A Way Back - The Maze Runner (♡Newt)

Chapter 43

Cally's pov

We were just having our dinner, I was sitting on a table with Newt, Ez, and Chuck when Minho joined us. He looked around the table when his eyes fell on Chuck, and without even a moment of hesitation, he turned to us. "Who's the chubby one?"  I could see Chuck's expression become sad and shot Minho an angry glare.
     Minho saw it but only smirked and winked at me. I rolled my eyes, wrapped my arm around Chuck's shoulders, and pressed him closer. "This is Chuck. He's the new Greenie, but I'm sure you're not that stupid that you didn't already know that, are you, Minho?"
     Minho shrugged, "I had a pretty good guess."
     I shook my head while letting go of Chuck's shoulders and turned back to my plate of food. Chuck seemed to have found his tongue back because he started asking questions again.
     "So, you're Minho?"
     Minho looked over at the Shank, "Yeah." He clearly was trying to figure out what to do with this one.
     "How's it like, being a Runner. You are a Runner, right?"
     "What gave it away?" Minho had apparently chosen for annoyed sarcasm.
     "You're all sweaty and stink pretty bad. Besides, you came in later than the others, and I haven't seen you around here all day."
     I chuckled as I looked at the two of them, Chuck didn't seem to realize he was annoying Minho.
     "How observant of you," Minho's words were dripping with sarcasm now.
     "You think I can't hear the sarcasm in your voice? I'm not stupid, you know." Chuck stated.
     Newt and I looked at each other and busted out laughing, drawing everyone's attention to us. It didn't take long before the others joined us.

~.~.~

The rest of the day went by pretty quickly, and I ended up helping set up the campfire. Until it was lit, and I watched the flames consume the wood until they had reached the top of the wooden pile.
     I liked watching the fire. It made me feel peaceful. My peace, however, got disturbed by Chuck, who jerked my sleeve a few times to get my attention. "What are those guys doing?" He asked while pointing at the group of Gladers by the circle.
     "They're playing a game."
     "What kind of game?"
     "They've to push each other out of the circle that's drawn in the sand."
     I noticed that Chucky was processing my description of the game before he answered with "That's stupid."
     I looked surprised at him, "You really think so?"
    He nodded, "Yes. Why should you try to push each other? Don't people get hurt?"
     I thought for a second about that, I remembered the times I got tackled by Gally, or every time I got a shoulder in my rib cage. I've had a lot of scrapes and bruises from that game. "It hurts most of the time, and you'll get a few bruises sometimes."
     "See?" Chuck said, happy to have proven his point. "Have you played it before?"
     Now I nodded, "Yep," I let the p plop, "not just a few times. I still got the title of Queen of the Circle. Even though I don't even play half as much as Gally does."
     "Who's Gally?"
     I looked around to see if I could see the Keeper of the Builders somewhere. And of course, he was standing by the Circle, cheering on one of his friends, "do you see that big guy over there? With the black hair?"
     Chuck squinted into the direction that I was pointing, "Yes."
     "That's Gally. He's the Keeper of the Builders. You shouldn't bother him too much, though. He doesn't appreciate that."
     "Are all Keepers so grumpy?"
     I laughed at Chuck's question, "How do you mean, Greanbean?"
     "Well, you just warned me for Gally, and then there's Minho who has a problem with sarcasm."
     Again, I laughed at my little friend's commend, "Minho isn't that bad. He just likes to mess around with the Greenies."
     "Really?"
     "Yeah, you should've seen him with Ezra when he first came here. Even though that might have had something to do with some circumstances...."
     "Oh, okay." There was a short pause where I thought we had dropped the subject, I was wrong. "What kind of circumstances?"
     Before I could answer the Shank, I felt a weight on my shoulders as Ezra jumped on me, laughing at my startled shriek. "Ezra!" I whined while pushing him off me. "What do you want?"
     "Nothing, I just want to talk to my little sister."
     "I'm older than you," I said as I glared at him. Realizing too late that I shouldn't have said that in front of Chuck, who didn't know we remembered.
     "You guys remember your age?" He asked in disbelief.
     Quickly, I shook my head, "No, no, that's not what I meant. I meant that I've been here longer than him. It's kind of hard to know who's older in years when you don't have memories."
    "If you don't have memories, then how do you know you two are twins?"
    "Because I've seen in during the Changing."
    "The what? What's that?"
    "That's something that happens to you when you get stung by a Griever."
    Chuck's eyes widened with a mix of fear an adoration, "you've been stung by a Griever?"
     "Yes, I have."
     "How? I thought only the Runners were aloud outside of the Glade."
     "That's true, but before I-"
     Ezra seemed done with the conversation and interrupted me, "That's all very fascinating, but I'm really thirsty. Chuck, could you get us some of Frypan's? You can get it in the kitchen."
     Chuck nodded enthusiastically, happy he could help. "I can do that."
     The moment he was gone, I shot Ezra an angry glare, "why did you do that?"
     "Wasn't that obvious? I wanted to get rid of him so I could talk to you."
     I crossed my arms over my chest, raising my eyebrows. "Well, what's the problem?"
     "You and Chuck."
     Not understanding my raised eyebrows turned into a frown. "How do you mean?"
     Ezra looked at me in disbelief, letting out a frustrated sigh. "Can't you see what you're doing?"
     "Helping out the Newbie?"
     Now Ezra raised his eyebrows at me, "You sure that's the only thing you're doing?"
     I really did not understand what my brother was coming from, "yes, I'm just helping him."
     Ezra sighed before he finally decided to spell it out for me. "It seems to me that you're trying to replace the little fucker that is our brother. Darren."
     "What? I am not replacing Darren." There was an offended tang in my voice, how could he think I would just do that?
     "Are you sure? 'Cause you're acting all big sisterly around him."
     "So what if I am? That doesn't mean I'm trying to replace Darren with Chuck."
     "Ow, really? 'Cause I've got the feeling that you've been trying to replace everyone in our family with some 'shank' since the day you got here."
     I rolled my eyes, "that means your feeling is wrong, Brother mine."
     "I don't think so, dearest sister."
     "Okay, then tell me. Who have I been replacing with who?"
    "It's pretty obvious that you replace Darren with Chuck. Me, you tried to replace with Minho-"
     I sighed and rolled my eyes while I interrupted him. "That's so, not true."
     Ezra shot me a glare before continuing, "I'm just not sure yet if you're using Newt to replace Jenny or Felix."
    Now I hit my brother on his arm, "I'm not using anyone to replace anyone. I've gotten a little close to some Shanks, so what? That doesn't mean I'm forgetting about my real family."
     Ezra opened his mouth to react, but at that moment Chuck came back, carrying three cups. "This is what you meant, right?" He asked while handing Ezra a cup.
    He took the cup from him, "yes, thanks, Greenie."
    "Thank you, Chuckster." I said as I took my own cup from him and took a sip from it. The moment I swallowed the liquid the dizziness that I had had earlier that day came back, I fell on the ground before I could do anything about it. The feeling of a memory creeping up out of the back of my head was stronger then before. And this time I actually saw something.
     I was inside of a room which was filled with weird technology, I didn't recognize it at all. 
     I wasn't alone in the room either, there were other people in it too. I was sitting in front of some kind of computer screen, I tried to read what was on it, but it was too blurry. 
     "Hey, Cals, what do ya think they're testing us for this time?" I looked beside me to see Newt. His hair was shorter and he looked a few years younger as the guy I met in the Glade. I wanted to answer him, but a split second later Newt disappeared, just like the room and I was back in the Glade.
     I looked up at the faces of Ezra and Chuck, who were bending over me with worried expressions. "What just happened?" I asked them when they helped me sit straight.
     "You blacked out for a moment," Ezra answered.
     "Are you okay?" Chuck asked me.
     "Yeah, yes. I'm fine." I said as I crawled back on my feet again. Then I turned to Ezra, "have you seen Alby, or Newt?"
     It took a moment before Ezra nodded, "Newt's over there with Minho- but wh-"
     "Great. Chuck, I just realized I've got to talk to Newt. I'll see you guys later." I said as I started walking away.
     A few moments later Ezra had cauth up to me, "what's going on?"
     "I just remembered something," I whispered to him.
     "No shit Sherlock, you already said that."
     A frustrated grown came out of my mouth, "shut up, Watson. I meant that I remember, remember something."
     Now Ezra got curious, "really? What?"
     "I think it has something to do with me losing the bracelet," I continued, ignoring my brothers question.
     The moment we reached Newt and Minho I grabbed their arms and started dragging them with me, "we need to talk."
     I dragged them to the back of the Homestead where there weren't any other Gladers. They had tried to talk to me, but I didn't answer. "Do you guys know where Alby is?" I asked them.
     Minho and Newt both looked at me with confused expressions, "I don't think so." Minho answered me.
     "Okay then I'll just tell him later."
     "Tell him what?" Newt asked me.
     "Do you remember that Alby told me that when there was something off I had to tell him or you," I gestured to Newt.
     The guys nodded, so I continued, "something weird happened."
     "So what happened?" Minho asked while gesturing for me to go on.
     "I got all dizzy again and passed out, bu-"
     "Seriously? Are ya okay?" Newt asked worried, but I waved it off.
     "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Anyway, that's not the point. When I was passed out I saw something. It was like a memory, I think, it just doesn't make sense."
    "What did you see?" Ezra asked me.
     "If you would let me finish," I said to him as I shot him an annoyed look. "Anyway, I was inside of this room filled with weird electronica and computers. I was making some kind of test in one of them when you," I gestured to Newt, "asked me what I thought they were testing us for. I didn't understand what the hell was going on, but then I woke up again."
     "Yes, okay, that's weird... You really think that was a memory?" Ezra asked me.
     "I don't know. It felt like it. But then again, there were things that I saw during the Changing that also didn't make sense but did feel like memories."
     "Why? Do you think that had anything to do with you losing the bracelet?" Ez asked me.
     "Because those things didn't happen when I was still wearing it, Slinthead." I hit him on the back of his head.
     "I think it's a good idea if we go find Alby," Minho started, "I think he'll find this interesting."

~.~.~

Edited: 25/12/20