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Winston was a short but muscular bloke with an acne-covered face. He was Keeper of the Slicers. It seemed to Elisabeth the Keeper was obsessed with his job.
Winston showed Elisabeth around for the first hour, pointing out which pens held which animals, where the chicken and turkey coops were and what went where in the barn.
Several cows nibbled and chewed at a trough full of greenish hay. Another pen held sheeps. Pigs lounged in a muddy pit. The Slicers bustled around the Blood-house like they have spend their whole lives working on a farm.
She spent the second hour working alongside a a bloke named William. He had platinum blonde hair with sky blue eyes. And was about fifteen years old.
Suddenly an ear-splitting alarm wailed through the air. An abrupt contrast to the silence that had settled upon the Glade. Elisabeth screwed up her eyes and clapped her hands over her ears. The alarm made her eardrums rattle and pierced through her head like shattering glass. It was even worse than the walls moving. Her eyes darted through the Glade, trying to find the source of the blaring alarm.
"What's going on?" She asked William. He wasn't scared. He seemed to be confused.
"The Box," He said, confusion swimming in his blue eyes. "Someone is coming up the Box."
Elizabeth's eyebrows knitted together with confusion as she remembered Alby telling her on the Tour that the Box brought up a Newbie once every month.
The Glasses were running around the courtyard, panicking. Most of the boys were already surrounding the Box or still running toward it.
As Elisabeth approached the chipped metal doors, she caught sight of James and Leo and walked toward them. They were the only ones who were calm in the middle of the chaos. Well, Leo looked kind of bored.
"Another Newbie," James said cheerfully. "Aren't you excited?"
Elisabeth smiled at the younger boy's positivity. Her eyes flickered over to Leo, he was standing with his hands tucked into the pockets of his jeans and his face was decorated with a calm expression. He seemed to be at peace with the world.
Elisabeth couldn't help but wonder if Leo was calm on the inside as well, if he wasn't, he was very good at hiding it.
Well, he was mysterious.
"I wonder what kind of Klunk the sadistic Slintheads are gonna pull off this time." William said, bitterly , pulling Elisabeth out of her reverie. She could only assume that by saying sadistic Slintheads he was referring to the Creators.
"We've never had two Greenies in the same month before," Edward said. "Much less two days in a row."
"Should be any minute now." Leo said. Elisabeth could hear the squealing and rattling of the elevator which reminded her of her own painful thirty minutes in the Box. It seemed so long ago.
The Greenie alarm finally stopped blaring and silence settled over the Glade. It was the kind of silence that made your ears ring. The ground shook slightly then came a muffled boom, announcing the arrival of the Box. A few of the stronger boys yanked open the steel doors a loud mechanical clanking sound echoing across the Glade.
The loud noise made Elisabeth wince and she found her hand creeping toward Edward's until she caught herself and quickly moved her hand away before he could notice.
Sunlight filtered into the Box, revealing their newest addition. There was a boy in the middle of the Box. He was covering his eyes with his arms trying to block out the sunlight after staying so long in darkness.
He slowly moved away his arms, squinting, as he tried to adjust to the sunlight.
The nameless boy seemed to be about sixteen. His dark brown hair was plastered to his forehead with sweat, terror swirling in his brown eyes which had specks of hazel in them.
"Look at that Shank."
"How old is he?"
"Looks like a Klunk in a T-shirt."
"You're the Klunk Shuck-face."
"Hope you enjoyed the one-way trip, Greenie."
"Ain't no ticket back, bro."
"Dude, it smells like feet down there!"
"You sure, it isn't just your own breath wafting back into your face?" William said.
Alby lowered a rope into the Box for the Newbie to climb up. The helping hands only stopped when the Greenie stood up straight, the dust brushed from his clothes. The boy turned in a slow circle, trying to gain some knowledge of his surroundings.
"Nice to meet ya, Shank, welcome to the Glade." Alby said.
"Look at that Greenbean," A scratchy-voiced boy said. He had black hair and a large nose which was the size of a deformed potato. "Gonna break his Shuck neck checkin' out the new digs." A few Gladers laughed.
"Shut your hole, Gally," Alby said.
The nameless boy's brown eyes darted across the Gladers faces, lingering on Elisabeth for a second longer. She assumed it was because she was the only girl among sixty boys.
Elisabeth noticed the boy named Gally was giving the Greenie a withering look. She wouldn't have been surprised if he kicked the boy back down the Box.
"Where am I?" The Greenie asked in a shaky voice.
"Nowhere good." Alby answered. "Just slim yourself nice and calm."
"Which Keeper he gonna get?" Someone shouted from the back of the crowd.
"I told ya, Shuck-face," Someone else replied. "He's a Klunk, so he'll be a Slopper-no doubt about it." And the boy laughed like he'd just set record for the funniest joke in history.
"-even do that much, bet my liver on it." Gally said.
William snorted. "Liver? At least bet something useless." He replied. "Like your-"
"I said shut your holes!" Alby yelled. "Keep yapping and next break'll be cut in half!" That shut everyone up.
"Seriously," The new boy said. "Where am I?"
"It's a long story, Shank," The Leader said. "Piece by piece, you'll learn. I'll be taking you on the Tour tomorrow. Till then...just don't break anything." He held out his hand. "Name's Alby."
The boy refused. He turned his back on Alby and walked over to a nearby tree, where he plopped down with his back against the bark.
"Then tell me," He said. "Tell me the long story."
Elisabeth shook her head. The boy had guts.
"If you ain't scared, you ain't human," Alby said, sitting down, cross-legged across from the boy. "Act any different, and I'd throw you off the Cliff because it would mean you're psycho."
Way to go. Elisabeth rolled her eyes. Alby was scaring the boy more than he already was which was making things worse.
"The Cliff?" The boy asked as all the colour drained from his face.
"Shuck it," Alby said, irritably "Ain't no way to start these conversations, you get me? We don't kill Shanks like you in here. Just try to avoid being killed, survive, whatever."
"Killed?" The Newbie asked in a terrified voice.
"Man, I ain't good at this." Alby said, rubbing his eyes. "You're the second Greenbean to arrive since Nick was killed." He let out a long sigh.
The boy's eyes widened. Newt walked over and playfully slapped Alby across the head. "Wait for the bloody Tour, Alby," He said. "kid's gonna have a buggin' heart attack, nothin' even been heard yet." He bent down, extending his hand toward the Greenie. "Name's Newt, Greenie, and we'd all be right cheery if ya'd forgive our Klunk-for-brains new leader, here." The boy reached out his hand to shake Newt's.
"Pipe it, Shuck-face," Alby grunted and pulled Newt down to sit next to him. "At least he can understand half my words." Several boys laughed.
The Glasses gathered behind the three boys, waiting to hear what they said.
"This place is called the Glade, all right?" Alby said, spreading his arms and gesturing around him. "It's where we live, where we eat, where we sleep-we call ourselves the Gladers. That's all you-"
"Who sent us here?" The Greenie demanded, sounding angry. "How'd-"
But before he could finish, Alby's hand shot out, leaning forward on his knees. "Get up, Shank, get up!" Pulling the boy with him he stood up. The terrified Greenie scrambled up to his feet, backing against the tree, Alby right in his face.
Elisabeth felt the blood surge to her head and heard a thumping noise in her ears. Her feet worked on their own accord as she rushed forward. She grabbed Alby's wrists, trying to loosen his grip. But he was a lot stronger than her.
"No interruptions, boy!" Alby shouted, ignoring Elisabeth completely. "Whacker if we told you everything, you'd die on the spot, right after you Klunked your pants. Baggers'd drag you off, and you ain't no good to us then, are ya?"
Elisabeth's features hardened and her eyes narrowed to slits. Her usually innocent face suddenly looked dangerous.
"Let. Him. Go." She hissed.
Alby let go of the Greenie's shirt and stepped back, his chest heaving with breaths. His face painted with a scowl.
"What do you think you're doing?" She said loudly and clearly, glaring daggers at the impatient leader. "Pinning him against a tree when he's scared and confused. You're making everything way worse than it already is. He woke up in this hellhole with no memories of course he's going to ask questions. It's completely normal. He has the right to do that. You're gonna manhandle him against a tree for interrupting you with a simple question? Pathetic." She huffed. "Yeah, yeah I get it you're under a lot of bloody stress and shit like that, but it doesn't mean the way you're acting is right!"
"Ain't got no time to be nice, Greenbeans." Alby spat. "Old life's over, new life's begun. Learn the rules quick, listen, don't talk. You get me?"
Elisabeth bit back all the unpleasant retorts.
Newt nodded. "Greenies, you get him, right?" He nodded again.
"Yeah." The boy said simply but he looked like he wanted to punch someone.
Elisabeth turned round and stormed away, pulling James by the arm as she did so. Edward and William followed.