I was peacefully sleeping when I heard the sound of Harriet and Esther's voice ringing out next to me. "Rachel, get up," Harriet whispered.

"What?" Rachel asked in a groggy voice.

"Follow us," Esther stated.

I heard Rachel getting up and putting her shoes on. I turned over and watched as she hurried off and followed the other two towards the Walls. I sat up from my hammock, stretching my arms and eventually standing up. I walked away from my hammock and to the nearest post, leaning against it. Once Harriet saw me, she waved at me, motioning me to go over to where they were at.

So, I obliged and jogged towards them. "What's up?" I questioned, a bit confused.

"We figured Rachel could use a friend for this," Harriet answered.

"We were just telling her about...well, you know..." Esther trailed off.

"Some Glenners that died, you mean?" I blurted out, then quickly shook my head. "Sorry, that was--"

"Accurate," Harriet said.

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Rachel asked the other two.

"Because you're not like the others, Rachel," Harriet stated.

"You're curious," Esther added.

"And you're not scared," Harriet said. "That doesn't seem human to me."

"But you're one of us now." She handed Rachel a knife. "You need to know what that means."

Rachel looked down at the knife, then up at the Walls with the names of other Glenners up there. "Are some of them crossed out, because they're--"

"Gone, yes," Harriet responded. "Like I said, there were some dark days in the Glen."

Before Rachel could carve her name into the stone, the Doors began to open. Maeve and Jane were running towards them, then they stopped for a moment and sprinted towards us. "Claire is going to stay in the Map Room today," Jane told Harriet.

Harriet nodded her head. "Sounds good to me."

Maeve kept her eyes on Rachel, observing her closely. "You look like you want to run the Maze," she said to Rachel.

Rachel shrugged her shoulders. "So what if I do?"

Maeve walked towards her with a serious look plastered on her face. "I know you've been told this before, but now you're going to hear it from me. "Let's get one thing straight, Newbie: Never go beyond the Walls, got it?"

Rachel nodded her head. "Yeah, got it."

"Good," Maeve stated, then she began to run towards the Doors.

Jane followed right behind her. "You act like a crackface sometimes," I heard her joke with Maeve.

"Shut up, Jane," Maeve retorted, almost laughing as they ran into the Maze.

Rachel looked back at the stone and began to etch her name right next to mine.

*******

The day went on like it usually did. The Glenners had breakfast, then got started on their jobs for the day. All of the Bagger spent the whole morning in the Deadheads, fixing more graves and cleaning them off. Then, after we had lunch, we did some more things in the Deadheads before we split up around the Glen, watching over everyone else, as there was nothing else to do in the Deadheads.

Later that afternoon, Lillie and I were assigned to the Gardens with the Planters. Rachel was over there today, mostly working closely with Sonya. We were studying Rachel carefully, still looking rather curious not only about the Maze, but also about other ways to escape. "Has anyone tried climbing to the top of the Walls?" she asked.

"Tried it," Sonya replied. "The ivy doesn't go all the way to the top. Besides, where are you gonna go from there?"

Rachel bit her lip, trying to think of another way to leave the Glen. "Well, what about the Box? The next time it comes up--"

"No, we tried that," Sonya cut her off. "The Box won't go back down with someone in it."

"What about we--"

"No, we've tried it, okay? We've tried everything already. The only way out is through the sticking Maze." Sonya huffed a sigh, leaning against her shovel. "Do you want to be helpful?" Rachel nodded her head. Sonya took a basket with a small shovel and threw it at Rachel. "Go and dig us up some more fertilizer."

Rachel exhaled loudly and headed off to the Deadheads. "Have you guys really tried everything to get out of here?" I asked.

Sonya nodded her head. "What else do you think we've done in the last two years other than create all of this?"

I nodded my head. "Good point."

Lillie and I just hung around the Gardens for a bit longer until we decided to go patrol somewhere else. Before we even walked away from the Gardens, there was a scream.

"Hey! Help! Help!" the voice cried out.

"Does that sound like Rachel to you?" I asked Lillie. She nodded her head, looking worried.

Before we knew it, Rachel came running out of the Deadheads and back to the Glen with Claire chasing after her. Claire grabbed her foot, causing the both of them to tumble to the ground. It was when Claire got on top of Rachel that Lillie snatched Sonya's shovel from her hand and ran over towards the girls, followed by the rest of us. Once Lillie was over there, she took the shovel and whacked Claire across the face. Claire screamed in pain, falling to the ground and off of Rachel.

Sonya, Esther, Beth, and some Planters came over and pinned Claire to the ground. "What happened?" Sonya questioned.

"She just attacked me!" Rachel insisted. I helped her get up from the ground as she brushed herself off.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Esther asked Claire in shock.

"It's her! I saw her!" Claire yelled back. "She did this to us! It's all her fault!"

Beth opened her mouth, trying to find the words to say something, but she couldn't.

"What's going on?" Harriet intervened, looking down at Claire.

"Claire attacked Rachel," Sonya stated.

Harriet had a frustrated look on her face. "Put her in the Slammer for now. Keepers, meet me at the Homebase. The rest of you, get back to work. We'll let you know what will happen next."

"What? No! No, please, Harriet, no! Listen to me!" Claire protested as the girls helped her up and took her to the Slammer.

"Are you okay?" I asked Rachel. She nodded her head. I looked over at Lillie. "Nice hit." She looked at me with a blank face, then put the shovel down. "Rachel, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine," she replied, panting. "That was intense. She just attacked me all of a sudden."

"I think the Changing really affected her," I stated.

Rachel shot me a puzzled look. "The what?"

"The Changing," I answered. "It's what a person goes through when they get stung by a Griever. It's a painful process, but they get better eventually."

The three of us headed to the Homebase and sat down in our hammocks. Rachel shook her head and then shrugged her shoulders. "She wanted to kill me. She said that I did this to you girls, that this was all my fault." She looked down at her fidgeting hands. "I don't get it. How can any of this be my fault?"

I looked out at the Doors, huffing a sigh. "I have no idea."

Maeve and Jane walked back in the Glen when Mary and Cora went up to them, explaining to the Runners about the incident. Maeve headed for the Homebase while Jane went the other direction, probably going to the Map Room.

"I wonder what Maeve has to say about all of this," I said. "I think in the end she'll make the decision about Claire's fate."

"What do you think will happen to her?" Rachel questioned.

I turned my head towards Rachel, a somewhat sad look on my face. "Probably a fate worse than death."

We all waited patiently for the Keepers to come to a decision on Claire's punishment. The tension in the air was thick and the suspense was killing everyone, including me. My heart was pounding faster and faster the more I thought about it.

Harriet, Sonya, and the Keepers finally came out of the Homebase and motioned all of us to gather around them. Once everyone, minus Rachel, was surrounding the Keepers, Harriet stepped forward, swallowing hard. Then, she began to speak. "What Claire did to Rachel was unacceptable, as she broke one of the rules we have here in the Glen. Therefore, after some serious consideration, we're going to hold a Banishment for Claire."

The crowd erupted into outbursts. "No, you can't do that!" Beth protested, looking and sounding genuinely upset at this.

Harriet got everyone quiet, then looked at Beth in a serious way. "It's been decided, Beth, and we're not going back on our decision," Harriet replied firmly.

"Gwyn, how could you agree with them on this?! Claire is our friend!" Beth shouted.

She shook her head. "Who's to say she won't attack the Newbie again? I'm sorry that it had to come down to this, but we have no choice. She broke one of our rules, so this is the price she has to pay."

We all stayed quiet for a moment, then Sonya spoke up. "Jane, go get Claire from the Slammer. Everyone else, let's grab the poles and get this over with."

While Jane went to go fetch Claire, the rest of us got poles from the Homebase. The Glenners got normal-sized poles, but the Harriet, Sonya, and the Keepers got longer T-shaped poles with rope tied up at the top. We all made a circle by the Doors and watched as Jane had a crying Claire in her grasp. She was thrown in the middle where we could all see and enclose her in the circle. Jane took the small backpack in her hand and tossed it in the Maze.

Claire looked up at Harriet, tears streaming down her face. "Harriet, please, don't do this." She looked at Gwyneth. "Gwyn...please..."

Gwyneth gave her a sad look. "I'm sorry, Claire."

The wind began to pick up and the gears on the Doors were about to prepare for closing. "Poles!" Harriet shouted, making everyone point their poles towards Claire. Just as the Doors were beginning to close, Harriet let out another order. "Move in!"

So we all moved in on Claire, trapping her with only one way out, which was in the Maze. She shook her head, sobbing even more. "No! No! Please, don't do this to me! I'll change, I promise! Please!"

But no one was backing down now. Despite her efforts to shove the poles out of her way, we continued to push her until she was inside the Maze. She moved quickly before the Doors crushed her body. I got one final look at Claire before the Doors were fully shut. Her piercing scream lingered in my mind. I looked at Rachel, who had a terrified look on her face.

Harriet looked down at the grass, sighing in sadness. She looked back up and glanced at all of us. "She belongs to the Maze now. Come on, let's go eat dinner. I know I'm not the only stick here who's starving."

So we all took the poles back to the Homebase and went on with dinner. Gwyneth and Beth were the only ones who didn't show up and spent their time grieving upstairs.

Lillie and I sat with Rachel, who hardly ate anything. "It had to be done," I told her.

"Yeah, I know," she said, still staring down at her food.

The rest of dinner went by quickly for everyone. That night, Esther handed me a torch and led me to the Walls where our names were at. Gwyneth was standing beside Beth, holding a torch, letting a few tears fall down her face. Beth had the knife in her hand, her eyes swollen and her face wet from the tears. Beth began to cross out Claire's name with the knife, putting a line through it, signifying that she was gone and that she was never coming back. When she was done, she stepped back and closed her eyes, letting some more tears fall down from her face.

"I'm sorry," I spoke up, looking at Beth, then Gwyneth. "I know that she was your friend and you two were really close to her."

Beth opened her eyes and shot me an annoyed look, not saying a word. She walked past me, a hurt look on her face, followed by Gwyneth, who gave me a slight nod, thanking me silently.

"Well, that's done," Esther said.

"She won't make it out there tonight, will she?" I asked, even though I knew the answer to that.

Esther shook her head. "No, she won't."

"So what do we do now?"

Esther turned her head towards me. "We move on, that's what we do."

~~~~~~~

A/N: 2 chapters in one day? I'm on a roll!

RIP Claire. You will be missed (?)

Song above is Banishment by John Paesano.

Comment, vote, more soon! :)

-A