Into The WICKED Maze | A Maze Runner Story (English Version)

30. Banishment

Without Nick or Alby having to announce it, all the keepers were already gathered in the meeting hut. We were the last to arrive, so we sat down near the door.
"All right then. You know why we are here. Alfred was stung by a Griever and now it is up to us to decide what will happen to him. Any suggestions?"
Gally's hand shot up and I knew what he was going to say even before Nick took him on.
"We have to banish him. That's completely out of the question, isn't it?"
"Hey, he's still one of us, all right? He's one of our runners."
Minho had stood up, ready to do his job as Alfred's keeper and to protect him.
"Now come on, Minho, you're not that stupid. After what happened to Anna and Stan that time, surely we should all realise that it's far too dangerous to keep a stung man with us. Or do you want to risk someone getting hurt?" He looked at him with raised eyebrows.
I too had stood up and was now holding Minho to stop him from going after Gally. "Hey, calm down now. Gally is just worried, like us."
I felt him breathing faster than normal and his muscles tense under my grip, but he sat back down after a few seconds.
"So, as I understand it now, we have two opinions, right? Then we should take a vote. Who's in favour of Alfred staying here with us and we wait it out, at the risk of something similar to what happened to Stan back then?"
Minho's arm shot up and I also hesitantly spoke up, after all I was Alfred's keeper and my duty was to look after him.
No one else came forward except us, just as I expected. No one wanted to risk what Nick had just described.
"Okay. And in return, who is in favour of us banishing Alfred today and avoiding the risk?"
This time all the remaining keepers came forward, as well as Nick, Alby and Newt, who had been leaning against a pillar with his arms folded the whole time. When our eyes met, he looked at me apologetically, but I just shook my head placatingly. I understood why he had to come forward on this.
"Alright, that settles it, we'll banish him, tonight, before the gates close. Clint, you and Jeff take him to the hole, he can do the least damage there."
Nick quickly left the room, closely followed by Alby. I could imagine what was going through their minds right now - they were thinking of George.
One by one, the keepers also left the room, some looking at us pityingly, others, like Gally, literally rushing out. Clint stood indecisively beside us for a few more seconds and then, shoulders drooping, made his way to the sani hut.
In the end, only Minho, Newt and I remained.
"I'm sorry, but I had to sign up for this. The danger is just too great after what happened to Stan..."
I shook my head and just hugged him, happy that he was holding me and making everything a bit more bearable with his presence. Together with Minho we left the room and made our way to the sani hut, where Alfred had come to himself and was talking crazy.
"He talks about something 'not good' all the time. Wicked or something." Jeff shook his head in confusion.
Minho and I exchanged a look. We were thinking the same thing, that much was certain. I remembered the moment more than two years ago when I had last consciously thought of that name - W.C.K.D. At the time Minho and I had come to the conclusion that it must mean something and was perhaps the key to our escape from here, but after that we had never heard it again, only read it over and over again on the walls in the maze and the supplies that came up to us with the box.
Suddenly Alfred tensed up and the next moment was screaming and thrashing wildly trying to get the restraints off.
"Jeff, we have to keep him quiet!"
Clint had just stirred something together and was watching in horror as the other paramedic struggled with the boy on the cot.
Just as I thought Alfred was about to be released and we'd have to subdue him, Newt shot forward, snatched a wooden tray from a small table and pulled it over the boy's head, causing him to slump back unconscious on his cot.
"Thanks," Jeff groaned, looking at Newt with wide eyes.
"No problem," he replied, a touch too calmly. I took his hand and squeezed it.
"Well done," I whispered.
Minho stood beside me, massaging the bridge of his nose, apparently to calm himself.
"You've got to be kidding me," he muttered. "Such a klunk."
I put a hand on his back. "Come on, there's nothing we can do here anyway. Let's go somewhere else."
He nodded in agreement and we left the hut. Newt headed back to the fields, so there were only two of us left and we sat down on a log away from the others, from where we watched Jeff and Clint carry Alfred to the hole only a few minutes later.
"Hey, we need to calm down. It's not our fault Alfred got stung. We always told them there was no way we were splitting up in the maze. Now it's happened like this. Believe me, I'm as horrified and sad as you are, but we have to accept the others' decision."
"You're right, but to think that we're going to send him out there tonight.... That's his death, Anna."
I knew he was right and yet I didn't want to imagine what would happen to him if he was in the maze at night. I squinted my eyes and shook my head to push away the images that popped into my head.
After what seemed like an eternity of just sitting there in silence, I remembered that we had actually wanted to talk to Nick and Alby today.
"I think we'll postpone talking to Nick again, don't you? That might not be the best idea today."
Minho nodded in agreement. Then we fell silent again.
We sat like that until the sun slowly began to disappear behind the walls. Near the gate, the lights gathered one by one, the keepers and leaders armed with long staffs that had devices at their ends to encircle and - if necessary - propel someone forward, and the rest with spears. I had known they existed, but in the years I had been here we had not had to use them. They had been built because of George, Newt had told me once.
"Minho? It's time."
He looked up and caught sight of the gladers, too. Then he stood up and patted the dirt off his trousers.
"Well then, come on. Let's go get him."
Together we walked across the glade to the hole, our only kind of prison, where gladers who broke the rules were usually locked up. I looked towards the sun and realised that the gate would close in a few minutes.
I opened the bars and Minho jumped down to Alfred to get him out. He just lay there silently looking at us with tears in his eyes. We lifted him up and each put an arm over our shoulders to support him. I knew he wouldn't hurt us because I had seen how Stan had been the night after the stabbing. Calm, honest. He had remembered.
And so had Alfred. He limped between us and I could hear stifled sobs as he tried not to show how he felt. It hurt when he clutched at me, pulling out a few hairs, but I didn't complain. I just looked straight ahead, fighting with myself inside.
We reached the gladers and the keepers made way for us to drop him off in front of the gate.
"Alfred, from now on you have to walk yourself," I whispered as we let him go.
He fell down, picked himself up again and tried to stand up straight, holding his stomach where the Griever had stung him. In his eyes I saw nothing but fear and despair and I had to avert my eyes to keep from crying myself as Gally handed me a staff.
"Please," he whispered, looking back and forth between Minho and me. "Please, let me stay."
But he got no answer, instead Fry Pan tossed him a bag of supplies in case he needed them. He picked it up and sought my gaze again, but I concentrated on staring at a point above him.
"Go now, Alfred." Nick took a step towards him and we did the same, wands pointed at him. The gate made a deafening noise and began to close, whereupon we advanced and Alfred was pushed back more and more. Between the walls that were closing in on him he stopped because we would go no further.
"Alfred, come on, it's going to crush you!" Minho and the boy only seemed to come round now.
He ran and made it through before the gate closed completely. Just before it closed with a bang, he turned around again on the other side and looked directly at Minho and me. Accusing, frightened.
That was it for me. I turned, thrust my staff into Gally's hand and ran towards my hut. There I threw myself on my bed and sobbed loudly. After a short while I heard the door open and Minho sit down on his bed.
It took me a while to calm down and sit up, but all Minho whispered when I looked at him was "Such a klunk."
27 months and 8 days.