The Homestead isn't what I expected. I had pictured it being crushed by metal, full of stung boys, if they even were alive. I imagined fire stirring the remains, consuming what little survived the Grievers.
But it's still standing. Not only that, someone is opening the door from inside.
They survived.
I'm running before I even take it in, Newt following on my heels. It's Minho.
He barely sees me before I crash into him with a hug.
As soon as I let go, Newt takes my place, hugging his friend like he had come back from the dead.
"Woah, easy there, shank," Minho laughs, but I can tell he's relieved. "You two are okay? Ash, you are one lucky Greenbean."
"Yeah, I know," I say. I do. I should have died out by the barn, just because I was so stubborn about Newt protecting me. Newt. "It's all thanks to him, though."
"How did you make it?" Minho asks. I finally look around enough to notice the Gladers wandering around, examining the damage the Grievers did to the Homestead.
"We climbed a tree in the Deadheads," Newt says. "Not the most comfortable experience, but it kept us alive."
"Wait, why is there smoke?" I ask, my eye caught on the grey plume by the Maproom. The Glade is still in its eternal half-light left from when the sun disappeared, but I can see well enough to tell what it is.
"Alby," Minho says. "Come on, let me show you."
"Wait, what happened to Alby?" Newt asks as we follow him towards the Maproom.
"He got attacked. Someone burned the Maps." Minho's tone is grim, and my heart about stops in my chest.
"Burned the Maps?" I say, my voice disbelieving, haunted. "It- it can't be true." I remember the patterns of the Maps I saw, but I didn't look at enough of them. We've lost, permanently lost, the only key out of here.
"Yep," Minho says. "I bet it was Gally. Don't worry, though, Ash. Newt and I had switched the Maps for fakes, the real ones are fine."
I exhale in relief from the second half of what he had said while my brain is still processing the first part.
"Wait, Gally?" Newt asks, his eyebrows shooting upwards. It's good to know I'm not the only one confused by that.
"He showed up last night in the Homestead-" Minho starts, but Newt cuts him off, turning to me.
"That was who hurt you, wasn't it?"
I nod slowly. "It must have been. His friends let him in instead of me, and..."
"I'm gonna kill them." Newt's voice is deadly, and I've never heard him growl so fiercely.
I sigh. "I should probably stop you."
"But you won't."
Minho is looking back and forth between us with an astonished expression. "Okay, Newt, calm down. No one is killing anyone. Gally got grabbed by a Griever. He was shouting some shuck nonsense about how they'll take one of us every night. It broke through the window and grabbed him. Then they all just... left."
I frown, trying to take it in. "I wonder why... Do you think the Maze changed last night?"
"I'll let you know if it has." At Minho's words, I stop walking completely.
"Wait, WHAT? I'm not coming?"
"You're injured," he says, motioning to the dried blood matting part of my hair. "You aren't Running today."
He's right, too. I have a horrible headache, and wouldn't be able to keep up with him and Thomas.
Still, I'm furious about his declaration. "I hate you."
"Yeah, I don't care," Minho says with a shrug.
"Shuck-face idiot."
"You too."
Newt shakes his head slightly. "I have weird friends."
Clint is tending to Alby at the Maproom. He has a head wound that rivals mine. It looks like Gally had a fondness for giving concussions. There's still smoke drifting out the door, and my heart breaks a bit at the lost Maps, even if they were fakes.
Thomas is there, and to no one's surprise, is asking questions.
I tune out his constant flow of questions about what had happened to Alby and what we'll do now that the Maps are gone. Apparently Newt and Minho aren't telling everyone that the Maps survived, so Thomas doesn't know yet.
The main thing I know is that I'm exhausted. I'm tired and my head hurts, and I'll deal with everything else when I am rested enough to think straight.
Newt seems to be thinking the same thing.
"Clint?"
The Med-jack looks up obediently at Newt's voice. "Yeah?"
"Ash got hit in the head pretty bad last night, if you can look at it."
Clint motions towards the Homestead. "Do you mind heading into the third room? Most of my supplies are in there, and I only brought enough bandages out for Alby."
Newt glances at me, knowing I hate being in small spaces for very long. I'm tired enough, though, that I nod in acceptance.
We only have to wait in the Homestead's third upstairs room for a few minutes before Clint shows up. I sit on the cot as he examines my overall state as well as the wound on the side of my head from where the shovel hit me.
"Mind if I clip some of your hair back?" he asks, a little hesitantly. I shrug. It's just hair.
"It's fine," I say.
He trims a section of my hair to the skin with a pair of medical scissors and cleans the broken skin and dried blood. There isn't much external damage, though, and bandaging it only takes a couple of minutes once he does what he can to treat it.
I stare at the wavy auburn hair on the floor curiously as he finishes up. For the first time, I wonder why Newt keeps his hair long. I might get mine clipped short just so I don't have to worry about managing it.
"Alright, you're good to go," Clint says. "Rest up, especially if you want to get back to running."
"Thanks," Newt says as Clint leaves us. "Well, you heard the man, Ash. Sleep."
"Here, or in the Deadheads?" I ask.
"Wherever you feel comfortable," he says, and I grab his hand, dragging him onto the cot with me. I'm sick of the Deadheads, so I'd rather deal with being shut in.
"Here," I say, laying down and cuddling against him. I'm strong, but the feeling of his heartbeat matching mine is my deepest weakness. I don't want to be alone.
Newt starts to sing, but seconds into the song I fall asleep, exhaustion overtaking my numb limbs.
Oh, lay me down in ash again,
And watch the world crumble...
~~
A/N: This is the demo "When I Watch The World Burn All I Think About Is You" again. Still a fantastic song.