When We're Older- The Maze Runner (Newt)

out of the black

here we go angels

MAE

   "Hey, Thomas..."

   The boy turned around at the sound of my voice. His face was void of expression as I approached, placing a gentle hand on his back to provide some comfort through this time of anticipation.

   "Hey, Mae." He sounded solemn—almost heavy as he spoke. He placed the gun he had been loading on the table, turning around to face me. "Are you okay? With—I mean—With everything about Newt? Him being infected and all?"

   I sighed, that being a topic I wanted to forget about until I had the chance to swipe some of the serum from WICKED. "As okay with it as I can be, I guess. I mean, I don't care what Gally says, I'm getting him that serum, so..."

   "What Gally says?" He furrowed his eyebrows and stood up a little straighter. "What do you mean?"

   It suddenly occurred to me that he wasn't there when Gally and I had that argument this morning. He had ran off to go find Newt, per my request. It felt like I hadn't had an actual conversation with Thomas in ages, one that didn't involve a plan that could possibly end up getting us into so much more trouble than we were already in. He was constantly stressed, thinking of a way that he could help our friend.

   I shrugged. "It's really nothing...Gally just said he thinks that getting the serum is a big risk." My hand fell limp from his side as I moved next to him, fiddling with the rags that were used to clean the weapons. "Since nobody was willing to take the risk to do it, I said I would be a volunteer. Gally very quickly...uh rejected that idea."

   "Why?" Thomas was quick to ask. "What'd he say?"

   I pursed my lips and shrugged, wanting to keep the argument that Gally and I had between us and the people who were in the room at the time. "Nothing much, just that he doesn't want me to hurt myself and be reckless and stuff..."

   Thomas raised his eyebrows, tilting his head toward the right as he stared at the ground ahead of us. "Well, I mean you can be a bit reckless sometimes."

   I dropped the gun in my hands and gave him a sideways glare, causing the boy to widen his eyes and shrug.

   "I-In the best way, I mean..."

   "Yeah, right." I rolled my eyes as I went back to wiping the rag across the barrel of the weapon. "I just want everyone I love to be safe. And if that means that I have to do something stupid or...or reckless then I'll do it."

   He nodded, understanding. Thomas and I have always understood each other in a way that makes people concerned. It's like we had the same brain sometimes, our need to take care of those we care about outweighing all other decisions. We think with our heart rather than our brain, and sometimes we paid the consequences for that.

   "I get it." He breathed, sighing. "But, Brenda did tell me something. Just now."

   I hummed through my closed lips, glancing up at my friend for a second. "What's that?"

   "She said that we couldn't save everyone."

   The words hit me like a bullet in the heart—something I've been feeling a lot today. My hands stopped cleaning the gun, and I felt his hand grip my shoulder.

   "I'm not saying that we have to stop trying... Hell, I'm not going to stop until I've hit all the checkmarks on my list." He paused to take a deep breath. "But, I am saying that we both need to be prepared tonight for something bad to happen."