Good Grief (TMR fic)

Chapter 36

By the morning I feel much better. Newt is writing in a yellow notepad when I wake up, and he smiles at me.

"Food," I say, not bothering with pleasantries.

Newt nods and helps me to my feet. "I bet you're hungry after running that much and then getting stung."

I just grunt and keep walking towards the Homestead. I'm so hungry that I can't think of anything else.

Newt has enough sense to keep his mouth shut until I've eaten my fill of leftovers from breakfast, which apparently just ended. When I finally finish and look up at him, he's just watching me, leaning his elbows on the table casually.

"What?" I ask, and he smiles slowly.

"I'm just glad you're okay, and thinking about how I should have known you'd be fine. Sometimes being friends with you feels like playing with fire. There isn't anything that could stop you, is there?"

I shrug. "Maybe there is, and we just haven't found it yet. Hey, where's Thomas?"

"Out with Minho. He's a Runner now, you know."

My jaw drops. "He's a WHAT? I'm going tomorrow." I can't believe he got to be a Runner before I did. After having seen the Maze in person, I'm dying to be back inside of it. I pull my matches out of my pocket subconsciously and light one as Newt raises an eyebrow at me.

"What makes you think you're allowed to be a Runner?" he asks, and I sigh a little. If they don't let me, I'm going to be furious. And miserable, but mostly furious.

"Uh, because I'm just as qualified as Thomas. How did he get permission?"

"We had a Gathering, and-"

"What's a Gathering?" I can't help but interrupt. The thought that Thomas knows all of this already is really irritating.

"A meeting of the Keepers. Anyway, they gave Thomas permission to be a Runner after he spent a day in the Slammer - that's our jail. They thought you had been punished enough, so you're allowed to become a Runner as soon as you're healed." He smiles, knowing how happy it will make me.

I've been accepted. I can be a Runner. I impulsively hug him tightly.

"So I am going tomorrow."

He rolls his eyes and laughs. "I guess so. Hey, so... do you want to see the Maps today, then?"

"Yes please." I'm excited to go back into the Maze, but I'm even more excited to see the Maps. Now that I know my brain works well with routes, I'm incredibly curious about what the full Maze looks like.

Once he's changed the bandages on my arm, which is sporting a nasty scab from the Changing, Newt leads me towards the small Maproom, and I take a breath before following him in the doorway he has to duck to get through.

The air smells like copper, and when he flips a lightswitch there's only one small lightbulb in the ceiling. It's bright enough, but it makes the room feel even more cramped. A large chest is up against one wall, with a table in the center of the room.

"What's the trapdoor?" I ask, motioning towards the corner of the room. The trapdoor is locked, and I'm curious.

"Weapons. Only the Keepers have keys." He lifts the edge of a chest that's almost completely filled with Maps. "Minho will teach you how to mark down the routes. Runners don't draw while they're out there; they just take notes so they can put it all together as soon as they get back. The Maze is split into thirds each way, creating eight sections with the Glade as the center and ninth section. Each Map gets the section number and the date written on the corner."

I watch him as he pulls out a stack of Maps, trying to distract myself from the pain in my upper arm. He knows exactly what he's doing, and it's a clear reminder that he was a Runner once.

I wonder how he got his limp. Was he injured by a Griever? He doesn't seem to have gone through the Changing...

"This must mark the Cliff," I say, pointing to a symbol drawn on one path that ends abruptly.

"It does," Newt answers. "You can see that the Cliff is always somewhere unexpected and unpredictable. It's always in section three, though, which is why Minho is the Runner for that area. He's the most experienced."

"Why do the walls move in two separate pieces?" I ask, frowning at a few Maps from consecutive days. "The insides aren't connecting with the walls around them."

Newt nods, looking impressed. "The inside of each section goes in predictable patterns that repeat every few weeks. It's the outside that is always changing, and we never know what to expect for that."

"But the walls only have limited movements," I mutter. "That means they can be predicted by what is possible for each change... and the more walls that are confirmed, the more we'll know what the rest looks like just by deduction..."

I pull more Maps of section three out, lining them up by date. Then something clicks, so deep in my mind that I hardly realize the math that led me to my conclusion.

"The Cliff," I say, almost breathless with what I've realized. "It moves in patterns."

Newt gives me a confused look. "...no, it doesn't."

"Yes, it does. You can see that the Cliff always appears where the walls have moved in a specific sequence from the last day."

"Wait, really? I can't see that."

I'm starting to figure out how the Maze fits together, how each wall shifts and changes.

"I have a few guesses about what today's pattern will be. Can I draw out some Maps? I can't tell for sure which it will be, but with how these walls move..."

"Of- of course," Newt says, scrambling to get me paper. I make sure to mark them as test Maps so they won't get confused with the section Maps I've been looking at.

After digging through the Maps for a bit, I figure out what the inside section will look like for today.

Then it's a matter of seeing how the external walls might have changed and moved.

Newt brings me lunch, but otherwise he just leaves me to puzzle over the Maps. It's harder than I expected, trying to untangle the puzzle of how the walls might have moved. My mind is still fuzzy from the Changing, as well, but I manage.

At last I have four rough Maps of how the Maze might have shifted. I can't see any mistakes, and I feel like I've really solved it. I wish I could go into the Maze and check. Just a brief jog would clear up whether or not it was the first one I drew...

"You done?" Newt pokes his head into the Maproom. I nod. "Good that. Come on, get some rest. The Runners will be back soon, you don't want to be in their way. Bring your Maps, we'll show them to Minho when he's done drawing out what he found."

I numbly follow Newt to the Deadheads. He seems to know that I'll be tired, and our blanket nest is still there.

I burrow into it, and then look up at him. "Well?"

He grins, and flops on top of me.

"Get off," I grumble, shoving at him. He laughs, and forcibly cuddles me. I pretend to complain, but I don't really mind. I must be tired.