The Silent Runner

6. angelina

The next morning the alarm, that sounds when the box comes up, went off. Everyone ran towards it behind Gally and Newt. They threw the doors open before Newt jumped down inside and looked down at the small body that laid on the ground.

"It's a girl," He said looking up confused. Seeing as they'd already met a girl they weren't as surprised but I never came through the box. "I think she's dead." Suddenly her eyes opened and she began heavily breathing.

"Thomas," was all she said before she panted and fell back asleep. Everyone looked towards Thomas. I'd already known the girl. Teresa worked in the monitoring department. As did Thomas, before he went bat-shit crazy. I didn't consider that as a big deal till now. Why had they sent her up here? What did she do? What are their plans?

As she fell back asleep her hands unclenched, allowing a slip of paper to fall on the floor of the box. Newt picked it up, straightening it out before reading it aloud.

"She's the last one ever," he looked up confused as ever. "What's that supposed to mean?"

After they got her out of the box, they carried her to the Med-Jacks and sat her on a small bed. I sat beside her along with Newt, Thomas, and Alby.

"Do you recognize her?" Newt asked Thomas. He just shook his head while looking down at her. "Well, she sure seems to know you."

Thomas

I didn't recognize her for a second. Parker, on the other hand. I'd recognized her the day she got here. It was weird though, I had this strange connection to her. That's why I worked so hard to save her. I felt like it was my job to look after her. I just wished I'd known her real name. Maybe that would help.

"What about you, Parker? Do you recognize her?" Newt asked. She nodded her head yes. "Does she work for them?" Again, she nodded yes and pointed to me. "He worked for them too?" And she nodded once more.

"Question is, what'd they send you here for?" Alby added.

The next morning, Minho woke us up really early and we were ready to run. After running in Parker and I trailed behind him exchanging glances, occasionally. We finally stopped for a lunch break.

"We should try figuring out your real name," I said, biting into my apple. She shrugged, not hating the idea.

"One problem with that shank, there's only about a trillion names out there."

"We can go through the alphabet and have her nod at every letter." I couldn't even believe I'd even remembered the alphabet. I couldn't think of where I learned it though. The word seemed to flow right out of my mouth.

"Let's hope it's not too long." I went through the whole alphabet and she nodded at A, E, G, I, and N.

"Okay, how many A's?" She held up two fingers. "E's?" She held up one finger. "G's?" One finger. "L's?" She held up one again. "N's?" Two this time. "Now, we just need an order!" He wrote the letters on his arm with a marker in thick black ink.

"Let's get running." Minho stood packing his bag back up. I began guessing while we ran. I was determined to figure it out.

"Okay, so I'm gonna go through it again and point when I get a letter but make sure it's in order. We'll go through it as many times as we need."

"Why do you wanna know it so bad anyway, huh shank? We named her already." Minho added.

"She's not a pet, Minho." He stayed silent after that. I went through the alphabet three times before getting the order. "A, N, G, E, L, I?" She shook her head no and put up two fingers up before turning them around "Flip?" She shook her head yeah. "N, A?" She shook yes. I wrote it out on my arm. "Angelina?" I'd never seen her smile as big. Angelina.

"That sucks. I liked Parker." Minho sighed.

Angelina ~ Parker

We ran back to the glade in time and headed to the map room.

"So we gather everyone up and have em' follow us through the maze and then we go through the griever holes?" I nodded while Minho spoke.

"That doesn't sound good," Newt said, entering the room.

"It's not," Thomas said. "But, Angelina says it's the way out."

"Who's that?" I raised my hand as if it were a roll call.

"I figured out her name while we were running today." Newt looked at me with a sort of confused smile.

"Angelina, huh?" I nodded at him. "I like that." We stared at each other for a minute.

"Hey, can I talk to you? Outside?" Thomas asked me. I nodded following him out. "You like him don't you?" I shot him a confused look. "Newt, you like him." I shook my head no. "Yeah sure," he laughed. I decided to drop it walk away. I traveled to the mess hall where Frypan was. Some other boys were eating and talking with him.

"Hey, we were just talking about you," said a red-headed boy. He had a weird, unsettling smile. I nodded and glanced at the other boy he was talking with. He had dark hair that nearly touched his shoulders and covered half of his face. I waved and walked passed them. Guys eyed me and talked under their breath to the others.

"Hey Parker, you hungry?" Frypan asked as I approached him and nodded. "Today we have Frypan's Fried Fries." I must've made a face but I hadn't realized. "Don't worry. They taste better than you'd think." He handed me a plate and I waved before taking a seat at an empty table.

"Hey shank," Gally said sitting in front of me. I was gonna push off the table to leave but he grabbed my wrist. "You're gonna pay for ratting out Ben. I'm gonna make your life hell here." With that, he stood up and walked away after taking one of my fries. I wasn't too worried though. We'd be out soon and that's all that matters.

After I finished my food I decided to head to the washrooms. I rinsed my hands off before splashing water on my face. The boys who were doing their business sat awkwardly. After washing up I walked back outside where a fight was breaking out between the redhead I saw earlier and a blonde boy. Alby walked up to them and separated them.

"Hey- hey! What's going on?" He said looking between the two. Before I could listen in, Minho pulled me aside. Thomas was with him as confused as I was.

We followed him to the wall of the maze where names were carved into the stone cold wall. He handed each of us a knife and told us to carve our names. Then he began to cross out Ben's name.

After getting about halfway there I noticed Thomas was acting weird. Every time he looked at me he had this stricken look in his eyes. Almost like he remembered something. Something about me.