Chapter 11 Chapter Eleven Hidden Murder

Since Thomas saw Ben at the big house, it seems he's only slightly better.He was wearing nothing but a pair of shorts, and the whiter skin wrapped around the bones, like a piece of paper tightly wrapped around a bundle of firewood.The twine-like blood vessels are scattered all over the body, throbbing and glowing green—but they are no longer as obvious as they were the day before.His bloodshot eyes fixed on Thomas, as if he saw a delicious meal. Ben crouched down, ready to leap, to strike again.At some point, a knife appeared and was held tightly in his right hand.The terror in Thomas' mind made him sick, and he still couldn't believe what was happening.

"Book!" Thomas looked in the direction of the sound, and was surprised to find that Alby was standing by the cemetery, looking like a ghost in the dim light.Thomas suddenly felt relieved - Alby held a big bow in his hand, the arrow was on the string, and aimed at Ben with hidden murderous intentions. "Ben," said Alby again, "stop me now, or you won't live to-morrow." Thomas turned to look at Ben, who was staring at Alby viciously, licking his tongue and moistening his lips.What could be wrong with that child?The boy turned into a Griever, Thomas thought. Why?

"If you're killing me," Ben screams, sputtering almost into Thomas's face, "then you're killing the wrong man." He glared at Thomas, "He's the Shank you're going to kill. ' There was madness in his voice. "Don't be a fool, Ben," said Alby calmly, still aiming at Ben, "Thomas has only just arrived here, so there's nothing to worry about. You're still in pain and you shouldn't be out of bed and running around. " "He's not one of us!" Ben yelled. "I've seen him and he... he's bad. We've got to kill him!"

Thomas took a step back instinctively, terrified by Ben's words.What is Ben talking about?Ben met him?Why does he think Thomas is bad? Alby's weapon remained motionless, still aimed at Ben. "Leave this problem to me and the guardian to solve, Stinky Face." He raised his bow and arrow firmly, as if using a branch as a support, "Stop it now and go back to the big house. " "He wants to take us home," said Ben, "and take us out of the maze. We'd better all jump off the cliff! We'd better kill each other!" "What are you talking about..." Thomas began.

"Shut your mouth!" screamed Ben. "Shut your ugly, treacherous mouth!" "Ben," said Alby quietly, "I count to three." "He's bad, he's bad, he's bad..." Ben whispered to himself, as if singing.He rocked back and forth, alternating the knife between his hands, his eyes fixed on Thomas. "one." "Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad..." Ben smiled, and his teeth seemed to be glowing, green in the dim light. Thomas couldn't take it anymore, he just wanted to get out of here, but he didn't move, he was dumbfounded.

"Two." Alby raised his voice, full of warning. "Ben," Thomas said, trying desperately to make sense of it all, "I'm not...I don't even know..." Ben screamed and laughed hysterically.He jumped into the air and swung the knife in his hand. "Three!" Alby yelled. The sound of a bowstring vibrating, the whoosh of an object piercing the air.The thing hit its target with a wet, sickening thud. Ben's head jerked to the left, his body turned in a circle, and he fell face-to-face on the ground, his feet pointing in Thomas' direction, and he was silent.

Thomas jumped to his feet and staggered forward.The long arrow shaft protruded from Ben's cheek, but the blood flowing out was not as much as Thomas imagined, it just leaked out a little bit, black in the darkness, like crude oil.The only thing that was still moving was the little finger of his right hand, twitching, and Thomas fought back the urge to throw up.Was it because of him that Ben died?Is this his fault? "Come on," said Alby, "the bagger's coming for him tomorrow." What just happened here?Thomas thought to himself, looking at the lifeless body, the world tilted before his eyes, what have I done to this child?

He looked up, wanting an answer, but Alby was gone, and there was only a swaying branch to prove that he had stood here just now. Thomas came back from the woods into the blinding sunlight and rubbed his eyes.He was limping and his ankle was so painful it almost made him scream, but he couldn't remember when he had hurt it.He raised one hand and carefully touched the place where he had just been bitten, and covered his belly with the other hand, as if it could stop the unbearable vomiting.The image of Ben's head being shot emerged in his mind, the arrow stood up at an unnatural angle, blood flowed down from the shaft of the arrow, gathered together, gradually dripped, and splashed on the ground...

This scene became the last straw that crushed him. He knelt down beside a big uneven tree by the woods, vomited heavily, kept retching his stomach, coughed, and vomited out every drop of the bile in his stomach that made him feel sour and disgusting.He was shaking, and it seemed as though the vomiting would never stop. At this time, a thought suddenly popped into his mind, as if his mind was also mocking him, intending to make things worse. He had been in the glade for almost twenty-four hours, which was a whole day, that's all.Thinking back on everything that happened, everything was so horrible.

There is no doubt that things will only get better than they are now. That night, Thomas lay on the ground, looking at the starry sky, wondering if he would ever sleep again.Every time he closed his eyes, Ben's terrifying figure would pop up in front of his eyes, and the boy's crazy face filled his heart.Whether he opened his eyes or not, he could always hear the splash of liquid as the arrow hit Ben's cheek. Thomas knew he would never forget those horrific minutes in the cemetery. "Talk," Chuck said for the fifth time since they unrolled their sleeping bags. "No." Thomas' answer was the same as the previous few times.

"Everyone knows what's going on, it's happened once or twice. Some Shanks who got stung by a Grief lose control and attack other people, don't think you're anything special." For the first time, Thomas finds Chuck's personality going from mildly annoying to unbearable. "Chuck, it's a good thing I'm not holding Alby's bow right now." "I just……" "Shut up, Chuck, go to bed." Thomas couldn't talk about it. Finally, his "friend" actually fell asleep.Others were asleep too, judging by the constant snoring in the glade.A few hours later, it was late at night, and Thomas was still the only one who couldn't sleep.He wanted to cry, but couldn't.He wanted to find Alby and beat him up without a reason, but he couldn't.He wanted to scream, kick, spit, open the teleportation box and jump into the endless darkness below, but still couldn't. He closed his eyes and forced himself to forget those thoughts and shadows, and at some point, he fell asleep. In the morning, Chuck had to drag Thomas out of his sleeping bag, into the shower, and into the locker room.Throughout, Thomas felt listless and apathetic, with headaches and a body that needed more sleep.Breakfast was a blur, and for an hour after eating, Thomas couldn't remember what he had eaten.He was so tired, it was as if someone had invaded his head, knocked on his skull from a dozen places, and there was a constant heartburn in his chest. He could see, though, that dozing off on a farm with a wide glade was a disgrace. He stood with Newt in front of the House of Blood barn, ready for his first training session with the Guardians.Although it had been a rough morning, he was actually excited to learn more and to have a chance to take his mind off Ben and the graveyard.Beside him, the cows mooed, the sheep bleated, and the pigs squealed.Somewhere not far away, dogs barked, and Thomas hoped that Frypan would never give hot dogs a new meaning.Hot dog, he thought, when was the last time I had a hot dog?Who did I eat with? "Tommy, are you listening to me?" Thomas came out of his trance and looked at Newt, God knows how long he'd been talking without Thomas listening to a word. "Ah, I'm sorry, I couldn't sleep last night." Newt put on a sympathetic smile. "Can't blame you, just been through so many bad things. After those things, let you devote yourself to today, you may think I am unreasonable." Thomas shrugged. "Work is probably the best thing I can do, as long as it allows me to divert my attention." Newt nodded, and his smile became more real. "You're actually as smart as you look, Tommy. That's why we take pains to keep this place organized and busy. If you're lazy, you're going to be sad. You should start Forget the past, plain and simple." Thomas nodded, absently kicking a piece of gravel on the dusty, cracked flagstone floor. "Any update on the girl who came yesterday?" If anything broke the gloom of this long morning, it was the thought of her.He wanted to understand her, to figure out his inexplicable connection with her. "Still sleeping in a coma, the medical staff fed her Frypan's soup with a spoon, observed her life status, etc. She seems to be fine, but she is still unconscious." "This is so weird." Had it not been for the incident with the cemetery and Ben, Thomas was sure he would have thought of nothing but her all night long.Maybe he still couldn't sleep, but for an entirely different reason.He wants to know who she really is, if he really knows her. "Yeah," Newt said, "I suspect the word weird is pretty commonplace in this part of the world." Thomas looked over at the faded red barn behind Newt and put aside his thoughts about the girl. "Then what to do first? Milking or slaughtering some poor piggies?" Newt laughed, and Thomas realized he hadn't heard much laughter since he'd been in this place. "We always start the rookie with the bloody butcher. Don't worry, cutting up Frypan's food is just part of the job, the butcher does everything about the critters." "I don't remember anything about my old life, which sucks, maybe I used to like to kill animals." He was just making a joke, but Newt didn't seem to catch it at all. Newt nodded at the barn. "Oh, it will all be clear to you by the time the sun goes down tonight, and we're going to meet Winston—he's the Guardian." Winston was a pimple-faced kid, short but strong.According to Thomas, Guardians love their jobs.Maybe he was sent here to be a serial killer, he thought. During the first hour Winston showed Thomas around, telling him what kind of animals were kept in the various pens, where the chicken and turkey nests were, and how the barns were divided.The dog was an unlovable black Labrador named Wang Wang.It has been at Thomas' feet from the beginning, which makes Thomas feel familiar too quickly.Thomas wanted to know where the dog came from, so he asked Winston.He replied that Wang Wang has been here since the beginning.Good thing it got its name as a joke, because it's actually pretty quiet. For the next hour, Thomas was busy with the animals on the farm—feeding, cleaning, fixing pens, cleaning Kroenke.Kroenke.Thomas found himself using glade words more and more often. The third hour was the hardest for Thomas, who had to watch Winston kill a pig and prepare its parts for future food.As they walked to lunch, Thomas swore two things to himself.First, he does not work with animals; second, he will never eat anything from pigs again. Winston let Thomas go to eat by himself, while he stayed in the House of Blood, which was no problem for Thomas.As he walked towards the east gate, he kept seeing, in a dark corner of the barn, Winston gnawing on a raw pig's foot, which made him shudder. Just after walking through the transfer box, Thomas was surprised to find that someone entered the glade from the west door on the left side of the maze. He was an Asian boy with strong arms and short black hair. He looked slightly older than Thomas in appearance.Walker stopped just as he ran through the door, bent over and leaned on his knees, panting desperately.He looked as if he had just run twenty miles, flushed, sweaty, and soaked. Thomas studied him, curiosity getting the better of him.He had never observed the walkers up close, nor had he spoken to them.In addition, according to the pattern of the past two days, the traveler returned several hours earlier.Thomas stepped forward, eager to meet the man, to ask a few questions. But before he could figure out how to speak, the boy collapsed on the ground.