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Newt sat on the steps leading into Homestead, unable to sleep. He exhaled hard, looking up at the plain gray skies they have been stuck with for the last few days. He looked at his digital watch, it was about 2am. The other boys were asleep, or at least trying to sleep. Tomorrow they were to follow Thomas’s plan to try and escape through the Griever Hole. Stressful wasn't even close to describing the way Newt truly felt about the situation, but he couldn’t think of anything better.
He was so excited to escape, if they even could, but anxiety lay under all of it. What if this didn’t work? If it did, what would come next for him?
“Can’t sleep?” Alby said, coming from behind the long haired boy making him jump a little.
“Hey Al.” Newt said simply, staring down at the grass. “You can’t sleep either huh?”
Alby made a noise that simulated a no. Newt shrugged and started to mess with the fabric of his pants. The darker boy moved to sit next to the blonde, looking at him. “Something specifically keeping you up?”
“Just tomorrow.”
Alby gave a short laugh, “You were talking me into this and now you’re tellin’ me you’re nervous?”
“I always WAS nervous about it, but Tommy’s idea might be our only shot at leaving this bloody place.”
Alby looked away from Newt to face the rest of the Glade. “Guess we have to give it a shot, yeah?”
“Good that.” Newt said, his voice unwavering and dry sounding.
There was silence for a few moments, no noise but the ones of the glade. The walls moving, the eerie distant moans of the Grievers, the rustling of the trees. It was sounds they had grown so used to, it would be strange not to have them any more once they left. IF they left.
“Do you remember when we first met?” Alby broke the silence with the question. Newt let out a short wheeze, “Of course I do. How could I bloody forget it?”
“You were the first person I saw in a month.”
“You were the first person I remember seeing at all.”
“You looked so small and scared back then.”
“I was scared. More than I’ve ever been. You…” Newt paused, causing Alby to look at him expectantly, waiting for him to finish. “You…made me feel safe. Made this place feel like a home instead of a buggin’ prison.”
Alby smiled at him, “You made me not go coo-coo. Turns out you can’t have a great conversation with a pig.”
Newt laughed, a genuine hearty laugh that Alby hardly heard anymore. Something that only Alby could draw out of him.
“It’s almost unbelievable.” Newt said after he’d stopped laughing. “That we’ve been here 2 bloody years, ‘time feels like its been a little shorter, but logic tells me otherwise. Feels like just yesterday I arrived here, scared and confused. Now we’re so close to leaving.”
Alby nodded in a silent agreement, it did feel like yesterday when he arrived in the Maze. No one there but the animals he was sent with. Newt was the only thing that kept him sane until the others arrived.
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The blaring signaling the box’s arrival finally stopped, Alby removing his hands from his ears. He huffed and started walking over to the box. “Well well, what do we have this week? I hope it’s more seeds.” He said out loud to himself. He had no one but the livestock for company so he had made a habit of talking to himself. He needed a voice, even if it was his own echoing off of the walls that formed the long stretch of valley that was the Glade.
He heaved the top of the box open and peered inside to get a look. He almost fell backwards in surprise when he looked into the box. Pressed up against one of the crates holding some more livestock was another boy. His hair was sticking in all directions, his face pail, his chest heaving in quick shallow breaths, his eyes squeezed shut from the sudden light filling the box. Alby stood in complete disbelief. ‘A person?? Since when did they send people?!’ he thought to himself.
He and the newcomer stared at each other for a few beats of silence, both of them looking completely floored to see another. He looked over at him, taking in details about the boy. He was blonde, his hair short, longer than his own but short nonetheless. His eyes were a nice shade of hazel, his skin pale and youthful looking. He couldn’t be more than a year or two younger than Alby. He had a skinny and frail looking frame, he looked like a gust of wind would send him flying.
Alby snapped out of his daze and knelt down to reach his hand into the box. “Here, take my hand. Let me help you out of there.” The blonde boy scooted back more, further away from his hand. Alby retracted his hand a little, feeling a little silly for trying something like that. He made eye contact once more with the boy, his wild and scared eyes meeting Alby’s.
“Hey, I won’t hurt you.” The darker boy said, lowering his voice to be a little more soothing. “I know you’re really scared right now. I am too. But I don’t have any reason to hurt you, nor a desire to.”
The blonde looked down at the floor of the box, his face relaxing slightly. Alby’s arm entered the box once more. “Now, do you want to stay in there all night or come out here with me?” The newbie hesitated momentarily before silently moving to his feet and grabbing his hand. Alby pulled him out of the box. He sat on his butt on the grass as he watched him look around, completely dazed.
“M-My name’s Alby by the way. You?”
“.........Newt. My name is Newt. I-I don’t know a bloody thing else though.” Newt had said, his voice shaky and laced with an odd accent Alby had never heard before, or at least didn’t remember hearing.
“That’s alright! I- uh, don’t know much else either to be honest with you. But it’s great to have someone else to talk to now!”
The boy’s eyes looked left and right before meeting with Alby’s again. “There's……..no one else here?”
“No one but me, and now you.”
“Is this a prison? H-How long have you been here by yourself?”
“About a month. As for the prison question, I’m not quite sure. But hey, maybe we could figure that out later.”
Newt looked down, his eyes still coated in fear. Alby fiddled with the grass under him before standing up, lending a hand to the blonde boy. He grabbed it and was pulled to his feet. “You hungry at all? I could get you something to eat while you process this.”
Newt gave a small, shy smile. “Sure, that sounds nice. Thank you.......Alby was it?”
“Yes sir.”
Newt didn't know where he was. Who this person really was, but for some odd reason a feeling of immediate trust washed over him. He followed Alby at the heal to the kitchen, hoping for the best.
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“Then came Minho, then Nick, then Jeff and as soon as we knew it we were living with 50 other shanks in this bloody hell hole.” Newt had said, smiling at his friend.
“I’ll never forget how happy I was to see you. I hadn’t seen another person in a month, I was starting to lose my mind.”
“As you kept reiterating to me.” Newt said, a warm chuckle leaving his lips as he spoke.
Newt moved closer to Alby, laying his head on the others shoulder. He didn’t know how he’d react since they hadn’t shared very intimate positions like that for a long time, but to his surprise, Alby didn’t protest. He laid his head on top of Newt’s, the two boys sitting in comfortable silence.
“Alby?”
“Yes, Newt?”
“If I lose you tomorrow, just know. You’ll always be my best friend in the whole wide world. I love you man, so bloody much it hurts.”
Alby wrapped his hand around Newt’s waist, pulling him closer. “I love you too, Newt.”
“You wanna….sleep together tonight?”
Alby gave a warm, gentle laugh. “Sure, why not.”