Whirlwind | The Maze Runner- Newt

Meet Chuck- My Mom

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

ADELAIDE

I quickly wrap a pink scarf on his present and slip our of the homestead before anyone else sees me. The Glade was relatively silent as the most of them are still asleep. The cooks are up, about to prepare breakfast. I walk past the common sleeping area. Most of the boys are snoring, tiredness still taking their bones.

One

Two...

Thirteen...

Seventeen..

Eighteen

Nineteen.

Nineteen hammocks are empty. There are six cooks and Chuck is not here. So, fourteen are dead.

Fourteen.

Suppressing the burning feeling in my chest and guilt settling in my stomach, deeper. I quickly screw my eyes shut and walk away.

I search for the curly haired, pudgy brunette. I try not to look at destroyed crops, trees and huts. I try not to see the unnaturally destroyed fields and splotches of blood on them. I try not to see a single pair of shoe or broken spears and machetes. I try not to see Stan's body being impaled from Griever's tail.

I am broken from my train of depressing thoughts when I find Chuck sitting by an unharmed tree and munching onto an apple slowly. He surely had slept, but his rusty brown eyes has dimmed considerably. I hide his present behind another tree without him noticing my presence.

I pull my lips to a convincing smile as I jog to him. I might be depressed but this little boy doesn't have to. Chuck instantly smiles seeing me.

"Hey, Chuckie-Duckie, what'chadoin'?" I say.

"I hate this breakfast." He shows me the half eaten apple, "Fry is trying to get all the fruits out. I've had two apples and I hate apples."

I snake my arm around his shoulder and squeeze them in assurance. Today, the cooks were too tired to make anything else, so it's fruits today. I can't blame them. No one has the correct mental state, everyone knows that they are going to die if the Runners can't find a way out and it makes me feel guiltier, making it harder for me to breathe.

"So," I croak, "If I get something other than apples, then I'll give it to you."

"Then what will you have?"

"I'll sneak something later. Don't worry, Fry loves me."

I and Chuck then sit in silence, me being anxious to find the perfect moment.

"You didn't sleep at all, did you Ally?"

I shake my head, knowing very well that I might look like a corpse. I haven't ever sleep peacefully in the Glade, with nightmares plaguing my sleep and in the days there are no nightmares, insomnia acts up. Very rarely I can sleep after which I'm required to wake up earliest in the Glade so that I can bathe and do my morning routine in solitude before other Runners wake up.