Life In The Glade//TMR Newt Fanfic

Chapter 46: 3 days left

It's been a week since I finished training the boys, and ever since, I've been terrified. I have less than a week to live in the glade. 3 days to be exact. I keep trying to talk to WICKED. Every time I fall asleep I try and try to wake up in the compound so I can compromise some sort of deal, but it never works. The next morning, I always wake up, tired and dreading the day approaching. Every day, I feel a little itch in the back of my brain, like someone checking off a day on a calendar. I've been sleeping in later too, just laying there listening to the glade. Some days I try to fall back asleep, to get one last shot at talking to the members of WICKED. It never works, and I just waste another hour of my time here. Today was no different. I slept through breakfast and almost until lunch. I don't know what I'm going to do today. Maybe just work in the gardens and soak up as much sun as I can. I threw the sheets off of me and swung my feet over the side of the bed. In a few minutes I had my hair pulled back into a sad excuse for a ponytail and I had on a t-shirt and some capris shorts. The next thing I know there was a knock on my door. I groaned and pulled it open.
    "Hey Emmy. Can I ask you a question?" Alby said, standing at the door. I did a double take and pinched my forearm behind my back. Nope, not dreaming. Alby actually needs help with something.
    "Uh, yeah. What's up?" I said, folding my arms over my chest. He sighed and rubbed the back of his head.
    "It's just, somethings up with Minho. I was wondering if you could maybe do some investigating and see what's going on with him." He said. I nodded slowly.
    "Like what. Talk to him at breakfast, or? What exactly do you want me to do?" I asked. Alby scratched his chin, stopped and then put them at his side.
    "You know, I was thinking you could go running with him, maybe try to get some info out of him, that's all." He said. I nodded.
    "Yeah. Sure. Let me get changed into running gear I guess." I sighed, turning to search through my drawer.
    "Thanks Em, it means a lot." Alby said, giving me a small smile before he turned to walk away.
    "Great..." I muttered to myself, changing into my running shorts. "Guess I'm not relaxing today." I said, throwing my gardening clothes back in the drawer and lacing up my running boots before stomping back out to the glade.

    "Hey Em." Minho said quietly, lacing up his running shoes. He didn't even look up at me.
    "Hey Min." I said, standing next to him and stretching. He kept tying his shoelaces, until the familiar rumble of the doors opened made him stand up.
He adjusted his backpack and sighed.
    "Let's go I guess." he mumbled. Minho turned around and slowly jogged off into the maze. I stood behind a second to watch the way he ran. The familiar way he set his shoulders back while he ran was gone, and replaced with  a slumped over posture. He dragged his feet a bit when he used to pick them up really high. It wasn't normal for him. I shook my head and jogged off after him so I could catch up before he rounded the corner. Soon, I was running at his side. It wasn't our usual running pace, it was a slow, steady jog. Honestly, I was fine with it, since I was feeling a bit sluggish anyways, but Minho still seemed really upset about something. I whistled, our new key for when one of us needs to take a break, and he slowly stopped jogging, and I ended up stopping next to him. Both of us sat there, listening to the quiet of the glade, and catching our breath. Minho took out his water bottle and leaned against a nearby wall, not saying anything.
    "Minho?" I asked. He looked at me and kept drinking his water. Eventually he shoved the bottle back into his backpack.
    "What." He said, slowly sitting on the ground with his back against the stone wall. I sat down in the middle of the corridor, so I was facing him.
    "What's wrong. You seem upset." I said, putting my elbows on my knees. He let out a sigh.
    "It doesn't matter." He mumbled, resting his head against the wall. I frowned and moved over so I was sitting next to him, our shoulders a few inches apart.
    "Tell me what's wrong. I want to help. Did someone say something, or-"
    "No, nobody said anything. I'm fine." he interrupted me. I frowned again.
    "Are you sure?" I asked. He nodded, and I stopped asking. He didn't want me to know, but I know Minho. If I kept asking, he'd just get mad at me. I stood up and shoved my water bottle in my backpack before straightening it on my shoulders.
    "I mapped everything." I heard him say behind me. I turned around and saw him, sitting there on the ground with his head in his hands. "All of it." he said. I took a step towards him.
"You mean the maze?" I asked. Minho nodded.
"Every turn, every path, every day. It's all repeating now. I can tell what sections are open each day, and it doesn't shucking help us. There's nothing to do now." He said, angrily tearing out a weed from the ground next to him and throwing it down the corridor.
"Have you told Alby?"  I asked. Minho shook his head.
"If I told Alby he'd tell everyone. You know jus as well as I do that sometimes us runners are the only things keeping everyone else going. We're the ones trying to find a way out, while they're digging up potatoes." He said, looking up at me, all the hope drained from his eyes.
"We should at least tell Alby. Let's finish our run and we'll let him know when we get back, okay?" I said. Minho nodded slowly.
"Yeah whatever. I've been doing the same thing over and over for two years. What's one more day, right?" He said, stumbling to his feet.  The two of us jogged off slowly.

"Shh shhh shh." Minho said, putting his arm out to stop me. We heard metallic scuttling around the corner. It was quiet though, so we both peered around the corner slowly. A beetle blade sat on the cement floor, and looked at us. Minho sighed and walked around the corner.
"Get out of here, you shucking weirdo." He said, kicking a rock at the beetle blade. The beetle blade scuttled away, and the rock landed in a dark patch on the floor. I shrugged and turned away, ready to keep running, but Minho grabbed my arm.
"Did you here the rock land, or am I hallucinating." He said. I turned back around.
"Wait. You're right." I said. Both of us walked over to the dark patch of the ground. As we got closer, we saw that it was actually a ditch in the ground. The floor was gone, just a long dark pit, that goes so far down you cant see the bottom.
"How have we never seen this?" I asked. Minho shook his head.
"this corridor is a dead end. Once we get to this point, we turn around, usually. No point in running through areas like this." he said. He kicked another rock over the cliff, and we waited for the sound of it hitting the bottom, but it never came. He started pacing.
"Maybe we didn't map everything then. Maybe we missed some things. All the little dead ends, I need to go back. I need to go look at all of the maps again. Who knows what else he missed!" He said, the familiar sparkle back in his eye. Before I could say anything, he started sprinting back towards the map room, and I followed along behind him laughing.