What If | tmr, newt ✓

Chapter 24

"I'm telling you, if there was a way out, we would have found it by now."

I sigh and lean my elbows on the table of the Map Room, concentrating on the maps in front of me. My head had been spinning ever since Ben was stung in broad daylight; firstly, I was worried for him. He wasn't well, and I could empathise what he was going through. Secondly, I had to stop any pictures of the Grievers arising from my memories to haunt me, or I knew I might just break down. And thirdly, the Gladers have barely ever seen a Griever in the middle of the day.

Standing back up, I shake my head. "No, no - it doesn't make sense. There has to be. We can't stay here forever."

"Look at the maps, Adalyn. I've run every shuck corridor of the Maze myself, you think we're really going to find anything now? After three years?"

"Maybe," I whisper.

"You don't get it! Look at them! There's nowhere else to go!"

I flinch, rubbing my eyes. I hate it when Minho gets angry; it's unlike him, and extremely unsettling when he does.

"Minho, just calm down for a second."

"How can you expect me to!? I've been here for three years. And I don't want to have to spend the rest of my life looking for a way out that doesn't exist."

And with those last words, he pushes past me and lets the door slam behind him.

***

"You'll get used to it soon enough," I say, finishing off my food and wiping the crumbs from my trousers.

"Why are you the only girl?" The newest Greenie, who arrived this afternoon, asks.

I shrug. "You tell me."

"How long have you been here?"

"Me? Four months."

He turns to Chuck, the young boy next to him on the bench. "And what about you?"

"Told you, I was the Greenie before you came along. Just a month."

"What about the first person who was sent here?"

I pause. "Alby's been here for three years."

"And you haven't found a way out? That's absurd."

I sigh, slightly frustrated and impatient, and not wanting to answer that question. "You know, you ask a lot of questions. Just shut up and eat your food."

Chuck laughs and I turn around. A few metres away, Newt, Alby, and Minho are deep in conversation around a table, the latter looking more and more desperate every time he speaks. I smile sadly to myself, refusing to believe that we're really stuck here forever.

***

It's the same campfire that was lit for me when I arrived four months ago, the same for all the boys since then. This time, my hand is in Newt's and my head on his shoulder as we stare at the flames, the boys around us cheering for the Greenie. He remembered his name: Thomas. Thomas had stayed with Chuck since arriving, probably feeling like he could relate to him the most. Or maybe it was because the little boy was so clingy. One or the other.

Newt leans down to tell me that he's going to talk to Thomas, kissing my head before sending Chuck on an errand to get him out of the way. Feeling suddenly cold and lonely, I spot Minho sitting with the other Runners, staring blankly into the fire. He doesn't look up when I join him.

"I'm sorry, Falcon."

I'm shocked. I can't find the words to reply, and now doesn't seem the time to comment on how he actually apologised for once. "You should quit calling me that, you know. I don't run any more."