𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐊𝐈𝐃𝐒 | The Maze Runner

𝐈𝐕

Josephine didn't get a response from the curious boy, who was now only a meter away from the entrance. "HEY!", she yelled louder, making the boy stop in his tracks. His curious eyes wondered left and right, trying hard to find the voice's owner.

He took two more reluctant steps towards the grey entrance. "Stop!", Jo yelled once more, her mind cursing the oblivious boy. After a moment, she got his attention as he turned his head to her direction, his hazel eyes roaming around until they landed on her figure.

His eyebrows furrowed and his lips parted. However, before his vocal cords could gather the strength to say something, he was yet again on the ground. Gally had tackled the boy, now on top of him, painful groans escaping from both of their lips.

A crowd had quickly gathered around the two boys, all whispering and staring, a specialty among the Gladers. "We're just trying to protect you", Jo heard as she got closer and closer to the tension.

She reached the crowd, pushing her way to the front. Her eyes wondered from a bland Alby, to an angered Gally and finally to the Greenie.

It was his first time that he had actually looked at the girl that once blended among the trees. Her eyes briefly met his, a shiver running down both of their spines. However, their stares were quickly broken off by the grinding sound of the walls closing, just as they always did.

"Can you not go a day without tackling someone to death!", Jo exclaimed at Gally, who was now standing up, holding the side of his ribs.

The irony made Jo softly laugh. This morning he had been holding himself still because his laughter made him sway, now it was due to the pain coursing through his already tired muscles.

She lightly tapped two fingers on his side, examining his possible injuries. Gally winced at the light pressure, taking deep breaths as his chest rose and fell.

"Not broken, it will bruise though", she told Gally as he rolled his eyes at her. "One day, you'll roll your eyes so far that they will get stuck and I can not fix that", Jo remarked at his lack of manners, earning an apologetic look from the rude boy.

"Next time, I'm gonna let you leave", Gally told the new boy before walking off, glaring at anyone who would dare to meet his eyes. The new boy, frantic, had put space between himself and the small crowd.

"Welcome to the Glade", Alby told the boy before he walked off, the familiar words echoing through Jo's head. The group of boys became smaller and smaller as the tension dissolved, each boy heading off back to what they were doing beforehand.

"Come on Greenie", Jo told him, "Don't want to break a rule on your first day". The boy looked at her, confusion only increasing. His curious eyes wondered to the girl's eyes once again and then to her smile, calming his senses down.

"I-I", the boy began to stutter, not sure what to tell the girl that stood in front of him. "It's okay, I understand", she told him. "Let's go get you checked up, alright? Won't be too useful crying in pain", Jo spoke, biting the inside of her cheek as she let out a soft smile.

Jo knew too well, it was one thing experiencing the horrid truth, it was another to witness it happen to someone else. In her one year in the Glade, Jo had learned. She had learned communication, communication between the damned.

"Follow me", she softly commanded at the silent boy. She glanced back a few times, making sure that he was trailing behind her. And he was as he hesitantly followed the girl, his eyes not leaving the back of her head. He noticed how her hair moved side to side with each step she took, following a rhythm of sorts.

As he entered a wooden cabin located in the Homestead, the girl sat him down on a small bed. "I'm Josephine, but everyone calls me Jo", she told him as she gathered a tube filled with a white cream and a long cotton swab. "I-I", the boy started to stutter again, but he couldn't remember, no one ever could.