Into the Maze

Chapter 3

Jackie's eyes snapped open. She didn't know how long she had been sleeping, she knew only that Newt, who was lying about five feet away, was still fast asleep. There was still a velvety black blanket of sky stretched above her, but she no longer felt the ground was as comfortable as it had been when she was exhausted a few hours before. After lying still for a few moments she sat up and pushed her dark brown hair out of her face, looking around her. A few shapes lying around her signified that most of the boys were still fast asleep except...
A sound came from near the campfire, now burning to embers. Jackie decided she could  no longer lie still listening to that strange noise. Silently, she rose to her feet. Her combat boots were sitting next to the mat she had been sleeping on, but she decided against slipping them on. In her thick socks, she moved silently, swiftly, weaving through the sleeping bodies until she was about ten feet away from the ring of logs around the campfire. It was then that she realized what the sound was.
Silhouetted by the dim red light of the dying embers was Alby, sitting with his back against a log facing away from her.
He was crying.
His shoulders were bent, his head was in his hands, and Jackie could tell he was doing all he could to prevent the sleeping boys from hearing his sobs. They shook his shoulders and with every dry sob, a piece of her heart seemed to break. She tentatively took a step forward, and though she felt that her step was silent enough, she knew as soon as she did it that Alby heard her. His shoulders immediately straightened and the sobs ceased.
She tensed, waiting for his outburst of reproofs and anger.
"Trouble sleeping, Greenie?" He asked, still facing the fire.
She took that as an invitation and crossed the ground silently to sit down next to him. "Yeah."
"Most Greenies do. You'll get out of it in a couple days."
"That's what everyone keeps saying about everything."
"Because it's true."
A sudden noise floated to her ears. It drifted over from the closed maze doors, and it was unlike any noise Jackie had ever heard. It began as a mechanical screeching and slid into an animal-like roar. She jumped and grabbed at Alby's arm. "What was that!?" She shrieked, forgetting to keep quiet.
Alby sighed. "I guess we never got to finish our conversation today, did we?"
"No. You were about to tell me about why nobody survives a night in the maze."
Alby cocked his head to the side. "Hear that?" The horrible sound came again. She nodded. "What is it?"
"Grievers."
"What are they?" She realized that she might not remember anything from her old life but this definitely didn't ring a bell.
"Well, they're kind of hard to describe, Greenie. All you have to know is that, one, they only come out at night when the doors are closed, and, two, they sting you."
"Sting?"
"Well, they kinda prick you actually. They have stingers, see."
"Does it kill you?"
"Sadly no."
"What!?"
Alby sighed. "I'm just saying that what happens to you... you might as well be dead. When they sting you... your mind goes funny. You don't control what you do anymore. The only way to fix it is the Changing. See, the Creators send up supplies every week, right? Well, once they just sent up this random box full of syringes and this serum. They've sent boxes of it periodically since then. When you inject the serum into someone who gets stung they go... almost back to normal but..."
"But what?"
"When you're in the Changing... you remember. Things about your life before the maze... and it hurts... a lot."
"How do you know? Have you ever been stung?"
Alby was silent for a second. "No, but I can tell, shank. Wanna know how? By their screams. Everyone who has ever survived the sting til they can get the injection scream bloody murder the whole time. That's how I know, Greenie!" His voice had escalated almost to a shout. "I wouldn't expect you to know about that, anyways." Alby stood up quickly and began to stalk away from the dim ring of light.
"I'm sorry."  Jackie choked.
Alby hesitated, shrugged, and kept walking, leaving her alone to think about grievers and have nightmares about the changing all through that fitful night.
When Jackie woke from a light sleep, which she had finally fallen into after laying awake, thinking of the grievers, for hours, she found that the inky black sky, the fire embers, and the terrifying mechanical screams were gone. In fact, it was almost impossible to believe that such a bright, cheery Glade could ever have contained such horrors as she experienced the night before.
The sky was pink above Jackie as she stood up and strolled across the Glade toward the Homestead, where she could hear a few voices.
Upon getting near the Homestead, however, she decided against joining the group. Alby, Minho, and three other boys who were almost the size of them were sitting with their backs against the wall, chatting. Minho and Alby were bent over a piece of paper which was apparently a map. Jackie's step slowed, but before she could turn around and make haste in the other direction, Newt strolled around the corner of the Homestead, whistling. It took him about two seconds to spot her and when he did, he called to her loudly. The five other boys looked up and a few of them smiled or waved at the Greenie.
Deciding it would be rude to turn her back and walk away, she cautiously approached the boys.
Alby stood up. "Morning, Greenbean. Nice sleep?"
Just like that, she knew she would never tell anyone about that night, about Alby. "Great," she replied, looking him straight in the eye.
"Good." Alby gave a nod so small she hardly saw it, and she knew that she had said the right thing. "Greenie, meet our Runners." Alby gestured to the boys. Jackie realized that they looked slightly different than the boys she had met so far. They were bigger, and there was a look in their eyes that told her that they were survivors.
"There are only five?"
The Runners looked slightly offended.
"Like I told you, it's a dangerous job." Alby crossed his arms.
"When do I get to try out being a runner?"
Alby opened his mouth to reply, but he was cut off by a snort from Minho, who had looked up from his map, and now stood up, looking completely disgusted. "Greenie, only strongest and fastest are runners, and definitely not the weak."
A hatred rose up in her, and before she thought about it, she blurted, "well then why are you a runner!?"
Minho looked like he had been punched in the face. The three other runners looked shocked, and Newt choked, then coughed concealingly. Alby's arms tensed, as if he expected Minho to try to take a swing at her. There was a moment where all you could hear were the birds chirping their morning tune and Newt coughing.
Then Alby clapped his hands together and said, "okay Runners, time to head out."
Minho gave her one last look of complete loathing, then turned around and ordered, "You heard him, shanks, let's go."
Alby and Jackie watched at the edge of the Glade as the Runners jogged into the maze for their daily run. Jackie watched their backs until they rounded the first corner, then Alby cleared his throat. "C'mon, Slopper, let's get to work."
Jackie hated every part of being a Slopper. From cleaning up the animal klunk to being ordered around by all the other Gladers. Jackie was ready to scream by the end of the day, and when Zart, the keeper of the gardens, told her to weed out three rows, she threw down her trowel. "I am not a Slopper!"
Turning on her heel, she marched down to the doors of the maze and leaned against the wall, fuming. She was still there when the five runners jogged out of the maze that evening. Minho and the others ran past without looking at her, but Newt stopped, breathing heavily, and smiled. "Hey, Slopper, how's work?"
She shot him a look.
"Not good then. Well that's all right, you can try something else tomorrow."
She shrugged. "Like a runner?"
He shook his head. "Greenie, forget it. Now I have to go report to the map room. We really think we've found something today. Go wait by the kitchen, and I'll find you later."
Being given more commands did not settle with her but considering it was Newt, she griped about it very little and grudgingly followed his commands.
"Hey, Greenie, like being a Slopper?"
Jackie's head snapped to the side. Approaching her with a gloating smile on his face was the skinny boy who had climbed into the Box in her first day. He had greasy black hair and a face that looked like it had been punched multiple times. Even with his ugly face and skinny arms, he didn't look like someone she would like to cross, mostly because he had three boys behind him who looked a lot tougher. But she went ahead and did it anyways . "I am not a Slopper, Shank!" She planted her feet far apart and crossed her arms.
"What did you call me, Slopper?!" He stepped up in her face. "I wouldn't go picking fights, Greenie. Especially not with people you can't handle."
She looked him up and down, disgusted. "I think I could handle you, actually."
He stepped back, and it was hard to say whose face held more loathing. "Okay, Greenie, let's go. Show us you're made of more than Slopper material."
"Gally." The boy jumped. Minho, who had just come out of the kitchen in time to see what was going on, stepped between Jackie and the boy. The runner drew himself up to his full height and glared down at the boy called Gally. "Don't pick fights with Greenies, shank," he said in a low voice. "She might be the only person as weak as you in the Glade, but you leave her alone. If you wanna fight someone, fight me."
Gally turned tail and ran. Minho watched him go, then looked back at Jackie, who was in between surprised or confused. "Why..."
"It's in the rules, Greenie. Never harm another Glader. It's nothing personal."
Minho brushed past her and began jogging towards the Homestead, leaving her standing alone and perplexed.