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

26. Foreshadowing

"So, we'll call it a day. I'll tidy up here, you can go ahead if you want." Gally jumped onto the floor and started picking up wood lying around.
"I'll go and look for Minho," I said and set off in search of him.
It wasn't long before I found him sitting on the edge of the forest, apparently thinking. I settled down beside him and watched as most of the gladers were already running towards the kitchen.
"What are you thinking about?" I asked quietly.
"Oh, nothing really. I was just thinking about whether we'd even be able to find an exit, the two of us."
I put a hand on his shoulder. "We'll make it, Minho. And you know that."
That was all I knew to say. Proof that it was so, I simply didn't have.
He nodded slowly. "You're right. It's stupid to think about it so much. Then you just get sad. Come on, let's go to dinner."
We joined Gally, who seemed to have already finished cleaning up, and got our dinner before taking it to the big campfire that Nick and Alby had already made.
Once there, we sat down with Newt, who was eating alone, leaning against a tree trunk and looking into the flames. Just as I sat down next to him and he looked at me with those beautiful brown eyes and smiled, the deafening sound of the gates closing rang out. I glanced over at them briefly, but paid no further attention, after all, this had been happening every day for four weeks. No one was paying attention to this spectacle anymore - except Greenie.
He had dropped his plate and was staring wide-eyed at the huge gate, which was now almost completely closed. I could imagine how impressive this must be for him, after all, I had probably looked like this a month ago, but most of the other gladers who had been here longer just looked at him in amusement.
It was only when the gate had closed and the noise had died down that he seemed to realise he had dropped his plate and started to pick up his food from the floor, visibly embarrassed. I felt sorry for him, I knew that much, but I had no idea how to make it more bearable for him and so I just stayed seated between Newt and Minho and concentrated on my food.
This was probably the time when I decided that I shouldn't be interested in the greenbeans. For I would spend the next scant three years doing just that - not paying attention to them. Until a very special boy would come up to us with the box and change everything.
But I knew nothing of that at that moment. I couldn't imagine that one day it would be any different than it was now, because even though I would never tell Minho, I had the same thoughts as he did.
I was almost certain that we would not be able to find an exit, at least not without a miracle. After all, we had already explored seven sections and I just couldn't imagine that the few others that could still be there would be any different from them in that we could just walk out into the open there.
And yet it would be several more months before I would be honest with Minho and more than another two years before we would be honest with Nick and Alby. We would walk the maze ceaselessly, day after day, looking for an exit, even when we had finished our model and we both found our way through the maze in our sleep.
For that was probably the atonement of the runners - we knew there was no exit and yet we were not allowed to tell the others. Far too great would be the danger that they would harm themselves or simply go crazy.
That evening, as I sat leaning against Newt and watched Gally defeat everyone again in their fights, I of course knew nothing about it. I had no idea what was coming and that one day I would remember it all, little by little. I had no idea that there was a boy called Thomas who, together with a girl called Teresa and someone whose name I would not know for more than three years, sat in front of screens day after day and watched me survive here, that the three of them sat transfixed in front of their monitor every time a Griever was near us, whom we did not even notice, and did not move again until we were out of danger. And that's why I didn't know that my memories would come back little by little when we left the clearing behind us forever.
All I knew was that I was here right now, with a big campfire in front of me, and that I couldn't imagine a nicer place to be than next to Newt.
Just then we watched Gally give the new guy a pretty hard time, pushing him out of the circle after only a few seconds - and winning against him. Minho offered me a sip of the strange brew that Fry Pan regularly made with Gally's help and which I had tried once and would never touch again, that much was certain. So I declined and instead leaned back against Newt, who put an arm around me in return.
After six more fights, which by now I was only watching with half an eye, he asked me if we didn't want to go to bed. He was right, it wasn't particularly late yet, but I didn't feel like just sitting there among the other lights watching Gally push some guys around either. So I nodded, stood up and held out a hand to help him up.
Together we walked across the glade to the huts and entered his. True, such a hut was not very big, but at least it was more privacy than lying in one of those hammocks.
I slipped out of my trousers and put on an old shirt that I had found at Newt's things some time ago and kept for sleeping, because it was quite annoying to wear the same clothes all the time, even though I washed them in the lake almost every morning.
Then I made myself as comfortable as I could on the bed I had made myself and watched as he neatly stowed his weapons in the wardrobe. There was no blanket for me to snuggle up in, but there was also no need for that, because it never got colder than 20 degrees at night. That was just a guess on my part - and I wasn't very good at that - but it never got cold, that much was certain. How could it get cold when the sun blazed down from the sky all day and heated everything up?
When Newt lay down with me, he turned on his right side so that he was looking in my direction and just looked at me. I did the same and once more lost myself in his brown eyes before he came a little closer and kissed me.
Again the butterflies erupted inside me and I couldn't help but admit that nothing had changed since I'd arrived here - he still completely messed me up. And again, images from my old life - as I called it - flashed through my mind as his lips became a little more urgent.
But this time I didn't break the kiss and turned away ashamed, I had learned to deal with it and had accepted that the feelings he triggered in me were perfectly normal and I didn't have to be ashamed of them.
Probably Gally had been right in what he had said to me this afternoon. After all, I knew what had already been between us before we were sent here. So why shouldn't it be like that again?
And it seemed that I had really always been the one to make it more difficult. Because this time, for the first time, when I didn't let my stupid thoughts mess me up, we didn't disengage from each other, but kept going. I blanked out all the rest of the thoughts that could somehow stop me and concentrated only on the here and now.
And it happened, without hurting at all. It was beautiful and I could suddenly remember again, down to the smallest detail, what it had been like back then on that roof, which ensured that I was absolutely no longer uncomfortable or anything like that.
It was fine the way it was and when we both found ourselves out of breath next to each other and Newt looked at me with sparkling eyes, we both had to grin before he pulled me close to him again and kissed me.
"I love you," I groaned out between kisses.
"And I love you," he whispered.