Piper was peacefully sleeping when she heard the sound of Harriet and Esther's voices ringing out next to her. "Rachel, get up," Harriet whispered.

"What?" Rachel asked in a groggy voice.

"Follow us," Esther stated.

Piper could hear Rachel getting up and putting her shoes on. She turned over and watched as Rachel hurried off and followed the other two toward the Walls. She sat up from their hammock, stretching her arms and eventually standing up, walking away from the hammock and to the nearest post, leaning against it. Once Harriet saw her, she waved, motioning Piper to go over to where she and the others were.

So, Piper obliged and jogged toward them. "What's up?" she 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?" Piper blurted out, then quickly shook her 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 toward 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 toward 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," Piper 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 Piper's.

*******

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

Later that afternoon, Piper and Lillie were assigned to the Gardens with the Planters. Rachel was over there today, mostly working closely with Sonya. They were carefully studying Rachel, who was still looking rather curious not only at the Maze, possibly thinking about other ways to escape.

"Has anyone tried climbing to the top of the Walls?" Rachel asked.

"Tried it," Sonya replied. "The ivy doesn't go all the way to the top. Besides, where are you gonna go from there?"

Rachel bit her lip, trying to think of another way to leave the Glen. "Well, what about the Box? The next time it comes up--"

"No, we tried that," Sonya cut her off. "The Box won't go back down with someone in it."

"What about we--"

"No, we've tried it, okay? We've tried everything already. The only way out is through the sticking Maze." Sonya huffed a sigh, leaning against her shovel. "Do you want to be helpful?" Rachel nodded her head. Sonya took a basket with a small shovel and threw it at Rachel. "Go and dig us up some more fertilizer."

Rachel exhaled loudly and headed off to the Deadheads.

"Have you guys really tried everything to get out of here?" Piper asked.

Sonya nodded her head. "What else do you think we've done in the last two years other than create all of this?"

Piper nodded her head. "Good point."

She, along with Lillie, hung around the Gardens for a bit longer until they decided to go patrol somewhere else. Before they could walk away from the Gardens, there was a scream.

"Hey! Help! Help!" the voice cried out.

"Does that sound like Rachel to you?" Piper asked Lillie. She nodded her head, looking worried.

Before they knew it, Rachel came running out of the Deadheads and back to the Glen with Claire chasing after her. Claire grabbed her foot, causing the both of them to tumble to the ground. It was when Claire got on top of Rachel that Lillie snatched Sonya's shovel from her hand and ran over toward the girls, followed by the rest of the Glenners. Once Lillie was over there, she took the shovel and whacked Claire across the face. Claire screamed in pain, falling to the ground and off of Rachel.

Sonya, Esther, Beth, and some Planters came over and pinned Claire to the ground. "What happened?" Sonya questioned.

"She just attacked me!" Rachel insisted. Piper helped her get up from the ground as she brushed herself off.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Esther asked Claire in shock.

"It's her! I saw her!" Claire yelled back. "She did this to us! It's all her fault!"

Beth opened her mouth, trying to find the words to say something, but she couldn't.

"What's going on?" Harriet intervened, looking down at Claire.

"Claire attacked Rachel," Sonya stated.

Harriet had a frustrated look on her face. "Put her in the Slammer for now. Keepers, meet me at the Homebase. The rest of you, get back to work. We'll let you know what will happen next."

"What? No! No, please, Harriet, no! Listen to me!" Claire protested as the girls helped her up and took her to the Slammer.

"Are you okay?" Piper asked Rachel with concern. She nodded her head. Piper looked over at Lillie. "Nice hit." She looked at her with a blank face, then put the shovel down. "Rachel, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine," she replied, panting. "That was intense. She just attacked me all of a sudden."

"I think the Changing really affected her," Piper stated.

Rachel shot me a puzzled look. "The what?"

"The Changing," she answered. "It's what a person goes through when they get stung by a Griever. It's a painful process, but they get better eventually."

The three of them headed to the Homebase and sat down in their hammocks. Rachel shook her head and then shrugged her shoulders. "She wanted to kill me. She said that I did this to you girls, that this was all my fault." She looked down at her fidgeting hands. "I don't get it. How can any of this be my fault?"

Piper looked out at the Doors, letting out a sigh. "I have no idea."

Maeve and Jane walked back in the Glen when Mary and Cora went up to them, explaining to the Runners about the incident. Maeve headed for the Homebase while Jane went the other direction, probably going to the Map Room.

"I wonder what Maeve has to say about all of this," Piper said. "I think in the end she'll make the decision about Claire's fate."

"What do you think will happen to her?" Rachel questioned.

Piper turned her head toward Rachel, a somewhat sad look on her face. "Probably a fate worse than death."

They all waited patiently for the Keepers to come to a decision on Claire's punishment. The tension in the air was thick and the suspense was killing everyone, including Piper. her heart was pounding faster and faster the more she thought about it.

Harriet, Sonya, and the Keepers finally came out of the Homebase and motioned all of them to gather around. Once everyone, minus Rachel, was surrounding the Keepers, Harriet stepped forward, swallowing hard. Then, she began to speak. "What Claire did to Rachel was unacceptable, as she broke one of the rules we have here in the Glen. Therefore, after some serious consideration, we're going to hold a Banishment for Claire."

The crowd erupted into outbursts. "No, you can't do that!" Beth protested, looking and sounding genuinely upset at this.

Harriet got everyone quiet, then looked at Beth in a serious way. "It's been decided, Beth, and we're not going back on our decision," Harriet replied firmly.

"Gwyn, how could you agree with them on this?! Claire is our friend!" Beth shouted.

She shook her head. "Who's to say she won't attack the Newbie again? I'm sorry that it had to come down to this, but we have no choice. She broke one of our rules, so this is the price she has to pay."

The Glenners all stayed quiet for a moment, then Sonya spoke up. "Jane, go get Claire from the Slammer. Everyone else, let's grab the poles and get this over with."

While Jane went to go fetch Claire, the rest of the girls retrieved poles from the Homebase. The Glenners got normal-sized poles, but the Harriet, Sonya, and the Keepers got longer T-shaped poles with rope tied up at the top. They all made a circle by the Doors and watched as Jane had a crying Claire in her grasp. She was thrown in the middle where they could all see and enclose her in the circle. Jane took the small backpack in her hand and tossed it in the Maze.

Claire looked up at Harriet, tears streaming down her face. "Harriet, please, don't do this." She looked at Gwyneth. "Gwyn...please..."

Gwyneth gave her a sad look. "I'm sorry, Claire."

The wind began to pick up and the gears on the Doors were about to prepare for closing. "Poles!" Harriet shouted, making everyone point their poles toward Claire. Just as the Doors were beginning to close, Harriet let out another order. "Move in!"

So the Glenners all moved in on Claire, trapping her with only one way out, which was in the Maze. She shook her head, sobbing even more. "No! No! Please, don't do this to me! I'll change, I promise! Please!"

But no one was backing down now. Despite her efforts to shove the poles out of her way, they continued to push her until she was inside the Maze. She moved quickly before the Doors crushed her body. Piper got one final look at Claire before the Doors were fully shut. Her piercing scream lingered in my mind. She looked at Rachel, who had a terrified look on her face.

Harriet looked down at the grass, sighing in sadness. She looked back up and glanced at all of us. "She belongs to the Maze now. Come on, let's go eat dinner. I know I'm not the only stick here who's starving."

So the girls all took the poles back to the Homebase and went on with dinner. Gwyneth and Beth were the only ones who didn't show up and spent their time grieving upstairs.

Piper and Lillie sat with Rachel, who hardly ate anything. "It had to be done," Piper told her.

"Yeah, I know," she said, still staring down at her food.

The rest of dinner went by quickly for everyone. That night, Esther handed Piper a torch and led her to the Walls where their names were at. Gwyneth was standing beside Beth, holding a torch, letting a few tears fall down her face. Beth had the knife in her hand, her eyes swollen and her face wet from the tears. Beth began to cross out Claire's name with the knife, putting a line through it, signifying that she was gone and that she was never coming back. When she was done, she stepped back and closed her eyes, letting some more tears fall down from her face.

"I'm sorry," Piper spoke up, looking at Beth, then Gwyneth. "I know that she was your friend and you two were really close to her."

Beth opened her eyes and shot her an annoyed look, not saying a word. She walked past Piper, a hurt look on her face, followed by Gwyneth, who gave Piper a slight nod, thanking her silently.

"Well, that's done," Esther said.

"She won't make it out there tonight, will she?" Piper asked, even though she knew the answer to that.

Esther shook her head. "No, she won't."

"So what do we do now?"

Esther turned her head towards her. "We move on. That's what we do."

~~~~~~~

A/N: 2 chapters in one day? I'm on a roll!

RIP Claire. You will be missed (?)

Song above is Banishment by John Paesano.

Comment, vote, more soon! :)

-A