The Maze In Her Heart (Newt, Minho ::The Maze Runner.) ✔

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE: Banishment Tours To Distract The Troubled.

MARIE

After Newt has officially dismissed us, I look up at him. "Follow me." he says, rosy color in his cheeks once more.

He grabs my hand. It's a wonderful feeling. At that moment, all the fog cleared from my mind, all the fear, panic, and confusion. He leads me to a patch of faded grass near the forest, the soft ground dented with varying sizes of footprints. "Watch your step, the rains flooded out the place, and I don't want any more injuries." He tells me, back hunched as he avoids low hanging branches.

We wade through the swampy forest, stepping far and searching for firm ground, until we reach a hut. I take a step closer to the hut and wrinkle my nose- the wood is rotted and moldy, water soaking every surface. The door slides open as Newt nears, revealing a large circular room, mostly empty with the exception of a few slender sticks propped against the wall. As I step into the room, the stale damp air fills my nostrils.

I walk over to a stick and place my hands on it, so that they fit in the grooves from previous owners. These sticks sure have endured some wear and tear. "What are these for?" I ask.

Newt walks over, but he attention is studying the room as his head moves around, looking around. "It's been a while since we've used these poles. Haven't even touched them since Ben's banishment. They must've taken some water damage... Let's get them into the sunlight."

I help Newt bring the tall poles out of the forest, and by the time we've gotten all the poles out, a crowd of gladers had gathered, watching us. Lamar was in the group, but the look on his face was distant.

"I've always wanted to know how this worked. I've heard about this from deep in the Maze's point of view, and I've seen the nutters running around for their lives, but I never saw how it worked." Lamar tells a group of boys, who cling to every word. Sammantha and Thomas are listening too, Thomas helping us every now and then. Soon, we're all gathered by the west doors, the sticks propped against the wall, Newt and I standing at the front of the doorway.

"Can I have a volunteer that wants to get banished?" Newt says, and hands fly up. I look around in surprise, but realize that most of the Gladers were antsy, stepping from foot to foot, wanting to have something to do while waiting for George and his sister.

"I'll do it." Minnie shouts, and Newt nods. Some gladers protest, but most are too interested in the tour to care. 

"Okay, so each keeper gets a pole. We need some volunteers for that too." Newt gruntsas he lifts the poles, steadying his bad leg against the wall.

After the volunteers are picked out, I turn my attention to Minnie, who stands in the middle. She glances around, bouncing in excitement. From the crowd, Minho is watching her with a huge goofy grin. Newt and the others all jerk the sticks forward, which poke Minnie. She shrieks playfully, stumbling backwards. "We always used to hold banishments before the doors would close. You had to get behind those doors before they closed, whether you liked it or not. One unlucky bugger got smashed between the doors once."

There are a few fake belches, then a random Glader shouts, "Liar!" 

Newt grins in the direction of the shout. "I know, just wanted to see who was paying attention!"

They rear the sticks back again but Minnie is too fast. She backs up before they touch her, and she keeps backing up into the Maze. Noticing how many Gladers were watching, she put on a show, pretending to cry and scream like a crazed person. She looks over at me and barks out, "This is how you looked Marie, when you got stung." She then started to fake cry again, scrambling from wall to wall and swatting at sticks. I blush and look around bashfully as other Gladers, including Newt, laugh rowdily. Minho is staring at Minnie with the dumbest look on his face.

"Most of our 'victims' would scream and protest, so that's why had to poke them. None have tried escaping because they were either bleeding or outnumbered," Newt says, jerking his stick forward again.

Once Minnie has been pushed behind the walls, the boys lower the poles and the crowd bursts into claps and laughter. For a second, in the midst of all the laughter and joy, I felt like we were back a few weeks ago, hanging around the Glade and joking about. But as I turned to see George and Roxanne make their way over, my face fell. 

"Ready to go?" George asks.

Newt glances over at the others, before passing about a few sharpened poles for Gladers to use as weapons. He meets my eyes, and then Minho's, before nodding.

"We're ready to go."