THANATOPHOBIA - newt [1]

~ FOURTEEN

The sun rose over the walls of the Glade, peeping through the dark clouds to shine light on what had become of the place. Destruction, loss, and sacrifice.

Waking up beside Newt, Lela had almost forgotten about what had happened. She expected to see her beloved home, the bright, buzzing field full of laughter. Instead, she woke up to barren field of burnt houses and a murky sky.

She sighed at the sight before sitting up and taking it all in. Whilst getting up, Newt stirred in his sleep, missing the feeling of her with him.

"Sorry." She whispered softly, leaning down to his face, "I couldn't sleep."

"Ah, it's alright." He sighed, joining her, "we should probably check on Thomas. See how he's feeling."

"Oh, shit." She nodded slowly, remembering about how he injected himself with a stinger the previous night, "probably."

"Come on, get up." He said, standing up fully. He held a hand out for her, offering to help.

She groaned and practically flopped back to the ground, "I don't want to!"

"Tough shit." He chuckled, grabbing her hand and pulling her up anyway.

"I hate you." She scoffed as she dusted her clothes off from the grass she had laid in for the night.

"Oh yeah?" He raised an eyebrow with a smirk, "Just like you hated me last time?"

"I would slim it if I were you, Newt."

____

Any clothes that they could've changed into had been burnt or destroyed in the attack, so they had to walk to the Pit in their dirty attire, where they found Chuck and Minho waiting for them to join.

"Hey." Lela crouched down to see Thomas and Teresa in the pit, safe and warm. "Are you okay?"

She knew it was a stupid question. Teresa looked like she hadn't slept all night and probably hadn't whilst she was watching Thomas. And he looked traumatised: he just got his memories back.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Chuck asked him, "Stinging yourself like that?"

"Calm down, Chuck." Lela told him quietly, "I'm sure he had his reasons."

Thomas sent Lela an appreciative smile, "What happened?"

"Gally has taken control." Newt said, "He said we had a choice. Either join him or get banished at sundown with you."

This was news to Lela, "He did?" She turned her head.

"Yeah." Newt nodded, "Last night before I found you."

"So that's it?" She scoffed, "We either stay with Gally or go into the maze with Thomas?"

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

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

"Well, he's been right so far."

"What are you talking about?" Minho asked him, wondering aloud.

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

"The Box." Lela figured.

Newt had the same thought, "They were sending them up into the maze."

"Yeah, but not all of us." Thomas shook his head, "Guys, I'm one of them. The people who put you here, I worked with them. I watched you guys for years. The entire time you have been here, I was on the other side of it." He looked to Teresa, "So were you. Teresa, we did this to them."