Do your part.
Never hurt another Glader.
Never go outside the Glade.
Do your part.
Never hurt another Glader.
Never go outside the Glade.
The rules ran over and over on a loop inside Ada's head despite her best efforts to think of something else. Twelve words were all she had to work with to somehow survive and make a life for herself in this place. It hardly seemed like enough, but it was what she had.
Newt had led her around the Glade, offering commentary on everything they passed.
The Bloodhouse.
The Homestead.
The Garden.
The Deadheads.
Whoever had come up first sure had a good time naming things. Maybe that was who she had to thank for all the slang words constantly flying by her ears as well.
Apparently she had to try out all the jobs and then the keepers would decide what she should be assigned to. At least that was the usual system for new greenies. The problem was she pretty clearly needed to stay near Newt, at least for the time being. So in practice her job was going to be whatever Newt's job was.
Which according to his answer when she asked was and she quoted "Sometimes gardening. Sometimes other...stuff."
She could tell he didn't seem too enthused about the idea of her following him around so she decided not to push him for further details at that moment.
So she was now a proud member of team Track-Hoe and occasional doer of other "stuff".
More importantly her tour had forced Newt to fill her in on the bigger picture. A glade surrounded by a maze. A box that brought up supplies and newbies once a month. Runners who mapped the maze looking for a way out. A maze that changed every night and was full of something...something bad that Newt was going to show her the next morning.
Ada shivered.
So she had that to look forward to.
But right now she was the guest of honor at what she supposed passed for a party in the Glade. The proper procedure was to have a feast and bonfire the first night a new greenie popped out of the box but with her fits and all the other chaos she'd brought with her there hadn't exactly been time yesterday.
Some people, mostly Gally, thought her appearance didn't warrant a feast at all. He'd been out voted however; and his former protests didn't seem to be stopping him from enjoying it.
If beating the klunk, to use the local vernacular, out of other boys qualified as enjoying the evening.
Ada had a strong feeling that in his case it did.
While most of the boys wandered around sharing food and a truly terrifying smelling brew known only as "Gally's Brew", Gally was standing inside a circle drawn in the dirt getting into a prompt shoving match with any other glader stupid enough to join him there.
"It's all in fun."
A voice startled her out of her reverie and Ada glanced over at Newt, who was sitting next to her just far enough away that their invisible tether didn't cause her any discomfort. He was sipping on one of those nasty drinks and gesturing toward Gally's antics.
Ada turned her gaze back in that direction just in time to see another boy sent flying.
"Yeah, fun," She winced.
"I know he comes off as a hard ass but Gally's alright," Newt insisted, taking another drink before continuing. "He just cares about what's good for the Glade. It's all about respect with him."
"And how do the newbies usually win his respect exactly?" Ada inquired, arching an eyebrow skeptically.
"Well, for starters they don't kick up a fuss or disrupt the order of the Glade," Newt smirked, twisting the jar in his hands.
"So a tad late for that," Ada sighed. "What else?"
"Do your job. Work hard, be part of the team," Newt offered.
Ada winced.
"So he's probably not going to be too fond of the fact that I can't have a normal job," She stated dejectedly already knowing the answer before Newt replied.
"Nope," He popped the "p" with unnecessary emphasis doing little to reassure her.
"Anything else?" She asked, forcing hope into her tone that she didn't feel.
"Yeah, go shove him outside of that circle," Newt laughed, taking another long drag of the questionable contents of his jar.
Ada gave herself exactly five seconds to run the variables.
All in all her conclusion was that it was a pretty stupid idea.
A pretty stupid idea with a chance of success.
Without warning she reached out and grasped Newt's wrist, taking him by surprise and causing him to spray his drink a pretty impressive distance.
"Come on," Ada stood, causing Newt to stumble to his feet as well.
"It was a joke, Greenie!" Newt protested as she dragged him in a determined line through reveling gladers and towards the circle on the other side of the fire. "Greenie. Greenie. Ada!"
She stopped.
Not because he had used her name, though it did pierce through her in a way their blasted nickname did not.
They were there. Just outside of the circle in the dirt where Gally waited for his next challenger, his back conveniently towards them.
"Just stay here," Ada told Newt firmly, patting his wrist as she let go of it and stepping out of his reach just as he made a grab for her.
Ada closed her eyes as she stepped forward, arms extended, heart beating out of her chest.
Here goes nothing.
She made contact with Gally's back, putting all of her weight behind the shove feeling him stumble forward, though far less than she would have hoped.
"Crap," She had time to think before she was flying through the air and then returning to the ground.
Hard.
"Ughhh," Ada groaned, opening her eyes to stare up blearily at the boy staring down at her looking livid.
"What the hell was that, Greenie?" He demanded.
"An experiment," She found the air to huff. "Let's go again."
"Ada!" That was Newt.
She didn't turn her head to locate him but she waved hear hand in the general direction of his voice to indicate he stay put.
"What's going on?" She heard a voice she didn't recognize ask.
"The greenbean tackled Gally from behind," A second voice laced with amusement responded.
Laughter sprung up from all directions as Ada gingerly pushed herself up to her elbows, then her knees and finally to a standing position.
"Slim it," Gally shouted, though it did little to quiet the chatter from all around them. "What do you think you're doing shank?"
Ada shrugged. Trying to keep her face impassive and not betray the nervous thumping of her pulse in her ears.
"It's all in fun, right?" She heard Newt groan from somewhere to her left and pointedly ignored him. "A game? Let's play."
A glint she didn't entirely like appeared in Gally's eyes and he smiled rather ominously.
"You asked for it," He warned, raising his arms and gesturing for her to come at him.
Ada took a deep breath before barreling forward arms extended with the intention to shove him again.
Of course, it was a lot more difficult when he was facing her and expecting the attack.
He didn't bother blocking her approach, simply stepped to the side and let her own momentum carry her forcefully into the dirt on the other side of the circle.
"Ouch," She moaned, rolling over and doing her best to quickly catch her breath,.
"Had enough yet, Greenie?" Gally called out, a scattering of cheers following his words.
"Nope," Ada pushed herself up again this time with decidedly more effort. "This is so much fun."
"She's jacked!" A voice called out to another chorus of laughter. "Totally jacked."
"Alby, stop this!" That was Newt again.
"I'm fine," Ada said firmly, brushing her sore palms off on her pants. "One more time."
"Your wish is my command," Gally answered, not waiting for her to approach him this time but simply barreling towards her.
The impact wasn't as bad as she'd feared it would be. He wasn't being gentle by any stretch of the imagination but he couldn't have been using his full strength either.
Still.
This was the third time she'd made forceful impact with the ground in the past five minutes, it didn't feel great.
As soon as he had her down Gally began dragging her by one arm towards the circle dividing them from the crowd of boys cheering them on.
Ada knew she was vastly out gunned in terms of body mass, upper body strength or energy level. She had no hope of wrenching her wrist from his grasp and even less hope of somehow taking him down to her level.
So instead Ada went with her instincts and stopped trying to pull away. Instead she latched onto Gally tighter with every appendage available to her.
She managed to wind both of her legs through his and reached up with her free hand to clutch at his shirt.
She was rewarded for her efforts when he stumbled.
"What are you doing shuck face?" Gally snapped, teetering precariously as she used momentum from pushing her back against the dirt to climb her legs even further up his.
"She's gone full koala!" Someone called out as Gally attempted another shaky step before stumbling to a halt again.
" LET. GO. OF. ME." Gally grunted managing to move their combined weight another halting foot towards the boundary,
For her part Ada didn't say anything, just focused on keeping her grip.
"Don't let go, Ada!"
"Come on Gally!"
"Give him hell!"
"Show her who's in charge!"
"That's enough," Gally finally grunted, reaching down with his other hand and working his arm under her back.
He gave a great heave and sent them both flying, him on top Ada noted ruefully, to the ground.
"Ooof," She grunted as his weight landed on top of her, dropping her legs and relinquishing her grip at last.
Gally for his part dragged the wrist that he still held in his grasp up above her head and pressed her fingers into the dirt she assumed was outside of the circle signifying her loss.
"You lose, Greenie."
He hauled himself up and Ada sighed in relief as his weight disappeared.
"Good game, Gally," She coughed out, finding herself once again looking up blearily into his face.
He shook his head, a grudging smile slipping onto his face before he reached one hand down to help haul her to her feet.
"Yeah, Greenie, good game."
He strode out of the circle without saying anything else and she lost sight of him in the crowd of cheering boys quickly. However, she was pretty sure there had been some form of respect exchanged there.
That and a lot of sweat, bruises and a little blood.
But mostly respect.
"Ada!" Newt had appeared at her elbow, and she was grateful. She was sore enough without needing to add that horrific buzzing to the mix. "You're absolutely mad, you know that?"
"Maybe," She smiled, before groaning slightly and reaching out to rest some of her weight on Newt's shoulder. "But your hypothesis was a good one."
"Bloody mad greenbean," He muttered, making her smile wider. "Let's get you back to the homestead. I think you had enough of a party for one night."
Ada nodded appreciatively allowing him to lead her away from the glow of the fire and the noise of the other gladers.
If only every problem she encountered in the Glade could be solved by letting Gally toss her around a bit.
Newt led a hobbling Ada across the glade and into the Homestead passing through the main living area and towards the secluded room in the back separated, by a plank door.
His room.
It really should have been Alby's.
It was the only bedroom, such as it was in the whole shucking glade.
It had originally been their planning room, the room where they kept the runner's notes from the maze and began construction of their model.
However, about a year ago under the pretense of needing more space they'd set the builders to crafting a separate cabin for that purpose out beyond the boundary of the Deadheads. In truth they'd wanted the privacy. They had finished mapping the maze. They knew every inch of it, every rotation of the sections, every corridor and every variable. But Alby had decided that for the morale of the Glade they needed to keep up pretenses. So the runners still went into the cabin everyday when they got back from running, probably stared at that damned model for a few minutes and then joined the rest of them.
No one the wiser.
Except Alby and Newt.
Bloody inconvenient being one of the people in the know when all you wanted was your little share of hope.
Still, the room should have gone to Alby when the runners had vacated it. But Alby refused, saying that he preferred to sleep outside anyway most nights. No point in reserving a room for him when he only planned to come in when it rained.
So it had passed to Newt and rather than refuse the privilege and see it open up a fight among the other gladers over who would take ownership he had simply accepted it grudgingly.
He'd never really appreciated the solitude that much until this moment when he pulled open the door and deposited Ada on a stool that usually went unused in the corner.
"So, uh, this is my room," He gestured around the small space before reaching up to play with his hair self-consciously. "Our room for the time being, I guess."
"Uh, thanks," Ada replied, seemingly not anymore sure of the proper conversation they should be having than he was.
"Ah," She winced at an apparent twinge in her neck, reaching up to massage it even as Newt found himself crossing the room to examine the damage.
"How bad does it hurt?" He asked, pushing aside her hair to search for obvious injuries. "Should I get one of the med-jacks?"
"Um, no, I'm fine," She brushed his fingers away and he stepped back putting a little space between them.
"Good that," He offered, feeling an inexpiable rush of heat to his cheeks. "I saw them on our way out, they're both totally hammered."
She laughed at that much to Newt's relief.
"So how is this going to work?" She asked, leaning over to peer past him towards the single makeshift mattress on the floor in the center of the room.
"Oh right," He sighed. There hadn't been a lot of time since Alby had decided their sleeping arrangements to actually work out the logistics of it all.
Most of the gladers slept in hammocks strung up in the main area of the Homestead. A few like Alby preferred to sleep with blankets outside most of the time. But after Newt's injury he hadn't been up to climbing in and out of a hammock for months. So the Med-Jacks had helped him rig up the set up he had now, old supply bags stitched together ans stuffed with a combination of grass and feathers.
It wasn't exactly a comfortable bed but it sure beat sleeping on the hard dirt floor.
Still. She'd had a rough day.
And he was a gentleman.
He thought so at least.
Most likely.
This was his first test he supposed.
Newt sighed before pointing at the mattress-his mattress – with slight regret.
"Go on and take the mattress," He told her. "We'll get you a hammock hung tomorrow."
She looked like she might protest for a moment before she simply nodded and stood to move by him. It was almost pitch black at this point, only the slight glint of moonlight between the planks of the walls gave them any light to see by, so she took her time.
When she reached the mattress she toed off her shoes and sank down on it not bothering to remove any of her clothes.
Once she was settled Newt followed her example, pulling off his shoes before lowering himself, stiff leg and all onto the floor. The night was warm, as they almost always were in the Glade so he didn't need a blanket. Still, a pillow would have been nice. Too bad there weren't any in the Glade. He'd have to get around to making one or two at some point when he had free time.
Ha, yeah right.
Shifting in an attempt to get comfortable, Newt folded his arms behind his head and stared upwards into the darkness acutely aware of the breathing of the girl next to him.
"Newt?"
He couldn't help but jump when her soft voice broke the silence.
"Yeah?"
"Thanks," She whispered simply.
She didn't say what for, he supposed it covered a variety of things.
Not that it mattered.
Not that he'd had much of a choice in watching out for her given their situation.
Not that he'd managed to keep her from agonizing pain that morning or from a thorough thumping from Gally that night.
But then again, who was he to throw her gratitude back in her face?
So he only muttered, "You're welcome, Greenie."
Then he rolled his body to face away from her and did his best not to think anymore.