Everyone had finished the errands for the day that they were now left with the remaining hours free to do whatever they want. As usual, most of them were playing wrestling or whatever physical activity they could think of. Holly, on the other hand, decided to have some quiet time alone. It was something she didn't have ever since she arrived at the Glade. She wandered around the deadheads, picked up twigs and kicked off some dried leaves.
Life in the glade was pretty interesting for Holly and far from what she had expected. Knowing that it was some sort of experiment, she thought it would be a horrible and ugly place that tormented people. But, it wasn't like that. Even though all of them in the Glade were strangers to one another, they helped one another and worked as a team. No one got left out and everyone was treated equally. If it wasn't some kind of horrendous test made by WICKED, Holly would have actually enjoyed living a simple life there. She looked up at the sky, wondering how many hours or days it had been since she started her mission and felt guilty that she obviously hadn't done much like giving Newt the vaccine he needed. She closed her eyes and sighed softly. Although the gladers treated her like family since the day she arrived, she missed being back in her own time. She missed being alone in her room with her books, her overprotective brother Jack, and her training hours with her best friend Minho.
Holly froze as soon as she heard a twig breaking and saw a dark figure sneak behind one of the trees. She got a hold of the dagger tucked behind her shorts' pocket and quietly approached the shady area of the woods. To her relief, the figure happened to be Minho standing still behind the tall tree and wasn't quite happy to see her.
"Oh it's just you" Holly chuckled and loosened her grip on her dagger. "What are you doing there?"
Minho remained still and shot her with a poker expression. "What does it look like I'm doing?"
Holly gasped and innocently looked away once she realized that Minho was actually there doing his own business since the Glade didn't actually have any bathroom. She covered her eyes with both hands and stammered. "I-I didn't see anything" her cheeks and ears reddened.
Minho finished up his business, zipped his pants, and walked away smirking leaving her alone. Holly peeked between her fingers to see if he was done and quickly followed behind him, embarrassed that she disturbed him during his personal business.
"You're not that bad in wrestling" Minho blurted out haughtily and kept on walking without looking back at her.
Holly scoffed, tried her best to catch up with his fast pace. "Not that bad? Pfft. I beat you real good"
"I didn't want a greenie like you to look stupid in front of the crowd"
"Yeah, right, you just can't accept how good I am for a girl"
"Shut up"
Holly puffed her cheeks and began to make faces behind his back. She felt strange that she was standing there with her best friend but, at the same time he was not entirely like her best friend. She wanted to make friends with him so badly and thought of a good idea to get his attention.
"Hey, why don't we play a game?" Holly suggested with a grin.
Minho stopped on his track, sighed, and slowly turned around giving her an irritated look. "What makes you think I would want to do that?"
"Tsk, well, if you win I won't bother you anymore" she said confidently and could see that Minho was slowly showing interest with her bribe. "But if you lose, you have to do whatever I want for one whole day"
"What game are we playing then?" Minho mumbled, rubbing his nape and could not believe the words that were coming out of his mouth.
Holly smiled widely and stood beside him in the middle of the woods, "Let's see who's the fastest. From here, we race to the wall where our names are. Are you ready?"
Minho smirked and thought it was a pretty stupid idea to challenge him for a race when he was obviously the strongest and not to mention the keeper of the runners. He positioned himself and kept an eye on the path they would be taking. At the count on three, Minho and Holly dashed off of the woods with the cold wind brushing against their faces. The both of them were equally fast with Minho slightly taking the lead as expected. The Gladers who were all minding their own businesses were startled as soon as they jumped right out of the woods sprinting like madmen being chased by a pack of zombies.
"What are they doing?" Gally asked Alby curiously, looking at the woods and the two gladers running. "Is there some sort of trouble?"
Alby was just standing by the corner, smiling, as he watched them run across the courtyard. "Beats me but, it's good to see Minho play once in a while"
The wall was only a few miles away and Holly exerted a lot more effort into running. She began to pick up more speed and outran Minho, hitting the wall with her palm. Holly fell down on the grass, breathless and sweaty, feeling her heart pounding against her ribcage. Minho crouched down, exhausted as if he had just finished his daily routine running through the maze. Holly waved her hands up in the air weakly, thrilled to have won their contest.
"I won fair and square" Holly cheerfully pointed out and looked at Minho with a grin. "A deal is a deal"
Minho's annoyed expression slightly turned into a haughty smile. Even if he didn't want to admit it, he actually had fun. It was something that he hasn't felt in a very long time.
"I'll pick a day when I'm in the mood to do whatever you want me to do, greenie" he replied and walked back to the village to get some rest.
Holly sat up and patted her chest. She was completely exhausted from their running and yet happy with the outcome. Not only did she win the race but, she also felt that she was slowly starting to get close to the younger Minho. Minutes later, she got back up on her feet and decided to go grab something to drink to rehydrate herself. She walked towards the gardens fixing her ponytail and passed by two older builders.
On top of a makeshift tower that stood across the maze was Newt. From where he was standing, he could see the whole view of the glade and saw how peaceful it was. The wind gently brushed against his sweaty blonde hair as he kept a watchful eye over his fellow gladers. Scanning through the people that looked like ants from where he was, his eyes landed towards the gardens where Holly was talking to two other gladers. Without noticing, a smile formed on his face. He quickly shifted his gaze to another area as soon as he saw Alby climbing up the ladder to join him. He pushed his hair back pretending to be watching what the cooks were doing. Alby wasn't easy to fool though. On his way up the wooden ladders, he'd seen Newt looking at the female glader. Breathing in the fresh air, Alby leaned on the hand rail and looked below at the other gladers.
"Is it just me or are you getting a bit interested with our new glader?" Alby said with a teasing smile.
Newt laughed as if he just heard the most ridiculous thing and tried to find the perfect words to say, "Literally everyone here is interested to see a girl"
"When I say interested, I mean seeing her not just a glader"
"You must be jacked in the head for thinking that"
"Oh am I?" Alby laughed looking at his friend. "I've seen you hang out with her the most compared to the rest of us"
"She…she just makes me comfortable" Newt admitted with cautious words while ruffling his blonde hair. "For three years, I'm the only one hear with an accent—the only British person in this place. And as soon as she came and heard her talk the same as I am… I suddenly feel close to home. Well, I don't really know where home is but, you get my point" and not to mention, he spent most nights by the bonfire to listen to Holly's stories until they would fall asleep.
"So do you like her?"
"I couldn't say I fancy her. I don't know" he eyed Alby curiously. "What's with the sudden interrogation?"
"I don't know, man. It just seems like you're different"
"Different how?" he raised an eyebrow at their leader.
"Different in a way you're full of energy and look so alive" Alby smiled happily and patted his friend's back. He had spent the longest time with Newt and had seen a side of him completely different to the present one. Behind Newt's optimistic personality was a scarred person who had lost hope of ever escaping their prison. But seeing him now, Alby was glad that his friend was still breathing. Their friendly conversation got cut off after hearing a commotion below. They saw a group of gladers running towards the gardens. As the leaders, they quickly headed down to see what it was all about. They rushed towards them and squeezed themselves through the crowd. Newt and Alby looked around and saw Zart and Gally restraining Holly who tried to kick two of the builders who were sprawled on the ground with bruises on their faces and bodies.
"What happened here?" Alby asked, demanding an answer.
"We're not sure" Gally shrugged while holding Holly in place. "We just saw her beating up these two here"
Alby looked at the young girl and could see the angry expression on her face. He approached her calmly and asked her what had happened. Holly remained silent, looking at the two groaning guys angrily wishing she could beat them up some more.
"You know our rules, Holly" Alby said, "No harming other gladers or else you'll get a punishment unless you give us a plausible explanation as to why you did it"
Newt looked at Holly, curious with what she had to say. Everyone was also waiting for her to answer but she remained quiet. Alby sighed and had no choice but to give her a punishment for breaking a rule. She had to stay in the pit for the night with no dinner. Gally escorted her to the pit while the others helped out the two injured guys back to the homestead.
A couple of hours later, darkness crept in with the moon and hundredths of stars replacing the sun. The gladers lit up torches and lanterns to brighten up the village. Stacks of bowls were being filled with Fry Pan's stew and each of the gladers found a place to sit and ate their meal while chatting with friends. Everyone was filling up their empty stomachs after a hard day's work. Alby was talking amongst the keepers while eating his food when he noticed Newt sitting quietly in front of the bonfire. He had been staring blankly at the fire and hadn't even touched his food. Without asking what was wrong, he already knew what was going on in his head.
The night was colder than the usual and Holly began to shiver as she looked up the starry sky. The pit was completely dark and its surroundings were dusty, hard, and cold with ants walking around. It didn't feel comfortable and perfectly suited as a jailhouse. She leaned her head against the wall and heard her stomach grumbled and her mouth and throat felt dry. She closed her eyes tightly trying to shake off the fact that she was cold, hungry, and thirsty. While she forced herself to fall asleep, she heard faint footsteps rustling over the grass coming towards her. She looked up and thought that it might be Gally checking up on her. The light and shadow grew bigger as it got closer to the pit. The figure crouched down in front of the pit's door and it was none other than Newt carrying a torch in one hand and some stuff on the other.
"Feeling cozy down there?" he teased with a gentle smile.
Holly was able to smile at the sight of a friendly face and somehow forgot that she was in an uncomfortable state. Newt placed down the stuff he was holding and carefully tied the torch on the corner to shed some light in the dark pit where holly was. He carefully squeezed a blanket through the hole of the door and also handed her a bowl of stew and a jar of water. Holly bolted up at the sight of food and water and carefully took it from him. She sat back down on the dusty pit and drank a huge amount of water that it started trickling on the corner of her lips.
"Take it easy" Newt laughed.
Holly felt so hydrated and then moved to the bowl of soup to eat to please her grumbling stomach. "Thank you so much, Newt"
"Sorry if it got cold" Newt said, sitting in front of the door and eagerly watched her eat, "I had to wait for the others to sleep to sneak it here"
Holly was too hungry that she was almost done with the stew not caring if it already turned as cold as the evening breeze. She smiled at him before continuing with her meal. "I really appreciate you giving me food and water. Thank you"
A smile appeared on Newt's face once more and continued to watch her quietly. He was still curious as to what happened earlier in the gardens that resulted to spending a night in the pit. He had spent countless of times with Holly already and she didn't seem to be the kind of girl that would just start hurting others unless threatened. He leaned closer with his head resting against the wooden prison door.
"So, what happened earlier? With the two builders?" he casually asked. "We talked to them and they said you just started punching them"
Holly laughed and seemed to be annoyed with what Newt said. "Oh, did they?" she asked amused and placed the empty bowl aside before answering him again in a sarcastic way, "Yeah, I was in a bad mood and just decided to punch them"
Newt could tell that that wasn't the case but at the same time felt that Holly didn't want to talk about it at all. He smiled again and played with the knot that kept the pit door locked. "Well, I'll make sure I won't get on your bad side then"
Holly chuckled and shivered with the gust of wind. She unfolded the gray blanket given to her by Newt and covered herself with it getting cozy.
"You should head back to the homestead, it's pretty cold tonight" she insisted.
"Will you be able to sleep there?" Newt asked concerned knowing that she couldn't sleep well at night.
For a moment, Holly suddenly remembered the way Minho would worry about her over the littlest things. She rested her head against the wall and looked up at him with a grin, "I'll manage. And besides, I'm here to be punished not to be pampered. Get some rest"
"Alright" Newt chuckled and untied the torch from the corner and held it again. "I'll come here first thing in the morning"
"I'll see you tomorrow, goodnight"
Newt sneaked back to the homestead without making any sound, eager to get some goodnight sleep after a very tiring day. Upon reaching his own hammock, he heard whispering voices coming from the far right. Surrounded by sleeping gladers two guys, the ones whom Holly had beaten up, were still awake. They spoke to one another in hoarse whispering voices but good enough for Newt to eavesdrop.
"She punches really good" one guy said while holding a wet cloth over his swelling cheek.
The other guy agreed lying still on his hammock after being kicked between the legs, "I didn't think she was that strong"
"I know but, somehow it was worth it. Did you feel how soft her breasts were?"
"Oh damn, it felt so good touching it. Too bad she had to fight back"
Their perverted words sickened Newt that he couldn't help but to make a fist. The two builders continued to talk about the way they tried ganging up on her at the gardens which angered him even more. He was about to confront them when, to his surprise, Minho appeared and grabbed them both by the collar. Minho, who was resting on his hammock near theirs, overheard everything that they said and was disgusted to even know that they were a part of their pack.
The thought of sleeping outdoors disappeared from Holly's thoughts as she was curled on the dark pit fast asleep. She jolted straight up with eyes still sleepy after hearing a loud thud on the neighboring pit and deep groaning voices. She got on her feet to peek through the door and was surprised to see Newt with Minho busy closing the other pit.
"What's going on?" she asked sleepily as soon as Newt came closer to open the door of the pit where she was in.
He gave her a hand and gently pulled her out of the dark cellar, draping the blanket over her shoulders.
"Go back to your hammock and get some sleep" he commanded with a gentle voice and gave her a soft push on the back towards the homestead.
Holly was confused. It was still dark which meant that she was not yet supposed to leave the pit until the break of dawn. She lazily walked toward the homestead and looked behind seeing Newt and Minho angrily scolding two guys who were now inside the pit taking her place.