They Don't Own Me

Chapter 39

The morning after Ivy and Graham reunited, Graham introduced her to the others as his little sister. Congratulations were thrown around, as well as hugs. Wolf was so happy for them that he wrapped his arms around Ivy and lifted her off the ground. Ivy couldn't erase the smile from her face at the thought of finally having her brother back. However, when she saw Eliza, she couldn't help but feel bad.

Later that night, she made her way to Eliza's room, which she shared with Graham. Graham was nowhere to be seen; Ivy had talked to him earlier and he had agreed to give them space. When Ivy knocked on the door, Eliza looked up from the machine she was fiddling with.

"Hey, Ivy," she greeted. She set her tools down, turning to give the girl her full attention. "What's up?"

"Can we talk?" Eliza agreed and made room for the two of them to sit comfortably on her bed. Ivy played with her hands briefly before looking at Eliza. She opened and closed her mouth for a second before saying, "What were you making?"

"A bomb." Ivy's eyes widened slightly at the blunt answer, making Eliza laugh. "Don't worry. Nothing's going to blow up. I've made plenty of these by now. Haven't blown up yet and don't plan on blowing up anytime soon."

"Why make so many?"

"I figured that if anything ever happened, we would have fire power. Plus they're good at blowing up doors and walls. Graham and I had used a few when we were searching Mazes, which wasn't that long ago before we met the others."

"Why were you searching the Mazes?" Ivy asked, figuring this would be the easiest way to say what she needed to.

"I'm in the same boat as Graham. We both lost our siblings to WCKD. Graham and I met about six years ago now. We were both living on the streets. I was looking for some food in the market when I saw Graham fighting a few guards. I barely thought about what I was doing, grabbed a chair, and broke it over one of the guards' backs. They were distracted enough the Graham got away and we lost them in the crowd by taking a series of alleyways. We went back to his apartment and grew closer when we figured out we had similar pasts.

"We dedicated the next few years to finding our siblings, locating WCKD's bases and Mazes. We actually broke into a WCKD facility a few years ago and stole some information on locations of the Mazes. So after months of planning, we broke into one of the Mazes, only to find the Maze empty. Every Maze we went to, we found it empty. Then a few months ago, we met the others. We teamed up and checked out a few more Mazes before we found Gally."

"How old was your brother?" Ivy asked, guiding the conversation.

"He was almost eight when WCKD took him." Eliza paused and looked at Ivy with curiosity in her eyes. "How did you know I had a brother?"

"Because I knew him," she replied after a moment of silence.

Eliza's eyes became so wide Ivy thought her eyes were going to roll out of her head.

"What?" Eliza gasped. "You knew Alby?" Ivy nodded. "How?"

"We were in the same Maze. He was the first person to get put in there. I went up a little over a month later. We were close friends and we helped each other through a lot. He was kinda a leader of the Glade; a lot of boys looked up to him."

"I'm sensing there's something else. What happened?"

"The day before we escaped the Maze, the Glade was attacked by Grievers, which are freaky creatures that lived in the Maze. They killed a lot of people that night. I was almost one of those people, but Gally got me somewhere safe. They also almost killed a small kid, a twelve year old named Chuck." Ivy took a deep breath. "Alby saved him, but he was taken instead."