Alby is shocked at the idea of a dead Griever, so this hasn’t happened before, but they decide to leave the matter until tomorrow because running out to see it and coming back would be cutting things pretty close on timing.

Then Alby turns on Thomas and issues the standard “you’d better not be hiding stuff” threat, which makes fuck-all sense because Thomas is the one person in this place who actually doesn’t know anything.  Admittedly, they have reason to be suspicious of him because of Ben and Gally’s comments, but ‘suspicion’ and ‘he must know stuff’ are different.

This ain’t got nothin’ to do with no hate or like or love or friends or anything. All we care about is surviving.

You have a house, plenty of food, free electricity and water, and a lack of natural predators since the only monsters around politely stay inside the maze.  Plus, whatever you can’t make for yourselves gets delivered once weekly by unseen forces who otherwise don’t bother you.  Just what are you supposed to be surviving?

After Alby leaves, Chuck shows up because I guess we’re playing musical characters now.  Turns out Ben isn’t actually dead, just injured.  However, since he did try and kill Thomas, he’s getting banished.  That night.

…did anyone maybe interrogate him and figure out what the hell it was he was going on about?  Hell, for all we know, they did and learned everything but they’re not talking about it because it might make sun rise in the west and plagues fall out of the sky.  It’s not like we’ve got a better reason than superstition for why they’re all being so reserved.

Everyone gathers that night for the banishing…ceremony?  First they drag out Ben, then they get a 20 ft pole with a collar on the end of it.  They whole time they’re putting Ben in the collar, he’s babbling on about how it was just because he was sick and he didn’t really mean it.  I honestly can’t tell if I like this part or not.  I mean, it’s really harsh and stupid, but kids do have a tendency towards black-and-white morality, and so do people who are really scared/stressed.

One thing I can’t get over, though, is the fact that no one is fucking talking to this kid.  So maybe they kill him anyway because people do weird things in weird situations, but they should still at least be trying to find out why he tried to kill Thomas.

You know, I’m starting to realize why they haven’t been able to solve the maze after two years of trying.

They use the pole to push Ben into the maze as the door closes, so that he gets locked out but no one else gets squished by the closing walls.  The whole thing is so dramatically described that it takes two chapters to get through.  For the most part, I don’t mind it.  It’s creepy and tense, and it should be.  I think the only reason it works, though, is because more words are spend on describing Ben and his desperation than on saying stuff like “Thomas felt scared.”  It’s one of the few points in the book so far that manages a decent amount of showing.

How different would things be right now if it weren’t for that one boy? Thomas could almost convince himself he’d be completely content, happy and excited to learn his new life, aim for his goal of being a Runner.

So…you’d be completely content living in the glade?

Then why are you trying to get out of it?

Newt wakes Thomas up the next morning, and they chat in exactly the same way everyone has been chatting until now.  Lots of banter and made up slang, very little actual information, none of it plot-relevant.  They do stay around until the walls open up, and Ben’s collar-and-pole are sitting right there on the ground.  Newt says it always happens like that, and no one knows what happens to the kids who get banished.  (Or to their bodies, if it comes to that.)

Thomas asks about the runners.

“Best of the best, those guys. Have to be. Everything depends on them.”

Really?  Because it looks like the contribute fuck-all to your little society.

Newt goes on (and on and on) about how awesome runners are.  Thomas mentions wanting to be one, and Newt laughs in his face about it.  Says Thomas has to prove himself by working hard first, which makes sense, and that Thomas will make enemies if he goes on about being too good to pull weeds with the rest of them, which makes less sense.  The only way you’d be “too good” for farming but not running is if running is considered a higher class.  It’s just a different skill.  But apparently in this society, runners are…what, celebrities?  They’re certainly not in any positions of power.

Also, apparently runners get elected into the position.

Thomas just goes on about how it’s so unfair that he doesn’t get to be one of the special people, so Newt gives him a verbal smack-down about how keeping things orderly is the whole reason everyone hasn’t got all Lord of the Flies on each other so just sit back and take a chill pill and for the love of god don’t rock the sinking boat.

But then Newt promises to put him on the list of “potentials” once he gets established and such.  Eh, at least he’s just speeding up the process, not fully subverting it for Thomas.

They go to the kitchen where everyone is eagerly talking about the dead Griever.

“Well, they found a dead Griever, right?” […] “Well, then who killed the stupid thing?”

Excellent question, Thomas thought.

Oh, please tell me that’s not the best that you’ve got.  Please, please, please dig deep and come up with some questions that aren’t SO fucking obvious.