After a few minutes, all of their tests were complete. Janson reached them and said, "You may now head towards the dining hall. Sorry for making you late for breakfast but we needed to do your tests on an empty stomach. Follow up my guard he'll take you."
"Where's Thomas?" Newt asked.
"No need to worry. He'll meet you directly in the dining hall." With that Janson left the room.
The guard led them to the dining hall which had two doors at opposite ends. The hall was filled with teenagers like them.
"Man, I thought we're the only one alive on this planet. Good to know I was wrong." Frypan said when they reached inside the hall.
Everyone there was sitting in groups and chatting normally to each other. No one even noticed them as they collected their breakfast and made their way to an empty table.
"Newt-" Minho whispered to Newt when they were comfortably settled down on a table.
"I know, you don't trust them." Newt cut him off. "I get it."
"It's not that I don't trust them. I just don't know anything much about them. I'm confused." Minho said. "I don't know if we can trust them... It's not like they did something to make me feel that way except locking us up but you understand right. Something's not good. Thomas knows it too."
"Yeah, I understand." Newt said nodding to his friend. "Where is he anyway?" He turned his back to look at the empty doorway.
"He'll be here soon. Right now I think we should focus on getting information about these people." Minho told him.
Newt sighed, "You're right. Okay everyone listen." He ordered getting the attention of other six Gladers. "We need to know anything we can find about these people."
"Is there a problem?" A scared voice of a Glader named Jack, asked, "Are they not good people?"
"Oh no. Well, we're not sure about that but it won't hurt to be prepared and cautious if they turned out bad." Newt replied to the now youngest Glader who quietly nodded.
"Okay let's divide in two groups. One stays here other goes and find out about them from these people." Minho told them.
Newt, Minho, Winston and Jack decide to stay while Frypan and the other three Gladers picked their plates and went to talk to other groups in the room. Soon two boys approached them, "Hey, are those seats taken?"
"Help yourself." Newt said, shrugging.
They sat down in front of Newt and Minho. Slowly, they started a conversation with them finding out about how they got here and how everyone here was once in a maze just like them. Those two boys were just about to tell how they escaped the maze when Minho turned around and called, "Hey, Thomas."
Newt turned around and saw him looking in wonder at his surroundings. Minho got up and brought him to their table. Thomas settled down between Newt and Minho. The boys continued their story as Thomas sat down looking at everything in curiosity.
"And there was this big, loud explosion, and these guys came out of nowhere." One boy continued, "Started shooting up the place."
"It was intense." The other boy replied. "They pulled us out of the maze and brought us here."
So they didn't escape the maze. These people rescued them. Newt thought.
"What about the rest?" Newt asked, "The other people left behind in the maze, what happened to them?"
"I don't know. I guess WICKED still has them." The boy replied.
Thomas looked at Newt and nodded to tell him he understood what he's trying to do. Frypan also joined them back and sat down next to Newt.
"- How long you guys been here? -" Newt continued with his questions.
"Not long. Just a day or two. That kid over there has been here the longest. Almost a week." He replied looking at a boy sitting alone in the corner.
"His maze was nothing but girls."
"Really?" Minho asked.
"Some guys have all the luck."
While they were talking Thomas and Newt were both busy looking at that boy at the corner. He looked really young and familiar. Their focus shifted when they heard Janson's voice. "Good evening, gentlemen. Ladies." He had two guards following him. "You all know how this works. If you hear your name called... please rise in an orderly fashion, join my colleagues behind me... where they will escort you to the eastern wing. Your new lives are about to begin." At this, people started applauding happily.
He looked down at his notepad and started calling out names. "Connor. Evelyn. Justin. Peter." The people whose name he called out happily got up and joined the guards standing behind Janson. "Allison. Squiggy. Franklin. And Abigail." And with that he closed his notepad and a sound of people being dissapointed came through the crowd of teenagers.
"Now, now, don't get discouraged." Janson said. "If I could take more, I would. There's always tomorrow. Your time will come. Go on, eat up" With that he left the room from the second door and some people applauded for the ones whose names got called out.
"Where are they going?" Minho asked.
"Far from here. Lucky bastards." The boy replied.
"Some kind of farm. A safe place." The other boy told them. "They can only take in a couple of people at a time."
"What the hell?" Newt heard Thomas mutter. When he looked at him, Thomas was already on his feet and making his way up towards the second door.
Newt turned around to see what was he running after when he saw Teresa walking outside with her doctor and two other people.
"Hey, Teresa?" Thomas called out. "Teresa!"
"Hey," The guard at the door stopped Thomas was from going after her. Newt saw him talking with the guard that stopped him. When Thomas returned, Newt asked him, "Where are they taking her?"
"He said they need to run a few more tests on her."
"But that side if the building is restricted." One boy told them. "Only whose name is called get to go their."
At this, Newt's suspicion finally started to brew towards these people. He looked at Thomas to his expression and saw confusion written all over it. Before they could start their discussion, a guard came and stood in front of their table. "I request you all to follow me."
"Let me guess. You'll not answer when we ask 'Where?'" Minho said with a bored expression.
"I'm supposed to answer all your questions. We need to fill you up with everything that's happened in the past." the guard replied. At this, all the heads at table shot up and were ready to follow the guard.
"Wait!" Newt said, and everyone turned to look at him. "Three of our friends are missing." He looked around to locate the missing Gladers.
"It's alright. We'll take them later separately. Right now we're on a tight schedule, So let's go." The guards said and started walking.
Newt didn't like the idea of leaving them behind but followed quietly. As much as he didn't like that, he also wanted answers. The guard took them to a big room which looked a lot like a classroom.
"Everyone, take a seat." The guard said.
Frypan, Jack and Winston sat down in the front row. Minho tried to reach the last bench but Newt dragged him into sitting next to him on the second row right behind Frypan. Thomas went and sat down on the bench behind Newt.
"I'm going to play a documentary on our past. Just sit back relax and watch." the guard said. As the video was loading on the big screen in front of them he added. "I'll be back after this video ends to answer all your questions if you still have them." With that said, he left.
Thomas was glad he sat behind Newt. Now he can stare at Newt's beautiful hair without him knowing it as he pays attention to the documentary and the others try to not fall asleep. Well, except Frypan. He was already dozing off.
Thomas didn't think that when they said a documentary on past, they meant the whole timeline of events starting from the creation of Earth leading to how humans were made and how they started fighting among themselves calling it the World Wars. Surprisingly for Thomas, he knew all that. It was like he just remembered them as he listened to some words here and there while ogling Newt's behind.
How does he look so good from behind? Oh, he has broad shoulders. His neck is long too and his skin looks so smooth. If I could kiss it. No! Thomas! Stop! Stop being a creep! Thomas was still yelling at himself in his thoughts when the door to class opened and the guard came through. He paused the video and said "Let's take a break."
"No way!" Minho said with a bored expression. "We're just reaching the fun part where China ate bat and started the Corona virus of 2020." His sarcasm mixed with the tiredness in his voice earned a small laugh from the Gladers.
"Don't worry you can watch the rest after the Lunch." The guard replied and Minho groaned and let his head fall and hit the desk in front of him.
Newt stretched out his arms making his T-shirt fall back a little just enough for Thomas to see his neck and back muscles flexing. He jumped a little when Newt suddenly turned back and looked straight at his eyes. "Well, that was the longest I remember wasting my time. I bloody knew most of that stuff. It just felt like I had forgotten about it a little."
"Yeah, same." Minho's muffled voice came as his head was still resting on his desk.
"I remembered everything that happened in this video except watching this video." Thomas told them.
"Did you sleep through all of it?" Newt asked.
"Y-yeah, yes, um-I was sleeping." Thomas lied truthfully.
"Lucky you and Frypan." Minho said, now after lifting his head.
"Come on. We're running a tight schedule here. Let's go!" The guard said.
Frypan woke up at his voice. "Who died!?"
"My brain." Winston replied.
Nobody knew whether to laugh at Winston's words or be sad at Frypan's words. They just lost a lot of their friends and the ones which were left behind alive are probably captured by WCKD.
Without saying another word they all made their way back to the dining hall. They all sat together on a table and tried to stay awake and eat their food.
It looks like the Gladers are really bored learning the already known history...like I am while writing this chapter at 2am... like you are while reading this chapter. I'm sorry for that... the interesting part starts from the next chapter.