Hope for Us (NEWT) [COMPLETED]

Ch 13 - My Name is Sara

"Greenie, wake up!" a cheerful voice interrupted Sara's peaceful sleep. She opened her eyes and stared back at whoever was talking to her.

"Hey, Chuck," she mumbled as she rose from her hammock. She swung her feet to the floor, testing to see if she'd be able to apply pressure on her injured leg.

Chuck scurried over to her and grabbed her arm to help her to her feet. She felt the strain on her thigh, but she figured she could manage to walk. As she attempted wobbly steps, Chuck was there to steady her. He was such a sweet little boy.

From the moment she met him the night before, she gained a certain liking for the kid. He was probably the nicest one out of all the boys in the Glade. Quite possibly the youngest too. She didn't even know he was part of this group of boys. Back at the lab, she never even saw him. She couldn't believe her uncle had the nerve to put a kid his age into that stupid Maze.

She limped her way to the kitchen with Chuck tagging along, and while Frypan gladly served them some breakfast, she noticed the scornful stares from the Gladers sitting at the tables nearby.

"Hey Chuck, where's Minho?" she asked the boy, trying her best to block the other stares from her peripheral vision.

Chuck looked amused. "Woke up with a massive hangover. The dumb shank still had to go run the Maze like that. He's Keeper of the Runners, so sucks for him," he chuckled.

She frowned at him. "How can you laugh about something like that? Don't you ever worry he might not return? I mean... the Runners, they have to go in there every single day, risking their lives to find a way out. How are you guys not bothered by this?" she asked, bewildered at the lack of seriousness from the kid.

He swerved his lips to the side, staring at her with a new somber look on his face. "No, it's not that," he paused, and she followed his eyesight until it landed on the imposing walls of the Maze, "that just doesn't lead us anywhere. We've learned it the hard way."

Hard way?

She thought everything they'd been through was already difficult in its own sense. How could they think they were better off where they were?

"Just take things calmly, Greenie—or at least try. It's a lot to take in, and we've lost so many boys to fear and panic." Chuck paused with slight realization. "Holy shuck..." he huffed in shock, "I sound like Alby." The boy's cheeks puffed up as he giggled with pride.

"Isn't that something to be proud of," she joked, ignoring the kid's glee.

He was silent for a bit before looking at her as if she had the answer to a question he'd been dying to ask.

"What is it?" She decided it was best to pry it out at once rather than taking a wild guess.

The boy's eyes sparkled with curiosity, and Sara hoped he wouldn't ask something she wouldn't  know how to answer. "Do you know what happened to Newt? I mean... like do you know him?"

She immediately stopped eating, her fork midway toward her mouth as she stared ahead at nothing in particular. Silently, she set the fork down.

No, she didn't want to talk about this. God only knew how hard she'd tried not to think about Newt or what she saw, but everyone just made it incredibly difficult.