If There Is A Light

Chapter 42

"I mean, he's not a runner."

"Things are different now. Alby went to retrace Ben's footsteps before sundown." Newt explained as whacked away at the bottom of the trunk of the tree, Chuck and Thomas sat on a log, "Are you gonna help?"

"So he's gonna go back to where Ben was just stung..."

"Alby knows what he's doing... all right?" Newt had absolute faith in his friend and he was slightly offended that Thomas did not. They had just lost Ben to the maze, did he really think that Alby would do anything not necessary. He was trying to keep everyone safe. "He knows better than any of us."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, it's like you've heard, yeah? Every month, the Box sends up a new arrival. But someone had to be first, right? Someone had to have spent a whole month in the Glade, alone. That was Alby." Newt was trying to multitask as he continued to hack away, "I mean, it can't have been easy. But when those other boys started coming up, one after the other, he saw the truth. And he learned that the most important thing is that we all have each other. Because we're all in this together."

Newt could tell that his words were sinking in. Thomas looked towards Chuck who was widdeling at a small piece of wood in his hand. That was the only thing that was even remotely positive about their whole situation. They had each other. Newt loathed this place just about every day. He wished he had never been sent up in the Box and if that meant he was not alive then he just would not care, but he loved the people in here. Corralling Ben into the maze with their makeshift poles was a feeling that made Newt only more sure in his current mindset. The only thing they truly had was each other, and that was just temporary so the quicker Thomas got that through his head the better.

Newt hid the small triumphant smile on his face, while Thomas got up and began to help them chop down the tree trunk.