Day 2
Newt POV
It didn't take long since the newbie got here that Newt found himself befriending the boy. Unlike the previous arrivals, this bloke was eager to know what's going on. Usually, it took about a week for the newbies to start asking questions. And then another week for them to finally fit it and realize their stuck in this hell hole.
But not Thomas. His constant questioning and childlike curiosity would have been annoying if they weren't amusing. This morning Newt found Thomas trying to grill through one of the runners, Minho, and Newt had to practically the shove the boy away so the runners could set out and enter the maze.
Curiosity like that could get a bloke killed. He knew that Thomas wanted to be a runner. Hell, everyone knew. But it was dangerous and Thomas exerted an aura that almost attracted danger.
Which is why Alby decided Newt to keep watch on him. Guard him without making it obvious. And so they were now busy working on the garden, but every few minutes he'd look up and see the boy distracted. After the third time, Newt raised his eyebrows.
"What are you looking at?" Newt asked.
Thomas had stopped plucking weeds and was busy staring out in the distance. In fact, he was doing that for about a minute, and Newt just realized that throughout that time he was also busy staring at the boy.
Thomas's eyes darted into his and looked confused.
"You keep staring off in a distance." Newt explained.
He turned to look at where he was staring at and he sighed. Not more than twenty feet away, the large, looming doors of the maze was located. Shadows covered the walls, weed splattered against the sides of the walls. A rush of air swept past them and he looked back at Thomas.
Newt bent down and plucked the weed that was tangled with the crops, careful not to accidentally pluck out a vine that carried the cucumbers.
"What..." Thomas began, looking unsure.
"Go on." Newt urged.
Thomas shook his head, as if to clear it. Then he leaned toward Newt. "What do the runners do exactly? I know they are trying to find a way out the maze, but you guys have been doing it for three whole years and still haven't found a way out."
"Still on that runner conundrum?" Newt pulled out a weed and threw it over his shoulder, before glancing back at him. "Mapping the maze isn't particularly easy. When a runner goes out there, he's risking his own very life. You know what a Griever is?"
"Chuck mentioned it to me." He nodded, still leaning toward me. What a eager bloke. Newt held back a grin.
"Right, well those bloody beasts roam the maze. The only reason we haven't succeeded yet because of them. They make it quite difficult to map out the maze. As soon as their eyes land on a runner, the only thing left to do is to run for your life. Not once did we ever kill one of them."
"It's like a game." Thomas murmured quietly.
Newt looked at him, considering. "How so?"
"I mean, it's like we've been put here for the purpose of escaping. But those Grievers are our obstacles that we need to overcome before we can finish the maze and win the game." He explained.
"It's not possible to overcome that obstacle though." Newt dismissed his explanation. "No one, not ever, killed a Griever. We have no means to kill them off."
"The runners go out there defenseless?" Thomas gave him a shocked look.
"Well, we have sticks that we turned into spears if that counts for something." Newt shrugged. Wiping the dirt from his trousers, he stood up.
Thomas remained crouched on the ground, contemplating Newt's words.
Newt gave him a half-smile. "Now enough chatting and go get us some fertilizer."
"What?" Thomas craned his head to the side in confusion, the moles over his neck in clear view.
"Fertilizer." Newt repeated, grabbing a nearby pail and threw it toward the boy who struggled to catch it.
He watched the boy trudge toward the forest, practically stomping his foot as he went along.
Newt grinned slyly and took a shovel and began to dig into the ground. Nearby, Winston who was filling the brown bag with the disposed weeds saw him grinning.
"Something funny?" Winston asked.
Newt shook his head and forced himself to look stoic, his usual expression.
Day 2: Afternoon
"Alright, the weeds are out." Newt announced. "Now all we need is to plant the new bushels."
"One problem." Winston called, raising a finger.
"What?" Newt stared at the boy, and he pointed toward the soil without saying anything.
Recognition flashed through him. Newt just realized that Thomas haven't returned with the fertilizer yet.
"Think he got lost?" He heard someone say. Newt looked up with a glare.
Before he could snap at that boy, he heard a scream.
"What-"
Thomas emerged from the forest screaming "Help!", and a boy, who Newt recognized as Ben, chasing after him.
The rest of the Glade, with Alby in lead, ran to help and find out what was going on.
"What is going on?" Newt heard Alby shout. Thomas was suddenly tackled into the ground, with Ben on top snarling. He moved to punch Thomas, and Newt ran toward them. Gally grabbed Ben from the back, while Newt grabbed Thomas from under and pulled him away. They all stared at Ben in shock, as he struggled in Gally's clutches.
"This is all your fault! All your fault!" He jabbed his finger toward Thomas, yelling and jerking like a crazed animal. Gally tightened his hold on him.
Newt could feel Thomas suck in a sharp breath.
"Thomas..." Newt began, turning toward the boy who was shaking in fright.
"What does he mean that it's my fault?" Thomas looked at him in confusion.
Before he could answer that he didn't know, Alby's voice interrupted them. "He's been stung."
Everyone gasped. Newt glanced at Ben and noticed all the symptoms. His fingers shaking, body twitching every few seconds, his pupils dark as coal.
"But it's daytime..." Newt said slowly, looking at Alby.
"We'll worry about that later. For now, he needs to be put in the pit." Alby told Gally, who began to pull Ben away.
"No! No!" Ben shrieked in a panic. "Please no! I didn't mean to! This is not my fault! It's his fault!" He begged and glared at Thomas who was frozen. Newt put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.
"What's going to happen to him?" Thomas asked him.
"Same thing we do to anyone who gets stung. We get rid of them." Newt stared at the crowd of boys helping Gally take Ben away.
He turned back to look at Thomas. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah."
Newt somehow knew he was lying.
Day 2: Night
"What's going on?"
Newt held onto a stick they brought out for incidents such as these. Gally threw Ben into the circle they formed in front of the maze doors. It was nearing sunset, right before the maze doors automatically shut. The runners returned no more than ten minutes ago and Alby informed them of the situation. They joined them with the disposing.
"We're pushing him out." Newt told Thomas, who was watching them from the sidelines.
Thomas stayed silent and remained standing next to young Chuck. The maze doors began to scream with life and close in. Quickly, ignoring Ben's urgent pleas, they moved in and kept pushing until Ben stumbled inside the walls.
The maze doors slammed shut, the ground rumbling. Silence slid among the boys until Alby clapped his hands and told them that the party was over.
"This is so fucking weird. Kinda funny that shit happens like this right when Greenie shows up." Newt heard Gally sneer as they walked back.
Newt couldn't stop his next words. "What do you mean by that Gally? Thomas is one of us."
Gally raised his eyebrows and defended himself. "You heard what Ben said. This is his fault. We never had anyone get stung in the middle day. Not until that twit came along."
A few boys overhearing their conversation stopped and watched. Thomas stood aside and looked at Gally uncertainly.
"And how is it his fault, exactly? Did he tell Ben go get stung in the middle of the day?" Newt argued. Inwardly, he was wondering why he was so rigid on defending the boy.
Gally opened his mouth to argue, but Alby crossed to where they were and stepped in the middle. "Arguing isn't going change things." He bellowed.
Alby gave them a disappointed look. "We have each other. That's all we have. We need to work together. Always. We don't have time to point fingers."
Newt nodded and resumed walking. He heard Gally curse as he walked the other direction.
"Come on, Thomas." Newt told the boy who was watching their exchange with a uneasy look, stringing him along.
Thomas gave him a grateful smile. Newt didn't return it.
End Day Two