Blinded

Dead

Lunch or dinner or whatever it was, was quiet except for the screaming of Alby, the closing Doors and then the low pitched echoes of the Grievers cries. I did my best to smile and talk and avoid the subject of the Maze in general. Thankfully not too many boys seemed to want to talk about it, but when Chuck sat down beside me, he turned it to a different subject. My relationship with Minho.

"Are you two dating?" He said it so bluntly and innocently but I still blushed.

"No." I hid my smile behind my cup as I sipped at my water.

"Do you want to date him?" I almost choked when he asked the question.

"Do I have to answer that?" I tried to say it without betraying what I knew, but then Gally walked up and opened his big mouth.

"Yes you do." He stated and I groaned.

"No I don't." I smiled smugly, "Because you don't need to know." I stood and went to walk away but I had barely taken several steps when Gally grabbed my arm.

"Tell me." He demanded and I shook my head, still keeping a smirk plastered on my face. The girl I was in my nightmare/memory was still in my head, and if there was any time to be her, this was it.

"Tell me." He demanded and tightened his grip on my arm. I shook my head again. It was beginning to hurt where he held me, but I kept smirking through it.

"Fine." He let go of my arm, "be a b-" He never got to finish the word before I slammed my fist into his face. It felt as if the Glade around us froze. There was the feeling of his nose crumpling under my fist and the wet spray of blood. He stumbled backwards cursing. I shook my hand out: that hurt me too.

"You want to try that again?" I asked, "You want to try calling me that word again?"

"Whoa Ada! Stop!" Newt came up and grabbed my arm. "Stop. Don't you remember the bloody rules?"

"I was only ever told one. Don't go into the Maze." I said, "But this guy," I nodded in Gally's direction "was asking for it."

"We all think he is." Newt muttered then louder said, "Come on. Leave the bugger alone." I thought it over. Would punching Gally again be worth Newt's and the Keepers wrath? Nah. I let Newt pull me away as Gally's buddies helped him out.

"Well that was interesting." Thomas approached. "But I'm glad you did it." I smiled.

"Thank you." I reached out and he guided my hand to his shoulder.

"Where's Chuck?" I asked, "I was talking to him then Gally came up. I don't know where the little guy went."

"Here!" He piped up and I smiled.

"Figured you'd be hanging around with your big brother here." I laughed, I didn't need to see to know they looked confused. But it was true, they seemed close enough to be brothers.

"Anyway..." Newt said after a moment, "Next up- figure out what to do with you and Tommy here."

"Do with me?" Thomas echoed. I managed to figure it out before Newt began speaking again.

"Hey, he dragged me in after him. I didn't go in on my own." I said, mostly in my defense. I wasn't trying to pass blame.

"Still, you turned this whole place upside down, you bloody shank." There was laughter in Newt's voice, "Half the Gladers think your God Thomas or they want to marry Ada, and the other half want to throw your butt down the Box hole. Lotta stuff to talk about."

"Like what?" Thomas sounded as worried as I suddenly felt.

"Patience." Newt chuckled, "You'll find out tomorrow after wake-up."

"Why tomorrow?" The words left my mouth before I could stop them.

"I've called a Gathering. And you two are the only bugging things on the agenda." Newt explained and it seemed he would have said more, but before he could, a piercing alarm broke through the Glade. It was loud enough to drown out the voices of confused Gladers but not Newt yelling,

"What the bloody hell?" The alarm stopped as suddenly as it started, leaving my ears ringing.

"It was the Newbie alarm..." Thomas said, pulling me towards the center of the Glade.

"But I thought I was the last one?" I said shaking my head and the ringing stopped.

"Apparently not." Chuck said as we began to work our way through a crowd of Gladers. There was a muffled boom and then the scraping of rusted metal as we came to a stop. I felt a puff of dust go up into my face. Coughing I waved it away.

"Holy..." Whatever Newt saw it was enough to leave him somewhat speechless.

"No way." I tilted my head in the direction of Minho's voice. He sounded flat out shocked.

"What's down there Newt?" Somebody yelled, and another yelled, "Yeah! Just tell us Newt!"

"It's another girl." He said and a chaos of noise exploded. Boys asking questions about her and calling dibs. It was disgusting.

"Oh for goodness sake..." I muttered before yelling, "Shut up!" They fell silent before Newt spoke again.

"That's not the half of it. I think she's dead."