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

12. Air shafts

In the evening Thomas was sitting with Teresa again at her regulars' table and Newt and I were sitting with our friends.
As we had arrived relatively late for dinner, the dining room was already empty and it didn't take long before Heath and Zart got up and there was only Minho and Ben left.
I looked around the room and noticed that besides us only Thomas and Teresa were left.
Minho and Ben had also eaten and said goodbye to us.
We hadn't finished yet, so we ate on. Just as we were quietly talking about Gally's reaction to my message, I felt someone step behind me.
I flinched for fear it might be Janson or one of his henchmen, but it was only Thomas who sat down next to me.
"Where is Teresa?" I asked.
"She went to get something. Will be right back. She told me to wait here with you." He shrugged his shoulders.
I nodded slowly. I had a pretty good idea what it was all about.
And I was right. After a few minutes Teresa came back, a folded piece of paper in her hand. She dropped herself on a chair next to Newt, made sure nobody was around and then spread an angled map in DIN A3 size on the table.
I bent forward to see better. The air shaft system of the whole building.
"The air shafts run the same way on every floor. We are lucky and your sister is on the same level as the bedrooms here. So all you have to do is get from here" - she pointed to a point quite centrally - "to here, in side wing C. The subjects sleep there in large dormitories, girls and boys separated. They are all between 12 and 14, and your sister is accommodated here." - Now she pointed to the air shaft opening into a room. "The air shaft ends above the room, from the mesh you should have a good view without being seen yourself. Now you just have to find your sister and you can see how she is doing." She looked at Newt after she had finished.
He nodded, the look still on the map as if he was already looking for the best way.
Teresa stood up and Thomas pushed his chair back as well.
"Well, good luck," she said before turning to leave.
"Thanks, Teresa." Now Newt looked up and smiled slightly at her.
She nodded at him and then left the room with Thomas.
I got up, too, and Newt started to fold the plan together before anyone saw it.
We quickly took our trays away and went, without a word, to our sleeping room.
Once there, Newt spread the map out again, this time on the floor. We both sat cross-legged in front of it and silently looked for a short way each. But after a few minutes I decided that I should let Newt do the work and try to open our air shaft flap myself.
I climbed onto my bed, over which it was, and shook it.
Nothing.
I jiggled harder, but it didn't help, she was sitting bombproof. With my eyes narrowed, I looked for small screws or something else to hold the flap to the wall. I found a hinge where you could fold it down without having to remove it completely and then four screws on the upper edge that pressed the flap against the wall.
I quickly jumped off my bed and ran into the bathroom to look for something narrow and sharp to unscrew the screws with. I found it quickly, because one of my hair clips was lying on the sideboard.
With the hairclip in my hand, I got back on my bed to tamper with the screws. And lo and behold, it worked.
After I had unscrewed the last screw, I carefully opened the flap and looted in. A narrow passageway could be seen. We would have to make ourselves quite small, but it would be possible in any case.
"Gally wouldn't have fit through there with his broad shoulders." I hadn't really wanted to say this out loud, but Newt hadn't listened to me anyway. He was just following a path with his finger when I looked over his shoulder.
"Yes, that could work," he murmured and then looked up at me. "Will you come with me?"
I nodded.
"Are we doing it now?" I asked, but he shook his head.
"We'll wait until tonight. When everyone is asleep. Close the flap again, but use only one screw, so we can get it open faster later."
I nodded again and did what he said.
Then I grabbed some fresh clothes and took a shower, while Newt continued to study the map as if he wanted to memorise all the details. And he was right, it would be too dark in the shafts to read it.
Freshly showered and changed, I plaited my hair into a braid so it wouldn't bother me, and then I went to bed, from where I watched Newt memorize the junctions we had to take.
He had wrinkled his forehead and closed his eyes as he walked the path. As he sat there, he looked so beautiful that I couldn't look away anymore. His hair was fuzzy and looked brighter than usual in the light of the bright ceiling lamp.
I had always thought I would never fall in love. Not here. Not in this world.
And there I was, lying there, unable to take my eyes off this boy I had known for so short a time, sitting cross-legged in the middle of our room, a map in front of him, and with his eyes closed, he looked a little like he was meditating. I had to smile at this last thought.
Again my heart felt as if it was infinitely large and completely filled with this warm feeling.
And again the ever present thought flashed through my mind that it would not always be like this, that the day would come when we were separated and did not know if we would really see each other again and if we would even remember each other then.
I had spent so much time with Gally, I had so many memories. And yet I was sure that saying goodbye to Newt would hurt me as much, if not more.
For a moment a thought flashed through my mind, made out of pure self-protection.
Why don't you just end this thing with Newt before it's too late? Probably it would make the whole thing easier for both of you.
Yeah, probably it would. But did I want it to be easier when I had to pay such a price for it?
No. Absolutely not. I knew that as soon as I looked at him.
I wanted to use every minute we had together, even though I knew that with every touch it would be worse to let him go. Not knowing if he would remember me. Without knowing if I would remember him after a month.
But was that really so important? Should I not be content to know that if everything went smoothly and Teresa kept her word, which I believed she would, we would meet again and let fate decide whether we remembered or not?
After all, it was quite possible that we would fall in love with each other again. Now it had not been any different.
I calmed myself down with these thoughts and continued to firmly believe that we would both remember each other. I was sure we would. Gally was the best proof.
Lost in my thoughts I hadn't noticed that Newt had got up and folded the map.
"We should hide it well, in case someone should search our room."
I nodded and got up too. "I have an idea. We should hide it behind the flap of the shaft, if no one knows we know about the system, no one will search there either."
Newt nodded eagerly. "Good idea. We'll do that the first time we go in."
Until then he stowed the card in his bedside drawer and then went into the bathroom.
I lay on my bed and waited for him to finish, but quickly noticed my eyes were getting heavier and heavier and I was slowly slipping into a light sleep.
Newt only woke me up again in the middle of the night when we were about to leave.
I slowly opened my eyes as I felt him nudge me gently, and flinched briefly when I realised how close his face was to mine. But I immediately calmed down again when I looked into his brown eyes.
He looked at me calmly and didn't seem nervous at all about the fact that we were about to try to find his sister.
I stretched for a moment and then sat up.
"Ready?" Newt asked.
I nodded. "Ready when you are."
He held out a hand to me so I could pull myself up by him. I quickly fetched a hair clip again and unscrewed the single screw, which caused the flap to open and make a loud noise.
We both flinched and listened, but nothing could be heard.
With my help Newt was the first to climb into the shaft and then pulled me up. It was quite narrow and just enough space to turn around carefully. When we started to crawl we first made much too loud a noise and had to find the right method first, but we quickly succeeded.