Thomas, Newt, Minho, and I walked into the Med Hut, on our way to take a look at the girl to see if she had woken up, because Jeff lay her down on one of the beds.
"Jeff, what's going on?" Newt sighed. "What's the matter with her? Why won't she wake up?"
Newt caring about the girl so much, made me shrink. Don't be so lame now, Jane! He's just kind.
"Hey man, I got my job the same way you did." Jeff shrugged.
I stared at the sleeping girl, a few freckles covering her face and her perfectly curved body. Mine wasn't curved like that at all. My body was more athletic, less 'girly'. I had muscles that were visible when I tightened them, and didn't have such curved parts, but she had this perfect waist.. and also her face was so pretty! She was beautiful.
I sniffed and focused on the boys their conversation, trying not to compare the girl to myself anymore, which was pretty hard.
So that's what it feels like to be jealous. Now I get Minho and Newt.
"Do you recognize her?" Newt asked when he noticed Thomas staring at the girl, rubbing his chin.
"No." Thomas shook his head.
"Really?" Newt slightly raised his voice. "Because she seemed to recognize you."
"What about the note?" Thomas suggested, changing the subject, which I found quite suspicious.
"We'll worry about the note later." Newt decided.
"I think you should worry about it now," I replied. "We'll run out of food."
"She's right, Newt." Jeff agreed. "If the Box isn't coming back up, how long do you think we can last?"
Newt scoffed. "No one said that."
It was on the note, you idiot.
"Let's not jump to any conclusions." Newt sighed. "We'll just wait until she wakes up and see what she knows. Somebody has gotta have some answers around here."
"Okay." Thomas nodded and rushed away.
"Where are you going?" Newt yelled.
"Back into the maze!"
Newt gave Minho a nod, so the Runner followed and I was about to do too, but Newt grabbed my arm and shook his head.
"It's getting late," Newt said.
"Go tuck Chuck in then." I pulled away from his grip and walked away, quite proud of my comeback.
Once I arrived outside, I noticed Minho walking away from Thomas, so I jogged toward the boy. "And? Are we going?"
"Minho said he'll meet me in the Map Room in half an hour," Thomas replied, lowering his voice a bit.
"Alright."
~
"Will this be enough?" Minho and some other Keepers appeared next to Thomas and me.
"Hey, what are you doing here, Jane?" Minho frowned. "I thought Newt-."
"Newt is tucking Chuck in." I interrupted. "But we better hurry."
"Okay. Let's go." Thomas nodded and we started running toward the place Thomas killed a Griever. I never even asked how he killed one, but guessed I would find out soon.
"Right here." We stopped in front of a wall with a gap in it. The metal legs of a Griever stuck out, slime was all over the ground, and it looked quite disgusting. It was squeezed in between the walls, I realized.
"That's disgusting." Zart read my mind.
"There's something in there," Thomas replied, pointing at something red that made a buzzing noise.
"You mean, besides a Griever pancake?" Frypan scoffed.
"If we get a lack of food because the Box doesn't come back up, we could eat the pancake," I suggested.
Minho didn't reply and just stepped forward, putting his hand in the gap.
"Whoa, what are you doing?" Winston warned, but Minho kept going until the Griever suddenly yelped and moved.
We yelped too and took a step back.
"I thought you said it was dead." Frypan gasped.
"Was it a reflex?" Zart questioned.
"You hope," Winston answered.
"Okay, come on." Thomas got closer to the Griever. "Let's try and pull it out. Everyone get a hand on it. Come on."
We did as Thomas told us and all grabbed a part of the Griever's legs.
"All right, ready? On three. One, two, three!" We all pulled and to my surprise, it worked. Half of the dead Griever came out of the gap, but it did make some of us fall to the ground.
"Are you okay, Fry?" Thomas held out his hand for the Cook, who gladly took it.
"Yeah. Thanks, brother." Frypan sighed.
"Come on, Shebean." Minho took my arm and pulled me up, causing me to blush deeply. Then Minho walked back to the creature and pulled something out of it. The disgusting noise made me shrink and the smell didn't make it much better.
"What the hell is that?" We stared at a weird device in Minho's hand. A red seven was on the silver thing, slime covering half of it. It was hard to describe, so...
"Interesting," Minho said. That was not what I was about to say.
"Okay, whatever it is... can we take this up back at the Glade? Because I don't want to meet this guy's friends." Frypan suggested.
"He's right. It's getting late. Come on." Minho added.
"And Newt is going to kill us."
~
"We found this." We arrived at a gathering after Newt gave us a whole damn speech or confrontation about whatever. "It was inside a Griever," Minho explained, holding up the weird thing.
"These are the same letters we get in our supplies." Newt realized once he saw the letters, which by now I noticed too.
"World In Catastrophe Killzone Experiment Department." I blurted out.
"What?" They all turned to me, making me a bit embarrassed.
"WICKED, w.c.k.d, that's what it means." I sighed.
"Yeah." Thomas frowned. "Whoever put us here obviously made the Grievers. This is the first real clue, the first anything, you've found in over 3 years. Right, Minho?"
"Right." Minho agreed, seeming serious for once.
"Newt, we gotta go back out there," Thomas ordered, making some movements with his hands. "Who knows where this might lead us."
"A way out, hopefully," I said.
"You see what they're trying to do, right?" Gally started arguing. "First he breaks our rules... and then he tries to convince us to abandon them totally. The rules are the only thing that has ever held us together. Why now are we questioning that? If Alby was here, you know he'd agree with me."
I sighed and had to resist rolling my eyes.
"This shank needs to be punished."
"You're right." Newt agreed.
Excuse you?
"Thomas broke the rules. One night in the Pit, and no food." He leaned against a pole.
Oh, damn. He always looks so good!
"Come on, Newt!" Gally threw his hands in the air. "One night in the Pit? Do you think that's gonna stop him from going into the maze?"
I scoffed loudly. "So you agree on Dave being sent in the Pit for one night because he assaulted me, but not Thomas because he killed a Griever?"
Gally's face flushed red in anger, but he repeated the last sentence and ignored me. "Do you think that's gonna stop him from going into the maze?"
"No," Newt responded. "And we can't just have non-runners running into the maze whenever they feel like it. So let's just make this official." He turned to Thomas and gave him a nod. "Starting from tomorrow, you're a runner."
"Wow." Gally sighed.
"Jealous?" I mumbled.
Gally balled his fists and got threateningly close to me. I stared up, meeting his eyes. Though he was taller and stronger than me, I wasn't afraid of him.
"Don't act like you're so innocent," Gally whispered. "I know you're doing something."
My breathing hitched, but I didn't show it. No one could know why I was in the maze, or how weak I actually was.
"You're just jealous of us all." I blankly answered. "And I know what happened to you. You did the same as Thomas, though I will have to add you didn't kill a Griever. You only got stung by one, didn't you? I know you went into the maze once too."
Gally pressed his lips together out of anger. "You-."
"Alright." Minho softly pushed me out of the way, but got hard on Gally, pointing his finger to his chest. "I think you should leave, man." He threatened, lowering his voice and slowly pushing him with just his finger.
Gally spun around and stomped away. Frypan wanted to grab his arm, but Gally stopped him.
"No, Fry." He went outside.
Everyone was silent for a bit, the fact Thomas was a Runner coming through their mind. "Thanks, Newt," Thomas said.