CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
ADELAIDE
I wince as Teresa pulls out the shards of glass from my bare back. I have hold a bed sheet against my front as we both are in our shared room.
"You really shouldn't have waited for so long to tell me. What if the glass went deeper?" Teresa mumbles. I bit my lip from loudly gasping in pain. Newt is waiting outside. He was really demanding to be with me all along but Teresa shooed him away, yelling about giving the us girls some privacy. Though I wanted Newt to be with me, I didn't want to upset Teresa.
"How many?" I ask.
"How many what?"
"How many are dead?"
"Don't know. I and Payton have been helping the injured all along, but the Baggers are really busy. They're saying that they'll have a proper burial for the ones they can find." I nod, grinding my teeth. My hands against my front tremble as I remember Stan's dead eyes burning a hole in my soul.
"I want to have a funeral for Stan." I mumble. "Did they find his body?"
Teresa falls silent for a moment. "No. No, they did not." she says softly. A tear slips down my eyes and I hastily wipe them away.
"When is the funeral?" I ask her.
"I guess, today, afternoon."
I nod. Body or not, Stan deserves a proper and rightful funeral and I'm gonna get him one. I'm his next of kin.
"Your boyfriend is pretty adamant on not leaving you." Teresa changes the topic, a hint of smirk on her voice.
"Just like you want Thomas to be." I shoot back. I don't really want to talk about anything else. I just want to be left alone in my sorrows, at the same time, I'm grateful for the distraction.
Teresa's eyes widens as pink tints her cheek. She begins her feeble attempt deny. I laugh.
"How did you know?" she asks me. "Is it that obvious?"
"I've seen the glances you two love-birds throw each other. It's so sweet that it makes me sick." I say. Teresa rolls her eyes, and begins gathering her medical kit. "I have job to do, other than taking part in you stupid assumption of me and Tom falling in love."
"I said nothing about you two in love. Your words, not mine." I raise my hands, making a pathetic attempt to smile. It is just, smiling feels so wrong, right now.
"Whatever," Teresa grumbles. She opens the door as Newt nearly topples over her, not expecting her.
"That's a stupid way to eavesdrop." She glares at the boy, who is looking everywhere but her eyes. "I wasn't." He protests weakly. Teresa sighs.
"Your girlfriend is free now. Just be safe and keep the door open. We can't have little Adelaides running around the Glade."
I stare at her with furrowed eyebrows and open jaw, my whole body feeling like someone has set me on fire. The last thing I want to do is have fun with Newt. One of my best friend just died and other one is missing and I wonder how does she expect me to frolic around.
Newt blushes heavily as he looks at his feet. Teresa chuckles and leaves us alone.
After a few moments of awkward silence, Newt finally speaks. "Can I... Can I come in?". I immediately nod. He sits beside me, his hands resting on his knees. "Are you.. okay?" he asks me tenderly.
"It doesn't hurt that much." I say. Newt slips his hand into mine and brings our interview hands up and kisses my knuckles. "And you?" I ask.
"Just a dull throb." He itches the bandage wrapped around his head.
"And....how are you?" he asks me.
"I just told you."
"I meant..."
"Stan." I snap. "You can say his name, I'm not gonna crumble down." He engulfs me in a hug. I take a deep breath and immediately, I breakdown.
I clutch onto Newt, crying so hard, that I was hiccuping. Newt didn't say anything. He just held me tightly in my arms and I really appreciated it.
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I and Newt stand in front of the Walls while Thomas paces nervously, biting the nail of his thumb. It was around 5 am and yet Minho wasn't back. The Gladers were still asleep, worn out from the traumatizing night.
I glance at Newt, who was itching his bandage again. I slap his hand away. He wrinkles his nose at me but shoves his hands in his pocket.
"I can't believe he even thought to follow those things." He mumbles, pacing around.
"I knew that Minho had only one brain cell left. And not to mention that shank Gally; always knew he was jacked in the head." Newt bites his lower. lip. Thomas walks towards us, his face full of worry and tension.
"Its been too long." He says, "I should probably follow him."
"Time to be a bloody hero again, Tommy?" Newt snaps.
"Well, someone has to do something other than waiting for his hopeful return." Thomas retorts. "Minho would be fine. He'll come back soon. Trust him." I say quickly, not really wanting a quarrel to start between Newt and Thomas.
"There he is!" Newt points at the end of the corridor, where Minho was steadily jogging towards us. Minho stops in front of us and bends over his knees, sucking in huge gulps of air.
"Fucking thank god!" I sigh under my breath and slap him on upside of his head.
"Ow!" he protest, "Abuse!"
"Why did you decide to have a get together with the Grievers?" I whisper yell at him.
"I wasn't! I had to....be sure that they went there." He huffs, but doesn't explain further.
"Are you waiting for a drum roll?"
"Do you have one?"
"Minho," Newt sighs tiredly, rubbing his head "Speak please."
"I had to be sure that the Grievers went to the Griever Hole."
"What's a Griever Hole?" I ask.
"The black-hole-thingy that we'd found."
"Wait. You named it Griever Hole? That's a pathetic name." Newt says.
"Well, your girlfriend named it the black-hole-thingy. Better than that." I and Newt take a quick glance at each other. I offer him a small smile.
"So what did you find?" Thomas asks.
"The Grievers. They jumped into that. And after a few hours, one of them crawled out of the tunnel that we'd found that day in section seven. A new replacement Griever for that Griever you killed." Minho looks at us with a huge Cheshire Cat like smile, but soon stops when he saw my creepy smile directed to him.
"What happened?"
"I knew it. I knew it! I had always told all of you that the black-hole-thingy was the way out. But no! No one has to listen! Now see, how correct I was! Everyone was looking at me as in jacked in the head but I am correct! I told you! I knew it!" I grin- widest in the last one day and a half.
Minho grumbles, rolling his eyes while Thomas and Newt look each other.
I just knew that the black-hole-thingy was important. There was always an intense tug in my stomach, nagging at me. My gut feeling was right.
"Say it." I order him.
Minho glares at me. "Fine!" He groans. "I was wrong, you were right."
I smile a bit.
"So now what?" Thomas asks, looking at us.
"Now we have the way of getting out but we still don't know what is there. We might be literally jumping into Grievers' mouth for all I know." Minho says and we all nod in agreement.
"If there is a tunnel for each Griever in each section, then there might be multiple ways out." I say.
"But we don't have any idea exactly where the tunnels are." Thomas says. "We need the maps, now more than anything else."
But the maps were burned. To ashes. We have nothing with us. How can we pinpoint the exit of the tunnels?
"Why the hell do you smile like that?" Thomas makes a disgusted face at Minho, who is again smiling like a creepy Cheshire cat.
"Because, here where you are wrong Tommy boy."
"What do you mean?"
"The Maps. They are not burned." Newt says.
"But the Map Room was burned." I say.
"Yeah, but earlier when I and Tommy went to Alby, and he went ballistic remember?" Thomas nods, "There he told to protect the Maps. I didn't know what it meant but I had this feel that it was important."
"Gut feeling?" I ask. Newt nods eagerly.
" So I and Minho removed all the maps early by the day."
"And in this way, we saved the day." Minho swings his arm around Thomas' neck.
"So we have to get the Maps and study them. Together and fast. Before night." I say.
"Don't worry Ally-Dally, we three, minus this shank here," Minho points at Newt, "are Team Badass. We will save the day, as always!"
"Hey, I find offense in that." Newt snaps at Minho.
"And I take happiness in your offense. Shut up!
"Now, all we need to do, is to recharge our fantastic brains and then roll our sleeves and get into brain-shucking-storming."
"How are you so sunny today?" Thomas asks as he slips from Minho's grip.
"Because, my darling, we are so close to find a way out."
We all decide to rest for a bit after which all the remaining Runners and Newt of course, will sit together and locate the exact position of all the seven tunnels and then see if we find a pattern or something.
If needed, we will go to the Maze and physically pinpoint the tunnel entrances.
Thomas and Minho leaves to get a quick nap.
"You okay?" Newt asks as we lazily walk towards the Homestead. I shrug, "I have this feeling of .... like zenosyne, like-like.."
"Like time is approaching fast?"
"Yeah. Exactly that."
Newt sighs and stops midway. He grabs both of my hands and looks deep in my eyes. "You are stressing."
"We are exactly not living in a stress-free environment." I scoff.
"But we can't stress now. Minho was right. We are close to the exit and we need to keep ourselves level headed and so do you."
"I know. But I'm so....scared." I whisper. "Lot of lives are riding on us. If we don't find a way out by evening then who knows how many will die. What if this time I can't save Chuck? Or Minho? Or Alby? You?"
"Shh..." Newt engulfs me in a hug, my body almost molding against his. I take a whiff of his wet mud scent, a sense of familiarity tingling my nose.
Newt lays his head on mine as his grip on me tightens. When we pull away, he tucks my hair behind my ear. "Okay now?". I nod.
"Great." He places a quick peck on my lips.
"What?" he blinks at my shocked face, " Shit! I should've given you some space. I- I'm so sorry. I thought.."
He shuts up when I kiss him softly, ignoring the pang of guilt in my stomach.
"It's okay. I was just not expecting it. You are allowed to kiss me. Anytime. Anywhere, my boyfriend." I smile.
"Okay, girlfriend."
We bid each other goodbye and slip into our rooms. Once I shut the door behind me, I see Teresa picking out fresh pair of clothes and a towel.
"Going for a shower?"
"Yeah." She nods. "Otherwise I can't sleep."
I nod and sit on my mattress as she walks out of the room. I drop myself on the mattress, staring at the worn out old wooden ceiling.
I know I can't sleep. All my senses are overexcited, hyperactive of my surroundings. And moreover, there is this intense rushing feeling in my stomach. And a whole lot of guilt and pressure.
And I have to get things ready for the funeral too.
Suddenly I remember something. I quickly spring out of the mattress and slide it away, revealing a loose floor board. I remove it and fish out the thing.
Time to give Chuck his present early.
TOTAL WORDS- 1961
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