No Escape

Chapter 14

Emilie POV
We were able to find a small patch of dry land and we quickly built a small fire while the sun was still up. We put some water to boil in the metal water bottles that were in our bags so that we could kill the bugs and bacteria that contaminated it.
I look back up to the boy sitting across from me. He had a bandana on, protecting him from the bugs and insects that surrounded us. It covered his entire face but his eyes. He stared proudly at the fire that he created.
Even though it wasn't visible I knew that he was smiling and I can't help but smile a bit too. I then stand up and the boys head quickly shoots up and looks at me.
"I'm going to check on the traps" I answer his question before he can even ask it. He then quickly gets up and dusts off his pants.
"Let me go with you"
"You can't I need you to take care of the fire and water" He looks down with fear clear in his eyes and sits back down. I kneel down in front of him and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Hey it's going to be okay I'll be back in a few short minutes," I say trying to comfort him but he just nods.
I then pull out the knife and hand it over to him. He looks at the knife and then back at me.
"If anything happens I want you to take this knife, climb up those trees, and get as far away from here as fast as you can"
"But what about you?"
"I'll be fine don't worry,"I say in a confident voice even though I wasn't really.
He then smiles and nods at me and takes the knife from my hands and grips on it tightly. I then stand up again and leave.
I check on our trap and lucky for us it caught a duck, I take the duck and dismantle the trap so that no one will know we were here and then quickly head back to camp and to my relief, no one came and attacked.
When the boy heard me coming he quickly looks up but then once he sees that its only me he relaxes and smiles. I then proudly hold up the duck and his smile broadens.
"Yeah we're eating good tonight," He says excitedly.
I then quickly sit down and we start getting it ready so we can let it cook on the fire before it gets dark.
One advantage we have coming from district 10 is that we know how to butcher and skin the animals without any trouble. Back at our district, we are all taken to work at a rather young age; so killing the animals, the blood, and the other stuff doesn't really bother us since we grew up with it.
Once we're done we tie it to a stick remove our water bottles from the fire and replace it with our duck.
"Careful don't drink from it yet let it cool down first," I say to the boy who looks ready to drink the boiling hot water.
We haven't had a drop of water since the games started, so I can understand why he's so excited. The boy nods and walks over to the edge of the swamp and rinses his hands off from all the blood and feathers. Once I make sure our food is secure and won't fall into the fire I grab the knife and sit next to the boy on the edge and rinse the knife first and then my own hands. From the corner of my eye, I see him pull down his bandana revealing his whole face and looks at me.
"Put it back on this place is surrounded with bugs," I say in a serious tone while still focusing on washing my hands.
He ignores what I said.
"Thank you," He says. I look at him with a raised eyebrow.
"For what?" I say clearly confused.
"For helping me" He takes a deep breath and continues.
"I know that you are really strong and smart and that I'm only holding you back"
I scoff and shake my head at him.
"Don't say that?" I say looking at him a bit annoyed.
"I need you just as much as you need me" He looks at me but doesn't say anything. I look towards our water bottles and then back at him.
"If it weren't for you then we would have died from dehydration. It's thanks to you that we have water now. So don't say that you're holding me back because of your not. You're my partner, my equal, my ally,...my friend"
The boy's eyes widen not expecting to be called my friend but then his surprised look turns into a wide smile. I smile back at him and held my hand out for him to shake.
"Friends?" Not even hesitating he quickly shakes my hand.
"Friends" He confirms with a wider smile. I then stand up and turn back to him
"Come on kid lets go eat that duck," I say with a broad smile. He then gets up and we walk back to our fireside by side.
---
Emilie POV
I wake up feeling at peace. For the first time, I remember something that didn't make me feel sad, confused, or scared. For once I was actually happy for remembering something.
'Who are you?'
No matter how many times I dream of him I can never remember his name. I sigh and finally decide to get up that's when I notice Newt isn't here. He's probably helping Thomas with his job today. I get up, get dressed, and go eat my breakfast. When I walk out of the hut I see that it's still really early. But there are still a few gladers who seem to have woken up early too.
"Morning Frypan," I say in a somewhat tired voice.
"Morning girly. Your up and early today"
I shake my head but smile at the nickname he gave me.
"Yeah I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep"
"I hate it when that happens"
He says while still laughing. He hands me a plate full of food and I thank him. I look around and see Minho eating his breakfast alone so I go and sit right across from him.
"Morning Minho"
"Morning shank," He says without looking up from his food. When he doesn't hear Newts greeting he finally looks up.
"Where's Newt?" I just shrug.
"Don't know probably showing Thomas the ropes of his first job?" I say.
"Hey, can I ask you something?" I look up from my food and eye him suspiciously. This can't be good.
"What?"
"Have you and Newt done it yet?" I nearly choke on the water I was drinking and I look at him wide-eyed.
"What?!"
I say a bit too loudly causing the boys near us to give me strange looks and Minho just laughs. I scoff and glare at him once I've calmed down.
"T-that's none of your business," I say clearly flustered by just the mention of it.
"No need to tell me now your reaction tells me everything I need to know," He says smirking at me.
I glare at him as he eats his last bit of food.
"Well as much as I would love to stay and ask you more personal questions and believe me I would but I have run the maze and get your shank butt out of here"
I just shake my head and glare at him as he gets up and walks away with an annoying smirk on his face.
"Honestly what am I going to do with him"
I silently ask myself. I finish up of whats left of my food and head to the bloodhouse.
We didn't have a lot of work today, all we had to do was feed the animals and clean their pens. Because of this I and Winston decided to let our slicers out early.
After we all left I went straight towards the gardens to see Newt, Zart, and Thomas.
As I get closer I start hearing their conversation, of how Thomas won't stop asking questions on how to get out of here and ideas of how to get out.
"Look you wanna be helpful" Newt picks up a bucket and throws it at him.
"Go get us some more fertilizer," He says while pointing towards the dead heads.
Zart laughs as Thomas walks away.
"Man was I like that when I first came here?"
I say and the two boys finally turn around and notice me. Newt smiles and then laughs a bit.
"I admit you had a lot of bloody questions but you weren't as bad as him," Newt says a bit annoyed while gesturing towards where Thomas.
I laugh and sit where Thomas was before he left.
"Aren't you supposed to be working?" Newt says in a serious voice.
"We finished work at the blood house early today so I decided to just hang out here" Newt nods in response and goes back to focusing on his work.
"Good, you can help us out over here," Zart says sounding a bit tired but still maneges to smile.
"Ahhh do I have to?" I say in an over exasperated fake groan which finally makes Newt laugh.
"No, but it would be great help if you did," Newt says and looks at me with his adorable brown eyes and soft smile.
"Fine but only because my favorite Blondie is here" I get up and start working right next to Zart.
"Alright fair enough" Newt chuckles.
"I wasn't talking about you I was talking about Zart," I say while pointing my thumb at Zart while he just grins at the two of us.
Newt puts his hand over his chest where his heart should be and pretends to be hurt. But me and Zart just laugh at him and continue working.
"Good to know my broken heart is amusing to you shanks"
"You know I love you Newt" I smile at him and he immediately gives me his charming smile and a small hint of pink brushes on his cheeks.
"Get a room" Zart yells out pretending to be disgusted by us.
I stick my tounge out at him while Newt just laughs we then continue to work without saying anything else. That is until I start hearing something.
"Did you guys hear that?" I stop what I'm doing and stand up.
"No what was it," Newt asks without looking up at me.
I hear it again only this time Newt and Zart hear it too. Someone screaming out for help I quickly look towards the dead heads and see Thomas running away and Ben chasing after him.
I immediately grab the shovel that's right next to me and run towards them. By the time I get there Ben is already on top of Thomas trying to choke him.
"Hey!" Ben looks up at me and I hit him with the shovel sending him flying off of Thomas.
As soon as he's off of him everyone runs over to him and hold him down. He starts to struggle and everyone trys to calm him down.
"What the he'll happened?!" Frypan yells out the question that's going through everyones heads.
"He just attacked me!" Thomas yells out still frantic from what just happened.
Ben starts to calm down and that's when I get a good look at him, he has sweat beating down on him, his skin was sickly pale, his vains were popping out, but what scared me the most were his eyes. They didn't hold the playfulness they held last night all they held now was anger and hatred.
Finally Alby comes over and just by looking at him instinly knows what's wrong and so does Ben.
"No. No!"
"Alright lift his shirt! Lift his shirt!" One of the gladers lift it up and everyone is horrified by what's underneath.
"What the hell?!" I say louder then I intended.
"He's been stung in the middle of the day?" Gally looks between Newt and Alby.
I look back at Ben when he starts begging us to just help him and I thought we were until Alby ordered to put him in the slammer.
"Put him in the slammer!"
"What?!" I look at Alby then back towards Ben who was once again struggling.
Newt and a few others lift him up and drag him towards the slammer. I stand there stunned for a moment but then I soon follow them. I watch them throw him in and lock the door of the slammer and they all go back to what they we're previously doing.
I quickly make my way over to Newt when no one is around.
"Newt what was that? We should be helping him not throwing him into the slammer!" I exclaimed to him clearly upset not at him but of what was going on.
"Emilie he tried to kill the greenie" He said calmly
"Yeah but it wasn't him it was the changing you said it yourself that it makes people go crazy" I say trying to stay calm but clearly frustrated.
"You also told me that the med-jacks have a serum for the gladers who've been stung why aren't we using that on him" I look down at my feet. I then hear him sigh. He holds my hand and puts a finger under my chin with his other hand to make me look at him.
"Yes we can help him but sick or not he broke one of our rules and we have to enforce them" I nod in understanding but there is still one lingering question.
"So what's going to happen to him?" He looks at our joined hands and then back up at me.
"He will be banished" I lose all color as I look at him in disbelief.
"Y-you mean into the maze?" Newt nods seemingly upset of Ben getting banished too.
"The keepers are usually the ones who banish people into the maze" I don't want to banish him but what can I do? Not knowing what to say I just nod.
"Alright then, come on we need to get ready for when they close"
---
It was only a few minutes before the doors closed. Alby, Newt, and the rest of the keepers held a pole, we all stood in a straight line. While we waited for Ben to be brought, nobody said anything, leaving us with a heavy atmosphere.
"Just listen to me! Just please listen to me!" Suddenly the silence was filled with pleads.
I turn around and see that it's Ben being escorted by Minho. He looked worse then before, I watch as Minho drags him to the center. He cuts off his restraints causing Ben to fall on his hands and knees. We all watch as Minho throws a small bag of supplies into the maze.
"No. No please don't. Please don't do it" I watch as he starts begging us for his life it reminded me of something. I couldn't remember from where but I had a pretty good idea from where, and without even thinking about it I spoke up.
"Guys I don't know about this. I mean he's sick and-" Everyone looks over at me including Ben hope filling his eyes.
"He broke the rules Emilie" Alby looks at me giving me a serious yet understanding tone.
"But it-" I was suddenly cut off by Newt.
"Emilie that's enough we already discussed this"
"I know Newt but-"
"I said enough!" Everyone was taken back by his harsh tone towards me. I was about to say something back but before I could the doors started closing.
"Poles" Alby yells
Everyone but me start pushing him into the maze. I didn't know what to do for a moment as I watch him struggling and begging for his life, but I quickly snap out of it. I drop my pole and try to get the others to listen to me.
"This is wrong and you know it!" I yell while I tried to stop them.
"Please stop! Please I'm begging you leave him alone!" I try to get Winston, Zart, Frypan, and even Gally to listen to me but they just ignored me.
I was so busy trying to stop them I didn't realize that he was already pushed into the maze. I watched in horror as he let out a scream of pure terror as the doors closed. I stand there completely frozen from what just happened. After a few moments I walk away without looking at anyone or saying anything else.
It was dark outside and everyone was out eating dinner while I was in our room sitting up against the wall holding my knees up to my chest. I've been here since the banishing I couldn't forget how he begged us for help, how he begged us to let him keep his life, his screams, and his cries. I can't forget them I can never forget them.
I hear the door open and when I look up I see Newt standing at the doorway with a bowl of Frypans stew.
"Hey I didn't see you at dinner so I thought you might be here" I don't say anything and go back at staring at the floor.
I hear him sigh as he closes the door and walks over to the bed where I'm sitting and sits right next to me.
"Love I'm sorry. I'm sorry about Ben and I'm sorry for yelling at you" I shake my head at him.
"No you did nothing wrong you we're just in forcing the rules as the second in command" I say as I finally look up at him.
"I on the other hand should be the one to apologize" Newt gives me a confused look.
"I intervened with a banashing, I humiliated you in front of the whole glade, and I refused to fulfill one of my many duties as a keeper"
I wasn't only horrified by what happened but I was also ashamed of what I did. Not of the opinion I had on the matter but the way I handled it. After I've calmed down a bit I realized that I could have handled the situation a lot differently. I could have said something sooner and have been more persistent with it. Then just saying something in the middle of a banishing. If I had done that then I wouldn't have humiliated Newt and I wouldn't have given Ben false hope.
"I'm not fit to be a keeper" I whisper to myself but Newt still hears me.
"Don't say that your a great keeper. Your always keeping your slicers in line, you decreased the amount of injuries those shanks have, you help solve arguments and stop fights between the gladers, you help us make important decisions, and so many more things" Newt says.
"But-" I was cut off by him.
"No buts! So you made a mistake big deal! I can assure you that we've all made mistakes" I look at Newt as I wait for him to continue.
"Including me... I've done things that I still regret till this day" His eyes contained so much sadness when I looked up at them.
Just by looking into his eyes I knew how much his mistake still effected him. I wanted to ask him what he did but I decided against it, and decided to wait for him to tell me when he's ready.
"Alright Newt" I wrap my arms around his neck and bury myself in the crook of his neck.
"But still. I'm sorry for the way I handled the situation and ending up humiliating you in the process" He wraps his arms around my waist and holds me tightly against him.
"I admit you could have handled it better but that was your very first time seeing a banishment and we all have handled them differently" He pulls me away at arms length and cups both my cheeks.
"And you didn't humiliate believe me I've been through much worse love" He grins when he tells me this and I couldn't help but let out a small smile too.
"God what did I do to deserve you?" I ask myself.
"I ask myself that question every day love" He says as he kisses my forehead.
At that moment I wanted for time to stop. So that I could enjoy this bliss of pure happiness.