Emotionless »« Newt

SIX

Newt and Leandra aren't sure how long they sit there for. Maybe a minute. Maybe ten. Maybe an hour. It's not silence, though. It's full of questions, of curiosity, and despite everything it's the first time Leandra's felt true joy in a while. He might not remember, but maybe it's a second chance. She always wanted a second chance.

But it still doesn't fix her wrongs, and now it just makes her feel even more sick. He doesn't remember everything, all the moments they shared, how happy they were. Those memories aren't there to blind him to what she did, and now the secret weighs heavier on her mind than ever.

Forget it, Leandra. Don't think about it.

"Hang on, he did what when he climbed out of the box?" she can't help but laugh, running a hand through her hair.

"He did! He ran straight for the maze entrance and ended up face planting into the grass! It seemed to hurt a lot, actually."

"What, and your arrival in the Maze was better?" Leandra raises a teasing eyebrow, and Newt rolls his eyes, cheeks flushing a little. "Although it's not the first time I've seen Thomas fall on his face... Okay, tell me. If I was in your Maze, what role would I have had?"

Newt shuffles backwards on the sand, holding hands out as if envisioning her in a photo frame, and she pulls a dramatic pose before the two of them end up laughing. "I actually have no clue," he shrugs, a light smile playing on his lips, and he can't help but feel this strange closeness with this odd girl. As if he knew her before.

I did, he reminds himself. The photographs in her bag.

"What about a Runner?" she suggests after a moment, having heard a lot about it from him in the last ten minutes they've been sitting for, everyone resting their legs before continuing the long trek. "You were a Runner. Minho and Thomas were Runners. Would I have lived up to the job?"

"Apart from the fact you're not very fast at running," he jokes, referring to when they were trying to escape just a day or two ago. "Although if a job was vent-crawling, you'd be brilliant at that. But you would be good when plotting stuff in the Map Room, I think. We'd plot the different numbered sections and we had to sort through these words to get the passkey out of the maze."

Her smile slips for a moment, but he can't quite figure out why or if he imagined it before she's shaking her head, saying jokingly, "Maybe not that, then. What job did you get after you stopped running, again?"

Newt can't help but feel grateful for her avoiding the topic of his fall, instead changing her words to make him more comfortable. "Track-hoes. Working in the gardens and that. Could've joined me singing to the lettuce."

"No," she says immediately, giggling to herself before turning her gaze at the mountains. "I remember you and I were young, and back in the WICKED compound there was this room we could go to sometimes after our tests to relax, wind down. We were just kids – we needed that. There were some potted plants – begonias, mostly – and one day you and I had decided we needed to look after them.

"We were so determined to keep them alive, we drew up a timetable of when to feed them and how much, who'd read them stories and who'd sing to them and everything. Then I killed it with too much water. Plants aren't my strong suit."

Newt smiles a little, but his eyes remain on her the moment she says you and I. This whole time she's been acting more comfortable than Aris around the others, and she's the only one with her memories. It suddenly hits him, that she's the only one who knows anything about any of their lives. All those memories of being with the others, and none of them remember except her.

"I remember you said Builder," she continues, referring to when he gave the list of jobs. She can feel his joy, but the slightest bit of pity makes her purse her lips, trying to push it to the back of her mind. She doesn't want to think about why he'd pity her, when she's doing the same for them. "But trust me, I'm not strong enough for that. Horrible with food, so no cooking; Frypan can keep that one. No slicing because I'd probably feel the emotions of the animals and chicken out."