A Way Back - The Maze Runner (♡Newt)

Chapter 44

Cally's pov

They came in waves, the memories. They came in waves of nausea and dizziness, followed by passing out. Unless I was asleep, like this time. I was just sleeping, a dreamless sleep like many nights before, until the images started playing before my eyes.
     I was in a room, together with a group of people. Ezra was sitting beside me, as I looked through the room, I also recognized Newt. He was with the girl I had seen during the Changing, Lizzy? Yes, that's what I had called her. I also saw more faces I recognized from the Glade, like Alby, Minho, and Gideon.
     The room was filled with hushed voices from friends whispering to each other. There was a tension hanging in the air, and I was getting nervous, "why didn't they tell us what to do yet?" I asked my brother in a hushed voice.
     "I don't know, maybe there's something wrong." Ezra was trying to sound like he didn't care, but I could hear the nerves in his voice too.
     Finally, one of the doors opened, and a man came walking in, followed by a group of guards. He was holding a clipboard and seemed to read something before turning to us. "OK, kids," he said. Everybody in the group fell silent when he started talking. "Before we get started for today, I'm going to call fifteen names. When you hear your name, you come forward and leave this room with one of the guards."
     The people in the room started to whisper to each other again. I looked at Ezra, who, just like me, didn't like the sound of that at all. The man silenced the group again and started to list names, I was focused on every name the man said, hoping that it wouldn't be me or Ezra's names.
     "Indy Hope, Gary Smith, Jennifer Foster," When I heard the name of my former best friend, my eyes grew wider. I stared at the familiar girl with long blonde hair, blue eyes, and freackles spread all over her face as she walked forward. I could see she was terrified as she left the room with one of the guards.
     "Thera and Hilly Adler, Marcus Digby, Zach Hilbert, Ashley Dawn,"
     Okay, so far, so good, eight names listed, seven to go. Our names aren't called out up until now. The chances of us being called out are getting smaller with the second.
     "Karrie Turner, Ezra and Callidora Noble-" my heart skipped a beat as I heard our names being said by the man in front of everybody. I froze for a second, I didn't want to go.
     "Ezra and Callidora Noble, come on, kids, we don't have all day." The man said when we didn't immediately come forward, he sounded really annoyed.
     Ezra gave me a little push, making me go. I walked to the man, annoyingly aware of all the people staring at me. We walked out of the crowd of people, but someone took my hand. I looked behind me to see Newt. Before I could say anything, he pressed me against him in a desperate hug. "Come back to me," he whispered in my ear.
     I laughed shortly, "I found my way back to you before." I felt panic inside of me as one of the guards roughly grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the warm embrace, walking me out of the place. I looked behind me to see Ezra being taken by another guard.
     The sound of a closing door echoed through my ears as I shot up. My eyes wide open, I stared at one of the walls of my room in the Homestead. I had woken up again. I was covered in sweat, and I felt my heart pounding fast as the panic I felt started to fade away. I looked down at Bark, who was looking up at me. Apparently, I had woke her too.
     Why did that scare me so much? I thought as I leaned back at the wall behind my bed.
     Most of the time, those waves were short, I wouldn't see or hear anything from any kind of importance. The images wouldn't have a real impact on me, except for the passing out. Sometimes, I would just see something small, like a face or a candle burning in a dark room. But it were waves like this that I hated the most. My body would react as if I was getting sick, and after every single one of them, I ended up more confused and with more questions.
     I was wide awake now, but it was still dark outside, and I was sure all the other Gladers were still asleep. So I decided to go for a walk to calm myself down.
     As I left the Homestead, I walked towards the Deadheads, like I always do when I want to take a walk, when I heard the soft sounds of somebody crying. I looked around but couldn't immediately make out where it came from.
     As I followed the crying sound, I found Chuck lying in his sleeping bag, away from the others, face turned to one of the walls. He hadn't noticed me yet, so I carefully walked closer and knelt down behind him. I lay a hand on his shoulder, "Chuck?"
     The boy made a shrieking noise as he shot up from his lying position. When he saw it was me, he relaxed a little, "You scared me, Cally." He said, sounding a little relieved.
     "Were you crying, Chucky?" I asked, sympathy sounding through my voice.
     "No," Chuck said, a little too quick.
     I smiled at him, "it's okay to cry, you know. You've only been here for a week and a half, a lot of Gladers do that when they first come here."
     Chuck didn't really react, but I could see him wipe his hand over his face. It was too dark to make out if he was wiping away tears or just some hair, but I did hear a sniffle. "Do you want to talk about it?" I asked him while going through his curly hair with my hand.
     He didn't react at first, but then he shook his head. The smile I had on my face didn't disappear though, "Okay, that's fine. Can I do anything to help?"
     He didn't react. He just looked down at his hands for a moment, so I decided to offer something else. "Do you want me to stay with you until you fall asleep?"
     Now Chuck nodded. I moved myself, so I was sitting against the wall while Chuck lay down again. "Goodnight, Chuckster," I said as I petted his curly head again.
     "G'night, Cally," Chuck said, his voice sounding a bit hazy and sleepy.
     It had been a week and a half since Chuck had shown up in the box. The guy didn't have it that good. Most of the Gladers found him annoying and just ignored him a lot. I didn't do that, I didn't want him to feel alone in this big, scary place. Especially since he still is so young.
     Chuck had tried all the jobs there were in the Glade, but none of the jobs really stuck. I tried my hardest to teach him some Med-jack skills, but he just couldn't do it. He couldn't cook, wasn't very good with his hands, neither with plants or big tools, he was way too clingy and becoming a Runner never really was an option for him. So now he was a Slopper. I felt sorry for the Shank, cleaning everything the other Gladers didn't want to clean.... not really the nicest job you could have... But I couldn't really do much about it.
     In the last couple of days, Chuck had found himself a hobby. He had started pranking the other Gladers. Mostly scaring them at the toilet. I thought it was quite funny, mostly because he didn't prank me so I could just enjoy the show from a distance. But the others found it really annoying, especially Minho, and Gally hated it a lot.
     I listened to Chuck's breathing as I lost myself in my thoughts again. Since the Shank got here, I had started to worry more and more about what was about to happen. I knew Chuck was the last Greenbean to show up before Thomas came, and then Teresa and then the apocalypse would start. Even though I couldn't remember entirely what the apocalypse would be in this case, the only thing I remembered was that the walls wouldn't close at night and Grievers would attack. What, for me, was enough of a reason to worry.
     I wanted to tell the others, but something told me I shouldn't. The last time I thought it would've been a bad idea to tell Alby what I knew, it turned out to be not that big of a deal. But right now, I didn't even know if it really was going to go that way.
     I had started doubting myself, more specifically, my brain's memory system. In the past weeks, I had seen so much klunk I never had seen before that I didn't know what was real and what was fake anymore. Like what I had seen this night, I saw Jenny. It was the first time I had seen her in one of those waves, and it was driving me crazy. Was it really her? Was all of that real? Or was my mind playing tricks on me, and was I slowly going crazy?
     I didn't want to give Alby a falls alarm, I didn't want him to start worrying like I was if I'm not even sure if what I was worrying about was real or not. I know I had promised him to tell if I remembered something, but I just didn't know anymore if it was a real memory or not. If any of it was real.
     I looked at Bark, who was running around, chasing a Beetle blade. If I hadn't known that the Beetle blade was way faster than her, I wouldn't have let her do it. But those bugging things are way too fast for her.
     Out of nowhere, I felt a wave of exhaustion come over me again. Apparently, the adrenaline of the weird memory thing was gone and was replaced by the desire to sleep. I looked at Chuck, whose breathing had become calm and regular. He had fallen back to sleep, and it didn't take long for me to follow.

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A/n - Heyhey!!
OMG 508 reads!! That's just amazing! Thank you so much for reading this story! Love y'all!

~Purple Dragon
10/11/18

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Edited: 25/12/20