Solo //The Maze Runner Series//

Chapter 6

    We didn't say anything. I put the can of indescribable food.
"We should get some sleep." I said quietly. He simply nodded his head.
"You can sleep first, I'll keep an eye out for anyone then I'll wake you up and I'll sleep." I said. He agreed and put his head down. I leaned back on the wall and looked up at the ceiling.
"Are you really a Crank?" He whispered.
"I'm pretty sure I am." I whispered back.
"You don't seem like any of the cranks here."
I shrugged. "Sometimes it takes longer for the flare to set in."
"Can you feel it?" He asks.
"A little bit." I looked down at him.
"What does it feel like?" His eyebrows furrowed.
"At the moment nothing, but when my mother had it she said it was kind of painful after a while." I replied.
"How do you know you have it?" He asked.
"It's getting harder to choose between right and wrong." I said.
"How do you know when something is wrong or right?" He asked.
I gave a soft chuckle. "You ask a lot of questions."
"Just answer it." He said with an eye roll.
"Well you know it's wrong to kill someone and it's right to save someones life." I answered, thinking back to the crank I killed.
"Well it's not wrong to kill someone if you were trying to protect yourself. And it's not always right to save someone's life." He said, his voice getting softer at the end.
"What do you mean by that?" I asked closing my eyes.
"Well sometimes someone wants to die." He said quietly, "So instead of saving them you should let them go because it would be for the better." His voice shook and he sniffed. I opened my eyes and looked at him. He was sitting up now, staring at his ankles, tears running down his face. He quickly wiped them off and looked away.
"Do you want to die Newt?" I asked being cautious.
"I did once." He replied. Silence filled the air, neither of us dared to make eye contact. I messed with my fingers.
"What happened to your leg?" I asked after a few minutes.
"It's not important." He snapped.
"You should just tell me, it's not like I will tell anyone. I have no one to tell." I said with a shrug.
"Why should I tell you?" He asked, anger lacing his voice.
I rolled my eyes. "You literally just told me where you came from and that you wanted to die, but you don't want to tell me why you have a limp?"
He bit his lip and wiped the tears away. I sighed in frustration that he wasn't going to tell me. I'm a very curious person and I like to know things. I laid down and faced the wall, messing with the split ends of my hair. I let my eyes close and tried to fall asleep but thoughts were filling my mind.
He sighed. "I tried to jump off one of the maze walls." This caught my attention and I snapped my eyes back open. I didn't turn around.
"Tried?" I asked.
"My leg got caught on a vine before I could fall and it snapped my ankle." He said. I winced when he said it snapped his ankle.
"Why'd you do it?" I asked.
"I couldn't stand the maze anymore." He whispered,"and not knowing who I was and why I was there. I just got tired of living." Silence once again filled the hallway after he was finished. It amazed me because just by looking at him, he looked perfectly fine and when he was with his friends he looked fine as well but deep inside he was broken, broken beyond repair.
"My parents ate each other." I said, thinking I should share something at least semi-personal.
"Seriously?" He asked.
I turned around and sat back up, obvious I was never going to get to sleep.
I nodded my head. "Before they went insane they taught me how to survive out here, how to fight, act, everything I needed to know to survive. Then the flare got to them and they started fighting then they started to grab weapons and eventually ended up eating each other to death."
"That's terrible. Where were you when all of this was happening?" He asked.
"Right in front of them." I said. He looked at me with a strange look.
He shook his head. "No one should go through that, or even witness it. Bloody hell that's horrifying." I simply nodded my head and laid down.
"Get some sleep Echo." He whispered. I let my eyes close but I couldn't fall asleep, thoughts were swimming in my mind. Finally I forced myself to get some rest.