Newt: A Broken Boy ↠ The Maze Runner

12

*5 YEARS LATER*

"So," Thomas said, "how does it feel to be twelve?"

I grinned, then said, "Better than it does to be eleven."

It was the first time seeing Thomas after my birthday, although he was one of my best friends. There had been a big celebration on the day, but Thomas had been down doing something to do with the Trials. He was always very secretive about them, not telling us much at all. It seemed that as the years went by, he would spend more and more time underground, or in the control room.

We had all been sitting in the food hall, eating our dinner, when Thomas had walked in. The first thing he did was give me a small box, which turned out to have a pair of earphones in it. A nice present, considering the fact that me and Minho had very different tastes in music.

"So why are you here today?" Minho asked from the corner. It was a good question; Thomas rarely visited for something other than announcements.

"Well," Thomas took a deep breath, "The Trials are scheduled to start in six months, we just need to finish building the last few details. We have enough candidates for the cure, and we hope that with a collection of all your brain patterns, we'll find one soon. Remember that every single one of you is crucial to this, the survival of the human race."

After he had finished talking, Thomas glanced round the room, his eyes landing on me. We locked gazes for a second, but he looked away quickly. I knew we were both thing the same thing - his speech barely applied to me. I was only part of the control group, I wasn't needed. Anybody could replace me if something happened.

Not for the first time, I felt guilty for wanting to leave, for throwing away his trust like it was an old piece of used paper. Even after five years, I hadn't abandoned the thought of running away. It had always been there, in the back of my mind. Every now and again I would see Jackson somewhere, or Matt, and would have to hold myself back from screaming at them, or throwing myself at them, and then the thought would come back, stronger than ever.

My gaze moved over to the girls section of the room, searching for the only other person who knew that I wasn't immune - my sister. After our argument four years ago, my relationship with her had only gone downhill. My thoughts were that she blamed me for my aunts death, and now wanted nothing to do with me. As much as it hurt, I could see her reasoning.

After about ten seconds of searching, it became clear to me that Rosa wasn't there. I always thought of her as Rosa now, and as myself as Newt. We weren't the same people as those who left Britain four years ago, even if we looked the same. My sister still had startling blue eyes and raven black hair, I still had a square jaw and a strong London accent. Well. Not so much a square jaw anymore, as it had smoothened out a little, giving me a little more pronounced chin.

Over the years, one thing that hadn't changed was the food hall. Same tables running up and down the tiled floor, same bright red plastic chairs. It was always full of screaming kids, and we still had the occasional food fight. The grouping even stayed the same: girls on the left, boys on the right.

I had seen so many people become a part of WICKED in the five years that I'd been here. I knew everyone who was going to be in my group for the Trials personally, and at least half of the girls' group, group B.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when I felt Minho at my shoulder, or rather smelt him. There was a strong scent of tuna around him, because of the double tuna-and-sweet-corn baguette that he had just finished.

"I'm going back to the room, OK?" I nodded, not bothering to look up.

Minho was halfway to the door when I jumped up and whispered in his ear, "Wait for me. There's something I need to talk to you about."

I walked, as quickly as possible, to grab my tray of food and put it at the counter, nearly upturning a stack of empty chairs. I then ran back out to Minho, and jumped on his back playfully, something that I enjoyed doing since he had become a couple of inches taller than me.

The older boy threw me off, and we started to race back to the room. I sprinted right after him, enjoying this moment of light-hearted fun. I turned a sharp corner and nearly bumped into him. I skidded to a stop and glanced around to see what had caused Minho to halt in his tracks.

A girl stood there. Teresa Agnes. Dark, ragged hair and startling blue eyes came along with the slight frown she was wearing.

"Oh. Hey Teresa," I mumbled, not wanting to draw too much attention to myself. I had spoken to Teresa numerous times, and from what I gathered, she was a big fighter for the greater good. I'd heard that she was the one who came up with the saying 'WICKED is good'. I wouldn't be surprised.

"Newt. Minho," Teresa began. "You guys have lived in this facility long enough to know that there's no running in the corridors, it's dangerous and.."

I zoned out of her little rant, not very interested. I was beginning to dislike Teresa just a little bit. I realised that she had had a hard past, with her mother committing suicide, but we'd all had rough experiences. Just because she was more involved in the Trials than us, it didn't mean that she was above us in everything.

".. So don't do it."

I came back into the real world just in time for Teresa to finish her speech and walk off. Minho and I walked the last couple of hallways, until we reached our room.

"OK. What did you want to tell me?" Minho asked.

I took a deep breath, then began to explain. "Look, Minho. It's six months until the Trials begin, and I'm not planning on being here when they do. You don't have to come with me, but I'm going. I'm going, and nothing's going to stop me."

Minho nodded. "Yeah. You're right. But I want to go with you. I don't think I could stand going into those Trials alone."

I decided not to bring up the fact that we had no idea what the Trials even were. For all we knew, our memories would be wiped and we would be sent to go and survive on our own.

"OK. Good. But I want to go, and I want to go soon."

"When do we leave then?" Minho inquired.

"Tomorrow."

~

A/N: Hi. Sorry for the infrequent updates, but I've been hoping to get a bit more of a regular pattern soon. I was going to start seriously editing chapters that I've already written, but then I decided not to do that yet. After I finish this book, then I'll go on a massive editing spree. But anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter, and bye!!