I looked around the desolate street finding nothing. I was searching for something. No, someone. I walked along the cracked sidewalk looking at the broken down buildings. They were covered with graffiti and so worn down they must not have been kept up for a few decades. I noticed Mother nature was trying to reclaim what was rightfully her's. The once busy office building was covered in ivy and had all sorts of moss and such growing from the cracks in the mortar. I was admiring how something so large could be so quickly abandoned an taken over by nature that I didn't notice the girl standing in the middle of the road.
"Where are you going at this time of day, Rylee? I'm telling mom and dad." the girl said. I know this voice. My head whipped around. She was slowly walking to me. I gasped and tried to hold down bile that threatened to let loose from my stomach. Tears formed in my eyes. The girl had missing patches of hair and had dried scabs all over her face and body. There were oozing sores on her arms and legs. Her eyes were blood shot and wild.
"What? Do you not remember your own twin?" the girl asked. I shook my head.
"You aren't her. You aren't Gracelyn." I said, my shaking voice giving away my fear. The girl smiled, showing nasty unkempt teeth. She kept walking ever so slowly towards me. My back bumped into the side of the building I was studying. I suddenly knew I was in trouble. There was no where for me to go. I was trapped. The girl stopped a few feet away from me. I noticed a small golden locket hanging from her neck. I instantly grabbed mine. They matched. This girl was my sister Gracelyn. I fought to hold back the tears that threatened to spill over.
"So you have finally realized it was me." she said. I shook my head. How could such a beautiful girl become what was standing in front of me.
"I'm a Crank, Rylee. You are the lucky one that was immune. Mom and dad look worse than I do. They took you away from us and said they were going to find a cure. But you know what? I think you abandoned us, Rylee! You were always mom and dad's favorite! You never did anything wrong while I was always getting into trouble! And at the first sign of trouble you ran!" she yelled. I jumped at her sudden outburst. Gracelyn was less than a foot away. I gagged at the smell of rotting flesh. I looked into her eyes. They cleared up for a second. She looked sad.
"I'm sorry, Ry Ry. Please kill me. Please." she looked down and whispered. I grabbed a loose brick from the building and swung with all of my strength at her head. The awkward crunch of breaking bone could be heard. I coughed and my stomach let loose of any food. Tears were streaming down my face and I kept smashing the brick into her head. I looked down to see if she was moving and another wave of nausea hit me. Gracelyn barely had a face anymore. It was a bloody lump of brain, bone, and teeth. My knees gave out and I slumped to the ground.
"I'm so sorry Gracelyn." I cried as I grabbed the matching locket with shaking hands and put it in my pocket. I stood up and started to walk away, only to discover I was surrounded by Cranks. They were closing in fast. I screamed.
I woke up with a start. The nightmare fresh in my mind. I sat up and noticed I was on the ground. I must have fallen asleep here last night. I stood up and stretched. Newt wasn't beside me anymore. I looked around the Glade to find the familiar dirty blonde hair ushering people through the large doors that I had tried to run through last night. I walked over to him.
"Good morning, love." he said as he turned his attention back to the people who ran through the doors. I stood beside him and watched as a group of four people ran down the corridor and then disappeared around a corner.
"What are they doing? Who are they?" I asked. Newt turned to me.
"They are the Runners. They run the maze everyday, mapping it out, trying to find a way out of this bloody place." he said. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and started walking back to the Homestead. We walked in silence the rest of the way back to the other Gladers who were just waking up. Frypan's bell rang and everyone started for his shack. I sat down at one of the picnic tables as Newt grabbed us breakfast. I had so many questions running through my mind, that I didn't notice Gally sitting beside me.
"Whatcha thinking about, beautiful?" he asked. I jumped and turned to face Gally. I rolled my eyes, wishing Newt would hurry up with my food. Gally only smiled and brushed my hair from my face. I looked up and took a deep breath. Could this guy be any more disgusting?
"Are you here to get punched in the face again? Because I will gladly do that for you." I said. Gally laughed and laid his hand on my thigh. Here we go again.
"No. I just want to take time and talk to a pretty lady such as yourself." he said as his hand inched higher. My patience was wearing thin.
"You are the most disgusting person I have ever met. Why would I want to waste my breath and talk to you?" I asked. Gally's eyes grew dark. His whole expression changed. His grip on my thigh tightened. I winced at the pain and tried to pry his hand off of me.
"Don't you forget who saved you from being Griever food. The least you could do was show me some gratitude. I saved your life you little bitch." he said. Tears formed in my eyes and I did the only thing I knew how to. I punched Gally again with all of my might. He fell back onto the ground. I stood up and began to kick him in the ribs. I hadn't noticed but I was screaming at the top of my lungs. Many of the Gladers had crowded around to see all of the commotion. Someone wrapped their arms around my waist and drug me away from Gally's motionless body. I struggled to break free.
"Rylee, it's me." said a familiar accent. I looked up into Newt's eyes and lost it. I started crying harder. I covered my face with my hands and he wrapped his arms around me.
"What happened?" he asked. I took a deep breath and showed him my leg where there was a bruise forming in the perfect shape of Gally's hand. I wiped the tears away from my eyes and looked into his face. His expression slightly scared me.
"Go back to the Homestead and wait for me there. I need to talk to Alby for a second." he said. I nodded my head and made my way to the Homestead. I found Chuck sitting on a chair, whittling on a small piece of wood. He looked up at me and smiled. I tried my best to smile back but it never reached my eyes. I sat in my hammock right next to where Chuck was sitting. I watched him for a minute.
"What's wrong with me, Chuck? Why am I always being targeted by Gally? This is only my second day here." I said as tears fell from my eyes. Chuck sat the small piece of wood and his knife on a table and turned to me.
"Gally is a big shuck head. He is a different kind of person, and you either like him or hate him. There's no in between with him. I don't think he's a bad person. He just doesn't know how to act around a girl. None of us do really. You're the first one we have seen, I'm guessing since before we got trapped in the Maze." he said. I smiled at his words.
"Well your doing a really good job." I said. Chuck blushed. I sat up and gave him a hug. At that moment, my heart swelled with something akin to fondness for the boy. I smiled and squeezed harder, then let go. I cupped his cheeks with my hands and kissed his forehead. He blushed and I giggled.
All of a sudden there was a commotion out in the Glade. I looked at Chuck and he shrugged. We walked out to find a group of Gladers crowded around someone. Something didn't feel right so I jogged over to the group. I pushed my way through the crowd and found a boy of a bout fourteen on the ground gasping for air. His face was swollen and his lips were turning blue.
"What happened?" I asked no one in particular. I looked around the group ready for an answer. A small boy looked up at me.
"We were taking a break and he grabbed a pack of crackers to snack on and all of a sudden he started doing that." he said. Tears had formed in his eyes. He tried to wipe them away before anyone had noticed. I grabbed the pack of crackers and looked at the ingredients. Peanut butter. Something was telling me that he was having an allergic reaction to the peanut butter.
"Where is the first aid kit?" I asked hoping to find a way to help the boy. Chuck made his way through the crowd to me.
"Here. I grabbed it just in case." he said. I thanked him sat the kit down on the ground beside the boy. I opened it up and started rummaging around for what I needed. There at the bottom was an epinephrine pen. Something in my mind told me it was the right choice. I grabbed it and took off the cap. I lifted up the boy's shorts leg over his upper thigh and jammed the needle into the muscle. Pushing the button, I released the medicine from the pen. Within a few seconds, the boy was breathing better. I sighed and and hung my head for a second.
"Can someone help me take him to the Homestead please." I said as I stood up. A couple boys walked up to me and laid him on a make-shift gourney. They lifted him up and started to the Homestead. I followed and watched the boys sit him on a bed. I laid his head on the pillow and felt for a pulse. His heart rate was finally going down. I walked over to a sink and found a towel. I ran the towel under cold water and proceeded back to the boy in the bed. His eyes opened as I began to wipe away all of the sweat. I smiled as his eyes found mine.
"What happened?" he asked as he sat up. I sat down in a chair beside the bed.
"You had an allergic reaction to the peanut butter filling in the crackers you ate. Your tongue swelled and your throat started closing." I said. The boy looked at me.
"How did you know what to do?" he asked. I shrugged.
"I really don't know how I knew what do to. It just felt like second nature to me. Almost like I had done it my whole life, but I just can't remember doing any of it." I said. Just then Alby and Newt came walking through the door.
"What happened?" asked Alby. The boy walked up to Alby and Newt and smiled.
"She saved my life. I didn't know I was allergic to peanut butter and I ate some crackers with peanut butter filling and then all of a sudden I couldn't breathe. She got some medicine and shoved it in my leg. See?" he said as he lifted up the leg of his shorts to show Alby and Newt the spot where I put the needle. I grabbed a band aid and put it over the small spot of blood. I crouched down to his level and grabbed his shoulders.
"Stay away from peanut butter. And any kind of nuts for that matter. When you go eat something please come to me so I can make sure it's okay for you to eat. Alright?" I asked. He nodded his head and looked to the doorway. The small boy that was with him was standing there.
"Joshua! Your alive!" he yelled as he ran into the arms of the boy I saved. I smiled as they hugged each other.
"I told you I would never leave you alone." he said. The smaller boy hugged harder and then let go. He smiled then ran to me and threw his arms around my neck. I hugged back and stood up with him. I moved him so that he was sitting on my hip.
"Thank you for saving my brother. I'm Jarred." he said as he gave me a kiss on the cheek. I smiled.
"Your very welcome Jarred. I'm Rylee." I said as I sat him back down on his feet. The small boy ran back over to Joshua and grabbed his hand.
"Jarred, I'm gonna need your help watching over Joshua here, okay? When he eats something, make sure you tell me. He is allergic to anything made with peanuts and we don't want him to do that again, do we?" I asked. Jarred shook his head.
"You guys take it easy for the rest of the day, okay?" I said. Jarred and Joshua nodded their heads and made their way out of the small building. I sighed and sat back down in the chair. Newt walked over to me and smiled. He and Alby sat on the bed where Joshua just was.
"Thank you for doing that." I looked up to Alby and smiled.
"I couldn't just stand around and do nothing." I said. Alby nodded his head. He must be a man of few words. I started getting nervous. Newt broke the silence.
"Alby and I think it would be a good idea if you had your own place to sleep, away from all of the guys." he said. I nodded my head.
"And I'm appointing you a Medjack." said Alby. I looked at him.
"What's a Medjack?" I asked. Newt giggled. He actually giggled. Something stirred in my heart. I rubbed the spot on my chest where I had a funny feeling.
"A Medjack is someone who does all sorts of medical related things like clean cuts and dispense medicines and such." he said. I nodded my head.
"Good. And as for the sleeping situation, you will be sleeping in the Keeper's quarters until the Builders can build something for you." he said. I nodded. Alby stood up and held out his hand. I took it and smiled. I watched as he walked out the door. My attention turned back to Newt. He was still sitting there watching me. I blushed and busied myself with cleaning the towel I had used on Joshua.
"Rylee." I stopped what I was doing. I heard Newt stand up and walk closer to me. My heart rate quickened. I shuddered and goosebumps formed on my arms. I jumped slightly as his fingers lightly ran up and down my arms. I heard him sigh.
"What are you doing to my head? I can't seem to get you out of it. You are all I have been thinking about since I pulled you out of the bloody Box." he said as he leaned in closer to my ear. I felt his breath fan across my cheek. My heart started beating double time. If he was any closer I'm sure he would have heard it too. I turned slowly and faced Newt. I looked straight into his beautiful brown eyes. He wasted no time and crashed his lips onto mine. I was surprised to say the least, but I quickly regained some of my sanity and kissed back. For some reason everything felt right, like we were supposed to be like this. Together. Me and him. Nothing else really mattered. Not Gally. And certainly not the Maze.