Disclaimer: All characters belong to James except for Victoria who I created. Anything in the plot that you don't recognize belongs to me while everything else belongs to the ever-wonderful James Dashner.

•unedited•

Third Person

        "Woah Ben!" Thomas shouted as the boy sailed past him. Ben looked.... well, like death. Green veins stretched across his ghostly pale skin, pulsing. His bloodshot eyes frantically looked around, looking for a way to attack him.

        This time when Ben tried to pounce on Thomas, something or rather someone barrelled into him, throwing them a couple feet away from the newest Glader. "What the...." Thomas trailed on when he saw the blur of brown race in front of him. He snapped out of the daze and saw Victoria fighting to keep Ben restrained.

        "A little help would be shucking amazing right now."
The brunette said sarcasticly. She fought against Ben who was trying to throw her off of him like a rodeo bull. After many attempts he succeeded and sent her flying through the air and into a nearby tree. She let out a groan before slowly standing up, grasping her right shoulder.

        "Victoria! You got the wrong person! He's the reason we're here! I saw him, I saw him!" Ben desperately pleaded with his old friend as she stalked towards him and stepped beside Thomas. Victoria looked uncertain; conflicted between believing Ben or not. "He just got here, there's no way he's done anything." Shockingly, Ben pulled out a knife when he heard her take Thomas' side.

        "Ben!" The three of them looked over to the left to see Alby standing atop a hill holding a makeshift bow and arrow, the arrow pointing directly at Ben. "Ben, stop right now or you ain't gonna see tomorrow." Ben licked his lip and stared at Alby with a sudden frantic look in his eye.

        "If you kill me," He shrieked, spittle flying from his mouth and far enough to hit Thomas and Victoria in the face. "you'll get the wrong guy." Victoria groaned and wiped the spit away, mumbling about grievers and getting stung. "He's the shank you wanna kill." Ben pointed at Thomas causing Victoria to step in front of him protectively.

        "I don't know what you saw, but you need to shucking put the knife down and get back to the Homestead." The only girl hissed at the sick boy. "He's not one of us!" Ben shouted, his voice full of madness. "I saw him-he's.... he's bad. We have to kill him!Let me gut him!"

        "You leave that to me and the Keepers to work out, shuck-face. Get your scrawny butt down and get to the Homestead." Alby shouted and aimed the arrow more towards Ben's head. "He'll wanna take us home, he'll wanna get us out of here. Better we all jumped off the Cliff! Better we tore each other's guts out!" Ben clapped his hands.

        "You're crazy." Victoria shook her head. "What are you talking-" Thomas tried to speak but the pale boy shouted, "Shut your face! Shut your ugly, traitorous face!" Thomas took a step back in fear.

        "I'm gonna count to three." Alby said calmly. "He's bad, he's bad, he's bad...." Ben said to himself.

        "One." Ben lifted the knife in the air threateningly.

        "Two." Alby's voice was loud and demanding. "Bad, bad, bad." Ben smiled.

        "Ben, I'm not... don't even know what-" Thomas tried to speak once again. Ben screamed and leaped out with his knife slashing the air.

        "Three!" The arrow snapped through the air with a whoosh and embedded itself in Ben's head. His head snapped to the side as he shook violently before he dropped to the ground.

        "Come on. Baggers'll take care of him tomorrow." Alby said before walking away. Thomas took a sick step forward and observed the dead boy. The arrow went right through one side of the head and came out the cheek on the other.

        "Thomas, let's go." Victoria pulled on his sleeve and pulled him out of the dense forest. The sun blinded the both of them but they continued walking away from the dead body sorrowfully. Thomas couldn't help but think it was his fault.

        What did I ever do to this kid?

        "Thomas, you're hurt." Victoria muttered before stopping Thomas. It was then that he noticed he was limping and his ankle burned, yet he had no memory of hurting it.

        "I'm fine, Vic. But my shoulder really hurts from when Ben bit me." Thomas rubbed his shoulder. He missed the look on Victoria's face as he said the nickname. "We better get that checked out. Let's go see Jeff." Together they walked to the Homestead.

***

        "Say Something." Chuck demanded. The two boys lay side-by-side in separate sleeping bags, staring at the starry sky. Thomas couldn't get the image of dead Ben out of his head, no matter how hard he tried.

        "No." Thomas replied to Chuck's demand. It was the fifth time he'd said to say something and Thomas was getting annoyed.

        "Everyone knows what happened. It's happened once or twice- some Griever-stung shank flipped out and attacked somebody. Don't think you're special." Chuck said matter-of-factly. Thomas' eye twitched in irritation. Chuck's level of irritation went from irritating to intolerable. 

        "Shut up, Chuck. Go to sleep." Thomas turned around and waited for his 'bud' to fall asleep. As soon as he did, he let himself succumb to the darkness that awaited him. 

        The morning passed by in a blur for Thomas. He hadn't seen Victoria, Ben, or Alby all day and that worried him.

        “Tommy, are you even listening to me?” Thomas snapped out of his daze and focused on Newt, who’d been talking for who knew how long; Thomas hadn’t heard a word of it. “Yeah, sorry. Couldn’t sleep last night.”

        The two boys stood in front of the Blood House, where Thomas would start off the day being a Slicer. 

        Newt attempted a pathetic smile. “Can’t blame ya there. Went through the buggin’ ringer, you did. Probably think I’m a slinthead shank for gettin’ you ready to work your butt off today after an episode the likes of that.”

        Thomas shrugged. “Work’s probably the best thing I could do. Anything to get my mind off it.”

        Newt nodded, and his smile became more genuine. “You’re as smart as you look, Tommy. That’s one of the reasons we run this place all nice and busylike. You get lazy, you get sad. Start givin’ up. Plain and simple.”

        Thomas kicked a stray rock and let his thought shift back to that girl. Who was she? Newt informed him that the girl hadn't changed; she was still in a comatose state. 

        Thomas looked over Newt’s shoulder at the big faded-red barn, pushing thoughts of the girl aside. “So what’s first? Milk cows or slaughter some poor little pigs?”

        Newt laughed, a sound Thomas realized he hadn’t heard much since he’d arrived. “We always make the Newbies start with the bloody Slicers. Don’t worry, cuttin’ up Frypan’s victuals ain’t but a part. Slicers do anything and everything dealin’ with the beasties.”

        “Too bad I can’t remember my whole life. Maybe I love killing animals.” He was just joking, but Newt didn’t seem to get it.

        Newt nodded toward the barn. “Oh, you’ll know good and well by the time sun sets tonight. Let’s go meet Winston—he’s the Keeper.”

        To say Winston was ugly would be an understatement. The poor boys fave was covered in acne, short and seemed to like his job a little too much.

        For the next two hour, Winston showed Thomas around the pens and showed him how to take care of the animals. Winston left Thomas alone for the third hour, going back into the Blood House doing who-knows-what.

        Thomas walked absentmindly around the Maze out of sheer boredom. He stopped by the box and noticed a running figure coming in through the west door. An Asian kid with strong arms and short black hair, who looked a little older than Thomas. The Runner stopped three steps in, then bent over and put his hands on his knees, gasping for breath. He looked like he’d just run twenty miles, face red, skin covered in sweat, clothes soaked.

Based on the couple days that he's been here, this Runner had come early. But before Thomas could question him, the boy collapsed.

***

Sorry for the long wait. School is getting harder and I have been really sick lately so I dont have the time. I will post a second chapter soon cause I already started it but hope you like it! I think i will start a requirement to write each chapter. Let's say 2 votes for the next chapter? 

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