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

- THEN THERE WERE FOUR -

He goes down.

I turn, heart still thudding, and see Brenda - alive - perched atop some overturned transport crate like a damn warrior, steady-handed and still smoking her shot. Her jaw is clenched. Another round goes off from her pistol, dropping another would-be attacker behind us. All around us, bullets zip through the air like angry hornets. Metal clatters. Glass breaks. Dust clouds rise like waves.

"Where's Newt!?" I shout over the chaos, barely recognizing my own voice, hoarse and broken.

"I'm right here!" Newt calls and bursts into view from the smoke, blood on his sleeve, a gun in his hands. His expression is frantic, but his eyes lock on mine and some part of me breathes again. I fire back toward the guards pressing in from the east, my hands shaking but my finger steady. One shot. Two.

Someone drops.

And it is in this exact moment that it lands - I'm killing them. Not knocking them out. Not scaring them off. Killing. The thought is a jolt to the gut, but there's no time to process it.

"Minho!?" I scream next, still firing, moving, dodging.

"Go! Go! Go!" Minho is behind us, rifle in hand, every shot he fires vicious and precise. He's ushering us forward, pushing Thomas, Fry, Newt and I ahead while laying down cover fire. He's limping, but doesn't stop. Doesn't falter. We're all running for our lives. I taste metal in my mouth and my legs are burning. The ground keeps pitching, uneven and unpredictable. Then there's pain. Not like I've experienced before. No.

This is lightning.

Something hits me - a jolt of raw electricity - and I scream. My back arches and I slam into the ground mid-stride. My limbs spasm, completely outside my control. My mouth opens but no sound comes out, just a strangled gasp as my body convulses. Everything turns white.

Agony. Pure and whole.

My fingers claw the dirt. I can't breathe. Can't move. The world narrows to a pinpoint of blinding pain. There's shouting somewhere around me - muffled, twisted. Like I'm underwater, drowning under a surface I can't break through. I can't tell who's who. The gun is out of my hand- maybe Thomas grabs it? I don't know.

Someone's calling my name.

My ears are ringing. Someone's shouting. Minho? Or Frypan? I think I hear someone scream for Minho, but then there's a shot - louder, too close, or maybe inside my skull.

Everything slows. Like time itself is stuck in thick, dragging molasses. I think someone drops to the ground near me. Another body.

Then I'm off the ground. Weightless. Air rips past me. I'm slung over someone's shoulder - arms dangling, head bobbing. Jorge. It has to be Jorge. No one else runs like this - fast but swearing, muttering something I can't hear over the blood rushing in my ears.

I can't feel my legs.

I can't feel anything.

Everything is shaking - me or the world, I can't tell.

"(Y/n)?!" The voice cuts through the fog like a knife. It comes again. "Hey, (Y/n), hey hey hey, Darling- look at me, stay with me-" Newt. I know it's Newt. He's in front of me now. Someone's laid me down or maybe I just fell again - I don't know. But his hands are cupping my face, rough and trembling. There's ash smudged across his cheekbone, and blood splattered along his neck that's not his. I blink. Once. Twice. His voice warps in and out. "C'mon, Darling, stay awake- no, no, don't do that- keep your eyes open-" I see his mouth moving. His grip tightening on my jaw like he can anchor me here.

I try to say his name. Only a breath escapes. The world is blurring. Turning too bright around the edges. More shouting in the distance. More gunfire. Newt's voice gets smaller and smaller. I hear Jorge. Brenda. Frypan, maybe. Thomas is shouting Minho's name again. My body is numb. My chest tight. I open my mouth. Nothing comes out.