𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐈𝐀 - TMR, Gally ¹

𝟢𝟦𝟨，𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐬

CH. FORTY - SIX
┗━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━┛

To her surprise, she fell asleep almost immediately. She doesn't remembering having to send the Grievers at Ben, at least.

Which still means he's probably dead.

Just not because of her.

With a groan, she sits up. Looks around only to find Gally already gone. Her dinner plate from last night is still on her desk. Next to it, something she hasn't seen yet stands.

Frowning, she takes the little bottle. Twists it in her fingers until she reads the label.

Sleeping pills.

He gave her sleeping pills.

She assumes, at least.

Her stomach twists at the thought of him doing that without her knowing, or even noticing, but then she reminds herself it was probably just to get her calm.

Quickly, the girl dresses into her run clothes. It must be late, since Gally's gone. All the Runners have likely left, too.

It's the first time she runs after a week of not doing so. She spend a few days training Chuck, and yesterday she wasted her time on trying to save Ben.

Right. Her leg is even messed up now. She can't even run.

So she takes a deep breath to cover the disappointment; perhaps if she could run her feelings off, she wouldn't have to grieve about Ben.

Trying to forget, she eats a fast breakfast, then heads off to Chuck, who she finds sitting on a tree trunk with Thomas. Newt's in front of them.

"Hey, Bud." She hops down next to the kid. "What're you doing?"

"Trying to carve," he murmurs, eyes focused on the wood in his hands.

She peeks at his work. "It's looking good already. You're a natural."

"I'm not. Gally taught me," Chuck explains, reminding her of that one time she saw them sitting together. "My first few nights. When I couldn't sleep. And when he was supposed to teach me how to build. But we figured out I'll hammer my own fingers off if I even try, so that's why he came up with this."

Her heart melts. "That's kind of him."

"He's a tad grumpy, though," he adds quickly, as if he has to prove that he doesn't like Gally.

A laugh leaves her mouth. "Yeah, maybe sometimes." She turns to the other two boys. "What are you lovebirds talking about?"

With a roll of his eyes, Newt ignores the nickname. "About Alby and Minho. They went into Maze to retrace Ben's footsteps."

"What?" Her face falls in surprise. "Why?"

Thomas shrugs. Points at Newt. "He says it might lead them closer to a way out."

"Yeah. Runners are awesome and smart, especially Minho, and Alby is, too," Newt says. "They have high chances of figuring it out."

"Why aren't you a Runner, then?"

"Smooth, Thomas." She groans. "So smooth."

"I didn't- well, maybe- no, I- whatever," he stammers, stabbing his knife into the dirt. "I'm kinda curious about the Maze, though."

"It's boring," she says fast.

"Then I'd definitely like to figure out why it's boring," he shoots back. "I mean, maybe if I see the Maze, I can-"