Into the Maze

Chapter 21

"Where's Ellie!?" Jackie screamed, but the high-pitched shriek rang on, unbroken.
The crowd of boys parted easily as she pushed through them. Panic coursed through her. Where was the little girl!?
"Ellie!?" She screamed again, pushing to the very edge of the group. To her relief, there was Ellie, standing a few yards away, mouth open in a scream.
"Ellie, stop, please!" The small girl stopped screaming, leaving the Glade echoing, and looked at Jackie. Her wide, innocent hazel eyes were full of lunacy, as if they were not her own.
"It's okay," Jackie said gently. "You're safe."
Ellie ran.
Her small feet moved at an alarming rate across the grass as she raced away from the group. It looked as if something had snapped inside of her, and it scared Jackie beyond any Griever. The real terror set in when Jackie realized where the small girl was going. "She's going into the maze, Newt! She's going into the maze!"
As if on feet not her own, she sprinted after Ellie. She crossed the threshold of the maze without a backwards glance, but still the small girl managed to stay just ahead of her. Jackie knew that no amount of calling or coaxing could call her back.
She heard feet behind her, but she didn't look back. Her eyes stayed glued on the swinging braids of the girl in front of her, who ran deeper and deeper into the maze, never stopping.
Ellie didn't stop until she reached the Cliff. She stopped for a second to peer over the edge, then whirled around to face Jackie. "Not another step!" She shouted.
Jackie pulled up short about five yards away.
Ellie's hair was falling out of its braids and into her face, which was sweaty, and her eyes held the same look of lunacy, like a terrified animal cornered by a hunter.
"Ellie, come back with me," Jackie said in a low, comforting voice.
Ellie shook her head vehemently.  She rasped, "Her! She's here to kill us all!"
Then, Ellie jumped.
Jackie didn't hear herself scream, she didn't feel herself lurch forward to grab the girl's small hands in a final effort. She just remembered watching as the small girl faded from sight into the deep, dark abyss of death. She remembered watching as the tattered, faded green tank top Ellie wore faded away into the dark.
Jackie's world went black-and-white. The green ivy on the walls lost its color and all the taunting beauty it had once held. When Newt knelt beside her to pull her away from the edge, his deep brown eyes had lost their sparkle.
Jackie didn't know how long they stayed there. She noticed vaguely that Newt's arm was around her protectively as she sobbed with every tear left in her body. She cried until her throat was dry and her eyes burned. Then, finally, she stopped. Newt's voice was dead when he said, "Come on, Jackie, let's go back. There's nothing you can do."
And she followed him.
The sun was gone when she finally dropped to her knees at the entrance to the maze, just as the doors began to shut, and as the final bang echoed through the twilight, she knew it had to be true. Ellie was gone.
"Newt!" It was James, running full-tilt across the Glade towards them. "Newt, come quick! It's Ben! He got out! He attacked the Greenie!"
Newt didn't miss a beat, and was off running after James in a second, leaving Jackie to kneel in the dust by the closed doors of the maze.
She didn't sleep that night. When Newt returned with the news that Alby had shot Ben through the head, and the runner was gone now, she didn't even acknowledge his presence. Her mind was stuck on the image of Ellie's jump, of her eyes, her terror.
The girl in the Box.
She sat alone until he first rays of morning, when Minho sat down beside her.
After pausing for a second, he said, "Ben's alive. He survived getting shot in he head, who knows how. But he won't survive again. We're... we're putting him in the maze at sundown."
Jackie felt only a slight amount of pain, she supposed she was now numb to pain. When she finally spoke, her voice wasn't sad. It wasn't even hollow and dead like it had been the night before. It was harsh and cold as she laughed bitterly. "That's how they want it, though, isn't it, the Creators? They knew how along this is how it would end. It'll end the same way for all of us."
"It's not the end, Jackie," Minho sighed. "I wish it was, but the rest of us are still here. We have to fight, we have to work ourselves until we die. Then, it's the end. Then we can stop fighting."
Jackie exhaled sharply. "I'm done fighting. The Creators have won on my list."
"You don't believe that."
"Yes, I do. I give up. I would die tonight with Ben if you let me choose."
Minho flinched when she mentioned Ben's death, but he didn't retort. Instead, he stood up, turned, and jogged away, towards the maze doors, just as they began to open.
Jackie went about that day numbly. Nobody expected her to go running in the maze that day, but she worked with Newt in the gardens, weeding furiously as if the weeds were the Creators. Newt did not want to talk, being in a world of his own, and she was okay with the silence.
Finally, Newt looked up from his work and said quietly, "I've gotta find Alby and get this bloody thing over with."
Jackie scooped up her gardening supplies mutely and piled them next to the other gardeners', before walking across the Glade to join the group of boys next to the maze doors.
Minho was standing and staring at the ground, closest to the mouth of the maze. She joined him silently, and stood by his side all through the terrible things that followed.
First, Alby shouted, "Bring him out!"
On cue, three big, burly Gladers, one of whom Jackie recognized as Mark, dragged Ben around the far side of the homestead. Jackie's already shredded heart screamed in protest at his tattered, bloody clothing and rough bandage around his head.
"Newt, bring the Pole," Alby said in a quiet voice to Newt, who stood beside him.
Jackie shivered. She had seen one banishing in her time at the Glade, and that had been enough. But Newt only nodded and limped over to a small tool shed nearby.
Ben was kneeling in front of Alby, head bowed, refusing to make eye contact. "You brought this on yourself, Ben," Alby said harshly.
Newt limped up quickly, carrying several poles, connected at the ends. Jackie cringed. As Newt handed Alby one of the poles, and attached to the end was a loop of leather, both ends of the strip fastened together.
The collar.
Alby wrapped the collar around Ben's neck, and snapped it closed.  "Please, Alby," Ben whispered, barely audible. "I swear I was just sick in the head from the Changing. I never would've killed him. I just lost my mind for a second. Please, Alby, please."
The words of one of her best friends brought an unwilling lump into Jackie's throat.
Alby picked up his end of his pole and said in a loud voice, "Ben of the Runners, you've been sentenced to Banishment for the attempted murder of Thomas the Newbie. The Keepers have spoken, and their word ain't changing. And you ain't coming back. Ever." He paused, then continued, "Keepers, take your place on the Banishment Pole."
Minho stepped forward and picked up his section of the pole. James took his place ahead of Minho, his mouth a thin line. Newt stepped in in front of Alby.
Ben was crying, his terrified sobs irritated the broken pieces of Jackie's heart. Then he cried out, "Please! Pleeeeeeeeeease! Somebody help me! You can't do this to me!"
"Shut up!" Alby shouted.
Ben, ignoring him, yanked on the collar around his neck. "Someone stop them! Help me! Please!"
"If we let shanks like you get away with that stuff," Alby said, "we never should've survived this long."
"No, no, no, no," Ben, whispered. "I swear, I'll do anything! I swear I'll never do it again! Pleeeeease-" He managed to twist around just enough to lock eyes with Jackie, and his widened in recognition. "Jackie, please! Stop them! Jackie, help me!"
Jackie shook her head, the lump in her throat swelling to the size of a football. She stepped backwards, away from her friend. But Ben wasn't finished "Jackie-"
"Keepers, now!" Alby shouted.
They all pushed the pole, it jerked forward and Ben's head snapped back, just as the door began to close. Over the sound of the door, Jackie heard Ben's screams. "Nooooooo!" He screamed, stumbling towards the maze while fighting the collar. "Noooo!"
He was pushed over the threshold of the maze easily. He jerked around violently as he tried to shake off the collar. Eventually, he managed to twist himself around and stare for one last second into the Glade, fear etched in every shaking nerve.
"Hold!" Alby ordered.
Ben screamed, piercing the final crunches of the cement walls, a long, drawn out sound. The Keepers swiftly loosed the pole from the collar and pulled it out of the maze.
Then, the doors slid closed. Ben's screams were cut off. He was gone.
Jackie dropped to her knees and stared numbly at the wall Ben had just disappeared behind.
It'll end the same way for all of us, her words from earlier swam in her mind. Would she die like Ben, begging for another chance, pleading for mercy from the Creators?
It's not the end. She thought of what Minho had told her. We have to fight, we have to work ourselves until we die. Then, it's the end. Then we can stop fighting.
Would she die like Ben, all dignity gone? Or would she die like Minho, fighting, head held high?
She would die a fighter, because she knew she expected nothing less of herself. She would fight the Creators. She would get out of this maze so that Ellie could be the little girl she never got to be. She would get out of this maze so that Ben could write down the stories he never got to write. She would fight for them. Because she believed that one day, this would be over for all of them, whether they would be dead or finally living a normal life outside the maze.
Because she had hope.
"You're a girl."
She glanced up. Standing over her was a boy with dark hair, a confused look on his face. "Yeah," she said. "Don't ask me to explain it, nobody knows why. You're the new Greenie."
He boy, who looked about her age, bristled slightly. "No, a new Greenie came yesterday."
"Oh yeah, the girl." Pain seared into Jackie's heart again, but she didn't mind. It showed she could still feel emotion. "Weird, huh?"
"Yeah."
She looked up at him. "What do you know about her?"
He raised his hands as if in surrender. "Everyone's asking me this! I swear I've never seen her before."
She sized him up for a second. He wasn't exactly tall, but he looked like he was in good shape. And there was something about his face that made her like him in spite of herself . After a second, she shrugged and held out her hand with a smile. "I'm Jackie."
He grinned and took her hand to shake rather clumsily. "I'm Thomas."