Strange Atmosphere | Aris Jones [1]

10 || Claire's Mistake

I was peacefully sleeping when I heard the sound of Harriet and Esther's voice ringing out next to me. "Rachel, get up," Harriet whispered.

"What?" Rachel asked in a groggy voice.

"Follow us," Esther stated.

I heard Rachel getting up and putting her shoes on. I turned over and watched as she hurried off and followed the other two towards the Walls. I sat up from my hammock, stretching my arms and eventually standing up. I walked away from my hammock and to the nearest post, leaning against it. Once Harriet saw me, she waved at me, motioning me to go over to where they were at.

So, I obliged and jogged towards them. "What's up?" I questioned, a bit confused.

"We figured Rachel could use a friend for this," Harriet answered.

"We were just telling her about...well, you know..." Esther trailed off.

"Some Glenners that died, you mean?" I blurted out, then quickly shook my head. "Sorry, that was--"

"Accurate," Harriet said.

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Rachel asked the other two.

"Because you're not like the others, Rachel," Harriet stated.

"You're curious," Esther added.

"And you're not scared," Harriet said. "That doesn't seem human to me."

"But you're one of us now." She handed Rachel a knife. "You need to know what that means."

Rachel looked down at the knife, then up at the Walls with the names of other Glenners up there. "Are some of them crossed out, because they're--"

"Gone, yes," Harriet responded. "Like I said, there were some dark days in the Glen."

Before Rachel could carve her name into the stone, the Doors began to open. Maeve and Jane were running towards them, then they stopped for a moment and sprinted towards us. "Claire is going to stay in the Map Room today," Jane told Harriet.

Harriet nodded her head. "Sounds good to me."

Maeve kept her eyes on Rachel, observing her closely. "You look like you want to run the Maze," she said to Rachel.

Rachel shrugged her shoulders. "So what if I do?"

Maeve walked towards her with a serious look plastered on her face. "I know you've been told this before, but now you're going to hear it from me. "Let's get one thing straight, Newbie: Never go beyond the Walls, got it?"

Rachel nodded her head. "Yeah, got it."

"Good," Maeve stated, then she began to run towards the Doors.

Jane followed right behind her. "You act like a crackface sometimes," I heard her joke with Maeve.

"Shut up, Jane," Maeve retorted, almost laughing as they ran into the Maze.

Rachel looked back at the stone and began to etch her name right next to mine.

*******

The day went on like it usually did. The Glenners had breakfast, then got started on their jobs for the day. All of the Bagger spent the whole morning in the Deadheads, fixing more graves and cleaning them off. Then, after we had lunch, we did some more things in the Deadheads before we split up around the Glen, watching over everyone else, as there was nothing else to do in the Deadheads.

Later that afternoon, Lillie and I were assigned to the Gardens with the Planters. Rachel was over there today, mostly working closely with Sonya. We were studying Rachel carefully, still looking rather curious not only about the Maze, but also about other ways to escape. "Has anyone tried climbing to the top of the Walls?" she asked.