Into The WICKED Maze | A Maze Runner Story (English Version)

19. Keeper of the runners

No one said a word, there was no sound except my sobs, which were now smothered by Newt's shirt. For an eternity we seemed to stand like this until I calmed down a little and Nick cleared his throat. Carefully I peered over Newt's shoulder, but could only see him from behind.
"We should vote, as always. Who agrees with Anna that she killed Stan and who thinks it was self-defence? Maybe we'll start with the latter."
I squint my eyes together. I didn't want to see it, far too big was the fear of what they would do to me if they decided I was guilty.
It took a while before I began to wonder why it was so quiet in the room and Nick didn't say anything more. Newt had let go of me and I stood there with my eyes narrowed until someone gently nudged me.
Reluctantly I opened my eyes and looked around the hut - and what I saw took my breath away.
Everyone without exception had stood up and raised their hands, Nick and Newt stood a metre away from me, also with their hands raised. They all looked at me in silence and I could only read one thing in each face - compassion.
An indescribable feeling of warmth and connectedness rolled over me, almost throwing me off my feet. I thought about what Stan had said, that he wished me to be happy. And suddenly it was almost as if he was standing with the others, his hand raised and his gaze fixed on me with those clear eyes.
Silently and without anyone making a sound, suddenly all the gladers came towards me. Newt and Nick, who had been standing closest to me, reached me first, and I felt Newt's arms around me, then Nick's, then I saw Gally reach us, Minho put his arms around us as well, and little by little all the others joined in.
And so we stood there, a bunch of young people, holding each other tight. And me in the middle.
The feeling I felt at that moment was so indescribable that I could not give it a name. It was a mixture of the strongest feelings I knew - love, friendship, connection. Because that was us - connected. We were in here together, without memories and a plan of what we were doing here. All we had was us.
These people here were my family now.
And with this realisation my whole picture of the glade and my situation changed. I no longer felt out of place and it was suddenly not so bad that I could not remember anything from the past. After all, none of us could. Maybe it was just as well, maybe what had been there was not worth remembering. I did not know.
After a long moment we separated again and I was still speechless. I looked at the other boys and saw in the eyes of each of them the same thing that I felt. It felt right that I was here with them and that I was here at all. Here I seemed to belong somehow.
Nick cleared his throat. "Well, I guess we're in agreement then, right?" A nod went through the rows. "Very well. Now before you all go back to work, I have something we need to vote on. So I would ask all keepers to stay here... And you two." He pointed to Minho and me, just as we were about to leave the hut together, still inspired by the newfound feeling.
Confused, we exchanged a look, but then stayed with the keepers, Nick, Alby and Newt.
"All right. Now that Stan is no longer with us and we have one - and in this case two - new runners, it's time to appoint a new keeper. We never had to do that before because we only had one runner, but now there are two of you. Do you have a suggestion yourself?"
Minho and I answered as if we were speaking from the same mouth.
"Minho." - "Anna."
We looked at each other confused. He wanted me to be his keeper?
He seemed to think the same, because now he said: "What's this? You're much better suited. You're faster than me."
"This has nothing to do with speed."
"And you're smarter than me."
Now he was talking crap. "That's not true at all. You had more good ideas than me. Besides, you kept a cool head in the maze."
Minho shook his head. "Nonsense. I ran away just like you."
"Yes, because I panicked."
Now Nick started to interfere. "Okay, take it easy. You two seem to have a bit of a disagreement. What are the others saying?"
He looked at them one by one.
At first, no one spoke until Newt raised his arm to come forward. I expected him to say that Minho should become a keeper, just to protect me, but his suggestion surprised me.
"If the two are so convinced of the other, why don't we just think about declaring both of them keepers? What would be wrong with that? Sure, you've always done things differently, but in this case, and especially in this job, the most important thing is that they're happy with it, right?"
Nick thought for a moment, but then he nodded. "I think you are right. Maybe it is the right thing in this case. So, let's take a vote. All those in favour of declaring both as keeper?"
Alby, Newt, Gally, Fry Pan and Clint came forward immediately. Winston seemed to think about it at first, but then decided it was a good idea, because after a few seconds, he answered, too. Nick's hand went up last, but he was for it, too.
And so it was official. Minho and I were the keepers of the runners from now on.