Disclaimer: The Maze Runner trilogy and movies are not mine. They belong to James Dashner and respective owners.
No, wait that's my collar, she yelled at herself. This was not the time for taking things too lightly!
"Who are you?!"
She had two options – try and slide out of her shirt, or fight back in blind faith that her two left hands would be enough to free her from the brute. Stranger One, Newt, appeared to read the ideas filter through her face as Wei saw him take a cautionary step forward. But in the end, it wasn't him who saved her, it was Stranger Two who had smashed his body against the hulking boy. This action sent all three of them falling and Wei, with the air knocked out of her, tried to quickly roll as far away as possible from her assailer. She was stopped, however, when Stranger Two's body landed on her slimmer build. If her body had been recovering earlier – it definitely wasn't now.
"Move!" she stammered out, feeling the blood rush to her face. Gods he was so heavy! Luckily for her, the only bystander left not in a mess finally sprung into movement and helped move the rock body that had toppled over her. She would have thanked him but as she sat up, more pressing matters came into mind.
"Gally! Stop!"
More boys, she realized, had gathered around them and both Stranger One and Two had gotten enough of their bearings to stand in front of her. Peering past them, she could see the reason for their defensive stances as the brute from earlier was being held back by three confused faces. "She's one of them!"
She was one of what? WICKED? Wei shook her head as she slowly stood up again. Ignoring the whispers in the air she pushed past the two strangers to confront the brute. "I came from the Maze," she asserted once more, but this time, she fixed her gaze at all those around her. "Two Mazes, actually – I'm not with whoever them is, but if you guys are anything like the other Maze I came from, I'm assuming you're talking about WICKED."
Again the whispers arose, louder this time and accompanied with more brazen glances and stares. The brute had relaxed at last as well but his guards remained leery at his sides anyhow. Meanwhile, Newt and Stranger Two were sucked into their own quiet conversation before a dark-skinned guy pushed through the crowd. "You're bleeding," he said, stopping in front of her.
Wei couldn't help herself and raised an eyebrow. After all she had been through, she would be surprised if she was told she wasn't. However, before she could reply, Newt stepped forward and sent a hush to fall among the crowd. "Everyone," he paused, and Wei pretended to not feel his eyes upon her. "Clean up what you can and get some rest, we'll figure things out tomorrow –" an obnoxious huff cut him off and all eyes darted over to the brute that had assaulted her. Stranger Two took this time to move in front of Wei as he crossed his arms across his chest.
"Slim it, shuck-face."
The words flew over her head, but if she had to guess, she assumed that these boys had created their own lingo during their time in their Plain. Did they even call it a Plain?
"You're all making a mistake, and I won't be here anymore to watch it get worst," the brute spoke up before walking off. Or more like sulking off. Wei spotted Newt and Stranger Two roll his eyes and spare her an amused glance respectively. Had she said it aloud? At this point, the world was moving too fast for her to know.
"Well?" Newt suddenly spoke. "Get with it!" And the boys, she belatedly noticed, finally broke the circle around their strange trio to do their respective duties. All but the one who had pointed out her injury. From her peripheral view, she saw Newt give him a nod. "Take her into the Medi-tent, Jeff. Take care of her wound and we'll get over there as soon as possible," he commanded before him and Stranger Two took to a jog at the direction of what appeared to be a large splintered hut.
A few seconds of solace managed to encompass both her and the boy named Jeff as they watched the figures of the other boys grow smaller and smaller with each step. However, the peace was not to last as the boy beside her coughed. She looked over to him, waiting for his next few words and Jeff, having not been accustomed to any girl at all, (Teresa had been different – she had always seemed off from the beginning while this one looked like she went from hell and back,) pointed towards a big mess at their left with what looked to be half of a hut standing by it. "We should go," he said.
Wei nodded – or at least did one nod before a tremor ran through her body. Jeff seemed to notice and without hesitating, slung her arm over his shoulder as his own wrapped around her waist. A sharp inhale had him loosening his hold as he glanced over her. "Just sore," Wei explained as they slowly hobbled towards the hut. As they got closer, she noted that most of the boys were converging there. "I've been falling a lot today," a snicker escaped her companion and despite herself, the Runner found herself giving a small smile in reply.
But the massacre materializing in front of her quickly had her stopping in her tracks. Her feet stumbled over each other and forced Jeff to let out what she thought to be another one of their lingos as he rearranged his hold on her. "What happened here?" she mumbled as they continued past the debris and soot-covered faces. Tardily, she noticed that what looked like hammocks and makeshift beds were what the boys were trying to assemble. A tug at her heart almost had her stopping again as she spotted one boy that looked no older than her Lucy give up as he dropped the bundle of fabrics in his hand to cover the glistening in his eyes.
"The Doors didn't close and the Grievers – shuck," Wei politely stayed quiet as her escort stopped in front of the hut. "They destroyed everything." Jeff excused himself after the statement, mumbling something about checking if there was space inside, and Wei took it in stride as she realized that he was just coming into terms with what had happened to them. She could be empathetic with him, heck, she could relate with probably most of the boys she was with. The same exact thing had happened to her and her family. It had torn them – broke them even, and as she cast one more wayward glance at the little boy who was now on the ground surrounded by his mates, she found herself hoping that they would take action much faster than her family had.
"Hey," the boy who emerged from the hut was not Jeff. He had more hair – had gray in his hair, and had a calmer aura about him. "Can you tell me what hurts?" he asked as he gently helped her in. As they passed through the door, Wei spotted one bed shoved against a corner with a sweat-glistening patient groaning on it and a girl, an unfamiliar girl sitting bedside. The two hardly noticed her as she passed by however, as Clint quickly sat her onto the other bed – pulling a sheet across the room to act as a divider between her and the other two. Behind her she heard shuffling, and turned to find Jeff arranging crates against the gaping opening of the hut. He felt her eyes on her and squeezed out a tight smile before resuming with his task.
"Don't let Clint amputate anything," he spoke with his back to her. The other boy, Clint, shot him a look as he dug through one of the crates.
"Speak for yourself, slinthead," Wei smiled at the easy talk flowing between them. "Can you lift your shirt up for me?" Clint stood over her with a bag spilling with what she assumed to be medical tools at his side. Wei easily acquiesced to his command, and showed her abdomen to the inspecting medic. Jeff, at this time, had chosen to attend to the patient in the other side of the room.
"I know you already have a sprained ankle," Clint observed as his fingers prodded at her external oblique. She cringed. "Some bruising here and," he put a finger in front of her eyes and had her follow its movement, " – maybe a minor concussion – Jeff! Get me some kind of light!" he shouted as he moved away from her.
Wei rolled her shirt over her stomach again and lay down at Clint's direction. "What's your name?" he asked after she settled down.
"W- Wei," she replied as a sudden rush of blood went to her head.
"I'm Clint, as you heard. My helper's Jeff, and since you're probably wondering, you're at the Glade," he explained softly. Wei appreciated the quiet tones he was conversing her with and made to reply if not for Jeff who burst into the room.
"It's all I could get," he produced a glass mason jar with a candle inside. Clint took it and put it in front of Wei's eyes and directed her to follow its movement. Once the procedure was done, he left the light by the makeshift table by her head.
"Hopefully it's a minor concussion, the pupils aren't reacting properly," he said, sauntering over to his desk. "We'll leave you here to rest, Jeff will be in the room over if you nee –"
"How is she?" it was Newt and his partner from before. Clint shot him a look as Wei sat back up again. Ignoring the vertigo and the exasperation detailed on the medic's face, she waved over at Newt.
"Fine."
"Needs resting."
Clint and Wei exchanged looks just as another head popped into the room. "She?"
It was the other girl. Stranger Two shot her a look as his hands found their places on his hips. "Great, it's a party."
"Oh slim it, Minho. Teresa, we'll fill you in later," Newt cut in. The girl with the large blue eyes looked over at her one more time looking torn between obeying and staying, but decided that from the moan emitting from the other patient, her other friend needed her more than a stranger's explanation. Or at least that's what Wei assumed they wanted
"She needs rest, Newt," Clint spoke up before anyone else could. He stood just slightly a bit in front of her as if that was enough to shield her from the upcoming interrogation. However, it was not Newt who had the biggest problem with his interference.
"No –"
"I'll explain," the two dark haired teenagers traded a look before Wei sighed and brought her knees closer to her chest. Clint half-way threw his hands up in the air before he grabbed his medic bag and walked out the hut.
"I'm Wei," she started, keeping her eyes on anything but the two boys. Newt found himself a seat on the desk while Stranger Two seemed content to stand in the makeshift doorway. "I'm…from a different Maze. Where I'm from, we call our version of your Glade the Plain, and –"
Once she found a way to explain things, there was no end to the words spilling from her mouth. From her first month to her escape, she told the two attentive boys everything. There was no filter to sugarcoat things, no pause to let them throw in their questions or comments – just the pure truth of the story of how she and thirty other girls broke free. Or how they broke free, she smiled bitterly as she finally stopped at the end of her tale. Obviously, she was still trapped albeit in a different Maze –but it was all the same. She was still lost.
"Well," she looked up and found both boys either staring at her or at the ground in blatant disbelief. "Shuck."
"Yeah," she found herself agreeing with him. Now that she had time to look things over, it was pretty hard to believe that it all had happened. That they had been living in parallel worlds – both struggling, both trying to get out, and only just miles apart. "It's pretty crazy."
"And you said some slinthead pushed you into one of those Griever holes and you ended up here?" Stranger Two questioned. He hadn't once looked away from her, and briefly Wei wondered if it was because he was trying to weigh each word out of her mouth to see if it was the truth or not.
"Yeah, I did. We were in a hallway of sorts and I'm guessing it links both our Mazes or else –"
"How do we know we can believe you?" he cut off.
Wei's eyes narrowed at him. "Do I look like I'd lie about something like that? Do you think I purposely got hurt to make my story more believable?"
"Minho," it was Newt speaking now. "You said you had one boy come up, talking bout the end and all that?" Wei nodded her head in confirmation. She instantly regretted it, however, as her headache flared back to life. "Get some rest," he finally relented, pushing the scowling boy out the room. Wei opened her mouth to interject something but Newt was already shaking his head. "This is a whole bloody lot to take in," he paused.
"Wei," she supplied.
"Newt," the boy seemed to automatically reply. "I believe you, I think I believe you, but with what's happened so far, we're gonna need some time to sort this all out," he continued.
"I understand," she murmured. And she did. If their places had been switched, if she had found a random boy claiming the same madness she had been through for the past few years after that horrid night – she would've needed some time to herself as well.
"Get some rest," he repeated before walking out.
Wei lay down on her cot and closed her eyes, but she didn't sleep. Much as she would've liked to have drifted off right then and there, the pressing issue of how her family was doing bothered her too much. She was sure Rachel had pushed her and now, she worried about what else she could do to the others. Would they have – did they believe her lie? Did they - a rustle had her eyes snapping open. She turned to find the same blue eyes from earlier.
"I believe you," the girl whispered. Wei didn't know whether that was a good thing or not. Her family had taken a lot of time learning to trust their only boy, Aris, and if this girl was his equivalent – then did her support really even help at all?
"Thank you," she said and the head disappeared behind the curtain again. She would take it. Wei decided she would need all the help she could get and it was nice knowing that her history would not be ignored by at least one person.
Sleep, however, was not meant to last long.
There was commotion going on at the other side of the curtain and the heat of the sun peeping through the patches in the roof were waking her up. However, she elected to keep her eyes shut and listen in on the conversation.
The other patient was awake, that much she could get as she heard Newt's and Stranger Two's – Minho's, ( that was his name, right?), voice rise up among someone else's. Unfortunately, right after they stopped conversing came up the voice of the brute who had attacked her yesterday. From what she could pick up, he was going off about how someone named Thomas still had to be punished. There were others against it, she heard the girl from last night speaking out against him too, but it appeared that the brute had more power over them.
Some stomping preceded after the argument and Wei's eyes opened.
"Having fun there?"
Miraculously, she didn't jump or fall out of her bed. Have a mini heart attack, yes but overall she still preserved her dignity and that was all she could have asked her. "When –" she turned her head and found Newt quietly observing them from the doorway. "I didn't –" his companion shot her a smirk. Wei huffed and sat up with her arms crossed. "You sticks caught me, happy?"
"Sticks?" the boy repeated.
"Slintheads?" she recalled someone using it last night. Stranger Two leaned back in the chair he had brought over with him, nodding his head. The translation seemed to suffice for him.
"So the bloody lovefest done yet? Or should I leave?" Newt called out to the two. His companion shot him a glare, but as for Wei, the innuendo flew over her head as she looked towards him with almost bated breath.
"Well?" she asked.
The mirth on his face dropped. "I have to check on Tommy first," he said, appearing to bypass her inquiry. "Minho, the slinthead by you, is going to take you to your very first Gathering," he smiled.
