𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗘 .ᐟ

❛ the changing ❜

𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗔𝗦 felt a hand cover his mouth as he slept. his eyes opened immediately finding alby reaching down to his face. his pointer finger rested softly against his lips signaling thomas to be quiet.

alby shushed him before removing his hand from thomas' mouth.

"follow me." alby says, motioning him to follow.

thomas watched him as he began to walk away, sitting upright in his hammock, grabbing his boots and sliding them on.

he quickly caught up to alby who was walking towards the fields.

"it's peaceful, isn't it?" alby asks, "i know it's hard to believe, but it wasn't always this way."

the two continued walking, to where? thomas wasn't quite sure. his eyes looked down finding a knife in alby's hand, causing his nerves to biild up even higher.

"we had dark days." alby continues, "we lost a lot of boys to fear. to panic. but we've come far since then. established order, made peace."

"yeah." thomas nodded, squinting his eyes at alby, "why are you telling me this?"

"because you're not like the others." alby explains, taking a step toward thomas, "you're curious. but you're one of us now." alby says, handing the knife to thomas, "you need to know what that means." alby points to the wall he had led thomas too.

thomas turns to the wall of the maze, finding dozens of names carved into the stone. he glances toward alby, in which alby responds with a nod of approval. thomas walks up to the wall, reading each name.

gally.

minho.

wick.

newt.

alby.

archie.

chuck.

frypan.

zart.

ben.

emilia.

his eyes scanned over all the names he was familiar with. most of the names on the wall were plain. a few of the others, etched out.

j̶u̶s̶t̶i̶n̶.

a̶l̶f̶r̶e̶d̶.

s̶t̶e̶p̶h̶e̶n̶.

g̶e̶o̶r̶g̶e̶.

l̶y̶n̶.

thomas ran his hand over the names, staring at the crossed out ones he didn't recognize.

"what happened to them?" thomas asks, staring at the wall.

"like i said," alby says, "dark days, thomas."

thomas nods sympathetically, shifting the knife in his hand to have a better grip on it. he stepped forward toward the wall, finding an empty spot, raising the knife up, and he began carving his name.

𖧷

𝗧𝗛𝗢𝗠𝗔𝗦 dug the shovel in his hand into the ground, staring intently at the maze as he pulled the tool out of the ground, before digging it back into the ground of the garden.

"has anyone tried climbing to the top?" thomas asks the boys near him.

"tried it," newt responds, as he ties the vines of a vegetable plant to the wooden fence with a wire, "the ivy doesn't go all the way to the top." he explains, taking in a breath, "and besides, where are you gonna go from there?"

"yeah, well what about the box?" thomas retorts, "you know, newt time it comes up, you just jump—"

"no, we tried that," newt cuts him off, glancing to zart who is sitting on the ground, "the box won't go back down with someone in it."

"okay, well, what if we—"

"no, we tired it, all right?" newt says with a giggle, cutting him off once more, "twice, all right? trust me, anything you think of, we've already tried." newt explains, "the only way out of here is through the maze."

thomas nods at him in defeat, tightening his grip on the shovel in frustration.

"now, look, you want to be helpful?" newt says, leaning down and grabbing an empty bucket sitting by his feet, "here, go dig us up some more fertilizer." newt say, unexpectedly tossing the empty bucket toward thomas.

thomas scrambles to catch the bucket, almost dropping it. he pulls the small shovel out of the bucket. newt smiles at thomas, and zart giggles at his curosity. the greenie rolls his eyes, turning on his heal, and makes his way toward the woods.

𖧷

"𝗝𝗨𝗦𝗧 get the fertilizer, thomas." thomas says to himself as he stomps through the mud in the woods.

"are you sure, guys? can't help in any other way? nope, just get the fertilizer." he continues to mumble to himself, "you know where it is— it's just out in the middle of the woods. just go get the fertilizer, thom—"

"thomas, huh?" a voice cuts him off.

thomas jumps at the sudden sound turning around toward the voice.

"so the greenie finally learned his name?" emilia leans against a tree, crossing her arms, "took you long enough."

thomas stares at the girl in front of him, "i, uhm— i was just—"

"newt sent you out here to get fertilizer?" she asks, taking a step towards him.

"were you— were you here the whole time?" thomas asks, ignoring her question.

"no," emilia shrugs, "i just heard someone talking to themself."

"oh." thomas says.

"i'm emilia." she introduces herself.

"i— i know," thomas stutters, "newt told me."

"what'd he say?" emilia raises a brow.

"n-nothing," thomas says, choosing not to bring up anything about the maze just yet, "just that you're the only girl."

"i am." she smiles.

"it must be annoying." thomas says.

"what?"

"being the only girl." thomas explains, "are you always in the woods?"

"most of the time," emilia says, "i don't really associate with a lot of the boys. only a few."

"how come?" thomas asks.

"you ask a lot of questions, don't you greenie?"

thomas sighs at the nickname, "sorry."

"it's all right," emilia responds, "it's refreshing, honestly. greenies usually don't ask so many questions. so it's nice to see some curiosity."

"that's the second time today."

"what is?" emilia asks.

"that someone has called me curious."

"well," emilia begins, "are you curious?"

"yeah." thomas says.

"what about?"

"the maze."

emilia smiles a bit, "what about it?"

"what's in there," thomas says, "every time i mention it, everyone shuts me down."

"hm," emilia tilts her head at him, "it's a sensitive topic for most of the boys. it's not one for me though."

thomas' head perks up, "it isn't?"

emilia shakes her head, "it's not."

"why not?"

"why don't i help you find that fertilizer newt sent you out here to get?" emilia says, "i'll explain a little bit on the way."

thomas smiles and nods, looking down at the bucket in his hands.

"c'mon, this way." she walks toward him, placing a hand on the back of his arm, leading him to where it is.

𖧷

"𝗜 𝗨𝗦𝗘𝗗 to be a runner." emilia explains, stepping over a log.

"newt mentioned something about that." thomas says, following her closely behind.

"of course he did." emilia laughs, "what else did he say?"

"he said that you weren't to fond of greenies."

"he's right about that." she says.

"if he's right, then why are you talking to me?" thomas asks.

emilia goes quiet for a second, "i don't really know, actually." she explains, "you just seem easier to talk to than the normal greenies."

"oh," thomas says, "thanks, i guess."

"you're welcome." she replies.

"so what happened?" thomas asks.

"with what?"

"you said you used to be a runner," thomas says, "so why aren't you anymore?"

"it's a long story." emilia says, "i'll tell you about that another time."

thomas softly smiles to himself. for a reason he wasn't quite sure of just yet, it seemed to him that he had somehow gotten on the girl's good side, and he felt somewhat proud of himself for being able to do so, "okay, another time."

thomas looks around at the area they are passing though. he stops in his tracks when his eyes land on a small wooden grave.

emilia turns around, hearing his footsteps come to a halt, "what are you doing?"

thomas kneels down looking at the grave. a small piece of wood sits against the grave. the name george carved into it.

emilia walks back over to thomas. she stands behind boy as he looks at the grave.

thomas turns and looks up at emilia. he stands up to speak, but as he goes to say something, his eyes land on a figure behind her instead, startling him.

emilia turns around, stumbles backwards at the unexpected person. her eyes widen in fear as she realizes the boy is ben. and his appearance was not his usual one. his eyes were dark, the whites of them now being a grayish color, and veins were protruding out the sides of his neck.

thomas regains his composure, taking a step toward ben, "uh, ben, right? i don't know if we uh, ever..."

ben lets out a low growl, telling emilia everything she needs to know.

"hey, are you okay?" thomas asks genuinely.

"thomas..." emilia mumbles.

suddenly, ben lunges at thomas, tackling him to the ground. emilia attempts to grab thomas' wrist but misses. she panics as she watches thomas struggle against ben's grip. she spots a large rock in the corner of her eye, and runs to grab it.

"get the hell off me!" thomas yells as ben grabs his wrists, pinning them to the dirt.

"it's your fault." ben bares his teeth, thomas' eyes widen in fear, "i saw you. you did this." ben grunts, "i saw you!"

ben digs his nails into the skin of thomas' wrists, causing thomas to shout in pain. ben releases one of his grips on his wrists, moving his hand straight to thomas' neck. thomas gasps for air as ben begins to strangle him.

emilia hears his desperate gasp. she tightens her grip and quickly hits ben in the temple with the rock in her hand, knocking ben off of thomas. she reaches down and grabs thomas helping him to his feet quickly. ben scrambles to his feet, and the two begin sprinting, with ben following closely behind

thomas and emilia continue to run, hearing ben's grunts and growls from behind them. the two make it to the top of a small hill in the woods before ben manages to grab a hold on thomas, causing both boys to trip and roll down the hill. emilia rushes after them, pulling thomas up off the ground, before continuing to run.

"hey!" thomas screams, hoping the gladers would hear him. thankfully, they did.

newt hears thomas' desperate scream, and stands up trying to find where it was coming from.

"help!" another scream comes from the woods, this
time, emilia's voice.

all of the boys around newt stop what their doing, rushing to the woods. they all watch as both thomas and emilia sprint out of the woods. ben directly behind them.

ben jumps forward once again, knocking emilia out of the way, tackling thomas to the ground. thomas shoves ben, attempting to get him off of him.

"i'll kill you!" ben shouts.

seeing thomas struggle, newt runs to them as quickly as he can, taking the shovel in his hand, hitting ben on the side of the head with it, knocking him off of thomas.

"hold him down!" newt shouts, trying his hardest to keep ben on the ground. gally, frypan, and archie quickly come to help newt.

thomas stands up off the ground. he stares at the boys on top of ben, before turning to emilia. he runs over to her, helping her to her feet.

"are you okay?" he asks.

"yeah." emilia responds breathlessly, looking towards the rest of the boys.

"what the hell are you doing?" newt asks ben. ben grunts, trying to get out of the boys hold.

"calm down, ben." gally says.

"what the hell happened?" archie shouts looking at thomas.

"he just attacked me!" thomas says, trying to regain his breath.

alby slowly walks over the ben, looking down on him.

"no. no, no!" ben grunts.

"all right, lift his shirt." alby says.

"no! please, i didn't mean it!" ben says.

"lift his shirt." alby repeats.

ben lets out a grunt as archie grabs the material covering ben's stomach, revealing a red and purple wound, with veins protruding from it.

the surrounding boys let out gasps, and looks of disgust.

"he's been stung." gally says as alby kneels down beside him. gally looks to alby, "in the middle of the day?"

"help me," ben begs, "please just help me."

alby stands up, "put him in the pit."

"c'mon everybody help take him to the pit." archie says, grabbing a hold of ben.

"med-jack!" newt shouts, motioning wick to come over.

"no! no! please!" ben shouts, fighting back.

"calm down ben!" wick says.

the boys surrounding him all help archie pull him off the ground before carrying him to the pit.

thomas watches in horror as ben screams for help.

"he did this!" ben screams at the boys carrying him.

thomas turns around toward where emilia stood, but instead, finds no one.

𖧷

   "𝗦𝗢 what happened to him?" thomas turns to alby.

alby looks around the hut they were now sitting under, "it's called the changing." alby explains, "it's what happens when someone gets stung."

"listen," alby says, shifting in place before moving down to sit next to thomas, "we haven't been able to get a clear word out of ben since it happened. you know, he's not making any sense. and it's only gonna get worse. the infection is spreading. he's dangerous." he pauses for a second, "what did he say to you?"

"um," thomas hesitates, looking down at his hands, "he- he said he saw me. and that this is all my fault." he turns to look at alby, "how could this be my fault?"

alby sits in silence for a moment, "all right, get some rest." he says, standing up and patting thomas on the back.

"what- alby?" thomas says.

"yeah?"

"what's gonna happen to him?"

𝗔𝗩𝗔'𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧𝗘 !

and they've met ❤️

plus a little mention of a new character?!?

much love!
ava

[ 2.3k words ]