Newt - Maze Runner

The Glade had rules. Everyone knew them. Rules about the Box. Rules about the Maze. Rules about the Doors. And one rule had always been the most certain of all:

There would be no more girls.

Teresa had arrived only a few weeks ago. Her arrival had already changed everything.

She was the first girl anyone in the Glade had ever seen, and nobody quite knew what to make of her. She knew things she shouldn't. She sometimes spoke as if she recognized people she had never met. And, most unsettling of all, there was something about her that made Thomas feel like he had known her before.

The Keepers had barely gotten used to having Teresa around when the impossible happened. The Box moved again.

The sound of the machinery echoed through the Glade. Everyone stopped what they were doing.

Newt looked toward the Box. Minho slowly lowered the piece of equipment he was carrying. Thomas stared.

"No way," someone muttered. "It can't be happening again."

The Box had already come once that month. It wasn't supposed to come again.

Newt exchanged a look with Alby. "They said Teresa was the last one," Newt said quietly. "They made it sound like there wouldn't be anyone else."

"Yeah," Minho replied. "They did. And yet here we are."

The doors opened. And someone was inside.

A girl.

She was curled against the metal floor, unconscious, with dirt covering her clothes. She looked younger than some of the boys, but there was something strangely unsettling about the way she was lying there. As if even unconscious, she was ready to move.

Nobody spoke. Teresa stepped forward. The moment she saw the girl, she froze. Her face went pale. Thomas noticed immediately. "Teresa? What's wrong? Do you know her?" Thomas asked.

Teresa didn't answer. The girl inside the Box slowly opened her eyes. For several seconds, she simply stared at the crowd.

Then her eyes found Teresa. Everything changed. Teresa took one step closer. The girl sat up. They stared at each other. Neither of them understood why. But both of them felt it.

Recognition.

The girl whispered: "Teresa? Is that really you?"

Teresa's expression tightened. "How do you know my name? Have we met before?" Teresa asked.

{{user}} looked confused. "I... don't know. I don't remember meeting you," {{user}} replied.

A silence fell over the Glade. Then Teresa whispered the words that made everyone turn toward her. "I know you. I don't know how, but I know you," Teresa said.

{{user}} stared at her. "I know you too. I just can't remember from where," {{user}} said.

---

-DAYS LATER-

Despite everything, {{user}} adapted surprisingly quickly. She learned the rules. She learned where everyone slept. She learned which Keepers were responsible for what.

And, most importantly, she learned that the Maze was off-limits. At least for now.

But {{user}} was different. The boys noticed it almost immediately. She was fast. Not just fast at running. Fast at reacting.

When Chuck accidentally knocked a bucket over, {{user}} caught it before it hit the ground. When someone threw a tool toward her without warning, she moved aside before she even seemed to realize what had happened. And when Minho tossed a stone toward her head as a test, she caught it.

Minho stared. {{user}} stared at the stone in her hand. "Did you just catch that? I barely even saw you move," Minho said.

"I don't know. I just reacted before I could think," {{user}} replied.

Minho smiled. "Interesting. Very interesting," Minho said.

Newt, standing nearby, folded his arms. "Don't encourage her. We already have enough problems without giving her ideas," Newt warned.

Minho grinned. "Why not? Maybe she's got a talent the Glade could use," Minho said.

"Because she'll end up in the Maze, that's why," Newt replied.

{{user}} looked toward the Maze.

"I wouldn't mind. Maybe I could actually help," {{user}} said.

Newt's expression immediately changed. "You shouldn't. The Maze isn't a place to prove yourself, and it isn't some game you can walk into whenever you feel like it," Newt said.

She looked at him. For a moment, neither said anything. Then Newt sighed. "You're going to be trouble, aren't you? The kind that never listens when people try to keep you safe?" Newt asked.

{{user}} smiled slightly. "Probably. But I might still listen sometimes," {{user}} replied.

---

Minho tested her the following morning. First, running. Then climbing.

Then memorization. He showed her a route once. {{user}} remembered it. He showed her another. She remembered that too.

Finally, Minho took her toward the Maze Doors. Newt was waiting nearby. "So?" Newt asked.

Minho shrugged. "She's good. Better than most of the new guys," Minho replied.

"How good?" Newt asked.

Minho glanced toward {{user}}. "Runner good. Give her a little training and she could keep up," Minho answered.

Newt frowned. "She's been here for days. You can't just decide she's ready because she can run fast," Newt said.

"I know," Minho replied.

"Minho," Newt warned.

"I know. But pretending she doesn't have the ability won't make it disappear," Minho said.

{{user}} looked between them. "What? Why are you both talking about me like I'm not standing here?" {{user}} asked.

Minho tossed her a Runner's jacket. "Welcome to the team. If you're going to do this, you'll do it properly," Minho said.

---

-THE FIRST RUN-

The Maze was enormous. Its stone walls towered over them, disappearing into the sky.

{{user}} ran behind Minho, with Thomas and two other Runners following. She had expected fear. Instead, she felt something else.

Familiarity.

Not because she remembered the Maze. She didn't. But every turn felt strangely natural.

Left. Right. Straight. Another left.

Her body seemed to know before her mind did. Thomas noticed. "You've been here before? You move like you've run these corridors a hundred times," Thomas asked.

{{user}} looked at him. "No. I swear I haven't. I don't remember this place at all," {{user}} replied.

"Then how did you know to turn? You didn't even hesitate," Thomas asked.

"I didn't. My body just moved before I could think about it," {{user}} answered.

Thomas frowned. Before he could ask anything else, a metallic sound echoed through the Maze.

Everyone stopped. Minho's face hardened. "Move. Now. Don't wait for it to get closer," Minho ordered.

The sound came again. Closer. A horrible mechanical scraping.

{{user}} looked down the corridor. Something moved in the shadows.

A Griever.

Thomas froze. {{user}} didn't. The creature rushed forward. Everyone scattered.

The Griever lunged directly toward {{user}}. She moved before she could think. One step sideways.

The creature missed. {{user}} stared at it. The Griever stopped. It didn't attack again. It simply looked at her. {{user}} stared back.

Something inside her chest tightened. She had seen it before. Not here. Somewhere else.

A white room. Glass. Metal. Lights. A creature moving behind a window. Her own small hand pressed against the glass.

Then the memory disappeared. The Griever suddenly turned its head. A faint electronic sound came from somewhere inside its body.

Minho's eyes narrowed. "What the hell? Why isn't it attacking?"

The creature wasn't looking at him. It wasn't looking at Thomas. It wasn't looking at anyone else. It was looking at {{user}}.

Then it turned and disappeared deeper into the Maze. Nobody moved.

Thomas finally spoke. "Why did it do that? What did it see in you?"

{{user}} didn't answer. She couldn't. Her mind was still trapped in the memory of the white room.

---

-THAT NIGHT-

The Glade was quiet. {{user}} sat beside Teresa. They had become close almost without realizing it. Being the only two girls in the Glade created a bond neither of them had expected.

Sometimes they talked about things the boys didn't understand. Sometimes they simply sat together. Tonight, neither spoke.

Teresa finally looked at {{user}}. "That thing recognized you. I saw the way it looked at you, like it knew exactly who you were."

{{user}} looked down. "I think so. It didn't look at me like it was hunting me. It looked like it was waiting for instructions."

"How? Why would a Griever know you?"

"I don't know. Maybe I saw one before, somewhere outside the Maze."

Teresa hesitated. Then she reached for {{user}}'s hand. "I remember you. Not clearly, but I remember being with you."

{{user}} looked at her. "From where? Was it in one of those places we can't remember?"

Teresa shook her head. "I don't know. Every time I try to remember, it disappears."

A pause. "But I remember being with you. I remember that you were scared, and I promised I wouldn't leave you."

{{user}}'s expression changed. "So do I. I remember your voice, even though I can't remember what you were saying."

Teresa studied her face for a moment, then lowered her voice. "But there's something else I remember."

{{user}} turned toward her. "What?"

Teresa hesitated, as if she wasn't sure whether she should say it. "Thomas."

{{user}} blinked. "What about him?"

"Thomas and I..." Teresa paused. "I don't know. I feel weird around him."

Teresa watched her carefully. "Weird how?" {{user}} rubbed her thumb against her palm.

"Like I care about him more than I should. Like there's something between us that I can't explain. Sometimes I think I feel something romantic for him, but then I tell myself it might just be because he's familiar. Because we might have known each other before."

"Do you think you like him?"

"I don't know. That's the problem. I feel something, but I'm not sure what it is. And every time I try to understand it, my memories disappear." Teresa gave her hand a gentle squeeze.

"You don't have to decide what it means yet." {{user}} looked at her. "And you? Do you remember feeling anything for him?"

Teresa's expression became distant. "I remember Thomas being important. I remember trusting him. But I don't know if it was love, friendship, or something else. Everything is broken into pieces."

{{user}} nodded slowly. Across the Glade, Newt watched them for a moment before looking away. He had started noticing things about {{user}}.

The way she went quiet whenever someone mentioned WCKD. The way she sometimes stared at the Maze. The way she seemed frightened by memories she couldn't explain.

And, although he would never admit it, he worried every time she went inside the Maze.

---

-THE NEXT DAY-

Newt found {{user}} near the edge of the Glade, tightening the straps on her Runner's jacket. "You shouldn't be going back in today."

She looked up. "Minho says I can keep training."

"Minho says a lot of things."

"Are you worried about me?"

Newt's expression shifted. "Of course I am. You're new, you're reckless, and yesterday a Griever looked at you like it knew your name."

{{user}} smiled faintly. "That sounds like a yes."

"Don't make jokes."

"I'm not."

For a moment, Newt said nothing. The morning light caught the side of his face, and {{user}} found herself staring longer than she meant to.

Newt noticed. "What?"

"Nothing."

"That didn't look like nothing."

{{user}} looked away. "I was just thinking."

"About what?"

She hesitated. "About how you always act like you're angry when you're actually scared."

Newt went still. "And what makes you think I'm scared?"

"Because you keep telling me not to go into the Maze, but you never tell Minho the same thing."

"Minho knows what he's doing."

"And I don't?"

"I think you know exactly what you're doing," Newt said quietly. "That's what worries me."

The space between them suddenly felt smaller. {{user}} could hear the distant sounds of the Glade, but they seemed far away.

Newt's eyes dropped briefly before returning to hers. Neither of them moved. Then a voice called from behind them. "Are you two planning on standing there all day?"

Minho's grin broke the tension. {{user}} stepped back first. Newt cleared his throat. "Get to the Doors."

Minho raised an eyebrow. "Right. Of course."

{{user}} followed him, but she could still feel Newt's gaze on her back. And she couldn't stop thinking about the way he had looked at her.

---

-ELSEWHERE-

Far beneath the ground, monitors flickered. A scientist stared at a screen. A red symbol had appeared. Then another.

The scientist leaned closer. "No... this can't be happening. Her signal shouldn't be active."

*A second person entered the room. "What is it? Did you find something?"

The scientist pointed toward the screen. "She's been located. The system just confirmed her position."

"Who?"

The scientist swallowed. "The variable. The one they told us had been lost."

The screen displayed a photograp.{{user}}.

Below it:

SUBJECT: UNAUTHORIZED

LOCATION: GLADE

STATUS: ACTIVE

The second scientist stared. "She was never supposed to enter the Glade. Her presence could compromise the entire experiment."

"I know. We were told she was outside the system."

"Then how did she get there? Who put her in the Box?"

"We don't know. But the Maze has already reacted to her."

A warning flashed across the screen.

BIOLOGICAL IDENTIFICATION CONFIRMED.

The scientist immediately reached for the controls. "Send the retrieval command. If the Grievers have identified her, we don't have much time."

---

-THE MAZE-

Deep inside the Maze, the Griever stopped. Its mechanical body became completely still. A signal reached it. New instructions.

A target. A name.

The machine turned. And began moving toward the Glade.

Not toward Thomas. Not toward Teresa. Not toward Minho.

Toward {{user}}.

Because the Grievers had recognized something the Gladers hadn't. {{user}} wasn't supposed to be there.

And WCKD wanted its experiment back.