[ chapter 04. banishment ]

LISA

Even though I had stayed up most of the night partying with the Gladers at the bonfire, I woke very early the next morning, feeling wide awake. The sun had barely even risen when I woke up in my small room in the Homestead. It was my first official day in the Glade and I already hated this place. It wasn't the fault of the boys, it was the fault of whoever put us in here. I hated the empty pit inside of my mind where my memories used to be, I hated the huge walls that surrounded us. Except for the people I hadn't found much to like.

I quickly realized I wouldn't be able to sleep anymore and so I made my way out of bed. Putting on my boots and my jacket, I left the room in a hurry, ready to find some breakfast. I met the Glade's cook yesterday at the bonfire. His name was Frypan but I was convinced it was a nickname, no parent would ever be stupid enough to name their kid Frypan.

Making my way towards the kitchen I could already smell the delicious scents of bacon and eggs. He told me yesterday he always had to get up early to cook for the Runners, which was just my luck. I entered the kitchen, my eyes scanning the huge amount of tables and chairs before I headed towards the counter.

An asian boy in runner gear was leaning against it. His black hair was styled perfectly and his eyes shone brightly as he watched me walk towards him. 'Lisa isn't it?' He said, studying me.

I nodded, coming to a halt next to him. 'And you are?'

A small smile appeared on his face. 'Minho.' He looked as though he wanted to say more but Frypan's voice interrupted him. 'No time for flirting!' The cook came walking up to us from the other side of the counter, holding a plate with eggs and bacon in his hand. He handed it to Minho. 'Time for breakfast.'

'Frypan, my man, I'm only gonna say this once,' Minho said, taking the plate out of his hand. 'There is always time to flirt.'

'Too bad all your effort will be for nothing,' I told him, forcing back a smile as I watched his expression fall.

He put the plate down on the counter, turning to me. 'And why's that Greenie?'

'What's up with that nickname? It's ridiculous,' I told him, folding my arms over my chest.

He studied me for a couple of seconds before responding. 'Well, you better get used to it. Seems like you're the last one.'

A frown appeared on my face, remembering the letter the comatosed girl had been holding. 'Yeah, weird,' was all I said.

Frypan coughed to break the silence, making me look at him. 'What did you want for breakfast?'

'We can choose?' I asked.

Minho choked on a piece of egg and started coughing loudly. When he finally calmed down he turned to look at Frypan. 'Oh, that's great, you say breakfast comes before flirting but what you meant was that you flirt with breakfast.'

A small chuckle escaped my lips. 'Just some bacon and eggs, Frypan,' I told the cook and he nodded quickly before retreating into his kitchen.

'Now that he's gone,' Minho said and he winked at me.

I raised my eyebrows at him. 'You're gonna have to stop talking before my fist ends up in your face.'

'I see,' he said slowly, swallowing a piece of egg before putting down his plate. 'You're the kind of Greenie that gets mad because of the klunk we're in.'

I didn't respond and tilted my head as a gesture for him to get to the point.

'I'll be your punchbag,' he said suddenly.

I stared at him for a couple of seconds, studying his face for any kind of evidence that he was kidding or playing with me. 'What does that even mean?' I finally asked him when I realized he was actually serious.

He seemed close to rolling his eyes. 'It means, Slinthead, that if you ever want to hit something, you can hit me.'

'You know that doesn't sound like a bad idea at all,' I replied, feeling myself holding back a smile.

'I'm serious!' He said, his arms raised as an encouragement for me to say yes.

A heavy sigh left my lips and I was temporarily saved when Frypan handed me a plate with breakfast on it. I gave him a smile as a thanks before taking the plate out of his hands. My eyes flashed back to Minho, who was still staring at me expectantly.

'Fine,' I said with a small sigh before turning around and walking towards the door.

'Wait, that's it?' He called after me.

I turned back to him, and kept walking backwards. 'What do you want me to say, Runner? That I trust you now? That I'm happy to have a friend?'

Minho laughed. 'Don't go soft on me,' he yelled.

'Wouldn't dream of it,' I yelled back. Then I turned back around and disappeared out of the kitchen, a smile painted on my face.

I headed towards the small forest in the corner of the Glade, sitting down against a tree and letting my eyes wander over the meadow stretching out around me. The place was slowly coming to life. I watched Minho make his way out of the kitchen, walking up to one of the doors before disappearing into the Maze. I saw Alby walking out of the Homestead with Newt behind him as the Gladers who were laying on the ground in sleeping bags were slowly waking up.

It was so strange to me how everyone could be so calm, so careless, because I was freaking out. I felt a volcano about to erupt, Minho had been right about that. It slightly scared me how much hatred there seemed to be cropping up inside of me. Hatred towards the whole situation we were in, towards the people responsible for this, to whatever or whoever had dared to mess with my mind. It just seemed to be burning inside of me like an undying flame.

And then there was the other girl who had been with me in the elevator. She didn't remember her name, but I did. That was perhaps the strangest thing so far. I knew her name, Dawn. And it wasn't just her name, I had a feeling like I knew her. Despite that feeling though, I hadn't been able to bring myself to tell her. Maybe a small part of me had hoped she would figure it out for herself. But I didn't want to seem like a freak who remembered things she shouldn't. I had to sort myself out first, get rid of my anger, then, maybe, I could try and open up to someone here, maybe her. Some weird feeling told me she had been important to me before all of this. The only thing I had to do was figure out why. But I was afraid to talk to anyone about it because it seemed like I was the only one who still had feelings, or memories, from before they ended up in the Box. And I was in no way planning on being watched or being found suspicious because of this.

A small frown appeared on my face when I noticed Alby walk towards me. Dawn right behind him. I sighed deeply, wondering what the grumpy leader of the Glade wanted from me this time. When he reached me, I stood up, leaving my empty plate standing on the ground. 'What is it?' I asked.

'We have a tradition,' he said, looking between me and the girl. 'A way for all the Gladers to show they fit in here. Follow me.'

I shared a quick, questioning look with her but she shrugged at me and we headed after him in silence. My stomach twisted inside of me as I looked at the back of her head. It was so weird to know her name when she didn't but somehow I felt like it wasn't my place to reveal that important fact about her.

Alby took us to a corner of the Glade where part of the ivy had been ripped down. Scratches were made in the wall and only as we got closer did I realize they were actually names chiseled into the wall.

The leader turned to face us, a knife in his hand. 'Now, I know you don't remember your name,' he said, looking at the other girl. 'But when you do, come here and put it on the wall to show us that you're with us.'

She nodded, her eyes scanning the many names on the wall with quiet awe.

Then Alby handed me the knife. 'Go on,' he said, and he sounded friendlier than he ever had before. Nodding at him I took a step forwards to the wall.

I reached out, letting my fingertips touch the many names engraved on the wall. It radiated a feeling of unity, a feeling of belonging in a place where everything else seemed uncertain. A small frown appeared on my face when I noticed some of the names had been crossed out. I turned to look at Alby. 'What happened to them?'

'Dark days,' he simply said, his eyes focused on one of the names with a line through the letters. My eyes trailed towards it, reading the name. Nick. He must've been close with Alby for him to seem so visibly shaken when looking at the boy's name.

Trying to shake those feelings, I raised the knife, put it against the cement and carefully started engraving my name.

The rest of the day I mostly spent talking to Frypan to keep his mind off his work and eventually I even ended up helping him doing the dishes as he chatted away about his first day in the Glade. I wasn't really listening though. I had been trying to avoid Dawn all day but my thoughts kept going back to her. The whole situation frightened the hell out of me and I couldn't wait until tomorrow when I'd be too busy trying out Glader jobs to think about my memories. My hands were aching to do something and distract myself.

The sun was already going down when the peace in the Glade was disturbed. Alby called all the Gladers together by the West Door, telling them to hurry. Frypan suddenly looked scared.

'What's going on?' I asked.

'You'll see,' he mumbled as he put down his towel and left the kitchen.

Unease settled in my stomach as I followed him. I ended up standing next to the boy who had lied about knowing the third girl yesterday. I had since learned his name was Thomas. He looked absolutely shocked and really scared.

'Hey,' I greeted him.

He seemed to wake up from a trance and looked at me. He didn't answer.

'What's happening?' I whispered, feeling the discomfort that seemed to radiate from him.

'They're...banishing someone,' Thomas finally answered.

I frowned. 'Banish? Who?'

He swallowed. 'Ben,' he said after a pause.

'Why?'

The boy didn't seem able to answer.

'Bring him here!' Alby suddenly shouted.

I looked up to see three boys walking towards us. They were holding a pale looking guy between them. He didn't struggle, he just let them carry him forwards. But there was one thing that told me that he knew exactly what was happening because his eyes were wide with fear. Then I noticed half of his head was bandaged and couldn't help but wonder what had happened to him.

'Newt,' Alby almost whispered to the blond boy beside him. 'Bring me the Pole.'

Newt nodded and walked to a little shed. The three boys reached Alby and put Ben on his feet. Still the guy refused to look at anyone.

'You brought this on yourself, Ben,' Alby said with a shake of his head.

Newt came walking back out of the shed, holding a huge metal stick in his hand. There was a strange object at the end of it. It took me a second before I finally realized what it was, a collar.

'What the hell,' I whispered.

Newt handed the Pole to Alby. The leader looked around the circle of Gladers. 'Ben of the Builders, you've been sentenced to Banishment for the attempt murder of Thomas the Newbie. The Keepers have spoken, their word ain't changing. And you ain't coming back. Ever.'

The boy next to me started trembling. I looked at him with a frown, wondering why Ben would try to kill him. I turned back towards the scene before me and horror filled my stomach when I realized the collar was going around Ben's neck.

'Keepers, take your position!' Alby shouted and on his command ten boys took place next to the Pole. Suddenly the scratching sound of the doors closing roared through the Glade and I quickly covered my ears. But the horrible sound was far too loud to be drowned out by my hands.

'Now!' Alby screamed.

Together the Keepers started to push Ben towards the doors and finally the boy started to protest. 'Alby, no! I swear I won't do it again! It was the Changing! Please!' He was begging for his life, falling to his knees, but the Keeper at the front put him on his feet again. They kept on pushing him towards the closing walls.

With wide eyes I stared at the scene. The crossed out names I had seen on the wall this morning flashed through my mind and my chest tightened as stone cold fear coursed through my veins.

Ben was pushed in the Maze and then he finally started to scream. A high, ear-piercing scream. The sound coming out of his mouth wasn't human and not even the sound of the walls could overwhelm it.

My eyes found the other girl in the Glade as she stood in the crowd, staring in horror at the boy being pushed into the Maze. The Keepers somehow managed to pull the Pole back and then, with a loud bang, the doors closed.

And even though we couldn't see or hear Ben anymore, his scream still echoed through my mind, a warning to watch my back carefully.

| 𝙰𝚄𝚃𝙷𝙾𝚁'𝚂 𝙽𝙾𝚃𝙴 |

The first chapter from Lisa's P.O.V! I love writing her and I hope you guys loved reading this from her perspective. She knows Dawn's name! Why do you guys think that is?

Just like with the last chapter I decided to add a scene from the movie because I loved it so much. The carving of the names on the wall was a detail in the movies that I absolutely loved, so I just had to add it. And so we can have that heartbreaking scene at the end of Death Cure of course...

BUT that is far away, for now let me know your thoughts and predictions for where this story will go! Please leave a vote, it would mean the world to me.

xx nelly