Despite Thomas wanting for me to not tell Aimee our plan, I still told her and like I suspected she was more than willing to help.
"So, you spoke to your mum earlier about..?" She asks, after I had finished explaining the whole plan to her. "When I'm being sent into The Glade." Thomas states nonchalantly from his chair, where he hadn't moved since I got up to listen to Alby, Gally and Minho.
"And?" Aimee asks, turning her head from Thomas' figure. My smile falters as I look down to the floor, both sadness and happiness filling my body. "They're taking you tomorrow afternoon." I tell him, watching him closely as his face drops a little and he gulps. "Ok, we can work with that. We just have to get the serums today, write the letters and find an easy way to hide them on me."
"I'm already one step ahead of you. I asked T for two more of the serums and just told her that my memories were fading. And as for hiding them on you, we won't have to hide them all that well as I told Ava that if she wanted you to go to The Glade without a fuss then I would have to be the one to administer the serum. I'll have a guard making sure I actually take away your memories, but hopefully he will be far enough away that I will be able to give you everything you'll need to go into The Glade."
Thomas seems somewhat impressed by my improvisation of the plan, and smiles at me. "So all we have to do is find a way for you three to get out undetected and make your way over to the final corridors where hopefully The Gladers and I will meet you. And of course Dani you have a few letters to write." Thomas states, making me nod my head and look to Aimee. "Can you help Tom find us an easy way out while I write these. I need to make sure Newt gets my message and that Alby and Gally see that they need to trust the guys." I tell her, and she happily nods her head.
"Here, I keep a stash of paper in here for when I get bored. And from when T and I composed that letter for you the day you left." She tells me, opening the drawer beside her to pull out a stack of paper and a pen. I take them gratefully as Thomas switches the monitors screens to show the inside of WCKD, and move myself to the small table in the corner of the room.
Thomas and Aimee's quiet conversation fills the silence besides the sound of my pen scratching against the paper, and it didn't take me long to write the three letters I needed to. One happened to be considerably longer than the other two, but that was because it held a lot more meaning than the others, and I was happy with that.
I fold the pieces of paper in half and tuck them into my back pocket, moving across the room again so that I was sat beside Thomas.
"Hey, you two don't need this monitor right?" I ask them, pointing to the monitor that was directly in front of me. They shake their heads and go back to studying their own screens, as I change the monitor from the WCKD facility to a map of The Maze.
I lift the final piece of paper up to the screen and grab my pen, the paper being thin enough to still see the screen perfectly behind it. My face lights up with a smile as my idea worked, and soon enough my pen is scribbling over the piece of paper again, tracing the outlines and corridors of tomorrow's Maze as perfectly as I could.
"Now that is a smart idea." Thomas breathes out from behind me as I pull the paper away from the screen and admire it. "I know right. How didn't we think of doing that before?" I ask him, grabbing the coloured pen and pulling the lid off of it. "I'm not sure. And I'm not sure how we would have survived without it." He chuckles, leaning forward to watch me colour a pathway from the entrances to The Maze to the nearest Griever Tunnel.
Once I am finished, I fold the paper and hold it out for Tom to take, but he shakes his head. "It's probably best if you keep a hold of that. Just in case I lose it or if the guard searches me before I go into the box." He chuckles nervously, and I nod my head understandingly. "That's probably for the best."
~~~~~
The rest of the day went at an excruciatingly slow pace, the fear and worry of what the next day held for us looming over us like a cat over a mouse.
During dinner Teresa had given me the two serums and told me to use them carefully, before Thomas pulled her off to his room. The two saying goodbye to one another without Teresa actually knowing it was a goodbye. And what a better way to do that then spend the night in eachother's 'company'.
Although it wasn't even close to the worst part this week could hold yet, when Aimee bid me goodnight I didn't want her to leave my side. I had too many thoughts circling around my head, and too many 'what if's. And if that wasn't good enough, I had the even bigger fear that Newt would try and do something irrational before Thomas reached The Glade.
The fear of Newt's safety held me in its grips for hours on end, keeping me from sleeping at all. By the time the early hours of morning had come around I had given up on sleep, and decided I needed to watch over him for myself.
~~~~~
My feet pad slowly across the cold, empty halls of WCKD, my hand gripping onto it's candle tightly as as I had expected, Ava Paige turned off the lights during the nighttime to save our rationed electricity.
I reach the monitor room in little to no time and wrench the door open, startling the singular man that was sat in the middle of the dark room. "Oh, sorry. I didn't think anybody would be in here." I mumble into the darkness, slipping into the room as I made my way towards the monitors and the man.
"You shouldn't be in here unsupervised at this time of night." He says sternly, crossing his arms across his chest as he leant back in his chair. I cock an eyebrow at him and copy his actions as best I can, letting the candle light fall over my face. "Don't you know who I am?" I question him, giving him the exact same tone back.
"Yes, of course I know who you are. And that is exactly why you shouldn't be in here right now." He returns, making me roll my eyes. "Oh but how you are so wrong. My mother told me I could come in here and relieve anybody that was in here of their duties. So I'm guessing that applies to you." I return, letting the lie slip off my tongue with ease.
"You really think I am going to believe that, Maze Runner?" He quips, his voice laced with venom. "Yes. Otherwise I'll happily go and get her for you. But be weary, she tends to be extra snappy when she's been awoken. And even worse when she finds out that her orders are being questioned just because I'm the one telling you them." I tell the man, heading back towards the door.
"And, you do know that she'll probably see this as you discriminating against me just because I was in The Maze. And she won't tolerate that. That's almost as bad as treason in her head. Would probably cost you the same price too. I wonder what it'll be like for you to be thrown out amongst the Cranks." I continue, laying the lies on one after another until I see a crack in his tough facade. And finally one appears.
"O-Ok. There is no need to wake her up at this time of the morning. You just come on back here and I'll be on my way. And we won't have to bring this up ever again." He stutters, jumping up from his chair immediately and heading towards me (well, more so the door). He bolts out the room as quickly as he can and I'm left laughing, shaking my head at the stupidity of some of these people.
"Coward..." I mutter under a laugh, heading towards the chair and sitting down.
I smile happily at my reflection in the monitor, until something moves on the screen and catches my eye.
Somebody was emerging from one of the cabins (which cabin it was, I have no clue. The place is too dark to see anything clearly). I strain my eyes as I watch the figure saunter through the grass and up the all too familiar hill I used to climb up all the time.
I knew who the figure was as soon as he started up that hill, but when his blonde hair hit the moonlight I knew for sure. Newt perched himself on my branch and clutched one of my tops tightly in his hands, the tears flowing down his cheeks at such a pace I was unsure if he knew he was crying or not.
"Dani..." His voice cracks, making tears immediately prick at the back of my eyes. His voice sounded so lost of hope, so void of happiness and curiosity. He was giving up, and fast. Just like I expected him to...
"Dani, i-" He continues, not getting far until he lets out shaky sob. His hand clasps to his mouth as he tries to stifle it, and he chokes back as many of the tears as he can. "If you can hear me... I need you to give me a sign. I need you to give me any sign that you are ok... Because the only thing I can physically think about at all anymore is that whoever these people who have us in here have k-k-k-killed you. And I can't bare that..." He cries, letting his hand fall shamefully.
I cover my face with my own hands as I start to cry myself, hearing the words I so desperately didn't want to hear fall effortlessly from his lips. "B-Because if you are gone... Then I don't want to live in this place anymore..."
"I'm not sure how much longer I can live here without you... I'm so sorry... I really don't want to do this, but I need you. I need you more than anything else in the world and shuck it, my life isn't worth it if you aren't here to be with me."
Loud shaky sobs leave my lips as I frantically rummage through the drawers of the desk, finding a piece of paper and a pen. I slam them down onto the desk as I hear Newt continue, his words a little more hopeful than before.
"I just need something... anything that will tell me that you and I will see each other again one day."
I work quickly to re-write his letter, my tears staining and blotching the paper with ease and making some of the ink run.
After it is finished, I fold it over and stuff it into the pocket of my hospital nightgown, giving Newt one last look before I run out of the room. My feet rush down the corridors as I make my way to one of the dorm rooms, hoping nobody had moved in the past two years.
Thankfully, to my fortune, Aimee's name tag hangs on the door proudly and swings as I throw the door open. I place my candle down on the table and move to Aimee's sleeping form, shaking her gently as to not startle her, but with enough urgency to wake her up. It doesn't take long for her eyes to shoot open and stare back at me with fear, the fear webbing away as she saw the tears staining my cheeks.
"Danielle? What's wr-" She could barely get the words out of her mouth before I was answering her, the fear over taking my body. "Newt. It's Newt. He's close to ending it and I can't have him die on me. Not when we are so close to getting him out. Thomas needs to go tomorrow morning. The plan has to happen sooner than it was planned. We need to go and raid the pantry for rations. We need to get this all done now."
My words were so frantic and thick with tears that I was unsure whether Aimee had heard me or not, but when her face fell and she gently nodded her head I knew she got the gist of it all.
She slowly sits up and gets out of the bed, pulling me into a tight hug before she grabbed my hand and my candle and lead the way out the room without another word.