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~~~
The next morning Mariah was awakened by Newt as Minho was long gone as he was a runner.
Mariah groaned smushing her face into her pillow making Newt chuckle "Come on love, Clint told me that you get to help me out today again."
Mariah turned towards him raising an eyebrow "Why in the hell are they letting me off so much recently?"
Newt shrugged "I don't know but I'm liking the amount of time I'm getting to spend with you." Newt smirked towards her as she got out of bed walking over towards her dresser grabbing a pair of pants not noticing Newt staring as she walked and crouched down to open one of her dressers draws. "I see the creators sent you some new underwear..."
Mariah turned towards him in shock as her face flushed red "You little pervert..."
Newt smirked putting his hands up in a surrender motion "Sorry guys have needs..."
She rolled her eyes looking away so he wouldn't see the smile on her face "Yeah, yeah..."
Newt snickered sitting down turning away now so she could change privately even though much like Minho, he's already saw her in her underwear plenty of times so it didn't make much of a difference.
~~~
Soon enough Mariah got dressed and had breakfast like usual with Newt, Alby, and Frypan. Thomas was sitting over by Chuck a few tables away. But after breakfast, Mariah checked in with Clint and Jeff to see if they needed her which they said she was free to go once more and if they did need her they'd call for her.
After that, she and Newt headed over towards the Gardens where Thomas was working his first job.
"Has anyone tried climbing to the top?" Thomas asked the two
Mariah nodded "Tried it. Let me tell you I almost died..."
"That's cause you let go of the ivy." Newt deadpanned
"It slipped out of my hand! I didn't let go of it!" Mariah defended herself
"You let go off it cause Minho dared you, and you were still a good 20 feet in the air, you're lucky I caught you." Newt shot back making Mariah pout
"Yeah, well, what about the Box?" Thomas asked
Mariah tensed biting her lip gulping
"You know, next time it comes up, you just jump..."
"No, we tried that." Newt cut him off "The Box won't go back down with someone in it."
"Okay, well, what if we-"
"No, we tried it, all right?" Newt cut him off "Twice, all right?"
Mariah nodded tying the ivy around the wood "Yeah, trust me when I say anything that you think of, we've already tried."
Newt nodded leaning against the wood "The only way out of here is through the maze. Now, look, you want to be helpful?" Mariah passed him the basket already knowing what he was about to ask him "Here, go dig us up some more fertilizer."
Mariah gave him a smile watching as he clumsily caught it walking off almost tripping over one of the wooden sticks holding up the gardens making Mariah snicker "I saw that Thomas!"
He just raised his hand flicking her off making her laugh. After a while of him being gone Mariah realized something as she turned towards Newt "Uh, Newt?"
"Hm?" Newt turned towards her tilting his head "Yeah?"
"We never told him where the fertilizer was did we?" Mariah deadpanned
Newt paused before snorting "Oh, you're right... Uh, you think you can go find him and help him find it?"
Mariah nodded standing up from her squatting position "Yeah I was hoping you'd say that, I needed to stretch my legs a bit."
Newt shook his head as she walked away towards the Deadheads before she heard a yell making her start running realizing it was Thomas.
Once she spotted him her eyes widen when she spots Ben chasing after him and her instincts kicked in as she saw Ben tackle Thomas to the ground. She ran towards the two grabbing the back of Ben's shirt tearing him off of Thomas before she threw him to the ground away from Thomas as he kept yelling threats towards Thomas.
Ben growled towards Mariah as he quickly got to his feet throwing a punch towards the girl which she grabbed focusing her body weight on her fist as she moved her body quickly so her legs wrapped around his neck making the two fall to the ground with Mariah's legs wrapped around his neck pinning him to the ground.
He thrashed around trying to break out of the girl's iron grip but it was no use as no one not even Gally could break her grip. "Get off of me!"
"Calm the shuck down Ben!" Mariah screamed trying to calm the male down
"No! He needs to die!" Ben yelled back
The boys arrive soon and gathered around Mariah just in case she needed back up at any point, though it was more so they felt better about themselves since Mariah was forced to handle something like this all on her own even though she didn't have a single scratch on her.
"Calm down, Ben."
"Yo, what the hell happened?" Frypan asked Mariah as he arrived on the scene
"I don't know! All I saw was Ben tackle Thomas to the ground with full intentions of killing him and instincts killed in!" Mariah yelled back "Ask him!"
"He just attacked me!" Thomas exclaimed back
Mariah glanced towards him frowning before looking towards Ben, she had a bad feeling about this.
Alby arrived on the scene and Ben looked towards him shaking his head to the best of his ability. Mariah's grip was strong but she made sure he could still breathe just not move in any way. "No. No. No."
Mariah glanced towards Alby nodding her head towards his shirt and he nodded back commanding "All right, lift his shirt."
"Please. I didn't mean it!"
"Lift his shirt."
Ben struggled harder against Mariah's grip making her growl tightening her grip slightly she wasn't in the mood for this.
"No! No. No, no, please. Please."
Gally squatted next to them and lifted his shirt revealing that just like Mariah was thinking, he's been stung. Mariah gulped looking at the familiar blue veins popping out of his flesh along with the marking on his stomach.
"He's been stung," Gally said shakily "In the middle of the day?"
