When We're Older- The Maze Runner (Newt)

crazed

   "Hey, Greenie!" I shouted after him, barely moving my legs faster than a jog due to the ache that was still weighing on them.

   Thomas turned around and let out a visible sigh of relief when he saw me approaching on his left. I smiled at him, "You'd probably take all day if you tried to find this stuff on your own, so here I am."

   Although the sun was high up in the air, casting a blinding light on the Glade, in the forest you could hardly tell whether it was dusk or dawn. They all looked the same. The light just peeked through the leaves of the trees, casting a weird greenish tint to the air. The dead leaves and sticks crunched beneath our feet as we walked deeper, and the clanking of the tools being used from the boys soon became nothing but an echo in the distance.

   "So," I tried to strike up a conversation with him, "How do you like being a Track-Hoe so far?"

   He grunted, "You guys really need to come up with a different name for that. Why not just call it gardening?"

   I blinked and stopped walking, thinking about what Thomas said, "Ya know... Th-That's actually not a bad idea. Wouldn't want the new Greenies to think we were callin' them names, right?"

   "Yeah," He laughed. Then, just like I had done a moment before, Thomas stopped in his tracks. He murmured something incoherent and dropped the basket of fertilizer onto the ground. I furrowed my eyebrows and looked around, noticing nothing different about the weird forest. It was always this creepy.

   "Thomas," I called to him in a whisper for an unknown reason, "What are you doing?"

   He didn't answer me, but continued to walk over a little stream of water. I followed him and picked up the basket, shaking my head and thinking this was stupid. We only had one job and he had to go mess it up. But then I saw what he was walking towards. It looked like a throne, but it was halfway into the ground. Sticks were poking out in all directions, and the closer I got towards the structure, the more unusual it looked. I walked up behind Thomas, who was bending down to get a look at the headstone.

   "George," I muttered. Then it occurred to me that Chuck told me the story of George, "Oh. He was the one who they sent down the Box when it wasn't there. Got him about halfway down before something chopped him clear in half. Read the headstone," I pointed to the wood, turning around and walking a couple of more feet to where the fertilizer laid.

   Thomas turned to me and then back at the grave. His face dropped when he saw all of the rotted bones that used to belong to a small boy, "Let this half-shank be a warning to all: You can't escape through the Box hole..."

   I nodded, scooping the dirt into the basket, "See, Thomas, can't escape without goin' through the Maze. Shit's creepy, but as it says, take it as a war—"

   Suddenly, my speech was cut short by the sound of a twig snapping behind me. I dropped the small shovel and shut my mouth as the chills creeped down my body. It wasn't Thomas, I didn't get that feeling when I was with him. But now, everything was silent as I listened for any sign of the boy I had come out here with, or any sign that he was in trouble. All I could hear were my shaky breaths and the sound of my heart as it beat hard against my chest.

   "Woah..." I heard Thomas' voice mutter from behind me. Only then did I let out the breath I was holding and continue to pull the dirt out of the ground, "Uh...you're Ben, right?"

   My head snapped up as I heard Thomas speak the Runner's name, "I don't know if we ever..." He continued, but trailed off as the sound of breathing became heavier, "A-Are you okay, man?"

   Suddenly, I whipped my head around to the two boys, and saw the body of Ben. He was shaking as if he were winding himself up for something. His eyes were dark, almost inhumanly. His lips were a deep purple color, and it was made certain that he really wasn't okay when he let out an ear piercing monstrous scream and launched himself forward.