Into The WICKED Maze | A Maze Runner Story (English Version)

54. The last one ever

What? What did he just say? A girl? Another girl? My heart stopped and I pushed my way between Zart and Winston along with Thomas.
It was true. There was a girl lying in the box, unconscious or dead, at least she wasn't moving. She had brown hair, like me, and I thought she was pretty lying there.
"I think she's dead," Newt groaned, looking up at us in confusion.
"What's in her hand?" Gally asked and only now did I notice a piece of paper sticking out of her hand. Newt squatted down beside her and carefully pulled it out of her hand. He unfolded it and read it.
"She's the last one. Ever." He looked up at us again, confused. "What the hell does that mean?" he asked.
At that moment, the girl suddenly awoke, snapped her eyes open and gasped loudly, almost causing him to fall over in shock. A horrified murmur went through the crowd, everyone flinched and Chuck grabbed my hand.
"Thomas!" she gasped before passing out again.
Now all eyes were on Thomas, who looked around, completely perplexed.
"You still think I'm overreacting?" Gally asked sarcastically, looking decidedly pleased with himself.
I looked at Thomas again and realised he was looking down at the girl thoughtfully, as if wondering who she was. Did he really not know, or was he just pretending?
I finally woke up from my paralysis due to the fact that a second girl had actually come up to us. When no one said anything, I broke the silence.
"Come on, we've got to get her out of there and into the sani hut. Clint, Jeff, what are you waiting for?" I asked, jumping down to Newt and the unconscious girl. "Come on, help me lift her out of here."
Together with Newt, I lifted her up and Clint and Jeff, who now seemed to have settled back into their roles as med-jacks, helped us lift her out of the box. Then they took her to the sani hut and we stayed behind.
The other gladers all made their way back to their work rather confusedly, even though no one would really get anything done today. Only Newt, Minho, Thomas and I remained standing in front of the box. No one really knew what to say.
"It won't go back down," I muttered when the box didn't go back down as usual after it had been emptied.
"She's the last one..." Newt looked at me thoughtfully. "Does that mean we won't get any more supplies either, or what?"
Minho, who until just now had been watching, lost in thought, as our runners talked to Gally and seemed to be about to change professions, now shook his head in confusion.
"Surely that can't be it. Why now? Because we killed one of those things?" he asked, looking questioningly from one to the other.
"This is my fault. I should have just done what you told me." Thomas looked down at the ground, frowning, and I could hear in his voice that he still didn't regret it. And he was right to do so.
"You saved Alby's life, Thomas. You did everything right." I looked at him encouragingly and he smiled back slightly.
"Come on, let's go and see if the girl has woken up. Maybe you'll recognise her after all." Newt turned and walked towards the sani hut. We followed him.
As we entered the hut, I saw Alby squirming and struggling against the restraints, tied down on one of the beds. He seemed to be in pain and once again I had to think of Stan, who had looked similar.
We followed Newt to the other end of the hut where Jeff was sitting next to the girl who was still unconscious on a bed. I looked at her curiously, after all I had never seen another girl for as long as I could remember. Looking at her like that, I had the strange feeling that I had seen her somewhere before, just as I had with Thomas. What did that mean?
"Jeff? What's going on? What's the matter with her, why won't she wake up?" Newt sounded concerned but suspicious at the same time.
Jeff stood up and looked at us in turn until he stuck with Newt.
"Hey, man, I got my job the same way you did," he shrugged.
So he didn't know what was wrong with her either. I looked over at Clint, but he too just raised his hands in perplexity and looked at the unconscious girl.
Now Newt looked intently at Thomas, who was looking down at her, lost in thought.
"Well, do you recognise her?" he asked.
Thomas shook his head. "No."
Now all eyes were on him.
"Really? 'Cause she seemed to recognise you."
Newt was still looking intently at Thomas, then at me, as if to ask if I believed him. But I couldn't give him an answer to that either.
"What about the note?" Thomas picked up the topic from a moment ago, as if we now knew more.
"Yeah, we'll worry about the note later."
"I think you should worry about it now," Thomas said, looking at us in turn as if waiting for agreement.
Newt looked from the girl to him again and when he spoke, he sounded like an impatient father who had to explain something to his child for the hundredth time.
"We've got enough to deal with at the moment."
But that was when Jeff interfered. "He's right, Newt. If the box isn't coming back up, how long do you think we can last?"
Now Newt didn't sound quite so convinced. "No one said that. Let's not jump to any conclusions, we'll just.... We'll just wait until she wakes up and see what she knows. Somebody's got to have some answers around here."
"Okay," Thomas muttered, turning to leave the hut.
We turned to him and looked after him in confusion.
"And where are you going?" Newt asked.
"Back into the maze," Thomas replied, as if that was the most obvious thing of all.
We exchanged a look and I nodded to Minho to let him know he should stop him. He nodded and ran after him.
Newt looked at me meaningfully. "So, do you believe him?" he asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know, Newt. But I know he's fucking brave and smart. I think he might be our chance to finally find out more than we've managed in the last three years. Quite possibly he should be a runner. We should give him a chance, no matter what Gally thinks."
Jeff nodded in agreement and even Clint, who had stayed out of the whole thing until now, now muttered something like, "She's got a point," before going back to check on Alby.
"All right, then. You should talk to Minho. I'm looking for Gally, maybe I'll manage to change his mind."
Newt was about to leave the hut when I held him.
"Hey, don't forget, you're in charge here now. Gally should fall in line with you. If he gets cheeky, tell him I said so."
I winked at him and he grinned. Then he disappeared through the door.
"Let me know when she's awake, okay? Been a long time since I've met a girl - actually, I don't remember."
Jeff nodded and smiled as I said goodbye to him and Clint and stepped out of the cabin as well.