Left Behind -Gally-

Chapter 33

Everything was different.

The Glade was destroyed. Fires continued to spread, and people were still trying to put them out.

Emma felt numb inside. Her mind felt distant, like she was floating outside of her body. Nothing made sense anymore. Alby was dead. Zart was dead. More of her friends were dead. Brandon, Dmitri, and Alex. So many Gladers had perished. Jordan was one of them. Left powerless in the Pit. An easy target.

She couldn't help but feel guilty about that.

Thomas had stung himself in the leg. Chuck found the other syringe in the rubble. Teresa injected it into him, and Emma hoped it would help him like it did for Alby.

Instead of bringing Thomas to the Med-Jack hut, he was brought to the Pit. Teresa was as well.

Gally had taken control of everything. He managed to convince most of the Gladers that everything had fallen apart because of Thomas and Teresa. They were responsible for it all, he had said. Alby remembered things before he died, and he had told them. He told them that he remembered Thomas.

Gally used that to spark fear inside everyone.

So, Teresa and Thomas were sent to the Pit, where they would wait to be Banished at the next sundown. If anyone had a problem with that, they would join them. If anyone didn't want to follow him, they would also be Banished.

Emma wasn't sure who Gally was anymore.

He wasn't the same boy who helped her with Jordan. Or the same boy who kissed her in the Med-Jack hut. She didn't recognize him anymore, and that terrified her.

Emma had never been overly brave or confident. She always did what other people told her to do. She was clumsy and awkward and didn't speak up for herself. So, when Gally told her that they were leaving, she listened.

While some Gladers worked to put out the fires, she sat at a table. It was the only table left standing. Her eyes were on the tree hut, which was partly destroyed on the bottom. The top was now inaccessible. There were a lot of memories created there, some of her favorites—all involved Gally.

And now it was destroyed, and Gally was a different person.

She knew nothing would be the same again. Things would never go back to normal. There was nothing left of the Glade. Thomas had said, before everything fell apart, that he may have found a way out of the Maze. What if he was right? What if there was a way out? They had to try. Emma knew staying here wasn't an option, but she needed Gally to understand that too.

Maybe that was why she found herself with him after the rampage on the Glade. After he took control of everything, the others, her friends with a remaining sense of rationality, went to the Pit. Thomas and Teresa were inside, and they were keeping an eye on them.

She knew what they were thinking. That Gally had lost his mind. That he had always been this way, but now he had the power to make things happen. Emma knew there was good in Gally. Right now, he was just scared.

"Are you going to say anything?"

Emma's grip on his fingers tightened slightly. The washcloth in her hand gently patted his palms, which were rubbed raw at some point in his fight to survive the Grievers. "No."

Gally huffed. He was still angry. That much was obvious. He was angry at Thomas and Teresa. He was angry at himself for not doing more. He was angry at Emma for following Thomas willingly instead of going with him. For helping him after he stung himself. For not vocally taking his side when he voiced his thoughts to the others.

"That's a first." She always had something to say or knew what to do to make a situation better.

Emma sighed loudly, retracting her hand. "You won't need stitches."