Before Her

Newt 26

Newt
I wake once again with a pain, this time in my ribs. It takes me a while to remember the pain was there because of Minho. Shucking Minho. I push myself up and survey the room, which wasn't hard since the room was a very small room. The bed was empty. I frown as I wonder where she might've gone this early in the morning. It was safe to say she slept like me. She couldn't bear the sun and always woke up before it was halfway up the sky, the same way I did. I decide to look in the infirmary because that was honestly the only place I could think of.

I smelt it before I saw it. The smell of antiseptic and other chemicals. The infirmary was surprisingly clean, I looked around to see all tables were clean and most were empty. First aid kits were stacked at the back, along with a small figure standing next to three big bags, no doubt full of the DNA of more than half the gladers. She looks up when she hears me walk in. Her honey coloured hair pulled into an extremely messy bun.
'Hey.'
'How long have you been hear?'
'Oh, I don't know actually, maybe an hour. I've been cleaning up the mess, though I honestly don't know why I try.'
I bit back a chuckle.
'So what are you doing up here so bright and early? Don't you have a half the glade to run?'
'Well, if you haven't noticed, most of the glade is still asleep. You honestly need to keep track of what's going on.' A satisfying warmth spreads through my body when I see her flush a bright pink. I let out the chuckle I'd been holding in. She elbows me. I gasp and let out a groan when she does.
'What's wrong? Are you hurt?' She asks, her eyebrows furrowing.
'Nah, it's just a small pain from last night. Minho has sharp elbows.' She smiles.
'Where does it hurt? Here?' She asks as she places her hand gently below the spot where she had elbowed me a few second ago. My whole body tenses when she touches me and I silently ask myself why she has that affect on me. Nobody answers.
'More like here,' I reply as I place my hand over her's and guide it up a bit to the spot where she had elbowed me. A bright flush spreads across her cheeks, and I couldn't help but chuckle.

~~~

For the rest of the day, I work all over the glade helping out where I could. I go around watering plants with the track-hoes, carrying supplies from the gardens to the kitchens and helping Alby check up on everyone. Tony had gone into the maze with Minho, we'd decided it was best for him to have supervision on the first few days.

All day, I can think of nothing but her. Her smile, her eyes, her voice, nothing but her. Nothing I did I could get my mind of her, no matter how hard I tried.

Lunchtime rolled around and I went into the infirmary, looking for her. Med-jacks were flying around all over the place, shouting at each other to hand over bottles antiseptic, and clean bandages. I couldn't help but laugh at the mess each med-jack had at their own individual tables. I search the area looking for her until I came across the familiar honey coloured ponytail. She was talking to a skinny boy, while carefully bandaging his hand.
She gives me a little wave once she saw me walking towards her.
'Hello,' was all I said as I waited for her to finish with the boy. 'You had lunch yet?'
'Nope, I was gonna go after I finished with Phil,' she nodded towards the boy.
He smiles at me, showing off his pearly white teeth, I swear for a second I went blind.
I nodded at him. I wandered of for a bit after I got bored of waiting for her and Franky. I went around making small talk with the other med-jacks I knew.

Soon enough, I spotted Jane packing up and walked over to her. I stood by as I watched her pack, once in a while, she would look up and smile at me. I didn't know why but, my chest ached every time she did. After she disposed of the used tissues, she wrapped an arm around my own and started tugging me to the kitchens. All through those sixty seconds of being dragged into the kitchen, all I could think about was the fact that she was practically trying to rip my arm out of its socket.

We waited in line, like everyone else and ate, like everyone else.

The runners table, I noticed, was full of other people, but not a single runner. I knew that when the runners weren't here, anyone was free to sit there, but it still felt kind of weird, not seeing them there laughing their heads off and shouting insults at each other. It felt so quiet when they weren't here.
'It's weird without them sitting there huh?' I turned to see her standing next to me, handing me a plate, smiling and nodding at the table I had been staring at.
'Yeah, I guess.'
'It felt so weird the first week I was here when I got my food during lunchtimes. I half expected Minho to burst through the door and jump on the table.'
I laughed at her statement and took the plate in one hand, and led her out into the glade with the other, pressing my hand lightly to the small of her back.

Gladers walked around, doing jobs while others ate. Everyone had different break times so that the kitchen and eating spaces wouldn't be flooded with hungry boys.

'How are you finding the glade so far?'
'It's still a little hard to get used to the idea that I can't remember anything from my past, but other than that, I'd say I'm actually enjoying it here. It's nice to see that even though all of you have gone through the same thing, and have nightmares and hate it here, you all work together even if it's just to help find a way out of this place. I'm happy to be apart of this place, even if this is technically some kind of confinement. I know most of you see it as a prison or hell, but it's not. You have food, you have supplies, you have friends, and even though most of you won't admit it, you all actually have fun most of the time and some of you even enjoy it here.

'Sometimes I wonder why they put us here. I mean, if we had done something bad in the past, why didn't they just shoot us or lock us up? If they wanted to punish us, why aren't they torturing us. Why are they giving us food instead? Why are they sending up clothes and wood and nails and medicine? And I know there's always the fact that they put us in here and that there are grievers in the maze but think about it, the grievers don't come through those walls during the day, and the walls close during the night to keep them out. Why would the walls close at night to keep them out? And why do they open during the day? Why bother anyway? Why don't they just close the walls and just keep us in here forever?'

I was speechless. I had never thought of it that way at all. I had never wondered any of those things. I had thought the creators put us in here to punish us, to lock us in here, I had hated them with every living cell in my body. But what if you looked at it the way Jane had? What if there was something big that we were all missing? Why did they close and open those walls? Why did they send supplies for us? Why didn't they just leave us here to die? It was like they wanted us to work together, to build up the glade. But why?
'Newt, say something.'
'What? Oh, I was just thinking about what you said, I mean, I've never looked at the bloody situation that way before. I guess I've always focused on the negatives, I doubt anyone would have thought of it that way before.'
'I guess, I was just thinking, you know. And I'm pretty sure it must have crossed your mind at some point. Hasn't it?'
I shook my head. She knitted her eyebrows.
'Really?'
I shook my head again.
'Oh.' A look I didn't recognise showed, before she brushed it off with a small smile. She looked down at her food and began pushing around the food on her plate.

A silence fell over us. I honestly didn't even know why there was a silence, there just was.

So let me know what you guys think of this chapter, or comment any feedback you have for me, or just you can just vote... Please do so if you can
-Tess 😋