One Of Us - A Gally, Maze Runner Fan Fiction

Chapter 13 - Wreck

We both chuckled softly before I gave him one last reassuring gaze before exiting the room.

As I left, I saw Minho and Tom talking intensely only a few meters away. I walked over to them, hearing the last part of Minho's sentence,

"Meet me in the woods in half an hour-"

"You're not really going back out there, are you?" I interrupted before Minho left. They both spun to look at me. Tom sighed,

"We have to get back out there Ella, we have a griever," he explained quietly.

"No. No, you're not going into the maze. I won't let you," I demanded.

"El-" Minho started.

"No! You guys just got out. I thought you both were dead," I croaked, voice turning to a whisper by the end of my sentence. Their eyes flooded with guilt. Tom took a step towards me and placed a hand on my upper arm.

"Ella... we have to. It could be our ticket out of here," he murmured softly. Minho stepped in,

"El... we're going whether you want us to or not but... we need your help," He revealed. I flicked between their sets of eyes.

"If Gally finds out that we are going back in..." Tom trailed off at the end.

"Yes?" As the word came out of my mouth, I saw the sheepish look they exchanged, and then I realized what they wanted me to do.

"You want me to distract him," I muttered, rubbing my face with my hand.

"He can't know what we're doing-"

"Yeah, yeah I know," I let out an exasperated breath. "Fine... I'll do it but I swear to God, if you guys get hurt, I'm going to kill you," I warned, ignoring the small smiles that crept on their faces as I stormed between the pair, over to find Gally. I ignore the tightening of my throat and use every ounce of my self-restraint to not turn around to look at them.

I found Gally fixing a wall behind the kitchen.

"Hey,"

He looked up from his work,

"Hey,"

"What are you doing?" I asked softly.

"Fixing this wall," he responded bluntly. I swallowed.

"Um, we didn't get to train today... do you want to go in a bit? Or later or you know we don't have to-"

He dropped the piece of wood he was holding on the ground.

"Let's go," he announced.

"Oh! Okay,"

"Punch harder El. Harder," Gally instructed. I did as he asked.

I punched the dummy harder and harder. My knuckles screamed at me to stop but I didn't. Gally had built this dummy from sticks, straws, and a few potato sacks. He hovered beside me as I punched its head again and again. Left. Right. Left. Right.

As I laid another punch a vision slipped into my mind. Ben. His hands around my neck. Screaming into my face.

"It's your fault! I saw you!"

I punched harder.

Then I saw Minho. Face broken. Exhausted. He wasn't going to make it out of the maze. He was stuck. He was going to die.

I punched harder.

Thomas. Leaving my grasp. I thought, for the last time. I pictured him in the maze with the griever. Facing it down with that unnatural courage that rips me apart at the thought of what he will do next.

All sounds except the thump of my knuckles against the straw was gone.

Newt. Images flooded my brain that weren't even real. Or perhaps not yet. Screaming in pain. Sobbing over Thomas's body. A spear pierced through his heart. People taking him away from my grasp. His scream morphed into one of a child's. It was my fault. I caused this.

Gally. I saw his face. In shock and then enveloped in the dark. His wide icy blue eye gone dull. I felt his cold cheek underneath my palm. The scream of agony came from my own mouth. He's dead. It's my fault-

I felt relief under my knuckles as the head flew off the neck of the dummy and into the bushes afar. I take a step back, my mind returning to my body. Gally looked out to the bushes as I sunk to my knees.

"Woah. Nice one that was really good-" he turned back and as he looked down at me on the ground, and noticed my face wet from fat, hot tears streaming down my face, his face turned from pride to utter despair at the sight of me. In a heartbeat, he was kneeling beside me and clutching the sides of my face.

"Hey, hey what's the matter?" he asked, I looked up at him. His face was urgent and tense but the image of his cold, dead face flicked into my mind.

"I can't do this anymore Gal. I can't- I won't. Seeing the people I care about get hurt. It's too much. It's too-"

A wrecking sob shakes my body. Gally wraps his arms around me. As I lean into Gally's chest, I felt his heartbeat, felt his warmth. This feeling usually centring me. But not this time. I gasped for air as more and more waves of sobs wrecked my body. We sunk further and further to the ground until I was lying into his body.

Gally shushed me and gently stroked my hair, placing soft kisses on the top of my head as he held me tighter.

"It's gonna be okay,"