The Glader

Talking Reason

Alby swung his feet up on the bed and sighed. "Whatever. Do what you want."

"Do what I want? What's wrong with you, man?" I sprang to my feet, grimacing as my bad leg took most of the weight, "Are you tellin' me we have a choice? Should we just sit around on our butts and wait to be snuffed by the Grievers?"

The Leader of the Gladers looked at me evenly. "Well, it sounds better than running to them."

I sat back down slowly. "Alby," I said, "You gotta start talkin' reason."

My friend took a deep breath, his face creasing with an unidentifiable emotion. "You guys know I'm all screwed up. Seriously, I'm... sorry. I shouldn't be the stupid leader anymore."

My mouth fell open. Alby... not leader? That somehow didn't make any sense in my mind, a disconnect between the words and what could possibly exist. And did that mean I would play leader? I had gotten more than enough of that for a lifetime the day that he, Minho, and Thomas had gotten trapped in the Maze. "Oh, bloody-"

Alby cut me off before I could swear. "No! That's not what I meant. Listen to me. I ain't sayin' we should switch or any of that klunk. I'm just saying... I think I need to let you guys make the decisions. I don't trust myself. So... yeah, I'll do whatever."

My brain shorted out. "Uh... okay..." I said, not sure how to answer that speech, "We'll make it work, I promise. You'll see."

"Yeah," Alby said softly.

I blinked a few times. The changing had whacked Alby worse than I had thought. Minho and Tommy were both shocked mute.

Finally, Alby sat up straight, the old light coming back into his eyes. "Hey, tell you what. Put me in charge of the Maps. I'll freaking work every Glader to the bone studying those things."

"Works for me," Minho said.

Alby jumped up, the enthusiasm of the old Alby returning, "Ya know, it was really stupid to sleep in here tonight. We should've been out in the Map Room, working."

Minho shrugged, saying, "Probably right."

We had been more focused on safety than solving the Maze. If there was any of us left by tomorrow, I'd do my best to help find the exit.

"Well... I'll go. Right now," Alby said.

"Forget that, Alby," I shook my head. "Already heard the bloody Grievers moaning out there. We can wait till the wake-up." No maps were worth my friends' lives.

"Hey, you shucks are the ones giving me all the pep talks. Don't start whining when I actually listen. If I'm gonna do this, I gotta do it, be the old me. I need something to dive into. Seriously, I need this."

I understood that he needed to find work to bury the Changing memories in, but I didn't want him to become Griever-Chow. "You can' be serious. You can't go out there now!"

"I'm going, and that's that. See you shucks in the morning," he shook his keyring and walked out.

Spent, I lay back down. Alby was an enigma, and the Changing had shuffled his playing pieces.

Sighing, I closed my eyes, hoping to get a bit of sleep.

As if