~|Charge|~ Thomas

Chapter 8: Great, More Boys

Everything in the glade was somewhat perfect. If you could call it that. Waking up in a strange place with no memory is not the definition of perfect, but how the glade was going and how Linnea and Nick were adjusting to the situation was going well. It was going perfectly.

Nick, easily adjusted to the life in the glade, but not out. Not out in the maze. That was not his jurisdiction. Every day, Nick would stay in the glade, tending to the plants, feeding the chickens that were sent up in the box with him, making food, and doing anything he would need to do in the glade. Linnea, on the other hand, would go out into the maze. Everyday, at dawn, when the doors opened for the day, Linnea was ready, out with her runner pack, tennis shoes laced up, and she was ready to go. She was ready to go run in the maze, trying to find something that could get them out of there. Something. Anything.

With no luck, she stayed back with Nick one day, the day that would mark Nick's first month in the glade, and Linnea's second. Two whole months had she been there, and one of those months was spent alone.

That morning, they were awakened, them on opposite sides of the shelter, from the same alarm. The Greenie alarm. Another person was being sent up. Another person was being taken from their old life and brought into this dreadful new one. But it wasn't going to get any better than it was. That was why where they were at right then was perfect. 

Quickly, sharing a look of knowledge with each other, Linnea and Nick dove out of their shelter, Linnea grabbing her jacket to shield her from the cold of the morning. 'Another Greenie,' was the only thought in  both of their minds. 'Another glader.'

Watching as those same dreadful doors lifted up and out of each other, revealing the new Greenie. Or Greenies?

Inside the box, were four boys. 'Great,' Linnea thought. 'More boys.' All three of them shared the same expression. Fear. Confusion. And fear once again.

Opening the doors that shielded them from the light, Nick dropped down a rope for the newbies to come up on as Linnea jumped down into the box. As she lifted her head, she was met with the brown eyes of a blonde boy, who couldn't have been much older than herself. The boy moved back as she reached forward to grab him. "Hey," Linnea said, with a comforting tone. "It's okay. My name's Linnea. Can you tell me yours?"

The boy shook his head, just as Nick had done. "I can't remember." His body shuddered as she grabbed his hand, attempting to help him up. Behind them, though, a larger, taller boy with brown hair and blue eyes stood up.

"Well I don't know about you guys," he said, his voice deep and kind of off, showing that he was somewhat older than the others. "But I'm gonna get the hell out of here." Behind him, a darker skinned boy stood up, agreed with him and climbed up the rope after him.

Linnea turned around as the blonde haired boy finally took her hand, and his eyes lifted above them, looking at the sky above them, which was now changing colors, showing that morning was there. Helping him up, Linnea got the boy over to the rope and Nick lifted him up, but the girl's eyes shifted over to the sound that was echoing from the corner of the box. Crying. 

Over in the corner of that metal box, was the last Greenie that hadn't gotten out of the lift yet. There, Linnea saw the boys appearance. He was an Asian boy, with brown eyes that were red because of his insane amount of crying that must have gone on since he woke up in the box.

"Hey," Linnea bent down to reach his eye level. "Are you okay?" When she received no answer, Linnea tried a different approach. "Why don't we get you out of the box and you can see where you are?" Still no reply, but the boy finally looked into her eyes, his seeming somewhat familiar to the brown-haired girl, as if in her past life she had known him.