Newt Imagines (The Maze Runner)

All This Time

Darkness. Overwhelming, unchanging. Then sound, hitting you like a train, leaving you scrambling for cover even in the midst of the seemingly endless nothingness. Everything is happening, yet nothing is happening at all.

It takes you a couple moments, or perhaps the better part of an hour, to figure out what's going on. You're in a room that's shaking like a tree in a hurricane, all moving parts and clanking metal. It's going up, but you don't know how long it's been going up, or if it will ever stop.

Before you can properly wonder what it would feel like to be hurled up into the sun by a monstrous metal cell, your Icarus-style jail comes to a juddering halt. You're thrown against one of the walls by the sheer force, and wince at the onset of what are likely a great deal of newly formed cuts and scrapes on the surface of your hands and forearms.

The ceiling is abruptly flung open, allowing sunlight to gush into your cell like a bucket upset by some celestial hand. You're also greeted by a chorus of voices, all of them raised in a mixture of surprise, disbelief, and just plain confusion.

A boy jumps down into the cell, landing unsteadily on one leg that half threatens to give out beneath him. The sunlight, still just as fierce, calls extra attention to his blond hair. It's as if a giant spotlight has been cast upon this newcomer, some massive entity pointing out to you that this is somebody you need to notice.

Despite your divine wakeup call, the boy still manages to speak before you. He forms his syllables around a mouth full of surprise, and it coats every word with a thick layer of hesitation.

"You're–" He can't form a complete sentence at first. "You're a girl," He finishes somewhat lamely.

You nod, one eyebrow raised. "Yes. You're a boy."

He chuckles awkwardly. "Yeah, I know. It's just– well, we've never had a girl here before. That's why I'm surprised."

"What do you mean, you've never had a girl here before?"

You take a half step forward, pushing you out of the shadows and into the glare of the sun. The shock of the bright light has subsided by now, and you can just make out the shapes of a dozen or two figures all pressing in to peer over the edge of the metal box, cocking their heads to the side as they stare unabashedly at you.

You fight the urge to melt back into the shadows, not quite used to the spectacle of being a creature out on display. "Is everyone here a boy?"

The boy in the box with you must be able to hear the undercurrent of horror running through your voice, because he just laughs. "We're not as bad as you think, I promise. I'm Newt, by the way."

You nod, mentally cataloging the name away in some recessed corner of your mind. "Newt. I'm–'

It's your turn to fall silent. Your mouth opens to say the name, your name, but nothing comes out. It's like reaching for something in your pocket, but discovering that it's had a hole for quite some time. You know that something should be there, but all you can find is that same conspicuous emptiness.

Newt nods solemnly at your silence. "You can't remember your name, can you? None of us can, not at first."

Again, that reference to 'us.' Whoever these boys are, they must be used to new arrivals. Who knows how long they've been here, wherever here is, or how long you will be here either.

You force your thoughts away from that, and stare up at the boys again. They're still looking down at you with that same spectatorial awe, their curiosity no less dampened by the couple of minutes they've spent studying you.

Newt follows your line of vision, and slaps his forehead lightly, as if he can't believe he's forgotten something. "Oh, right. Come over here, I can help you get out. Can you useless shanks toss us the rope, or are you going to keep gawping at us forever?"