From The WICKED Start | A Maze Runner Story (English Version)

8. A new job

"I don't wanna do this, Newt. I just can't do it. Those people in there, they're my friends."
I was completely desperate when I thought about what was waiting for me tomorrow at my new workplace.
Newt stroked a strand of hair from my face and started to wrap it around his finger while he looked at me with a wrinkled forehead. We were lying on my bed, it was late Sunday evening and we were already showered and ready for sleep.
We should probably be asleep by now, we have to get up early tomorrow, I thought, knowing full well that I would definitely not be able to sleep for a long time.
I knew from Thomas that we had to be in the surveillance lab at seven o'clock, ready for our service.
"You can do it, I'll be with you all the time. You won't have to be alone in this room for a second."
He was right, I wouldn't have to, but still the thought of having to watch my friends fighting for survival from tomorrow on was extremely frightening.
"Look at it this way...," he began and seemed to wrestle with himself a little, as he was now to express himself. "You can look after your friends now, in a way."
When he saw that I looked at him with raised eyebrows he added: "I mean, you've never had the chance before to watch out that nothing bad happens to them. Sure, you can't decide anything, but you can help decide a bit. In any case, you have more power now over what happens than ever before."
Maybe he was right. I was just so terrified of having to watch something happen to someone. Watching something happen to Gally.
"Who knows, maybe we'll get the chance to change something," Newt murmured.
Yes, maybe. But we didn't have much time anyway. Even if I hadn't told Newt again, I had made a decision. If he was taken into the maze, I would not be able to continue here. I would certainly not sit in front of a screen and watch him suffer. Besides, nothing would keep me here any longer. I had thought about it a lot in the last few days, whenever I was alone, but that hadn't happened too often since our first kiss. Still I had enough time to make a plan. And I would put it into action. I didn't know exactly how yet, but I was sure it would come up.
Willing to sleep now, I laid my head on his chest and wrapped an arm around him. His warmth enveloped me and I breathed out contentedly. I felt so infinitely comfortable with him. I had never felt so comfortable anywhere or with anyone before.
Newt took me a little tighter in his arm and I listened to his heart as I slowly drifted away.

I opened my eyes slowly when I heard the sound of the alarm clock ringing next to my head. I rolled over on my stomach, leaned on my elbows and groped for the light switch in the dark. When I finally found it I grabbed the alarm clock, but pushed it off the bedside table instead of turning it off. Overslept, I groped around on the floor, losing my balance and falling to the floor with a loud rumble.
"Shit," I pushed out and straightened up.
Well, at least now I had finally got hold of the alarm clock and could turn it off. I stayed on the floor for a moment and slowly came to my senses.
So today was the day, I had to watch my friends fighting for their lives. For the first time I no longer felt only disgust at this fact, no, I was also a bit curious. After all, I had no idea what the maze looked like, and since I would probably soon be in one myself -
I shook my head at this thought. I was apparently out of my mind. Yeah, I wouldn't want to stay here if Newt was taken. But was it really the right thing to go into one of the mazes myself - voluntarily?
And then a new thought came to me, sitting on the floor like that. What if I somehow managed to prevent them from sending me into any maze? What if it was this maze? But what good would that do? I wouldn't be able to remember anyway.
But then suddenly I heard Teresa's voice in my head again: "Feelings like deep affection or hatred, especially strong feelings can be retained."
Gally had probably managed to remember, somehow. Newt was sure he would be able to remember me. So why shouldn't I remember them then? I was sure that it was almost impossible to have stronger feelings towards two people, even though I had such different feelings for both of them.
While I was thinking about it Newt woke up. He stretched, yawned, and then seemed to realise that I was not lying next to him.
"What are you doing on the floor?" he asked in surprise. "I actually thought I wasn't that wide either, that I'd push you out of bed."
He looked down at himself with raised eyebrows. But I could still recognize the irony in his voice.
I laughed. "I struggled with the alarm clock, it almost overpowered me, but I managed to hold my ground."
Newt joined in my laughter and sat up. His hair was messed up and he just looked good. I noticed I was staring at him and felt my cheeks blushing slightly.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"You are so beautiful," it slipped out of my mouth and I was startled.
Did I really just say that?
A smile spread across his face and I thought I recognized that he too was blushing a little.
"Thank you, same to you."
He stood up and held out a hand to help me up off the floor. I took it and pulled myself up to him. Without thinking I stood on my toes and kissed him. He returned the kiss and immediately I felt the thousand butterflies in my stomach again.
"I'll go and get ready quickly," I whispered after we had separated again and went into the bathroom. There I plaited a braid to get my hair out of my face, brushed my teeth and washed my face. Before I left the bathroom again, I paused briefly and looked at myself in the mirror.
Was I really beautiful? I did not know.
My brown hair - if I hadn't tied it in a braid - went down to my waist. A long braid just lay over my shoulder. My eyes were green-brown and my nose was narrow and of normal size, I would think.
Yes, you'd probably say I was quite pretty, but I was certainly not as pretty as Newt seemed to find me. And then I asked myself another, rather childish question: Was I prettier than Teresa? In a way, we looked a bit alike with our brown hair and the narrow nose. And yet we were so different.
I wondered why Teresa had never talked to me before and why she still seemed to try to look unpleasant even though she might not have been so bad.
"This girl thinks she's something better, she would never talk to a normal mortal like us," Gally had once said to me when I had asked him what he thought, why she was behaving so strangely towards us. At that time I had believed he was right. But was he really? I did not know.
When I came out of the bathroom, Newt went in. It took him half the time it took me, though, and we set off for the dining room at half past six.
Once there, I grabbed an apple, as I was sure I wouldn't be able to eat more anyway, and we sat down with Minho and the others. I could see Thomas and Teresa already getting up and leaving the room. So we should probably start right away.
While Newt was talking to Ben I forced myself to eat the apple and then signalled to him that we should leave now. We said goodbye and also left the dining room. On the way to the surveillance labs we both didn't say a word. Now the whole thing was more real than all the days before and I realised how nervous I was. I was about to find out if Gally could remember me or anything. And that would either take away my hope from just now or strengthen it.
Newt noticed that I was shaking and took my hand. The warmth of his skin soothed me a little and together we stopped in front of surveillance lab 1. He took his card out of his pocket and led it through the slit next to the door. It beeped and the door opened.
We were inside.
Thomas and Teresa were already there as expected and sat in their chairs. When we came in they both looked up and Thomas smiled at us carefully while Teresa nodded at us and then turned back to a screen right in front of her. Newt and I sat down on the two free chairs and I saw something indecisive about what to do, first on the buttons in front of me and then on the screen.
"Janson said that today you should first of all just observe what the boys are doing at the glade and watch what we are doing," Thomas began, but I already stopped listening to him.
I stared spellbound at the screens and blanked out everything else around me. I could see Toby handing plates of food over a counter, could see Alby just accepting one. I saw Nick sitting there, together with three boys I didn't know by name. I recognised George, who had apparently finished breakfast and was moving away from the others, probably to do his work, as the rest of the boys did. Now I saw Alby walking to the tables with his plate and - unlike I expected - he didn't sit with Nick, but walked towards a boy who was sitting a bit away and eating alone. He sat down with him and I recognised who it was.
Gally.
I could see them talking to each other, with Gally not even looking up. The sight of him broke my heart.
Suddenly I realised that I couldn't hear what they were saying. Just as I was about to ask Thomas, someone held a headset out to me. I flinched because I hadn't noticed that Teresa had stepped next to me. She stared spellbound at the monitor in front of me and seemed to listen intently to the conversation between the two boys, because she was already wearing a headset. I took the one she was holding out to me and put it on quickly so that I could listen in too.
"...you won't believe me anyway or think I'm crazy. So what would I have to gain by telling you?" Gally's voice was hard and unfeeling.
"I won't tell the others. You can trust me. And there's no way I'm gonna think you're crazy. Sometimes I also have the feeling that there is something, as if a memory is trying to get through to me. But then it's gone. Please, tell me what's bothering you, Gally."
So he had already remembered his name. It warmed my heart when I heard how nice Alby was to Gally. Oh, Alby...
Nevertheless I tense up and I felt Teresa getting up too, curious about what Gally had to say.
"All right, if that's the only way you'll ever get any peace." I could hear him swallow a bite before he talked any further. "All this time, I've had the feeling that there was someone... Someone I cared about very much, someone I felt connected to. At first I thought maybe I had a girlfriend before I came here because I always had this nickname in my head, 'lil' one'. But now I'm sure it was more than that. What I feel... This feels deeper. Like family, I think."
When Alby just looked at him and said nothing, he added: "Was that it? Can I finish my breakfast in peace now?"
Alby nodded and got up to sit down with Nick and the others after all. But there he stopped once more as Gally said his name. He turned around and looked at the other boy questioningly.
"Can you miss someone you don't really remember? Can it feel like you're missing a piece of you without knowing what that piece looks like? I don't know what's wrong with me, Alby. It hurts and I don't know why."
"You'll remember, I'm sure. And in the meantime, if you want to talk, you can always come to me."
With these words, Alby turned again and sat down with the others. Gally remained seated staring at his food. I couldn't hear it but I knew he was crying. So did I. I sat there and only now, when I took off the headset, did I notice that the tears were running down my cheeks.
"He remembers you," Teresa whispered next to me, who had also taken off the headset. "This is just incredible... - Oh, wait, here."
She held a handkerchief out to me, but then turned away quickly and sat back down in her seat.
Wow. A handkerchief. That's like... nice.
As I wiped away my tears I saw that Thomas was also staring spellbound at Gally, who by now had gotten up and was looking for work, starting to hammer away at a temporary hut. He seemed to know where his strengths lay. Newt watched him too, but seemed to have his mind elsewhere. I would have loved to ask him what he was thinking, but I knew that I couldn't in front of the others.
So I rolled back with my chair and stood up. I just had to get out of here for a moment. Thomas took off his headset when he noticed that I was about to leave the room.
"I'll be right back. I just need a minute."
He nodded and turned back to his work.
Newt and Teresa did not even look up. I took one last look at the former and saw that he was still staring straight ahead, still spellbound.
In the corridor I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes, completely overwhelmed by what I had just seen and heard. Gally could remember me, somehow. At that thought my heart leapt with joy and I wished for nothing more than to be able to go to him at that moment.
Pull yourself together. You are in the here and now and if you don't do your work properly, you probably won't have a chance to get to anyone at all.
I shook my head to get rid of all these thoughts. Then I entered the surveillance room again. Newt must have noticed by now that I had left the room and looked up with a raised eyebrow when I sat down next to him again. He seemed to want to ask me if everything was okay, but I beat him to it.
"All good. I just needed to take a quick breath." I smiled at him and he looked reassured.
So I turned back to the monitors in front of me and put my headset back on as well.