Into the Maze

Chapter 12

I jerked my head up at the sound of laughter, looking around quickly. I realized I was in the cafeteria still, but now it was filled with boys.

I rubbed my eyes and looked around, everyone was eating off of the trays. I must have not been asleep long, some peoples trays were only half touched.

"Look who decided to finally wake up." Newt smiled as I turned to him. Thomas and Newt were both sitting at the table, but this time Chuck was in Minho's spot.

"Where's Minho?" I looked around trying to see if he was sitting somewhere else. Newt slid a tray in front of me, a full one. He had grabbed me one too. "Thanks"

"He's talking to Alby, he won't be here today." Newt explained and I nodded, picking up the bit of toast I had and munching into it.

"Hey Parker, why were you asleep in the cafeteria anyways?" Chuck asked as he took a sip of his water, and Thomas nodded, looking at me.

"I couldn't sleep last night, so I went up in the tree-house platform thing. When Frypan woke up and came in here I went too, and ended up helping him make breakfast." I explained, and pointed to my tray. "Then I sat down and I guess I fell asleep."

"Frypan let you help him? He usually doesn't like anyone messing with his stuff." Newt asked, and I nodded, a smile still on his lips.

"I could tell, but I guess he just couldn't resist my charm and gave in." I joked and picked up a piece of bacon, eating it, then the rest. It was still warm.

"When do we actually get jobs?" Thomas spoke up, and I looked at him. I agreed, I was tired of having to find random tasks to do to take my mind off of stuff.

Newt thought for a minute, frowning and thinking, then looked back up at Thomas. "We haven't decided yet. We're gonna talk about it later."

That was the most suspicious answer, almost like saying don't bet on anything soon.

"Uh, I've got to be somewhere. See you later." Newt stood up and emptied his tray, then walked out the door.

I raised my eyebrows and looked at Thomas and Chuck, they looked slightly confused too. He just got up quickly and left like that.

A minute after he left, the door to the maze started creaking. Boys around us got up and emptied their trays, and I did the same.

After I got done, I walked outside, just as the doors finished opening. Newt was standing by the door with two others, Minho and Alby. Minho took a step and ran into the maze, right behind him was Alby. Why was Alby going into the maze? He wasn't a runner.

Thomas caught up to me and watched, he was probably thinking the same thing. I exchanged a glance with him as Chuck ran over too.

"What do we do now? Since we don't have jobs." I asked, and Thomas shrugged. I didn't feel like doing nothing all day.

"You could help me clean after today. Me and a few other boys." Chuck offered hesitantly, he must be a slopper. I smiled at him and nodded.

"I'll help." I agreed and looked at Thomas, who seemed to be zoning out more and more. "Thomas?"

"I'm actually gonna go find Newt." He said, and looked around, focusing his gaze on Newt, who was back in the gardens.

"Okay, if you find out anything new tell me." I stuck my hand out, getting his attention again, and he nodded. I smiled and nodded back, before turning and following Chuck inside.

There were a few other boys in there, just wiping tables and stuff. Only a couple, about 2, but we still got done quicker than Thomas and I did.

"Let's go catch up to Thomas?" I asked, slightly hoping he was still with Newt. I know I'd seen him today already about half an hour ago but it felt nice to see him.

"Yeah, I'll show you what I'm working on. Meet you there." Chuck grinned and went a different way back to the hammocks. I smiled and shook my head, my eyes landing on Thomas, Newt, and Zart by a tree stump.

I jogged over and noticed Thomas was sitting on a sideways larger tree log, holding a spare machete, as Newt and Zart were hitting at the roots of a smaller stump with theirs.

I pushed myself up onto the log beside Thomas, dangling my feet off of it and listening to their small banter. I don't even know what they were saying, I wasn't really listening. I was kind of just in a good mood because I was in their company.

Chuck walked over holding some wooden thing and a small carving knife. He came over to me and held it up, it was the shape of a man.

"See? I'm almost done too." He beamed and went and sat on the other side of Thomas. He went to work some more, shaping it up a bit.

"Ahem," I cleared my throat as their arguing stopped, the only sound now was the banging of wood. "Anyways, why did Alby go into the maze, he's not a runner." I seemed to have spiked a bit of the spark of argument they were speaking of before.

"Things are different now." Newt looked over to me, studying my gaze, and holding up his machete. "Alby went to retrace Ben's footsteps before sundown. Thomas, are you gonna help?"

"Okay, so he's just gonna go back to where Ben was just stung-" Thomas started, as I realized he had a good point. But it was clear they had been arguing on this for a while.

"Alby knows what he's doing, all right?" Newt stated loudly, as I glanced up at him in silence. His eyes found mine as I adverted my gaze, over to Chuck, who resumed his wood work. "He knows better than any of us."

"What does that mean?" Thomas asked, as I didn't dare continue the conversation. I could tell Newt was getting a bit defensive, and I didn't want to try and push it.

"All right, it's like you've heard, yeah? Every month the box sends up a new arrival. But someone had to be first, right? Someone had to have spent a whole month in the Glade alone. And that was Alby." Newt stepped closer to Thomas, talking to him, as I watched, still silent. Alby was first. I couldn't imagine hopping out of that box and being alone. "I mean, it can't have been easy. But when those other boys started coming up, one after the other, he saw the truth. And he learned that the most important thing is that we all have each other. Cause we're all in this together."

We all sat in silence, even Zart kind of froze, as Chuck looked to me and Thomas. He shrugged, and continued his work, as Newt slammed his machete into the stump once more.

I sat back more, and reached over, shoving Thomas on the shoulder lightly. He looked to me, and then sighed, hopping off the log and over to Newt.

He held up his machete, as Newt backed up, smiling. Thomas brought it up and slammed it into the stump as hard as he could.

"Yeah, there you go greenie." Newt told him, grinning, as I smiled at his smile. He licked his lips, before doing what Thomas did.

"Hey, Parks, look." Chuck sort of gave me a new nickname as I looked over at him.

"Aw, that looks awesome." I smiled and moved over so I was beside him. He beamed, and blushed slightly, looking down at it. "It's really coming along."

Suddenly, the sky thundered, as clouds rose above us. I looked up, and then to Thomas, as he exchanged a glance with me. It was about to storm.