Chapter 6

The months following passed uneventfully. Anna and the Gladers worked together to help keep the Glade in working order. The Runners went out every day to explore the Maze, though they never found much. They lost a few of their number to the Grievers, but they gained more in the Box every month. The population was growing, and while this meant that there were more mouths to feed and more space needed in the Homestead, it was overall a good thing for the Glade. More and more people were assigned to each job, and new tasks were thought up for those who… somewhat lacked in talent.

Anna's wall got more and more scratched up as the months went by, and, counting the scratches one morning, she realized that there were exactly four hundred marks on her wall. That was four hundred days of hard work, of stress, of wondering if she and her friends would survive another day. And while Anna longed for a normal life, she couldn't help but feel thankful for what she had been given. Good friends, a place to stay, a cook that wasn't Dave, an entire legion of boys for her to supervise. Smiling to herself, Anna walked outside to meet the Runners.

"Hey, guys," she said sleepily.

"Hi, Anna," Minho responded, smirking at her. Newt just nodded, adjusting the straps of his backpack. Anna felt a twinge of sadness inside of her as she looked at him. He had been very quiet and subdued lately, ever since Stephen's untimely death a few weeks earlier. The grisly scene popped back into Anna's mind, and she pushed it out again, a wave of nausea passing over her as she recalled it.

"Have you got everything packed?" Anna asked, if only to break the silence.

"Yeah," said Minho. He glanced at Newt, who didn't offer an answer. "We both have," he supplied. Anna's brows knit as she looked at them.

"Are you guys okay?" she asked.

"I'm fine," said Newt, his voice hollow. He was refusing to make eye contact.

"Um, okay then," said Anna awkwardly. "You guys should get going." The two Runners nodded and walked off. Anna looked around for the rest of the Runners, but couldn't find them, so she contented herself with sitting in her bedroom and re-counting the marks on her wall. Once through with this, Anna walked back outside and joined the other Gladers, who had gotten up by then.

She chose to work with the Builders that day, as they needed all the help they could get. They had begun adding another section to the Homestead, as they had gotten new supplies and decided to use them for this purpose. Anna worked all day, lifting heavy slabs of wood and placing them on top of other slabs of wood, and then starting the whole process over again. Once dinnertime had rolled around, Anna's arms were sore and she swore to herself that she wasn't going to be carrying anything over ten pounds for the next few weeks.

Sitting down at the table, Anna noticed the alarming absence of Newt. He was supposed to have come back with the rest of the Runners, but the last one had just come through the Doors and he was still nowhere to be found. Anna got up from the table, her mind consumed with worry all of a sudden. She looked down at her watch. They had seven minutes till the Doors closed. She ran over to Minho, who seemed to have noticed the same thing that she had.

"Newt," he said when he saw her. She nodded, and he stood up.

"We need to go get him," she said. Minho nodded.

"Yeah," he agreed. "But you'll be breaking your own rule." Anna glared at him.

"You think that shucking rule matters right now?" she said angrily. "We've got to go." Minho gave a nod, and together they ran off into the Maze.

Anna knew that she had made a reckless decision. She knew that she probably wasn't going to make it out of the Maze in time. But something kept her going, some invisible force that was pushing her along, telling her that she had to find Newt or die trying.

Suddenly, Minho screeched to a stop in front of her, making a small retching sound.

"What?" Anna asked, pressing through. She stopped dead when she saw what Minho was seeing. Anna cursed, fighting the urge to vomit. Lying motionless on the ground before them was Newt, his body surrounded with a dark pool of liquid that was growing larger by the second, seeping into the cracks in the stone. His face was badly cut up, with scrapes up and down the left side. Anna barely registered this, however, because what caught her attention was far worse. Newt's left ankle was sticking out at a funny angle, and his toes were practically facing backwards. His bone had come through and was poking out near the joint between his foot and his leg. His shoe had come off, too, which provided an even more graphic display. Anna gagged again.

"We've got to move him," Minho whispered hoarsely. Anna nodded, kneeling down beside Newt. She gingerly picked him up, propping his head against her shoulder so she could get a better grip. Minho hung one of Newt's arms around his neck and Anna took the other, so the pair of them made makeshift crutches. Newt's head flopped onto Anna's shoulder as she began to walk briskly in the direction that they'd come. A small moan escaped his lips and reached Anna's ear, causing her to glance at him in surprise.

"Minho," she said. "He's alive." Minho looked at her, hope etched in his features.

"Newt?" Anna murmured, some of his blood-crusted hair getting into her mouth as she spoke.

"Anna," he whispered back, his brow creasing. His body began to tremble violently as he seemed to come fully back to consciousness. Anna, still walking quickly, tried to soothe him as well as she could.

"Two minutes," Minho warned her. Anna swore under her breath and picked up the pace. The three of them had about a five minutes' walk back to the Glade, and Anna knew they couldn't make it on time. She and Minho glanced at each other and broke into a run, Newt's head falling limp against his chest once more, his long blond hair spilling down over his shirt. Anna, who had been unconsciously counting seconds in her head, realized they had a minute left. She ran at full sprint for the Doors, which were coming into view. Newt bounced up and down, his feet dragging on the floor. Anna glanced at him and saw that his eyes were tightly closed, his teeth were gritted and his face shone with sweat. She turned her head away from him, not wanting to watch her best friend in pain like that. The Doors were getting closer and closer as Anna and Minho raced across the floor of the Maze. Then, with fifteen seconds to spare, they tumbled through the opening and into the Glade, where a crowd of people swarmed them, peppering them with questions. Anna, completely overwhelmed by the teeming mass of Gladers, shooed them vaguely away with one hand, the other one still clutching Newt's left arm. She scanned the crowd for Clint and Jeff, her eyes finally landing upon them about ten feet away, fighting through the crowd.

"Clint!" she screamed over the roar of speech that was ringing in her ears. "Jeff!" The crowd parted and Clint and Jeff rushed over.

"What happened?" Clint asked, his expression filled with utmost shock.

"I don't know," Anna snapped. "Just get to shucking work!"

Clint nodded, and he and Jeff gingerly took Newt from Anna and Minho. Jeff was about a foot taller than Clint, and they held Newt at a slightly awkward angle as they carried him off to the Homestead. Anna glanced at Minho. He wasn't very out of breath, but his face was pale and he looked completely dumbstruck. Anna gestured in the direction that Clint and Jeff had just gone, and Minho nodded, the two of them walking off towards the Homestead.

The next few hours were a blur. Anna and Minho hovered around Clint and Jeff as they attempted to put Newt back together. He'd passed out after about ten minutes, so this made it much easier for them to patch him up, as he'd stopped screaming and twisting around. Anna didn't want to look at what they were doing, but a morbid sense of interest took over her, and she stayed in the Homestead until Clint had announced that they'd done all they could and time would tell whether he'd recover. They did, however, confirm to Anna that Newt hadn't been Stung, so this put Anna's mind at ease for the time being. It also made her wonder, though. If a Griever hadn't gotten him, what had?

Anna refused to move from the small chair beside Newt's bed until he woke up. She sat there twenty four hours, moving only when Minho came in to insist that she sleep and to bring her food. Anna didn't speak to anyone; she simply sat by Newt's bed, unfeeling.

At about eight o'clock the night after she and Minho had rescued Newt from the Maze, Newt finally stirred. Anna sat forward in her seat, her eyes widening.

"Newt," she whispered, her voice croaky from lack of use. "Newt." He moaned and squeezed his eyes shut, his brow creasing.

"Anna," he mumbled, opening his bright blue eyes. Anna could have laughed out loud with relief at seeing them again.

"Newt, you're okay!" she cried happily. He squinted blearily at her, pushing himself into a sitting position with one arm, wincing as he shifted his injured leg.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said, brushing his long hair out of his face shakily. Anna smiled. Then, suddenly, a thought occurred to her which had been gnawing at the edge of her mind for a while.

"Newt, can you tell me what happened last night?" She didn't want to hear the answer, but she had a hunch, and she wanted it proved wrong. Newt looked up, making eye contact with Anna. The trapped look in his eyes confirmed Anna's suspicions, and her joy at Newt's recovery was quickly replaced by an all-consuming rage that made Anna want to lash out at him. Restraining herself, she glared at him coldly.

"You know what?" she snapped. "You don't have to tell me. Spare yourself the shame of admitting that you've let me down. Not only me, but the rest of the Glade, too." Newt looked hurt.

"Anna," he began, but Anna cut him off.

"Shut it," she growled. "I want to say my piece and then you can protest." Newt didn't say anything, so she went on. "You jumped, didn't you? Rather than telling me or Minho or anyone else who was, by the way, perfectly shucking willing to risk our own lives for yours, you decided to jump off the wall."

"I'm sorry," Newt pleaded, the look in his eyes so remorseful that it almost melted Anna's anger. Almost. She glared at him.

"You shucking coward," she muttered angrily. "You took the easy way out. Any one of the Gladers would've helped you, you know." He nodded.

"I know," he said. "I was scared of what you'd think, because…" He trailed off.

"What?" Anna asked, calming down some.

"I…" he mumbled.

Anna didn't know how close she'd leaned towards him until she realized that she could see his long blond eyelashes with clarity in the dim light of the room. Suddenly a strange, almost foreign feeling came over her, and before she knew what she was doing she had lunged forward and pressed her lips against Newt's. He made a small noise of surprise, but after a second he was kissing her, too, and Anna was filled with a warm bliss that was a vast improvement over the stone-cold resentment of a few moments earlier. Anna tangled her fingers through Newt's silky hair, relishing how it slipped through her fingers like molten gold.

Suddenly, there was a loud crashing noise from behind them.

"What the shuck?!"

Anna pulled herself away from Newt, whirling around to see Minho standing there, his hands frozen in the action of carrying a tray. Said tray was sitting on the ground, its contents spilled all over the floor.

"Hey, Minho," she said casually. "Newt woke up."

"I see that," he replied, still wide-eyed at the scene he'd just walked in on. Newt fiddled with the sheet awkwardly.

"Well, I'll just be going, then," Minho said, backing out of the room. Anna glanced at Newt, and when she made eye contact with him and they both laughed slightly, she knew that her anger at what he'd done was completely overshadowed by the wonderful, completely incomprehensible feeling flowing through her at that moment.

Once Minho had gotten over the shock of what he'd seen, and had gone into the bathroom to wash his eyeballs multiple times, he seemed to find this new installment in the epic saga that was the Glade very amusing. He kept referring to Newt as Anna's "boyfriend", to which she responded that they were just friends who happened to have been kissing each other when Minho walked in. By the next day, the entire Glade knew, and Anna had to endure the Gladers glancing and smirking at her every time they saw her. She constantly moaned about this to Newt, who was the only one who would listen, but that was really all he could do, as Clint had commanded him to stay in the little room until he could stand up without hurting himself. Trying to console her, Newt told her about how boring and uneventful it was sitting in bed all day. This, however, didn't help anything, as Newt had brought it upon himself.

For the next day or so, Anna thought a lot about what Newt should do once Clint relinquished him. She brainstormed for a while, and eventually came up with a plan, which she told Newt. Though he was glad not to have been given the task of being a Slopper (which Anna had considered), he seemed less than satisfied.

"Explain to me exactly what I'm going to be doing?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know!" Anna said exasperatedly. "You're just gonna be… helping me out with these shuckfaces that I'm in charge of!" Newt frowned.

"So… I'm like your sidekick."

"Yes! You're my shucking sidekick!"

"Okay…" He still looked confused.

"Look, if you were happy with your old job, you shouldn't have gone throwing yourself fifty feet off of a wall!" Anna knew she had gone too far, knew that she shouldn't talk about Newt's suicide attempt, but she was, quite frankly, ticked off at him. A brief look of hurt flashed across his features but was quickly replaced with a mask of nonchalance as he nodded.

"Alright," he said softly. "That's fine with me."

Anna felt a pang of guilt at the pain in his eyes. Her features softening, she reached forwards and brushed a stray lock of blond hair from Newt's forehead.

"Hey," she said. Newt didn't respond. She placed two fingers under his chin and tilted his face upward so his eyes locked with hers. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "I shouldn't have said that. I know how hard this is for you."

Newt swallowed hard but didn't say anything. Struck with a sudden impulse, Anna leaned towards him and kissed the tip of his nose. Newt blinked in surprise, and Anna stood up and walked out.