𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐒 - 𝘚𝘊𝘖𝘙𝘊𝘏 𝘛𝘙𝘐𝘈𝘓𝘚

16 ~ 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙨

Newt

Night came faster than I would have expected, but I welcomed it. When the sun went down, so did the temperature. I was able to shrug off my jacket since the sun wasn't going to burn my skin.

Another thing I noticed was how well I could see the stars. I never realized how far they actually stretched; they went as far as the eye could see. Inside the Berg I never got a good glimpse, and neither in the run-down city. But now there was nothing blocking my view.

I stood in one spot, craning my neck with my mouth open slightly, admiring the glittery patchwork quilt above me. There were so many; some were dim, some were bright, some were big and some were small. I was so busy staring that I wasn't even aware of the others making a fire right in front of me.

"The universe goes on infinitely," said Satomi, who had noticed my admiration. "That means there are an infinite number of stars."

"Wow," I murmured.

"They have names, too," she said. "The constellations. See that one there? It looks like a spoon." I nodded. "That one's called the Big Dipper. My dad said that it was the most commonly spotted one. And that star, there -" she pointed to a particularly bright one; I think it was the brightest one I'd seen so far. "It's called Sirius."

"Who came up with these names?" I asked.

"I dunno, some scientists thousands of years ago. You said you guys were named after famous people? Well, I'm sure some of you were named after a few of those scientists."

"Hm," I said. "Give me some of their names – the constellations."

"Well, there's Orion, Andromeda, Perseus, Hercules, Ursa Major..."

"That sounds like gibberish," piped up Minho, who had been laying in the sand with his arm over his eyes, using his backpack as a pillow. "How about you name them, Newt?"

"Why me?"

"You'd be the best at it. Besides, you're the one who cares the most."

"Erm... okay." I agreed, already coming up with ideas. I was going to name the stars after the lost Gladers. And the brightest one was dedicated to Mitch, the youngest Glader, who died during the Griever battle.

Lottie somehow knew exactly what I was thinking. She looked at me and smiled wistfully. Her index finger went up to point at the star in question. "Mitch," she said in a sleepy voice. I nodded and turned to ask her if she read my thoughts, I saw that she was fast asleep. A few of the others were as well, so I settled down on the ground, trying not to inhale too strongly. If I did, I would get a mouthful of sand.

I lay awake after everyone else had gone to sleep. I just couldn't close my eyes; I felt like something was wrong, that something horrible would happen while we slept. So, I stayed awake, guarding.

Lottie shivered next to me. I took off my jacket and put it over her. I wasn't cold anyways. Minho snored on my other side. I was surprised that no one found this disturbing, but I suppose they were all too exhausted to care.

Thomas and Brenda lay side by side. When we first met back up with them, they wouldn't talk to each other. I assumed that Thomas had done something stupid to make Brenda upset, but I guess it wasn't too serious, because they were back to normal within the first few hours of walking.

Something in the air was making the hairs on my arms stick up. I heard a giggle from my left. I turned to see Lottie pointing at my head.

"Your hair," she snickered, and I lifted my hand to touch my head. My hair was sticking up all over the place. Why was it doing that?