From Neverland to the Glade

chapter thirteen

I started to walk around the Glade. I saw Newt walking over to Thomas. I followed over. "Morning Newt!" I said happily. He smiled. "Mornin' love." I felt myself blush, but I don't think he noticed. He looked at Thomas, tapping his shoulder. "Get up, ya lug." Thomas groaned. "Good morning to you, too. What time is it?" I smiled. "Seven o'clock, Tomcat." Newt gave him a mocking smile. "Figured I'd let ya sleep in after such a rough couple days." Tomas sat up in a sitting position. "Sleep in? What are you guys, a bunch of farmers?" Newt sat down next to Thomas, his legs folded nearly under him. "Uh....yeah, now that ya mention it." He was quite for a moment, looking around the Glade. "Gonna put ya with the Track-hoes today, Greenie. See if that suits your fancy more then slicin' up bloody piggies and such." Newt said. I looked at him with disgust. "Aren't you supposed to quit calling me that?" Thomas asked. "What, bloody piggies?" Thomas forced a laugh and shook his head. "No, Greenie. I'm not really the newest Newbie anymore, right? The girl in the coma is. Call her Greenie—my name's Thomas."

Newt leanded back, eyebrows raised. "Burn me—you grew some right nice-sized eggs over night, now didn't ya?" I covered my mouth to muffle my giggles. "What's a Track-hoe?" Thomas asked ignoring us. "It's what we call the guys workin' their butts off in the Garden—tilling, weeding, planting and such." Newt replied. "Basically the cool people." I grinned. Thomas nodded. "Who's the Keeper?" He asked. "Zart. Nice guy, as long as you don't sluff on the job, that is." Newt told him. "He's the big one that stood in front last night." I told Thomas.

Thomas was quite for a while. "So why'd you come wake me up?" He asked. "What, don't like seein' my face first thing on the wake-up?" Newt asked causing me to giggle again. "Not especially. So—" Thomas was cut off by the rumbling of the opening walls. We looked over and saw Minho and Aquata stretching. I looked at Aquata, standing up. "I'll be back." I muttered, getting up. I jogged over to the two. "Hey." I said catching their attention. Aquata looked at me with almost sad eyes. "Hey Shank." Minho said, patting my head. I grinned up at him. Aquata looked between us. "Hey Shy." She said softly. "Hi Aqu. Can I talk to you before you go?" I asked. She nodded. I pulled her away from Minho. "What aren't you telling me?" I asked her. She bite her lip. "I'll tell you soon. I promise." She leaned down a bit and kissed the top of my head. I smiled, hugging the older girl. She giggled, hugging me back. "Love ya Shy." She cooed. "I love you too Aqu." I muttered. "Don't I get any love?" I heard someone ask behind me. I turned around to see Gally. I pushed Aquata to him. "You get love from her not me." I said wrinkling my nose. "I'm wounded." He said no emotion in his voice at all. Aquata laughed at our 'sibling' rivalry. She walked up to his, kissing him. I covered my eyes, childishly, "Ew." I groaned. Aquat turned to me. "Don't you have a Track-hoe to go kiss?" She teased. Gally raised his eyebrows. "Who?" He asked. I blushed. "No one!" I said quickly. Aquata smirked. "You know who I'm talking about." She said cooing. Gally watched us. "You win this time Aquata." I smiled. She laughed. "Gotta go kid. Bye Gally." She said kissing him again. "Bye babe." He said against her lips. I turned, heading back to Newt and Thomas as Aquata ran into the maze. "The Runners? Why?" I heard Newt ask, when I got back. "Just wondering." Newt gave him a suspicious look. "Best of the best, those guys and gal. Have to be. Everything depends on them." He picked up a loose rock and tossed it, watching it absently as it bounced to a stop. "Why aren't you one?" Thomas asked him. Newt's gaze returned to Thomas, sharply. "Was till I hurt my leg few months back. Hasn't been the bloody same since." He reached down rubbing his right ankle, a brief look of pain flashing across his face. Thomas looked at him "How'd you do it?" He asked. "Runnin' from the buggin' Grievers, what else? Almost got me." He paused. I frowned at the story. Why didn't he tell me before? "Still gives me the chills thinkin' I might have gone through the Changing." Thomas had a confused look on his face. "What is that, anyway? What changes? Does everyone go psycho like Ben and start trying to kill people?" I frowned, hugging my arms around me. "Ben was way worse than most. But I thought you wanted to talk about the Runners." Newt said in a warning voice. "Okay I'm listening." Thomas said, looking at the blonde. "Like I said, best of the best." Newt said. I rolled my eyes. "That's all you say about it." I huffed, jokingly. "So what do you do? Test everyone to see how fast they are?" Thomas asked. Newt gave him a disgusted face and groaned. "Show me some smarts, Greenie, Tommy, whatever ya like. How fast you can bloody run is only part of it. A very small part, actually." Thomas looked interested. "What do you mean?" He asked. "When I say best of the best, I mean at everything. To survive the buggin' Maze, you gotta be smart, quick, strong. Gotta be a decision maker, know the right amount of risk to take. Can't be reckless, can't be timid, either." Newt straightened his legs, leaning back on his hands. "It's bloody awful out there, ya know? I don't miss it." Thomas looked at him. "I thought Griveres only came out at night." Newt nods. "Yeah, usually." Thomas leaned over some. "Then why is it so terrible out there?" He questioned. Newt sighed. "Pressure. Stress. Maze pattern different every day, tryin' to picture thing in your mind, tryin' to get us out of here. Worryin' about the bloody maps. Worst part, you're always scared you might not make it back. A normal maze'd be hard enough— but when it changes every night, couple of mental mistakes and you're spendin' the night with vicious beats. No room or time for dummies or brats." Thomas frowned. "Why all the interest?" I asked him. "I want to be a runner." Thomas said. Newt turned looking him in the eyes. My mouth hung open slightly. "Haven't been here a week, shank. Little early for death wishes, don't ya think?" Newt asked. "I'm serious." Thomas said as if Newt was joking. "So am I. Forget it. No one's ever become a Runner their first month except Aquata. Much less their first week. Got a lot of provin' to do before we'll recommend you to the Keeper." Newt said. When he said the part about Aquata I felt pride swell in my chest. Thomas stood up and started to fold his sleeping gear. "Newt I mean it. I can't pull weeds all dat— I'll go nuts. I don't have a clue what I did before they shipped me here in that metal box, but my gut tells me that being a Runner is what I'm supposed to do. I can do it."

Newt was still sitting, staring up at Thomas. "No one said you couldn't. But give it a rest for now." Thomas opened his mouth. "But—" He was cut off by Newt. "Listen, trust me on this, Tommy. Start stompin' around this place yappin' about how you're too good to work like a peasant, how you're all nice and ready to be a Runner— you'll make plenty of enemies. Drop it for now." Thomas looked at him. "Fine, I'll talk to Minho about it." I giggled slightly. "Good try, ya buggin' shank. The Gathering elects Runners, and if giy think I'm tough, they'd laugh in your face." Newt said. "He's right Tomcat." I said in a soft voice. "For all you guys know, I could be really good at it. It's a waste of time to make me wait." I was getting annoyed at Thomas. Newt stood up, jabbing a finger in his face. "You listen to me, Greenie. You listenin' all nice and pretty?" Thomas rolled his eyes and nodded. "Don't roll your eyes at him." I snapped. He glanced at me. "You better stop this nonsense, before others hear about it. That's not how it works around here, and our whole existence depends on things working." Newt said. He paused looking at Thomas. I frowned. Oh no this lecture. "Order." Newt continued. "Order. You say that bloody word over and over in your shuck head. Reason we're all sane around beds is cause we work our butts off and maintain order. Order's the reason we put Ben out— can't very well have loonies runnin' around tryin' to kill people, now can we? Order. Last thing we need is you screwin' that up." Newt finsihed. "Yeah." Was all Thomas replied with. Newt slapped his back. "Let's make a deal." Thomas looked at him. "What?" He asked hopeful. "You keep your mouth shut about it, and I'll put you in the list of potential trainees as soon as you show some clout. Don't keep your trap shut, and I'll bloody make sure ya never see it happen. Deal?" Thomas debated it in his head. "That's a sucky deal." He said. Newt raised his eyebrows. "Deal." Thomas said with a nod. "Come on, let's get us some grub from Frypan. And hope we don't bloody choke." I laughed and walked over with the two boys.

We sat down with Chuck for breakfast at a picnic table right outside the Kitchen. A large group of Gladers got up and ran towards the West Door, talking excitedly about something. "What's going on?" Thomas asked in casual voice. Newt shrugged as he dug into his eggs. "Just seein' off Minho, Aquata and Alby— they're going to look at the buggin' dead Griever." I looked up at that. Since when? "Hey." Chuck said a piece of bacon flying out off his mouth. I scolded him like a mother would her child. "I've got a question about that." I looked at the boy. "Yeah, Chuckie?" Newt asked, kinda sarcastically. "And what's your bloody question?" Chuck looked deep in thought. "Well, they found a dead Griever, right?" I nod. "Yeah." Newt looked at him. "Thanks for that bit if news." Chuck tapped his fork against the table for a few seconds. "Well, then who killed the stupid thing?" I froze, that's a great question. I looked at Newt, fear shining in my big brown eyes. Newt grabbed my hand.

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