Newt: A Broken Boy ↠ The Maze Runner

2

Edited 09/05/16

"You ready?" Olivia glanced over to me, her face pale in the white light of my torch. I shook my head.

"No, not really. I can't even imagine what it'll be like to go back after so long." My sister just nodded. The contours of her face seemed to darken as she raised her head. At moments like this, I would forget that she was barely six. The years in the tunnels had made us both grow up too quickly.

"Olivia. James." As my aunt says our names, I noticed that she already had our bags packed and ready. "We're going to leave in about half an hour or so. Get yourselves ready, OK?"

It took a lot of willpower to stop myself from panicking. The fact that I only have around 30 minutes to get myself together before we head out into the world was scarier than I thought it would be.

Half an hour later, the three of us were packed up and ready to go. I took one last look round the cavern that had been my home for the last two years, and turned my back.

Two hours. That's how long it took us to climb up to the surface. Or rather, just underneath the surface. Aunt Tanya told us to stop just before we reached the top.

"Kids," she began, "I have a couple of ground rules, for your safety entirely."

I nodded. I was expecting these. My aunt loved her ground rules.

"One. Stick together. I don't want either of you getting lost. There are plenty of gangs up here, and I don't want us to be separated."

Of course. This was always a rule.

"Two. Don't look directly at the sun, and try not to touch any metal. The sun is still a lot brighter than two years ago when we first headed underground. Even then, you knew not to stare into it."

I was glad she'd mentioned that. After two years of living by torchlight, I probably wouldn't have be able to stop myself without this warning.

"And three. Don't do anything that will put you at risk. I can't stress enough how important this is. It must seem very vague, but I want you to stay safe."

I almost laughed at this. Since the flares, I barely knew the meaning of safe.

Olivia smiled, and said, "let's do this. I..." She trailed off. I knew what she was thinking. We were all thinking the same thing, what were we going to do when we got out? We had no idea what the world above was like.

When we first stepped out into the open, it felt like I was stepping out onto the sun. It was scorching hot, and so bright I thought I'd been blinded. We had been living underground for two years, and had grown accustomed to the cold, dark tunnels. Added to the heat of the upper world, which was still at weird temperature swings two years after the flares struck, just standing straight up was almost unbearable.

I shuffled closer to my aunt, who put her arm protectively over me and my sister. Slowly, we moved over to the ruins of a building that had caught fire. With a start, I realised that this was my old school.

I heard Olivia gasp, and knew that she had noticed this as well. I walked over to her and put my arm around her shoulders. With a start, I realised that she was crying.

"Look, Livvy..." I didn't really know what to say. What can you say when you see your school burnt down to the ground? Instead, I pulled her into a hug, where she sobbed into the folds of my shirt.

"Olivia, James... we need to keep moving." I sighed, and got to my feet, clutching my sister's sweaty hand.

We walked until sundown, moving at a slow but steady pace. By the time the sun had disappeared behind the horizon, I was exhausted, my feet aching.

With the sun gone, it was freezing. An ice cold wind whipped against my skin, and I was glad that I had kept my jacket and not thrown it away when we first stepped out into the sweltering sun.

We settled down in an abandoned building, having walked over thirty miles. I could barely keep my eyes open as I lay down beside my aunt. My sister fell asleep in a matter of seconds.

"Where are we going anyway?" I was very tired and my mind was rather fuzzy, but this question had been nagging at me all day, and I decided it couldn't wait until morning.

It was a good two minutes before Aunt Tanya answered.

"I was thinking that if we could get to an air zone we might be able to catch a berg to America. They have better resources there, maybe we could start a better life."

At the time, I thought this was a very stupid idea. It was a really long way until we reached the nearest air zone, and we were already exhausted. Even if we did reach it, it was highly unlikely that we could get on a berg. Even before the flares, a flight to America was really expensive. Now it would probably be double the price.

When I asked my aunt, all she said was, "well I heard that the authorities were transporting people over to America, where they have something that resembles order."

I really hoped so. I didn't want chaos, or even worse, anymore of this desolate silence, as if the whole world had been abandoned.

"Don't worry Darling. We'll make it through. I promise."

As my aunt ran her fingers through my hair, I couldn't help wondering how, in the circumstances that we were in, she could make a promise like that.