A few hours until sunset, a few minutes until the maze doors close. The gladers stood on the left and on the right allowing a walkway for Minho to drag Ben through with his hands tied behind his head.
The gladers enclosed in a semi-circle around the two, holding wooden poles at their side, as Ben fell to his knees coughing up blood, tears streaming down his face, yet still pleading to not be put into the maze. Emmeline stood in between Gally and Winston, her knuckles turning white at how hard she was gripping onto the wooden pole to try and stop her tears from falling.
Ben's desperate cry's for mercy echoed through the silence of the glade. The first rumble of a shift of the maze doors moving was heard. Minho threw Ben's bag into the maze past the walls and the gust of wind blew past the faces of the gladers. Ben's sobs intensified, his face strained due to the amount he was crying and pleading for mercy.
"Poles!" Alby shouted out to the gladers surrounding the edge. Everyone stuck their pole out in front on themselves, making the space between Ben and the maze smaller. He finally stood to his feet, stumbling as he tried to move.
"Move in!" Alby exclaimed. The gladers directly in front of him started to walk forward, pushing Ben further and further into the maze, yet his desperation to be free still continued.
The stone walls of the maze started to close and Ben was reluctantly halfway through. The gladers continued to push and push until he had to move out of the way of the walls, and into the maze. The walls were shut and Ben's cries were silenced. Another once humble glader was lost.
Emmeline passed her pole to Gally and walked off with her head down. A complete surge of betrayal and distress consumed her, the feelings that she wasn't able to push down any longer. She began to bawl, her lip quivering and hands pushing her hair out of the way. Streams of tears kept coming no matter how hard she tried to calm herself down, as she walked toward her room in the homestead, not wanting anyone to see her like this.
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"Em? Can i come in?" Newt had come to Emmeline's door, it had been about an hour since the banishment of Ben.
"Yea." A muttered answer was heard behind the door, and Newt made his way into the room.
She was sat under the covers of her bed leaning her head against her pillow, looking like she was asleep, but she had been kept wide awake, replaying the events seemingly seconds ago. Newt sat himself next to her with a bowl in his hand. "I brought you your dinner, it's just some soup and bread, something easy."
Emmeline sat herself up and leaned her back against the wall and took the bowl from Newt. "Thankyou." She said with a smile, and dipped her bread into her soup. She was glad that it was Newt that was here sitting with her, she always felt calm and comfortable whenever he was around.
"How's everyone doing?" She asked, taking a bite.
"You know how it is, quiet, and everyone's just trying to keep to themselves for now." He replied with a shrug of the shoulders. "But I wanted to see how you were doing?"
She put her spoon back into her bowl, put the food on the bedside table and looked up at Newt with a heavy release of breath and reluctance to let go of how she was feeling. Newt could tell what Emmeline was feeling by to way she was looking at him and how a new gloss was washing over her eyes. "Do you want a hug?" He raised his eyebrows and opened his arms. She only nodded and collapsed into him, letting his warm embrace hold her, a few subtle sobs escaping her lips and Newt laying his head on top of hers, whilst rubbing his hands up and down her back.
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Newt walked himself from the homestead and out to the sleeping quarters where everyone was sitting in their hammocks or against wooden posts, mostly silent. But you could still hear a gentle murmur of voices every now and again. They were all to sleep in the sleeping quarters tonight, so they were all together.
It was now dark, fire lanterns were being used as a source of light and warmth, the orange glow illuminating the faces of each glader as they sat, sombre.
Newt took a seat on a wooden stump by Thomas and Chuck with his head down, Thomas had now changed out of his bloodied blue shirt and into a white vest for now. The pair sat not knowing what to say, as they were the glades two newest arrivals.
"Is Emmeline alright?" Chuck spoke up, to fill the silence. His voice sounding more dry than normal, due to the absence of speach in the last hours. Newt looked up from his seat and drew in a breath.
"She's okay...and she will be okay, it's just how things have to be around here." He said looking at from Chuck to Thomas, "... How are your arms?" Newt brought up, Thomas still only now noticing the distant pain that remained there, behind the compression of the bandages.
He turned his forearms to face him so he could have a look and said,
"She did a pretty good job fixing them up," Then turning his arms away from him to show Newt. Newt smiled looking at his arms and said , "You have to go see her every morning now?" Thomas put his arms down, back into his lap.
"Uh... yea, keep it clean and what not." Newt stayed smiling at Thomas' answer, he could almost predict now, how their daily visits would end up.
Newt knew what Emmeline was like, the sweetest, most gentle person in this place, and probably out of this place. If he was interested in girls he knew for a fact he would have the biggest crush on her for sure. And if Thomas hadn't fallen for her yet, he was bound to in the next couple of mornings, he knew it. But he obviously kept that to himself for now, not wanting to jinx anything for anyone.
The silence weighed in for a moment, "She's really sweet, you know. I'd never realised how nice she was until today." Thomas put out, but to Newt it was the obvious. He only replied with."I know." With a slight laugh. Another moment passed. "Ah speak of the devil." He said turning in his seat.
Emmeline made her way over to Newt, Thomas and Chuck. "Hi... can I sit here?" She said greeting everyone, then asking Thomas if she could sit with him on the edge of his hammock.
"Uh yea, yea." He replied, trying his best to move along the hammock to make more space. She took her seat and the pair ended up sitting shoulder to shoulder, his bare arm against her jumper sleeve, their legs pushed against each other due to unstable nature of the hammock.
"Chuck how you feeling?" Emmeline asked, Chuck turned around in his hammock to face her. His hair all messed because of the time he's spent laying down.
"Yea I'm fine, I didn't really see any of it anyway."
"That's good...," Silence remained. It was so difficult to be able to sustain a conversation at this moment, whenever someone tried to speak it felt like their was a constant pressure to stop and be quiet.
"Do you think he'll make it?" Thomas thought out loud.
"No." Newt put bluntly.
"No one ever survives a night in the maze," Emmeline added. "We just have to move on."
"I guess we ought to get to bed then," Newt let out a sigh, standing up from his spot and walking to the further end of the sleeping quarters to find his hammock. And Emmeline remained seated for a moment before starting to stand back up and walk away to find somewhere to sleep.
"...There's an open hammock next to me, if you want to sleep there." Thomas said hesitantly, looking up at her.
"Thankyou," She turned back to him and a small grin grew on her face. She walked her way to the other side of his bed, to the empty hammock. Thomas settled himself down and turned his body so he was facing her. She laid down into her bed for the night and turned herself so she was facing Thomas.
They laid for a moment looking at each other.
"Aren't you gonna get cold?" Emmeline pointed out, referring to the white vest that he was wearing. He looked down at his top and said "I'll be alright." Without saying anything else Em got out of her bed and started to walk back over to the homestead.
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Emmeline came walking back over to Thomas with a black hoodie in her hands. "Here you go." She handed over the clothing.
"Emmeline you didn't have to, I said I'd be fine." He sat up in his hammock looking at the hoodie.
"It's okay, I don't really wear that one anyway." She said laying back down looking at him.
Thomas put his arms into the sleeves and pulled the hoodie over his head. "See it suits you," She told him as he laid back down. Thomas could only smile at this as he moved from looking at her, to lying on his back.
"Goodnight Em."
"Goodnight Thomas."
As Emmeline tried to settle her self, the only thought to distract her from Ben was the fact that Thomas had called her 'Em', it sounded sweet coming from his lips.
The orange glow remained from the lanterns, looming over the sights of the gladers sleeping, until morning.
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Thomas woke up startled, the glade quiet. Chuck still asleep next him. He turned to his right and saw Emmeline stirring in her hammock. A rumble from the maze echoed throughout the plains of the glade, causing Thomas to look at the doors. Newt was there with Minho and Alby and gave them a nod before the pair ran into the maze.
"Morning." Emmeline said in a hushed voice, brushing her hand over her face to move any loose strands of hair. Thomas turned to her, flashed her a soft smile and returned a "Morning" with his raspy, morning voice.
She started the get herself out of the hammock before she said, "Meet me in the med hut in what feels like 20 minutes, alright?"
"...Okay."
After that she made her way back up to the Homestead to put on some new clothes and brush her teeth. Thomas sat on the edge of his hammock, rubbing his hands over his eyes trying to piece together what he'd just seen in his dream, but the more he tried, the harder it was to remember what he'd seen, as if someone was deleting the memories.
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Emmeline opened the wooden door to the med hut and walked in, making sure to close it properly behind her. "Ah your already here." She looked at Thomas who was sat in the same spot he was yesterday, waiting for her. He noticed what she was wearing now, a deep red ,long sleeve top with some low waisted dark grey cargos, paired with her dirty white trainers. He noticed that red suited her well and how she always seemed to pick the perfect things to wear.
She went over to the sink and started to wash her hands, "I see your liking my hoodie," she said as she turned to look at him with a grin.
"Well it is pretty comfortable, but i'll give it back once my other top has finished drying,"
"No, don't worry about it, it's yours." She added, drying off her hands and walking up to the boy with her pre-prepared metal tray of equipment.
"Are you sure?" He said looking up at her.
"100%" She replied sitting down next to him, placing the tray next to her on the bed, not noticing that Thomas was smiling at her. She then started to roll up his sleeves so she could see his arms, and untied each bandage and peeled away the red stained gauze pads. The wounds had hardly started to heel, as deep red was still seeping out the edges of the wounds. "Oh that is not pretty..." Emmeline said looking down at his arms, noticing there was now some slow appearing red bruise, "I'm just gonna press my fingers along the bruising and just tell me how much it hurts, okay?" Thomas nodded.
Emmeline put her first two fingers together and started to gently press against the skin. He slightly winced at the first touch and screwed his face up at the soreness of it. "How was that, seems to be quite tender." She said looking up at him.
"Yea it's pretty sore." He replied.
"Alright well I won't bother checking the other one, ... assuming it will feel the same, so i'm just gonna clean it and put a clean wrap over the top." She went to her tray and picked up a small can that read 'antiseptic sanitising spray', shook it and held the nozzle of the can down and doused each arm in solution and wiping it with some cotton. Placing a fresh adhesive pad on top and making sure to seal the edges, and wrapping the bandage tightly around one of his arms, before moving on to do the same to the next arm.
"I've never really see you during the day," Thomas started, causing Emmeline to look up at him with narrowed eyebrows. "I mean yesterday was the most I saw of you, if I wasn't for me being hurt I wouldn't of seen you" He carried on.
"What are you trying to say, Thomas? You want to see more of me, your glad you got hurt?" She said getting a new piece of cotton ready to clean the other arm, a playful grin appearing as she looked into his eyes.
"What I wanted to ask actually was, what do you do everyday, because if you think about it not that many people get hurt during the day. ... And I mean, ... I have enjoyed spending time with you when I've had the chance." He returned, the last part said more quietly. Emmeline started to open two packets which held an individual adhesive dressing, and took them out and sat one on her lap ready to use when needed. As she peeled of the backing she started to speak again.
"Well Thomas, during the day I'm usually sat around here, preparing supplies, cleaning tools, organising those draws over there, tidying up the hut and making sure theirs clean sheets on the beds if needed. Is that enough information for you sir?" She replied in an almost mocking tone narrowing her eyebrows at him.
Thomas only opened his mouth wide at her response, firstly for comedic effect at her mockery, secondly was actually his reaction to her calling him "Sir" in that tone. But he quickly covered it up before she carried on speaking to him after sealing the edges on the gauze.
"And I would like you to know that I have also enjoyed seeing you and talking to you," She added finishing up wrapping the bandage around and looking up at him to give him a smile which he returned.
"Okay well your all done, free to go," She said putting the wrappers and cotton she's used into the bin and putting the bottle and tray back where they belong. Thomas lingered for a moment after he stood up from the bed, before speaking once more.
"Breakfast is probably ready now, right? You want to go... together?" She turned around and walked towards the door, opened it and held it open.
"Come on then, after you." She replied nodding to the open door.
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The rain had started pouring and thunder was rumbling, it was now late afternoon and all the gladers were waiting for Minho and Alby to return from the maze. All of them stood under a wooden marquee, trying to keep dry while watching the stone walls of the maze, hoping two boys would come running out of them any second now.
"They should be back by now" Thomas said, leaning against a wooden beam, then turning to Newt and Emmeline and asking, "What happens if they don't make it?"
Newt didn't even bother turning to look at him and kept his eyes on the doors while saying, "They're gonna make it."
Thomas walked over to the pair standing next to each other and asked, "Yea but what happens if they don't?" Emmeline stayed silent, the stress of losing two other gladers, one being one of her best friends, was to much to handle. So Newt just reiterated, "They're gonna make it."
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An hour had passed and their was still no sign of Minho and Alby, and the maze doors were about to start closing. All the gladers were stood at the front of the doors looking into the abyss of the first corridor. The first sounds of the doors was heard.
"Come on, guys can't we just send someone after them?" Thomas said, standing in the front with Newt and Emmeline.
"That against the rules," Gally proposed, "Either they make it back or they don't."
Newt turned to look Thomas and said, "Can't risk losing anyone else."
The gust of wind came and howled onto the gladers, before the stone walls started to move. "Oh no" Chuck muttered, Emmeline put her hand on his shoulder in comfort, even though she was absolutely terrified, that they weren't going to make it.
"There!" Thomas pointed out. Minho carrying Alby under his arm, grunting due to the amount of strain he was under.
"Wait no somethings wrong," Emmeline said, noticing how Minho was practically dragging Alby along the floor.
"Come on Minho you can do it!" Chuck shouted, and everyone followed suit. All the glader shouting encouragement for them to make it before they were lock in the maze all night, not knowing if they'd live or not.
"Minho you got to leave him!" These shouts echoed through the glade. Emmeline didn't know what to do she couldn't stand losing Alby, but the idea of losing Minho was like a stab in the gut.
She couldn't just stand there and do nothing. So she ran. Through the stone doors which where closing in on her. More screams called after her as she ran into the maze, until she heard another set of foot steps running behind her. Who ever had followed her into the maze had just joined her on a suicide mission, they were both now in the open of the maze. The stone walls had concealed behind them, and the shouts could no longer be heard.