" WHITE BLOOD " T. MAZE RUNNER¹

thirty-two.

[CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO]

~

Complete silence filled the room after Minho's suggest- so quiet that one could hear a pin drop on to the dirt floor. Everyone stared at the Runner as if he had just accounced he was going to sacrifice himself to the Grievers. No one really knew what to do, what to say, though Eleanor found herself smiling slighlty at her friend's far-fetched recommendation.

Gally was the one to break the silence, standing from his seat with his eyes wide in disbelief. "That's ridiculous!" He cried out, turning to face Newt. He pointed back at Minho, who had sat down in his seat once more with a satisfied smirk on his face. "He should be kicked off the Council for saying something so stupid."

Several boys seemed to have agreed with Minho's suggestion. Frypan was among them, and the Cook clapped loudly in attempt to drown out Gally's complaining. Winston, on the other hand, stared at the Runner with a frown on his lips. The boy named Lincoln mumbled something under his breath, too low for Eleanor to hear over the chaotic chatter. The Keeper sitting beside him, a ginger-haired boy named Carl, nodded in agreement.

Newt seemed to be pretty amused by Minho's suggestion, just as Eleanor had been, though the small grin that he wore on his face immediately disappeared as the Keepers turned their attention on him. He cleared his throat as he began to write Minho's suggestion down on the notepad, then he looked up to the boys with an annoyed scowl. "Shuck it," he grumbled with a shake of his head. "I've never seen so many shanks acting like teat-suckin' babies. We may not look it, but around these parts we're adults. Act like it, or we'll disband this bloody Council and start from scratch. Are we clear?"

Silence swept over the group of Keepers, and although some of them looked as if they wanted to say something more, they all nodded in consent. Newt muttered something too low for Eleanor to hear before he made his way over to Minho, who had watched the entire ordeal with a smirk on his face. "That's some pretty serious klunk, brother. Sorry, but you need to talk it up to move it forward."

Minho looked as if he had been waiting for Newt to say those words, for he sat up in his chair and looked to Thomas as he spoke. "It's easy for you shanks to sit here and talk about something you're stupid on. I'm the only Runner in this group, and the only other one here who's even been out in the Maze is Newt."

Gally raised a finger to speak. "Not if you count the time I-"

"I don't!" Minho shouted at the Builder, rolling his eyes as he referred to the time he almost got himself killed- and got Nick killed. "And believe me, you or nobody else has the slightest clue what it's like to be out there. The only reason you were stung is because you broke the same rule you're blaming Thomas for. That's called hypocrisy, you shuck-faced piece of-"

"Enough," Newt interrupted the Runner before he had a chance to finish his insult, shooting the boy a warning glance. "Defend your proposal and be done with it."

Thick tension hung over the room like a storm cloud, and Eleanor couldn't wait for the damn Gathering to be over with. Gally and Minho stared at each other through narrowed eyes, and both of the hard-headed boys refused to back down. Finally, however, Minho broke away from Gally's deathly stare, and continued with his explanation.

"Anyway, listen to me," the Runner continued as he took his seat, acting as though he hadn't just had a deadly stare-down with Gally. "I've never seen anything like it. He didn't panic. He didn't whine and cry, never seemed scared. Dude, he'd been here for just a few days. Think about what we were all like in the beginning. Huddling in corners, disoriented, crying every hour, not trusting anybody, refusing to do anything. Sure, some of us decided to fight back and start swinging a wooden board around like a lunatic, but no one did what Thomas has done. We were all like that- babies- for weeks or months, till we had no choice but to shuck it and live."