To The Shucking End

Chapter 3

Tanya had been sampling Gally's moonshine since he began brewing it, so naturally, she had a rather high tolerance for it. But not even Gally was immune to the headaches that came along with drinking copious amounts of moonshine.

Which was why she'd taken the easy job of gathering the wood and supplies they needed while the others concentrated on not smashing their hands with their mallets or slipping off the roof.

She was making her way from the Homestead to the Gardens with a pile of cut sticks in her arms when she heard the screams.

"HEY! HELP!" begged a voice and her head whirled to the source. "HELP!" screamed Thomas as he came running from the forest with a petrified look on his face as he waved his arms wildly and someone chased after him. "HELP!" he called again as Tanya dumped the sticks on the ground and went running for them, getting in the middle to see who the person chasing Thomas was.

"Ben?! Hey! What's going -"

Her hands had been on his chest as she pushed him away from Thomas, not caring for her safety at the moment and clearly nothing thinking that her friend would hurt her, but Ben proved her wrong.

He cut off her question with a hard punch to her face that sent her crashing to the ground as he pounced on Thomas who began screaming again.

"I'll kill you!" he snarled at Thomas as he got his hands around the boys' throat.

"Hey!" Newt shouted, gaining Ben's attention before whacking him in the face with a shovel, blood flowing from a wound on his brow. "Hold him down!"

"Calm down, Ben," Gally urged as he, Newt, Frypan and Zart held down Ben's limbs.

"What are you doing?" Newt asked in confusion.

"Tan? Tanya?! You ok?" Gally called over his shoulder to where Minho knelt next to the girl with a hand on her shoulder as Jeff dried the blood from a cut on her cheek.

"A punch to the face does not help a moonshine hangover," she groaned and Gally rolled his eyes, knowing that she was perfectly fine if she was making sarcastic comments like that.

"Yo, what the hell happened?" Frypan asked Thomas as Ben writhed under their hold.

"He just attacked me!" Thomas panted as Chuck checked up on him.

"Calm down, Ben," Gally said, much softer this time as Alby approached them, his eyes going from Thomas to Tanya to Ben who began shaking his head.

"No. No. No," he began to whimper.

"Lift his shirt," Alby ordered as Newt pulled it up.

"I didn't mean it! No! No! Please!" Ben cried as they revealed the puncture mark on his stomach and the red-blue veins of poison that began to spread from it.

"He's been stung," Tanya said, voice so small and full of disbelief as she squeezed Minho's hand.

"In the middle of the day?" Gally questioned.

"Help me! Help me. Please. Please," Ben begged as Alby sighed heavily.

"Put him in the pit," he ordered as Newt and Gally began to give out instructions.

"Alright everyone, help. Grab a limb. Minho, get Tan to the Homestead," Gally said, the boy nodding as he helped Tanya to her feet.

"Med-jack!" Newt called as Jeff moved away from Tanya to help Newt.

Ben's voice could be heard from every inch of the Glade as he screamed, and Tanya just tightened her hold on Minho.

"We have to Banish him," she said, both of them still staring in the direction of the pit.