Subject A250: The Fangirl (COMPLETED)

Twenty-Eight: Aunty Alby's Angry Afternoon

A/N: I went to search the song above and only just realised it's by a New Zealand band and you probably won't know it. Oops. Enjoy anyway ;)

Trace headed straight out of the room, searching for Alby and Newt.

"Nut!" she called. "Aunty Alby?!"

"In here!"

The voice came from the Gathering room, where Jeff had already found the two of them. By the looks on their faces he'd explained just about everything that'd happened too.

"What is it, Trace? Feeling guilty you let the new girl escape?" Alby asked, fuming. Trace ignored him.

"We need to barricade the Homestead. Get everyone inside. We need to be ready."

"What? Why? Ace, what do you mean?" Newt asked.

Trace took a step closer, lowering her voice a little. "The doors aren't closing tonight. I don't know how I know it, but I do, and you're gonna regret it if we don't prepare now."

The three boys looked alarmed, but Alby's expression quickly changed to one of suspicision.

"Does this have something to do with the girl?"

Trace threw her hands up in exasperation, pretending not to know. "Probably. I don't know. She said things were going to change, right?"

"And by 'change' she meant death by Grievers?" Alby asked, not buying into it.

Trace rolled her eyes. She'd said what she needed to, and if they didn't act now, things would be bad. Very bad. Of course, they still needed to track down Teresa and Thomas, but Trace had a pretty good idea of where they'd be.

Well, two ideas.

"Trace is right. If there's even a chance those doors aren't closing, we need to act now before we regret it. Get everyone in here, just in case," Newt spoke, addressing Jeff. "We still need to find that girl, though."

"She'll be with Thomas. In the Deadheads. Or the lookout. One of the two."

"How do you know that?" Alby asked.

"That's where Thomas hangs out. Teresa went to find him, so they'll be in either of those places. Now, any more questions? Or should we start making a big 'welcome' sign for the Grievers to see when they get here?"

Alby nodded at Jeff, who ran off to alert the others. Then, he and Newt followed him out the door. Trace wasn't sure whether to follow, but Newt beckoned her on, holding the door open for her.

A true gentleman.

"Over here!" Jeff yelled, pointing in the direction of the Deadheads. Alby and Newt broke into a run. Surprisingly, Newt led the way with Alby falling slightly behind. It was him and Trace who reached the Deadheads first, quickly spotting Teresa and Thomas huddled together in the back corner.

"How in the..." Newt began, catching his breath. "How did you get here? Jeff said you were there one second and gone the next. Couldn't work out how you escaped."

Teresa smirked. Trace found herself smirking as well; it was a pretty hilarious escape tactic.

"I guess he forgot to tell you the part about me kicking him in the groin and climbing out the back window."

Newt's gobsmacked gaze landed on Jeff. "Congratulations," he said. "You got your butt beaten by a girl."

"That's hardly a fair point," Thomas spoke up. "Trace is a girl and she defeated a Griever."

"Guess us girls just know where the weak spots are, right Teresa?" Trace smirked. Teresa tried to suppress a smile. Only then did Trace realise Teresa had watched that night in the maze transpire. Suddenly, she hated that girl again.

"I'm sick of this," Alby said, speaking directly to Thomas. "I want to know who this shank girl is and what she's done."

"What do you-"

"You know what I mean, Thomas. She came straight to you once she'd woken up." Now he turned his gaze on Teresa. "What did you do?"

Teresa didn't answer.

"What did you do?!" Alby screamed. "First the sky, now this?!"

This time, Teresa did answer. "I triggered something. I triggered The Ending. I don't know what it means. I don't know. I didn't mean to, either. But I triggered it."

"The doors haven't closed," Trace said, before Thomas could ask one of his typical questions. "They should have closed a minute ago. We would have seen the wall behind you move. They haven't closed."

"Billy, Jackson!" Alby called to two boys who had followed them into the Deadheads, probably under Jeff's orders. "Send the new girl to the Slammer. Make sure she stays there."

"Alby, you can't..." Thomas began, trailing off. "How can you blame her for this?"

Newt stepped forward, placing a hand on Thomas' shoulder. "How could we not when she bloody admitted it herself?" He turned to Billy and Jackson. "Make sure nobody else can get to her. Keep her safe," he said. Trace felt a pang of jealousy, but quickly overcame it; Teresa wasn't the one becoming besties with Newt; Trace was. She smiled inwardly at the thought.

Newt led them all back to the Homestead, where they were all assigned to rooms. Thankfully, Trace had been allocated to the same room as Minho, Alby and Thomas. Newt would be there too, but the boy was nowhere to be seen right now; he was too busy ushering people around, giving them all jobs to prepare them for the night, giving out instructions.

Trace had been tasked with bringing food in from Frypan's kitchen. She was walking side-by-side with the shank when a group of builders hurried past, carrying a pile of planks to barricade the building. A thought occurred to her.

"Frypan?" she asked. "Where's Gally? I haven't seen him all afternoon."

Frypan looked alarmed, which was an odd expression for the usually-calm guy. "Nobody told you?" he asked. Trace shook her head.

"I haven't seen him since this morning."

Frypan sighed. "Just after you left, he had an argument with Newt. A big one. Probably would've got physical if Alby hadn't stepped in. Anyway, something must've snapped in him, because Gally turned and ran straight into the maze. Didn't even look back. Nobody's seen him since."

Trace was shocked into silence. Gally had done the book thing. He'd run into the maze, but not when he was supposed to. Was it Trace's fault? Should he have left earlier? Should he not have left at all?

Why had he fought with Newt?

She couldn't find the words to reply to Frypan, so she just tried to focus on the task at hand. She worked in silence until she'd delivered the last box, at which point a loud growl echoed across the Glade, sending shivers down her spine. The Grievers were coming.

Trace made her way into her allocated room, where Minho was already waiting. She must've looked a little panic-stricken, because Minho patted the floor beside him, neither of them opting to sit on the bed. The last thing they felt like doing was getting comfortable.

"Not quite ready for round two?" he asked. "Yeah, well. Me neither. Let's just hope those shuckers stay well away from us."

Trace just nodded. It was then that Newt, Alby and Thomas all filed in, taking up various spots throughout the room. Newt sat on the bed, just to Trace's left, biting his nails. Alby leaned on the wall by the doorway, and Thomas sat leaning against one of the other walls.

All that was left to do was wait.

A/N: That last line is true because it'll be a while longer before I can update. Hope you all enjoy this <3 Will update as soon as I return from holiday!

Thanks for reading, you shucking wonderful quirkyklunks ;)