Quiet is Violent {Newt | The Maze Runner}

11. Tension or Peace

Tasha felt as tense as the next Glader, waiting with her hands crossed tightly over her chest, weight swaying from one foot to the other as she waited for the return of Minho and Alby. Every time she made a move towards the gates, Newt had authorised any of the other Gladers to step on her feet or hold her back. She would have grumbled about, had the closest person to her not been Gally, who seemed rather eager to step on her toes. She feel the mud beneath her bare feet as she rocked back and forth on her heels, eyes train on the maze.

"Come on guys, can't we send someone after them?" Thomas's words spark a flare of hope in Tasha's heart, despite knowing that they're only minutes away from the doors closing. Her gaze turns to the Greenie, standing beside Newt. In that single moment she feels a sense of camaraderie with him.

"It's against the rules." Gally crouched beside her, bursts Thomas's bubble swiftly, his eyes locked on the maze, expression dark, "either they make it back or they don't." Tasha lurched forward, but Gally's arm swung out and elbowed her in the knees, making her stumble back. She glared at him, but he didn't look at her, so she went back to waiting, staring into the maze herself. Her heart rate climbed higher with every passing moment and she contemplated throwing caution to the wind and running in herself at that moment.

"Can't risk losing anyone else." Newt muttered. Every fibre of Tasha's being was screaming that she wasn't a risk, that she wasn't meant to survive so what would it matter if she went into the maze and helped the others? Her opinion on the matter was irrlevant, Newt wouldn't let her go. She couldn't run into the maze, she couldn't get away from the group, so she did what she always did when she was out of options; she shut down. She stopped her swaying and centred her balance, the telltale gust of wind from inside the maze that signified it's closing barely bothered her. She couldn't even think, not in that moment where she heard the closing of the doors and felt the trembling of the Earth beneath her feet. Everyone's shuffling, moving to keep from utter stillness and silence despite the deafening doors, but Tasha is still as stone and doesn't even register what she sees in the maze before her.

"There!" Thomas pointed to it first, at the end of the stone-lined corridor, two figures making their way towards the group. The tension rises and Tasha can almost taste it on her tongue, the way everyone waits with baited breath, leaning in as if to see better.

"Wait, no, something's wrong." Newt's voice is full of concern and everyone can see the problem. Minho is dragging Alby on his shoulder, their leader unconscious hunched over the Runner. Tasha can almost feel the crackling of static in the air, waiting and watching as Minho struggled along.

"Come on, Minho! You can do it!" Chuck shouted, and it's then that the tension snapped, the rest of the boys shouting encouragement, joining into a chorus of enthusiasm and desperation, despite the fact that Alby was too heavy. They were fighting a losing battle, the doors were closing fast and Tasha's voice refused to cooperated as she stood, staring blankly ahead of herself. The voices around her faded to a soft hum in her mind and she saw Alby slip off of Minho's shoulders. It finally clicked, like the flick of a switch in the back of her mind, that this was one of her best friends, that Minho was about to be stuck in the maze and she couldn't help him.

"They're not going to make it." Newt muttered, broken realisation in his words. Tasha's eyes grew wide and she lunged forwards, startling herself at her speed of movement.

"Minho!" Her shout was loud and clear, full of desperation, but it seemed that not only had some of the others anticipated her sudden bolt, but several of them grabbed the back of her shirt and dragged her away from the front of the gathering. She can hear Minho's scream and she thrashed her limbs about (she thinks she may have actually scratched one, but she's not sure), but the gates are still shutting and he's dragging Alby by the foot. By the time she ejected from the back of the group, she spins fiercely in time to see the Greenie push his way past Newt and the doors, right into the maze as they close.