Day Sixty

The smoky smell of freshly cooked bacon hung in the air, mingling with the overpowering aroma of fire and ash. The night sky, peppered with stars, stretched across the glade like an inky blanket. The fire burning just north of the box was luminous and bright, white hot flames stretching high into the air.

Alby stood on top of a lopsided crate, hands in the air, cheering as James and Connor played a heated match of wrestling in the patch of flat sand beside them. Maybe they could corner it off and make it an official thing, Ada thought as she happily placed bets with Avin.

"James has got this in the bag!" He argued, tiny hands on his hips as she stared up at Ada with a grin. "Connor doesn't stand a chance."

"You kidding?" Ada scoffed. "You see the height difference? Connor has at least five inches on James. Plus, he's more muscly."

"But James is quicker!"

Ada shrugged and rocked back on her heels. Her copper hair gleamed in the firelight, a dazzling blur of red as she moved. "You'll be eating your words when I'm eating your bacon tomorrow morning."

"You bet on each others rations again?" Charles came up beside them, smirking. "Poor Avin's gone without bacon three times now."

"His fault for betting against me in the first place." Ada said without guilt. Her eyes scanned the other side of the fire, where two of the newbies were engaged in avid conversation, both of them blushing. She didn't know either of their names — hell, she wasn't even sure if they knew their names yet — but in the hours since the box had come up they had by far been the most friendly. It was actually sort of alarming that the whole being trapped in a giant maze thing didn't seem to faze them all that much.

Chattering from her left drew her attention, and she locked eyes with Nick and smiled. He was talking to another one of the new gladers, a gangly boy with rather ridiculous eyebrows and a nose resembling a squashed potato. Short light brown hair clung to his head, and his deep green eyes, so dark they were almost brown, kept flitting around the glade with distrust.

Avin tugged thrice on her sleeve, and Ada turned back to the match just in time to see Connor grab James around the waist and spin just enough to send the other boy toppling to the ground face first. Alby, Connor, and Charles let out wild cries of excitement, bouncing up and down with their arms in the air, massive grins stretching on their faces. Ada couldn't help but laugh at the sheer joy.

James spat out a mouthful of sand and glared up at them, mud streaking the left side of his face. Ada turned to Avin, taking in his wide eyes and open mouth with no small amount of pride. "I do believe you owe me your bacon. Again."

"Damnit! I was so sure this time."

Ada nudged him with the tip of her booted toe. "Next time." She wasn't worried. She'd find a way to sneak the bacon back onto Avin's plate anyway. He'd gotten skinny in the last week.

"Hey Ada, c'mere!" Nick called her over, and when she joined them Nick gestured to the boy in front of them. Now that she could see him clearer, she could make out the light dusting of freckles on his misshapen nose. He looked to be around the same age as her. "This is Gally. Gally, this is Ada, the woman in charge."

Ada flushed. "Only because you idiots are too dumb to make competent decisions."

Gally stood up straighter and eyed her with curiosity. "So, you can tell me what's going on here?"

Ada frowned. "Didn't Alby give you the run down earlier?"

"I mean, yeah, but that can't be all there is to this."

Ada smiled sadly and shook her head. The shadows on her face moved with the flickering of the fire. Cheerful bouts of laughter echoed from the other side of the fire, movement catching her eye from where the two boys who were previously talking wandered over to the rest of the group. "It sucks, doesn't it?" She said idly. "But what we've told you is honestly all that we know ourselves. Alby and I agreed it wouldn't make any sense to keep anything from you."

Gally's face darkened. "So we really are trapped here?"

"It's not so bad." Nick shrugged. "I mean it sucks beyond belief, and the food is sort of horrible, but if you focus on your job it helps take your mind off things."

Loud jeers caught her attention again, and when she looked one of the two new boys, a scruffy looking brunette with pronounced cheekbones, was attempting to put Alby in a headlock. Rather unsuccessfully, she noticed. As they stumbled left and right in front of the fire, sweating and yelling, they passed by a boy sat solitude from the rest, leaning against an upturned log in front of the fire.

He reminded her of a sparrow almost, his lithe limbs tensed, face down-turned into shadow so that she couldn't quite make it out. From here, his golden hair practically shone with the flames, each fluffy and unruly strand catching the light. Something red gleamed around his wrist as he moved his arm up to lean against his leg.

"Right, Ada?" Nick asked, and when she looked back at him he was staring at her expectantly. Ada blinked thrice. Had he been talking to her?

"Oh, er, yeah. Right."

Nick raised an eyebrow at her, looking mildly amused, so she decided a subject change was wise before he called her out for whatever expression he saw on her face. "Who's that? We got a name yet?"

Nick glanced over at the blonde boy and shrugged. "Nah. Silent as the grave. Won't talk to anyone."

Challenge accepted.

As she made to move over to him, Nick stepped into her path again. "Can we have a word, later?"

"Um... why?"

He looked bashful, almost, slightly annoyed as he rubbed his palm against his dirt-streaked thigh. "Just something I wanna talk to you about, that's all."

"Okay, yeah." Ada nodded. "Come find me after the bonfire."

Nick nodded and moved aside, clasping Gally by the shoulder and steering him towards the rest of the group. Ada watched them leave, then turned her attention to the lonesome boy again. His long fingers picked at the ground, tearing up tufts of grass and peeling them slowly apart. From what she could see of his face in the limited light he was frowning. As she made her way over to him, his eyes slowly rose to meet hers, brown and blue clashing in the firelight.

He looked away without a change in expression as she sank down onto the grass beside him, keeping a respectable amount of distance between them as she noted the tense set to his narrow shoulders and the tightness of his frame.

"What did that grass ever do to you?" She asked after a beat of silence.

He didn't answer.

Ada felt something similar to dread starting to curl its way around her insides, but the slowly rising call of curiosity kept her where she was, staring up at him with a slightly furrowed brow. "Do you remember your name yet?"

The boy lifted one shoulder in a poor attempt of a shrug and didn't bother to respond.

Ada took the moment of awkward silence to study him. This close up, the angles of his face were perfectly clear, thrown into sharp relief by the flickering orange haze. The light danced in his eyes, the deep brown of them warm despite the cool expression schooling his features. His eyebrows were neat, furrowed slightly, sloping down to a small nose. His lips, pursed into a thin line, had teeth indents in them, as if he had been chewing them recently. Unruly blonde hair clung messily to his head.

"If all you're gonna do is sit there and stare you may as well bugger off."

"He speaks," Ada grinned, "at last. Thought you were mute there for a second, Greenie."

The boy's frown deepened as he angrily plucked up another blade of grass. His voice, when he spoke, was strongly accented. It was nice. "Don't call me that. That's not my name."

"What is your name?"

"None of your business."

Ada lifted an eyebrow and turned back to the fire, trying to tamp down the urge to roll her eyes. "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the box this morning."

"Do me a favour and piss off, would you?"

Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Charles emerged from the kitchen area holding a massive platter of food, which he deposited on the table with a heavy thud. Alby didn't even hesitate before sprinting towards him. The aroma of bacon grew stronger. Ada nodded her head towards the set up before turning back to the greenie.

"Looks like dinner's ready. You should probably get some. Charles' bacon is pretty damn good."

The boy didn't even glance at the food. "Not hungry."

Ada opened her mouth to protest, but then noticed how his entire body had tensed like a live wire, waiting to spring into action. For a fleeting moment she remembered George, how in those final moments his body couldn't seem to relax. She decided not to press the issue.

An awkward silence fell over them, punctuated only by the sound of the spitting flames. The boy moved to scratch at the back of his head, staring intently into the fire, and Ada's attention caught on something red that gleamed around his wrist. "What's that? Some sort of good luck charm?" She asked, reaching up to tug at it idly.

The Greenie looked down at his wrist, freezing when he spotted the red fabric wrapped around it, as if he was only just noticing it was there. His brow furrowed for a moment. "How the hell am I supposed to know?"

"Well it's on your wrist."

"Fucked up memory, remember?"

"Ah right, who could forget that?"

The greenie huffed out a frustrated breath, shooting her an agitated glare. It was the first time he had looked at her since she had sat down next to him. "Forgetting seems to be the problem here."

Ada grimaced. "Things will come back, slowly. Your name, first, then little memories." She thought of the dreams she had been having, of the trauma induced flashbacks she couldn't quite remember. There was a blonde boy in those too, but she couldn't remember his face. Only that she felt safe with him. At ease.

She didn't feel that way now.

"I already know my name."

She stared at him expectantly. "Care to share with the class?"

"No."

The silence stretched thin between them. "I still think you should eat something. We don't know when the last time you ate was."

The grass he was fiddling with crumpled unpleasantly in his hand. "I already told you I'm not hungry. Now would you kindly leave me the hell alone? I'm not interested in small talk."

Ada hesitated for a moment before nodding. "If you insist. If you have any questions just come find me."

He made a non committal sound, as if that were the last thing he would consider doing. Ada fought down the rising irritation and stood up, cracking her back as she did. She glanced down at him once more, watching as he fiddled with the shoelace on his wrist, before moving away towards where Alby was waiting for her.

"How'd that go?" He asked, handing her a plate piled high with food. She snatched it eagerly. They always went a little crazy with the bonfires, using up more food than they probably should, but they needed the morale and the down time the monthly celebrations gave them. It was a tradition she could see them continuing, if they were to stay there for longer.

She hoped beyond reason they wouldn't have to.

"Swimmingly." She responded dryly. "He's a striking conversationalist."

"Yeah, didn't say a word to anyone when I gave them the run down. Kept to himself and didn't ask any questions, which is weird." Alby cast a calculating look to where the boy remained sat in front of the fire. "We'll keep an eye on him. Make sure he doesn't cause any trouble."

Ada tensed. "You think he will?"

"I think the way he's acting is new and unpredictable. And so far everything new and unpredictable here hasn't ended well for us."

The understatement of the century, she thought bitterly.

A long piercing cry shattered the joyful atmosphere, sending the hairs on the back of her neck prickling. She looked up at the walls, following the apprehensive eyes of everyone else, right as another shriek pierced the air. It was coming from inside the maze, right outside the north doors, by the sounds of it.

"Is that...?"

"One of our terrifying roommates? I do believe so." Ada nodded. "First time I've ever heard one so close to the walls though." She wondered for a fleeting second if it could climb over, right into the glade. The idea was horrifying.

"It sounds like it's crying." Alby said, voice low. "Like it's grieving."

"Yeah, grieving the loss of a good meal. None of us have been stupid enough to get trapped in the maze overnight for a few days." Ada muttered under her breath. "Maybe that's what we should call the bastards. Grievers."

Soon after the plates were cleared and the fire had died down to mere embers sparking away into nothingness, Alby was rounding up the new gladers to show them their hammocks. They went without complaint, bellies full and minds exhausted from what was technically their first day alive.

It felt like that anyway; Ada remembered it well.

Leaning against the side of the building, she cast her eyes about for Nick, stomach twisting in knots. Her mind spun with possibilities of what he wanted to talk about. When she spotted him, he waved her over nervously, and she followed with slow steps.

"What's up?"

He didn't grab her arm, which she was thankful for, but instead led her wordlessly over to an opening of trees in the forest. Just as she was about to protest, he stopped at the forest's edge, leaving them in perfect view of the homestead. Something prickled on the back of her neck, and when she turned it was to see Alby standing beside his hammock, watching them with his massive arms crossed over his chest. A relief, she thought.

"Listen, Ada, I guess I wanted to... apologise." Nick winced, like the words were bitter on his tongue. "I've been thinking about it, and I haven't exactly been fair to you since I got here."

Took him a month to realise it, but we got there eventually.

Ada watched him with a raised eyebrow, suddenly feeling less apprehensive and more intrigued. "Right. Where's this coming from?"

"Seeing all these newbies come up, and seeing them all frightened and confused..." he paused, looking back towards the Homestead where Gally and one of the other greenies were fighting over a hammock. "It just made me think back to when I came up. How angry I was that this was happening. And I didn't get it, because you seemed all calm and condescending and all holier-than-thou and it pissed me off."

Ada frowned. "Gotta admit, as far as apologies go, this isn't the best."

Nick shrugged. "I guess I didn't realise how much we needed you to be like that. Like, all these Greenies asking questions and panicking... would be so much worse if we were panicking too. Then I thought about how lucky they are that we're there to answer their questions, just like I was lucky to have you and Alby there for me. Even if I was a bit of a..."

"Asshole? Douche-canoe? Absolute twat-face?"

"... shank."

"That too."

Nick coughed and rubbed the back of his head with his hand. "It just got me thinking about how when you lot came up all you had was each other. You didn't have anyone to answer your questions or tell you it'll be okay."

Ada blanched, remembering the sleepless nights followed by screams of pain and tears of loss. Remembering how she couldn't grieve Luke properly because she was too shocked that he had died, how Carson had followed soon after, then George. How she had had to make empty graves and bury her friends side by side. Tears clogged the back of her throat.

Nick, noticing this, shuffled his feet awkwardly. "I know I haven't been fair to you and Alby. But you've done a pretty good job of holding things together. I want to let you know I'm on your side now. No more arguing, no more trying to do things my own way." He smiled, looking nothing like the glowering boy who had first come up a month ago to the day.

"Okay." She nodded. "Good that." She hated that she couldn't seem to get across how much his apology meant to her, how the tension in the glade had led to near constant anxiety and endless worry about their little system getting destroyed. Because Nick was right about one thing: the only thing they had was each-other. If they all fell apart, then so would the Glade and the life they had built there.

A flicker of thought about the quiet Greenie and Alby's warning crossed her mind.

"Everything okay over there?" Alby's voice came from the direction of the Homestead, deep and laced with warning. She could see him glaring at Nick despite the distance. She shot him an enthusiastic thumbs up before turning back to Nick. Without the light of the fire, his face was mostly shadowed.

"We'd better get back before your bodyguard comes over here." Nick sent her a sly smirk before moving out of the treeline, heading across the Glade towards the light of their home.

Ada flushed, staring after him. "He's not my bodyguard."

"Uh huh, sure. Big brother Alby protects everyone like that."

"He does!"

Nick nodded in agreement, but the mischievous smile on his face belied his disbelief. "Sure, Ada." He turned around, and was out of earshot before she could reply.

She grumbled under her breath, moving further into the forest, following the familiar trodden down path towards the walls. The lack of light was oppressive, the trees around her standing tall and ominous, mere shadows reaching their thin hands up to the sky in search of a freedom they would never get. It didn't scare her; Ada had walked this very path what felt like hundreds of times.

Eventually, the graves came into view. Three of them, side by side, held together by vines and whatever she could find in the limited woods around her. Something settled inside her as she crouched down in front of them, staring at the names messily carved into the wood.

Unable to bear the silence, she spoke. "Hey guys." Her voice was unpleasantly loud in the silence. "Just wanted to let you know we got some new people. Had a whole bonfire to celebrate it. You would have loved it, George. The boys have brought wrestling into the equation now."

Silence encompassed her as George's grave stared back.

"And Charles makes a damn good soup. I hate to say it, Carson, but it's better than yours. And he actually knows how to cook bacon." She hesitated. "Still could use you around here though. He can't for the life of him figure out how to peel vegetables properly. Maybe you could have taught him."

She cast a glance at Luke's grave, his gold chain heavy around her throat, but found that she didn't have anything to say.

A twig snapped somewhere behind her, and she spun around to squint at the shadows.

In the pitch black the shape of a silhouette formed, and in a fleeting passage of midnight gleaming blonde hair came into focus. The new greenie stared at her for a moment, face expressionless, before his eyes fell on the three graves.

His features tightened, as if he were looking for something and hadn't quite found it, before he turned around and walked away, vanishing into the dark.

Ada remained where she was, accompanied only by the corpses below her.

—

She was on the watchtower when she saw him again.

After her visit to the graves, she hadn't particularly been in the mood for sleep. And as it turned out, one of the new Gladers was a snorer. After two hours of tossing and turning, she had decided to take a walk and found herself there, perched on the edge with her hands on the wooden railing, watching over the square of land that was their home.

His silhouette caught her attention first. He had made his way out of the homestead, perhaps unable to sleep, just like her, and she watched him walk until he was right in front of the name wall. She couldn't see the engravings from here, but she knew exactly what he was looking at when he stopped abruptly and stared.

One long arm rose to brush against where she knew three crossed out names were, and she knew he was making the connection in his head to the three graves he had found earlier.

She didn't try to call him over, or move to see what he was doing. Instead, Ada remained still, and watched him until he returned to the Homestead, vanishing under the wooden beams.