Into the Maze

Chapter 6

Jackie soon realized that being trapped in a dark maze, inches from death, with someone, was one of those things that made it impossible to hate them. She felt no loathing for Minho when he helped her up and asked if she was all right, concern in his dark eyes.
She felt no anger when Alby called only Minho to the Gathering, leaving her, Clint, and Jeff to look after Newt, who was still unconscious but alive and strong enough to get through it.
And when Gally asked her, that night around the campfire, if she had klunked her pants when she saw the inside of the maze, and she replied that she had to look at far worse things, particularly his face, she saw Minho look down hastily and in vain to hide the fact that he was laughing. It gave her an odd sense of triumph to see that she had made the keeper of the Runners laugh.
But nothing was said about the comment he made after leaving the maze until the next morning. She was fast asleep when someone kicked her lightly with their boot, and Alby's voice said loudly, "Greenie, get up now or I'm banishing you to the Grievers, so help me!"
She was still muddled by sleep when Alby half-led, half-dragged her to the Gathering. She recognized Minho and Gally's faces, but to her dismay Newt was still not present.
"How's Newt?" She asked.
"Awake, now." Alby replied, looking as if he himself had gotten very little sleep. "Woke up a few hours ago. Won't speak to anyone, though."
Guilt pricked her. She should have been awake to see her friend, but after the adrenaline rush in the maze, she had felt incapable of anything but sleep. Minho stood up, and he looked worse than Alby.
"He can't ever run again." He said quietly, and Jackie thought for a moment that she had seen tears in his eyes, but he took a deep breath and turned to face the keepers, saying in a strong voice, "but thanks to this dumb shank, he's alive."
"I know what you're doing, Minho." Alby sighed.
"Well, why not!?" Minho whirled around and searched Alby's face. "You didn't see her, Alby! She knows the maze! She-" he stopped, realizing he was confusing everyone, including her. He took a deep breath. "I say we train her to be a runner."
After that, it was just a blur of faces, shocked, boys yelling, Alby trying to regain order, a hand gripped her wrist and pulled her. She didn't resist. The unknown person dragged her out of the Gathering. When she finally stumbled out from the crowded hut, she turned to thank her rescuer.
It was a tall boy, with brown hair which was shaggy. He was only a little taller than her, which was about average for a girl but very short for a boy. He seemed to be about her age. "Thanks," she gasped.
"Yeah, well, a friend of Newt's is a friend of mine." He sort of grinned, and she saw that he had a spatter of freckles across his nose, which squinched up when he smiled. "I'm James."
"Jackie," she replied. "You're a keeper?"
He cast down his eyes until they met his mud-caked boots. "Sort of. I'm keeper of the sloppers. We don't get much say in things."
She felt a sudden pang of pity for this awkward, underfed boy. She was searching for something to say when he shifted his weight and said, "I should probably go. Tell Newt James said hi, okay?"
"Sure." She smiled meagerly at him. He turned awkwardly away with a half-wave, and disappeared into the Gathering.
Then she thought of Newt, and suddenly, she felt a strong desire to see him, to tell him he was going to be okay. She turned and sprinted away, feet quick on the dewy grass.
When she arrived at the hut which she had left a mere three days ago on her first day.
She was about to walk in when Clint stepped out the door. He wasn't exactly an imposing figure, but she jumped back in surprise. "He doesn't want to see you, Greenie. Give it up already."
"He... what?" She was taken aback. "What do you mean he doesn't want to see me?"
"He just doesn't. He told me not to let you in."
"Liar."
"I ain't lying shank."
She stared at him for a second, her heart beating so fast she thought it might crack. "Newt!" She didn't know if he could hear her, but she screamed it anyways. "Newt, let me in!"
Clint pushed her backwards roughly. She stumbled, but her heart leapt when she heard a voice on the interior of the shack say, "just let her in, Clint." Newt's voice.
She pushed past Clint and ran into the dark room. Newt was sitting on his cot, staring past her into space. She stood awkwardly in the doorway for a few seconds, then said, "I was afraid you weren't going to let me in."
"If it was my choice, I wouldn't have." He looked up and into her eyes, and she knew that he meant it.
"Well, I was coming in no matter what." She tried not to let her sadness show. "How's your leg?"
He shrugged. "Doesn't bloody matter anymore, does it? I'm never getting us out of here now."
"Maybe not, but Minho will."
"That's not very sensitive. And since when were you and Minho buddies?"
She shrugged. "We're not, really, but he saved your life and we both owe him."
"He said the same bloody thing when he came in this morning."
"That he saved your life and we both owe him?"
"No, shank, that you saved my life."
"Minho... said that?"
"Yeah."
"What else did he say?"
"Well, I wasn't speaking to anyone this morning, was I?"
She forgot Minho, and crossed slowly to sit across from him on a different cot. "What's wrong Newt? What did you do that hurt your leg so bad?"
"I... fell...?" He ventured. She knitted her eyebrows and frowned slightly. "Fine!" His voice cracked. "Fine! I jumped! I jumped from the bloody walls!"
A silence cut through the air. Jackie said nothing.
"I jumped." Newt still seemed to be processing it himself. "I tried to kill myself, Jackie."
A tear slipped out of the corner of her eye and ran down her cheek, dripping off her chin.
"But I couldn't even do that." Newt's voice sounded dead. "Now I can't even get you out of here."
She stood up and crossed to the door. "We're going to get out of here, Newt. I will find a way out."
She left him then.
There were still loud voices coming from the Gathering, and so she crossed the Glade and sat down with her back against a tree at the edge of the woods. She leaned back and closed her eyes. Newt. What's wrong with you? She asked the air.
"Greenie, get up." Minho's demanding voice cut through her thoughts.
She jumped and her eyes snapped open. Standing above her were Alby and Minho, both looking serious. She stood up and brushed off her legs. "Thanks for the wake-up call."
"Shouldn't have been sleeping anyways." Minho turned and jogged off toward the entrance of the maze, and after beckoning her to follow, Alby went too.
"What's going on?" She caught up to Alby to ask as they neared the maze doors.
"This shank wants to prove what you can do." Alby gestured to Minho. "He thinks you have special powers."
"I do not." Minho had heard every word his leader had said. "I think she somehow knows the maze and so she might know the way out."
They once again crossed the threshold of the maze. This time a nervousness was sparked in Jackie. "Keep up, shank," Alby ordered.
It took Jackie a moment to realize that Minho was leading them on the route she had led him on to find Newt. Eventually, he stopped. Right where they had discovered Newt's broken body.
"Where from here, Greenie?"
She didn't hesitate. "Left."
They ran on like this, and Jackie was delighted to see that Alby fell behind before she did. In fact, she seemed in excellent shape, although she couldn't keep up with Minho.
She ran along, occasionally shouting directions, mulling over Newt's "fall". What had caused him to jump?
Minho had stopped running. She almost ran into him, and jerked to a stop. Alby pulled up short beside them a and bent over, breathing hard. She found that she too was winded.
"What?" Alby asked. "Why did you slow down?"
"This passage was never here before." Minho's voice rang loudly through the silent maze. "I ran this part a few weeks ago. It was a dead end."
"It moves." The words popped from her mouth before she thought. "The maze changes every few nights." She staggered back. Minho and Alby were staring blankly at her.
"How do you know?" Alby's voice was wary.
"I... I don't know. I didn't mean to say that." Her mind spun.
"Lead on, Jackie." Was all Minho said.
They ran for another half-an-hour, and Jackie was about to suggest they rest when they came around a corner, and Minho gasped.
A few yards ahead was the end of the maze. A cliff dropped into nothingness, and a wall taller than all the others rose up on the other side of the deep gorge.
Breathing heavy, she took a step forward, but Minho knocked her back with such force that she fell down. "Don't be stupid, Greenie. I smell Grievers."
A chill went through her body. The putrid odor was obvious now, and Alby nodded in agreement.
"But this is it." She scrambled to her feet, surprised once again by her own words. "This place is important."
"How?" Demanded Alby.
"I don't know, I just... remember it." She began to walk closer, and Minho didn't stop her. She knelt down on the very edge of the cliff, and looked down.
The gorge dropped into oblivion, dark, pitch black and deep.
"It's another dead end, Jackie." Minho's voice almost sounded sad. "We'll have to keep looking."