Me vs My Mind

The Tour

They started at the Box, which was closed at the moment—double doors of metal lying flat on the ground, covered in white paint, faded and cracked. The day had brightened considerably, the shadows stretching in the opposite direction from what they had seen yesterday. Neither of them had spotted the sun, but it looked like it was about to pop over the eastern wall at any minute. 

Alby pointed down at the doors. "This here's the Box. Once a month, we get a Newbie like you two, never fails. But yesterday was the first time we ever got two, let alone a girl. Once a week, we get supplies, clothes, some food. Ain't needin' a lot—pretty much run ourselves in the Glade." 

Grace and Thomas nodded, but Thomas's whole body itching with the desire to ask questions. I need some tape to put over my mouth, he thought. 

Grace giggled in amusement at the boy. 

"We don't know jack about the Box, you get me?" Alby continued. "Where it came from, how it gets here, who's in charge. The shanks that sent us here ain't told us nothin'. We got all the electricity we need, grow and raise most of our food, get clothes and such. Tried to send a slinthead Greenie back in the Box one time—thing wouldn't move till we took him out." 

"That answers that question." Josie said out loud as a few others nodded in agreement. 

Thomas wondered what lay under the doors when the Box wasn't there, but held his tongue. He felt such a mixture of emotions—curiosity, frustration, wonder—all laced with the lingering horror of seeing the Griever that morning. 

Alby kept talking, never bothering to look either of them in the eye. "Glade's cut into four sections." He held up his fingers as he counted off the next four words. "Gardens, Blood House, Homestead, Deadheads. You got that?" 

Thomas hesitated, then shook his head, confused. Grace nodded slightly. 

Alby's eyelids fluttered briefly as he continued; he looked like he could think of a thousand things he'd rather be doing right then. He pointed to the northeast corner, where the fields and fruit trees were located. "Gardens—where we grow the crops. Water's pumped in through pipes in the ground—always has been, or we'd have starved to death a long time ago. Never rains here. Never." He pointed to the southeast corner, at the animal pens and barn. "Blood House—where we raise and slaughter animals." Grace quickly looked away as he pointed at the pitiful living quarters. "Homestead—stupid place is twice as big than when the first of us got here because we keep addin' to it when they send us wood and klunk. Ain't pretty, but it works. Most of us sleep outside anyway." 

"Clearly." Hayley said out loud. 

"Clearly." Grace said, thinking back to the night before. 

Hayley and Grace both smiled slightly at the fact they both said the same thing. 

Thomas felt dizzy. So many questions splintered his mind he couldn't keep them straight. 

Alby pointed to the southwest corner, the forest area fronted with several sickly trees and benches. "Call that the Deadheads. Graveyard's back in that corner, in the thicker woods. Ain't much else. You can go there to sit and rest, hang out, whatever." He cleared his throat, as if wanting to change subjects. "You'll spend the next two weeks working one day apiece for our different job Keepers—until we know what you're best at. Slopper, Bricknick, Bagger, Track-hoe—somethin'll stick, always does. Come on." 

Alby walked toward the South Door, located between what he'd called the Deadheads and the Blood House. Grace and Thomas followed, wrinkling their noses up at the sudden smell of dirt and manure coming from the animal pens. Graveyard? They thought. Why do they need a graveyard in a place full of teenagers? That disturbed them even more than not knowing some of the words Alby kept saying—words like Slopper and Bagger—that didn't sound so good. Thomas came as close to interrupting Alby as he'd done so far, but willed his mouth shut when Grace poked his side and shook her head. Alby made a rule not to touch her, he wouldn't be stupid enough to break that rule, but he never said anything about him, and that was something Grace caught onto.