Escaping This Ivy Nightmare

Chapter 2

Audrey woke to find her three friends missing. She looked around the room to see most of the beds were occupied, three others were empty. She sat up, slipped her shoes on, and walked out of them room.As she was doing this, she wondered what she was going to do, if she found her friends dead, or missing for real. She immediately regretted the decision to go looking for them, but trekked on anyways.

Once she got outside, she noticed a group of six standing by the west door. She made her way towards the gladers, smiling when they saw her.

"Morning Greenie." Alby called, waving at her. Newt stood beside Ben, and had failed to notice her until Alby called out. "We're just seeing off our runners."

"We'll see you later Audrey, don't worry about us too much, the grievers are mostly asleep during the day." Thao explained, giving her a side hug.

"Later, greenbean." Minho called, as he followed a sandy-haired boy into the maze. Audrey decided this must be Ben.

"Morning love, how'd you sleep?" Newt asked, slinging his arm around her.

"Terribly." Audrey scoffed, rubbing at her eyes. "Do grievers really sleep for most the day?"

"Yeah, that's why we send the runners out so early. After screeching like that all night, they hole up for a few hours." Alby answered her before Newt had a chance to. "Ready for your tour today?" 

"I think so, but as for the whole job bit, I'm telling you right now I'm not doing anything that involves killing animals or running from monstrous animal machines." She stated, making both Alby and Newt laugh. 

"So what's that leave us with for you? Track-hoes, Cooks, Builders, Med-Jacks and Sloppers?" Alby grinned, listing off the names for Audrey to hear. 

"Who comes up with the names for these things?" 

"We do." Newt smiled, watching to see how Audrey would react. 

"Track-hoes, Sloppers? What do they do? The other three are pretty much self-explanatory..." 

"Track-hoes are in charge of gardening, taking care of the weeds that pop up and harvesting the food for the cooks when it's ready." Alby explains, pointing over towards the garden "It's where Newt works most days." 

"That explains why your shirt is covered in dirt." Audrey mumbled, glancing at Newt with a smile. 

"And Sloppers... well they are basically maids. They make sure the homestead stays neat, they muck out our pee pots. They do all the jobs no one else wants." 

"Im not doing that either, so take me to who ever I need to see for any of the other four jobs." Audrey decided, looking over at Alby now.

"Four as in Med-jacks, Cooks, Builders and Track-hoes?" Alby clarified, and Audrey nodded her head. "Okay, follow Newt and I."

"Let's go to the Track-hoes first." Newt suggested, leading them towards the Gardens. As they approached the Gardens, Audrey noticed about five people working away. "Hey boys." Newt called, slapping one of the boys on the back.

"Hey Newt, Alby. Hi Greenie." He responded. "My name's Zart. I'm keeper of the Gardens." Audrey stared at him, giving him a slight nod. What was with the names around here? She wondered. "You interested in being a track-hoe?"

"Maybe, I don't know yet." She replied, looking to Newt. Newt smiled at her, before handing her a hoe.

"Try it out, see what you think." He told her, grabbing a pair of gloves for her as well.

"Remember Greenie, if you pick this job, you have to spend the whole day with this shuck-face." Alby laughed, gesturing to Newt.

"Sounds awful."