RECKLESS [The Maze Runner || Newt || Book 1]

13 - No hope

It passed as normal, with a few boys coming in and out with minor cuts and bruises. Until Gally walked in, looking sheepish, an unusual face for the builder. Over the last year, she and Gally had grown a lot closer, they shared a dislike for Newt and they both had mutual respect for one another. That, and the fact that he and Fry were the only ones who took her side after what she did in the maze meant that she considered him one of her closer friends.

"Hey Gally, what can I do for ya?", Clara asked, standing up from her desk to greet the tall boy.

"Hey Clara, uhm..." Gally hesitated, he was clearly embarrassed by whatever had bought him into the med room in the first place. She said nothing, just looking him and down, slightly raising one of her eyebrows, waiting for his response. Without saying anything else, Gally raised his hand slightly so she could see his injuries. In the center of his palm was a small strip of metal.

"Is – is that a staple, Gally?" Clara definitely wasn't the dumbest person in the Glade, but she hadn't spent enough time with the builders to learn much about the tools they used.

"You can't laugh at me." Gally responded, his face growing redder by the minute,

"No promises there." All she got in response was a large frown from Gally, who was clearly not impressed by her jokes. "Tough crowd. Whatever, I promise, now what did you do?"

"I- I dropped the staple gun and somehow shot myself with one of the staples. I don't know how, but I did."

Clara stifled back a laugh and tried – failing miserably – to hide the smile that was forming on her face. The irony of the keeper of the builders being injured by one of their own tools was far too obvious for her to ignore.

"You said you wouldn't laugh." Gally remarked, with a frown on his face. Crossing his arms like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum.

"Not laughing. Just smiling" She grinned wider as she pulled Gally along to sit in one of the beds, moving around to grab the disinfectants and bandages. She knew she'd have to pull the staple out of his hand to make sure it didn't get infected. And she also knew that although Gally looked and acted tough, he was a pretty big baby. 

She pulled up a chair and sat in front of him, taking his hand in hers. She decided not to tell him she was pulling it out, all he would do was make a big fuss over it and that would make her job far harder than it needed to be.

"So, tell me what you guys are building at the moment." She asked as she poured some disinfectant on a cotton pad, trying to distract him. Gally looked up, surprised about the small talk but he began to answer, nonetheless. Clara knew asking him about his work would distract him, the keeper was always proud of the things the builders managed to create; he never missed a chance to brag about his team.

"Well, we're trying to build a new – OW SHUCK!" Gally was interrupted as she quickly yanked the staple out of his palm, she laughed as he glared daggers at her head,

"You could've warned me ya know? That hurt. A lot"

"Oh, slim it ya big baby, it wasn't that bad. You're just sensitive."

He continued sulking, ignoring her while she cleaned and bandaged his hand. After she was finished, she pulled his hand upwards, inspecting her work, not that there was anything to fix, after being a med-jack for just less than a year she'd pretty much perfected treating any injury.

"Alright ya shank, get going now. Just make sure to keep it clean and change the bandage every day."

"Good that, thanks, Clara."

"Oh, and Gally?" She called just before the boy left, he turned around to face her, "Maybe try – you know – being better at your job, then you won't drop any tools on yourself" She smirked at Gally, who simply turned back around and flipped her off as he walked out of the building. 

Clara smiled to herself, although she still missed being a runner more than anything, she managed to have a little bit of fun. She began cleaning up the dirty cotton pads and turned as she heard footsteps coming up behind her.

"Hey, Clara!" It was Clint and Jeff, the only other med-jacks in the glade, they usually took over for her in the late afternoon so she could get some rest. Even though Clara was pissed off at being moved over to the med-jacks she was grateful to work with the pair, they were kind enough to her and tried their best to make every day bearable.

"Hey guys, are you taking over already? What time is it?" She asked as she turned my wrist over, quickly realizing she'd forgotten her watch on her bed, once again.

"It's almost 4" Jeff replied

"Alright, I'm just gonna finish cleaning up here, you guys might need to grab some more bandages and stuff."

The pair nodded and walked off to the back room, and she threw away her rubber gloves and the last few dirty cotton balls. Just as she walked out of the building, a loud voice screamed her name from the Glade.

"CLARA!"

What the hell? She thought, trying to find the source of the call. She spotted two figures in the distance getting closer to the Homestead. As they neared, she realized what she was watching. The two figures were Minho and Newt, and Newt wasn't walking, he was being dragged.