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

- NEAR MISS -

Another train.

Too damn soon.

"Just up here!" Gally yells, pointing. His voice is strained, breathless, echoing. I look up.

Ahead, the tunnel curves - there, bolted to the side wall, is a narrow ladder leading up to a metal door.

The distant howl of the oncoming train begins to rise. A storm in a tunnel. The steel screams under its approach. I push harder. My lungs ache. My legs burn. My heart slams against my ribs like it's trying to escape. I'm reminded of a brutal time, the one I still dream about in the Maze. Every step feels like a fight. I see the ladder. It's so close, but the train feels closer.

Behind me, Thomas shouts again - at Newt. Telling him to keep going. To run. To push. To live.

I don't look back again. I can't - because if I do, I might stop. And stopping means death.

I dig deeper. Find some forgotten well of strength and keep going. Because Newt is behind me. Because I have to believe he's still running. Because I can't lose him. Not now.

The ladder is just ahead.

Just a few more steps.

And the train is coming.

I can feel it - like it's breathing down our necks. The air ripples. The noise is deafening.The lights aren't just glowing now - they're glaring, piercing through the dark tunnel like the eyes of a beast. The metal hum is rising, building into something monstrous.

Gally reaches the ladder and waves me forward, his hand out like he's ready to hoist me up. I sprint the last few feet and slam my hand onto the cold metal rung - ready to climb - when I glance back over my shoulder.

Only Thomas is behind me.

My heart drops through the soles of my boots.

Where's Newt?

Then I see him.

He's down. Crumpled on the tracks. One leg sprawled awkwardly, the rest of him twisted as though he'd hit hard. I don't know how he fell or why he isn't moving, only that he's too far back and the train is too close.

"NEWT!" I scream, the sound splitting my throat. Without a thought, I leap down from the ladder-

But Gally grabs me. Yanks me back. His hand fists into my jacket and throws me against the wall with a grunt. "STAY THERE!" He yells, already turning, already sprinting back down the tracks toward Newt.

I want to follow. My legs twitch to move. But the train. It's so loud. It's so fast. The shriek of metal vibrates through my ribs, a thousand sirens pressed into my skin.

My breath disappears. I step forward ready to risk it all, because if we don't make it out of here together, it has truly all been for nothing. "(Y/N)!" Thomas grabs me from the side and slams me flat against the wall again. It happens so fast I barely understand.

The train explodes past us.

I flatten myself against the concrete out of pure instinct and nothing else, every nerve in my body shrieking. The wind from the train is violent - pulling at my clothes, ripping through my hair. It screams past me with unbearable force, like it wants to take me with it. I press my face against the wall. Eyes wide. Nails digging into the cold surface, into my palms. My body shakes so hard it feels like I'm seizing. And I watch. I watch the tracks-

Gally and Newt are still out there. Still on the damn rails. The light of the train swallows them. The noise drowns everything else.

"NEWT!?!" I cry again, but my voice doesn't matter now. The train will hit them. They are going to-

I can't look.

I squeeze my eyes shut. Hard. My breathing becomes ragged. I don't have my vision but that doesn't stop my mind from conjuring up brutal images. Of blood on the tracks, of twisted and missing limbs that can't be put back together. Then sobs rack at my chest as the train continues to fly by us, and the wall is the only thing keeping me from its relentless power. I can't contain the grief that makes my body shake.

Because I wasn't fast enough.

I couldn't save him.

The world doesn't even quiet when the train goes past and the air is still again. It's a constant screech, my mind whirling with a dizzy and painful ache.

Thomas is saying my name. Maybe more than once. I can't respond. Can't even breathe properly.

I don't yet move away from the wall but my palms no longer can stand resting against the hard cold surface. My fingers curl in on themselves, nails biting into my skin hard enough that I'm sure it draws blood.

At last I slump to the floor as if my body has completely given up. I still can't open my eyes. My heart is galloping in my throat. There's no thought anymore - just fear and despair, unrelenting and cold and pulsing.

"(Y/n)," Thomas says again, louder this time, and I register that he's shaking my shoulders. "They're okay," he tells me.

I open my eyes.

Slowly.

There - a few yards ahead on the tracks - Gally is rising off the ground. His chest heaving. He stumbles up, pulling Newt with him.

Newt is alive.

He's sitting up, blinking, dazed, but moving.

A wrecked, trembling sob escapes my lips. My whole body curls forward with the sound, as if I'm throwing it up from deep inside.

Thomas jogs toward them.

But I'm faster.

I sprint. Or stumble. I don't know. I move like I'm possessed, and the second I reach Newt, I collapse into him. My knees hit the dirt beside the tracks and I don't care. My arms wrap around his torso as if anchoring me back to the earth. We fall back together against the cold, packed soil, and I bury my face into his shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably now. "Are you okay?" I whisper through the tears, the words barely making it out.

"Yeah... yeah," Newt says, breathless and clearly shaken. He's still processing everything - the fall, the train, being alive. There's something giddy in his voice, like survival is a high he wasn't expecting. Then he seems to realise just how shattered I am. His hands move up, holding me tighter. "Hey. I'm here. You're here. We're here," he murmurs, voice low. I feel the others watching us - Thomas just behind, maybe Gally a few feet away and panting - but I don't lift my eyes. I don't care what I look like. My face stays pressed against his neck as I try to breathe, try to understand how I still get to hold him. His hand gently cups the back of my head. "Are you alright, Darling?" Newt asks.

I lean back, just far enough to wipe my cheeks with a trembling hand. A broken laugh bubbles out of me, raw and cracked. "Holy shit, no," I say, honest and aching. "You were almost gone. I thought-"

I stop myself, but the image is seared behind my eyelids: him, lying there as the train tore through. I will never forget it. Not in a hundred lifetimes.

"We should keep going," Thomas says after a beat, his voice a little tight. He sounds relieved that Newt's okay. But he's also watching me, closely. His eyes flick between us, and something flickers in them - something unresolved.

Gally takes a breath. "We're really not the best runners, are we Newt?" He muses. "I mean, you with only one good leg and me with only one good lung." I look at him - and I mean that I really look at him since the first time we've been reunited and I mouth the subtle words thank you. Because he probably knew that there was enough space between the train and the tracks. Knew that I wouldn't gotten us both killed. Gally was the one who saved Newt's life. "You guys okay to go all the way?" He asks.

I don't answer. I look only at Newt. "Yeah," he says, nodding. His hand never leaves mine. "Let's go."

~