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

28. Aris' big performance

At breakfast the next morning I felt so physically exhausted that I thought I would fall asleep at work, but at the same time I was so psychologically psyched that I couldn't sit still or eat anything.
"What's wrong with you?" Heath asked me as I poured my glass over his trousers as I drank.
"I'm kind of confused today. I'm sorry." I quickly started wiping his trousers dry with a napkin.
"Come on, let's get to work," Teresa suggested and I stood up gratefully, bumping into Heath, who stained himself this time.
"Oh, man, I'm sorry!"
But Heath waved and pointed at Teresa, obviously to indicate to me that I should go with her.
We quickly took our trays away and left the dining room before I could do any more damage. On the way to the laboratories Teresa laughed at my clumsiness and it was only just before we got to work that I realised I hadn't seen Thomas this morning.
"Where is Thomas?" I asked, expecting him to have gone to the lab before we did, but when we entered the room it was still empty.
"He just wasn't feeling well. He's resting today."
I raised an eyebrow. Had Rachel's words really hit him that hard?
As I sat down in my seat I decided to stop thinking about it and concentrate on my work, partly to distract myself from tonight.
Today I concentrated once again on Newt, who incidentally remembered his name and had already carved it into the wall. He was just sitting with Alby at breakfast, while most of the others were already at work.
Nick and George had also already disappeared into the maze and as always I kept my fingers crossed that they wouldn't run into a Griever after all.
"Do you actually remember more by now? How do you know Gally?"
Newt looked at Alby thoughtfully. "I don't know. It feels like there's something in my head trying to come forward, but every time I listen closer, it disappears again. Sometimes when I dream I feel like I'm remembering - and maybe I do - but when I wake up the dream immediately slips away again. Do you understand?"
Alby nodded. "Sometimes I feel that way too. And I know Gally can remember something, too. But he should tell you about that himself, I don't want to patronise him there."
Newt looked over to the huts where Gally was drawing a plan.
"I can probably wait a long time. He doesn't seem to be very talkative." He raised one eyebrow.
"He'll tell you about it sometime, I'm sure. He likes you. And I think he thinks a lot of you. Even though you may not feel that way."
"Maybe," Newt just said and then got up to bring his plate to Fry Pan.
Alby did the same and the two of them went off to do their daily rounds until Newt stopped at the fields and told Alby that he would help here today.
And he did so all morning. He harvested tomatoes, planted radishes and helped to prune a few small trees. I could have watched him all day, but at some point Teresa tore me out of my trance and reminded me that I shouldn't forget the others either, because a report that only featured Newt wouldn't look very good. And above all it wouldn't be very long.
So after lunch I tried to concentrate more on the other boys and watched Gally, who was meanwhile building again, and Alby, who helped here and there and then waited for George and Nick, who were late.
When there were only a few minutes left before the walls would close, he slowly became nervous and started pacing up and down in front of the entrance. Newt, Gally and three other boys joined him and slowly I became nervous, too.
And then, as the walls were already making those deafening noises announcing that they were closing, you could hear someone screaming. The boys in front of the gate froze and looked for the source of the scream. And there it was. Nick screamed for help as loud as he could as he turned a corner, George half-carrying, half dragging behind him.
Newt and Gally exchanged a quick glance and then both plunged into the maze whose gates were just beginning to close. The other boys roared and cheered them on.
Gally grabbed George and threw him over his shoulder, while Newt caught Nick, who was threatening to fall over himself. Obviously he had been carrying the other one for some time.
As quickly as they could, they dragged them both towards the exit where the other boys were standing, screaming louder and louder to drown out the noise the gates were making.
At first it looked like they would not make it and I felt my heart almost stop. That simply could not happen. Not those two.
But somehow they gathered all their strength once more and rushed through the last slit left by the gates before they closed behind them.
They had made it.
Gally had stumbled and fallen over, buried under George, who several boys were now trying to lift off of him. Newt had set Nick down in the grass and leaned against the wall, panting.
Suddenly, George seemed to come back to life and fight wildly, even trying to bite Gally.
I stared at the screen in front of me in horror and hadn't even noticed that Teresa had stepped next to me, also completely perplexed.
Alby and Newt, who by now had caught his breath again, managed to pull George off Gally and hold him.
"Quick, we need something to fix him with. Winston, Fry, get something. Anything!" Alby had just gotten a fist in the face and George fought back so hard they could hardly hold him.
"Come on, we gotta get him on the floor!" Newt started to push him down and with Gally's help they made it.
Fry Pan and the boy Alby had named Winston came back with ropes and while the three of them were still pushing George to the floor they tied his arms and legs. At some point he seemed to give up and began to cry.
"Help me! Please, make it stop," he sobbed with his face in the grass.
"Nick! What happened in there?" Newt dropped to the ground next to George and gently patted his shoulder. The touch only made him cry louder and Newt quickly pulled his hand back.
"There was such a... thing. A huge thing. George was... a piece in front of me... and when I heard him scream and I rushed around the corner, there... it kind of hurt him. Some kind of sting or something... I don't know what it was. It was horrible. And then he was just screaming and I tried to pull him away, but that thing was trying to get me too, so I had to swerve somehow. He was flailing around so badly, and I had to get him out of there... So I hit him on the head..." Nick stuttered and seemed unable to talk any further, he was so shocked.
"That explains the wound on his head," Alby murmured. "All right, then. We can worry about what that was and if it comes back later. For now the gates are closed. Come on, boys, let's take him to the huts."
Gally and Fry Pan carried George, who was still whimpering to himself, while Newt and Winston supported Nick, who had apparently gotten more than I had initially thought. He limped a lot and could hardly stand on his feet.
They took the two of them to the hut that was intended for such cases of illness and laid each of them on a cot, fixing George to the wooden cot as a precaution.
"Okay boys, we should discuss how to proceed. I would suggest a meeting of the keepers. Winston, Clint, Gally, Fry Pan. Meet me in the assembly room in five minutes. And Newt - please come, too." Alby nodded at the boy and then left the hut, as did the other boys, except Clint, who was a "med-jack" and looked after the patients until the meeting.
Teresa and I were still completely perplexed by what happened at the glade and flinched when someone entered the room. We drove around and in front of us stood the one I could least use.
Janson.
"Well ladies, did you enjoy the spectacle, too?" he asked, smiling his disgusting smile. "Isn't it fascinating what young people are capable of when they have to? In there and also here with us. Personally, I think he could have stabbed a little deeper, but it was his first time."
At first I was confused and didn't know what he was talking about, but then the scales fell from my eyes. - Aris had steered the Griever who had stung George.
"What will happen to him now?" Teresa asked.
"Oh, he will remember. But he will change, too. If they're unlucky, the ropes won't be enough to hold him down. We'll soon see. I'm very curious to see how they will deal with him."
He laughed and it almost came up to me at this sight. I was sure that I could no longer detest anyone as I detested this man.
Without thinking about what I said, I pushed myself past him and came out through my teeth: "You are disgusting, you know that?"
Before the doors closed behind me I could hear his dirty laughter again and I couldn't do anything but just run.
I ran along the corridors until I finally arrived at my room and threw myself onto my bed. What kind of sick world were we living in? What had we done to deserve this?
I did not know. And I was sure Newt could have given me an answer if he had been here now. But he was not here. He was in the maze, where he was in danger and where I could not help him.
And I lay here, alone, and had no idea how to go on, no matter how well I had planned everything - so much could go wrong.
But I was not allowed to think about that, after all, tonight was not about me, but about the children we had to save.
Somehow the thought calmed me down and I could slowly think clearly again. Nevertheless, I just lay there staring at the ceiling for a long time until it was too late for dinner and I decided to take a shower and then go to sleep. Finally I had to be awake again at 1am and meet Minho and Rachel in front of the kids' dormitory.
Because then the adventure would start.