Escaping the Maze

Chapter 4

"You know you can't sit in there and mope around forever." Rachel's voice comes from the window. "Get up, you're coming out."
I feel relief flood through me, I'll have to start trying for jobs and finally being like a normal glader, though my appearance tells otherwise.
I push myself up and walk over to the door. The roof is so low that my head almost scrapes the roof.
The door swings open and reveals a smiling Rachel.
"Ready to get out of that box?" She teases, locking the door behind me.
"Yeah. It's nice to know you're not trapped." I say, breathing in the fresh air.
"Well, you're starting your job trials today, so don't get too excited." She says, leading me to a kitchen. I learn that the cook's name is Mabel. She's really nice, and she hands me extra food, since she knew I was locked in the slammer for a week. Looking back, I think she was one that voted for me to be a normal glader.
I thank her, and sit down at a table in the corner. Rachel gets her food and sits beside me.
"So, what's the first job I try?" I ask, eating the food gratefully.
"Medjack I'm pretty sure." Rachel says, and her face scrunches up in thought. It makes her look like a cute little mouse.
I laugh at the thought, and she looks at me curiously.
"What're you laughing at?" She narrows her eyes.
"You're face when you think. It's cute, you look like a mouse." I say, smirking.
"Cute eh. I would like to see you think then." She says, glaring at me. Meanwhile, her eyes gleam with laughter.
"You guys are so cute. Are you together?" A girl with short-cropped black hair says, sitting beside Rachel. She elbows Rachel, and grins at me. "Well?"
"Um-" I start but Rachel cuts me off.
"Maybe you should figure that out for yourself, Melanie." She snaps, and storms off.
"Whoa. She needs to calm down." Melanie says, mostly to herself. Then she turns to me. "So, are you?"
"No-" I start, but again I get cut off.
"Oh shut up. You will be soon." Melanie turns, looking at her friends, standing behind her. One has red curly hair, the other with dyed-blue. "Isn't he cute?"
"Melanie! Time to run!" Someone shouts, and Melanie jogs off.
"Bye." She says, over her shoulder. "See you later. Watch out for-" she says, but bumps into someone, and I can't tell what she says.
I continue eating my food, and a girl comes up and sits beside me.
"Hey." She says, bumping my shoulder.
I turn to look at her, seeing and unrecognizable face. She has straight blonde hair and light blue eyes. I can't help noticing that she's really pretty and she's talking to me.
"Um hi." I say, blushing furiously.
"I'm Baylor, nice to meet you." She smiles, and I look into her eyes.
"I'm Aris." I manage, still looking at her.
"You're staring. Why does everybody do that?" She says, sighing.
"Sorry, you're just really pretty." I say, my face heating up again.
"Thanks, you're kinda cute." Then she shakes her head. "That's not why I'm here. You're coming with me."
I look up, startled. What is this about? "Uh, why exactly?"
"Oh yeah, I'm the head medjack. Forgot to mention that." She holds out her hand.
I slip mine into her's and shake it. Her hand is warm, and small compared to mine. She holds my hand for a little longer than a normal shake, then lets go.
"Come on, first day on the job. Don't be late, meet at the homestead." She smiles one last time and walks out of Mabel's kitchen.
I realize that she called me cute, and I don't even know what I look like.
That's probably the least of my worries, I sigh and head off to the homestead.
I walk up the creaky steps, feeling like I'm going to plunge through the rotten wood at any moment.
"Hey, Aris! You're not late." A voice says behind me, and I turn to see Rachel. I forgot she was a medjack, hopefully she'll be helping me.
"Yeah, I don't really want to be late on my first job. I'd probably get thrown in the slammer for eternity." I say, laughing.
"Nah, Sonya isn't that mean, she just likes a good joke, and that wasn't her fault, you can blame Beth for that." Rachel says, glaring out the window, her jaw set, fury in her eyes. It's all a little too intense, I mean, what's the problem?
"Hey, it's okay. I'm out now, no harm done right?" I say, touching her shoulder, hoping to calm her down.
"No harm done?" She says, and her voice rises. "They locked you up! For a week! That's not fair since you didn't do anything!" She says, looking straight into my eyes, her voice cold.
"Rachel, I'm fine. They did that to make sure I wasn't dangerous, I don't know why they'd think that, but it's over." I say, desperately wanting to change the topic.
"It's just, what if they hurt you? It's not fair." She says, tears forming in her eyes.
"Okay, let's stop talking about this. Save it for another time." I say, pulling her into a hug.
She fights back tears, and I squeeze her gently.
"Ah, sorry to interrupt, but we have an injury that you can help the newbie tend to." Baylor says, tapping me on the shoulder. She looks behind her, checking to see something.
"Oh, yeah, sorry." Rachel says pulling away and straightening. "Bring her in."
A girl about 13 comes in the room, her friend helping her walk, because he can't put pressure on her right leg. She has long curly black hair and deep green eyes.
"Katy! What happened?" Rachel says immediately, rushing over to help her onto a bed. "What's wrong?"
Katy leans on Rachel, as she brings her over to the bed and Rachel fusses over her, like she's her little sister. Maybe she feels she has to take the role of the older sister, when she doesn't have one there to take care of her.
"Um, I was working as a builder-obviously, it's my job-and Beth was teasing me. So, I yelled at her to stop, and she threw a brick at my head. It hit me, and I fell over, into a pile of bricks. I heard my knee crack when I landed on it at a funny angle." She says, wincing as she turns her head.
"Beth threw a brick at you?" Rachel says, her eyes widening. "I'm going to kill that stick. She broke the rules, I'm telling Harriet and Sonya. She harmed another glader." She looked ready to march off at off at the moment, and I said: "and Katy?"
Rachel stopped and turned around, pointing at me. "Right!" She says, and kneels down in front of Katy's right knee.
When I move closer, I see its horribly swollen and red, and twisted at an angle that definitely isn't right.
"You dislocated your knee, and popped it out of place. If we don't get that back in place soon, you will never heal. Of course, you won't be able to walk for a while, and you'll walk with a limp, but you'll heal eventually." Rachel says, standing up.
"Where did the brick hit you?" I ask, stepping closer, ready to inspect the damage.
"Right here." Katy points to the back of her head, and pulls her hair up, grimacing.
I look underneath her hands and suck in my breath. At the bottom of her hairline, a big red gash is gaping open with blood seeping onto her shirt. "Rachel, she has a huge cut from the brick too." I say, and Rachel glances in beside me. "You will have to stitch it up."
"I'll get Baylor to do that, she's been a medjack for longer than me, I'm not the best. I need to pop her knee back into place." Rachel says, clearly not liking this.
"Will it hurt?" Katy asks, holding her breath. "Like a million times the pain I'm feeling right now?" She says, tears forming in her eyes, and making tracks down her dirty face.
"Yes, I'm sorry Katy, but you want this right?" Rachel says, grabbing her kneecap. Katy nods, and then gasps in pain as Rachel grabs the underside of her knee.
"On the count of three." Rachel says, her voice deadly calm. "One...two...three!"
I hear a pop and a scream as Rachel realigns Katy's ligaments.
"Better?" I ask, looking at Katy's pained face.
"Mhm." She says, relaxing a bit.
"Now I'll just get Baylor to stitch up your cut, and you get to stay in that lovely bed until we say you can leave with your crutches." Rachel says, apologetically.
•••
Later, when Katy is all fixed, I go to have dinner with the other medjacks. Rachel, Baylor, and the girl named Melanie that asked us if we were together.
We enjoy our food, and after Rachel pulls me off to find Beth.
She's not in the homestead, or the gardens, or the slaughterhouse. That leaves the deadheads.
"I hate going in here at night." Rachel says shuddering, and huddling closer to me.
I see a dark figure up ahead with long hair, and I assume it must be Beth.
"What do you want?" Beth demands, not turning. "Who is it? Sonya, Harriet? After me for what I did to Katy? Yeah, I know I'll be banished, but hear me out." She says, turning, her moonlight grey eyes shining in the darkness.
"It's not Sonya or Harriet. It's Rachel and Aris." Rachel says, grabbing onto my arm, to stop me from advancing.
"What do you want?" She says, and by the way her voice sounds scratchy I can tell she's been crying.
"Why did you do that to Katy?" I ask, trying to keep the sound of her scream an the image of her pained face out of my mind. "She didn't deserve that."
"I know." Beth says, rising to her feet. "I didn't mean to, one thing I knew I was laughing inside at how Katy got mad, and the next moment anger and madness flared up inside me, and I threw the brick. It was like someone was controlling me, it wasn't me who threw the brick at Katy. It was someone controlling me."
What she just said makes no sense, and I try I scramble for an answer to give.
"I believe you. Lets just pretend it never happened. I'll tel people she fell by tripping over a pile of bricks. If its not your fault, well, I don't know. But just don't say anything." She says, turning away, pulling me with her.
"Thanks you." I hear quietly behind us.