CHAPTER 5*I'm creating another new character in this chapter, just cuz why not. Idk if that's like 'taboo' or anything but… sorry not sorry :)

Newt leads me back once again to the Kitchens. Frypan tosses together a tray of bacon, eggs, and toast. It looks amazing. He hands me the tray before tossing more food onto another tray for Newt.

Newt and I go sit down at a table. He sits quietly for a moment. I know that type of quiet. It's a careful quiet. He wants to say something but he's thinking of the best way to say it.

Then he speaks up. 'There's something about you, Grace. I don't know what it is. But you were barely here 18 hours and you ran into the Maze. You collapsed in the middle of the Tour. Then just now you go after Tommy for no reason. You just… I can't quite figure out what it is, but it's something different. Good or bad, I don't know. But you're definitely different.' He doesn't look angry or upset, he just looks at me with wonder. 'Different,' he murmurs again, and for some reason I feel myself blush.

I hear a crash that makes me jump to my feet, almost spilling my breakfast. Newt laughs, as if the loud noise was something he expected.

'Come here,' he says. 'I gotta show you something.'

I pick up my tray, suddenly starving, and follow him while holding my bacon and eggs. I take a bite out of my bacon and watch as Minho, Thomas, and a few other boys run to where… the Walls to the opening of the Maze are moving. Opening. I can't believe I didn't notice before. I must have been too distracted yesterday. They must have… closed when I was talking to Newt last night.

'The Maze.' Suddenly I get it. The reason the Maze is so mysterious. The reason I can't go in there. The massive Walls must weigh 10 tons, but they're able to close. The Gladers don't seem concerned by this at all. I'm assuming it's a daily thing, the Walls opening and closing. Thomas mentioned earlier that the Walls closed with him, Minho, and Alby inside. I didn't process what he was saying until now.

'It changes every night. Minho knows more about it than me. I haven't been in there in a while after all. The Runners go out there every day, trying to find new patterns. See if something opens up.'

'They're looking for a way out?' I ask.

'No,' Newt says, 'they're looking for clues. We've been here over two years. You'd think we'd find a way out by now if there was one. They're trying to figure out if there's any pattern in how the Maze changes.'

'Have you tried…' I start.

Newt interrupts me. 'Yeah, we've tried it. We've tried everything. We're stuck here. We've come to the conclusion that the Maze has some sort of code. We have to figure out the code in order to get anywhere.'

Not knowing how to respond, I exhale and try to change the conversation. 'So… Medjack training?'

Newt gives me a small smile. 'Yeah. Let's go.'

Newt introduces me to Clint and Jeff, the only two Medjacks in the Glade. They're helping a boy named Chuck who apparently fell out of a tree and hurt his knee. We walk in just as Clint starts wrapping a bandage around Chuck's knee. Jeff mutters something about a clumsy little kid and then notices me and Newt.

'Newbie today?' Jeff gestures at me.

'Yeah,' Newt responds. 'I wanna see her try Medjack. She seems like she'd be good at it.'

As if on cue, a tall, long-faced boy walks through the door, holding his arm.

'Zart, what did you do?' Clint looks up from Chuck, who he just finished wrapping.

Zart moves his hand, revealing a large cut. 'I… I fell, and landed on one of my hoes.'

Clint motions to me. 'This one's all you, Newbie.'

I move toward Zart and examine the wound. It's wide, but shallow, not much more than a few millimeters deep. Zart's sleeve is torn where the injury occurred, but other than that he seems perfectly fine. I do notice a few specks of dirt, though. I turn around.

'Clint, do you have a type of disinfectant? For the dirt?' I ask. With a smile, he hands me a spray bottle. I reach for some gauze on a nearby shelf and tell Zart to sit down. Even sitting on the table he's a foot taller than me. I roll up Zart's sleeve and spray the gauze with disinfectant. I clean his wound as well as I can, then I get a new piece of gauze and a bandage, and I wrap it around his arm.

'You're a natural,' says Clint.

'Couldn't have done it better myself,' says Jeff.

I smile. It was a simple task, but I'm glad Clint and Jeff think I did well. I wasn't expecting to actually do something. I thought I was just going to watch.

'Get back to work,' Newt says to Zart. 'And don't fall on any more equipment.' He turns to me. 'Looks like I was right. You'd be a great Medjack.'

I blush. 'Yeah, I guess.'

'Do you want to spend the rest of the day here or do you want to check out the other jobs?' Newt asks.

'I think I wanna stay here.' I smile and look around the hut. I feel like this is what I'm meant to do. There's nothing else really that I could enjoy more than this. Newt was right, I love helping people.

Newt leaves me with Clint and Jeff and goes off to do his 'second-in-command' things. Clint and Jeff show me around. Then we sit and talk, mostly about the Glade. I'm still clueless about a lot of things.

'I'm sure Newt told you that the Maze changes every night,' Clint says. I nod. 'Did he tell you they've already found a pattern?' I sit up, shocked. Newt did not tell me that.

Jeff shakes his head. 'Don't get too excited. According to Minho, the Walls inside the Maze shift in patterns, repeating every month. But they can't figure out what it means. It's a bunch of mumbo jumbo. The Creators probably just made it that way to give us false hope.'

'The Creators?' I ask.

'They're the ones who sent us here,' Clint explains. 'We call them the Creators because they Created the Maze.'

'Oh.' I nod my head. 'So there's a pattern in the Maze. The Walls shift regularly. But there's never been a way out? No new passages have shown up?'

Jeff shrugs. 'We don't know much about the inside of the Maze. All we know is what Minho tells us. But as far as we know, it's just the same pattern, over and over again. No new passages, nothing different.'

As Jeff finishes speaking, a short, thin boy walks in. His forehead is swollen and bruised.

'Hey, Leo,' Clint says. 'What happened?'

'I uh, I hit my head.' Leo says sluggishly.

'I can see that.' Clint chuckles. 'But how did you hit your head?'

'There was… there was this low beam. I was walking, and I ran into it.' Leo stumbles a bit as Jeff leads him to a chair. Jeff looks at me, expectantly. I guess I'm taking care of Leo too, like I did with Zart.

'Okay,' I say, approaching Leo. 'Keep your head still, but follow my finger with your eyes.' I notice that although he follows my movement, his reaction is delayed. Concussion. I don't know why that word jumps to my head, but after a moment I realize that a major head injury is called a concussion. That must be what Leo has.

I look up at Clint. 'He has a concussion,' I say. 'His reactions are slow, his balance is off, and his pupils are dilated.' I don't process the words, they just come to me.

Clint nods in approval. 'So what should he do?'

'Um…' I look around. 'Bed rest and fluids for a couple of days, don't run around or anything, and.. do we have ice? Pain medicine?' Clint hands me a cold pack and a bag with a couple pills in it, which I hand to Leo. 'Leave this on your head for about twenty minutes. It'll keep the swelling down and it should help with the pain. And take two of these right now, two at night, and two tomorrow morning. Make sure you drink water with them. Come back tomorrow around noon if your head still hurts.'

'Alright, you heard the girl,' Clint says with a smile. 'Go lay down, ice for a bit, and no hitting your head on wooden beams.' Leo thanks me, places the cold pack on his head, and walks out.

'Like I said,' Clint says, 'you're a natural.'

After Leo leaves, Clint, Jeff, and I organize the hut. We separate different sized bandages and gauze and make everything easy to reach. Jeff comments on how nice it is to have a girl around because I'll keep them in check. When we finish organizing, we sit down. Jeff asks me a few questions about my past.

'So you don't remember anything?' he asks.

I shake my head. 'Nope. Just my name.' I feel a pang of guilt as I lie, because they've helped me feel like I fit in, even if I've only been working with them for a few hours.

'Weird,' Jeff says, in almost a whisper. 'It must be human instinct. Clint and I were the same way. We didn't remember anything, but when people come to us we just know what to do to fix them.'

Clint chimes in. 'Makes me think about what our lives were like before. We're teenagers. I don't remember anything, but I don't think people would let teenagers be in charge of stuff like this, you know?'

This idea shocks me. Obviously we all had lives before being sent here, but I never thought that there were connections to my old life and what I'm like now. The memories I do have, the ones I refuse to share, are all centralized on one of two things: my past relationship with Thomas, and the mysterious desert.

Interrupting my thoughts, Newt pokes his head through the door. With a lopsided grin on his face, he says, 'How's my favorite Medjack?'

Clint feigns flattery and says, 'Aw, Newt, you're too sweet.'

Rolling his eyes, Newt says, 'I'm talking to Grace.'

'I know, I know.' Clint lets out a hearty laugh. 'I think we're about ready to take a break. She's all yours.'

Newt winks and walks up to me, taking my hand. 'C'mon,' he says, 'I wanna show you something.'

'Last time you said that you blew my mind with the Maze Walls. What this time?'

'Well, if I told you it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it?' There's some… look in his eyes. I can tell that whatever he's about to show me is going to be something special to him.

'Okay, let's go,' I say. I look back at Clint and Jeff. 'I'll be back later, okay?'

Jeff laughs. 'Take all the time you need. You crazy kids have fun, but not too much fun!' He looks at Newt, silently telling him If you mess up I'll hurt you. After just a few hours, the Medjacks are already acting like my brothers. The thought makes my heart ache. Do I have real brothers? Even if I don't, I have Clint and Jeff. I smile. I really do feel at home.