DAYS BEFORE DAWN

‎‧₊˚✧ ∘₊✧ CHAPTER SEVEN ⎯⎯ YOU'RE A FUN ONE AIN'T YA ✧₊∘ ✧˚₊‧

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Olive and Newt made their way to the box Olive and Gally avoid eye contact like the plague as the two get to the front of the crowd beside Gally and Alby. Alby and Clint open the box and spot the Greenie below, frightened as usual, boys begin to chuckle and laugh, "Go get him." Olive her a boy say to Gally as he jumps down, rattling the box, scaring the Greenie more.

     "Day one, Greenie. Rise and shine." Gally says as he grabs the boy getting him out of the box and at the feet of everyone.

     "He looks like a slopper to me."

     "I could use some help in the kitchen." Frypan says with an amused smile, "Guys relaxed, let him breathe." Olive tried as the Greenie then stood pushing her and other out of the way before making a run for the Maze. "Hey, we got a runner!" Olive and the others watched as the boy sprinted for the Maze entrance only for him to trip on his feet face planting into the hard ground, some boys laughed and oh'd, others like Olive winced at the impact.

"Get him into the pit so he can calm down." Alby instructed, Gally and Winston nodded as they jogged over to the boy who was gawking at the surrounding walls, unable to fully respond as they grabbed him, and threw him into the pit. "That was eventful." Olive said making Alby chuckle, "Usually is." Alby said as Gally and Winston returned, Gally unable to fully make eye contact with Olive, "He's all yours." Gally said, once Alby nodded Gally made his way to the builders hut, "Want to join me? The new greenies always take to you. I could use the extra help if he runs off again."

"Lead the way." Olive said, Alby smiled and the two set off for the pit after a few minutes, Gally watched intently as Olive followed Alby towards the Greenie, a pit of jealousy bubbled inside him making him grip the hammer in his hands tighter, his knuckles turning white.

"Hey there, Green Bean." Alby says as he and Olive crouch down in front of the slammer's bar doors, he's scared as he looks up at Alby and Olive, though his eyes linger on Olive longer, a memory seemed to reflect in his gaze before it was replaced by a confused one, as if he recognized her but couldn't figure out why.

"You're not gonna run again. Okay?" Alby continued, the Greenie's eyes returned to Alby and he gave a silent promise not to, "Good." Alby said, "My name is Alby. This is Olive." Alby added looking towards Olive who smiled at the boy, the Greenie visibly relaxes, "Do you remember anything? Anything at all?" Olive asks, her voice sweet, the Greenie pondered for a moment and shook his head, "Can you tell me who you are? Where you came from?" Alby added, "No."

     "Can you tell me your name?"

     "I can't remember anything. Why can't I remember anything?" The boy began to panic and Olive opened the door to the slammer and jumped in, placing her hands on his shoulders gently, "Hey it's okay, we all went through this, you'll get your name soon okay?" Olive said, the boy took a breath and nodded, "Olive's right. The name is the one thing they let us keep." Alby added, "What is this place?" He said not tearing his eyes away from Olive as she smiled, "Let us show you." Alby said as he reached his hand down, Olive took it and was brought out of the pit with ease, Alby and Olive then both helped the boys out and they began to walk around the Glade.

     "We eat here. We sleep here. We grow our own food. We build our own shelter. Whatever we need, the Box provides. The rest is up to us." Alby said as the Greenie walked in between him and Olive as he pointed at different areas of the Glade, one being the builder's area where she watched Gally furiously hammer away at an object, until he looked up and they made eye contact for the first time since the Map Room incident. The eye contact was short lived as Gally turned away, forcing Olive to look away as well.

     "The Box?"

"Yeah. It's sent up once a month with fresh supplies and a new Greenie. This month that's you." Alby explained as they stopped walking, "Congratulations, Greenie." Olive said with a smile, the boy gave a small one, it was the first smile they've actually seen from him, but as fast as it came it changed to one of confusion, Sent up? By who, though? Who put us here?"

"That, we don't know." Alby said, "Somethign we wish we did. But unfortunately, a name is all we get." Olive added as Newt came up to the three, "Hey, are you all right, Alby? Olive?" Newt asked with a smile, "Green Bean, meet Newt. When I'm not around, he's in charge. And at this point if he's also not around, Olive's in charge."

"It's a good thing you're always around then. Plus Olive's a reinforcement, everyone's bloody scared of her." Newt said with a chuckle, "They are not." Olive said with an eye roll but was only met with an unimpressed look from the two which told the boy, they were in fact terrified of Olive.

"That was some dash you made earlier. For a second, I thought you had the chops to be a runner... till you face-planted." Newt said redirecting the conversation back to the boy who immediately perked up at the comment, "Wait, a "runner"?"

     "Newt, do me a favor. Go find Chuck." Alby said dismissing the boy's question, "All right."

     "Thanks. Look, I'm sorry to rush this." Alby said as the trio began to walk again, "You came up a little late, and there's a lot to do. We got something special planned tonight." Olive immediately perked up, she loved the bonfires they threw to welcome the new greenies, "What?" He asked confused, Olive smiled, "You'll see."

     Olive noticed Alby look towards the watch tower, "I hope you're not afraid of heights." When the boys didn't respond Olive chuckled, "I guess we'll find out, let's go." Olive said placing her hand on his back leading him towards the tower, Alby beside her. They let the greenie clump up first before Olive followed and then Alby, once they got themselves situated on the top they looked out towards the Glade.

     "This is all we got. We've worked hard for it. If you respect this place... you and I will get along just fine." Alby said as Olive stared off into the Glade, it wasn't much but it was home, the only home they knew now, Olive noticed Gally busying himself with random projects, his eyes drifting off towards where the three were, a hint of jealousy in his eyes, the two haven't spoken since the kiss that was interrupted by Minho, Ben, and Newt. She wished she had the chance to figure out if Minho and or Ben suspected anything like Newt before they ran back into the maze but she knew Minho and she knew he wouldn't let her or Gally live it down if he knew, so only time will tell.

     "What's out there?" Olive heard the boy say, nodding towards the maze, Alby didn't answer instead he gave him the rules. "We only have three rules. First, do your part. No time for any freeloaders. Second, never harm another Glader. None of this works unless we have trust. Most importantly...never go beyond those walls."

"Do you understand me, Greenie?" Alby asked sternly, before anyone could really respond a voice was heard, "Hey, Alby!" The trio looked down and saw Chuck holding as many things as he could for the new Greenie, "Olive!" Chuck said excitedly once he spotted her, "Hey Chuck!"

"Hey, Chuck. Where you been, man?"

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     Alby and Olive left the boy to Chuck while they both went back to work. Olive went to work on a few little projects as Jared came up to her, "Hey, Gally said if you need anything to just come to me." Jared said awkwardly, Olive furrowed her brows, she glanced around him and saw Gally already looking at them but quickly looked away from they made eye contact. "Uh okay, did he happen to say why? Usually if you guys can't find him you come to me, what's going on?" Jared just shrugged, "He didn't say." Jared said solemnly, he felt weird being out in the middle of the two of them, and he could tell Olive didn't even know why which made him relax only a little.

     Over at the homestead Chuck was setting up the new greenie's hammock, "It's basically the same story for all of us. We wake up in the Box, Alby gives us the tour... then here we are. Olive tends to tag along sometimes, but that's only because Alby notices people are a lot more calmer around her, or they're scared of her." Chuckle explains, the greenie only nodded glancing towards where Olive was currently working then towards the maze doors, "Don't worry. You're already doing better than I did. Gally had to chase me around the box but it took Olive coming to me for them to get me out-No, come on." Chuck said noticing the greenie had stalked off towards the entrance of the maze.

Chuck made a run for it and quickly caught up to him and stepped by him, "Dude, where are you going?" Chuck asked now walking beside him. Olive looked up and saw them, though she didn't move just watched, as Gally watched her and them.

"I just wanna see." He said as they kept walking towards it, "You can look around all you want but you better not go out there." Chuck warned remembering the chilling sounds of the grievers late at night. "Why not? What's through there?" The greenie pushed, Chuck shook his head, "I don't know. I just know what I'm told. And we're not supposed to leave." Chuck said as Minho and Ben ran out of the maze and pass them, "Hey, Chuck. New Greenie?"

"How does it feel to be promoted?" Ben said running behind Minho, "Feels great, Ben." Chuck said with a smile, "I thought no one was allowed to leave."

"I said we're not allowed to leave." Chuck explained before continuing, by this time Olive soon placed her tools down and stood up watching them, "They're different, they're runners. They know more about the maze than anyone."

"Wait, what?" The greenie said with furrowed brows, "What?" Chuck hadn't entirely clocked his mistake and the Greenie pressed, "What? You just said "maze."" Chuck then tried to play confused, "I did?"

     "Yeah." The greenie said as he began to walk towards the entrance again, Chuck following after him, "Where are you going? What are you doing?" Olive began to walk towards them now, Gally with his much longer strands quickly passed her, not even giving her a glance as they both sped walked towards them. "I'm just gonna take a look." The greenie said getting closer. "I told you, you can't. No one leaves, especially not now. It's not safe." Olive heard Chuck say as they got to them, "Okay I'm not gonna go." The boy mumbled as Gally yelled, "Hey!" As he pushed the greenie sending him flying.

     "Gally!" Olive exclaimed but he ignored her as he towered over the boy, "We gotta stop meeting like this, Greenie." The boy stood up, immediately defensive, "Get off me!"

     "All right! Calm, calm, calm." Gally said putting his hands out, "Don't touch me!"

     "Take it easy! Just relax." Gally said keeping a distance from the Greenie, "Hey it's alright." Olive tried but as the Gladers came rushing the Greenie got more uncomfortable and defensive, "What the hell is wrong with you guys?"

     "Just calm down, all right?" Newt said as he pulled Olive behind him, "No, okay? Why won't you tell me what's out there?" The greenie yelled, "We're just trying to protect you, man." Alby said finally joining the group, "it's not safe out there, especially not right now." Olive said as Newt kept her behind him. "You guys can't just keep me here."

     "I can't let you leave."

     "Why not?" Soon just like every evening the maze roared  And the eery mechanical noise rang, a sound that always brought chills to Olive's spine as the walls finally closed, "Next time, I'm gonna let you leave." Gally said sending a glance Olive's way before he and the other walked away.

     "Welcome to the Glade." Alby said before turning to Olive, "Keep him calm and keep an eye on him until tonight alright?" Olive only nodded as she went up to the boy and he finally tour his eyes away from the walls. "You're a fun one ain't ya?" Olive said with a smile before light placing her hand on his shoulder. "Let's finish getting you settle okay?" The boy nodded following her and Chuck back to the homestead, Gally watched them from his place with a huff. "What going on with you man? It's not like you to avoid Olive like that." Jared said coming up the keeper.

     "Has nothing to do with you, shank. Just drop it."