Her || The Maze Runner

Twenty Two

Dead? Why would the creators send a dead girl up to the Glade? Or maybe she wasn't dead, maybe she was just... sleeping.

"Hold on!" Alby's voice raised above everyone else's, making them grow silent. "Just hold on!"

"Well, what's wrong?" Someone yelled through the silence.

Alby stood up from where he had been peering into the box, muttering something to himself as he rose to his feet. Then he turned to Mara.

"What's going on here, greenie?"

"How would I know? And why are you still calling me greenie?" Mara asked in an angry tone. How was she meant to know what was going on? Sure, she seemed to be the cause of everything bad in the Glade, but that didn't mean she actually knew anything about what was happening. Mara knew Alby didn't trust her, but she also knew that he knew she didn't know anything.

"Why don't you just tell us what the shuck is down there, Alby?" Gally called out, for once saving Mara's butt from Alby's trust issues. Gally's remark sparked more curious Gladers' questions.

"You shanks shut up!" He said, glaring at Gally before he gave in. "Tell 'em, Newt."

Newt released Mara from his grasp, stepping forward to announce to the crowd of Gladers what lay in the box.

"It's another girl."

The boys around her seemed to turn rabid, all calling dibs on the poor girl who they didn't realise appeared to be dead. Some seemed to shrug it off as if it wasn't a big deal, one boy said 'And? We already have a shuck girl so what does it matter?', others just fought as if they had never come into contact with a girl in their entire life.

"That's not the bloody half of it," Newt loudly stated, shushing the Gladers who wanted to know what Newt was going to say next. He pointed down to the box before he spoke again. "I think she's dead."

No one hesitated to express their confusion, but Mara said nothing. She pushed it from her mind for the time being, instead she reached across and picked up woven ropes, handing them to Newt who tied them around himself. Alby did the same thing. A few of the stronger Gladers lowered the pair of Gladers down into the box to retrieve the girl.

The noise that had overcome the Glade soon decreased. Most of the Gladers stood around with solemn looks on their face, kicking over rocks and dawdling around the Glade without saying anything at all. Mara felt bad that she wanted to see the girl, she was just curious, and of course, she wanted to check if the girl really was dead. She could still have a pulse. She could still be alive.

Alby's voice shouted up to them from below the ground, giving them the go ahead to bring him, Newt and the girl to the surface. Grunts cannoned around the boys who were pulling the lifeless body up to the Glade, along with Newt and Alby.

A few seconds later her paled body was lying on the concrete, the boys of the Glade running forward to look, hope floating through the air. Mara was caught in the middle of the group, trying to push her way through to the center of the group. There was a eerie silence over the Glade as everyone peered down at their apparent new dead Glader.

She couldn't get a glimpse of the girl and she had lost all of her friends among the crowd. Every gap she found was quickly closed up by other Gladers. Newt and Alby had emerged from the box seconds later, a path clearing for them to get to the girl.

"Greenie, Mara, get over here," Alby said, not bothering to be polite in his demand.

A feeling of fear and guilt panned through Mara as the boys around her separated, giving her a direct passage to the lifeless body. She didn't know why she felt guilty, but it felt like the girl's death was her fault. You haven't done anything to cause this she told herself, but she couldn't believe it. Maybe this was one of her mothers' consequences.