Her || The Maze Runner

Four

"Why the shuck do you want to visit Nick greenie?" The boy asked as he dragged Mara out of the building, closing the door before he spoke. They walked over to the trees near the shack and lent against them, the boy had left his bag in the building by the stairs.

"Because I want to ask him something." She replied, the boy confused her. She thought he had been sent to get her by Newt or maybe even Alby, but she seemed wrong. "And why did you just drag me out of there?"

"To save you the shuckin' humility of walking up those stairs and getting sent back down shuck-face. You're not to be up there. You'd go crazy if you saw Nick right now." The guy said, it annoyed Mara that he had called her a shuck-face, everyone called her that or greenie.

"Why does everyone either call me a greenie or shuck-face? Can't they just call me Mara?" She asked, slightly hurt that no one would call her by her name.

"Maybe that's because you never told anyone your name. Mara." The boy smiled, he seemed friendly. Hearing him call Mara by her name made her slightly happier, but she didn't want to admit it. "You should probably look for that shank Newt, he'll tell ya were to sleep after dinner."

"I will after you tell me your name." Mara softly demanded, smiling back at the brown-haired boy.

"Adam." The boy told her before making eye contact with Newt, who was still working in the farm area. Mara followed his line of vision, looking at Newt, who switched to look at her and smiled. "He's the second leader, always has been. Alby was chosen as the new shuckin' leader because he's been here the longest, after Nick of course." Adam explained as Newt got back to work.

"What happened to Nick?" Mara asked, maybe Adam would know why Nick was in the infirmary, why he was almost dead when she found him in the ivy.

"I don't think that's something you should here from a shank like me. It's jacked." He admitted, a memory flashed before his eyes. Mara wanted to drop the topic, Adam seemed hurt by it.

"How old do you think I am?" Mara asked, it was the first question that popped to her head to change the subject from Nick. She still badly wanted to find out more about him, why he was close to death and how he got from halfway up the ivy walls to the floor when he was hardly even alive. Adam looked at Mara, he didn't seem confused by her question and quickly replied with "seventeen. same as Newt and I."

Seventeen. She felt older than that. At least she was older than that idiot in the shack. Maybe.

"Who was that guy in the wooden building? The one who talked to you before you grabbed me and pulled me out of there." Mara asked, hoping he would tell her more than his name.

"You mean in the homestead? Gally." He huffed. "He's a klunkhead, stay away from him. He's the keeper of the builders."

"Keeper? What, like the guy in charge?" Mara asked, fed up of all these words and phrases she didn't know the meaning of.

"Yeah, I guess." He shrugged. Mara didn't think he really wanted to talk to her, but who would want to talk to the new girl? Everyone seemed to hate her or just feel sympathy for her, and she hated it. All she wanted was to be treated the same way the rest of them were, to understand those stupid words and actually know things about the place she was in.

A boy broke her thoughts. He had only just entered the Glade from the west opening in the wall, bending over to catch his breath. His face was red and sweat stuck his clothes to his body like superglue. After a minute or two of standing he ran over to a concrete building near the box in the floor at the center of the Glade. Mara hadn't noticed that before, how could she have missed it? It made sense, if you were put in a place surrounded by a maze, you would explore. Look for a way out. Obviously this guy was one of those explorers. Mara began to notice more and more boys entering through all four of the openings, each as exhausted as the first boy. The maze couldn't be good if they came back like that every day.