Different | The Maze Runner / Newt ¹ ✓

{0.7}

Disclaimer:

I do not own The Maze Runner, but I do want to own The Fever Code because asdfghjkl

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We were staring at the Box. That's how Alby decided to start the Tour. I had expected him to at least start off by telling us how long they had been there, how they got their supplies, and everything else I had wanted to know. But instead, we were staring at the Box. How interesting.

It was closed at the moment, its double doors that lay flat on the ground covered in chipping white paint. Alby pointed to them. "This here's the Box. Once a month, we get a Newbie like you two. Once a week, we get supplies, clothes, some food. Ain't needin' a lot- pretty much run ourselves in the Glade."

"Wait," I interjected. "You said a Newbie. How come there's two of us?"

"I ain't answerin' any questions until the end, ya hear me, girl?" Alby said gruffly, sounding agitated.

"You know," I continued on, sick of being called anything else besides my name. "I didn't know my name was Girl. Last time I checked, it was Dylan. Not Newbie, not Greenie, not Greenbean. Dylan."

Thomas whistled lowly and raised his eyebrows, pulling his lips together. I was surprised Alby didn't explode on me right then and there. Instead he pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut.

"Well, you're going to have to get used to it," he replied. "That's what you'll be called till a new Greenie arrives."

He stared hard at me as if waiting for me to make a comment on that. When I stayed silent, he continued. 

"We don't know jack about the Box, you get me?" he said. "Where it came from, how it got 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. Tried to send a slinthead Greenie back in the Box one time- thing wouldn't move till we took him out."

I wondered if they had ever tried to jump down the hole when the Box was gone.

Alby kept talking, never bothering to look us in the eye. I supposed he was too annoyed to do so. "Glade's cut into four sections." He held up four fingers as he counted off the words. "Gardens, Blood House, Homestead, Deadheads. You got that?"

Thomas hesitated before shaking his head no. I didn't quite understand it, either. I didn't just want to know what they were called. I wanted to know what their purposes were, why they were named that. Alby wasn't giving us enough information to feed our empty minds.

Alby's eyelids fluttered in annoyance and he looked the exact opposite of what we probably did. He seemed like he'd rather be anywhere else than there, while Thomas and I would probably punch someone if they tried to stop the Tour before it was finished.

Alby pointed to the northeast corner, where the fruit trees and fields were. I shuddered, remembering that one Glader's words from yesterday.

"Gardens- where we grow the crops. Water's pumped through pipes in the ground- always has been, or we'd have starved to death a long time ago. Never rains here. Never." He pointed to the southeast corner, at the animal pens and barn. "Blood House- where we raise and slaughter animals." He pointed at the living quarters. "Homestead- stupid place is twice as big than when the first of us got here because we keep addin' onto it when they send us wood and klunk. Ain't pretty, but it works. Most of us sleep outside, anyway."

Thomas held his hand to his head like he was dizzy. I was about to ask him if he was all right, but Alby continued on, pointing to the southwest corner where the forest area was, fronted with pitiful trees and bushes. "Call that the Deadheads. Graveyard's back in that corner, in the thicker woods. Ain't much else. You can go there to sit and rest, hang out, whatever." He cleared his throat like he was interrupting himself so he could change the subject. "You'll spend the next two weeks working one day apiece for our different job Keepers- until we know what you're best at. Slopper, Bricknick, Bagger, Track-hoe- somethin'll stick, always does. Come on."