[ 08. the newbies become offerings ]

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| y/n's pov |

"HEY." TERESA SAID suddenly and my head snapped up from the grass to see Thomas waking up. "How are you feeling?"

"What the hell were you thinking?" Chuck glared.

He looked around at us and his eyes landed on me. "What happened?"

"Gally's taken control." Newt took it upon himself to answer. "He said we had a choice. Either join him or get banished at sundown with you."

Thomas groaned and moved away from Teresa, the weird feeling bubbling in my chest disappearing at the action.

"And the others agreed to that?" He asked.

"Gally has everyone convinced that you're the reason all this has happened." Teresa told him.

"Well, he's been right so far." Thomas said and we all looked at him curiously.

"What are you talking about?" Minho asked.

"This place... It's not what we thought it was. It's not a prison. It's a test." He explained. "It all started when we were kids. They'd give us these challenges. They were experimenting on us. And then people started disappearing. Every month, one after the other, like clockwork."

"Sending them up into the Maze?" Newt theorised.

"Yeah, but not all of us." Thomas told us.

"What do you mean?" Newt furrowed his eyebrows.

"Guys, I'm one of them. The people who put you here, I worked with them."

Thomas' words set off a whole bunch of thoughts in my head. And they were mostly bad.

"I watched you guys for years." He stared up at me, Newt, Minho and Chuck. "The entire time you've been here, I... I was on the other side of it."

He looked at Teresa. "So were you."

"What?"

Thomas' eyes flickered to me for a split second and back to the girl who sat beside him. "Teresa, we did this to them."

Teresa shook her head sadly. "No. That can't be true."

"It is. I saw it."

I looked down at the floor and started picking at pieces of grass.

"Why would they send us up if we were with them?"

"It doesn't matter."

"He's right. It doesn't matter." Newt agreed. "Any of it. Because the people we were before the Maze, they don't even exist anymore. These Creators took care of that. But what does matter is who we are now and what we do right now. You went into the Maze, and you found a way out."

"Yeah, but if I hadn't, Alby would still be alive."

"Maybe. But I know that if he were here, he would be telling you the exact same thing." Newt said "Pick your ass up and finish what you started. Because if we do nothing, then that means Alby died for nothing, and I can't have that."

"Okay. Okay, but we gotta get through Gally first."

I looked up from the grass and met Thomas' eyes.

"I have a plan for that."

---

IT TOOK TWO guys to carry Thomas to the doors since he was 'unconscious'. Teresa tried hard to pull away from Dan's grip, or it looked like she was.

"This is such a waste." Gally said after Thomas was thrown down onto the dirt. We all stared in silence.

"Gally." Winston spoke up. "It doesn't feel right, man."

"Yeah, what if Thomas is right?" Jeff added. "Maybe he can lead us home."

"We are home." Gally stepped closer to the boys. "Okay? I don't wanna have to cross any more names off that wall."

"You really think banishing us is going to solve anything?" Teresa said and Gally turned to face her.

"No. But this isn't a banishing." Gally looked down for a second. "It's an offering."

"What?" Panic settled on Teresa's face as Dan pulled her over to one of the poles in front of the doors to tie her to it. "What are you-- Gally, what are you doing?"

"You really think I'm gonna let Thomas back into the Maze after what he's done?" Gally questioned. "Look around you. Look at our Glade. This is the only way."

I refused to turn around and instead looked at Newt, who gave Minho and I the very subtle signal. Chuck stood not too far off with bags of supplies and spears.

"And when the Grievers get what they came here for... everything goes back to the way it was." Gally concluded.

"Are you listening to this? Why are you all just standing there? He's crazy." Teresa turned her body as far as she could with her hands tied up.

"You shut up." Gally frowned.

"If you stay here, the Grievers are going to come back. They're gonna come back, and they're gonna keep coming back until you're all dead."

"Shut up. Tie him up." Gally snapped. "Do you hear me? I said, tie him up."

The two boys picked Thomas up and he jumped into action, hitting one in the knee and knocking the other one down, stealing a spear in the process. Teresa kicked Dan in the balls and I saw Gally moving forward. I pulled out my machete and held it to Gally's shoulder.

He gave me a rather offended look while Frypan cut Teresa's ties and Chuck ran over with the stuff. I glared at Gally and held my machete pointed at him as I stepped backwards to join the others.

"You're full of surprises, aren't you." Gally looked around at our group, all with weapons drawn.

"You don't have to come with us, but we are leaving." Thomas said. "Anyone else who wants to come, now's your last chance."

"Don't listen to him. He's just trying to scare you. All right?"

"No, I'm not trying to scare you. You're already scared. All right? I'm scared. But I'd rather risk my life out there than spending the rest of it in here. We don't belong here. Okay? This place isn't our home." Thomas didn't lower the spear as he went on. "We were put here. Okay? We were trapped here. At least out there, we have a choice. We can make it out of here. I know that."

Winston was the first to join us, followed closely by Jeff. A few other boys moved to our side after them.

"Gally, it's over. Just come with us."

Gally looked up from the ground.

"Good luck against the Grievers."

The group all turned and started heading down the corridor. I gave Gally one last sad look before joining up with them.

We were really going to get out.

THE NIGHT WE MET; thomas x fem!readerWhere stories live. Discover now