𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐍 & 𝐄𝐂𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐘-𝙜𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮

TWENTY-THREE

I stayed with Teresa a little longer until lunch came and I told her I would go get lunch for us. When I caught up with Nico and told him my plans, he decided to tag along.

I introduced him to Teresa and after an awkward moment from her, they got along fine. He retold her jokes he's already said to me and I groaned in mock annoyance, but after not hearing them for a while, I still found them funny.

He stayed a long while after lunch-it was close to dinner-and I asked him if Zart was going to get mad at him for not going back. "It's a slow harvest. Besides, a lot of boys are starting to slack off."

"Why?"

Nico cut a quick glance at Teresa. "They're all unsure what's going to happen. And with Alby not walking around to monitor everyone, they're just doing whatever."

I looked over at our leader. He was starting to get his color back and looked better by the minute. I hoped that he would wake up soon and bring some order back to this place.

"Have you had a chance to talk to Gally yet?" Nico asked.

I bit my lip and shook my head. Part of the reason that I wanted to stay in the Med-hut during lunch was so that I could avoid Gally. Not that he went out of his way to talk to me anyway. "I feel like I really messed up."

"Who's Gally?" Teresa asked.

"Tall shank, mean looking." Nico explained.
Teresa nodded. "He's the one who took Thomas to the...Slammer last night?"

"Yeah."

"Do you guys have something together?"

Her question made me blush. "Uh, yeah." I sighed and looked away. "Or we used to, but ever since Thomas ran out into the Maze and you came up, he's been acting weird." My eyes widened. "I mean not that it's your guy's fault or anything."

Teresa chuckled. "It's okay. I get it, I guess. I'd be mad too if someone came up disrupting the peace. Or however peaceful it gets here."

"Not much." I grumbled. I heard a groan come from Alby and immediately ran to his side. "Alby?"

"Florence?" He opened his eyes slowly and he stared up at me.

"Oh my...Go get Newt." I told Teresa. "Nico, help me untie him." Teresa ran out of the hut and Nico and I got the rope off of Alby. He sat up slowly, staring off in front of him. "Alby?" He didn't respond and I looked at Nico who just shrugged.

A second later Newt walked in with Minho, Thomas, Teresa, and Gally behind him. I looked at Gally and then looked away when he caught my eyes. I sucked in a breath. "Has he said anything?" Newt asked.

I shook my head. "He's just been sitting there."

Thomas crouched in front of Alby. "Hey, Alby. I think we might have found a way out of here. We could get out. Do you hear me?"
Alby stayed silent for a moment and then in a small voice said, "We can't."

"What do you mean?" Newt asked.

"They won't let us. I remember..."

"What do you remember?" Thomas asked eagerly and the look on Alby's face gave me a feeling that maybe we didn't want to know what he remembered.

"You were always their favorite." A tear fell down Alby's cheek, leaving behind a trail. "Why did you come here? Why did you do this?" Alby sat back and began to sob.

The sound of boys yelling outside pulled my attention away from Alby. I ran out, almost confused by the sudden darkening of the sky. Something felt off. The boys ran towards the Maze doors and I frowned. The rest of the group ran out and Thomas stopped Winston as he passed us with a torch. "Winston, what's going on?"