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[ Chapter 3 ]
❛Tour time with Hope❜
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AMARA COULDN'T DENY IT, the Glade truly was beautiful, even if they were stuck there for what she presumed would be the rest of their lives... so a long time.
As Hope guided her to the place where he deemed the place where every tour should start, after learning the dark secrets of what lurks in the maze, she couldn't help her eyes from admiring her surroundings.
The bright, green grass they were currently treading on, was shining underneath the bright suns rays, stretching out to cover the entirety of the vast courtyard. She only now realised how big the glade truly was since she wasn't able to make out her surroundings properly when it was dark. The Gladers who were quite a far distance away, appeared small to her.
The four enormous stone walls, surrounded them from all directions. They towered above her, only making her feel smaller than she already was within the large Glade.
She distinctly remembered when she witnessed the walls open up earlier. The earth grumbled and shook from the sheer mass of the walls as they parted - revealing four large gateways leading into the darkness of the maze... the gateways where Jay and his 'runner friends' had disappeared into not long ago.
Swallowing down the nerves she felt building up for Jay and the other boys that had ran into the maze, Amara took in a huge breath, loving the feeling of the fresh air entering her lungs. The smell of the sweet earth calmed her senses, the wind dancing through her hair as herself and Hope reaches their first destination.
"Right." Hope claps his hands together. Amara quickly realised they were standing back at the place where she arrived - the box.
"This here's the box. Once a month, we get a newbie like you, usually never fails. But then you came two weeks early... and in the middle of the night." Hope scratched at his hair, still appearing confused at the abnormal event, before shaking his head and continuing on.
"Once a week we get supplies, clothes, some food - even animals at times." He chuckles. "We don't know jack about the box, get me? Where it came from, how it gets here, who's in charge. The shanks that sent us here ain't told us nothin'. We got all the electricity we need, grow and raise most of our food, get clothes and such..."
Amara let out an 'ohhh' sound when he explained about the electricity. She did wander how they have electricity in what could be the middle of nowhere, however she figured anything's possible in a place which delivers kids in a metal box, stealing their memories while they're at it.
"Tried to send a slinthead greenie back in the box one time - thing wouldn't move till we took him out." Hope revealed, answering her unspoken question.
She felt a mixture of emotions about this place - curiosity, fascination, wonder... fear - she felt it all. She was pulled out her thoughts when Hope turns and opens his arms wide, gesturing to their surroundings.
"You should know, Glades split up into four sections." He held up his fingers as he counted off the next four words. "Gardens, Blood House, Homestead, Deadheads. Clear?"
Amara simply blinked at him, two out of those four words sounded foreign to her. What type of name was Deadhead? Or Blood House? It sounded like something sketchy to her and she didn't like it one bit.
"I understand, it's a lot to take in when you've only been here less than a day." He smiled in understanding before pointing to the northeast.
"Gardens - where we grow the crops. Waters pumped through pipes in the ground, always has been. Without all this, we'd have died a long time ago. Never rains here. Never." Her eyes widened at that - how could it never rain?
Hope then turns their attention to the southeast corner. "That's the Blood House - where we raise and slaughter the animals." He pointed at the pitiful creatures. Amara knew if they were to survive, they'd need food, but it saddened her knowing they're only being raised for slaughter.
Hope then turned to point his finger at the pitiful living quarters where they slept last night. "Homestead - place is twice as big than when we first got here because we keep addin' to it when they send us wood and klunk. Ain't the prettiest, but it works. Most of us sleep outside anyways - except the keepers and me and Joon of course."
Too many questions where swirling through her useless mind, but she felt if she were to ask them all, then she'd end up in the pens with the animals - ready to be slaughtered.
Last but not least, Hope had his finger pointed in the southwest corner, right at the area filled with trees forming a small forest. "That's the Dead Head. See the thicker part of the woods, Graveyards back-"
"Wait did you just say graveyard?! Why on earth is there a graveyard? I bloody hope you mean it's a graveyard for the animals and not what I think you're talking about!" The boys eyes widened at her outburst, however he wasn't gonna sugarcoat it.
"It's exactly what I'm talkin' about. Ain't much else, ya can go and sit there to rest or whatever, hang out maybe." He cleared his throat. It was clear he felt uncomfortable talking about it - Amara didn't want to pry. She felt it was too soon for that.
"You'll spend the next week or so, workin' one day each for our different job keepers - until we know what you're best at. Slopper, Slicer, Bricknick, Bagger, Track-hoe - somethin'll click, always does." He informs her.
Hope began to walk back towards the Homestead it seemed, Amara didn't realise until he got quite a bit ahead so she jogged to catch herself up. What she did realise though as Hope walked in front of her, was his slight limp.
She wondered how he had gotten it, maybe he was born with it? Or maybe something had happened whilst he was here in the glade. She felt rude to ask him though, maybe it was something he didn't like people noticing or talking about.
As they walked past the Blood head, Amara turned her nose up at the horrid stench of dirt and manure coming from the animals pens - it seemed even Hope wasn't used to the horrid stench either and he had been here a lot longer.
However, she couldn't help but look at the adorable animals. She watched as the cows mindlessly chewed at the long grass inside their pens, whilst the pigs seemed to be enjoying bathing themselves in a pool of mud. Another pen held sheep, them too just munching away at the grass. There were also chicken coops and turkeys cages standing near each other. Workers bustled around the area, working as if they'd worked on a farm all their life.
Amara wondered how she remembered animals, it was as if everything but her own, private life had been sucked from her brain and thrown into space, leaving her mind a blank canvas and it seems the Glade is the paint to start afresh, paint a new life.
Hope pointed to a large red barn behind the animals pens as they walked past. "That there's where the animals are slaughtered, were the slicers work. Nasty place." He informed her. "If you ain't squeamish with blood, might be a job for ya."
Amara instantly cringed at the thought of killing animals, that didn't entice her in the slightest. Hope took her silence as an answer, turning back to see her face of disgust making him laugh.
"Maybe slicers not for you then, good that." He chuckled whilst continuing on his way.
As the two neared the homestead, Amara caught sight of a familiar face glaring at her from the distance, watching her like a hawk. She narrowed her eyes at him, checking she wasn't seeing things, but she wasn't. There the familiar figure of Gally stood, his eyes hooked on her as if expecting her to pull out a knife and charge at someone. It seemed he left his pals to build what looked like a bed, her bed, whilst he watched her suspiciously instead.
Shaking away the irking feeling of his eyes on her, she was quick to see they head reached the homestead. Just in time to see a small, young and chubby boy emerge from round the back of it, his expression tired, but it immediately brightened when he laid eyes on the girl.
"A'right Chuck?" Hope smiled at the young boy, ruffling up his big curly hair with his hand making the boy groan as he pushed it away.
Amara smiles warmly at the sweet interaction. "This here is chuck, finest slopper around here." Hope introduced Amara to the young boy, extremely young boy in fact. She guessed he must of only been thirteen or fourteen years old, much younger than everyone else here.
"Hi!" He smiles widely at her, extending his hand out to shake with her own, however he ended up dropping all the supplies he was just carrying in his arms. He quickly apologised before crouching down to pick everything up.
Amara felt bad for the boy, so she crouched down to her knees and helped gather most of the fallen items in her arms. "Thankyou." He shares his gratitude, taking the things from out of her arms and taking a secure hold of everything this time here.
"Young chuck here was the greenie before you arrived." Hope shared. "Shanks only been here two weeks and still gettin' used to the place, let's hope it don't take you that long." He joked.
Amara watched Chuck lower his head in what she could guess was shame, embarrassment? Poor boy.
"Well we best be headin' off Amara, no doubt Joon'll be waitin' for ya. See ya later Chucky, best get back to cleaning up the place." Amara seen the boys cheeks redden at the exposure, making her heart ache even more.
Wanting to make him happier, Amara smiles kindly at him. "It was nice meeting you Chuck, I hope to see you again soon." His face lit up at her words - no one ever wanted to hang out with him usually.
"Thankyou Amara, I'll see you later then." He smiled before continuing on his way, supplies in hand. She watched him leave, a small smile on her lips from his cuteness.
She turned back to Hope, pulling the same face someone would pull if they had just seen a puppy. "Isn't he just the cutest." She cooed whilst punching Hope in the arm, shocking him.
"Umm ow!" He exclaimed, looking at her wide-eyed as he rubbed the spot, taken aback by her strength.
"Come on Hope, I thought you said Joon'll be waiting." She smirks as she walks away, however it was Hoseoks turn to smirk when he watched her suddenly stop and turn back at him... having no idea where she was supposed to be going.
"What would you do without me, huh greenie?" He remarked before leading the way towards Joon, who would no doubt have her head for being late.
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"She's all yours joon." Hope literally pushes Amara over to where Joon was stood waiting for the two of them, an impatient look clear on his face.
"Took y'all long enough." He grumbled before pointing his finger right at Amara
"You, lets go." He demanded making Amara pull a face, but the boy was already walking away. "You could of at least said please." She grumbled, turning around to look at Hope who only shrugged his shoulders before walking off.
Sighing, Amara prepared herself to be alone with Joon, before she marched on after him as he headed towards a large wooden structure, not wasting any time before he climbed up its ladder. It looked as if it were a watch goers, dangerously leaning to one side making Amara scared to climb up it.
Looking back down, Joon seen the girl just stood at the bottom, unmoving. "Hurry up greenie, sooner you get up here the sooner we can go about out our day. I only want to talk to ya 'bout somethin'" with that, he continued climbing.
Looking around the Glade, Amara seen no one paying attention to the two of them, they were all just busy with their daily jobs. Heaving yet another sigh, Amara began to climb the rickety, wooden ladder until she reached the top where Joon stood waiting for her, his arms resting on the wooden railings they had built as he on-looked the entirety of the glade.
Settling herself next to him, she glanced over at him before she settled her line of vision to the glade below her.
The afternoon sun shone down on the glade as a slight breeze blew, only sting enough to move a few strand of hairs away from their faces as they observed all the gladers hard at work - acting as if they weren't confused, they weren't scared... they weren't trapped.
"We only got three rules." Joon broke the silence. "One: Everyone does their part. Won't stand for any slackers here. Two: Never hurt another glader. We have to trust each other. Three: Never go outside the Glade, unless your a runner... which brings me to my next point."
Amara turned to him, his gaze still stuck in-front of him, intrigued at what he had to say. Is he gonna make her a runner? She couldn't say she was happy about that, the maze didn't exactly entice her, however if it meant she can help find a way out then she wouldn't care as much.
"If what ya say is true, and ya had a vision or somethin' about the Grievers before you even knew about them here... then you may possibly know more - about the maze, about an escape." A linger of Hope was in his words, however Amara didn't know why... she knew nothing about the maze.
"I'm not gonna throw ya in to running straight away, that ain't fair. But, you will try out the other jobs over the next week and then after that... your all Jays. He'll train ya, run the maze with ya - become your best friend for all I care." Joon grumbled.
Amara rolled her eyes. Just when she thought he was being nice, he had to ruin it. At least he seemed kinder than that Gally, he's been glaring at her ever since she arrived in the box.
"Seems simple enough." She spoke with a nod, turning her head to watch the glade again. Joon looked at her from out the corner of his eye, releasing a sigh before straightening himself up.
"It's ain't easy Amara." He referred to her with her name, not 'greenie' making her shocked, but happy nonetheless. "It wasn't easy for any of us, but you'll grow to like it here, forgettin' we're actually stuck here. As long as you follow the rules and don't tread on anyone's toes...it'll be a breeze."
After he had spoken those last words, he walked over to the hatch before descending back down the stairs, leaving Amara stood alone atop of the watch tower.
She continued watching everyone from above, pursing her lips as she imagined living the rest of her life here... but when her eyes landed on Hope stood in the distance, helping a boy with black curly hair in the gardens, she realised if everyone was as kind to her as he, Jin and Jay had been... then maybe things wouldn't be so bad.
But when her eyes latched onto a distant figure, a figure who had just appeared from the gateways of the giant maze, bent over with his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath - she felt something stir within her and she just knew, when she eventually runs into that maze with Jay... she would stick by his side, helping him try and find a way out of this place he was so desperate to find.
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Ahhh! So we met Chuck :) the little angel is just the cutest isn't he!
Anyways, I hope y'all enjoyed the chapter! It was kinda boring as it was mainly focused around the Glade and the rules of the Glade, so you are all caught up and aware of the environment Amara and the boys are in :)
I really hope you are enjoying the story so far, I'm really enjoying writing this AU so pls leave your comments or feedback if you have any, it makes my day reading all your comments! <3