Promise Me ➵ Newt [3]

FIVE | newt gets infected

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop," he said. "Stop it!"

Thomas was breathing heavily. Flames roared in his eyes as he muttered, "He killed Chuck."

"Yeah, I know," Newt breathed. "I know. I remember. I was there too, okay?"

Thomas struggled to free his fist from Newt's grip, clearly eager to punch Gally again, but the masked men pushed forward, gun barrels aimed right at his head.

"I didn't mean to do it," Gally croaked out underneath Thomas. "WICKED forced me to."

"That still doesn't excuse it," Thomas hissed.

"I never meant to kill him, I'm not a murderer!"

"Tommy, just calm down," Newt said. "Gally may be a piece of klunk but he isn't evil like WICKED is. You know that. Just calm down."

A few moments passed. Then Thomas pulled his hand away from Newt and got up, glaring at Gally the entire time. Gally got to his feet shakily and rubbed his jaw where Thomas had punched him.

"Kinda had that comin'," he said coolly. He glanced at us. "Anybody else, Fry? Newt? Rose?"

"You know this guy?" Jorge muttered to us.

"He was an old friend," Frypan responded. 

I couldn't tell if he was joking.

"How?" Newt said, staring at Gally in disbelief. "How is this possible - I-I don't... we left you back there when we escaped the Maze!"

"You sound so shucking grateful," Gally snorted. "Hey, if we haven't found you when we did, you'd be dead right now."

He stared at each of us in turn. "So what the hell are you guys doing here?"

"Minho," Newt said. "WICKED has him here. We're lookin' for a way in."

I thought Gally was going to laugh at us, maybe throw an insult for good measure - but instead he said, "I can help with that." It was the most sincere I had ever seen him. "Follow me."

"I'm not going anywhere with you," Thomas said stubbornly.

"Suit yourself. But I can get you through those walls."

We glanced at Thomas, who was still breathing heavily. He seemed to be weighing his options: either leave the place and pretend like we never saw Gally and find another impossible way into the city; or swallow our prides and accept Gally's offer, no matter how much he used to make us despise him.

Thankfully, Thomas chose the latter. Truth to be told I was tired of running around, trying to find a way into The Last City just to rescue Minho. I mean, I loved the guy, but I was honestly already sick and tired of the day's events.

"Fine," Thomas said grudgingly, and we followed Gally.

"After the Maze, a group stormed the WICKED base and found me there," Gally said as he led us through the underground compound. "They realized I was immune and brought me with them to Lawrence. I owe them my life."

"Who's Lawrence?" I asked, tucking my hair behind my ears out of nervous habit.

"You'll see," was all Gally responded with.

We walked down a slope, watching the other people in the base move stuff around and yelling orders at one another. Gally led us down a room and into a dimly-lit hallway; I was aware of everyone's eyes on us as we walked past, their faces less than friendly. I felt my friends tense up beside me as we eyed our surroundings warily. 

"This group's been at war with WICKED ever since they took control of the city," Gally added. He stopped in front of a door, and glanced back at us. Strangely, he looked nervous.