Why Can't I Hate You?

~10~

She was lying sound asleep on the medjacks bed. A pretty sleeper, too. How was I supposed to compete with this? For a long time, I was the only girl in the glade. Now, no one will be interested in talking to me with a new one. I just hope she's nice. 

"Jeff," Newt strolled into the room with Minho and Thomas trailing behind. "What's wrong with her then? Why won't she wake up?"

"I don't know, man, I got my job the same way you did." Our job consisted of bandaging people up, not comas.

"Well?" Newt turned to Thomas."Do you recognise her?"

He looked surprised. "No."

"Really? Because she seemed to recognise you." He looked at me."And you. What'sit with you and the newbies lately? You're like a bloody Greenie magnet."

"Seems like Newt's a little jealous." Minho smirked.

Newt shot him a glare, and Minho cleared his throat, biting down on his bottom lip to hold back a smirk.

"The box hasn't gone down since she came up." Jeff said,"How long do you think we can last with the supplies we've got?"

"I don't know. I say we should wait until she wakes up and see what she knows." Newt answered.

"In the meantime, I wanna take Y/n back into the maze to check out that dead Griever." Minho folded his arms.

Newt looked at him as if he just suggested walking into fire. "That's the last place anyone needs to be."

"Come on, Newt. No one ever killed a Griever before, aren't you curious? It could help us find a way out."

I looked over at Thomas. The bonfire night came to mind when he told me about wanting to be a runner."Thanks for the offer, Minho, and for what you said in the meeting, but I think Thomas deserves this."

He furrowed his eyebrows in question, "He's never been in the maze before."

"I know. But the other night, he was telling me how he felt drawn to it, and especially after today, I believe he needs to go in the maze."

He stood thinking for a moment. "Well shank, you're lucky I trust her judgement. You up to the challenge?"

Thomas nodded. "Yeah."

"Let's go then."

They jogged out, and silence fell upon the room. Alby was lying on a bed, too, in the other room. I felt sorry for him. There was nothing we could do to help him. It was only a matter of time before the changing took over.

"When she wakes up, I want to know." Newt told us before heading out.

I sat down on a chair beside the girls bed. A horrible feeling rotting inside me, that something bad was going to happen. All these little events were just leading up to one big catastrophe.

"So, you wanna tell me what happened out there?" Jeff leaned on the wall opposite me.

"I mean, we almost died."

"You know what I meant." He chuckled."You were trapped in there with him for a whole night."

Butterflies flooded my stomach. The way Jeff worded it was as if something else may have happened. I debated telling him about what happened when Newt pulled me into him to hide from the griever, but decided against it. People do impulsive things when their life is on the line. "Yeah, it was hell. The grievers are much scarier than I imagined."

"Never mind the grievers, I was scared you would rip eachothers throats out."

For the next hour or so, we decontaminised the hut and chatted about random things. The girl didn't stir once despite us having a ten minute pillow fight halfway through.

Gally called another meeting, this time keepers only. Rules were made to be broken, in my opinion, so I jogged up to Minho and Thomas, who had just left the maze. "Found anything?"

"You bet," Thomas smiled.

As soon as we entered the Council hut, Gally wanted us out. "He's not a keeper, neither is she."

"They stay." Minho demanded.

"We found this in the griever." Thomas handed Newt a metal thing.

He inspected it, running his hands over the inscription. "These are the same letters we get on our supplies."

"Whoever put us here obviously made the grievers. We've got to get back out there. This could be our way out."

"You see what they're trying to do, right?" Gally said,"Y/n breaks our rules, and now he's trying to get us to abandon them completely."

Newt gave Thomas the metal thing back, thinking. "He's right. We can't have non- runners, running in and out of the maze whenever they feel like it. So Thomas, starting from tomorrow, you're a runner."

"Wow!" Gally shook his head in defeat. Frypan tried to talk to him, but he ignored him and left the room.

Thomas briefly thanked Newt before leaving himself.

"Hold on." Minho stopped Newt before he could leave."I want Y/n as a runner, too."

I forced myself not to smile. Minho wanted me to be a runner. I had never desired to go into the maze before, but with all this new excitement going on about finding a way out, I wanted in.

"No."

My happiness faded away in an instant. Newt had stepped on every ounce of joy I had left. "What? Why?"

"We can't just make everyone runners because they feel like being one. We may as well make everyone a runner. Thomas is a runner. That's all we need." He walked out.

I exchanged a confused look with Minho before running out after him. "Newt. What the hell!" I walked alongside him, determined.

"I've got things to do, so bugger off."

"Why the hell can you make Thomas a runner when he's never set foot in the maze, but not me?"

He stopped suddenly, and I almost lost my balance. "Because I bloody said so."

"Is it because I'm a girl? Do you think I can't keep up? Do you think if a girl can be a runner, it'll make you look weak?"

"IT'S DANGEROUS!" He snapped. He rubbed his temples, then returned to his calm tone. "We send more and more people out there. We'll have no one left. You're a medjack because it's what you're good at. Deal with it."

He left me standing there in the   middle of the glade. Speechless.