The Misfire: Book 3 (Newt || Safe and Sound)

8. Moody Maya

Two days later, Mrs. Tram told me to bring Gus some berry jam and toast as a past time snack since he had been working at the dairy nonstop.

The dairy was a simple thatched hut at the left side several meters away from the orchard. Beside the dairy was the farmhouse, filled with klunk, hay, chicken, goats and hogs. The cows were kept on a separate barn on the grassier area of the island. This area of the island was no doubt the busiest place.

I knocked at the door, although it was barely a door, just a bit of iron knocked up on hinges.

"Excuse me, Gus?" My voice echoed around the diary. But there was no one here. The room had two metal sinks and a pipe which had to be kept clean at all times due to the possibility of bacteria ruining the milk.

"Aye?" Gus emerged from behind the wooden shelves filled with containers covered in cloths.

"Mrs. Tram sent this." I handed him the goodies.

"Thank the heavens! I'm starving." He grinned and placed them on a counter beside. "Hey wanna see something cool?"

I just shrugged my shoulders. Knowing Gus for a while, I knew that the only thing he considers cool is farming. When we decided to leave the warehouse to head to the Safe Haven, he made sure all of his equipments and tools were brought along with him.

Gus disappeared into the corner and returned with a huge cloth-covered circle, same with those on the shelves. He began to unwrap it carefully. Inside was a weird, soft-looking curdle. I looked at Gus and raised an eyebrow.

"Why you makin' that face? That's freaking cheese, young lady."

"Doesn't look like one."

"Because it's still not ready yet," He scoffed, "You don't know your cheese? Psshhh! Kids these days..."

"That smells and looks disgusting."

"Hey (Y/N)!" He whispered angrily, "Don't ever talk to cheese like that or you'll hurt his feelings and he'll go bad." I bit my lip to hold myself from laughing.

"I've been experimenting by the way," He explained, "I bet you haven't tasted something like this."

"Cause I don't....care?" I replied as I stared in disgust at the cheese.

"You are the most unenthusiastic audience ever."

"Well, I'm sorry. It's just, this is my first time to see this-" I pointed to the curdle-"Thing..."

"Can't you just give it a chance?"

"Alright, alright," I replied in a monotone, "I wanna taste."

"Well, today is your lucky day!" He said excitedly and placed the circle beside the jam. He took one of the containers from the shelf and removed the cloth. This one looked more like cheese than the previous one.

"Try it." He said and handed me a small wooden spatula.

I hesitantly took the spatula and scraped a sliver off the cheese and popped it into my mouth. It was one of the most unusual things I had ever tasted. The smell was horrible but not the taste. It was creamy but also had a depth of flavor to it.

"Is it good?" He asked eagerly, "Please tell me it is."

"Give me some more." A grin crossed Gus' face. I scooped more of it into my gaping mouth until only half of the cheese was left.

"You like it?"

I nodded my head and licked the smear on my lips.

"Well don't tell anyone else, ok? I don't want idiots storming in here and stealing all of my darn creations, especially Edwin and Finn--those sneaky trash goblins."

"I'll tell them only when I've made enough," He added. I smiled and nodded my head before leaving the dairy.

I walked past between the corn and sugarcane plantation and watched as the munies were busy working. I saw Aris and Sonya playfully throwing husks at each other and noticed that Sonya's belly appeared to be larger than last month. Obviously, she was shucking pregnant like the other immunes.

"Hey Maya!" Sonya and Aris called and waved their hands. I smiled and returned the favor.

At the end of the plantation was the newly built wooden brewery Gus requested to be installed so he could continue with his whiskey and rum making. And boy, was I happy about it.

The afternoon atmosphere was not in any way interesting, but atleast the wind blew fresh and thin clouds lined across the skies.

I passed by Brenda and Thomas arguing under a coconut tree, making me hope that one of it's fruit will drop on either of their heads. They noticed my presence and Brenda took this as an opportunity to storm off, heading somewhere Thomas wasn't.

"Hey there." Thomas greeted unenthusiastically.

"Hey." I crossed my arms and stared at his face, waiting for him to cut the slack and just tell what happened.

"She got mad," He confessed, "She thinks I always ignore her but I don't. She's too hard to understand."

"I think you're the one who's hard to understand."

Thomas looked at me sadly before stooping down. I actually thought out of my friends and I, Thomas would be the quickest one to recover from everything we went through. Afterall, he was the one who spent the shortest time in the glade. He didn't bond that much with plenty of the gladers. But turns out, he was just as traumatized as us. Maybe even more than I was. He was still was healing from all the losses. And I thought I was the only one who still wasn't able to cope up and still felt empty inside.

"Maya, how often do you still think about them?"

"Always."

He sighed. "Time heals. But how long is it gonna take for us to completely move on?"

"M-m-move on? You barely knew them."

"Why would you say that?"

"You were only in the maze for a few days, Thomas. I was there for months, while Newt and the others were there for years. Stop acting like you cared for our friends who died because you only knew them through the screens."

I was surprised that I actually said several sentences without messing it up. I deserved a nice pat on the shoulder for this achievement. Also, I was completely terrified how moody I was today. I didn't mean to snap out on Thomas but I just couldn't help it.

"That's why I went in," He reasoned, "I couldn't just stand and watch them die."

"You only cared for Chuck and Teresa."

"Oh come on," He scoffed, "Since when did you know exactly what I was going through?"

"Stop thinking you were our savior. More than...more than half of the gladers died when you arrived. You made too much of a difference."

"Oh yeah, like you?" He crossed his arms. "Like you denying and pushing Newt away? You were so desperate to go in because of him but what happened once you were there, huh?

"Atleast he didn't die." I spat.

"Wait, why are you being so rude all of a sudden?"

"M-m-maybe because your cure didn't work. And I still have the, the stupid flare, making me all crazy again."

"Or maybe you need to shut the hell up!"

"I did. And, and you know what happened? You, you wanna know what happened, huh?" I furiously yanked his shoulders repeatedly. "Chuck died!"

I covered my mouth. But I already went too far. Thomas' eyes showed pure frustration and I was only making it worse. I was expecting him to throw a punch on my face but he didn't budge.

"S-s-sorry Tommy," I muttered, attempting to reach for him but he stepped back, "S-something weird's going on with me. I'm sorry."

"It's ok. Atleast I have someone to share the guilt with."