"It's a girl."
Those three simple words left Theo relieved and dismayed. The alarm only went off when a new Glader arrived, but the Greenbean was already here, Thomas. The two pushed their way to the front, where Newt was hunched over her, clutching a piece of paper in his hands.
"She's the last one. Ever."
Whispers erupted, shouts and whatever the less filled the air, both alarmed and confused. Newt leaned over once more, trying to rouse her. His head snapped back like a rubber band when she awoke, bright azure eyes staring into the sky. She spoke, her voice empty and hollow.
"Everything is going to change." and she instantaneously fell out of consciousness.
Alby pulled himself together, and bellowed, "Med-jacks!"
Clint and Theo pushed their way through the crowd, taking the girl from Newt's arms. They placed her on the ground, and spread her limbs as gently as possible. Jeff was right beside them, checking her body for any blatant injury. "Pulse low, but still there." he stated automatically.
"Her skin's dry, but flushed with color." Theo added, pressing her palm to her forehead. The dirt was moving around them, and a thin coat of grime clung to their clothes and skin."She's warm, barely."
Clint pressed his ear to her chest, feeling for a heartbeat. "Slow, but steady. No signs of immediate fluctuation, as if she were asleep this entire time."
"Who said Clint had first shot at her?" a voice bellowed from the crowd, it was hard to distinguish who. "I'm next!"
The nerve. Theo felt disgusted, and almost shocked at their audacity. She tried to focus on the girl, but it was nearly impossible for her to concentrate with them eyeing her like a piece of meat. The boys didn't demoralize her like that when she first arrived, maybe it was because she was awake, or not good looking enough? Maybe the cold, unconscious type was what men really went for. She felt like throwing up, because of how irrational she was being in a state of emergency. "Not the time." she hissed to herself, supporting the girl's middle as Clint and Jeff held her body on opposite sides. "Let's get back to the Homestead."
They placed the girl in a private room upstairs where Alby and Newt slept, thankfully away from the slintheads and shuckfaces. Theo swept the tables clean, and started filling them with all sorts of equipment, basins, tongue depressors, and fresh linens. In the event that she doesn't wake up, they'd prepare soup and other easy liquids they could feed her. Jeff placed a blanket across her lower half, and checked her heartbeat with his stethoscope. "Shuck, I can barely hear anything from all the noise downstairs."
Theo buried her hands in her face, "I hate boys."
Jeff smiled uneasily in return, "When the latest She-bean wakes up, I'm sure you two can share all your boy-hating stories."
"If she wakes up." Clint cut in realistically, pulling the blanket over her stomach. "Watch her, Theo. I'm sure she'd rather wake up to a girl's face than any of us." he nodded towards the door, "we left Ben alone, let's go."
Pulling up a chair, she leaned back, wiping the sweat from her brow. She pulled out a rubber band from her wrist, haphazardly tying the matted mess of hair behind her ears. There was nothing left to do for her, besides playing babysitter.
So this, she mused curiously, is what girls can look like.
It was like watching Snow White through her glass casket, still and eternally beautiful. Her hair was impossibly voluminous, blacker and silkier than hers. The comatose girl was gorgeously slender and much taller than her, as if frame was delicately built like a porcelain doll. She didn't sweat, despite the humidity, leaving her skin matte and unblemished. The female Med-jack had to pinch herself at how morbidly excessive she was thinking, but it felt all too familiar, the way a girl admired another out of envy. This girl definitely had power over her, and she wasn't even conscious.
The door opened behind her, and a certain sandy blond popped his head in.
"She okay?" Newt carefully shut the door behind him, resting his hand over the bed frame.
"Yeah, for now. Her vitals aren't weak, but not particularly strong either."
They watched the sleeping Snow White.
"Why," Newt said strangely, "are you looking at her like that?"
She blinked, "What are you talking about? You're staring at her too."
"Yeah," he shrugged, "but not like that."
"She's just," she fidgeted in her chair, "really pretty to look at." she wanted Newt to take back all the sanguine, sweet words he had said last night. She wanted him to say what she said last night was true, about out of all the millions of stars he could pick, there was always one brighter to choose from.
Somehow, Newt still found a way to smile in such a grave situation. The corners of his lips twitched upward, thoroughly amused by how genuine the Med-jack sounded. He looked back and forth between the two girls, before finally settling his eyes on Theo.
"Nope," he breathed, lightly shaking his head. "you're still prettier."
She gave him an are-you-kidding look, and her lips jutted in a semi-pout. He chuckled.
"Besides, I like my girls awake." he winked, and left it at that.
The next day was spent with endless screams, exhaustion, and the enigmatic process known as the Changing. Conveniently, too conveniently, Ben woke up in a wave of spasms and started screeching, his wrists and ankles red and raw from rubbing against the leather straps. The female Med-jack tried forcing Thomas out of the room so she could do her job, but he easily overpowered her, arguing about what they were hiding from him and what was happening to the poor guy. He seemed to pop up and involve himself everywhere, Theo noted bitterly. It wasn't until Alby and Chuck showed up that he finally got kicked out, the leader quickly pinning Ben back to bed and attempting to relax him. Ben's eyes were wide in fear, as if a ghost had entered his mind.
"Ben, you've been stung, you're not thinking straight!" Alby clenched his teeth, the taller boy trying to struggle out of his weight.
"No, you don't understand!" Ben cried, his mouth gurgling with foam. "That kid, he's bad! Bad, bad."
"What are you talking about." Theo said in a monotone, one hand resting on Ben's pulse and the other holding a sedative, just in case. She ignored the way Ben's nails managed to dig into her wrist, "You just met him, he's the new Glader, Thomas."
"Thomas is bad," Ben said again, "Bad, bad, bad."
"It's your sickness talking, Ben." she breathed out, exchanging looks with Alby.
Ben started shaking like an autumn leaf, trying to wriggle his way out, but Alby pushed harder."No, I'm not lying!" a strangled cough soon followed, a mixture of saliva and his mucus spreading over his mouth. "Please, please, please."
Clint and Jeff soon returned, Newt in tow. The two Med-jacks came with extra rope, and didn't hesitate to wrap another layer around Ben's body.
"Tommy's being bloody difficult." Newt sighed, "He won't stop until he knows what's going on."
Alby's hard features were permanently etched onto his face, finally getting off of Ben."The Greenbean is way too curious for his own good."
"He tried going into the Maze," and when the pure look of distress and anger bloomed across Alby's face, Newt quickly added, "okay, not really. He was just extremely close, but Gally stopped him before he could try anything."
"I'll go talk to him. Keep a close eye on Ben until he falls asleep."
"Yessir." he mock saluted, and walked over to Theo's side, arms crossed. Both of them failed to make eye contact with each other, the memories of last night and the day before haunting them into a lovey-dovey stupor. The suave, charming Newt from yesterday was being locked away for the sake of the situation. She was busy dunking a cloth with cold water, falling into routine of wringing the cloth and cleaning Ben's face in the hopes of cooling him down. He was still shaking, but visibly subdued. The only sounds were the pit-pat of the dripping water and Ben's heavy breaths, labored with exhaustion.
"What did Thomas tell you?" Clint asked, jotting notes on his clipboard.
"Nothing," she replied distantly, occupying herself with the towel, pressing and twisting it until her fingers were numb. "he kind of just walked in, tried to get some information, and then we kicked him out."
"Well, it was creepy when Ben started callin' him bad." Jeff kept it real, resting his body against the wall.
"Please, Thomas looks about as harmless as a litter of kittens." Theo scoffed.
"A stupid one, because he thinks he really has nine lives if he wants to go out in the Maze."
"I'll go get some broth for Ben in case he gets hungry." Theo announced, hanging the cloth over the bedpost. "Make sure he stays hydrated, he's been sweating all day." she stopped in front of Newt, who remained placid as he watched Ben, as if he were trying to read him. Nothing. Making sure the Med-jacks weren't watching, she placed a hand on his shoulder, before leaving the room.
"Theo," Chuck met her halfway from the Homestead, waving his arms back and forth. He was shifting on his heels, back and forth like he was nervous and ready to klunk his pants, but he seemed almost ecstatic. "Where are you going? Can we come with?"
She raised an eyebrow, where Thomas was awaiting patiently behind Chuck. "I don't know," she replied dryly.
"But first, I need to go to the bathroom." as if to prove his point, Chuck clutched his pants as if he were to explode at any moment, running away. Two pairs of eyes followed his terrible acting, and Thomas winced at his new friend for making it so obvious.
"Sorry about that," he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, "I asked Chuck if he'd lead me to you, I had a feeling that you wouldn't be willing to see me if I asked on my own."
"You were right." she replied, and she sighed when he continued to follow her even after she walked away. "I'm not going to avoid you." she said levelly, running a hand behind her ear and taking caution with her bruise.
Without even knowing it, Thomas was already in front of her, their shoulders at a diagonal parallel. She frowned at the enormous height difference, her head barely reaching his shoulder. Despite them being in the open Glade, she felt absolutely cornered.
"You know me." he whispered, as if he were talking to a long lost friend with retrograde amnesia.
"No, I don't." and she meant it.
"You must know something." he tried again, searching her for any ounce of self-doubt. "It can't possibly be a coincidence that you're the only girl here, conscious, I mean. Or at least, you must know something about the Maze." and he reached for her hand, and marveled in the way that it fit so snugly against his bigger one. "Don't you feel that?" he murmured under his breath.
"Feel what?"
"The fact that we've experienced something like this."
Theo was tolerant enough of the fact that he was blatantly touching her when they've barely known each other, but what irked her the most was that he was actually trying. He saw something in her, and he was fighting to remember what it was. It wasn't to say that other Gladers didn't try as hard to remember their past, but he was completely convinced they had something in the past, something important. "Look," she slowly extracted her hand from his, deciding whether or not this was a good idea. "I'm not lying when I said I don't remember you, but that doesn't mean we had… something beforehand." She needed to stop keeping secrets, she thought, and finally pressed a piece of paper to his palm. "The Box sent me this over a month ago."
Thomas didn't hesitate in opening the letter, scanning it like a finite lazerbeam.
"Does it look familiar?" Theo asked, and she was starting to invest some of herself into Thomas' eager mind.
"Yeah, too familiar." Thomas admitted, his one hand flying to his forehead as if he had a searing headache. "I recognize this handwriting." The phrase: Remember the variables was open in the middle of them, as they both tried to dissect the phrase letter by letter. The handwriting was simple, blocky and neat, but from the way the pencil swished and faded the person was probably in a rush to sneak it in.
She quickly folded it up and stuffed it back in her pocket. "Well, if you do ever find out what it means, you come tell me."
Thomas nodded slowly, probably deterred that he wasn't able to remember it so readily. "Thanks, Theo." he said, a tiny grateful smile playing on his lips. "You're probably the first person here who trusts my judgement."
He wasn't so bad, Theo concluded. "Yeah, and Chuck is probably waiting for you. Don't let him eat alone."
"Will do."
Banishment.
Barely twenty-four hours had passed and it happens. The Glade may not have said it out loud, but they were practically in a state of mourning.
Theo had returned from the Builder's area to reclean Gally's wound when she saw Clint and Jeff sprawled across the floor, both sporting bloody noses. Ben's bed was empty. By the time she had informed Alby, Ben had already pounced on Thomas in the middle of the Deadheads with a weapon at hand and the Changing eating up his sanity. Alby acted responsibly, with an arrow to the head. When she heard the story from Chuck and they brought in Ben's semi-living body, she was practically sweating through her shirt. She was ready to clean his wounds, but someone stopped her, gripping her arm.
"We should take care of Thomas too, he got a few nasty cuts." Jeff gestured to the partially shell-shocked teen on the other side of the room. They were practically running, because Alby was practically fuming at how reckless the Glader behaved. "We're going to take care of Ben in the Slammer."
She agreed curtly, weaving past the multitude of people blocking her way. The tent was filled, with many witnesses from the Glade, Newt was one of them. But patients came first, and she finally made it to Thomas on the other end, glaring. "Should I be surprised?"
The brunette furrowed his eyebrows. "Are you saying it's my fault?" Without warning, Theo pressed an antiseptic pad to his open cheek, which caused him to hiss in pain.
"I'm not assuming anything."
"I need to talk to you." he said in a low voice, "alone."
She tensed, and covered her confusion by cleaning away Thomas' cuts. "Not now." she whispered, "too much has gone by to have a chit-chat."
He nodded in understanding. "Soon, though."
"Fine."
But nothing was fine. The rest of the day was a blur, and the only thing that she could distinctly recollect was Ben's screams. Nothing but screaming. She was thankful for her short height when Alby forced every Glader to the entrance of the Maze a half hour before sundown. She didn't want to picture this, she was still so terrified of Glader customs and keeping order, so she made sure she was in the back. It was selfish, but needed. Thomas was beside her, just as mortified as she. They exchanged gazes, both with silent tears running down their faces. They closed their eyes in unison, the echo of the Maze closing shut reverberated through their feet. Ben belonged to the Maze now.
"I'm going to do it." Thomas said numbly, the guilt and confusion evident in his face. "I'm going to be a Runner."
Theo believed him.
Remember the variables. If they couldn't figure out the conclusion to this, they were all very well dead, and would end up like Ben. She shivered, but kept her eyes trained on the note, hoping it would magically rearrange the letters and create a path out of the Glade. Every Glader was awake, even if it was way past lights out. Some were still even working their respective jobs, despite being tired to the bone. But she understood why, it distracted them from the bigger picture. She sighed, pressing more of her back against the stone wall of the Maze, far enough from its entrance. Dismal, she wondered if Ben was leaning opposite the same wall, slumped over and ice cold. Lightly banging her head against the wall, she willed for her ears to stop ringing.
"Thea."
She immediately stood up, despite being a head smaller than the young man. He was wearing a dirtied white hoodie with the sleeves pushed up, which was now tan, and khaki capris. His amber eyes were far away, as if he were looking right past her.
"I was just thinking." she said.
"Everyone is. But it's no excuse to mope around and lose sleep over it. We can't let the Glade fall apart because of another fallout." He stated firmly, sounding more of a leader to Theo than ever before.
"And how are you holding up?" she asked delicately, her body itching to move closer to his.
He sighed, running a hand through his tousled mane of gold hair. "About as great as any other buggin' shank is taking it. Alby and Minho are going to find him in the morning if the Grievers didn't get all of him ."
Theo looked down, trying to burn the thought of Minho and Alby in the Maze, looking for Ben's remains. "Newt?"
"Yeah?"
She didn't know what compelled her selfishness when she asked, "Minho told me you retired from being a Runner shortly before I arrived. What happened out there?"
Newt looked up sharply, his face abruptly contorting into pain. "He told you that?" he asked lividly.
She stepped back, but all she felt was wall. It was touchy subject, she knew, but she felt so lost in all of this, even after the two months of being in the Glade. After days of observing Thomas' habits, the more she talked, the more she'd learn. Standing her ground, she replied, "He told me that you were the fastest Runner."
"Don't ever ask me that." the easygoing, amiable Newt was gone and replaced with a steam pot about to blow. It was as if his personality had split into two, a side of Newt not many people have seen. His hands were balled into fists, as if he were ready to defend himself at any given moment. "Whatever happened in there is none of your bloody business."
Hurt flashed across her eyes, but she went on. "Why can't you tell me?"
His face was flushed red with fury, his eyes flamed with pain. "Why can't you tell me that you've been sneaking off with Thomas?"
"What?" and she realized the connotation of the situation, and reached for him, "It isn't what you're thinking—"
He slapped her hand away, his skin felt like fire. "Don't touch me." he hissed, and left her at the wall, favoring his limp.
(a/n) A special birthday update! I'm in a good mood today, so another update for my lovely readers. And thank you for the reviews, it's keeping me sane and they're really making me happy. (Mori, I'll keep your proofreading in mind, thank you!)
We're beyond the halfway point now, at least for the first book. I really don't know if I'm planning a sequel or a continuation. I know what I want to do, but something's stopping me. But I know if I leave it at the first book, it seems too hopeful and almost cop-out-ish. Again, I'm not good with turmoil and violence, and that's pretty much a lot of the second and third books. It might just be another ten chapters. (I'm terrible when it comes to it, really, which is why I always condense things like Ben's banishment because I'm stuck. Then again, Theo isn't necessarily main and shouldn't be around all the time, she has work.) I would love continue on this fic, I wouldn't make a new one. Updates would be irregular though, I'm not too big on sequels. I'm a little deterred, because I don't want to lose my creative juices in the middle of it and abandon this story, and then I'd rather keep it complete from the first book.
Anyway, my rambling. Thanks again for the feedback, from everyone! Greatly appreciated when you guys take the time to tell me how you feel.