"Newt!" Their moment is broken by Jeff, who's running towards them from the Med-Jack hut, while Clint followed a pale blur behind him. "The girl's awake," the pale blur became a girl with hair as black as night and Tasha almosts laughs at Jeff's sigh, "and she is not happy." They watch in fascination as the girl climbs the tower, angrily spitting curse words at Clint and throwing things at the Gladers who had begun to gather at the base of the structure, intrigued.
"Well, you should go grab Minho and Tommy, they have something to do with this, I bet you." Newt mused, a sparkle of humour in his eyes as he watched the girl, Jeff nodding and , running off in the direction of the forest. Tasha's eyebrows rose, but Newt simply muttered, "Map room." She nodded in understanding and turned back to the tower.
"We should see if they need help." She she finally muttered as the crowd at the base of the tower grew to a considerable size. To Tasha's constant amusement, this did not impede upon the girl's plan to throw things at the others, rather, she threw with more force than before and Tasha quietly hoped that a few of them were hit. She never claimed to be perfect.
Newt hummed thoughtfully, before he nodded, removing his arm from around Tasha and he took off at a slow jog. Tasha tried to push down the suddenly cold, vaguely empty feeling that had flooded her, and forced her usual, cool mask onto her face as she trailed behind Newt. "Hey!" He called up to the girl, using his hands to shelter his face from her the objects she was lobbing at them
"I said go away!" She screamed, now hidden from sight at the top of the tower, but not out of earshot, a barrage of sticks and rocks managing to hit the Gladers below. Tasha frowned for a moment, stalling from where she had begun to walk over to join them, before diverting her course and heading to the Builder's supplies. She gathered up a stack of thick boards in different materials, some wood and some metal, trotting back to the crowd, dragging the boards behind herself.
"Here, use them as cover." She told the others, distributing them among the boys. The projectiles clanged uselessly off of the makeshift shields and Tasha silently congratulated herself. She watched Gally refuse a shield and she rolled her eyes at him, as she stood away from the crowd, over near Chuck, out of the line of fire, who had just directed Thomas and Minho to the commotion.
"Hey, what happened?" Thomas asked Gally, which in hindsight, was probably not the best course of action. Gally didn't answer, which, of course, surprised no-one, rather his attention was focused on the girl, letting Newt step out from his shield to get closer to the Greenie.
"I don't think she likes us very much." He huffed with laughter, his amused gaze directed towards the girl as she shouted out from her perch.
"What do you want from me?" She demanded, distress and anger clear in her voice. Tasha recognised it, recognised it easily as the same distress she had been plagued with upon her arrival to the Glade, however, she and the girl had chosen to run in different directions. Tasha hummed thoughtfully amidst the chaos, thinking idly about whether she had made the right choice, to run away rather than towards the Glade.
"Hey, look, we just want to talk!" Thomas cried, shielding himself with his hands from her onslaught. By some miracle, most of the projectiles had managed to miss him, and he edged, painfully slowly, towards the structure she was situated within.
"I'm warning you!" Her angry words brought with them a particularly big rock, thumping just in front of Thomas and Gally. Cries to take cover reverberated around the Gladers and Thomas yelled for her to calm down, the moment morphing into an eerie mirror of the confrontation between him and Gally on the first day. Tasha tries not to think about it. Three days ago was a world away. Everything is changing.
"Woah, it's Thomas! It's Thomas!" Thomas cried out, eventually. Like someone has switched off a light, the assault on the Gladers ceased and all was quiet. They seemed rather confused, but didn't object to the sudden safety.. Peering up to the top of the tower, the dark haired beauty was visible, eyeing them warily. "I'm coming up, OK?" Thomas continued, carefully. She didn't respond, but she also didn't throw things, which he took as a positive. "Ok." Thomas huffed, almost as if he could hardly believe it himself. Gally made a move towards the base of the tower, but Thomas frowned, shaking his head at the Builder. "Just me." Gally's face was full of disbelief as Thomas started to slowly ascend up the tower, periodically shouting his positive intentions. The gazes of the other Gladers were drawn upwards, watching and waiting and generally being amused at the pair of Greenies and their antics. Tasha didn't speak to any of the others, but Newt turned and smile at her, the crinkly eyed smile that made him look much younger and more carefree than he was, so all was well.
"What's going on up there?" Gally, barely five minutes later, had grown impatient and shouted up to Thomas and the girl. Thomas's face appeared at the edge of the structure, unharmed and less worried than had been on the climb up. .
"Is she coming down?" Newt asked. The other Gladers were beginning to scatter, heading back to their jobs in the afternoon light. Thomas deliberated, obviously considering the other occupant of the tower.
"You guys just give us a second, OK?" He called down after his deliberation. It was disheartening, that with so much progress made that morning, the girl would be uncooperative and stall their progression. Tasha honestly didn't blame her, however, the feelings of loneliness and isolation that she was all too familiar with was mirrored, time and time again, in the new arrivals.
"Alright." Newt mumbled to the others, the few still bothered to watch the Greenie who had become a fast favourite of the second in command. "Come on!" He motioned for them to leave and go about their business, leave the Greenies in peace.
"So this is what all girls are like…" Frypan huffed in disbelief, shaking his head and strolling casually back to the kitchens to prepare the Gladers' meal for that night. The others all began to leave, heading off in dribs and drabs, back to their jobs, or, more precisely, to gossip like the old ladies they not-so-secretly were. Tasha caught up to Newt as he began to make his way back to the Gathering Hall, and he he smiled softly at her as they walked, taking her hand and pressing a quick kiss to it.
"Go change from your Runner's gear, love." He told her, quietly, gently shoving her in the direction of the supplies room. Tasha snorted out a laugh, but followed his instructions anyways. The only other person to join her as she was packing away her equipment was Minho, who seemed exhausted, and she could honestly see why.
"How are you?" She asked, quietly. Minho looked up, as if surprised by her question. He blinked rapidly, trying to dispel the hazy, sleep-induced fog from his eyes. He had spent a night in the maze and hadn't even taken a day to rest, she was not envious of his position right now.
"Tired." He admitted. Tasha nodded once and they were stuck in a silence that bordered on awkward, but wasn't quite. "I think I get it now." He said, suddenly breaking the silence. Tasha, looked up, surprised, as she had been fully prepared to last out the awkward silence until one of them broke and left. She shot him and quizzical glance and he huffed, trying to arrange his thoughts before articulating them. "About you wanting to go back into the Maze." He explained, leaving a pause as he searched for the right words, "I know what I'm up against." He said, dredging up her own words from all those years ago. Tasha smiled bleakly at the memory and her stomach made a pitiful flip, enough to let her know that the memory cause her discomfort, but not enough to last more than a moment. "I don't know how I made it out; that's Greenie's some kind of something." He muttered, half laughing. Tasha nodded, once, the way she always did, but crossed the distance between them to hug Minho tightly. He was shocked at first, Tasha wasn't a very affectionate person on the best of days, but he relaxed, hugging her back.
"Thanks for not dying." She told him, solemnly. He chuckled at her blunt, but thoughtful statement.
"Thanks. I'm not sure how, but… well, 'terrifying' is definitely an word I would include." He said, only the vague hint of a joke in his words. Tasha had never connected with Minho more than in that moment, and she rather hoped it could last longer than a mere moment; but then it was gone with his laugh, as he drew back and prodded at Tasha's ribs. "So, you and Newt look pretty cosy."
"We always look like that." She rolled her eyes, half the Glade assumed they were dating anyway, the other half must have known it would be inevitable. A funny look came over Minho's face that Tasha couldn't identify and he shook his head.
"No, there's… something more. I don't know, it's not exactly describable." There was a pause, "It's like an official seal or something? When did you spit it out?" He asked, smirking. Tasha turned beet red and dropped her gaze, suddenly awkward where she was always collected.
"When you were stuck in the Maze." She mumbled, finally, under Minho's knowing stare.
"So I was fighting for my life and you were sucking face with my friend?" He asked, eyebrow raised, he knew it was too far, but it was rather worth it for the indignant look that changed Tasha's whole physicality. She rose, as if being inflated, her chest puffing out and her scowl deepening as she shoved him roughly.
"It wasn't as if I could pry the gates open and run to the rescue.." She told him, and he shoved her back, just as hard, but with no malice behind it. Tasha deflated, looking like a wounded dog at the accusation that she didn't want to help her friends. "Anyway, for a guy running on no sleep, you're not pulling your punches. Get some rest, you need it." She finished, quickly, avoiding looking directly at his watchful eyes.
"I'm not the only one, how much shut eye did you get last night yourself?" Minho smirked. The tension dropped and Tasha rolled her eyes at him, her gaze deadpan. However, even as he said it, she could feel the exhaustion of the day beginning to weigh down upon her. There was a moment of the two of them simply standing in their cotton rest clothing, no words being said as they smiled at one another, where nothing else mattered, and the two friends had each other. Minho was here, alive and smiling. Newt was out there, alive and smiling. The girl was awake, alive and she had Thomas. They were still here, and things were finally looking good.
"I'm so glad you're here, shank." She told him, smiling sleepily under her tiredness. Minho barked out a laugh and they left the supply room.
"You're such a sap."