Fast As A Bullet {Maze Runner}

t w o

"It's for your own good." Newt points out.

"You guys can't just keep me here." He says. The brunette snorts, considering there's one of him, and many more of them.

Alby takes a small step forwards. "I can't let you leave." He says confidently.

"Why not?" Just as he asks that, the Maze starts to make noises. Shifting her gaze to the wall, Leanne watches as the Maze doors slowly start to close. She glances over at the newbie, chuckling lightly to herself when she sees the look of confusion on his face. "What the hell?" He says when the doors are closed all the way. The boys start to disperse.

"Next time, I'm gonna let you leave." Gally says, walking off with Leanne on his heels.

They walk for a few seconds in silence before Leanne speaks up. "Y'know, you could be nicer with him." Gally raises an eyebrow in her direction and she rolls her eyes. "Come on, it's his first day. He's obviously confused, and probably intimidated by the Maze."

The boy beside her scoffs. "Please, Lee. Intimidated? Is that why he ran for the Maze?"

Leanne rolls her shoulders back, stuffing her hands in her overall pockets. "He's just scared. I know I was when I came out of the box to find myself literally surrounded by boys." She pauses for a minute before continuing. "Plus, there's a lot more boys now than there was before, so it must be even scarier. It doesn't help that everyone looked at him like a piece of meat when he first came out."

"I can't deny it, everyone was excited we had a new Greenie, but he is a boy. It has to be less scarier for him than for you."

Leanne glares at him as they approach the Med-jacks hut. "I'll give you five seconds to rethink what you just said." She warns.

The blond's eyes widen and he corrects himself quickly. "I didn't mean it that way. It's just that it might've been scarier for you not having any memories of hanging with boys, and arriving here surrounded by them, although there was only three when you arrived."

"Eh, you shanks smell, but I've gotten used to it." Leanne teases, leaving his side to enter the hut.

•••

The bonfire was lit; boys hit the drums in front of them making a loud rhythm, other boys ate and drank, and Leanne found herself wandering around, not in the mood for the festivities.

She approaches Newt and the Greenie, who are sitting on the ground leaning against a log. Leanne sits on the log and takes the jar of the unknown substance from Newt's hand to take a long swig from it. Wincing, she looks over at the other boys around the fire downing as much of the liquid as they can. "I've never understood why you boys love that drink so much."

Newt chuckles and takes the jar back, taking a swig before turning to look at the brown haired boy beside him. "Here, put some hair on your chest." He hands the jar over to him.

The boy takes a sip of it before spitting it back out in front of him. "Oh my God! What is that?" He asks, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"I don't even know," Newt responds as Leanne chuckles. "It's Gally's recipe."

"A shitty recipe." She mumbles under her breath.

"Yeah, well he's still an asshole." The Greenie points out, earning an eye roll from Leanne.

"Trust me there's nothing we can do about that. We've tried." She responds. "He saved your life today, though." She adds.

"Trust us, the Maze is a dangerous place." Newt nods.

A silence is spread amongst the three before the Greenie speaks up. "We're trapped here, aren't we?"

"For the moment." Newt and Leanne say at the same time. They look over at each other and smile before looking back at the boy beside them.

"But, you see those guys? There, by the fire?" Newt nods in their direction. "Those are the Runners. That guy in the middle there, that's Minho."

"He's the Keeper of the Runners." Leanne adds.

"Every morning, when those doors open, they run the Maze... mapping it, memorizing it, trying to find a way out." Newt taps Leanne's knee. "Leanne here has gone into the Maze! She's only allowed with Alby's permission of course, and usually Alby makes Minho or one of the other runners go with her. Alby has to let her in here and there so she'll calm down. She gets too agitated sitting around here."

Leanne throws her head back dramatically, sighing loudly. "It's just so boring here. There's nothing to do!" She stands up, and smiles to the two boys. "I'm gonna go." They nod and she turns on her bare heels, walking slowly over to her cabin to get her jug of water to rinse out that god-awful after taste left by Gally's special drink.

Quickly grabbing her water jug and turning to leave, she hears the boys chanting. It's only after a few seconds that she understands what they're chanting. "Greenie! Greenie!" They say over and over again. The girl rolls her eyes and jogs over to the group of boys, who've now surrounded two boys.

Gally and the Greenie stand in the middle of the circle, facing each other. "The rules are simple, Greenie." Gally began. "I try to push you out of the circle... you try to last more than five seconds." While some of the guy laugh, Leanne scoffs and rolls her eyes at Gally's antics. "Ready?" Gally comes towards the Greenie, pushing him back. The boy is caught by some of the other boys surrounding them, and is pushed back towards Gally, who then pushed him to the ground, earning "ohs!" and laughs from some of the boys. "Come on, Greenie. We're not done yet." Gally says, dancing back and forth on his feet.

The brown haired boy pushes himself up, shakes off some of the sand and speaks up for the first time since the fight started. "Stop calling me Greenie."

"Stop calling you that?" They walk around the circle. "What do you wanna be called? Shank?" Some of the boys cheer in agreement, and they keep circling each other. "What do you think, boys? Does he look like a shank?" The boy goes after Gally, but Gally grabs onto him and they rock back, spinning slightly before Gally throws him to the ground. "You know what? I think I've settled on shank." The boys laugh.

The Greenie gets up and comes after Gally, almost like he's hugging his side. Gally holds onto him and walks him backwards, but at the last second the newbie moved out of the way. Gally falls to the ground on his stomach, earning many "oohs" from the boys surrounding them.

Leanne watches the new Glader curiously. "Not bad for a Greenie, huh?" Just as the boy finishes his sentence, Gally swings his leg, hitting the newbie's feet out from under him and making him fall to the ground and hit his head. Leane hears the boy groan, and moves to the front of the circle to get a better view. "Thomas," She hears him mumble. He repeats the name before standing up. "Thomas," He says louder. "I remember my name!" He says loudly. "I'm Thomas!" He yells, looking around at the boys and girl who surround him.

Leanne smiles as the boys yell and cheer around her. The boys push past her to go up to Thomas and pat him on the back, giving him a jar of the brown liquid they all drink. "Good job, Thomas." Gally shakes his hand, but they're interrupted by the loud sound of a Griever screeching.

Everyone quiets down and they all look towards the general direction of where the sound came from. "What the hell was that?" Thomas asks.

"That my friend, was a Griever." Nobody moved from their spots. "Don't worry, you're safe here with us." Gally reassures. "Nothing gets through those walls." He says, not as loudly. Gally walks around him.

"Alright guys, let's tuck it in for the night." Alby says to them. "Alright, goodnight." Alby claps, making them all disperse to leave.

Leanne smiles at Thomas. "Good job, Thomas." She says softly before passing Gally. She smiles mischievously at him.

He raises an eyebrow. "What did you do?"

"It's not what I did," She shrugs innocently. "It's what you did."

Gally furrows his eyebrows. "What did I do?"

Walking backwards towards her small hut, Leanne responds. "You called him your friend."