The glue that held me together: a Newtmas fan fic

Chapter 6

Before I reached Alby, he started walking to the box without waiting for me. I ran ahead, not wanting to waste any time. We stopped when we were looming over the closed box. The box was closed at the moment, so I could get an actual look at what it was. The box was double doors of metal were on the ground covered in cracked white paint.

"This is the shucking Box," Alby said. "Once a month, we get a new Greenie. Once a week, we get supplies, clothes, some food. No one knows where it comes from but we need the stuff it brings us, although we get a lot of these ourselves. We've got electricity and we grow and raise most of our food."

I thought for a moment. "Have you ever tried-"

"Done it. We've tried every single shucking thing you can think of, shuckface. Tried to send someone down the box. The shucking box wouldn't budge until they took him out." I thought about Alby had said. What if I was to drop a stone down the box? Would it land? Would I hear the sound of it hitting the bottom on the Box?

Alby continued talking. "The Glade is in four sections. Gardens, Blood House, Homestead and Deadheads."

"What are they?" I asked.

"Calm down, Greenie. We grow our crops in the Gardens and water is pumped through pipes because it never rains 'ere. The Blood House is where we raise our animals and slaughter 'em. The Homestead is where some of us sleep. Most of us sleep outside. The Deadheads is the Graveyard. The Graveyard's in the corner which is behind the woods, as ya probably noticed earlier today with Newt." He sounded irritated when he said that last sentence.

"Ya'll spend the next two weeks working one day working for one of the Keepers, which is the person in charge in a particular job. Some are Sloppers, Builders, Baggers, Track-Hoes, Slicers, and Runners."

"What does a Runner do?" I asked.

Alby turned me seriously. "Under no circumstances, you will never go in the Maze, Greenie. But if ya really want to know, they run through it every day and mappin' it, trying to find a way out." I turned around and looked at the Maze doors. The runners go into the Maze every day. Every day, they have been looking for a way out; every day for two years. For two years they have been looking for a way out. Surely they must be close.

"Newt mentioned the window last night," I said. "What is it?"

"I'll take ya." Alby took a few steps in front of me, leading to me the Maze doors.