IT STARTED WITH A MAZE - Newt x Reader (F)

- WELCOME TO THE SCORCH -

I don't hesitate. I sprint and swing my pole like a bat, slamming it across the Crank's skull. A bone crunches, and it collapses sideways in a heap. I grab Newt's arm. "Come on!"

He grips my hand like a lifeline, scrambling up. "Thanks, Darl!" He gasps, voice frantic.

The word hits me like lightning. Maybe he doesn't even realize he said it - but I do. It cuts through the chaos and anchors me. "You two alright?!" Thomas yells from up ahead.

"Yeah, Tommy!" I shout back without thinking. Tommy? The nickname slips out, but it feels right.

We turn into a narrow corridor, walls pressing in on both sides. "Where are we going?!" Newt yells beside me, his limp worse now.

"Away!!" Jack shouts from ahead, holding his shoulder and ducking into a side passage.

The Cranks are still chasing us. We can hear them - screeching and laughing like broken toys. Their footsteps slap the floor behind us, fast and relentless. One of them howls, and it echoes down the corridor like a death cry.

We can't outrun them forever.

My legs burn. My chest heaves. But I don't stop.

"Dead end!" Minho yells from ahead. We skid to a halt, panic flaring. A brick wall looms in front of us, cracked and covered in grime. But to the side-

A door.

"There!" Thomas shouts, already lunging toward it.

"It's stuck!" Frypan says, throwing his weight against the metal. "It won't budge!"

"On my count!" Thomas orders, pressing his shoulder into it beside Minho and Aris. I turn and swing my pole again as a Crank gets too close, catching its shoulder and sending it stumbling. Another screeches from the stairwell behind us, its mouth dripping with froth and blood. "One!" Thomas yells. The door groans. "Two!" The Cranks surge forward - closer, faster, too close- "THREE!" Frypan slams into it with a primal shout, and the rusted hinges give way. The door bursts inward, crashing against the wall with a hollow boom. "GO!" Thomas shouts.

We all rush through, but the Cranks are on us now - bony hands, jagged nails, reaching through the frame like they're starving for our skin. Then they get Winston. He's halfway through the doorway when one grabs his shirt and yanks him back. Another lunges and rakes its claws down his side - three long gashes tearing through fabric and flesh. Winston howls in pain, the sound not human.

"NO!" Frypan and I grab him, heaving him forward. He hits the floor hard, blood spilling down his shirt. He's breathing - but just barely.

Thomas and I brace the door together, slamming it back against the force behind it. Something punches through the gap, scraping its fingernails across my arm. I scream and push harder. "RUN!!" I yell, voice hoarse.

They take off - Minho, Aris, Teresa, Jack, dragging Winston with them. I glance at Thomas. His eyes flash with urgency. "We have to go!" he says. We both break into a sprint, abandoning the door. Behind us, the Cranks shriek in victory as it swings wide and they pour through.

They're loose again.

The air is a blur of movement and sound - our feet hammering the ground, the Cranks howling, the clatter of falling debris, and Winston's agonized moans echoing just ahead. We don't have a plan. No direction. Just away. As far and as fast as our bodies will take us. "Faster!" I cry, even though I don't know who I'm yelling at - maybe myself.

Thomas is beside me, limping now. A Crank almost got him back there. We're running on fumes. "Where are they?" He pants.

I scan the corridors as we pass them - twisted mannequins, shattered signs, escalators frozen mid-descent. Then I see them. Minho's waving us down from a side hallway - his form nearly invisible in the shadowed alcove. They've found a dark corner beneath a collapsed ceiling, hidden behind a row of overturned shelves. One of the few places untouched by the light.