maze to her heart ~ newt¹✓

ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕋𝕖𝕟 | officially a runner

OFFICIALLY A RUNNER

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Newt wanted to follow the redhead, but his brain was telling him not to. Rae was mad at him for reasons he didn't know. It wasn't like he asked her to marry her. As Rae left the med bay, she found Minho talking to Frypan. When she approached them, the two boys stopped talking and cleared their throats. Rae knew they were planning something, so she pulled the runner aside to talk outside the kitchen.

Minho made sure to stay calm. If Rae knew what he was doing, it'd be the end for him. To his surprise, Rae whispered, "I know what you're doing."

Minho took a step back, shaking his head to say that he wasn't planning anything. The girl scoffed at her best friend. Knowing Minho for almost 3 years meant knowing his tell. And he had an obvious tell.

The redhead continued. "You'll be disobeying the rules we made if you go into the maze with Thomas again. What is everyone else going to think?"

It has been a long time since Rae made Minho nervous. The last time she did, it was when he was the newest Greenie and she scolded him for not doing his job. Before the boy could respond, the leader put a hand on his shoulder. "Look, I'll let you do this. I would come with you, but Newt's been kind of on my back for what I did last time. You can't tell anyone about it. Take Fry and three others. Be back before it gets too dark."

Minho nodded and ran off to gather his group. Rae was just as curious as Thomas was. It was the first time someone killed a Griever. There had to be something inside that would help them get out of there, right?

~~~

Her and the rest of the keepers had a meeting in the Homestead that Thomas wanted after they came back from the maze. Minho handed Rae a silver cylinder, one she's never seen before. She turned it around in her hands, brushing the dried goop with her finger to reveal 4 letters: WCKD. Those were the same letters they got in their supplies.

"Whoever put us here obviously made the Grievers. This is the first real clue, the first anything, you've found in over 3 years. Right, Minho?" asked Thomas, which Minho nodded as a reply. "Rae, we gotta go back out there. Who knows where this might lead us."

Rae glanced at Gally, who raised his eyebrows. It was clear to Rae and everyone else in the room that Gally was furious with the Greenie. Rae had no room to judge; Thomas did sometimes annoy Rae. "You see what he's trying to do, right? First, he breaks our rules... and then he tries to convince us to abandon them totally. The rules are the only thing that have ever held us together, rules you made. Why now are we questioning that?"

The redhead looked at Thomas and saw something in his eyes. Something she had never seen in anyone from the Glade: determination. "Yeah, well, it was my decision. I let them go in the maze, but it was a risk they were willing to take," Rae said, handing the cylinder back to Minho. 

"Are you serious?" protested Gally. "This shank keeps running into the maze and he's not even a runner!"

"You're right. Thomas broke the rules. One night in the pit, no food." Thomas gave a puzzled and shocked look to Rae. Why would she allow him to go into the maze and then punish him for her decision? At that point, Thomas was irritated at the redhead and her hypocrisy. 

"Come on, Rae! One night in the pit? Do you think that's gonna stop him from going into the maze?"

"No. And we can't just have non-runners running into the maze whenever they feel like it. So let's just make this official. Newt, you agree?" she asked, looking at the blonde for approval. She hadn't said anything to him up until that point, but he was second-in-command and she needed his opinion on matters. Newt was quick to respond with a nod.

Looking at the Greenie, Rae smiled. "Then it's settled. Starting from tomorrow, you're a runner, Thomas." 

Thomas didn't know how to feel or process the words that came out of Rae's mouth. A runner. That was his main goal since he got to the Glade. Now hopefully they'll be able to find a way out of this wretched place. However, not everyone was happy about the decision. Gally stormed to the door with Fry calling his name, but Gally shook his hand away before leaving the Homestead.

"Thanks, Ra--" Thomas started.

"You were meant to be a runner. Don't thank me. I just hope you won't do that dumb shit again. Okay, let's take him to the map room."

Minho led the way into the woods. Thomas stayed quiet even though he didn't know where he was going. He didn't want to annoy Rae by asking too many questions because he didn't want to ruin his chances of losing his spot as a runner in the first few hours. Rae was intimidating when she wanted to be and he didn't want to be on her bad side.

Finally, the four of them reached a wooden shack that had a cone-shaped roof, also made out of sticks. It looked like it would collapse at any second, but Thomas trusted that the building would hold. Minho grabbed the tarp on top and pulled it to the side to reveal the maze made out of small wooden twigs. The maze was much more vast and complex than Thomas thought, even though it was shown in a miniature form.

"It's the maze. All of it," said Minho before Thomas could even ask the question.

"What do you mean 'all of it'? I thought you were still mapping it."

"There's nothing left to map. I've run every inch of it myself. Every cycle. Every pattern. If there was a way out, we would have found it by now."

"Why haven't you told anyone this?"

Rae looked up from staring at her feet. "It was my call. People needed to believe we have a chance of getting out. But maybe now... we have a real chance."

"Take a look at this." Minho pointed to the different sections that were shown in the model. "We found these numbers printed on the walls. Sections 1 through 8. See, the way it works, is every night, when the maze changes... it opens up a new section. So today, Section 6 was open. Tomorrow, it will be 4, then 8, then 3. The pattern always stays the same."

"What's so special about 7?"

"I don't know. But last night, when you killed that Griever... Section 7 was open. I think it must be where it comes from. Tomorrow, you and I are gonna take a closer look."

Suddenly, the door swung open, and Chuck was waiting there. "Hey!" he chirped.

"What are you doing? You're not allowed in here," Rae said, covering the maze with the tarp.

"Sorry, it's just the-- It's the girl."

"Is she awake?"

"You could say that." 

~~~