to love too late

chapter 6 || banishing

I fumbled out of my hammock as the sun rose, walking over to Thomas' hammock to wake him up.

"Rise and shine, sleepy head" I said to the boy, placing my hand on his mouth to cover his screams. 

He still looked frightened, but I ushered him to put on his shoes so we could go to the wall.

"What" He mumbled, eyes still not fully opening.

"Hurry up" I rushed.

We made out way over to the wall of names. The morning breeze rushed past us. The Glade always had a nice temperature, in the early mornings and nights, the air was breezy, while the middle of the day was scorching hot.

"What is this?" Thomas asked me as we stood infront of the wall.

"It's our name wall. It helps us keep track of who has been in the Glade" I replied, looking at the names.

Luckily for us, we didn't have to scratch off anyones names yet. 

I handed Thomas my knife and a rock, having engrave his name on the wall. 

"It's peaceful here, isn't it?" I said, pausing before i begun my next sentence. "Surprisingly, it wasn't always this way. We've lost a lot of boys due to panic and fear." I added.

"Yeah... Why are you telling me all of this?" Thomas asked, stepping back from the stone wall

"You're not like the others, Greenie. You're curious. A tiny bit to curious for my liking, but you're one of us now" I responded. I observed as Thomas pondered his other questions. He seemed to have a never ending amount of questions.

"Has anyone tried climbing up to the top?" He asked. Boy oh boy were these questions getting dumber.

"Tried it. The ivy doesn't reach the top" 

"What about the box? The next time it comes up-" He started before I cut him off.

"Tried that too. Box doesn't go down if someones in there." 

"Okay, what if-" He begun

"Trust me, alright? We've tried every possible way to get out. The only way we can get out is through that maze" I said to him sternly, pointing at the doors that begun opening. Minho and his partner Ben had started running towards the doors.

We've been here for so long, every minute in the maze counts. We can't lose any minute.

Thomas and I walked back to the Homestead as we saw more Gladers waking up. All of them with messy bed hair and groggy voices.

I walked quickly over to the kitchen, grabbing a plate of food from Fry and thanking him before sitting down.

Newt and Thomas quickly joined me at my table, all of us having Fry's bacon and eggs.

"Morning" I said to Newt, not looking up from my plate as I was separating the bacon and eggs from each other so they weren't touching. 

"Good morning, Love" He said. I shot my eyes up at him. This was new. He never called me that. The names usually consisted of Y/N or Greenie.

"W-what?" I said, stumbling over my words. He just laughed as I sat there, mouth slightly agape. 

- - - -

"Winston, I swear to shucking god you need to be more careful" I said to the boy as he walked into the hut, dripping a couple droplets of blood. Clint and Jeff helped in the gardens today, so it was just me.

"I know, I know, I got distracted. One of the pigs was trying to escape" He said, wincing from the pain.

Luckily, his injury today was smaller than the days before. 

"Do you hear that..?" I asked Winston while I was almost done bandaging his hand up.

"What?" He asked. The screams got louder. I quickly rushed through his bandaging and left the hut, looking out at the commotion that stood by the gardens. It looked to be Thomas on the floor while Ben was on top of him?

A group of boys had surrounded all of them. I quickly made my way down, getting a closer look at the fight. Ben had the flare. 

I hurriedly grabbed a shovel from Newt's hand, swinging it at Ben's hand. Knocking him out cold. 

"You guys are all shucking idiots" I said with a loud sigh. "Why didn't you guys get him off of the Greenie"

"We tried! He wouldn't get off of him!" Newt said, trying to reason with me. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Lift up his shirt" I said to Clint. He lifted up Ben's shirt, revealing a large hole looking cut that had black veins running out of it. I closed my eyes at the scene, it was disgusting.

"How did he get stung in the middle of the day?" I asked. All of us were bewildered, no one gets stung in broad daylight.

"Put him in the pit!" Newt shouted. A couple of the Builders grabbed his limp arms, shoving him into the hole.

- - - - 

"So what happened to him?" Thomas asked Newt and I.

"It's called 'The Changing' It's what happens when someone gets stung" Newt replied grimly.

"The infection is spreading. It's making him dangerous. I feel bad for Minho, Ben was his running buddy" I said sadly.

"Anywho, what did Ben say to you?" Newt asked Thomas.

"He was saying how he saw me, and how it was all my fault. How could this be my fault?" Thomas said, his voice trailing off as he finished his sentence. 

"It's not your fault Thomas, just stay away from the deadheads for now. We'll probably banish Ben later tonight" Newt said to the boy. I trailed off back to the hut. Today was already wild.

- - - -

It was just about to be sundown. Everyone crowded in a semi circle around Ben. All the boys held weird looking sticks that looked like a large broom. Pushing the poor boy in a little. 

I sat on the side lines watching with Thomas. 

"Just listen to me. Just, please, please, listen to me" Ben cried as he was being pushed in. 

"Please, Minho! Alby!" He continued.

"Please, please, please, don't do it" Ben repeated.

"Poles! Move in!" Alby instructed. The boys did as they told, closing in on Ben.

"Push him in!" Alby finally said, as they pushed Ben into the closing doors, forcing him to go into the maze. 

Once the doors closed, the sounds of Ben's screams were muffled out. All of us sat by the door, not sure of what to do. From the corner of my eye, I watched as Newt crossed out Ben's name on the wall.

There was a loud sigh from everyone before we all had dispersed into our own worlds.

A/N : hey! gosh i'm on a roll with these chapters. i'm actually doing amazing LMAOOAO