Betrayed | the maze runner, Newt

chapter 19

She wasn't okay, but it was okay.

From the moment she saw them for the first time in that room, she'd wanted the best for them. And if this way was the best they could get, then it had to be this way.

But she carefully hoped that they wouldn't forget about her.

Zara fiddled with her fork and pricked in the meal on her plate. It was the evening after she'd arrived at home and she couldn't feel any hunger, though she hadn't eaten since breakfast. And that only consisted of a low-fat smoothie. She sighed.

It was awkwardly silent. Her father sat in front of her, about to finish his meal. Zara's d only eaten a single bean. She missed the soup she ate by the Right Arm. That stuff was amazing. Not to be rude to the cook here, he was nice, and his food was good, but just not now. Wrong time.

she wore a hoodie and constantly kept unrolling the sleeves to cover her wrists and a part of her hand. Weird, you'd think. She lives in a desert. Why should you wear a hoodie with the sleeves over your hands? Well, Newt's bracelet was still around her wrists. She refused to take it off, so now she had to hide it from her father. But it worked, kind of.

''Are you cold or something?'' Janson spoke up, scanning her.

''Yeah, quite.''

He narrowed his eyes. ''Are you ill? You look a bit pale.''

Zara looked up from her food. Was she ill? No, she wasn't. ''A little. Just a headache I guess.''

Janson swallowed a bite and pointed at the door with his fork. ''You can go to your bed. I'll have someone bring you a painkiller.''

Zara, surprised by his sudden niceness, stood up. ''Thanks.'' Without making further eye contact, she left the kitchen and headed for her room. In fact, she did feel a bit ill. She'd been having a headache the entire day and it wouldn't reduce. She figured it must have been from all the bombs during that fight yesterday. And sleep sounded very nice to her. She changed into sweats and a black camisole, then crawled into her bed.

Staring at the ceiling, thoughts rushed through her head as usual. That day had been boring. Her dad didn't want her to wander through the building anymore, which Zara didn't care about because neither did she want to. It was Wednesday, apparently. She'd had online school that morning, so she slept for a rough four hours maybe and then had to wake up again. No wonder why she was so tired. She'd took an afternoon nap of three hours, then went to her bathroom, took a shower and went back to her room. Her body was exhausted. So was her mind. She didn't know what to do.

And yes of course, it was nice to not have to fight and escape Cranks and everything. But this wasn't the life she wanted. She wanted to be outside with friends, doing stuff she liked. She knew it wasn't possible. Their world was whacked. The Flare had destroyed everything. There just wasn't much of a life to her. She felt lost.

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And so, three months passed

No sign of what her father called his 'subjects'. It was just the question if he was even making any effort to find them. Apparently, they'd caught some teenagers from the Right Arm back then. But her father said they weren't in that building. They were in another building. But if Zara asked about the other building, not a single word left his mouth. So, she'd given that up. Not because she couldn't take it but because it wouldn't bring here anywhere. If her father wouldn't tell her something, he wouldn't tell her something. Periodt.