Newt: A Broken Boy ↠ The Maze Runner

3

Edited 12/05/16

We walked for four days, taking rests in old abandoned buildings at night. Every day was the same. Wake up, have something, some fruit, for breakfast. Walk. At around one, we would have something for lunch, probably straight out of the tin. Then we'd walk some more, until around an hour after sundown. We'd have dinner, again something straight out the tin. Then we would sleep, and wake up at dawn. It was so repetitive, I was almost glad when we met our first gang. Almost.

According to my aunt, it was about two o'clock. We'd barely stopped for lunch that day, so we had been walking for almost five hours straight.

Because of this, I wasn't too surprised when my sister collapsed on to me. She was literally falling asleep on the spot because of the heat, as was I.

I was surprised, however, when I saw a dart sticking out of the small of her back, and another one whistling towards my face.

Thank God for quick reflexes. I ducked at the last second, and the dart flew over my head harmlessly, lodging itself in the trunk of a barren, dead tree nearby.

I felt Aunt Tanya's hand on my shoulder, reassuring me.

"Don't worry. It's just a sleeping dart. Olivia will wake up in an hour or so," I heard her say.

I blinked, then mentally kicked myself. I hadn't even thought about my sister. I gave my aunt a small smile, then we both turned towards our attackers, two men, both with dart guns pointed at our faces.

"Who are you? What do you want from us?" I asked, my voice more casual than I was expecting. I sounded like I was greeting the new kid at school.

"Well. That is the question isn't it?" The taller of the two said. He had  cold, calculating black eyes that reminded me of a cold winter storm. His mop of curly brown hair had streaks of grey in it, and was entangled with an array of leaves and sticks. He had a long, thin nose, and a square jaw, like me.

His companion was almost the opposite. A short, stubby man, with bright orange hair and electrifying blue eyes. His hair, I noticed, had bright blue highlights, as if he was trying to hide his natural colour but couldn't find enough dye. His eyes were deep set, and rather close to his bulbous nose. I decided to name him Beefy.

"Well? What are you doing here?" Aunt Tanya asked. I had to admit, she had a lot of courage to stand up to two men who could put us to sleep with the pull of a trigger.

Beefy sniggered, and mumbled something that I couldn't quite catch.

"What my brother means to say is..." The taller one started to say something, but I cut him off.

"You're brothers?" I wasn't sure why I was so incredulous. I mean, my sister and I looked nothing alike, but these two? They barely looked from the same species, let alone parentage. A shadow of annoyance crossed Beefy's face.

"Yes," he grunted, "I am Matt. My brother is Jackson."

Oh. His name was Matt. This time, his brother, Jackson's, face darkened.

"You just lost us an advantage," he hissed at his brother, "now we can't let them go, they'll go straight to the police! Do you want to end up in jail?"

I wanted to tell him that he wouldn't end up behind bars for trying to get food, but he wasn't having any of it.

"Both of you. Take her." He pointed at me and my aunt, then over to my sister. "And now walk."

~

The good news? We were still headed towards the air zone. The bad news? The moment we got there, we would probably be sold as slaves, or as experimental subjects. Of course, that would happen eventually, but we weren't to know that.

After about 20 minutes of walking, my aunt stopped dead in her tracks.

"Why did you stop?" Jackson asked suspiciously, prodding her in the back with his dart gun.

"I know what you're doing. Where you're trying to take us."

"And?"

"You should stop right now. I'm trained to stop people like you, and I can definitely stop the two of you."

That must have scared them, because after she said those words, both Matt and Jackson fired their darts right into Aunt Tanya's chest.

I forgot all about the fact that these were only sleep darts, and clambered over to her.

"Auntie Tanya!" I was screaming, still oblivious that the darts weren't poisoned. "Wake up! Please!"

Jackson sniffed. I raised my head to look at him. "What."

"Well," he began, his voice soft, as if he was trying to keep himself from laughing. "Your fear is not completely irrational."

At his words, I remembered that these were only sleep darts. But he had said my fear was rational. What did he mean by rational? Of course I was scared.

"You see, two darts hit her at the same time," he said.

"No," I whimpered, "No... this can't be happening... no..."

Matt, who had stayed silent so far, spoke up.

"She's dead."

I collapsed, my head on my poor aunt's heart, listening for a heartbeat that would be never be heard again.