There's A Bigger Picture

//Chapter Six\\

Isn't it strange how every person seems to have a specific scent about them? It's always there, sometimes obvious and sometimes just a lingering faintness. I buried my face into the blanket again, inhaling deeply, trying to distinguish the smell I so longed for under all the sweat and dirt that had collected on the blanket over the past few years since it first came up in the box. The blanket, worn and tattered, seemed to be a physical representation of all of us; we were definitely not much appearance wise, but somewhere, deep down inside, there was still a small spark of who we were before the maze broke us. Some of us were more broken than others, and so some of us were harder to find.

Newt's hammock creaked slightly as I adjusted my sleeping position. After my conversation with Thomas last night I was too tired to walk all the way back to my hut, and I figured a night out in the fresh air was bound to do me some good. I hadn't cried for too long last night, but I really had to fight to keep myself together as I climbed into Newt's empty hammock.

The sunshine was just starting to creep over the east wall when I heard a distant shout. "Katy!" Someone yelled again, this time closer. I sat up and scanned the area around me, and that's when I noticed Thomas running frantically in my direction. "Thomas? What's going on?" He looked visibly relieved to see me, and had to catch his breath for a second. "Kay someone broke into your hut last night. The door was smashed down." A nauseating feel settled in the pit of my stomach as I tried to digest the words Thomas just said. My hut? Broken into? "Come on, we've gotta go find Alby. He has a theory.... And he wants us to meet him in the council hall." I nodded and walked alongside Thomas. His eyes scanned the area of the entire Glade, as if he could single out the culprit with his eyes.

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"Wait you think what?" I asked our leader. "I think that whoever did this did it on purpose, not as a result of being drunk or anything. And I don't think they had good intentions.... I also have this gut feeling that somehow, this connects to what happened with Newt."

Only a select few boys had been brought here, either because I absolutely trusted them, or they had a solid alibi. Thomas, Alby, Zart, Frypan, Jeff, Clint, and even Gally. The only one who wasn't there that should've been was Chuck, and that's because we all agreed he was so young, and we didn't want any potential plan being leaked accidentally by him. It was better if he was left out of this part of the process. "What? How would it connect?" I asked urgently. Alby glanced at me before quickly looking away and replying, "It's just a feeling. I don't have it figured out yet either, and not much of this makes sense to me." He stood. "But the things I do know, are that someone was after Katy, and it has to be a glader. Not only do we have our rules about not harming another glader, but we have even stricter rules when it comes to Katy. I also know that we have to take shifts being around her. She is not to be without monitoring for one second until we find out who was behind this. Clear?" All the boys nodded seriously. "Alby I don't think that's really necessa-" "Katy. We've all promised to watch each other's backs in here. Now somebody's broken that promise, but we're still going to watch out for each other. And right now, that means we're looking out for you." Every eye in the room was on me. "Okay." I agreed.

Eventually we had a plan set, where one guy would be with me for a 3 hour shift, and another guy would be watching from farther away for 3 hours as well. The boys were on a rotation. Also, Alby suggested I sleep in Newt's hammock over by Thomas until we could fix my door or until Newt regained consciousness.
My work in the gardens served as a distraction, but not a rock solid one. I couldn't stop thinking about my hut, Newt, and how on earth we were going to figure out whoever it was that had also broken in.