Rust
It was a normal day until lunchtime. Before lunchtime everything was going perfectly fine; the day was warm, there had been no problems mapping in the Maze, and Frypan's rather excellent breakfast meal was only just beginning to require a replacement. All in all, a good day for Newt.
They had finished early in the Maze, realizing that the overnight changes had been minimal and the labyrinth was mostly unchanged from the previous day. With a careful eye they had run the route just to make sure, and then he and Minho had returned to the Glade sweaty, exhausted, and in great desire of a meal.
"Oi Newt!" A voice shouted from behind him. Turning, Newt watched Nick jog up to him with a grin on his face.
"Hey Nick," Newt smiled, his grin turning cheeky as he added, "how can I help our glorious leader?"
Nick punched his arm lightly. "Don't be such a shank, I just wanted to ask you if you've forgotten what day it is."
Eyebrows quirked, Newt tilted his head. "Er… new supplies today…?" He guessed wildly, knowing that it had probably been roughly a week before he had tied the shoelaces to his new sneakers that adorned his feet that very moment.
Nick snorted. "Yeah klunkbrain, but what else?" He asked, somewhat sardonically.
Eyes widening, Newt realised what Nick was getting at. "New Greenie!"
"That's right, and they haven't arrived yet so get your butt over to the kitchen now and eat, that alarm'll be going off any second," Nick said, musing Newt's hair before running off in the direction Minho had walked when they had returned from the Maze. Nick liked everyone to be right there when the Newbies arrived; he figured it would be better for them to realise how many people were in the same scenario as them.
Newt arrived at the kitchen to find it quiet and mostly empty, a few Gladers sparsely populating the decrepit picnic tables huddled around the fire pit and roughly hewn wooden benches that made up Frypan's domain. The thatched roof was so well made that rain almost never leaked through, and the tables were sanded down into smooth splinter-less planks that revealed nothing of their humble origins (the far west cluster of trees in the Glade).
"Back already, Newt?" Frypan teased from his position leaning against a bench. "Where do you put it man, you're a twig."
"Not my fault your servings are so small, Fry," Newt grinned back, pulling himself up onto the bench next to Frypan.
"Hey! Get your shank ass off my bench, this is a kitchen slinthead!"
Frypan tackled Newt off the bench top and pushed him away from the kitchen, a scandalized expression on his face.
Newt laughed. "I'll be out of your hair with some lunch man, Nick says the Newbie will be arriving soon so I better hurry," he finished pointedly, hoping Frypan would take mercy on him and throw him a line.
With a humourously unimpressed look on his face, Frypan walked across the crude kitchen and heaved a large metal pot across to Newt. Landing it heavily on the very bench Newt had occupied seconds ago, Frypan ladled some of the stew into a bowl and handed it to Newt with a smile tugging on his mouth. "You're lucky I'm so nice, shank."
"Frypan you are a god amongst Gladers," Newt said sincerely, his expression somber.
He didn't even bother to sit, downing the stew with an impressively clean spoon (Frypan was legend worthy when it came to keeping his primitive kitchen clean), and handing Fry back the bowl with a grateful smile.
The anticipated alarm of the Box rang out through the Glade, and the prepared Gladers all began to flock towards the metal doors set into the earth. Fry jogged with Newt over to join them, and they made their way to the front of the throng to stand with Nick. Unsurprisingly, Gally had also made his way to the foreground, standing with his arms crossed and his Builder crew flanking either side of him.
The noises of the Box rising grew louder as the cage sped up towards them, and Newt almost smiled ruefully at the thought of the Greenie inside. He could remember First Day himself; when he had arrived there had been nowhere near as many Gladers, nor as many comforts like their brand new barn for the animals that had taken six months to complete, or the shining water tank that had just last week been scrubbed of rust and ready standing vigil for the next rainfall. This Greenbean had it easy compared to the first of them.
With an angry moan, the Box beneath their feet halted, and there was a tense moment of silence. Then, the metal doors flew open and folded to the sides, revealing the mesh cage below and its cargo; fresh supplies and fresh meat. The Newbie was obviously awake, shrinking into the far corner and blinking up at them like it was their first time in the sun.
Which, Newt supposed, it kind of was. With the others, he grabbed the mesh gates and pulled them open, the noise startling the Greenie who scrambled away from them as far as they could manage. With a slight smirk, Newt glanced at Nick who gave him a nod, and he jumped down into the Box. Making his way around some barrels, Newt looked at the Newbie properly for the first time. He frowned. Something was different.
Arriving in front of the cowering form, Newt crouched down to look them in the eye. Crisp blue eyes stared back at him from a smooth face, small hands reaching to the sides and trying to grasp something, anything that could be used as a weapon.
"It's a girl," Newt said in shock.
He heard his words being echoed by the Gladers above them, reaching all the way to the back of the group to the general confusion of everyone. Catcalls and crude shouts began nearly immediately, and the girl attempted to shrink even further into the corner. With a grimace he heard Nick land in the Box behind him, and glanced at his friend as the taller boy approached the girl. Her eyes flicked between the two of them with confusion and alarm.
"Hey," Nick said, crouching next to Newt. "It's okay, we're not gonna hurt you." The girl's expression did not change.
"What's your name?" Nick tried again. Silence. Staring.
Sending Newt a look, Nick kneeled on the metal floor. "Look we know you're scared, but you have to believe that we're here to help you. I'm Nick, this is Newt," he said, gesturing at the boy next to him. At his name, the girl's eyes flicked to Newt, only to return as Nick continued talking in a low, even voice. "Can you remember your name? They let us keep that."
His words brought a frown to the girl's face, and she leaned forward a bit but still didn't speak.
"Just bring her out already Nick," Gally shouted from the edge of the Box to the jeering cheers of his cronies. "We want to see her."
Nick ignored him with a tight look on his face. "Sorry," he said candidly. The girl made no acknowledgement that she had even heard his apology, her slightly narrowed eyes trained on Gally with a look that Newt could not deny was a little scary.
At her continued silence, Nick gave Newt another sideways look, and Newt shrugged. At Nick's emphatic look, Newt turned back to the girl and picked up where their Leader had left off.
"Look, we don't want to hurt you, really, those guys are just klunkheads. You can trust us, just tell us your name and we'll explain everything," he said slowly in what he hoped was an honest sounding voice.
The girl was looking at him, and he thought maybe she was a little placated by his words. He tentatively reached forward to help her stand, but the motion seemed to alarm her and she lashed out with a small but powerful fist.
His vision splintered and he felt a painful crunch as her fist connected with his face, falling backwards with a shout. He heard three thumps dulled from his pounding head as Minho, Alby, and Zart jumped into the Box to help him up, and felt a cloth being pressed to his face; blood was streaming down his chin and dripping through the mesh floor, falling away into the dark elevator shaft beneath them. He was vaguely aware of Nick shouting and Gladers laughing.
"-back Gally, she's just scared, I mean it Gally, it's not like you were any better on First Day."
Through his watering eyes he looked up to see Nick standing in front of the girl, his arm pressed against Gally's chest stopping the Builder from advancing any further. The girl was still pressed into the corner, watching the two boys in front of her with wide alert eyes, barely sparing a glance to the large, deafening crowd of gawking and guffawing boys surrounding the entrance to the Box.
"She's not been here five minutes and she's already broken one of your rules Nick!" Gally shouted. "This girl is a bad sign and you know it!"
"Slim it Gally," Alby said from Newt's side. His tone was threatening and Gally sent him a challenging look. Before anything more could unfold, an unfamiliar voice cut the babble.
"Fuck off, all of you," the girl said loudly.
The Gladers fell silent, both those in and around the Box stopping their laughs and jokes and conversations and mutterings simultaneously as the girl's sharp words rang in their ears.
There was a beat of silence - and then uproar.
"Did she just-?"
"I can't believe it!"
"She's got a mouth on her!"
"What a slinthead!"
"She'll fit right in!"
"What the-?"
The girl spoke again, in the same fierce tone; "Seriously fuck off."
This did little to dull the roarings of the Gladers, and Newt felt Minho's shoulders shake with laughter at his side. Feeling an amused smile of his own curl his mouth, Newt slapped his friends on the backs in thanks for their assistance, wiped the last of the blood away, tucked the bloodied cloth into his pocket and stepped forward, crouching in front of her again.
His motions drew the girl's attention, and she looked a little taken aback by his reappearance which made sense given that his grin was accompanied by a bloody smear down his face.
"Don't do that again, please," he said with mocking seriousness.
"Go away," she replied.
Bemused, Newt sent her an exasperated look. "You'll have to come out eventually you know."
She gave him a chilling look and turned her face away, cutting off communication entirely. Burying her face in her arms, she curled herself into a small ball.
"Hey," Nick said, looking down at her. The girl did not respond.
"Hey!"
Minho stepped forward. "Hey. Hey, girl," he called. At her lack of response, he looked at Newt and found his bewilderment mirrored in his friend's face.
The Gladers were quiet again, all eyes looking down on the unresponsive form in the corner with similar expressions of confusion and bafflement.
Nick shuffled his feet awkwardly, looking back at his friends with a desperate expression as he recognized the need for him to do something but had no idea what it should be. Newt, Minho, and Alby all shrugged.
"Um," Nick said blandly. "Well, you're welcome to come out whenever." He shot a scared look over his shoulder at his friends, who nodded in encouragement. The girl wasn't moving or making any sort of response to his words, leaving the boys a little stranded for what to do. Usually Newbies freaked out crying, or tried to run, or came out shakily and made their jobs a little easier. They had no plan for this situation, and Newt was honestly rather enjoying watching Nick flounder.
"I guess… I guess we'll go then." Nick finished lamely, arm dropping from Gally's chest, now not needed thanks to the boy's stock still form and confounded manner.
Nick awkwardly backed away, and was helped out of the Box by another Glader. Newt followed, sparing a glance back at the girl's hunched form before jogging to catch up with Nick as he walked quickly away from the metal doors.
"What the bloody hell was that," Newt said in forthright shock as Gladers meandered off in all directions around them.
"I have no clue," came Nick's bewildered reply. "Absolutely no shucking clue."