~|Charge|~ Thomas

Chapter 10: The Dark Days

Then the dark days came. And they came hard. They came with sadness. And they came with pain. Pain that would stain the hearts of the gladers for the rest of their lives. The smiles on their faces burnt out. All happiness was drained. They tried to keep some, but it was hard. Pain was hard. The suffering; but they would have to endure through it. That was the only way they would get through it. The only way they could cope.

It started with a good day. An amazing day. Linnea had just ran out in the maze with Minho, Newt, and George, her three best friends. They had some news. They had just figured out about changing sections that were provided to them. It was the first clue they had found since Linnea had even arrived there. It was amazing, reassuring. They had a clue.

The Runners entered the glade with smiles as they approached the building that Gally and the other builders had built them, where they went after their expedition every day to map out what they had found that day during their run.

When they left the room, all excited to tell their leader, Nick, about the crazy news, they were met with him, outside of the doors. His eyes were red and he definitely did not look right. His hand was shaking, and he was not looking up. His eyes stayed on his feet.

"Nick," Linnea approached him. When the blonde boy finally looked up, Linnea and the other Runners stepped back, almost afraid of the boy, just because of the look he was giving them. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Nick managed a smile, but Linnea knew, just because of the look, that it was fake, and almost sarcastic. "I'm just tired."

"That's too bad," Minho said, popping out his hip in his normal, sassy manner, laughing. The boy always found a way to get a laugh in.

"Yeah," George agreed. "I think we might have to have a bonfire after we share the news that we just found."

"Oh, yeah," Linnea smiled, laughing and taking another look at Nick, a look of concern. "I definitely will want some of Gally's moonshine tonight." Sad to say it, but the girl had a bit of an alcohol addiction. She only had it when they had bonfires, but still, when she had it, she had a lot of it. Gally had his special moonshine recipe. Who knows what else was in it. Or even what it was. Most of the time, Runners never drank, just because they would have to wake up the next day early and go out running, but Linnea didn't really care. Neither did George. Those two would get so drunk that they could barely walk. It was funny. During bonfires, they also had fights. Not aggressive ones, due to one of the three main rules they had. Never harm another glader. The ultimate goal of the game, that was made when Gally challenged Linnea saying that he could definitely beat her, was to get the other person out of the circle. Linnea was the champion every time. She was undefeated.

"Okay," the blonde boy across from them said, his tone changing from sarcastically happy, to an almost cold expression, all in those two sentences that were spoken out of his mouth. It was strange. Not like Nick at all. Maybe he was just tired, but something was definitely odd about him. Something wasn't right.

~**************~

That night, after the bonfire, where the Runners announced the news, Linnea lay in a hammock, near her three best friends, Newt, Minho, and George. Even though she had her own shack that Gally had built her, because the one she had originally been in, was turned into their jail, which was called the pit, or as Linnea normally called it, the slammer, she would rather, on nights that they drank, sleep in a hammock with the rest of the boys, just in case something happened. To her, or one of her friends.

Before she drifted off into her deep sleep, a thought crossed her mind. As every night led her, she thought about the boy in her dreams. If he was real. Was he missing her? Every month Linnea waits, hoping that he would come up, but after all of that time, he hadn't. She also waited for another girl to come up, but she hadn't had any luck with that either, so the boys would just have to do.