INNOVATION - CHAPTER TWO

⚘ UNANSWERED INQUIRIES ⚘

The girl stared at Newt in disorientation. She had heard the words he said yet it hadn't processed in her brain. Her mind was a storm of questions and queasiness, still stuck on the fact none of the boys seemed bothered that they were surrounded by the tallest walls the girl could ever remember seeing.

    Although to be fair the girl couldn't remember much anyways.

    "You alright there Greenie?" Newt asked noticing the way the girl stood unevenly.

    The girl opened her mouth to speak but paused when no sound came out. She licked her lips and tried again. "What is this," It wasn't a question, more of an astonished or repelled statement.

    "This is the Glade." A new voice said. It was the voice that had been defending her from the rude comments.

    The girl turned to see a boy slightly older than the others stepping forward. He had dark skin that had aged from the time spent in the horrifying place they called home. His deep brown eyes were wise, yet stern. He was mean, from the way he eyed her like she was an inconvenience to the fact his full lips never once bothered to turn upwards. He wore dirty clothes and even dirtier shoes. The girl could tell he had been here a while.

    The girl began to grow frustrated. She had no idea where she was and these people were absolutely no help to her predicament.

    "Yeah you keep saying that but what is it?" The girl snapped returning the boys scowl.

    "All of it will be explained to you later, for now just stay out of the way and try not to Klunk yourself." The boy ordered before turning to the others. "Get back to work shanks!"

    The girl took a shaky breath before stepping forward again, "No, tell me now," She tired of being clueless. She just wanted some simple answers.

    The boys stared at her with looks of pity, annoyance, and judgment. The guy of authority seethed silently at her before saying, "No."

    "Then I'm leaving," The girl took only a step towards one of the giant openings on one of the walls before shouts of denial rang through the field.

    "You can't leave," Newt stepped in front of her.

    "Why not?" The girl stepped away from the boys feeling her mistrust rise once more.

    "Because if you leave you'll die." Newt blurted earning a glare from the mean boy.

    Newt looked over at him, "We can't just keep her fully in the dark. She deserves to know at least something,"

    The girl tensed in fear, what was he talking about? What was out there that was so dangerous?

    "Why will I die?" The girl asked carefully.

    Newt faced her again silently. His eyes seemed to stare straight through her. The girl felt like he could read her mind. Like he already knew her better than she knew herself. It creeped her out.

    "I- I can't tell you that yet. But what I can tell you is that we've all been in your situation before. Every month the Box comes back up with fresh supplies and a new Greenie. We all show up with no memory of our past." Newt explained.

    He paused and studied the girls reaction to the news. She was listening intently, not paying attention to the dozens of eyes staring at her. "You won't remember anything else other than you name. Its the only thing you'll remember." Newt continued.

    The girl felt unsteady. She didn't want to just remember her name! She wanted to know where she came from, her life's goals, her favorite song, her clothing preferences. She wanted to be normal, not befuddled.

    "Thats enough." The dark skinned boy said before Newt could continue. "Newt take her to the Homestead and give her an extra bed. And for the last time get back to work!" He yelled before turning away. As he stormed off the girl could just barely hear him order, "And someone call a Gathering!"

    Hearing all these unfamiliar words wasn't doing much to calm the girls hysteria. Slowly the boys began to break away the circle they had formed around the girl. Many of them left muttering about her.

    When most were gone, Newt turned to her, "I'm gonna take you to the Homestead, which is like our main house. The Keepers get to stay in there instead of sleeping in the hammocks like the others,"

    "Whats a Keeper?" The girl asked despite all the other more importaint questions circling through her brain.

    "Its a leader of a certain job. We have the Keeper of Cooks, Keeper of Slicers, Keeper of Builders, and of course me 'n Alby," Newt nodded looking back to where Alby, the hotheaded leader, was yelling at someone.

    "Why are we going to the homestead?" The girl asked testing the word unsurely.

    Newt gave a lopsided smile at her skepticism before saying, "I'm gonna show you where you'll be sleeping. We can't have you out here with the others, they haven't exactly ever seen a girl before." He said uncomfortably.

    The girl frowned at the thought before being struck with a new one. "What do you mean they haven't seen a girl before?"

    "Well look around Greenie, you don't exactly see girls skipping through the gardens now do you?" Newt asked sarcastically.

    "So you're saying there's no girls here," She stated breathlessly at the thought of being the only girl surrounded by hormonal teenage boys.

    Newt paused before saying, "Yes, that is exactly what I'm saying."

    The girl went silent, suddenly feeling even worse about her situation.

    "Its alright though, I won't let anyone bother you." Newt grinned.

    The girl callously shook her head, turning away from Newt. "Who put me here?"

    Newt sighed before saying, "We don't know."

    The girl stiffened before asking, "Why can't we leave and find out?"

    Newt ran a hand through his hair before saying, "Its not that easy. There are things you don't know yet, dangerous things. Things I'm not allowed to tell you."

    Gaining vexation the girl let out a huff of air, "At least tell me why we're here? All of us must have done something to deserve this,"

    "We don't know anything. And even if we did do something, nobody deserves this." Newt answered glumly.

    "So everything that I need to know you either can't tell me or you don't know?" The girl questioned in exasperation.

    Newt looked at his feet at least showing the decency to look guilty, "Yes,"

    The girl let out a dry laugh before stepping further away from the boy. "I don't trust any of you."

    "I know. I understand, I really do. But we're just trying to keep you safe. You'll find out the answers to most of your questions soon. For now we're trying not to overwhelm you." Newt disclosed.

    "I don't care about being overwhelmed, I just want to know what the hell is happening!" The girl exploded up at the boy.

    Newt paused before saying, "Lets just go to the homestead. I have a Gathering I need to get to,"

    Newt began walking a the direction of the biggest house. It was old and crumby, the girl was sure it would collapse upon a singular blow. It was around the size of a house.

    Newt continued walking but yelled back, "C'mon Greenie, trust me, there's no where else to go!"

    The girl looked back to the open gaps in the walls and for a minute was tempted to take off and escape this absurdity. But she remembered how grave and serious Newt had looked when he had stopped her. When he had told her she would die if she ran.

    What had that meant? And was it true?

    The girl decided she would have plenty of opportunities to run, and besides, she wanted to gain understanding of this conundrum.

    Feeling the slight weight in her pocket from the knife, the girl followed after Newt.

    When she had caught up to him she said, "So why can't we remember?"

    Newt sighed and said, "You have lots of questions don't you?"

    "Yeah well you don't have many answers," The girl retorted.

    "We don't know why we can't remember." Newt stated.

    "Do you think someone wiped our memories?" The girl questioned.

    "Did you not just hear me say we don't know?" Newt asked in frustration as they continued across the field.

    Around them the boys had gone back to work. Some were on their hands in knees in the gardens while others carried the crates out from the elevator. Almost all of them stopped whatever they were doing to watch the pair pass by.

    "But you said we remember our names right?" The girl interrogated.

    "Thats right, it'll come to you soon. For some it took days, others hours." Newt said as they neared the Homestead.

    The girl fell silent thinking of something else to ask. Apparently nobody knew exactly where they were but they called it the Glade. Everyone had been sent up just like she had, no memories and everything. A Keeper was a leader of a certain job, they got to sleep inside on the beds. There were no girls.

    "Whats a Gathering?" The girl asked.

    "Its a meeting between Keepers. Normally we have them to discuss supply plans and the occasional punishment." Newt answered.

    The girl frowned, "But this time its about what you're gonna do with me."

    Newt faltered before nodding. "You don't need to be scared, we just need to make careful arrangements so that nobody gets hurt."

    "I'm not dangerous," The girl scowled. "Stop treating me like I'm some animal."

    "We aren't, we just need to take precautions," He paused before facing the Homestead once more. "Follow me." He opened the Homestead doors and stepped inside.

    Hesitantly the girl followed after him. Upon entering the house fell silent. Dozens of heads turned and stared bullets into the girl.

"This way," Newt ignored the eyes and began to make his way up a rickety stair case.

The inside of the homestead was just as mediocre as the outside. The ceiling was supported by several thick wooden beams. There were wooden tables lined up that sat many of the boys from earlier. Some held water cups in their hands while others fruit. It smelled good surprisingly, like a fresh meal was currently being cooked.

The walls were covered in dark peeling wallpaper that added a dark dispiriting mood to the faces. In addition to the upstairs there was also a door next to it. The girl took careful note to its lock.

Beginning to grow awkward under all the attention the girl quickly turned and followed after Newt. When they reached the top of the stairs the girl saw several doors lining a hallway.

"What are these rooms for?" She asked as they began walking. The floors were missing some of the floorboards.

"Most of 'em are bedrooms but the furthest one is a bathroom." Newt pointed.

The two stopped in front of a door on the right, "I'll put you in here for now. Its an extra room, used to be Nicks," For a minute Newt disappeared. His eyes turned glassy and his breath hitched. A second later he was back to normal.

Who was Nick and what happened to him?

    Newt opened up the wooden door to reveal a room slightly bigger than a closet. It was dark inside, the only source of light being from a small window on one of the walls. There was a dirty mattress stuffed with straw. A colorful quilt was neatly folded at the foot of the bed adding a splash of humanity to the depressing room. On the other side of the bed was a trunk.

    "Now I know its not much, but it's as good as you're gonna get," Newt told her almost defensively as the girl took in the room.

    She paused before saying, "Thank you." She still didn't trust them, but Newt didn't seem too bad.

    Newt nodded before taking a breath to say something. But the words never came.

    The blonde boy just stood eyes wide, mouth open staring at the girls right arm. The girl squinted and snapped her fingers in front of his face.

    "Hello?" She questioned. Newt blinked and stretched his arm out quickly. Before the girl could react his warm fingers were tenderly touching her bare arm.

    The girls heart gave a rush of fear, adrenaline, and... nervousness? She firmly reminded herself that she didn't know this boy, and the only thing she should be feeling was disgust.

    She pulled away harshly and grabbed the knife from her pocket. The girl spun back around and forcefully pushed Newt back into the wall, knife to his throat.

    The blondes eyes widened and he said, "Woah woah! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

    The girl made no move to pull away. "Don't touch me."

    "I shouldn't have- I'm sorry," Newt apologized again turning a light shade of pink. "You- you just have a mark on your arm,"

    The girl paused before glancing down at her bicep. Sure enough there was a mark. It was a hand print. Messily done, yet it was distinguishable. It was the color of fire. A scarlet shade.

    "Do you know what that is?" Newt asked carefully eyeing the knife at his throat.

    The girl forgot about what had previously happened and lightly touched her finger tips to the mark. She brought it to her lips and tasted it.

    She faced back to Newt who was watching her with furrowed brows. Concern and confusion was written all over his face. He was still slightly pink from the earlier contact but it soon faded to pale as the girl uttered, "Blood."

Let me know what you thought of Chapter Two! I've decided my updating schedule for this book will be Fridays and Sundays by the way. Leave a review if you enjoyed and as always, thanks for reading!

12/22/23

2342 words