Error | The Maze Runner / Newt ? ?

{1.7}

The shelter Minho had referred to was nothing more than a small hut that had to be hundreds of years old. This place had once been a farm by the looks of it, but the thought of any vegetation growing in the Scorch was intriguing. It was unsettling to realize how much the world had changed since the sun flares destroyed it.

Once we were all inside, Newt gently laid me down so I was propped up against him. The position was similar to how I woke up after the lightning storm and was still just as comforting. He took one of my hands in his and squeezed. I nestled against his chest until I was cozy, not minding the heat and that I was already starting to sweat.

"All right," Minho said as he pointed to a spot in the shade for Thomas to sit. "You sit there, get yourself all nice and comfy and start talking. Tell us about your adventures with the aliens in their big bad spaceship."

"Which of us are you referring to?" Thomas questioned, motioning between himself and I with a confused expression. He really did look cleaned up; there was no sign of blood or even that he had been shot at all. "We were both up there."

"Whatever floats your boat," Minho responded with a shrug.

"I'll go," I offered, shifting so I was sitting more upright against Newt's chest. "I saw Rat-Man. Janson. Whatever you want to call him. He wanted me to tell him everything I remembered, but I wouldn't budge."

"Did he say why?" Frypan asked curiously.

I nodded. "He claimed he was worried about me, that they thought I would die if something went wrong and I remembered everything at once. I guess if they knew what I remembered, they could control it somehow. And then they knocked me out with some gas when I wouldn't cooperate and I woke up with a serious headache and something implanted in my head."

"Something in your head?" Thomas repeated incredulously. "Like what? What does it do?"

"I've been awake for all of eight minutes- calm down," I waved him off with a shrug. "I don't know. It just--"

"We can monitor what you remember and to what extent."

The memory of Dr. Mason's words suddenly struck me hard and fast like a sucker punch. My chest hollowed out as if the wind had been knocked out of me. I went rigid all over at the realization. Maybe the implant was meant to monitor my memories.

"Dyl, you okay?" Newt poked my arm. "You spaced out."

"I'm fine," I responded. "That's it. There's nothing else."

Thomas eyed me suspiciously from where he sat diagonally from where Newt and I were. He rubbed his hands together before launching into his own tale. "It was W.I.C.K.E.D that came and got us, as you probably guessed from Dylan meeting Janson again. I kept passing out, but they took me to some doctors who totally fixed me up. I heard them saying something about how it wasn't supposed to happen, how the gun had been a factor they hadn't expected. The bullet set off a nasty infection in me, and I guess they felt pretty strongly that it wasn't time for me to die. Just telling you what I heard."

He explained more about a conversation he heard that involved killzone patterns and Candidates, whatever that meant. There was also more about the Variables that Janson had mentioned briefly during our first meeting.

"-and I saw these signs all over the city," he continued while jittering his leg. "They said something about how I was the real leader."

I felt Newt's chest move with a heavy sigh. "So we're all candidates for something. And maybe the purpose of all the buggin' klunk we've been through is to weed out those who don't qualify. But for some reason the whole gun-and-rusty-bullet thing wasn't part of the...normal tests. Or Variables, whatever. If Thomas is gonna croak and die, it wasn't supposed to come from a bloody infection."

Weed out those who don't qualify. Did Theo not qualify? Did all of those who died before us not qualify?

"What this means is that they're watching us," Minho elaborated. "Just like they did in the Maze. Has anyone seen a beetle blade running around anywhere?"

Every Glader shook their heads.

"What the hell's a beetle blade?" Jorge questioned.

"Little mechanical lizard things that spied on us with cameras in the Maze," Thomas answered bluntly.

Jorge rolled his eyes. "Of course. Sorry I asked."

"The Maze was definitely some kind of indoor facility," Aris commented. "But there's just no way we're inside something anymore. Though they could be using satellites or long-range cameras, I guess."

Jorge cleared his throat before he launched into a speech. "What is it about Thomas and Dylan that makes them so special? Those signs in the city about him being the real leader, them swooping in here and saving their butts when he was sick and apparently she's remembering stuff. I'm not trying to be mean, muchachos- I'm just curious. What makes you two better than the rest of your buddies?"

"We're not better," I insisted with a scowl. "We're just...different, I guess." Teresa was different, too. Maybe that was why they took her.

"Still," Jorge scoffed. "I think I'll stay close to you two from now on."

A few more discussions were transferred between us, but Minho convinced us to get enough sleep before tomorrow. I laid on the sand with my jacket beneath me to keep the sand away and my head tucked into Newt. He had an arm around my middle, holding me close to him.

I had just started to drift off to sleep when the voice spoke again.

"COMMUNICATION CONFIRMED. HELLO, DYLAN."

------

ooooooooooooooohhhhhh

questions:

-what do you think the device in dylan's head is?

-who is talking to her?

-how do you guess it will affect her for the rest of the book?

-what kind of memories do you want me to include next?

it's summertime for me so expect pretty quick updates!!!

-kristyn