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

28. Ben

"I'm curious to see what kind of guy comes up later," Gally said as we sat down to breakfast together with Minho and two of his builders. Newt had already gone to the fields, where he now shared command with Zart - that was the name of the newcomer who had come up after Minho and me - who had been appointed Keeper of the track-hoes by us a few weeks after he had come up with the box. Just as we had expected, he had done terribly as a builder and it had been quickly realised that he was perfectly suited to being a gardener, better than any of the others we had. So it had only been a matter of time before Newt had suggested him as a keeper.
One of the two builders, Rob, laughed inanely at everything Gally said. He was chuckling to himself again now, earning a blank look from Minho that he didn't even notice. All those Gally was allowed to call his subordinates were not exactly the brightest, but Rob was not to be outdone. The other one still sitting with us, Adam, wasn't much more blessed with intelligence either, though.
"Maybe one more for us, Gally," he mumbled with his mouth full.
Gally paid no attention to him. He enjoyed having them do all the talking for him, but sometimes I got the feeling he was quite annoyed with them, too.
"Well hopefully not, we need someone with a brain again." Minho said it like a joke, but I knew he was serious.
Sad but true.
"My money's on a runner. But one that's really good. The couple you have there are no good." Gally pointed towards the open gate, in front of which three boys were stretching. "Must be like a holiday if you stay here and they go out there alone."
I looked at him reprovingly but knew not to object. He was right, the three runners we had by now - Alfred, Jackson and Alex - when we all went into the maze together were more of a brake than a help, even though of course we no longer had any time pressure. For we still, even a year after our realisation in the runners' hut, had not found a clue to an exit.
I winced as the siren sounded, announcing a new freshet, even though I had heard it countless times before. As we made our way to the box, I saw the runners hesitate outside the gate, wanting to stay there out of curiosity.
"Don't even think about it, get out there!" I shouted and the three immediately turned and ran.
Arriving at the box, Gally and Minho opened the bars before the former jumped into the box and after a short while came back up with a blond, muscular boy. The latter looked around in confusion and was immediately met by Alby, who would show him the glade, as he had done to everyone so far.
We scattered again, by now there were more than twice as many of us as there had been at the beginning and only Justin had passed on in the time I was now here. One day, a few months ago, he had managed to hack himself so deeply in the leg that he had died only a few days later from blood poisoning that Clint and his new colleague Jeff had been unable to do anything about.
The day we had buried him next to Stan was by far one of the saddest I had experienced at the glade. No one had worked that day and we had spent the hours sitting in silence mourning him. Justin had been a nice guy with whom I had always got on well during our one or two stays together in the sani hut. I had been all the sadder when Clint had no longer been able to help him.
"So if you ask me, the new guy could really be a runner. His stature looked promising."
Minho looked thoughtfully at the ground in front of him, in which he was drawing patterns with a stick. The two of us sat by the lake and had been chasing our thoughts until just then.
"Then let's see if Alby is through with him and ask him to show us how fast he is," I suggested.
So we made our way through the glade in search of the newbie, which we found fairly quickly at Fry Pan.
We stopped in front of him and I held out my right hand. "Hi, I'm Anna and this is Minho. We are -"
"- the keepers of the runners, Alby already told me," he interrupted me.
"That's right. We've seen you and think you look like you could make quite a good runner. Would you like to give it a try? A little race against us?" Minho asked.
Without hesitation he agreed. So we looked for a spot near the wall where no one would get in our way and we could have a race. We had done that with each of our runners so far and always won, which made Minho seem quite confident, while I had the feeling with the new one that he could be quite fast.
We told him where we would run to and Minho and he started. I gave the start signal and they sprinted off, Minho having a head start from the beginning, but the other one kept shrinking it until they were even. I stood frozen and watched him overtaking Minho just before the finish line - and winning against him.
When they jogged back to me, they shook hands, but Minho was obviously quite surprised that the new guy was so fast. So was I, I was almost a little scared to compete against him now. I had always been the fastest.
But without saying anything, I stood next to him and looked around briefly before Minho gave the signal. Every pair of eyes at the glade was on us.
Oh man, now everyone will see it if I lose.
I could make out Newt by the fields, leaning on a rake, and Gally, who was standing on the roof of the meeting hut because he was mending something there, his hand over his eyes to see better against the sun.
I averted my eyes again and let all my concentration flow into my legs so that I felt every muscle in them. With my eyes closed, I waited for Minho's signal and only opened them again when it sounded.
And then there was only one thing left for me to do: running. My legs carried me across the grass and I felt what I always felt when I ran so fast. It felt like my legs didn't belong to my body and that they could carry me anywhere.
At first I could feel the new guy next to me and for a moment I even felt like he could overtake me, but then, ten metres from the finish line, I once again let all the energy I had left flow into my legs and got even faster.
When I reached the finish, which was marked by a row of stones, I stopped and whirled around. Sure enough, the newbie was a few metres behind me and only now reached the line.
Claps and whistles sounded from everywhere and I looked around and realised that - including Nick and Alby - everyone was standing there cheering me on. A big grin spread across my face and the feeling of family I had first felt in the meeting room after Stan's death rose up in me again.
I saw Gally jump off the roof and come clapping towards me and also saw Newt now running - not limping - in my direction.
They were still clapping when they reached me and Gally took me on his shoulders. They were almost acting like I'd won a marathon.
"Guys," I laughed as Gally carried me to the other gladers. "I only won one race. Give me a break."
"Only won one race? Do you have any idea how fast you were? I guarantee you've never been that fast." Gally dropped me off by the kitchen.
"You guys are crazy." I was still laughing.
"Gentlemen, here you see by far the fastest runner at this glade. Autographs later!"
I boxed him in the side. "You're crazy, Gally."
Gradually the cluster of people dispersed and everyone went back to their work, smiles on their lips at Gally's jokes. Minho, the new boy and I alone stayed behind.
And that settled it - the boy who would remember in a few days that his name was Ben was a runner. And soon Minho's best friend.
23 months.