"Anna? Anna." Someone is shaking my shoulders I sit up really fast almost hitting heads with someone but I quickly stop my head.
"What?" I ask realizing its Newt.
"I came in this morning to wake you up and you were on the ground, are you okay?" He asks helping me up.
"Yeah. I'm fine. I fell last night and I guess I didn't get up. But I'm fine." I say. Taking a few careful steps I walk normally knowing I won't trip or anything. Newt walks besides me. We get breakfast and walk out to the gardens around here. He hands me a shovel.
"Get ready to weed. This is what we do all day. I mean I'm a runner but I'm supposed to show you the ropes today." Newt grabs a shovel to. I know what weeding is and I know I hate shovels. Why? I don't know. I try not to focus on that as I get a headache.
"Can I just use my hands?" I ask crouching in the dirt. Newt nods. I kneel in the soft dirt and start pulling out weeds. Newt kneels next to me, weeding as well, all though he uses a shovel.
"Newt, what's out in the Maze? Why can't I go out there? Why are we here?" I ask breaking the silence.
"We don't know why we're here. We just know we have to solve the Maze to get out. You can't go out there because you're not a runner. Only runners go out there, it's for your own safety." Newt pauses. I can tell he doesn't want to go on. "And the Grievers are out there. No one survives a night in the Maze. Grievers are dangerous monsters. We've never really seen one full force before but we do know no one survives them." With that happy note he changes the subject.
"We should find you a job. What do you like to do?" Newt asks. What do I like to do? I get to choose what I want to do? I get to pick?
"Ugh!" I bend over putting my head on my knees.
"Anna!" Newt sits me up and places his hands on my shoulders. He's looking at me.
"I don't understand why this is happening but I don't like it. You're in pain and it's not okay." He pauses. The pain starts to go away. "We need to figure out why this is happening. I'm going to help you, don't worry. It will be okay." He finishes. The pain goes away. I rub my head.
"Thanks. The pain is gone." I say. He nods. Looking up across the Glade I see Newt watch Alby walk across the field.
"I need to talk to Alby. I'll be right back." Newt says standing up. I watch him run over to Alby. I can see them talking, but I can't hear them so I go back to weeding. I'm almost done with one row when Newt comes back. He kneels down besides me again and starts helping.
"If you want we can try to figure out why you get these headaches...?" Newt asks cautiously. I hesitate. I know this will involve a lot of pain but I mean it's a chance.
"Okay." I say quietly. "Whenever your ready." I say tightening my hands around the root I'm holding. Newt studies me. I can see that out of the corner of my eye.
"Okay. Your free here." Newt says looking at me. He stops weeding. My hands tighten. I'm not free. They always told me I was never free. Who are they? Wait. Was I a captive? I double over in pain a single image going through my mind.
Two men are pulling me away in black suits. "No!" I scream looking at a boy in front of me. He's being pulled away from me to, in the opposite direction. "Anna! Let me go." The voice yells sounding familiar. I struggle against my captives and shout one more thing I can't hear before I can't take it anymore.
The pain pushes all thoughts away from me.
"Anna..." A soft voice breaks through. The pain starts to fade. I'm in a garden; Newt is holding my arms steady. I sit up facing him.
"You said something. You said no and then you said wait, let me say goodbye. Any idea what that means?" Newt goes back to weeding. I follow suit.
"I've no idea. I only remember yelling no." I say. Newt nods lost in thought.
"Let's try again?" I ask after a couple of minutes. Newt looks uneasy.
"Are you sure? You looked like you were in a lot of pain." He says wiping his hands on his cargo pants. I nod, pushing all tears out of my eyes.
"Okay." Newt sticks his tongue out slightly and knits his eyebrows together, frowning slightly. I can't help think he looks cute.
"No breaks." He finally decides. Nothing clicks right away. Then a quick image goes through my sight.
I'm fighting with a masked person. He's kicking me in the stomach, telling me to get up. Someone from the side of the room, someone I can't see yells, "You have to stay in the ring until you beat him. Get up!" I slowly get to my feet and stagger towards the masked man. Falling down in pain I yell out, "I think my ribs are broken! Just five minutes, please. Don't make me fight again!" I'm kicked in the side again. "Keep going!" The man off to the side yells.
I'm back in the Glade clutching my head, leaning onto my knees.
"Agh, make it stop!" I clench my teeth, gritting them so hard I'm sure they'll break. Newt undoes my hair slowly, letting me focus on that instead of the pain. Every time his fingers graze my back I can feel a little shiver, a good shiver, run down my spine. Pieces of my hair fall into my face. It touches the ground. I didn't realize it was so long.
"Wow. You have really long hair!" Newt says helping me up. I chuckle. "Want to talk about that one?" Newt says eyeing my clenched fists.
"I remembered. I was taken from someone important to me and I was put in a training place with only me in it. I had to fight my way out of every obstacle if I wanted to survive." I say sadly. "But I can't remember who the important person is or what my life was like before that. I don't remember the outside world or anything like that." I wince remembering the pain. Newt nods.
"You were saying something. Something like you thought your ribs were broken and you didn't want to fight anymore?" He asks. I shudder.
"Yeah. They made me keep fighting. I remember that time. I was broken, bloody and bruised when five hours after fighting I finally got my component out of the ring by tripping him. They wouldn't let me stop. I had to keep fighting." I say darkly. I don't want to remember this. Newt stops weeding and looks at the ground darkly. I study him. He can look pretty scary when he wants to.
"Well now we know something of your past. Not a pretty one but at least we know." Newt says trying to lighten the mood. I smile slightly, just to be nice. We work side by side for the rest of the day, Newt telling me about the Glade. I'm laughing most of the day. Newt is too.
pause
After dinner we're walking to the bonfire place where they set up the fire again. The runners are back and are hanging out with everyone. The maze doors aren't closed yet. Newt told me they closed at night and opened at dawn. We were sitting side by side against a log enjoying the sounds of the others partying. I'm deep in thought when the memory comes to me. Suddenly I turn to him.
"What is it?" He asks concerned.
"It was you." I whisper my pulse quickening. It was him. I'm sure of it. He was there. I didn't want to leave him.
"Anna, what was me? What's going on?" Newt puts a hand on my shoulder. I look at him squarely in the eye.
"You were the one I was trying to get back to." I say my shock building inside me. Newt stares at me in confusion then in realization.
"I was the one calling out to you when they were taking you away?" He asks his eyes grasping at the concept.
"I remember now. They took me from somewhere and you had run after me. Then we got away from them and kept running but more of them kept coming. You were grabbed and taken away from me...that was the last time I saw you before you were taken" I say slumping against the log.
"I knew you before the Maze." Newt whispers. I smile into the darkness, finally figuring it out. I start laughing. Newt looks at me like I'm insane.
"Why are you laughing?" He asks cracking a smile. My laughter is contagious.
"I don't know. It's just I'm happy. I figured it out. I finally figured it out." I say doubling over laughing harder. Newt starts laughing too. We end up sitting there for like ten minutes just laughing. Finally I manage to stop laughing. Newt turns to me, his laughter stopping to.
"Well miss Anna, I must say I haven't seen you in a while." He says. I roll my eyes at him.
"You don't even remember that." I complain. He winks at me.
"Let's go mingle. It's time you meet some new people. What do you say?" Newt stands up, offering me a hand. I glance at him. "I thought I'd try my chances." He smiles cockily. I grab it and he pulls me up. Sticking my tongue out at him I walk around observing everyone.
"Let's go say hi to Minho." I say grabbing Newt's arm pulling him with me. The rest of the night I meet everyone and talk with him.
They all know I'm a nice, full of laughter kind of person.