Fervency

CHAPTER: E I G H T E E N

They arrived at a clearing. The Gladers were formed in a giant circle surrounding something. Elodie pushed past to see what was going on.

"It's not supposed to come up yet." she heard a Glader worry. The sound of metal grinding against metal filled the air. She spotted two metal doors, which Newt and Gally lifted away, exposing what looked like a metal cage. Newt leaned over to get a better view of what was inside.

The sound of a goat bleated in the distance, while the entire group surrounding fell silent.

"What do they see down there?" Thomas wondered. Both Newt and Gally exchanged glances as if it was something terribly bad.

"It's a girl" he looked back to the others. The crowd erupted in chaos as everyone started talking at once.

"I call dibs on this one!"

"What's she look like?!"

"How old is she??"

"Well what's wrong?" another Glader shouted. Gally turned to the crowd, "Two years, nothing has changed. Now this. "

"We shouldn't even have a new Greenie, yet..." Newt whispered to himself. The crowd erupted in disarray, all trying to push each other in hopes to catch a glimpse of what she looked like. Elodie could hardly catch a breath, so she attempted to leave the crowd. She was violently pushed over in the process.

"Hey, you okay?" Thomas helped her up. She nodded.

"That's not bloody all" she heard Newt continue, "I think she's dead." Gasps echoed throughout the group. A group of them came inside to pull her out and Clint and Jeff were called over to see if she was alive or not.

"Greenie, get over here!" Gally called. Elodie exchanged glances with Thomas briefly before he pushed through the crowd. She caught a faint glance of the girl. She had skin white as pearls and hair as black as night. Her stomach sank in disappointment as she studied her--it would have been great if there was another girl she could relate to, but she was dead.

"Do you know the girl, shank?" Gally asked Thomas with accusing eyes.

"Do I know her? Of course I don't know her!" he shouted.

"He meant: does she look familiar?" Newt asked him.

"Do you get any kind of feeling you have seen her before?" Gally clarified. Thomas just shook his head furiously.

"This can't be a coincidence!" the builder announced.

"You don't think I-" Thomas began, but Newt inturrupted. "Slim it, Greenie. We're not sayin' you bloody killed the girl." Newt said.

"I swear, she doesn't look familiar at all!" Thomas said anyway.

"Hey, what's that?" Gally pointed to her hand. Newt bent forward and slipped what looked like a note out from between her fingers.

"She's the last one: ever." he read aloud. The crowd erupted in chaos once more and Elodie rolled her eyes, sick of the hysteria. She made her way away out of the crowd and walked far from it. She had a feeling of extreme uneasiness in her gut, so much that her head was spinning. All the yelling made her feel ten times worse.

"Hey, where you going?" Minho called out, pushing past a few Gladers to follow her.

"I don't feel well." She grumbled, taking a seat on the first tree stump she found. "Do you want me to get Jeff?" Minho knelt down to be at eye level with her. She looked into his eyes for a brief moment. They were full of concern. Her lips lifted in a crooked grin.

"Since when do you care?"

"Since always" Minho said as if it was common sense. Elodie released a short laugh and then shook her head. "I'll be fine. Go see what's going on. Just promise you'll tell me what happens later."

"I'll think about it" He joked, before standing to his feet. "Just take care of yourself. Have some water or something."

"Yes mom"

Elodie ended up inside her treehouse. She didn't know why but the second that girl arrived, she felt despair. The words that were written on the card Newt read aloud didn't sit with her well. 

Knocking sounded from beneath the hatch. It soon morphed into what sounded like the jarring pop of several gunshots. Elodies eyes widened and her heart immediately began pounding furiously. Then the hatch opened. Immediately, she held her pillow up to defend herself.

"Elodie" Minho's voice called. He repeated himself a second time and that too morphed into shrieks of terror.

"It's okay." he called out, as he slowly crept towards her. She felt his weight beside her on the bed but something told her she still needed to protect herself. 

He reached forward and tried to take take the item from her. Instead, her breathing sped up and she refused to hand over the pillow. His eyes fell upon her knuckles which were white from her intense grip. Slowly, he unpried each finger from the fabric, until finally, she had let go. It was as if she had been snapped from a spell. She was now completely normal.

"What did I miss?" she asked him. Minho measured her for a moment as a mixture of concern and uneasiness crept filled him.

"Well..." he cleared his throat, deciding to play along. "She knows Thomas."

"Did she wake up?" She wondered.

"Just for a second." Minho shook his head, "She said "everything is going to change." Whatever that means..."

He watched closely as a long shaky sigh tumbled from Elodies plump lips.

"Something is not right, Minho. Something is not right." Suddenly, the hatch swung open and in popped Newt's head.

"Hey! I was wondering where you went off to." he greeted Elodie. Minho sent the trackhoe an icy stare but he proceeded inside the treehouse anyways.

"You alright?" he sat on the other side of Elodie. Minho rolled his eyes in annoyance as she turned to him.

"I just don't have a good feeling about this."

"About what, love?"

" "everything is going to change"" she quoted the girl, "something's gonna happen."

"And..." Newt trailed, "something probably is. The best we can do is prepare ourselves, okay?"

"I coulda said that" Minho grumbled in annoyance. Elodie turned to him, with a hint of amusement behind her stare.

"I say we go to the bonfire tonight and have ourselves a good time." Minho hopped to his feet and announced. "We can't sit here scared like sissies."

"Good that. We're no better than Gally at this point." Newt agreed, "Besides, who knows, this could be the last time we get to do something like this."