When We're Older- The Maze Runner (Newt)

ben

I sat on my cot with my head out of the window, looking at the Glade. My mind was blank as I focused on my breathing. I still occasionally let out a cough, but other than that, it was like my asthma attack didn't even happen. None of the boys had found my inhaler, making my worry increase ten times more. Now that I didn't have it, I felt as though the only thing I could do was to sit around all day. No more running with Minho in the early hours of the morning, and now if I had chest pains, what was I supposed to do? I couldn't just live in the Med-jack hut for the rest of my miserable life...

Minho and the rest of the Runners had come back a few minutes after Newt and I spoke, and he was called to go the the Council Hall immediately. I'm guessing they filled him in on everything that happened because as soon as the rickety doors opened, Minho sprinted all the way to the Homestead and barged his way into my room, where I was sitting in the exact same position as I was now. He asked me if I was okay, and he gave me a big hug. I told him that I had lost my inhaler, and that we could no longer run around secretly. He told me that maybe it was for the best. We spoke for a little while longer and he informed me on what would happen to Ben.

Banishment. It's such a cruel word. Something nobody deserved no matter how much pain they've caused. Nobody deserved to be pushed into a place so cold under their will. Although Ben was...crazy, I've gotten to know him. Not as well as I knew Alby or Chuck or Newt or Minho, but I still knew Ben. He was a sweet boy. One of the first ones to get up and take a shower every morning. Chuck and I once played a prank on him, and instead of getting mad, he asked to do it with us. He didn't deserve what was coming to him. And for some strange reason, I felt guilty about it.

The knock on the door was the thing to break me out of my thoughts.

"Come in," I muttered. The footsteps of the person became louder as he entered my room and shut the door behind him.

"Mae?" Thomas' voice spoke. I turned around and sent him a lazy smile. He sent one back and took a step closer, "I-I just wanted to come and see how you were doing?"

I shrugged, patting the empty spot on my cot, motioning for him to come and sit down. He obliged and sat, facing away from the window, "I guess I'm okay. How are you?"

He looked into my eyes and shook his head. It was enough for me to understand what he was trying to tell me. I couldn't imagine how he felt... The poor guy still probably didn't know where he was...hell, he only remembered his name last night, and now he get's attacked by a boy who went crazy. Overwhelmed was probably an understatement.

"It'll be okay," I murmured, pursing my lips and nodding.

Thomas nodded and sighed, pointing back to the door, "I just wanted to come tell you that they're about to do it. Have you ever seen a banishment?"

"No," I breathed, looking down at my hands and fumbling with my own fingers, "I've only been here for a month, remember?"

"Right," He blinked and looked at the space in between us, "Do you think it'll hurt him?"

"What?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows.

Thomas inhaled a long breath and took his time exhaling before he responded, messing with a loose sting on the hem of his dirty blue shirt, "Dying."

I looked back up at his face as soon as he asked the question. But what didn't surprise me was the fact that he verbalized it, but it was the fact that I had been thinking about the same thing for an hour. I remembered what a Griever looked like, the metal claws and the razor sharp teeth. I remembered the way that I screamed as soon I saw it, and the way that everyone constantly told me that nobody had ever survived a night in the Maze. Death has always been a strange concept to me. Where does your soul go? Do crazy people get to be happy in the afterlife?