Good Grief (TMR fic)

Chapter 48

(today's song is an underrated gem~)

Grievers. I can hear them all around me, moaning and clicking and creeping ever nearer. How long have I been unconscious? When I try to open my eyes, my world disappears in a shower of sparks and light.

"Ash! Ash, where are you?"

I try to move in response to the voice, but my head pulses with pain and I groan.

Forcing my eyes open, I see Newt frantically limping past the barn.

"Newt?" I manage to speak loudly enough that he hears me. I can see him stiffen and turn, and he inhales sharply when he sees me sprawled on the ground.

"Ash. Are you okay? You're bleeding."

I didn't realize the wound was that bad, but it doesn't surprise me.

"Why did you come? There's no time..." I can hear Grievers nearby. I can't tell if they're in the Glade yet, but it won't be long if they aren't already.

"I came to find you, idiot," he says softly, kneeling beside me. "Come on."

"Back to the Homestead?" I ask as he picks me up. I'm glad he doesn't try to make me walk, I'm pretty sure I'd just pass out again.

"No," he says, his voice tense. "They said they wouldn't let me back in. It's too late."

"Then where-"

"Our tree, Ash. In the Deadheads. If we stay still, they might not find us."

I don't answer as he carries me past the fields towards the trees, every movement jostling my painful head. I'm not sure if there's a way to get me up a tree in my condition, but I hope it's possible.

I can hear the clicking of the Grievers. They're very, very close.

When we reach our tree, Newt begins climbing with me in tow. It reminds me of helping Thomas get Alby tied to the wall. Newt does most of the work, although I cling to branches and try to help as much as I can. It's very slow going.

"Go higher without me, Newt," I say, not wanting him to get hurt. "Climb higher and stay still."

"No way. I'm too scared of heights to go that high by myself," he whispers back, grunting a bit as he helps pull me onto the branch he's on.

"You're ridiculous."

"I know. Ash... what happened?" He pauses from climbing, catching his breath. I hold on to the trunk as my head pulses with pain.

"Someone jumped me with a shovel, knocked me out."

"Who even was outside? I heard them let someone in, and I assumed it was you. I thought you were still mad at me, and I was still mad, so I didn't look for you until we could hear the Grievers, and then you were missing, and they said they wouldn't let me back in if I left, but I had to. I had to find you." I can tell by his rambling that he's upset, and I almost smile. But still... I'm mad that he risked himself for me.

"Newt... you could have died."

"Yeah, well... I was okay with that. Besides, four of you survived a night in the Maze. I figured that in the Glade, we'd find a way to stay safe."

Before I can insist that he shouldn't have come, he's climbing again, reaching his hand out to help me up higher.

I don't look down. I know it will only make my head spin more, and the last thing we need is for me to fall out of the tree.

Finally we stop climbing. I'm mostly certain from the proximity of the noises that there's a Griever in the Deadheads, so we stay silent, pressed against each other on a branch.

Newt is leaning against the trunk, and I grab a branch slightly above us so I can safely swing one of my legs over our branch and lean back against him.

I want to sleep. My head hurts, and I want to sleep.

Newt grabs a strand of my hair and yanks on it sharply. I barely bite back a hiss of pain, and shoot him a glare as my head aches from the movement.

"You can't fall asleep," he whispers in my ear. "We don't know much about medicine here, but if you've been hit in the head that hard you have to stay awake, or you'll be in a coma like Teresa was."

I sigh silently as a Griever comes into view on the ground below us. This is going to be a long, long night.