The Glader

Safe.

 The bus pulled to a stop outside what looked like a dormitory.

A normal dormitory.

I could have cried with relief.

I didn't know what I had been expecting, but somehow I had thought we might be taken back to the Maze.

Inside, it was warm and colorful, full of life.

After living in a wooden house that leaked and swayed with the wind inside a glade filled with other boys, this was the best thing I could have seen.

Bright paint covered the walls, and soft sofas sat in the living room.

Upstairs, we were shown beds- actual beds, not cots or sleeping bags, and dressers— for real clothes, as in, more than one pair.

There were showers that probably had more than one setting, (other than ice water) and bathrooms that didn't smell almost as bad as the Blood House.

Heck, we didn't have a Blood House. Or a Graveyard. If this was Escape, we wouldn't need those anymore.

No one had to die anymore, either animal or Glader.

I was given the bottom bunk, underneath Frypan, a bed with covers. A bed that was the softest thing I had ever sat down upon.

The dresser next to my bed had a T-shirt and pants- as in, real, not ripped clothes. And real, not worn out, sneakers.

Minho summed up everything I was feeling in one sentence. "I've been shucked and gone to heaven."

One of our rescuers, a tall, smiling woman with golden blonde hair, came into our room with a steaming box.

"Who wants pizza?" She asked.

There was a chorus of, "We do!"

And it was passed out, slices of real pizza, golden with cheese and speckled with delicious pepperoni.

Actual pizza.

After not eating anything but food we had cooked (and killed) ourselves for two years, it was the best thing I had ever tasted.

I thought I might cry.

Then a thought hit me.

The dead would have loved this.

Chuck would have eaten at least three slices of pizza and asked for more. Nick would have immediately sat down and stretched his long legs out on a sofa, smiling at our victory. Alby would have smiled- a real smile, not just his half ones, and realized the world wasn't as bad as the Changing had made it seem be.

Then I did cry.

We had escaped, but the cost was far too great.

We had lost friends, more than I wanted to think about.

I had lost my childhood, my innocence, and my hope, and my happiness.

Lying back on my bunk bed, I knew that there was some scars you never recovered from.

But maybe, just maybe, this place, with it's normalcy, could teach me to have joy again.

The End.