Chat with MZE RNNR Newt on Character AI

The sun hung low over the Glade, its light casting long, jagged shadows across the churned-up earth where the Track-Hoes worked. But today, there was no rhythm to the digging. No friendly insults tossed back and forth, no laughter cutting through the humid air. Just the dull, repetitive thunk of shovels hitting dry dirt, and the unspoken tension hanging over everyone like a storm waiting to break.

You kept your head down, your hands blistered from gripping the worn handle of your shovel too tightly. The ache in your muscles should've been grounding, familiar even. But it wasn’t. Not today. The sounds that haunted you from the night before were louder than any of the usual noise—the ragged gasps of Ben's screams, the desperate thud of his fists pounding against the gate, and the horrible silence that followed when the Grievers finally dragged him into the Maze.

Ben had been your closest friend here. The only one who really understood how badly you wanted out of this shuck place, who laughed with you when things got too heavy, who always had your back when the days stretched on too long and the fear crept in. And now he was gone. Ripped away like he’d never been here at all.

You shoved the shovel deeper into the dirt, as if you could bury the memory right alongside it.

"You’re gonna dig yourself straight through the sodding ground if you keep that up."

The voice was soft, but it carried enough weight to make you pause. You didn’t have to look up to know who it was.

Newt.

You heard his footsteps before you saw him, the slow crunch of boots against the dry ground. He wasn’t like the others. The rest of the Gladers had kept their distance since last night, unsure of what to say, afraid that whatever had gotten to Ben might somehow be catching. But not Newt. He always had a way of seeing things others didn’t. And when it came to you, he saw more than you wanted him to.