Sacrifice

Chapter Twenty-One

Claire didn't see The rest of the Gladers until dinner that night. Most of the day had just been spent in their bunks since the building was on constant lock down. The only time they kids got to mingle in the cafeteria was dinner time when the next round of names got called. Claire had spent most of the day answering as many of Karen's never ending questions as she could. She did really like Gwen and wished they could spend some one on one time together, despite of her inability to speak. 

When dinner came around, Claire broke away from Natalie and the others and sat with her friends. Newt smiled when he saw her and immediately scooted over to make room for her next to him. Then Thomas brought her up to speed on his findings from the previous night. Shortly after that, Janson came out with the list of names. 

"Alice...Berry...Walt...Edgar...Samantha..." 

"I want to know what's through that door," Thomas said. 

"...Aaron..." 

"We've been over this," Newt said. "You said they were covered up so you don't know what you saw, it could have been anything." 

"...Dennis..." 

"No, I know what I saw," Thomas insisted. "They were bodies." 

"...Sally..." 

"Aris said they bring in a new batch every night," Thomas said. 

"Who the hell is Aris?" Minho asked. 

Thomas pointed out Aris, who was sitting in his seat, studying a piece of bread that had come with his meal, looking uninterested in anything going on around him. 

"...Henry...Jim..." 

"Well, I'm sold," Minho said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. 

"And last, but not least, David." 

The boy who had eaten dinner with the Gladers the night before excitedly rose from his seat and went to join the kids at the front of the room. 

"Thank you for your attention, enjoy the rest of your evening," Janson said. 

"Okay, until we know anything for certain we should just keep our heads down and try not to draw any attention to ourselves," Newt told the group. 

Thomas immediately rose from his seat and stormed across the room. 

"What's he doing?" Jack asked. 

"I think he's drawing attention to himself," Frypan replied. 

Once Thomas made it to the door, he was stopped by the same guard from the previous night. 

"Kid, you weren't called." 

"I'm just gonna be a second," Thomas said, trying again to move past the guard. 

"This is a restricted area." 

"I just wanna see my friend, so can yo let me through?" 

"Get your ass back in that chair," the guard said, this time harsher. 

For a moment Thomas turned around and it looked like he was going to do as he was told. Then he suddenly launched himself at the door again. 

"Back off!" the guard shouted, pushing Thomas back. 

"What's your problem, man?" Thomas fired back. 

The Gladers ran over to break up the fight before things got ugly. Newt, Minho and Frypan pulled Thomas back. 

"Control your friend!" the guard shouted, pointing at Newt. 

Then Janson came racing back into the room, breaking up the fight.