The Maze Girl

Spying on the Greenie

It was nearly dinner time soon. Our little gang went to the homestead to wait for dinner. A few jabs about the Greenie were interrupted by Ben screaming. I groaned. I honestly was hoping he wouldn't make it. The serum promised otherwise, though.

I'd never been particularly close to Nick. Shuck, I barely even spoke to him unless I needed to. But if those two really did hurt him, they broke one of our rules, and ought to pay some form of penance. An eye for an eye, y'know?

After not too long, the Greenie burst in and started toward the stairs. Gally hurried to interrupt him. And while that was going on, I snuck up the stairs.

Newt and Alby were in Ben's room, so of course they let me in. For some reason, Newt had some sort of power over what Alby does whenever he was there, it didn't matter whether Alby wanted me there, Newt had the final say. He's nice like that, y'know? An actual gentleman among these shanks.

I moved to a corner as I heard footsteps at the stairs. It was obviously the Greenie. Gally and I were the only ones who knew how to get up quietly, and I had high doubts anyone would go up after seeing the Greenie and Gally arguing about it.

I made a quick noise as the Greenie appeared in the doorway. He saw Benny baby for only a moment before Alby got in his way. Even in that second, he looked sick just from a glance.

"What're you doing up here, Greenie!" Alby yelled, more than asked. He certainly sounded angry as he pushed the Greenie out of the room.

"I... uh... want some answers," said the Greenbean. His voice sounded weak and small. And a bit high for a guy.

"Get your runtcheeks down those stairs, right now," Alby ordered. "Chuck'll help you. If I see you again before tomorrow morning, you ain't reachin' another one alive. I'll throw you off the Cliff myself, you get me?"

There was silence for a while until the stairs creaked and Alby came back in alone.

"Sounds like a curious one," I said.

"He just had his nose where it didn't belong," Alby responded.

"Not that it even belongs anywhere yet," Newt spoke up, looking over from the bed.

Alby nodded. "Eliot," he said, "would you mind scaring the klunk out of him in the morning? Just take him to the window, maybe push him around a bit."

"Can't," I said, crossing my arms. "Gally'd skin me alive if I got up early to see the Greenie."

"I could do it," Newt said. "Not like I have much else to do."

Alby nodded. "Good that. Now get to dinner, Eliot. Before someone freaks out."

I knew he meant Gally. I did as I was told.

In the line to get dinner, I was standing next to Chuck.

"So," I said casually. "What's the Greenie's name?"

He looked at me sideways. "Thomas," he said. "And he ain't so much a klunk."

I chuckled. "Don't worry," I said. "I'm not going to bother the shank. I just want to know who he is."

I grabbed a sandwich and went over to sit with Gally. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I shook my head.

Later that night, while everyone lay asleep, I was at the window, looking out. No Grievers had been by in a while. I was starting to think they knew where the window was and avoided it.

I put the vines back in place and looked up. I was suddenly glad I wasn't afraid of heights. I quickly wrapped a vine around my right leg and grabbed on with my arms. I pulled myself, with all the metal weight on me, up the vine to a set of loops I had tied there several months before. It came in handy to have a place like this.

I sat in the largest loop and quickly slid my arms and legs into other loops so my back was to the wall. I took a loose vine and tied it around my torso, then pulled several vines in front of me. I'd wake up easily while I'm a sitting position, so I could watch the Greenie see his first Griever.

I woke up to a beetle blade sitting on my nose. There were voices below as the little bug jumped off.

"When you bloody need to know, you'll know, Greenie," I heard Newt say.

"Well, it's kind of stupid to send me to a place where nothing makes sense and not answer my questions," Thomas said. Then as a sort of afterthought, he added "shank." I smirked. The word sounded funny out of his mouth.

Newt laughed, but cut it off quickly. "I like you, Greenie," he said. "Now shut up and let me show ya somethin'."

That was enough for me. I quickly slipped out of the ivy and started climbing, no longer able to hear their voices. It was a long way up, but I eventually reached the top of the wall.

The other Gladers thought the vines didn't go up all the way. They just didn't know the right path. If you throw the vines, they catch on hooks or rocky outcroppings, and then you can tie and climb it. The hard part is staying up. I'd 'ave told them about the way up if it were safe, but once you get up, the wind and the shaking walls are about enough to throw a person off. I only felt safe because of a safety vine tied on my waist and because the extra weight of the blades made it harder for the wind to throw me off. Besides that, it's just a matter of keeping low to the wall.

I looked down toward the glade. From up here, you could barely see more than the four quarters.

I looked up and noticed the sky was starting to lighten. I got up to climb down, but lost my grip on a vine and started falling. I scrambled to grab hold of a vine and finally got a hold of one when I reached the loops. I exclaimed as both shoulders were jerked out of their sockets. "Shuck!" I swore, as quietly as I could.

Slowly now, I started sliding down from the vines. Every time I moved my arms it hurt, but I had to get down. I lost my grip again just before reaching the ground and heard a crack as I hit the ground.

Luckily, Jim, part of our gang, happened to be there and he helped me reach the homestead and the med-jacks.

My shoulders had simply been dislocated, so they were put back in place easily, though it was very painful. My ankle, on the other hand, was worse damaged. They made me stay in the medical dock, as they called it. It was just the second floor of the homestead. They would come in every hour to change the bandages on my hands. Apparently I had skinned them while grabbing at the vines. They also prodded at my ankle, trying to figure out how bad it was. At around lunch, they bound my ankle, saying it seemed to be broken pretty badly. No wonder my boot had seemed to be too small.

Gally brought me lunch, a grilled cheese and bacon sandwich. He still didn't seem to get that I couldn't tell the difference beyond appearance. Oh well.

He said Thomas was being pretty normal, for a Greenie. A silent tour so far. I guess Gally took it upon himself to check out the Greenbean's activities since I wasn't. I was grateful.

He gave me a kiss on the cheek before leaving.

I spent the rest of the day and the night in the medical dock.