Evermore ღ Newt TMR³

20. It's No Use

Her brother doesn't allow her to, pulling her out onto the front lawn. Talia fights against him, but it's no use.

Moments later, a gun goes off and a curtain of silence falls down upon the house.

+ + + + +

'Mom, no! Mom, don't let them take us! Mom!'

The little red headed girl gets pulled out of her mother's arms by men in green suits. The son runs up to his mother, wrapping his arms around her neck.

She holds him close, 'Look after your sister. I will see you both again. I promise.'

The young boy nodded, tears streaming down his face. He was then taken also, but he went more willingly than his younger sister.

'Mommy! Mommy, please! Please, I promise I'll be good! Please, mommy!'

The men drag her out the door, her cheeks wet and her eyes puffy.

+ + + + +

'Who are you?'

The girl doesn't look up from her plate of food. She had been at this strange new place almost a month, and she missed her home terribly.

The boy sat down across from her, but she still didn't look at him.
'Did they give you a new name, too? Do you remember your old one?'

The girl's shoulders tense. They had been told that they would be punished if they used their old names.

'Don't worry,' the boy reassures in his funny voice, 'You don't have to tell me. I guess I'm just curious is all. Can I know your new name?'

The girl doesn't reply, just looks up at him. He is maybe a year older than her, with sandy blonde hair and chocolate brown eyes.

'Well, if you want a friend, my name's Newt.' The boy beams at her, and she smiles back gladly, happy to have found someone nice in such a dark place.

+ + + + +

The girl sits in her advanced class, along with her brother and four other people.

The adult at the front of the classroom right her name on the board. 'I will be your teacher for this course, can you all please introduce yourself.'

One by one, everyone in the room says their name. Their new name.

Aris.

Teresa.

Rachel.

Thomas.

Archie*.

The young girl doesn't say anything, just sits there, glaring at the blackboard.

The teacher pulls on a taunt, fake smile. 'Excuse me, please introduce yourself to the other students. Unless you would prefer a time out?'

This caught her attention. She had already been in a time out before, and it was really not something she wanted to experience again.

Dropping her eyes to her hands in her lap, the girl speaks, 'Lori.'

(* Archie is named after Archimedes, he is Group B's Lori. He hasn't been mentioned, because he didn't make it past his first few days in Group B's Maze, so they didn't see him as anything of importance.)

+ + + + +

Lori is now older, sitting at her same table, eating the same food.

And the same boy insists on sitting across from her.

It hadn't taken almost three months to actually speak to him. Now they are teenagers, and are the best of friends.

'So, Lori, what's on the menu today?' He smiles.

She chuckles, 'The same as every other day, Newt.'

They talk for a while longer, before a girl walks over. She takes a seat beside Newt, wrapping an arm around him and holding him close.

Clara.

'I missed you today. I wish we had some classes together,' She sighed, resting her head on his shoulder.

He held her hand, comforting her. 'Yeah, if only we lived in the exact same building.' He laughed and smiled, 'Oh, wait a second.'

The girl punched him playfully.

The three spoke for a while, before Thomas walked over. 'I need to borrow Lori. I promise I'll return her unscathed.

Clara and Newt laughed and nodded.

Lori and Thomas walked to the corner of the cafeteria.
'What's up, Thomas?' The girl asked, peering around to make sure no one was paying attention to them.

'You know,' Thomas replies in a serious tone. 'It's almost time.'

Lori nods, understanding. 'Then we best get everything into place. Quickly.'

+ + + + +

'You honestly think that we would let you get away with trying to change our experiment?' The Rat Man asks, laughing humorlessly.

'Well, we were kind of hoping,' Lori sneers.

Janson smirks, 'You know, I really hope the Swipe doesn't remove your sense of humor. That would be a real shame.'

The two go wide-eyed. 'The Swipe?' Thomas exclaims.

'That's right,' Janson beams. 'You want to save them? Fine, but you'll be doing it from the inside. We're sending you both into the Maze.'

'What?' Lori shouts. 'That things a death trap!'

'Not to those who know its inner working,' He peers over to Thomas, and that got Lori's attention.

'Thomas? Do you know something?'

'He got you to help him, and didn't even tell you the whole story? Oh, that's absolutely precious,' Janson chuckles, actually humored this time. 'You're friend here, helped us to build the Maze.'

+ + + + +

'I'm not going to do that,' She responds sternly. 'He's my friend. I'm not going to hurt him just for your experiment.'

'You're really just not getting it, are you?" Janson groans, tired of having to explain himself to every teenager that they were keeping in the compound. 'You're not going to have a choice. The moment you stepped into this building, the moment you became a part of the Trials; we own you.'

'Why are you doing this?' She asked, panic filling her body.

'Like we say every time you ask that question. We are going to save the world.'