Maze Runner: The Subject Experiment

9 ❀ Finding Work

"Morning, greenie."

The girl awoke with a start.

"I see you've slept in."

She looked around to see an empty council hall and Newt at the door. He stood with his arms folded, his face wearing an amused smirk.

"Come on, you'd better start your trial jobs."

She groaned. She was not a morning person and to make matters worse, she hadn't slept much at all the night before. Nevertheless, she felt an obligation to politely obey Newt. Being put in the pit for disobedience did not sound appealing in the slightest. Then a thought came into her mind: how long had Newt been standing there?

"Alby isn't forcing you to watch me sleep as well, is he?"

Newt laughed. "No, I thought I'd let you have a lie in. I woke up quite early, did some work before coming back here." His smirk grew wider. "I do trust you to not completely run off you know."

"And why's that?"

Newt took a few steps closer and said with a confident tone, "Because there's nowhere for you to go."

The girl froze. "Oh really?"

He looked her in the eye. "Yes, really. I can tell. You're not a slinthead, you wouldn't leave the safety of the Glade." His voice was so serious, she almost believed him. She almost believed that the Glade was safe and that leaving was a bad idea...almost.

"Yeah-" she murmured. He was searching her face, looking for confirmation. She avoided his stare. "-I'm not a 'slinthead'."

This seemed to satisfy Newt's suspicion. "Well, that's good to hear." She could tell his grin was one of relief. It struck her how quickly he'd begun to trust her. Guilt rose from the pit of her stomach. She knew that at the first opportunity, she was leaving this place.

...

"Okay greenie. let's see if you're cut out for the slicers," said Winston, leading the girl to the pens of goats and chickens. "Seeing as you slept in and we've already done the feeding, you can start by shovelling up the klunk in these pens." He grabbed a shovel and tossed it into her hands. The girl would have been annoyed at him, if it weren't for his good looks.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad working here...

"I'll help out too, seeing as I have to be around anyway," volunteered Newt.

To think for a minute she'd forgotten Alby's stupid rules.

The two of them worked side by side. The smell was horrendous but they managed to shovel the waste into the buckets set out.

"So where do you dump all this stuff?"

"We don't dump it, we use it," said Newt, still shovelling.

The girl stared at him in disgust. "For what?"

"We use it to fertilise the plants."

"Good job, greenie," shouted Winston from the bloodhouse. "Now get in here for the next bit."

She smiled at Winston and began to walk towards him. Then she felt a hand grab her wrist, jolting her to a stop.

"Are you sure you want to do the next bit?" Newt raised his eyebrows.

She whipped her hand away.

What do you think you're doing. I don't need you to babysit me.