"Hey Teddy," Minho says walking up to me. "We're gonna go take a walk, wanna come?"
"I'll be there in a minute, Minho," I reply. "I wanna go check on Brenda and Thomas."
He nods. "Good that. We'll see ya soon!" And with that he runs off.
I put my bitter hands in my new warm jacket and walk towards the hut Brenda and Thomas are in. Just as I'm about to walk inside, Jorge comes out, startling me.
"Jesus, Jorge!" I exclaim.
He chuckles. "Sorry 'bout that hermana."
"How's she doing?" I ask worriedly.
His smile fades into a smaller one as he shrugs and looks away. "I think she'll be alright," he voice is calm yet saddening.
He pays me on the shoulder as he walks away. I then walk inside to see Thomas sitting beside Brenda on a cot.
I knock lightly on the wood post before calmly saying, "Hey."
Thomas looks up from his hands. "Hi," he greets tightly.
I walk over and sit right beside him. "Hi Brenda." I squeeze her hand.
"Hey Teddy," she mumbles.
I notice her fiddling with something in her hand. "Whatcha got there?" I inquired, glancing at the small paper in her hand.
She looks at me with a small smile and puts the piece of paper in my hand. I'm skeptical before looking at it, but I continue. I flip it over to reveal an old photo. As soon as I see it I recognize the boy immediately. I sense my heart race extremely faster by the second.
"He was my brother," she says. "His name was George..."
And then it all comes flooding back.
Flashback
"Bloody hell Minho what happened!?" Newt said. Minho just starred at him out of breath. I tried to comprehend the situation but it felt too unreal.
George was a mess. He squirmed on the ground, his muscles clenched as if they'd been permanently locked that way, cramped up and tight. His eyes bulged; his lips pressed together in a pale line; the skin of his face looked as if it had been ripped off, boiled, then stapled back on.
"Minho!" Newt shouted this time, panic taking over him, "What is wrong with him?!"
Nick went over and knelt beside him, trying not to get to close. "George?" He said softly.
"It was a griever," Minho managed to say in shock.
We knew there were monsters in the Maze, because at night we could here them. We called them Grievers, even though we didn't know anything about them. And we've managed to keep to ourselves for the past 14 months since Alby arrived.
"What!?" Alby said in pure shock. "Minho, what did it do to him!?"
"I- I don't even know! We were running and spotted a dead one laying on the ground. At least we thought it was dead," Minho stated. "All's he did was poke it with his toe! It snatched him right up and stung him or somthin. So we all took our knives and sliced that shuckin monster!"
"Well what are we gonna do with him?!" Nick said sadly.
Nobody spoke.
"We can't let him die!" My heart sank. Poor Nick.
I started to think of all the supplies we had, and what the Creators have given us.
"The Syringe!" I said out loud.
"The what-," Newt started, "The Syringe! You're bloody right! That could work!"
"We don't even know what's in there!" Alby said,
"For all we know it could kill him even more," Gally mentioned.
"But what if it works!" Minho said as the others nodded. "Teddy, do you know where it is?"
I nodded while sprinting towards homestead.
When I arrived I quickly poked around the drawers, trying to find it. I noticed it immediately when I opened a cabinet. It was a vial with liquid blue inside. I dashed back to the Corridors where the group was. Nick and Zart were knelt beside George so I handed them the vial.
"Inject it into his arm," Frypan ordered to Nick.
Nick waited for the perfect moment and went right for it.
George started screaming in pain, it was unbearable to watch. All of the sudden his stood up and walked to the closed corridors. Before I could react chaos broke out and he started smashing his head against it.
Over, and over.
"GEORGE!" I heard someone scream bringing me back to reality.
Blood was dripping everywhere.
I held my hand up to my mouth. Tears dreading to fall.
George walked over to Zart and shoved him to the ground, then began looking for his next victim.
"STOP!" Winston, Jeff and Nick screamed at the top of their lungs.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Alby yelled, his feet thundering across the dusty ground with a shovel in his hand.
He swung it like a baseball bat and knocked him in the head. George fell to the ground.
"NOOOO!" Nick screamed to his best friend.
George twitched and moaned, then went still.
Alby dropped the shovel to the ground and turned to face us. Tears were shedding down his dark skin. It occurred to me that I've never seen him cry.
Nick was on the ground sobbing, with Zart kneeling next to him with a hand on his friend's shoulder crying silently.
Some of the boys had wandered off alone. Alby was on his knees, leaning against the shovel he'd used to kill George, staring at the ground completely still. Newt was near him, sitting cross-legged in the dirt, head in hands, eyes closed, as miserable as a person can look.
I walked over to him crying and sat cross-legged next to him. He look up at me and pulled me into a enormous hug. I sat still in his arms and cried into his chest for what felt like a life time.
Later that night we had a small memorial for George. We buried him, and Frypan made a special dinner. It was all quite sad. I felt so bad for Nick especially, seeing them around the Glade together they were like brothers. I gave him a big hug and that I think he appreciated.
The night ended normally. Sort of. I cried myself to sleep, knowing I shouldn't have mentioned the syringe.
End of Flashback
"Teddy...?"
"What...?" I blink into reality as tears fall down my cheeks.
"Hey... hey!" Thomas says worriedly. "Are you okay...?"
I wipe my eyes and smile. "Yeah! Of course," I lie. Deep down inside it's taking me every strength not to burst in tears. I bite my lip.
"Are you sure?" Brenda asks.
I plaster on my fake smile again after inhaling deeply. "Yeah, I um... I'm gonna go but I'll catch up with guys later."
I rush out the door, frantically looking for my friends. I would've found them a lot quicker if it weren't for the tears coating my eyes, blocking my vision.
"Teddy! Up here!" I look to my right and wipe my eyes. I smile when I see my friends waving at me from higher up the mountain. I quickly limp over to them and walk up the slope.
"Ted... Teddy what's wrong?!" Newt's voice is filled with panic when he sees me.
I don't respond. I just sit the dirty ground and let all my tears fall.
I feel a pair of arms wrap around me, pulling me into their chest. I immediately know it's Newt.
"I killed him..." I whimper.
"What are you talking about!?" Newt says confused, yet comforting.
"I killed Brenda's brother..." My sobs are uncontrollable when I hear them out loud.
"Teddy calm down. I have no shucking clue what you're talking about!" He exclaims.
"GEORGE!" I yell through tears. I feel the heat raising up in my cheeks. "I killed George!"
He doesn't reply, just pulls me closer.
"George was Brenda's brother..." I whisper.
"You know it's not your fault," Newt whispers after a moment.
"Really? Cause it sure feels like it was!" I bawl.
His warm hands stroke my hair as I sob onto his jacket. "It was that serum. You thought you could save him."
"Yeah, well look what happened!"
He rests his hands firmly on my shoulders and pulls out of our hug. "He was gonna die any other way, Teddy," he says firmly. "It's over now so stop. Stop blaming yourself!"
He wipes the tears from my cheeks with his thumbs then holds my hands as we both stand up.
"Enough of that," he pulls me into another hug. "There's no need to cry."
"Thanks, Newt," I whisper. Just as I pull away from our hug, I smushed back into Newt with another set of arms around me.
"Minho!" I laugh, my nose stuffed from crying. "I can't breath!"
Just then another pair of arms is around us. "Fry!!"
I grunt and they all laugh in response.
Once the boys pile off me, we all sit on the large boulders. I shiver as the piercing breeze blows by.
For awhile, no one talks. We're all enjoying the beautiful view of the camp. It feels odd being able to escape this easily from WICKED. Obviously, it wasn't easy getting here what so ever. But it just feels... I don't know. I can't seem to put words to thoughts.
"I wish Alby could've seen all this." I turn my head to Newt, nodding.
"And Winston," Frypan says. My heart lurches at his memory.
"And Chuck." I must've been so lost in thought I didn't even notice Thomas was here. My heart lurches again at Chuck's memory. I would do anything to hold him again.
"He'd be proud of you, you know, Tommy," Newt says kindly.
I look down below the cliff we're on and see Aris waving at us. I smile and wave back.
"Hi Aris!" Frypan shouts down, waving.
"Hey guys!" Aris replies.
Fry smiles. "I kinda like that kids."
"Yeah..." I say.
"Yeah. I still don't trust him though." Minho states.
"Well okay then," I laugh.
"Hey— where's Teresa?" Thomas asks. I gaze around the campus shrugging my shoulders. I realize I really haven't had a one on one conversation with her. I guess things have been busy, but we were just getting to know each other.
"She went up there," Minho says, pointing towards another cliff.
"I'll be right back..." Thomas says while running off.
Minho scoffs. "I don't know who I ship together more, Teresa and Thomas or Teddy and Newt."
"Minho!" Newt says.
"You talk like we're not even here!" I laugh.
"Nah, Minho. Newt and Ted all the way," Frypan says.
I burry my face into my hands and they laugh hysterically. "Oh slim it you two!"
"You're right, Fry. Dumb question. My bad."
"Dude what's your problem?!" I ask Minho.
"What—"
"Can't we just go one day without you begging for us to get married!? Bloody hell..." I finally snap. "It's like you have nothing better to do than ship us together!"
"Teddy you are so oblivious!" He responds. "I mean, you're obviously in love with him don't you realize!"
"Minho how do you expect me to realize I'm in love, when I don't even know what love is."
All of this is going down while Newt and Frypan are just sitting and listening to us bicker.
"You've read all those novels in the Glade..."
"Those are fictional."
"Okay fine," he continues. "What do you think love is."
I sigh and shrug. "A strong feeling towards another."
"Yeah okay, but what's it like."
After a minute of thinking I speak up. "It— It's like the wind..."
Minho smirks. "And how's that?"
"You can't see it— but um— you can feel it." I look at my hands.
I stand up, getting uncomfortable. "I'm gonna—"
"Hey wait— do you guys hear that?" Frypan says nervously. We all pause to listen.
"I know that sound..." I whisper. Then it comes to my realization. "Shit! That's a helicopter!"
I see the panic rise on my friends faces.
Shit's about to go down...
~~~
Hi! I'm so sorry this is out late. I kept procrastinating tonight ughhhhh. Anyway, next chapter should be up tomorrow afternoon. This weekend I'll be out of town so I most likely won't update— BUT I'll try my best.
Thank you all so much for the votes and comments. I love you all. :)
Also I mention in the story that Teddy has a limp from an injured knee. Basically I got that idea from myself bc at the moment I have an injured knee as well lol. Im going to physical therapy this week so hopefully it'll get better soon.
Anyway, thanks for reading!! I hope you liked it.
Again I didn't revise and edit that much so sorry for any errors.
One more thing... on my other account spacebear223 I posted the first chapter.
Okay I'm leaving now byeeee :)