[ TRANSLATIONS IN COMMENTS OF PARAGRAPHS/END OF CHAPTER ]
𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒄 𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒎 𝔠𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔱𝔥𝔯𝔢𝔢
━━━ Ares was pretty sure that the end of the world constituted the disruption of pharmaceutical production, specifically for any sort of low level antidepressant. He would think that with the country being in completely shambles—as evident by the zombie creatures taking over the outside world—and struggling to find a cure to the most infectious disease to date would mean halting the research for any other types of medication. If it's not the Flare, how important could it be? Plus, everyone must be depressed living in a world like this, so there's no point in antidepressants anymore, really. This if the new normal, after all.
Yet here he stands, corrected.
A pill bottle was placed on the table in front of him, his dark eyes staring at it intensely. Starnes was looking at him, her nails tapping on the wooden clipboard in her lap, a pen between the fingers of her other hand. Ares looked up at her, raising an eyebrow as he studied the woman's icy eyes.
"You're giving pills to a suicidal person. Something tells me that's not a smart move." His throat burned as he spoke, raw from lack of use and the embarrassing amount of crying he'd done the night before. Fortunately, he'd done it silently, with his body lurching with violent sobs that got caught in his throat. He was sure no one had heard him, and if they'd seen him they'd probably assumed he was trying not to throw up or shivering from the cold instead, which wasn't particularly great, but was preferable to everyone knowing he was breaking down at two in the morning. Either way, his voice was raspy and had an underlying darkness to it. He quickly cleared his throat.
"Your friends asked me about a treatment option. They're worried about you." Starnes spoke sharply, all business today, her eyes narrowing on the teenage boy's face. "They said you haven't been getting any better, acting any differently. They mentioned an. . . outburst at dinner yesterday." She elaborated.
"They told you to give me drugs?"
"They told me to give you medication, Ares," the doctor corrected. "Antidepressants are used to calm the mind in states of anxiety or distress."
Ares was well aware of what antidepressants were—he wasn't a moron—but he didn't tell the woman that. He was getting tired of her talking down to him, but he wanted to get out of that room as fast as possible. The brunet stared at the doctor, the two of them unblinking as if it was a contest and the loser would get their way. There was no way Ares was taking those pills.
"I don't need them." He asserted.
"You do." She decided. "Take them once a day, either at dinner or with breakfast. Without food they could give you nausea. If that happens, come see me and we'll figure it out."
Her voice left no room for argument, and Starnes practically ignored any glares of annoyance from him in favor of scribbling some notes. Ares had no idea what she spent all her time scribbling notes for. He was pretty sure if he looked at her pad, all he'd see was drawings of rabbits and butterflies, because he never given her any information that was note worthy.
He stared at the bottle, then looked up to her face, resolved. There was no way Ares was taking those pills, but Starnes didn't need to know that.
"Fine." The boy snapped, looking to the bottle and grabbing it in his small hand. The woman blinked in surprise, not expecting him to give up that easily. "Are we done here? Or do you wanna keep taking your fake notes while we sit in silence?"
Starnes sighed, waving her hand as she excused Ares from the session. Ares smirked, hoping that his insistence on being defiant was wearing her down to a point where she no longer wanted him as a patient. That was his favorite way of getting people to leave him alone, and it was a tactic he'd implemented many times in the maze. He was off-putting, sure, but it was mostly by choice. Not necessarily a ruse because, let's face it, he was genuinely difficult to be around, but also not the complete truth because he wasn't typically that argumentative.
As the boy left the room, a body ran into his, and he looked up to snap at them to watch where they were going, only to see a haze of blond hair and a small smile.
"Ares," Newt said softly, staring back at him. He took note of his annoyed expression and the pills in his hand. His brow furrowed, probably also confused by the existence of pharmaceuticals in a time like this. "What are those for?" Newt asked curiously.
"Well, Leo and Garrett think I need to be on something, apparently. Starnes seems to agree, so now I have these." The brunet hadn't meant to say it in a harsh tone, but for some reason, that was his default and he had no intention of fake niceties. Newt was standing in the crossfire, and Ares almost felt bad for his consistent attitude, but almost wasn't exactly there, so he didn't bother to pretend his apology was genuine when he said, "I'm sorry. Didn't mean to snap at you."
"Yes, you did." Newt chuckled softly. "It's okay, love."
Ares ignored the heat in his cheeks as he used the word love, passing it off as an attraction to his soothing accent. He put his head down, shoving past the boy.
"Oh, um- have you eaten yet? It's past lunch, but dinner should be starting soon." The blond followed after him.
"Not today." Ares answered.
"The guys are all in the room."
"And why aren't you in the room?"
"Well, I got bored. Thomas won't stop blabbering on about how these people are evil. Minho, Frypan, and Winston are trying to build a fort out of sheets. And your lads are whispering together on their bunk. I decided to go for a walk, and then come look for you."
"Oh."
They walked in silence after that. Ares could tell Newt wasn't uncomfortable in the silence. He seemed like the type to enjoy it, actually—if it was with the right person, that is. Ares wondered why Newt thought him to be the right person considering his prickly demeanor, but he found that he didn't mind. He enjoyed silence too, and Newt apparently knew that somehow, because he didn't try to force Ares to talk after their short conversation.
No words passed between them before they arrived at their bunks. Ares shouldn't have been shocked at what was going on inside, considering Newt had tried to warn him, but he still found himself startled when he walked in to three teenage boys making a chain of sheets and yelling at each other about algebra, as if making a fort had anything to do with that. And as if any of the boys in question knew how to do algebra.
"That's not going to hold your weight, Fry."
"Well, let me test it out and we'll see, Winston." The boy in question snapped.
Winston threw his hands up in surrender, letting go of the sheet, which was now hanging from one of the guard rails on the top bunk, meant to keep you from falling off the bed. Ares wondered if he should tell them that those rails weren't welded to the bed and were instead a separate piece of metal that hooked onto it and could fall off if yanked on hard enough. But frankly, he was bored, and he liked the idea of watching the bed collapse if a fully grown teenager tried to hang off of it.
Frypan latched on to the sheets, standing on the edge of the lower bunk. He began to curl his knees to his chest and attempt to hang like dead weight. However, because no one can ever have any fun, Newt stepped in to stop him.
"Alright, that's enough."
All three boys groaned, Minho obviously being the loudest. Ares suppressed a smirk, which was quickly wiped off his face when Newt placed a hand on the small of his back move him into the room and out of his way. The taller boy clearly thought nothing of it, but Ares was left with a light blush across his pale cheeks. He caught the eyes of Winston when he looked up, who gave him a small but teasing glance. Ares rolled his eyes, maneuvering completely out of the doorway and towards his bunk.
Meanwhile, Newt had marched over to Frypan, snatching the sheets out of his hands with more force than necessary. He sent a stern glance to the three boys, all of whom hung their heads in shame as Newt clicked his tongue at them in disappointment. Ares was taken aback for a moment by the resemblance Newt's attitude had to Leo's.
Mother hens, he decided.
Leo himself was currently seated atop his own bunk, with a certain brunet laying across his legs with a comfortable smile. It was no secret to Ares or Louisa May that Leo and Garrett had something going on between them. Of course, the boys themselves hadn't even gleaned that possibility yet, but it was only a matter of time.
If you asked Ares, it would be within the next week or so. He hoped, at least. It was getting exhausting watching Leo pine after Garrett, while the latter walked through life oblivious to the fact that he had an admirer.
When Ares sat down, his bed creaking beneath his weight, his two friends stopped their whispering to lean over the bed's edge and peer down at him.
"Hiya. Laik yu hogeda right?" Leo asked, hair falling into his field of vision as he draped himself over the metal bed.
"Sha." Ares replied simply. "Laik yu kru?"
"Sha. We've just been talking about the plan." Garrett took over for Leo. "Aris thinks it'll be tonight!"
Ares' brows raised in surprise. "Really? That early?"
The raven haired boy nodded, "yeah, he thinks they're catching on to us. With Thomas knowing what he knows now. . . it's only a matter of time before this gets real."
Ares nodded, pondering the new information. He'd seen Thomas leave with Aris, a boy from maze Group B, the night before, but he hadn't fully paid attention to what that might mean. Aris, Leo, Garrett, and himself were the only ones—besides Thomas now—that knew about the shady things going on behind the scenes of the facility. Abe might've known too, and Ares suspected that was part of the reason he'd disappeared alongside two girls from Aris' own group.
Obviously, Ares hardly knew Thomas, so he couldn't say anything for sure, but based on the way the boy had acted suspicious of everything since his group has arrived, he wouldn't be able to hold himself back much longer from doing something reckless. Thomas was clearly impulsive, in a way that slightly reminded Ares of Joan, and that's never a good type of impulse to have. However, Ares also knew that Thomas was the last chance he and his own group had of making it out all together, Louisa May included—begrudgingly.
Speaking of Thomas, the boy was huddled in a corner with his hands over his eyes as if in some sort of attempt to regain whatever sanity he'd lost while watching his group mates swing from sheets like Tarzan. Ares was sure the boy was exhausted, as he seemed to be the only one with brains in his group. Excluding Newt, of course, who Ares thought was clearly the smartest of Group A.
"Fantastic. Mochof." Ares said to his friends, glancing away from Thomas and looking back at Newt and the others across the room.
Newt had long since found a seat on the floor, with his back resting against the metal framing of a bottom bunk. Winston and Frypan had retired to their own beds, while Minho opted to lay across Thomas', shoes pressing on the covers. Area could only guess this was intentional, rolling his eyes.
The blond on the floor caught his glance afterwards, sending him a slight smile which Ares attempted to reciprocate. From the snicker than escaped Newt's mouth quietly, Ares hadn't succeeded.
"So, what's the deal with you guys?" Minho asked abruptly, causing Ares to lean back on the wall beside his bed as he heard Leo and Garrett sit up together to face the asian boy. "Your maze, I mean. What was it like?"
Thomas migrated from the corner to his own bed, aggressively tossing Minho's feet off of it to make space for himself.
Garrett was the first to answer, speaking in his cheery tone that Ares couldn't even begin to try replicating, lest he have an identity crisis from pretending to be happy-go-lucky like his friend.
"Different than yours, of course. We had boys and girls, all ages. Louisa was the youngest, Abe was one of the oldest. It was great!" His eye caught Ares' for a moment. "For some of us. . ." Garrett added on, making Ares nod in confirmation as the brunet looked down at his hands, which played loosely with threads of the blanket beneath him.
"Lucky you. We had all boys, obviously. Stressful; boys are stupid." Winston chimed in, shoving at Fry when the boy jumped onto his bed with him.
"Ours was still stressful, don't get me wrong. We just had a handle on things mostly. Until the end—it all went to shit." Garrett laughed, aiming it at Ares, who simply rolled his eyes in return and itched at his wrists.
"Did you guys have jobs?" Frypan questioned. "We were all split into different job groups, with leaders heading each group. I was keeper of the Cooks."
"Yeah, actually," joined in Leo, "we had something similar. There weren't really appointed leaders, though. We just fell into the habit of listening to certain people."
"What jobs did the rest of you have?" Ares finally decided to attempt conversing with these guys. It seemed as though they'd all be spending more time together, if Aris and Thomas pulled off their plan, that is. He might as well be civil with them, maybe even friendly.
Well, who was he kidding? Civil it is.
To their credit, the other boys masked their surprise at his intrusion fairly well. It was obvious they hadn't expected him to join in at all, but they didn't make a bigger deal out of it than it needed to be. Ares was grateful, and he even spared a smile when his eyes landed on a grinning Newt.
"I was keeper of the Slicers. We worked the slaughterhouse. Jack was one of my guys." Winston claimed, pointing to Jack afterwards, who Ares had just now noticed on one of the top bunks. The kid was quiet.
"Thomas and I were runners." Minho said.
"Runners?"
"We mapped the maze, looked for the exit."
Ares clicked his tongue, nodding in understanding before his eyes went to Newt's. "And you?"
"Former runner, but I was second to our leader when we escaped." The blond answered. "What about you guys?"
Garrett jumped to answer. "I was a builder!"
"I was a gardener. I was usually in the fields with Abe. He was our leader too, but he spent most of his time with the crops." Leo was next to speak.
Ares frowned when everyone turned to him, shifting uncomfortably. "I was a hunter." Was all he said, avoiding elaboration.
"What's that?" Thomas—because who else would it be—asked.
Leo answered for Ares, which the brunet was thankful for. "Like your runners, I guess, but more specialized. We had normal runners, called mappers, that only ran the maze during the day and reported back at sundown. But we also had hunters, like Ares. He ran the maze at night, hunting the Crawlers."
"Crawlers?"
"You ran at night?"
"That's not safe!"
Everyone was shouting over each other, questioning the aloof boy at once. Newt stayed silent, instead opting to stare at the visibly unsettled teenager in front of him. The blond frowned, looking him up and down. He supposed it made sense for Ares to have a job like that. The boy was clearly in shape, physically stronger looking than the average person, though not the strongest Newt had seen by a long shot. Mostly, he looked scrappy, like he would fight dirty, which was probably good for people that had to be in the maze at night.
"Crawlers. . . like the spider robot things. Did you guys not—"
"No, we did. We just called them Grievers."
"Oh."
"I'm still confused. You guys let people run the maze at night?" Thomas searched for confirmation.
"Well, yeah. Why wouldn't you?"
"Because the Grievers come out to kill at night? The doors close?"
"Crawlers were out during the day too."
"What?" Newt snapped.
"Still. You would put lives on the line to kill them? That's risky." Minho went on.
"Yeah, but how do you expect to make progress in getting out if you don't take risks?" Ares countered, slightly irritated. More than slightly as the conversation dragged on.
Minho and Thomas both stilled at the implication, glancing at each other nervously. "I guess that's fair. We just. . . weren't allowed to. Newt's orders."
"Hey!" Newt responded, "Alby's orders, you mean."
Minho and Thomas held up their hands defensively, nodding slightly in apology before shrugging off the defensiveness of their friend.
"So, you were like the cooler version of us, basically?" Minho joked.
"Something like that."
"Did you get weapons? How did you even learn to fight?"
"I got a knife."
"One knife?! To fight those things?!"
"Yes. And I already knew how to fight, but this guy Wilkes and I, we used to train together. We taught each other new things, killed more Crawlers when we worked together like that."
"What happened to him?"
"Winston!" Newt cried, appalled by the poor manners of his friend.
"It's okay." Garrett said. "He died a couple days before we escaped."
Ares begged to differ. It most certainly was not okay. They had no business knowing about Wilkes. Hell, even Leo and Garrett hardly knew about Wilkes. Louisa May and Ares were the only ones who knew what truly happened with Wilkes, what type of person he was. It was not okay.
Newt watched as Ares withdrew from the conversation, shrinking into himself both physically and emotionally. The older boy could've sworn he saw walls being thrown up around the other, his face that was previously uncomfortable now completely emotionless. His shoulders were rigid, but he looked physically exhausted, as if the weight of said shoulders was enough to weigh him down completely.
Garrett and also continued answering questions for Group A, though two were now absent from the conversation. Newt and Ares sat silently, occasionally catching the other's eyes, though Newt saw nothing behind Ares' each time. He may as well have been watching a ghost, or a corpse.
Eventually, it was time for dinner. A guard came to retrieve them all, and the boys shuffled one by one out the door, leaving Newt and Ares in their respective spots.
Newt stood from the floor, wiping the dust on his pants away before he made his way to Ares. The boy didn't even look up as Newt stopped in front of him, instead opting to watch the floor. Newt frowned, bending into a crouch before the younger boy. Sight now level, Ares had no choice but to meet the deep brown of Newt's eyes.
The blond, seemingly relieved in some way, smiled at him, "hi."
"Hi."
"Alright, love?"
"Sha."
"Is that yes?" Newt inquired, recognizing the language but not understanding it. He hoped it was yes.
"Sha." Ares repeated, smirking slightly at Newt's unamused look.
"Okay, smart ass." He stood from his crouch, reaching out a hand for Ares. "It's time for dinner. Come on."
Ares stared at the offered hand, contemplating it. Seconds later, he placed his calloused and scarred hand into Newt's smooth and perfect one, overcome with a sense of familiarity as their skin met one another's.
Newt hauled him to his feet, dragging him to the door. The two made their way to the dining hall, where they would meet up with the others.
Newt and Ares held hands the whole way there.
CHAPTER TWO.
TRANSLATIONS
hiya. laik yu hogeda right? — hello. are you alright?
sha. laik yu kru? — yes. are you guys?
mochof. — thank you.
sha. — yes.
PANIC ROOM.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
thanks for reading!
i'm so so sorry that it's been so long since my last update. this story has been on the back burner for a while. i started college, got a new job, got a girlfriend, etc. so it's been a rough year and i haven't had much free time to tend to my hobbies.
but (!!) i'm back and better(ish) than ever. i'm hoping to get the next chapter out soon, since my course work is much less time consuming this semester.
this chapter wasn't great, i know, but i'm still building that foundation for ares and newt. if anyone has any suggestions or questions, please let me know!
comment what you guys think of this, and tell me what you think of ares and newt so far. thank you!
— gray.