❝People can only take so much until they rebel back.❞
Humanity was on the brink of extinction.
First came the solar flares. Then, the fires. The fear. The famine. What came after, was almost unimaginable. A virus. A virus that attacked the brain. T...
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03 → "FORBIDDEN CONVERSATION"
[a little over two years later, age 14]
February
Late at night, I'd had just wrapped up an email to my brother, who was back at another WCKD facility. Chancellor Paige had decided I could communicate to my brother via this way, through WCKD's email system, and had been in communication with him for about six months now. Switching off the computer in one of the computer lab rooms, I rise from the white leather desk chair, heading out of the room in order to head back to my dorm. The hallways were mainly empty, with a employee walking past every now and again. Each one either nodded my way or gave a smile to acknowledge my presence. They each knew my status here.
Curfew was fast approaching, but I'd become tired nevertheless over the time I'd had spent in the computer lab room, constructing that email to my now almost sixteen year old brother. Attempting to stifle back a yawn, I wander down the hallway, rubbing my eyes that'd become bleary, a sign that I'm becoming overtired. Turning the corner, my dorm down the next hallway, I peer down at my watch. 21:40 hrs. Curfew is twenty minutes away. Picking up my pace, I was close to turning down the hallway of which my dorm room is, when I was suddenly stopped by someone grabbing my wrist, stopping me in my tracks. But, before I could get the chance to swivel around on the soles of my feet and get a glimpse of who had stopped me — thinking maybe it was Thomas or Teresa — two arms wrapped around my torso, lifting my feet up from the floor.
"Let me go!" I shriek, kicking and flailing my legs. "Let me go!"
"Hey! Calm down!" A boy exclaims. I don't listen to him, though, continuing to kick and flail to no avail, to get away. I swing my elbow out defensively, jabbing someone in the face and earning a bunch of insults back. "Ow!"
Releasing me from their hold, the boy mutters a number of cusses under their breath. I stumble to my feet, right as I hear the faint click of the door closing. As soon as I'd recomposed myself, a flashlight flickers on, creating light inside the room — which I have just realised to be one of the maintenance closets. Faces appeared before my eyeline, and the person I had elbowed in the face appeared, rubbing his nose with a scowl on his face. Arching my eyebrow at the group of boys before me, I put together just to who these boys were who had decided to drag me inside this maintenance closet twenty minutes before curfew.
They were the group of boys that I'd pass everyday in the hallway for the last two years, and all appeared to be around the same age or a year or so older. The boy, who'd dragged me into the closet, was an Asian boy who had to be the same age as Teresa — fifteen or sixteen — while the boy who'd been the one to stop me in the hallway moments before, turned out to be the lean blonde who catches my eye each time he passes by. The other boys are just few of the boys that are always in tow alongside the boy, and have to be his friends in that group.
The group that Teresa call Group A.
"What the hell do you want?" I shrill, glaring at the boys in before me.
"We'll answer if you lower your voice." The boy — the one I'd taken the liberty to elbow in the nose — snaps at me. I throw him a glare.
"I'm sorry, what do you expect from someone you dragged into the maintenance closet?" I quiz, folding my arms over my chest. "Now answer my question!"
"Really, Newt?" The Asian boy challenges, turning to the blond. "You made us sneak out to meet this girl who you seem to have taken whatever interest in, and all we get out of it is that I might have a broken nose?"
"Yeah, man." A boy with brown hair agrees, who stands beside another tall blond haired boy that is to be no more than fourteen. "If you wanted to meet the girl, you should've just gone out and done it yourself."
"OK, let's just calm down!" The blond haired boy steps forward, cheeks tinging red, throwing a glare to the Asian boy I'd found myself arguing with and the dark skinned boy. His voice holds a somewhat strong British accent.
"No, Newt." The other blonde boy, behind the dark skinned boy, states. "We're leavin'. Talk to the girl yourself. By the way, names Gally."
"Nice to meet you?" My response comes out in a question, my eyebrows arching in confusion. The rest of the boys agree with Gally, and the others, besides Gally, introduce themselves as Minho, Frypan, Ben and Winston, before the five of them sneak back out into the hallway. As soon as they'd disappeared, the boy, Newt, turns back to me.
"Look, I'm sorry we bloody dragged you in here and scared the living daylights outta ya, but I was curious as to who you are." Newt explains, rubbing the back of his neck almost nervously. I cross my arms over my chest once more, leaning against the wall behind me. "What's ya name?"
"Adeline." I boldly state, staring back at the boy.
"Pretty name." He cracks a grin my way.
"Thankyou."
"I'm Newt." He introduces, though this has already been established.
"I figured." Newt's cheeks tinge red once more. The boy coughs awkwardly. There's something cute about his reaction to my words, and maybe I should be a little more lenient toward the boy who was curious about me. "I hope you know it's forbidden for me to talk to you."
"I'll take my chances." Newt shrugs.
"Right, so, why were you curious about me?" I quiz.
"Don't know." Newt shrugs his shoulders. "Just was curious to why someone like you would work for them?"
"Someone like me?" I challenge, giving a slight laugh, ignoring his remark about WCKD. But, before I can get a response from the boy, my watch beeps. Peering down at my watch, I realise that only twenty minutes had ticked away. 22:00 hrs. Ten o'clock on the dot. "Shit. Curfew is in place."
"I guess ya gotta go, then." Newt stated, his big brown eyes boring back at me, a smirk tugging at his lips.
"No, wait." I blurt out, curious still to his last words. "You didn't answer my question."
But, Newt moved to open the maintenance closet door, guiding me out just like that. Both of us stand in the empty and dimly lit hallway. The curfew lights have been automatically switched on. Standing before the boy who is only slightly taller than me, I watch as he begins to step backwards away from me. Then, leaving me no time to process everything that's happened tonight, Newt disappears, throwing me some lopsided smile as he goes.
