Things to be aware of when reading this:
1. The one shots are not directly related. Where possible, I'm posting them in chronological order with the events of the main story but this is not a full re-write, so there will be huge gaps of the main story between the one shot chapters here.
2. Viewpoint characters may change. Some are from Newt's perspective, one is planned from Minhos and there may be others, too. Chapters are likely to be third person but largely following one character as the narrator.
3. I will note at the top of the chapter where abouts in the story these one-shots fit in. You may want to read back to remind yourself, but that is entirely up to you.
4. This is not pre-written. Updates will be less regular than those for Eden Switch. Not only have I started work on a fic in another fandom, but I also will be checking back through the story to pick out the parts where alternate POVs are wanted before writing them. But as each one shot is complete in its own right, you at least won't be left hanging.
5. Chapters may range in length. It honestly depends on who's narrating and what's happening, among other things. Some chapters may be short, looking at a single instance. Others may be longer, if they follow a longer time period.
LASTLY
If there is a particular event or moment you are interested in seeing, please do comment and tell me. Tell me which bit, and who's perspective you'd like to see it from. I make no promises, but I'd rather write something you guys want to read than guess at what bits you're interested in.
It can be anything from 'The second rain day' to 'The first time Minho thought Eva was good for Newt' (an actual event, or a feeling that happens somewhere you're not sure about in the main story). So, that said...
HERE WE GO
This first chapter covers the events of Chapters 1 and 2; Eva's arrival in the Glade from Newt's perspective.
Warnings: brief mention of previous attempted suicide.
It's just crawling past lunch time when the Box alarm blares across the Glade.
Newt looks up.
All around, boys are dropping what they've been doing and starting to run across the open, grassy field that takes up half of their Oasis, to the concrete platform in the centre.
Frypan charges from the Kitchen, wooden spoon in hand and trailed by a bunch of his Cooks. Gally, already out on the field with the Builders as they chop up wood, is one of the first to reach the hard standing. From the other side of the Glade, Zart, Dan and both their teams have a longer run down from the Gardens and the Bloodhouse, but they're rushing forwards, too.
Newt runs up with the others, Jeff and Eric parting to let him through the gathering that's formed in just moments so he can stand right at the lip of the platform.
The rusted doors finally crank open.
The sun glares down into the Box; blinding light shines off of the grill.
"New Greenie!" Jack cheers. The Track-Hoes have arrived, clustering around where they can find spaces.
"Get Alby!" Dan instructs, nodding to Homestead.
Frankie hurries away without question; their esteemed leader is probably still trying to fix the hammock that Dimitri broke last night.
Frypan leans forward, "See what's for supper tonight, Lads!" He grinds the handle of his spoon into his palm like it's a mortar.
He's always keen to see if there'll be something new to work with, but after three years of the repetitive cycle, Newt knows better than most that they always sent the same things.
Nothing new.
"Whoa," Zart's voice rings out, the shock in it silencing the others in an instant. He's worked his way forwards, eyes fixed down into the Box. "Find Alby, Now," he says, serious. "It's a girl."
Well.
That blows that theory.
Frowning, Newt leans forward. Could Zart have been mistaken? But no – even in the deep shadows cast by the strong sun, there's no mistake there. Or…there is, but it's a mistake with the system; not Zart.
Definitely a girl.
Bloody hell.
She looks fragile, recoiled into the corner with long dark hair in a tangle, spilling over her shoulders like a cloak. But there's something fixed in the way she holds herself; less like fear and more like…defensiveness.
Newt doesn't have time to warn Gally – who's clearly had enough and jumps down, just like always.
She moves like lightning.
Everything happens in moments.
She hurls a burlap sack at Gally, who stumbles in shock, but she's already wheeling on a crate beside her. The side of her fist rams into the join and jerks down.
The side of the crate falls apart.
The creature inside; a fat goose with a wingspan that nearly fills the Box, charges free from the splinters and takes to the air.
Chaos.
Half the boys shout out and scatter backwards. Lee trips over a clump of grass as Gally throws off the sack, ducking to avoid the wings.
The girl leaps off the crate and into the crowd of Gladers.
Frypan orders a bunch of the boys after the escaping goose. Newt doesn't have time to focus on that; the girl is already turning for an escape, and before he thinks it through, he moves to block her.
She stares at him for a breath of a second.
He knows what its like; no memories and no name. He can sympathise with that, but as well as the fear and confusion in her turbulent grey eyes, there's something solid and focused.
She's processing her situation despite her fear.
And right now, they're the enemy, which means she's dangerous.
Just what we bloody need.
He reaches for the worn handle over his shoulder; the motion subconscious and practiced. These boys are his responsibility. He doesn't want to use it, but he will if he has to.
Only he doesn't get a chance.
The frozen second passes and she rams her arm into his wrist, the impact sending a shockwave down to his elbow. His fingers loosen on the machete and he falters in surprise.
She dives around him and runs.
…
And to think they had a slow morning before the Box arrived.
She's fast.
For a moment, a cheer goes up; boys laughing and calling out.
Boys have tried to run before. They all stumble, fall, run out of breath or just break down.
But…the jeers fall flat.
She doesn't fall and she doesn't falter. Her dark hair streams behind her and she flies over the uneven ground.
"Shuck," Dan swears. He takes off after her with Jack, Tim, Clint and Joe all racing in his wake.
But she's too quick, and they waited too long. They won't catch her.
She nears Homestead, veers suddenly to the left, jumping clean over the empty fire pit outside the Mess hall and vanishes between the huts into the woods.
Bloody great.
Newt doesn't know whether he's agitated or impressed.
…
Frypan and Stan are halfway across the field, arms clamped around the goose who is now throwing a tantrum. Gally looks a sight more annoyed than usual as he climbs from the Box. There's still boys standing around the platform with wide eyes, the muttering a hum of indiscernible noise.
Some of the Gladers have already started for the woodland to help look.
Gally brushes off his pants and starts storming across the field.
Newt quickly reels off instructions – unload, get the goose contained, help look – and hurries down to the woods himself.
…
He catches up with Joe but before long, they've crossed one of the streams and can't even see Homestead through the trees. There's no sign of the girl anywhere.
"I'll look this way," Joe says. He nods to the left.
"While she's in the wood, not much can go wrong. So long as someone's watching the Doors," Newt says.
Joe nods and moves away, digging his way through the tree roots and keeping his eyes peeled.
Newt lets out a breath. Time is rushing past as they search. There's time yet to find her…but there's also still a chance for her to try running for the Maze. With Minho, Ben, Justin and Doug all still out in it, its not looking like anyone in the Glade will be fast enough to stop her.
He turns for the right and moves away to continue his own search.
For the first time, he's bitterly grateful that the Glade is so small.
He ambles through the trees a little way, but when it becomes clear that at least half a dozen Gladers are doing the same, Newt leaves the Deadheads and jogs across the field for the Doors. He directs people to possible hiding places to search when he finds them on the way.
Billy has positioned himself at the threshold of the Maze, and spots him coming a long way off, with the way his eyes are sharp for any movement.
"Newt," he greets. "Anything?"
"No," Newt admits. "We need you to stay put a bit longer."
"Sure thing," he nods. His grip tightens on the long wooden pole he's leaning on. "I'll shout if I see anyt-"
"Is this a welcoming party?"
Billy's mouth snaps shut at the interruption, and both he and Newt spin to the shadowed tunnel into the Maze behind them.
Minho runs up with Ben on his heels. They're both puffing slightly, but look otherwise unfazed. Minho raises an eyebrow at him as they both pull up on the dry ground just inside the Glade.
"The Box come up?" Ben asks. "Greenbean here?"
"Oh, Greenie's here," Billy mutters.
Minho turns to Newt, frowning.
"It's a girl," Newt says, knowing as he says it that it sounds unbelievable. "She jumped out, caused a distraction and ran. We lost her in the woods."
"You lost her?" Ben looks like he doesn't know whether to find this terrible or hilarious.
"She's quick," Billy says. "I was there. We're all looking now."
Minho nods. He knows they need to find her before too long, and that it isn't totally a laughing matter, but his eyes flash with amusement as he signals to Ben.
"We'll drop off our stuff and help look. We'll start at the back by the Map Room and work towards Homestead."
"Thanks," Newt says.
The two Runners head off across the field again and Billy stands straight once more.
"I'll pass on the message when Justin and Doug get back," he says. "Go ahead."
Newt claps him on the shoulder and makes his own run back towards the Deadheads.
Running towards the trees behind Homestead, it doesn't take him long to catch up with Alby.
Apparently Frankie found him, explained the situation, and he's now helping to search. He walks through the trees, talking seemingly to himself in what might pass for a soothing tone.
"Hey – Alby!" Newt calls out to him.
Alby turns to face him. A little of the tension leaves his expression.
"Newt."
"No sign," Newt supplies, without being asked. "Billy's been stood by the Doors since she came up. She hasn't showed up again, so at least we know she hasn't left the Glade."
Alby absorbs this with a silent nod, looking preoccupied.
"Minho and Ben are back," Newt adds on, clapping him on the shoulder. "They've gone to Runner's Lodge and then they're going to help search."
"What about the goose?"
Newt bites back a smile. "Frypan and the guys got it. They've shut it in by the goats. He wasn't too happy that we might not get a nice dinner."
"She let it out?" Alby asks in amusement, smiling finally.
Newt fails to hold back his answering one as he shrugs. "Yeah. Jammed something in the side of the crate and broke it out." He remembers the way her fist jerked into the side of the goose's box; a quick, thoughtless motion. "Used it as a distraction."
"Does she know anything? Did anyone talk to her?" Alby asks, back to business.
It never changes; no one ever remembers anything, even their names take a few days, but Alby always asks.
False hope is better than none at all, he once said.
Newt isn't sure if he agrees.
"There wasn't really time," he says. He rubs the back of his neck absently, still feeling the impact of her arm against his wrist; more surprise than pain. He relays the events as they happened; how she dodged Gally, used the goose, knocked him aside and then just ran. "No one's seen her since."
"And you've looked everywhere?" Alby checks.
Newt bites back a sigh and a sarcastic response.
Clearly not, since they haven't found her. He knows Alby can get a little riled up because he feels responsible for everyone, but saying that won't help.
"I searched that way a bit," Newt replies instead, nodding in the direction Alby was coming from when he caught up. "Headed back across the field and got some of the others positioned. I've just come back from the Doors."
Before Alby can respond to this, Jeff runs up to them, his medic bag swinging at his side.
"Been all around the huts," he reports, shaking his head. "Nothing."
Alby doesn't look impressed. "We'll have to find her before dark. The Glade's not that big."
"It's not long until sundown," Newt says. "We just need to watch the Doors, make sure she doesn't get stuck out there. Think about it, Alby; we're probably scarier for her than being alone in this place."
It's not the first time this thought has occurred to him.
She was scared when she arrived, but despite that fear, she was clearly thinking and processing, because she knew how to stage a distraction and get away. Not just get away, but stay hidden. Which makes her a little more dangerous than the average Greenie, but the point is that she would have seen all of them were boys, and some were armed.
If he didn't know any better, he'd probably keep the hell away, too.
"We have our laws," Alby answers, like this closes the conversation. "No one harms another Glader. It's safer with us."
"But she doesn't know that," Newt replies.
She sprinted before they could even try to reassure her. She doesn't know their rules, the Glade, their society or the situation.
He can see where Alby's coming from. He spent a month alone before Nick was sent up; he's the one person who would actually know what it's like to not have people around to lean on.
And yet, Newt can't help feeling a little exasperated. Alby's never been too great at seeing the situation through the eyes of the Greenies.
He tilts his head up, fighting the urge to roll his eyes, and freezes.
There, balanced in the branches high above all of them, is the girl.
She stares right back at him. Her fingers are white as they grip the bark, tiny leaves caught in her tangled dark hair and her eyes – large, grey like storm clouds – are defiant.
"Or…"Newt says, voice cracking as he realises she's been listening to them talk about her and the Glade and their rules. "Maybe she does."
Newt can't break his eyes away from her steady expression, but he feels Alby frowning into the foliage, so he nudges him, indicating into the canopy.
"Jeff, tell the others," Alby says when he sees her, voice suddenly lowered like he's on some kind of wildlife hunt. As though she hasn't just been listening to them all tramp around like normal.
Jeff leaves without a word. Twigs crack under his feet as he hurries off.
Alby starts moving forwards, and Newt doesn't even have time to suggest that it may not be a good idea.
"We're not going to hurt y-"
She flinches. There's a flash of colour, a flat whistling noise, and a loud crack. She's thrown a whittled spike – one that the builders use for the huts – at Alby.
It goes wide, but not by much, strikes the tree behind him.
Alby stops on the spot.
Newt casts a glance at his friend, then back at the girl. She almost looks surprised at herself, and Newt can't work out if her aim is just dodgy, or if she intended it as a warning.
"Stay away."
Newt stares at her. Her voice is husky with misuse but it's the first time he's heard a girl speak at all. She sounds pretty serious.
Alby either disagrees or doesn't care.
"Can't do that," he says promptly. "Let's start with something simple, okay? I'm Alby. I'm a friend." He reaches back, gesturing to Newt. "This is my buddy, Newt. Do you remember your name? Anything about yourself?"
There's a faint note of irony in her voice, now evening out, as she says, "I remember how to throw a knife. And how to climb trees."
Newt tries very hard to hold back the smile at that, and he doesn't think he fully succeeds.
Since she's just thrown something at Alby, and has been neatly avoiding them for a while now without moving at all, its fair to say there's at least a couple of things she knows, even if they are subconscious. But it's the dry humour in her tone that Newt decides, quite spontaneously, that he likes.
"Okay," Alby says positively. "That's a start. You'll get your name back in a day or so. Everyone does. Everyone here has gone through the same as you."
There's a dubious expression on her face, but she doesn't say a word.
"We have three rules here," Alby continues, oblivious. "You do your part; there are jobs for everyone and something will fit. You never hurt another Glader – and they'll never hurt you. And you never go beyond the Wall."
There's another one of those defiant flashes in her silvery eyes, but she still stays silent.
She knows how to pick her battles, Newt thinks, as a group of boys come running up. She's smart.
Gally is at the front of the pack. Minho, Ben and Jack are with him.
"You know we've been looking everywhere for her," Gally glares up into the trees but the girl doesn't move. "I say we throw her in the Pit."
You would.
"Gally," Minho says, walking around him. "Come on, Man. Shuck off."
Apparently the girl wasn't really listening to Gally, though, because an instant later she says, "What's beyond the wall?"
Gally throws up his hands, and he'd probably storm off if he were less interested in what happens next. Its one of the most asked questions, but his tolerance has already been shot by now.
Newt feels Minho looking at him; he can feel the question in his silence, but isn't wholly sure how to answer.
Alby tries not to tell anyone up front; he thinks it's just too much to handle, but Newt can still see the girl's grey eyes when she first looked at him by the Box – scared but unyielding.
If she wants answers, maybe they should just give them.
Newt can't remember anyone arriving and being able to control their confusion and fear the way she has.
"You can't watch me forever," she says.
And that's what makes him decide. It's not a threat, or an ultimatum. It's the gentle truth in her voice.
"A Maze," Newt replies, the words tearing out. He can feel Alby's expression; part alarmed and part warning. Newt stares back at him, unmoved.
Nothing about this is normal. If she decides to find out herself, we won't be able to stop her. Trust me.
His point must get across, because Alby's expression clears and he doesn't interrupt when Newt continues, "The Glade is in the middle of it, and every night, the doors close until morning. If you get stuck out, you don't come back."
He's careful with the words; there's so much more to it, but he doesn't actually want to scare her. He wants her to know enough to be wary of her own volition. A returned honesty.
Her expression flickers. She visibly weighs up the information, and then she gives an almost imperceptible nod.
Small steps, but its enough for now.
…
Alby herds them all away, and there's plenty of jobs to keep everyone occupied for the remainder of the afternoon.
Newt joins a bunch of the Sloppers to get the Box unloaded and all the new supplies put away. The crates and boxes are checked as they're hauled up – ones for the Infirmary, ones for the Kitchen. There's huge tins of seed packs for the Gardens and boxes of new knives for the Bloodhouse.
The boys start to take it out, dropping what's needed where. The sun coasts ever lower in the sky, lighting the field and trees with gold. Alby weaves through the Deadheads, Homestead, past the Lookout Tree and up towards the Butchery and Gardens. His usual tour route.
It's an average Box Day.
Or, it would be.
But there's still a strange girl in the Glade.
It's an entirely new situation. It's already unsettled more than a few of the boys, and it really doesn't help that she's able to manage her fear so well. She walks with Alby, apparently silent; still uncertain and scared, but her eyes are steady as they roam over the tiny world she's been left with.
Newt's just thankful no one saw her throw the spike at Alby.
It's probably best to keep that quiet, at least for now.
…
Alby returns to the Mess once it's dark.
He ducks through the doorway and all heads snap up to him. A frisson of wary anticipation runs through the crowd of gathered Gladers, but he enters alone. Slowly, without asking, their heads lower back to their bowls.
Newt just locks eyes with his oldest friend.
Alby jerks his head almost imperceptibly behind him. She won't come in. Then he shakes his head – a single, tiny movement, just once. Leave her.
So Newt returns to his task of gathering bowls and Alby heads over to give Frypan a hand with the huge cauldron of broth.
Slowly, the chatter and usual noise picks up, and Newt can almost push those silvery eyes out of his mind and forget there's a girl there at all.
…
With all the food ready, they start moving it out to the edge of the fire pit, with other boys starting to fetch hay and wood to get the bonfire going.
Girl or not, it's a Box Day, so everyone gets to celebrate.
And while they're preparing to light the fire, Newt spots her. She's like a shadow, practically sprinting across the open grass from one side of the Glade to the other around the back of Homestead and right into the line of trees that mark the corner.
If she's looking for an exit, she isn't going to find one.
Across the fire pit, Alby catches his eye – apparently he's spotted her, too. This time, he nods very slightly, and then jerks his head to the side. See if you can try.
So Newt slips around the table and jogs out across the field some way, leaving the humming of voices and dancing firelight behind him.
She's racing in another direction, almost singularly focused.
"Hey, hey," Newt calls out to her, trying to come across as reassuring. "Look, there's nowhere to run."
She stops in the same instant he speaks, wheeling on him in surprise. She stands firmly in the grass, unflinching. Her dark hair is almost black under the night sky, the leaves gone. The grey eyes are wide and cautious, set into a face with fair skin and soft, delicate features. Pieces of her look like a startled deer; ready to bolt at a moment's notice. But other parts of her look like something else; something unused to feeling fear. Or at least unused to letting it rule her.
She speaks moments after he decides to try approaching her – slowly, carefully – just in case.
"I'm not running to escape, I'm running to learn."
Newt stops on the spot.
That's new.
Its puzzling; that within hours of arriving, she can find some anchor for her sanity in just wanting to know her surroundings. Most boys shake and twitch for two days at best.
And if he had time to think about it, it might be concerning that it's running which she finds that anchor in. But he can't really process that because she speaks again.
"Sorry for knocking you earlier."
And…what?
That's definitely surprised him. The second she looked at him was just that; barely a second, and she seemed far more focused on just getting away than anything else. He didn't really expect her to remember him, let alone feel apologetic for it.
But then…she's far more observant than a good handful of the Greenies who came before her.
He steps closer still. "It's okay. It's not easy. Trust me, I know."
"But the other one?" she says, like it's a question. "The one I sacked; I don't think he'll take it so lightly."
No, Gally really won't. Already hasn't, actually. But in this respect at least, he's quite harmless – he isn't going to harm this girl because she threw a piece of fabric at him. Not when he lost his marbles and punched Nick square in the face when he first arrived.
The girl's wary mention of him, as well as that fading memory amuses him just a bit – he's not used to feeling genuine amusement very much.
"Gally?" he says, though he knows who she means. "He takes himself quite seriously. I can't imagine getting outdone by a girl is something he'll get over anytime soon." More of a damage to his pride than anything else. "Don't worry about him. You almost spiked Alby and he still gave you the tour."
She seems to accept this.
"I'm Newt. You knew that, though," he adds, remembering that he was there when Alby first threw his name out. If she remembered knocking him aside, he's guessing she remembers names.
"Alby mentioned it," she says, proving his theory right.
And that's all she says. She seems to have relaxed; she doesn't hold herself with that startled tension anymore, and her eyes roam across the Glade, probably taking in the activity behind them at Homestead.
Which reminds him…
"Come on," he nods his head back to the fire pit, some way across the field. "Come and meet them."
She stiffens suddenly, eyes flickering with wariness again.
"I can't."
Is she still afraid, after all she's seen and been told? She doesn't have anything to fear from them; not unless she hurts someone else first – and okay, if she's prone to launching sharp objects, that's a possibility, but Newt can't shake the thought that it wasn't even a conscious move. It looked and felt more like a reflex that caught even her off guard.
But how can he convince her she's safe?
Simply…he can't. She has to see that for herself.
"Look," she says, apparently reading his indecision. "I don't know anything. I don't know who I am. I don't know where I am or who any of you are. All I have is this pressing emptiness in my head where I used to be and it's suffocating."
Her voice cracks.
The words hit low and rock in Newt's stomach like a physical blow.
He's been here nearly three years and he's built memories from the ground up. Memories in Alby and Minho and Fry, memories in the deaths and loss they've all suffered and memories in the world and the family they've created in this tiny prison.
And sometimes it's easy to forget that he knows nothing of his life before that.
He used to wonder who he was – if he had friends, siblings, if he got good grades in school or had a lot of detentions; if he was good at video games or played chess with his father.
Three years is a lot of time to wonder about the years you lost.
And it hurt, at first. Sometimes it still does. So he stopped wondering.
But he remembers that feeling; that hollowing in his stomach and the headache that came with having a brain so empty of an entire lifetime.
He guesses that it's something they all deal with, but no one's ever said as much. They all ask questions, of course they do. But this is the first time someone has put to words that feeling that makes it so hard to breathe when you wake up as a blank slate.
The girl swallows, that hollow feeling like a storm in her eyes, and says, "It's night time. I heard you say the Doors won't open until morning. Guard them if you want, but I just…
"Just please let me cope with this on my own, okay? You're right; there's nowhere for me to go. We all know that, so please…just let me cope."
She gazes at him, waiting.
And Newt gets it. Gets it a little too much.
He's always been the kind of person to bottle things up and shoulder his pain and problems alone. Every person in the Glade has enough to deal with without sharing someone else's burdens. And given his solution to his build up of problems was to try to take his own life – later regretting it or not – he's in no position to question anyone else's coping mechanisms.
If she wants to deal alone, who are they to stop her? Plus, on top of being in a strange place with no memories, she's facing an uncertain future just with a bunch of teenage boys. He can't really blame her for wanting to stay away.
She must see something in his face change, because her shoulders relax. Her eyes clear.
"Alright," he says, voice quiet into the night. "We'll be at the bonfire. Happens every month for the new Greenie. Come and find us, I guess."
And he thinks she will, when she's ready.
There's nothing really left to say, so he starts to head back, unable to stop himself looking back at her once.
She's a contradiction behind a pair of careful grey eyes that shine silver under the stars. She's scared and fearless and there's no way she hasn't been sent here for a reason.
The real question is why.
Why now, and why her?
NOTE
Even for those of you who want to read these one shots, you are welcome to disagree with them. These are my thoughts as to what other characters would feel and think at certain moments, but if you have other interpretations, you are more than welcome to stick to them :)
