INNOVATION -
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

⚘ GREY SKIES ⚘

Another morning came as quick as the last. Life in the Glade had finally settled back to normal, there were no more Griever attacks, no more Banishments, no more fights. It was finally at peace. For now.

    But when Kalisa finally sat up from her bed, something instantly felt off. It was a weird, unexplainable feeling, that bubbled in her chest and slithered through her insides, chilling her.

    It wasn't until she exited the Homestead that she understood what exactly, the feeling was.

    First Kalisa saw the Gladers crowding together by the shelter, looking up worriedly. Next she took notice to the bleek atmosphere that surronded them. It was like there was a shadow being casted down over them, not fully casting them into darkness, more turning the once lively place dead.

    Then she looked up.

    What once was a pale blue sky was now grey. It shouldn't have been possible, yet there it was, a giant slab of concrete stretching over their heads, over the Gardens, over the Maze, and whatever lay past it. The sky had been replaced with a ceiling.

    Suddenly Kalisa felt claustrophobic, like all the air in their once bright and open home had been sucked out.

    She kept her eyes trained upwards and slowly started moving towards the cluster of boys, wondering what the hell was going on.

    When she arrived she saw Chuck and Thomas staring up with everyone else. A simple nod in greeting was all she gave, too shell shocked with the fact they had been lied to all this time. The sky had never really been there. All the clouds she had seen, the sun, the stars, the sunrises and sunsets- all of it was fake.

    "Any idea when this happened?" Kalisa questioned, tearing her gaze from the ceiling and looking at the two boys.

    "Nope." Thomas stated, looking calmer in comparison to the others. "Maybe somethings broken. Maybe it'll be back."

    Chuck and Kalisa gave the newbie a weird look. "Broken, what do you mean broken?" Kalisa frowned.

    But Thomas didn't answer. Instead he kept his eyes trained up, clearly thinking about something important. "Thomas, what do you mean?" Chuck tapped the boys arm.

    "Oh, I don't know, Theres things about this place we don't understand. But you can't just make the sun dissapear from space. Plus theres still enough light to see by, faint as it is. Wheres that coming from?" Thomas explained causing Chucks eyes to widen.

    Kalisa pursed her lips in thought. Thomas made a good point, but it only caused more questions to arise from the girl.

    "Thomas!" Minho called, running over to them. "Lets get goin', we're already late."

    "You mean you guys are still going out there?" Chuck asked, shocked.

    "Of course we are shank. Don't you have some sloppin' to do?" Minho stated, earing a glare from the girl.

    Minho shrugged it off and said, "If anything it gives us more reason to get out there. If the suns really gone, won't be long before the plants and animals drop dead too. I think the desperation level just went up a notch."

    Kalisa thought about all the animals that were currently grazing back at the Blood house. They lived off of the grass and sun, if they didn't get their vitamins... Minho was right, they would die. Then the Gladers wouldn't have any meat to eat, and soon they would join the cows six feet under.

    "You mean we're gonna stay out there overnight?" Thomas asked, sounding eager.

    "No not yet. Maybe soon though," Minho said before looking up one last time. "Man, what a way to wake up. Come on, lets go."

    Kalisa and Chuck watched silently as the Runners started off for the Homestead, clearly in a hurry to grab their supplies and get out into the Maze.

    "Kalisa, what are we supposed to do now?" Chuck asked, sounding afraid.

    The girls gaze softened as she looked to the kid. "You go on and work. Alby and Newt are gonna figure this whole thing out. It'll be fine."

    But even as the words left her mouth Kalisa knew it was a lie. They were nearing the climax of an unforseeable plot, all they could do was wait for disaster to strike.

༻✧༺

    Work was difficult that day. Alby had given the Slicers orders to slaughter as many animals as they could. If the sun didn't return then they were all dead anyways, better to get the meat off a healthy animal rather than a dead, malnourished one.

    Still the work was downputting, and with every swing and slash of her knife, Kalisa fell further into her void of hopelessness.

    This meat would only last them a few months, and that was if they somehow managed to keep it good in the freezer. There was the chance it could become infected with disease, or rotten and harm the consumers. There was the chance that they were making a mistake by not rationing their meat. There was a chance it would all be for nothing.

    Yet she continued to kill, somehow finding comfort in the familiar act among the stressful environment. Kalisa couldn't even find it in herself to feel repulsed by the thought, too run down to do anything other than work.

    When they finally finished, it was around dinner time, or so they thought. With the sky gone there was no way of telling. Not feeling very hungry, Kalisa avoided the Homestead, and instead spotted Newt and Alby by the Box.

    When she joined them staring down at the contraption, all she got was a tight, thin lipped smile from Newt and a glare from Alby.

    "This whole place is falling to shit." Alby stated blandly.

    "The animals should last us at most two months. And thats assuming the meat doesn't go bad. We're gonna need to rely on the canned goods from WCKD." Kalisa sighed.

    "Well that might be a problem." Newt rubbed his face. "They didn't come up today. They've never been late before."

    The news was so horrible and dreary that Kalisa wasn't even surprised.

    "We're all gonna starve." Alby stated. "Unless we find some other source of food that doesn't rely on the sun."

    "Maybe we could eat the Grievers," Kalisa gave a weak smile, only half kidding. The other two didn't find it very amusing.

    Suddenly Alby stood straighter, eyes locked on two figures stalking towards them. It was Minho and Thomas, both looking rather thrilled despite the situation.

    "Get on with it, ain't got time to waste. Find anything?" Alby snapped as soon as they were within ear shot.

    Minho recoiled, looking confused. "Nice to see you too. Yeah, we did find something actually."

    Kalisa listened intently, growing intrested, while Alby just slumped, dissapointed.

    "It's the Cliff. We used to think it was just there to throw us off when we're mapping, but today, we saw a Griever climb down there and dissapear at the bottom." Minho started.

    "It happened when we were there at night too. When we ran them off the Cliff they all dissapeared. We couldn't explain how... but I think theres something down there. A door or somethin'... that leads to where the Grievers live."

    "The Griever Hole." Thomas added unhelpfully, earning a look from the others.

    "Gotta bloody see that for myself." Newt muttered.

    "I don't know what we can do." Minho sighed. "Maybe we could build something to block off that corridor?"

    Newt shook his head, "Nah, shuck things can climb walls remember? Nothing we could ever build would keep 'em out."

    Before any other solutions could be offered, a commotion at the Homestead caught the groups attention. There was a group of Gladers crowded at the door, yelling to be heard over each other.

    The kid was apart of the group, but when he saw Kalisa he broke apart and ran over to her, excitment clear in his step. "She's awake! The girls awake!"

    Thomas leaned against the wall, looking ill. Minho let out a low whistle, "Oh shuck,"

    Kalisa suddenly felt even worse about their situation. Just a day ago everything had been fine. Now it felt like the world was ending.

    "Better go check it out," Alby grumped to Newt.

    Kalisa made a move to follow them but was stopped harshly by the dark skinned boy, "Not you. Not yet anyways."

    "But-"

    "I mean it shankette!" Alby snapped. "We're gonna question her before anyone else freaks her out."

    "Alby maybe we should-" Newt was cut off by Alby facing him and saying, "Shut up. I know what I'm doing. Come on,"

    Newt only had time to send the girl a sorry look before he was dragged away by Alby into the Homestead.

    Fine.

    Kalisa thought bitterly. She had a feeling the leader would only suceed in 'freaking the girl out' more. But she was tired of arguing. She was tired of everything.

    It didn't take long for Minho to move along from their spot by the Box, leaving only Thomas and Kalisa behind. Neither of them knew what to do with themselves.

    "The other day," Kalisa started. "You said you thought the girl was talking to you."

"Yeah." Thomas didn't meet her eyes.

"What was she saying?"

Thomas hesitated, clearly not eager to tell her. Kalisa sighed, "Whatever it was, you can tell me. I'm not gonna throw you in the Slammer like Alby would. Trust me Thomas, secrets don't work out here."

"She said that we did this to you guys." Thomas finally said. "Me and her. I don't know what that means, but... I don't like the sound of it."

Kalisa nodded, gears already spinning in her head.

"She also said something last night." Thomas cleared his throat. "She said she Triggered the Ending."

Kalisa found herself looking up at the grey slab over their heads once more.

The Ending.

༻✧༺

    Not long after their conversation, Thomas dissapeared into the woods, not giving an explanation as to where he was going.

    Kalisa stayed behind, not sure what to do now. Her options were limited, she could force some of Fry's small dinner down, or she could sleep. None of the choices were appealing, so she decided on just wandering aimlessly, hoping to find something to do.

Luckily she did find something. Or it found her.

As she was storming towards the Homestead, Kalisa's ear's picked up the sound of grunting and shouts, followed by footsteps. Before she even had time to react, a girl appeared from the entrance of the wooden shed, running full speed towards her.

"Get her!" A Glader yelled, as the girl grew closer and closer.

Kalisa froze in shock. She really was awake. There was another girl, here, in the Glade. She wasn't alone anymore.

Her lips cracked into a grin, and her form relaxed, feeling relieved, safe, and comfortable upon seeing the girl.

However the newbie clearly didn't share those feelings because her eyes only narrowed and her speed picked up.

"Hey wait-," Kalisa didn't finish before the girls shoulder knocked into her own, pushing her back several paces as the girl continued running, disappearing into the forest.

It had hurt, but not that much. In fact, Kalisa's ego was more bruised than her shoulder.

"Way to go shank, you let her get away!" Jeff scowled, Alby and Newt following behind him.

"You're the one who was supposed to watch over her!" Kalisa exclaimed as the group began chasing after the girl.

    It was like she had disappeared, there one second and gone the next. It was almost impressive, though from the look on Alby's face he was anything but.

    "Someone find this shank," He bellowed, angrily stalking through the trees.

    "How'd she get away anyways?" Kalisa questioned as she continued searching the forest with Newt.

    "We don't know. Alby and I hadn't even gotten the chance to talk to her before she started runnin'." Newt grunted.

"Do you think she knows something?" Kalisa breathed, momentarily stopping in her tracks.

Newt halted as well and faced her. "I hope so. When we find her, we can ask."

Their eye contact was broken when the sound of low voices hit their ears. Kalisa narrowed her eyes and listened harder, reaching to pick up the words.

"It sounds like Tommy," Newt muttered in realization.

"And a girls voice," Kalisa stated. Their eyes widened and before she knew it, they were running again, this time in the direction of the voices.

"Alby, over here!" Newt called as they broke through the tree line to see Thomas and the girl sitting against the wall, ivy vines surrounding them.

"How in the..." Newt trailed off as the rest of the boys who had been searching joined them.

"How'd you get here? Med-jack said you were fine one second then the next you were runnin' like a madwoman." Newt questioned, staring at the girl with suspicion.

The girl was very pretty, Kalisa noted. With long brown hair that blew in the wind, pale freckled skin, and piercing blue eyes. She stood up with confidence radiating off her, staring daggers into Newt. "I guess he forgot to tell the little part about me kicking him in the groin."

Thomas looked like he wanted to laugh, but resisted. Newt faced Jeff with an unimpressed look, "Congratulations Jeff, you're officially the fourth guy here to get your butt beat by a girl,"

"Keep talking like that and you'll be next." The girl shot, momentarily flickering her gaze to Kalisa.

Newt fell silent, face morphing into one of mistrust and curiosity. Kalisa snickered despite the heavy silence, unable to hold it in.

"Slim it," Alby stepped forward causing Thomas to pale. "I wanna know who you are, who this shank girl is, and how you guys know each other."

Thomas wilted, "Alby, I swear-,"

"She came straight to you after waking up shuckface!" Alby exploded.

Thomas stood up, anger clear in his eyes, "So what? I know her, she knows me- or at least we used to. That doesn't mean anything! I can't remember anything, neither can she."

It was a fair argument, but something was off about the whole situation. Kalisa felt uneasy as she watched Alby stare down the girl. "What did you do?"

She didn't answer. "What did you do?! First the sky, now this!" Alby screamed.

Now what?

"I triggered something." The girl said calmly, despite the peeved boy before her. "Not on purpose, I swear it. The Ending. I don't know what it means."

"Whats wrong?" Thomas looked at everybody but Alby, worry lacing his tone. "What happened?"

Alby shot forward and grabbed Thomas by the shirt. "What happened? I'll tell ya what happened shank. Too busy makin' lovey eyes to bother lookin' around? To bother noticing what shucking time it is!"

Kalisa felt a bubble of horror built within her. She had been so caught up in her own thoughts that she hadn't even noticed it.

"The walls, you shank. The Doors, they didn't close tonight."

We had another snow day today so here's an update for you guys! We're finally getting to the good stuff, and also, Newtisa will be getting together very soon... I'm so excited to finish this book and move onto the sequel, I have so many ideas. Let me know if there's anything you wanna see in future chapters! Happy reading!

1/22/23

2572 words