Saving Newt

Chapter 13

I was going to update a little later, but I was just to excited to write what happened next ;)
Thanks for reading
Hope you enjoy this following chapter,
Annabelle_the_reader
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Brianna's eyes opened slowly, almost painfully slowly. She blinked around, still perplexed with how she ended up in her hammock. Then she realised and hated herself for it, she walked there. Wow, she was stupid in the morning. Brianna looked around and noticed Newt still asleep beside her, having slipped into her hammock when she had been whimpering in the night. Newt was so good to her, even when she was an ass back.

It had been only three days since Brianna had entered the maze, but so much had happened within those days. She had ybeen found unconscious in a box; she had woken up with surprise; she had tried to escape through the maze and failed; she had had two meetings settled because of her; she had become a runner; she had been hated by Gally and she had received quite a lot of unwanted male attention.

But now, as she was gearing up to enter the maze, Brianna realised why the runners were selected so carefully. It wasn't just the ability to run for miles, the high stamina, the large strength, the intelligence, the teamwork and the sarcrifice, it was the ability to not give up, no matter what the maze threw at them. Perhaps that was why she struggled the most with the maze. Because she couldn't run like that for so long every day with nothing to play with at the end. No escape found in two years, and they weren't even close.

'Ready?' Minho asked her, dragging her out of her daydreams with an excitable smile plastered across his face. Despite the lack of progress for two years, Minho hadn't maddened at all and he was still one of the best shanks in the Glade.

'I guess so.' Brianna shrugged, with much less enthusiasm than the day before.

Brianna stared at the closed doors. It had been merely her second day running, but she was convinced drawing up the map after an exhausted day running imprinted it on her memory more. She felt, with the occasional help of Minho, she knew his route pretty well now. Every twist, every turn, every left, every right, every pause and every wobbly concrete slab that may dig into your heels or cause minor tripping. Brianna remembered it all.

The feeling intensified as the doors slowly creaked open, scrapping the stone against stone. Brianna smiled at the warm feeling of excitement surged through her, mixed with the hopeful feeling that today may be different from the next.

'So...' Minho dragged out the "o" for at least four steps as they hurtled through the maze, Brianna eager to identify any changes from the day before. 'You and Newt...?'

'What about us?' Brianna asked impatiently, removing her water skilfully from her bag and zipping it up, while still managing to run with he same speed as Minho.

'Are you and Newt, like, a couple now?' Minho asks awkwardly and Brianna chocked on her water, spitting it out in a revolting way. As if she hadn't noticed this, she spun around to frown at Minho.

'What?!' He raised his eyebrow at this and she internally groaned, just because they were sneaking off alone didn't mean anything... Unless a Newt had told him something... She doubted this, considering that he wasn't the type of person to treat it as an accomplishment. 'Nope.' She said eventually, popping the "p", 'We're just friends.'

'Ooh really?' Minho wriggled his eyebrows and she glowered, gently pushing him with her arm. Brianna didn't want to be the centre of attention, particularly as she was now a female runner, two things which were rare in the Glade, but being Newt's girl friend seemed absurd.

'If you keep doing that I'll personally shave your eyebrows off.' She teased and he laughed louder this time.

'I'd like to see you try.' He muttered. 'But seriously, he's told me that he thinks you like him, so would you like to be his girlfriend?'

'Newt's girlfriend? I don't know...' She swallowed anxiously. 'I haven't really thought about it.'

'Then think about it now.' Minho encouraged and she groaned.

'Your like a girl, enjoying girl gossip.' She teased, trying to deflect the conversation away from her relationship with Newt. To be honest, she wasn't sure what they were right now, but couldn't really talk to him until the evening.

'Girl talk? As if, Geenie!' He chuckled. 'I'm just curious, I guess.' He defended awkwardly scratching his arm. Brianna didn't blame him, considering this would be the first relationship ever to occur in the Glade, she would be curious if she was in his shoes.

'Sure, sure.' She winked sarcastically. 'I mean, at least being in the Glade I know that he can't exactly cheat on me... Yet.' Brianna added, knowing that there were a few discussions among the Gladers as to whether more female Greenies would come.

Minho laughed. 'I suppose that's true... But for now I think you should start getting a feel for being a runner on your own-'

'No!' She interrupted dramatically, clinging onto his arm with fear. He just shrugged her off and laughed nervously.

'Just run along this stretch to the left, it's straight most of the way, just turn right at the end and then we can see each other then.' He explained and she nodded, eager to finally have a go at runner without the Keeper. 'Ok?'

'Ok.' She confirmed and set off to the left, anxiously waving goodbye to Minho. Brianna knew he would be close by and would rescue her if a Griever fancied her for dinner, but she was still terrified. She was beginning to wonder how long it would take before she was confident enough to venture into the maze alone... It seemed like infinite time away at that moment.

Minho was correct to say that the path was straight, leading her across the maze in a way that she knew Minho would be close to her, but would boost her confidence to run alone in a few days... Or weeks... Or maybe months.

Brianna was beginning to relax, becoming less tense as the turning Minho spoke of came into view and she realised she was closer to the end than the beginning. Her legs pounded into the ground steadily, hoping to maintain a steady pace as she ran through the maze, not wanting to slow down and disappoint Minho.

Whir. Click. Click. Brianna frowned, her eyebrows knitting together. She shrugged off these noises, assuming that they were far from them and the Grievers wouldn't bother them. Besides she was tired and probably imaging things.

Whir. Click. Click. She wasn't imagining it, she couldn't be. It was a haunting sound, a constant whirring that had a metallic whir to it every few seconds.

Hastily, she spun around only to discover an empty path stretching as far as she could see. It was too loud to be coming beyond that point. Suddenly, her heart skipped a beat. If it wasn't behind her, or in front of her, it must be to the side of her. Minho...

Brianna felt a surge of electric flow through her as she hurtled down the passage, sprinting as fast as her legs could carry her. She reached the end way before Minho had and began to run speedily down his passage, ignoring the painfully loud whir, click, click as it increased in volume.

Suddenly, Minho came into view, running in the opposite direction to her, chased by a Griever, directly behind Minho, with its spikes poised for attack.

'Minho!' She screamed instinctively, just as the Griever heard this, it's body snapped in the opposite direction. Minho spun around with it and looked angry beyond belief at her outcry, hurtling towards her faster than the Griever.

'Run!' He exclaimed