "You're right. It's getting late. Let's go."
_________________________________________
Arriving back at the glade with the rest. Chuck ran up to us, completely out of breath and a bit panicked.
"Chuck what's wrong, what happened?" I asked.
Taking a big breath in and out, he managed to say what he needed to say
"Gally found out you guys left."
Shoot. Then he probably knows that I was with them too. This is going to a long day.
"He called a meeting of the Keepers, everyone is at council hall." Chuck pointed at the crowd gathering outside the hall.
I noticed Minho looking a bit pissed off when he found out and proceeded to stomp his way to the hall, me and the rest of the group following behind.
Minho pushed the door of the council hall with force, surprising the rest of the Keepers who were already in there. Gally was the first to speak up.
"How nice of you to join us. You guys enjoyed your little field trip?" His eyes landed on me for moment with an icy glare. Pretty sure I'm about to get an earful from him after this.
"What the hell Gally? You think you can call a Keeper meeting without us?" Minho said. Clearly not happy.
"Last time I checked, the greenie wasn't a Keeper, you mind waiting outside? Flora as well." Gally commented. Completely irritated. I just furrowed my brows and scoffed. I get where he's coming from, but this is starting to get out of hand. "Come on Thomas." I mumbled out, preparing to leave the hall with him.
"They both stay!"
Me and Thomas turned to Minho. Okay, I did not expect that. He said it without hesitation at all. I couldn't help but let out a faint grin to him when he said that. Gally was silent. But his expression shows that he was definitely not fond of what Minho just said.
"What's the point of all this?" Minho continued. Ignoring Gally's gaze.
Newt looked at all of us. Nervousness shown on his face. He let out a sigh. "We've got two hours til sundown. We've got to figure out what to do with Alby."
"You wanna banish him?" Winston spoke up. My face darkened at the thought of it. I looked at Gally, who was already looking at me as well before moving on.
"No. No one wants to banish anyone alright? But he's stung, we don't have a choice." He said with a reasonable tone. His temper gone for a moment.
"Yes we do." It was Thomas's turn to speak up, he was clearly determined and sure of his words. Gally's hot-headed temper made it's return once more. "You say something newbie?"
I am not okay with Gally's attitude today, I've dealt with his behavior a lot of times but not this one, he's really acting like an actual slinthead right now. What is his problem with Thomas?
"Oh for shuck's sake, can you please shut up and listen to him for a second?" Interrupting the conversation. My nostrils flaring as I stared him down. He opened his mouth to say something but I cut him off
"Please Gally..." I said, this time more softer and less irritated than before. He sighed and clenched his jaw for a second before pressing his lips together into a firm line. I think he got the sign.
Clearing the awkward tension that just happened. Thomas grabbed the metal object in Minho's grasp and handed it to Newt.
"We found this on our little field trip." He said emphasizing on the last two words "It was inside a griever."
"These are the same letters that we get on our supplies." Newt pointed out, looking at the object.
"Exactly, whoever put us here obviously made the grievers." He paused "Now this is the first real clue-the first anything you've found in over three years, right Minho?" He asked, turning to him. Minho looked at Thomas for a moment before answering. "Right."
"Newt, we gotta go back out there. Who knows where this might lead us?" He finished.
Hearing his explanation, I have to agree with him. My gaze shifted to Gally, whose expression is unreadable at the moment as he looked at Newt. But for me, I was really hoping he now had a bit of understanding after hearing Thomas out. Gally glanced back and forth between Thomas and me and back to Newt.
"You see what he's trying to do right? First he breaks our rules and then he tries to convince us to abandon them totally? Wha- the rules are the only thing that have ever held us together, why now are we questioning that?! If Alby was here, you'd know he'd agree with me." He said with arms crossed. "This shank" he gestured at Thomas "Needs to be punished."
I could only frown a bit at his response. He's scared. I can tell. He's always been someone who was scared of change, esecially when it comes to the rules or anything that was out of the ordinary from our daily routine in the glade.
Newt could only sigh. Thinking for a moment as to what to do. He gave the object in his hand back to Minho.
"He's right. Thomas broke the rules." Gally nodded in agreement with his statement. Newt continued.
"One night in the pit and no food."
"Oh come on! One night in the pit? You think that's gonna stop him from going into the maze?" Gally commented, no longer caring what the others will think about his opinion. I glanced at Newt with an apolegetic expression. I didn't think he'd just go off at him like that.
"No." Newt just blinked, completely unphased at Gally's outburst "And we can't just have non-runners running into the maze whenever they feel like it." Everyone was now a bit confused after hearing that part. What is he trying to convey?
"So let's just make this official. Starting from tomorrow. You're a runner." He said to Thomas, who was surprised at his sudden announcement. Me and everyone else couldn't help but let out a faint grin as a way to congratulate him. Everyone except Gally. My grin quickly went back to a frown.
"Wow.." He shook his head in disappointment and immediately started heading towards the door to leave.
"Gally-"
"No, Fry!" He lightly slapped Frypan's hand away as he left. Frypan was about to go after Gally but I stopped him. Shaking my head.
"I'll...I'll go talk to him." I gave a slight nod to everyone before leaving the council hall. Why am I suddenly pitying him now? As much as I find it a bit ridiculous that he wasn't satisfied with the results at the end. I can't help but feel bad. I didn't think the situation would turn out to that. I quickly ran after him, calling out his name.
"Gally!"