Rogue | Group B → The Maze Runner¹

ii.eight

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● [ viii . the next day ]

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THE FOLLOWING evening, Rogue found herself amongst the Jailers beneath the Decision Tree, staring up at Rachel. The Blondie stood before the Clan, her face pale and hands fidgeting. Only two seats were left empty — Sonya and Florence remained confined to the Ward. Occasionally, Sonya's screams would cut through the Glen and startle the girls. At least she's alive, Rogue thought, though it pained her greatly to hear her friend's struggle.

'As your First-in-Command, I declare this Calling begun,' Harriet said, sighing as she spoke. 'As you all know by now, the last few days have been nuts. For some reason, quite a bit of it seems to have something to do with the Blondie, Rachel.' She gestured in front of her, where Rachel stood.

'Not the Blondie... anymore,' Rachel corrected, her voice trailing off as she spoke. Her face flashed with embarrassment.
'That's right,' Beth retorted. 'Just a rule breaker now, isn't it?'

A rumble of murmurs and whispers spread across the group, but Harriet quickly shushed them. 'Beth, stuff it. Now's really not the time. If you're not gonna shut your gob and be serious, you can bugger off, because I'm not in a particularly jolly mood.'

Beth folded her arms and leaned back in her chair, signalling a key to her lips. 'Thank you,' Harriet said. 'Moving on. The reason we're here tonight is to discuss what to do with Rachel. Almost every stick in the Glen has come up to me, chatting about this girl, and I've had it. It ends tonight. And Rachel,' she said, addressing the girl in front, 'you speak when you're spoken to. Got it?' Rachel nodded. 'Good. Miyoko, you first.'

'Well,' Miyoko began, her eyes darting around nervously, 'I don't know... she broke our most important rule. We can't let other girls be thinking that's okay.' Miyoko paused and looked down at her hands, rubbing them together. 'But then again, she's... changed things. Me and Rogue, we can help her with the maps — we have someone who can survive out there. We have someone who can kill the Crawlers.'

Rachel seemed relieved. Rogue saw her and Miyoko share a quick smile before Marie the Clogger interjected. 'Yeah, right. I reckon it was Rogue that got the bastard things.'
'Actually, it wasn't,' Rogue replied coldly. 'You don't know the half of it, Marie. None of you do.' 

'Both of you, shush,' Harriet said, motioning to Hashslinger. 'You're next, Hash.'
Hashslinger leaned forward, her hands clasped between her knees. 'Blondie's got more guts than all of us combined. All this rule-breaking klank sounds stupid to me — she saved Sonya's life, binned off some Crawlers, and we're sitting here like we've been-there-done-that.'

'So what are you proposing?' Harriet asked.
Hashslinger folded her arms. 'Get her in the Maze, like Miyoko said. Have her train us on what they did out there.'