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𝐆𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐀 𝐌𝐄𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆. The eager and nervous chattering gets even louder as me and Thomas step inside the big tent where the meeting is being held. Gally walks up to me, trying to stop me to say something but I brush him off and slip away from him to join up next to Thomas. The boy moves to the side to offer me a place on the bench but I tell him that I'm good and remain in my spot, leaning against the wall with my arms folded over my chest as I stare at Gally with narrowed eyes.

"Things are changing." Gally's words are followed by the loud crowd quieting down until there's nothing but scattered whispers in the cluster. Gally stands in front of the many benches that form rows inside the tent. Thomas and I are behind him, glaring holes into his neck as he speaks.

"First, Ben gets stung in broad daylight," Gally says. "And then Alby." He turns around to face me and Thomas. "And now our Greenie here has taken it upon himself to go into the maze. Which is a clear violation of our rules here."

"Yeah, but he helped save Alby's life." Fry pan chimes in.

"Did he?" Gally raises his eyebrow before sucking in a deep breath. "For two years we have coexisted with these things. And now," Gally turns to me and Thomas again. "You and your little warrior princess have killed one of them."

I cringe at his nickname. "I've killed one before and nothing happened," I speak up.

"You think that makes you brave? It makes you fucking stupid!" Gally spits at me and I stand up straight unraveling my arms from my chest.

"What did you call me?" I snap at him, taking a step at him but Minho gets first, grabbing my wrist to hold me back.

"Not here." He whispers as he pulls me back. I sigh, leaning back against the wall.

"You've killed two Grievers, who knows what that could mean for us," Gally says.

"What do you suggest we do?" Newt asks from where he stands, pressed against a wooden beam.

"They have to be punished," Gally says sending the crowd into a fist of argument. People point and yell at Gally and I smile watching the boys defend us.

"Minho." Newt's voice cuts through the noise in the room, bringing the shouting to an end. "You were there with them. What do you think?"

"I think, that Thomas is either brave or stupid. Just like Vanya." Minho says and I send him a quick grin. "And we need more like Vanya. More like Thomas." Minho pauses. "I say we make him a runner."

Gasps and chattering erupt from the cluster of boys in front of us. Even I hear a quick shocked exhale leave my mouth. Thomas's brows shoot up and he stares at Minho in silence. The boy turns around staring up at me and I look down on him with a grin.

"I guess your dream came through after all."

Thomas doesn't say anything l, instead, he just stares at me in disbelief.

Chuck tries to chant his name but quickly falls silent as no one joins him.

"If you wanna throw the newbie a parade, that's fine! Go ahead!" Gally shouts, throwing his arms around. Minhos words clearly have an impact on him causing this outburst. "But if there's one thing I know about the maze it is that you do not...."

Gally is cut off by the sirens of the box blaring out over the Glade. The room falls silent as they all stare in the direction of the box, eyes widening. I stiffen and walk forward to make sure everyone else is hearing what I'm hearing.

I'm the first one out of the tent and after me rushes the rest of the boys. I rush over to the yard, stopping by the box. The boys crowd around it and I feel Thomas join up next to me.

"What's happening?." He speaks in a lowered voice in my ear.

"It's coming back up," I say without looking at him.

"It shouldn't be," Minho says, stopping next to Thomas.

The doors to the box slide open, and I watch as Gally and Newt lift the metal doors under them. My eyes fly open as they fixate on the unconscious Greenie in the box. It's a girl

I want to jump into the box and hug her for finally saving me from this group of stinky boys but I stop myself as my eyes trail around her.

There are no supplies or boxes with the girl. She just lays there, in the empty box as the boys crowd around her. Newt stands next to her, staring in shock at her unconscious girl.

"It's a girl," Newt states, and the boys gasp.

"Fucking finally," I say, stepping into the box myself.
"Get the poor girl up."

I reach down to help Newt lift her but he stops mid-movement as he notices something in her hand. I watch him as he pulls a rolled-up piece of paper from her limp hand. He unravels it and reads it out loud.

"She's the last one... Ever."

My eyes shift to Minho, feeling a sense of panic and confusion latch onto me. The boy stares back at me, just as baffled and shocked as I am.

"What the hell does that mea—-" My sentence is brought short by a gasp leaving my mouth as the girl beneath me shoots up. Suddenly wide awake, she stares wide-eyed into the air as she pants for any piece of oxygen.

"Thomas..." she whispers under her breath before her head falls back and her eyelids drop over her sight.

Every pair of eyes latch themselves on Thomas as he stands, looking just as surprised as the rest of the group.

I rise from my kneeling position, staring at him from within the box. "I beg your finest pardon." I cock my head to the side.

"Still think I'm overreacting?" Gally's mouth forms a thin line as he stares at me.

༻❁༺

I sit by the strange girl's bed, running a wet towel over her forehead when Thomas Newt and Minho walk inside the Med Jack hut.

Jeff and I have been struggling to wake the unconscious girl up but nothing seems to have worked so far. All we can do is wait.

"V, what's going on?" Next says as he stops behind me. "What's the matter with her? Why won't she wake?"

I glance up at him over my shoulder. "We don't know," I mutter. I hate the feeling of being unsure especially when it is about something that I should know all about. At the end of the day, I am a med jack for a reason.

I place the towel over the girl's forehead and my hand travels to her neck to check her pulse. It feels the same as it did five minutes ago. I send Jeff a nod before standing up and rounding the bed. I look up at Thomas who stands on the other side of the bed, staring at the girl who lays limp on it.

"Do you recognize her.... or do you just enjoy being a creep?" I ask, tilting my head down to look at him better as his hair hangs over most of his face.

Thomas's eyes ping pong between me and the girl as he shakes his head. "No."

I tilt my head to the side, bringing my arms over my chest. "Really? Because she seems to recognize you."

Thomas lets his gaze fall to the girl again, without answering my question making me shift my eyes to Minho as we exchange a quick look before Thomas speaks up again.

"What about the note?"

"We'll worry about the note later," Newt says.

"I think we should worry about it now." Thomas snaps back.

"Calm down, thommy boy. We've got enough to worry about at the moment." I speak up, kneeling by the bed again, checking her pulse for about the 100th time.

"He's right, V," Jeff says making me look up at him. "If the box isn't coming back up, how long do you think we can last, Newt?" Jeff stares at Newt for answers as he is the second in command.

The blonde licks his lips and exhales deeply. "No one said that. Let's not jump to any conclusions. We'll just wait until she wakes up and see what she knows. Somebody has gotta have some answers around here."

"If you can get her awake," Thomas says and I snatch my eyes up at him.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I furrow my brows, storming up to a stance.

The boy doesn't say anything. Instead, he turns around and walks toward the exit without looking back once.

"Where do you think you're going?" I shout after him.

Before I know it, I'm following him outside, jogging to catch up to him. I try to call out for him but he doesn't stop.

"Hey," I grab his arm to bring him to a stop. "Where are you going?"

"Back into the maze." He says, staring at the tall stone walls around us.

"Are you crazy?" I step in front of him, forcing him to look at me. "Hold on, let me rephrase...." I pause. "You're crazy!"

A quick smirk dances over his lips but disappears just as quickly as it appears.

"You have a death wish or something? You just got out and now you want back in?" I ask.

Thomas sighs deeply. "When you killed your first Griver, did you go back to get a good look at its body?"

"No, I was pretty busy you know, being traumatized." I snap at him sarcastically. "Of course not! I wasn't exactly eager to go back out there."

"Well, now we have a Greiver. You're telling me you're not even the tiniest bit curious?" Thomas asks

"No, not really." I shrug and Thomas turns to walk to the doors but I step in his path. "So that's your plan? You're just gonna go out and dissect that thing all by yourself."

"I will if I have to."

I stare at him in silence for several moments, wondering how stupid a person could be. He barely made it out last night and now he has a sudden desire to go back out there. He must have hit his head.

"Then I'm going with you," I say but he instantly shakes his head.

"Your foot is messed up. You'd just slow us down."

My eyes widen at his comment. "You're real cocky to be telling the leader of the runners what I can and can't do. Don't forget that you're still just a farmer." I step closer, getting up on his face, and scowl at him.

Thomas exhales and rolls his head back. "I'll just take the other runners with me."

"They quit this morning after hearing about Alby. Because at least they have something inside that head of theirs and aren't exactly in a hurry to get back out there." I glare up at him. "Why the hell are you?"

"I think it's time we find out what we're really up against," Thomas says, his tone calmer this time.

"Then let me go with you."

༻❁༺

Minho agreed with Thomas to make me stay back while they headed into the maze to examine the creature that we had killed last night. They brought some boys from the Glade who volunteered to go, leaving me in the Med Jack hut with Jeff to look over the girl. Alby's cries of pain fill the room, leaving an unsettling feeling to latch itself on me.

The unknown girl is still breathing normally and is not showing any signs of injuries. I try my best to find out why she isn't waking up. It had been hours since she arrived and nothing has happened.

I had allowed both Jeff and Clint to go get lunch and I am now sitting on the chair next to the girl with Chuck beside me. He listens intensely as I tell him about the night we spent in the maze and about the grievers. He shoots out question after question, nodding and staring at me with wide eyes.

He gets up and demonstrates how he would have taken down the Greiver and I laugh as he kicks and punches the air.

"And then I would jump on it, cut its tail and arms off and I would sting it with its own tail. Hyaaa!" He shoves the imaginary Greiver's arm into the imaginary Greiver making me snicker. "It would've been awesome." He pants and he sinks back on the stool next to me.

"Bitchin." I nod.

"Bitchin." He smiles and places his elbows on his knees. I ruffle his curly hair and pull gently on one of his brown locks.

"You need a haircut soon. It's been too long since I cut you last." I say, patting his head.

"I want a haircut like Thomas. He has cool hair." He says, swirling his finger around one of his curls.

"Yeah, well that boy doesn't have much thought inside that brunette head of his." I shrug. "Plus, your hair is way cooler than his."

Chuck smiles. "Why do you hate him?"

"I never said I hated him. He just gets on my nerves. He's annoying." I say

"Like Gally?"

"No, no, not that annoying." I snicker.

A silence lies upon us, with only Alby's cries to fill the hut. Chuck glances over his shoulder, gazing over at the room where Alby lies.

"Hey, don't worry," I say, placing my hand over his that is curled into a fist around the edge of his stool. "He'll be okay."

"It's not just him I'm worried about," Chuck says and I stare at him in confusion. "The letter." He explains, seeing my furrowed brows. "What will it mean for us? If we don't get any supplies, how long do you think we can make it?"

I bite the inside of my lip. I'm never good at these things. I'm awful at comforting people. I can't tell him that everything will be alright because even I don't even believe that.

"Maybe we make it out of the maze." I don't sound convinced. My words are a distant hope, that I've desperately clung onto for the past two years. "We have a dead Griever now, maybe that could lead us to something."

"I hope so too." Chuck's shoulders slump and his gaze falls to his lap. "I want to make it out of here."

"We are." I quickly say.

Chuck keeps staring at his lap for several moments of silence. "I just don't know if I'm strong enough."

I scan the side of his face. "Sure you are."

I'm horrible at comforting people. Gosh.

"I'm not strong like you." He says.

"No one's as strong as me." I pull up my sleeves and jokingly flex my muscles making the boy snicker lightly but it quickly disappear and his gaze falls to his hands again. He fiddles with the small wooden figure that I made for him during my first month here.

"Do you think our families will be waiting for us?" His words send a stab into my stomach and my heart shatters. It's not because I miss my family if I even had one. I don't remember them. I hate them. For sending me in here.

The reason why my heart breaks is because I don't want Chuck to get his hopes up. Whatever people he once called family, clearly didn't want him enough to keep him away from this.

"It doesn't matter," I say but I know I'm wrong. Even though I don't remember my family I know that family is all that matters to a child so telling him that it doesn't, is just a lie. "We're your family now." I smile.

He looks up at me and smiles with eyes glistering with unshead tears and anger suddenly grabs me and I want nothing more than to kill every single person who has locked him in here.

"You're my brother, Chuck. Blood or not. In here or out there, you'll always be my brother." I tell him and he sucks in a deep breath to hold the tears back.

"I wanna see what's out there." He says.

"You will." I drag my hand over his hair again.

"How can you be so sure?"

I don't even know the answer to that question myself. "Because I've got a feeling. And my feeling is always right." I smirk. "Plus, I'd never leave without you. You know that right."

Chuck's jaw tightens and he forces the tears out of his eyes and his lips curve up to a smile. "Right." He nods.

𝟐𝟖𝟖𝟐𝟒 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬
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𝐚𝐯𝐚 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐬!!
the last scene with chuck I wanna cry.