Before Her

Newt 35

Newt
It was that time again, the time to give the tour to the new greenie, and run over on the rules and then give him his first job with a keeper. This I found kind of boring and annoying since I would be helping out at whatever job I was doing that day and then Alby would butt in and tell me to do something or help out or watch the greenie.

Normally, on the days before and after the greenie arrives, I'd stay back at the glade, to help out Alby since he would have to take care of the greenie that day, meaning I would be filling in on Alby's job of the day, or watching the greenie while Alby filled in on his job of the day.

Alby didn't really have one job. He could do almost anything, and at least got a fair job done for the ones he couldn't. Alby filled in on jobs that had missing people that day, if the jobs had a few missing people. Most of the time, Alby took turns with the different jobs helping out here or there the way I do when I stay in the glade.

Alby did most of the work today, touring and giving the rules to the greenie, Gally. I worked with the med-jacks today. Surprising I know, but Alby had meant to work there today so I had to fill in. I knew the basic things, to always wash your hands, to clean wounds with antiseptic, how to use a bandage, and that was pretty much it. Andrew knew to let me pass on the people with more severe injuries.

Jane was also working here today, she worked here everyday. To say she had made an impression on this place was an underestimate. The place had obviously evolved under her command. Okay, so not really, but it was changing, the med-jacks were changing, following her footsteps. She used to stay here for hours, cleaning it up and rearranging the bottles of medicine. Before her, no one had bothered to clean the place. The bottles were left askew along with the bandages, clean ones left with the dirty ones. Once a month or so, Alby would come in and dump all the dirty tissues, bandages, band-aids and empty and used bottles medicine in big plastic bags before taking them away, that was all. The tables were left as they were, no one would bother putting anything back in its original position, no one would bother at least straightening out things. No one would even bother pushing the chairs in. That was why it had been so easy to take the alcohol, well, it was easy to take anything really, it was just that none of the med-jacks ever realised anything was missing because everything was all over the place and nobody ever kept track of anything, at all.

Now, it had changed, or is changing. Plastic bags were placed at every station, so instead of piles of every gladers' DNA samples piling up in on huge mess in the edge of the table, they were safety dumped into a plastic bad at there feet before dumped into a bigger plastic bag at the back of infirmary. And to think med-jacks would be all about hygiene and germs and all, but you forget, we are all boys. Teenage boys. Medicine and bandages, such and such, were still left everywhere, but were tidied up at the end of the day, and the place no longer looked like a birds nest that had been caught up in a typhoon that had blown it miles away from its original tree before crashing into a river and falling down a waterfall before washing up somewhere, where some dumb animal found it and managed to drag it to a safer place and calling it home because it couldn't be bothered to make its own nest, if it could still be called a nest anyways.

Working as a med-jack wasn't that bad really, I just wasn't that good at it. I spent most of the day taking care of small injuries, the ones I could handle anyways. Jane, I noticed always had a lot of patients, and half of then weren't even injured really, but she still put up with it all, and talked to all of them. What they talked about was an absolute mystery to me. How they managed to make her laugh was an even bigger mystery, and I found myself glaring at their direction more than I'd like to admit.

Lunchtime came soon enough and I was starving. I always was. The line to the kitchen wasn't as long as dinner time since everyone worked in shifts while at dinner, everyone got off at the same time. The line was still pretty long just not as long. Jane joined me a little after I had gotten in line. We got our lunch and walked out pretty quickly since more and more gladers were starting to fill up the kitchen. We sat outside, close to the building since gladers who were working were running all over the place.

Halfway through eating our meals, shouts and yells came from the other side of the glade. Not long after the shouts started everyone was running to see what was going on, including me.

They had gathered at the entrance of the maze. I pushed my way through to front. Shouting at the gladers to move. Some of the keepers stood at the entrance, trying to keep everyone away.
'What the bloody hell is going on?'
'Newt thank goodness. The greenie's run into the maze.'
'WHAT?!'
'We tried to stop him, he's fast not mention strong as well, broke Liam's jaw.' I looked over briefly at Liam, sure enough there was a deep purple blotch forming.
'Did you send anyone after him?'
'Alby, Fussy, Benji and Riley have already gone in.'
'Okay, I'm going in as well,' I looked through the crowd before finding who I was looking for. 'Leo and Adrian will go in with me,' both of them had been runners-in-training so they would at least be familiar with the maze.
Just then, a scream echoes through the glade, a single scream screeching, loud although not clear.
I give the glade a quick look over— my eyes scanning and analysing what had been my home for as long as I can remember, remembering every detail, in case this was it, in case I didn't make it— the way I always did before going into the maze. My eyes linger a few seconds longer when the land on Jane, memorising every detail— the glow of her hair in the sun, the warm colour of melted chocolate in her wide eyes, the flecks of gold, like caramel sprinkled, the curve of her soft pink lips, her small hands, her small body, her smile, her laugh— I tried to remember everything about her, in those few seconds my gaze lingered, remembering every detail I could about her, not because it wasn't enough, but because I needed it one last time, to refresh my memory, to strengthen it, so that at least she would be the last thing I saw of this place before I left, if I left, and that it would be a positive thing. To remind me of her, not just her, but all the things she'd told me, and the way she looked at the world. I wanted to keep an open mind when I went in.
And with that last thought, I turned and ran like a life depended on it because it did and like many times, I didn't look back.