The next day, Ada found herself scouring the edge of the forest, looking for twigs they could use in a fire. She was moving as slowly as possible, since Frypan was making sandwiches, and they were possibly the most boring thing she had to do in the kitchen.

And then, from the depths of the forest, she heard a shout.

Her head perked, straightening up from where she was crouched at the forest floor, and she looked either way to try and find the source of the noise. Seeing nothing, she chose to turn back to the Gardens; to find Newt so he could investigate it instead of her.

But then something happened in the blink of an eye.

Thomas' cries for help had hit her ears a moment too late, and when he came crashing to the ground from the Deadheads, a seemingly feral Ben had crawled on top of him. He was snarling, speaking incoherently, and scratching at the poor boy.

Ada, being the closest to the chaos, dropped the bundles of sticks in her arms instantly and bounded over. She grabbed Ben's collar, and attempted to yank him back off the boy, briefly stealing the attention from Thomas and moving it onto herself.

Ben's eyes were dark and his skin was deathly pale; as if he was sick. He dug his fingernails into either one of her arms, making her cry out in pain, before shoving her to the ground. She narrowly avoided whacking her head as she crumpled, and Ben had already turned his attention back to Thomas, who had attempted to crawl away.

Hovering over the innocent boy again, he began to yell out, "I'll kill you!"

Ada struggled to stand up from the ground, but it seemed she had nothing to do when she did. Newt and a number of other Gladers had arrived on the scene, with the blonde boy swiftly smacking the attacker over the head with his shovel.

Ben was immediately pinned to the ground by a few boys, including Gally, to tried to persuade him to 'calm down'. Ada couldn't see the point in this.

Can't they see he's past the point of return?

Immediately after catching his ghastly expression, she had caught onto the fact he was Stung. Gally confirmed this, lifting the edge of his shirt to reveal the dark sting on his stomach, and dropping it down again.

Alby ordered his move to the Slammer. Ben was still fighting the boys holding him captive, but what had Ada pitying him was the way he had yelled out for them to just help him.

She wished they did.

She found herself being guided away from the muttering crowds by a strong hand on her shoulder. Stifling a sob, now feeling the marks on her shoulders from where Ben had pierced her skin and even caused bleeding, she managed to glance up at the figure to identify him as Gally.

Once they were under the shade of the trees, Gally took his hand from her shoulder and instead engulfed her in a hug. Holding her close to his chest, she found no choice but to wind her arms around his waist and hug him back as tightly as possible. She tried to slow her tears, but the thought of her infected friend, and her still painful shoulders, were all too much.

She wasn't aware of it, but Gally was death glaring anyone that sent them a glance. He was more concerned about her than she could possibly imagine, and when they broke apart, he began scanning her for injuries.

"Did he hurt you?" He murmured, in a low voice.

She rolled up her sleeves to show the nail marks Ben had left. Parts of her skin was smeared with blood, but it mostly looked fine, despite how it stung. She shrugged off Gally's concern, but waited patiently for him to return with a towel to wipe up the blood and some bandages.

As he patched her up - a little clumsily considering he was a Builder not a Med-jack - she sat quietly and just watched him work. His tongue poked out, subconsciously, in his concentration. And then, when he finished, he sat back with a smile.

"Done." He murmured, rolling down her sleeves as she thanked him gratefully.

"What's going to happen to Ben?" She asked curiously.

She couldn't deny that the boy had been on her mind the whole time. She didn't particularly care that he hurt her, she just didn't want to hear the words that Gally was inevitably going to say.

And as he winced in hesitation, it was confirmed.

"They're going to Banish him." She answered her own question, before he could. "Right?" She added the question on the end, asking him just to reassure her suspicions. He nodded stiffly, eyes burning into the grass. 

Ada had heard of Banishments, but she had never seen one herself. She only knew that since Gally had been there since the start, he had seen a lot of them, and could easily conclude they were devastating.

And if she was being honest, Ben wasn't one of her closest friends in the Glade, but she still couldn't stop herself from breaking down. She came to realise that it was more the wake up call of any of them dying at any moment that affected her.

She almost found herself tipped over the edge to confess her feelings to Gally. Emphasis on almost. Despite the thought of any of them dying, she thought it far too stupid of a thing to make a big deal out of. Or at least, that was her excuse for being too scared.

Reassuring the boy she would be okay, she decided to go find Thomas. He was hurt far worse by Ben, and if she was being honest, she was curious to hear the whole story of what happened. And for some reason, she felt like Thomas would tell her.

Ada found Thomas with Alby and Chuck near where the Med-jacks were set up. The youngest boy was carving away at a small figurine whilst Alby and Thomas were talking. Although, it was mostly Alby doing the talking and Thomas just listening.

She hovered near the three of them, eventually settling down beside Chuck as she patiently waited for the other two to finish up their conversation. The boy showed his figurine to her, with the girl appreciating the fine details of it - Chuck was really talented - before Alby finally took off across the Glade to talk to Newt about Ben.

"Hey!" She jumped up from her seat before Thomas could vanish from her sight. He looked startled by her sudden presence but gave her a small smile, looking grateful.

"Are you okay? I know you got the brunt of Ben's attack so I just wanted to check on you."

The boy ducked his head down for a moment, which she didn't realise was to hide his flushed cheeks. His crush on her was painfully obvious, but she was painfully oblivious.

"I'm okay." He went quiet then, and when he looked back at her, his eyes were filled with upset. "It's awful - what's happening to Ben."

She nodded in agreement, moving to sit down again, and watching Chuck wander across the Glade after becoming bored of them both. She presumed he would go off to pull some pranks on Gally or something similar.

"You're sure you're okay?" She checked, and he nodded once again to confirm.

She backed out of her plan to find out how it all happened then. It was clear that Thomas was traumatised by what happened with Ben, and making him recite it all back to her was simply too cruel.

"Can I tell you something?" He asked suddenly.

Maybe he does want to tell me.

 He glanced at her to find her answer, and she nodded reassuringly. His expression darkened as he leaned close to the girl, and it became apparent that he didn't want anyone else to know what he was about to say.

"Last night, I had these strange dreams, kinda like visions." He paused, as though he was uncertain, but her encouraging expression spurred him on. "I think they might have been memories."

Ada nearly found herself slipping from her seat in surprise. In the whole two months she had been there, she had never heard of anyone retrieving any memories.

"What were they? What happened?" She knew she was speaking hurriedly and impatiently, but at that moment she couldn't bring herself to care.

"There was this women, older, she looked like a doctor. She told me that something called 'WCKD' was good." He stopped for a moment, and Ada felt the need to cut in and say,

"WCKD, like the letters we get on our supply boxes." 

This only made Thomas' eyes widen. His face suddenly paled and he looked a lot more reluctant to continue, but she hoped her expression would force him to since she had to know what else he saw.

"I saw this girl with dark hair, about our age. She said my name and told me that everything was going to change. And there were all these other doctors, hovering over me, and these charts and monitors."

It was clear that Thomas' visions were both short and difficult to decipher. She didn't know that he failed to mention that he had seen people screaming and pounding on the doors of human sized tanks they were trapped inside of.

"What does it mean?"

How the shuck am I supposed to know that?

She didn't want to ask Thomas this, but it was the only thing that had come to mind. She stayed silent for a few moments, processing it all, and trying to find something to say.

"I- I don't know."

Thomas seemed deflated by this delayed answer. For some reason, he expected her to share some wise words with him. But, she had none.

"Listen Thomas, I think we should tell Newt or Alby."

Thomas' eyes widened in horror at the girl's suggestion. He furiously began shaking his head and then his hand latched out onto her arm.

"No, no we can't. They're just gonna freak out, and Gally and everyone else already don't trust me."

She knew Thomas had a good point but she still thought that the leader and second-in-command would have more of an idea of what to do than her. It was when he gave her a pleading look that she second guessed herself.

"We don't even know if it means something, Ada. Please, just don't say anything."

And then it dawned on her.

Thomas trusted her and only her with this knowledge. The least she could do in return was keep it a secret.