A/N: Next chapter! We meet Teresa, and Newt and Kira finally have their talk. Enjoy! xx
Chapter 14
We ran out of the woods and towards Chuck, who was laughing so hard he was holding his stomach.
'Chuck, what's going on?' I ask quickly.
'Girls are awesome.' He says pointing at the tree. The girl was at the top of the tree throwing things down at the guy's heads.
'Leave me alone!' She shouts, throwing something else down.
'Watch your head!'
'Hey, throw one more of those things- Ow!' I laugh as Gally's hit. I think I'm going to like this girl.
'Go away!'
'We come in peace!'
'What happened?' Thomas asks Newt who is under a wooden board protecting himself.
'Just duck!'
'I don't think she likes us very much.' Newt says with a laugh.
'What do you want from me?' She calls down.
'We just wanna talk.' Thomas shouts up to her.
'I'm warning you!' She doesn't seem to be responding to this.
'Take cover, y'all! Take cover!'
Walking through the crown of boys I shout up 'HEY!' Everything goes silent. I watch as her head pops over the side. I wave a little. 'Can we talk, girl to girl?' She says nothing but she doesn't throw anything else. 'I'll take that as a yes.' I say to myself before walking to the bottom of the first ladder. 'Go back to whatever you were doing.' I say to the boys. Thomas looks hesitant. 'I'll come find you later.' He nods and leaves with the others.
When I make it to the top, I push up the hatch and see the girl pointing a knife at me. She looks at me with a mixture of fear and curiosity.
'Do you know how to use that?' I say nodding to the knife. Looking at it she shakes her head. 'Then don't point it at people.' I say quietly, pushing it away from me. She puts it down beside her.
'Where am I? What is this place? Why can't I remember anything?' She pelts one question after another. I can see why her and Thomas would get along.
I smile kindly at her. 'We call this the Glade. Nobody can remember anything when they first get here. We get our names in a few days.'
'Teresa.'
Or now. 'Okay, Teresa, nice name. I'm Kira.' No-body gets their name back right away. No-one in over 4 years has ever known it as soon as they showed up. Why is she different?
'Why are we the only girls?' She interrupts the thoughts flying through my brain.
I smile at her. 'I don't know. I was the first Glader here, and you apparently are the last. Maybe that has something to do with it.'
'Hm,' she nods. I'm not sure she agrees with my theory but doesn't throw up any others so… 'So, no-one remembers anything.'
'Nope, nothing of our lives before we woke up in the Box.' I wasn't sure whether to tell her about my dreams. I don't really know her, but I get the feeling she remembers something.
'Sorry I freaked out.' She whispers.
I chuckle. 'I think if I woke up in a room with Clint and Jeff staring at me, and no memories, I'd freak out too.' She chuckles along with me.
'Clint and Jeff, your doctors.'
'Medics, yeah. Then we have Gally – you hit him on the head, with a piece of fruit.' I full on laughed this time. 'Oh, his face.' I wipe a fake tear from my eye. 'Then we have Newt – he's our second in command, he was hidden under a wooden board, Chuck – the kid who was laughing over there, Frypan - our cook who now thinks all girls are crazy, having only met you and I,' I pause to see how she is taking this all in. She is looking out at the Glade having shuffled forward so she can stick her legs over the edge. 'Thomas,' I look at her to see her reaction. A look of recognition is on her face; so she does remember him. Called it! 'You were saying his name in your sleep.' She looks down at her lap. 'When you came up in the box, you had this in your hand.' I passed her the piece of paper, Newt had given me.
'"She's the last one – ever." What does that mean?'
'We don't know, but ever since you came up, the Box hasn't gone back down. That's how we get supplies. Everyone is a little worried about what happens if doesn't go back down again. How long we will last. Especially Gally.' I look over at him to see him staring at us. I wave; he ignores this and turns back to building.
'He thinks it's my fault.' Yes, he does. I'm not telling her that though.
'Gally's really got into blaming people recently. If it isn't you then it's me and Thomas.' I look at Teresa and decide if I'm going to tell her, Thomas needs to be here. I'm not going to repeat myself and Thomas will want to know. 'Do you mind if he comes up?'
'Gally?' She looks at me confused.
I smile. 'Thomas.' I reiterate. She hesitates a minute before shaking her head. I nod.
I look over the side of the platform to see Chuck milling around at the bottom.
'Chuck,' I get the small boys attention. 'Can you find Thomas for me?' He nods and runs off.
'So are you in charge around here?' She says curiously.
'Yep, since I was the first person here, it kinda put me in the position of power when the others started popping up.'
'Popping up?' she looked at me curiously. I smirked at her confusion.
'We all came up in the box. That's that crate thing over there. You came up in it too, you were just, unconscious. For the first month it was just me, then Alby came up, then the others. Once a month for 4 years.'
'You've been here 4 years?' She looked amazed.
'Yeah, but you came just at the right time. Things are changing round here. We think were onto a way out.' Hopefully.
'Really?'
I nod excitedly.
'Hey, it's Thomas. Can I come up?'
I look over the side again and see Thomas standing there wringing his hands, looking pretty nervous. I beckon him up and he starts climbing. We wait patiently for him to get to the top. Once his head pops through the floor, I say,
'I'll leave you alone in a minute. Seems like you two need to talk. But I know your both lying about not remembering anything,' Here we go. '…because I am too.' This revelation felt like a weight of my shoulders. Thomas sat on the floor looking at me with wide eyes, waiting for me to go on.
'Remember the first day you got here. Gally did the intro.' He nods to show me he remembers. 'Well it was supposed to be me, but I slept in. I was having a dream. Well... a memory I guess. I was lying on a table. There were people in white masks standing above me. There was a woman. She told me to sleep. That i'd need to reserve my strength.' The woman's voice filled my ears. 'Phase One. Group A. Test Subject One. Kira."' I repeated this final sentence to them out loud.
They look at me with a mixture of surprise and recognition.
'I've had several since. Sometimes I get the feeling of drowning. Sometimes I get sharp pains. But that woman, she's always there, whispering in my ear over and over again, "Remember Kira, WICKED is good."'
'Mine are similar,' Thomas says. 'She's there in mine too, "WICKED is good." Over and over again.'
'Mine too,' Teresa said.
'Why are we different?' I ask them. They both shrug their shoulders.
Teresa reaches into her pocket and pulls out 3 metallic test tubes. 'There were in my pocket when I came up.' She handed the tubes to me. I roll them in my hands. Tubes? What could be in them? 'What if we were sent here for a reason?' Teresa asked looking at me, as if I had all the answers.
'I don't know about me, but you two maybe.' I look up at Thomas and show him one of the tubes. A sudden realisation comes to me. 'Alby! You two! Stay here. Talk!'
'We don't even know what this stuff is. We don't know who sent it. Or why it came up with her. For all we know, this thing could kill him.' Newt exclaims, obviously not convinced.
'He's already dying. Look at him. How could this possibly make it any worse?' I say. I stand in front of him and maintain eye contact imploring him to see sense. 'Please,' I beg.
'Come on, it's worth a try.' Jeff says to Newt shrugging his shoulders. Yes Jeff!
Newt sighs and nods. 'All right. Do it.' I give him a swift hug and walk up to Alby's side. I place my hand on his chest trying to decide where to stick the syringe.
'Okay,' I whisper deciding to go for the heart. I take a deep breath and lift up the syringe. I bring it down in a smooth motion when aiming directly for his heart when Alby jerks up and grabs my shirt.
'We can't go back! We can't go back!' He screams shaking me. The syringe flies out of my hand and onto the floor.
'No. Alby. Stop. Get off!' I shouted.
'No!' Newt shouts running forward to try and separate us.
'Watch out!' Jeff yells.
'Get the syringe! Let go!' I scream as my head starts to hurt. Newt picks up the fallen syringe and stabs it in Alby's chest. As soon as the plunger goes down, Alby stops, let's go of my shirt and calms. His hands soon fall limp and let go; I scrabble away to the other side of the hut getting as far away as possible. Taking a deep breath trying to steady my beating heart, I turn to see Newt looking at me. I nod to tell him I'm okay but breathe out a shaky breath which he notices.
'Well, that worked.' Jeff says optimistically.
'Okay, from now on... someone stays here and watches him around the clock.' Newt commands Jeff. Seeing that this conversation is over, I get up from the floor and leave the med- tent. When I am far enough away, I lean against the closest hut and take a few deep breaths. I've never seen Alby like that. He never uses his strength against me. Looking up, I see Gally escorting Thomas to the pit. I follow them; I need to talk to Thomas.
'Gally… you know we can't stay here forever, right?' I hear Thomas question Gally. He doesn't answer, just glares and walks away. Gally passes me and his glare softens slightly when he sees my rumpled state, but not completely. I don't like fighting with Gally, but he doesn't seem to be the same person he was before. He seems… hard, almost cold. I sigh and slump down beside Thomas' cell door.
'Hey, did it work?' Thomas uttered quietly.
I nod and turn to look at him. A smile has worked its way onto his face. However when he sees the state I'm in, his smile dims.
'What happened?' He asks.
'I was gonna to stick it in, but he woke up and grabbed me. He was screaming! "We can't go back!" He shook me so hard I am definitely going to have a headache tomorrow. His eyes though…' I pause taking a deep breath. 'They were so scared Tommy. He was terrified. But I don't know what of. I never seen him like that before. Not in the 4 years we've known each other. What if … what if getting out of here puts us someplace worse? What if that's what he meant? We can't go back… to where we came from?'
Thomas looked at his lap. 'Have you changed your mind about wanting to find a way out?'
'No,' I say quickly. 'I just want to be prepared, for it not to be everything we want it too.' I had had my doubts before, but seeing Alby like that had really shaken me. A crack from next to me startles us both. Chuck walks up with handfuls of food.
'Thought you might be hungry.' He said. He looked at me guiltily. 'I know a night in the pit means no food, but he's running tomorrow.' I smile at the boy's forethought.
I get up. 'I didn't see anything.' I smirk at the pair, tap Chuck on the shoulder and leave, to get my own food. I see Teresa standing over by one side, looking unsure over the vast number of boys. I walk over to her.
'Hey,' I speak quietly so I don't startle her. She looks over to me with a small smile. 'Hungry?' She nods slowly. I take her wrist gently and lead her over to where Fry is unloading food onto people's plates. 'Hey Fry,' I grab 2 plates and put them in front of him. Fry smiles and starts to slop food onto the tray.
'You gave us all a bit of a scare there, you know,' He states to Teresa. She smiles, obviously embarrassed.
'Guess I freaked out a bit.' She answers smirking.
'I'll say,' laughing Fry handing her, her plate. 'Although between you and me, seeing Gally get hit on the head was hilarious.' His over-the-top mock whisper made the boys in the surrounding vicinity chuckle at the joke. Thanking Fry we walk over to a bench and sit down.
'They'll get used to you.' I whisper to Teresa. 'I've been the only girl for such a long time that most of them probably forgot that other girls existed. It's just a bit weird for them.'
'Didn't make a great first impression though did I?' She sighs.
I shake my head fervently. 'No, you made a great first impression.' Her head snaps to look at me.
'What?'
'You forget, they're a bunch of guys. You made them laugh, that's a pretty good impression from where I'm standing.'
Her brows burrow. 'Really?'
'Yeah, one thing you come to learn living here. Guys… are weird.'
A loud giggle makes me turn and look at Teresa. She is clutching her stomach and tears are beginning to stream down the side of her face. Watching her try to catch her breath, makes me start to laugh and soon we are leaning into each other's sides crying with laughter.
This is what I needed, to get my mind off Alby. I lean my head on the table in front of us taking more deep breaths, trying to get my breathing back to normal as Newt walks up. I sober up enough to look up at him, but I can already feel a smirk pulling its way onto my face. Beside me I can hear Teresa starting to giggle quietly again.
'Alright?' Newt says, staring at us as if were mad. I look over to Teresa and catch her eye. Before I know it, we're gone again, howling with uncontrollable laughter, gripping each other to stop ourselves from falling off the bench. Tears blur my vision but I can imagine what the boys look like right now. Newt's footsteps quickly move away from us, leaving us to try and pull ourselves together.
After a few minutes more, Teresa and I have managed to calm down enough than we can from words again. My sides ache from laughing so hard and my cheeks are clammy from tears.
'I have not laughed that much since Alby fell in the pile of manure and had to walk across the Glade covered in it!' I took a deep breath trying to get my heartbeat back to normal.
Teresa chuckled. 'That's a picture.' Oh God, it was. I can see him now, walking over to the water, with a huge scowl on his face.
I nodded, laughing again. 'It's nice to talk to another girl. I haven't ever had that before.'
'Me neither. Well not that we would remember if we had!'
I grin. 'No I suppose not.'
'Is it safe to approach?' We turn in the direction of the question. The boys are all looking at us. Newt and Minho stand at the front looking perplexed.
I look at Teresa and nod to the boys. Newt and Minho sit opposite us, still looking confused.
'What was that about?' Minho asks.
'No idea.' I say. 'It kinda just happened.' I shrug at the boys. 'Shit.' Looking back at Teresa I realise that no-one but Thomas and I know Teresa's name. 'We haven't told them your name. Guys, this is Teresa.' She leans across the table and shakes the guy's hands. Oooh, how formal.
'Nice to meet you Teresa.' Newt says. 'Can I have a word?' I nod and get up from the table. We walk a few feet away from the bench so the others can't hear us. 'You given her the Greenie welcome speech yet?' I shake my head.
'It's Alby's turn. It hadn't even occurred to me.' I look at Newt, a plan forming in my mind. 'You know it right?' He stares with shock.
'Me?'
I nod. 'You're our second in command. Alby can't do it right now so you need to.'
He looked down at the ground for a minute seemingly considering his options. 'Yeah, I know it.'
I smile. 'Right then, you give the welcome speech to Teresa, make sure she's okay; I'll set up a bed for her up in my room and… then we'll talk.' Our eyes meet when I say this. 'Okay?' I whisper.
Newt nods, putting his hand on my arm for a second. I beam at the contact. He smirks and then leaves, getting Teresa to follow him.
And breathe. I let out the deep breath I was holding. I seem to be doing that a lot recently. Bed first, then talk. Walking over to the homestead, I pass Chuck.
'You okay?' I ask noticing the redness in his eyes. Has he been crying? He stops and looks at me.
'I am now.' He says quietly. 'Were going to get out, and I'm going to see my parents again.' I grin at his newfound faith.
'Yeah, you are. And you're going to give them that wood carving.' I point at the small wooden owl clutched in Chuck's hand. He nods stuffing it back into his trouser pocket. He gins back at me. I lean my hand on his shoulder and begin to head off again.
As I finish laying out the sheet on the extra bed, a knock interrupts the silence. Oh no, its happening. The talk. Is he gonna be angry? Disappointed? Fuck, I dunno.
'Come in,' I call nervously. Newt enters, face matching mine. He's nervous too.
'Hey,' I smile up at him sitting on Teresa's new bed.
'Hey,' He replies sitting down opposite me on my bed.
'She alright?'
Newt nods. 'Yeah, she sure asks a lot of questions though.' He chuckles.
I smirk. 'Yeah the newer ones do that!' We both laugh, to cover the awkward silence surrounding us.
'So,' Newt begins.
'So,' I copy enjoying the mocking glare that follows. 'You said we should talk. So talk.'
Newt takes a deep breath. 'You should have left him.' He says quietly.
If I hadn't known he would say this, it would have shocked me. Newt and Alby were close. Brothers. But Newt hadn't known, at that point, about the cure Teresa had brought up. At that moment in time, I risked my life for someone who was going to die anyway. And that was what he was angry about.
'I know.' I replied. 'You get why I didn't though right.' Newt nods slowly.
'You didn't know we could save him! When you stayed in the maze overnight, a fate (may I add) that no one has ever survived, you didn't know!' I sigh, keeping quiet. He needs to get this out. 'You could have died out there! You probably would've without Thomas.' He was right, I wouldn't have been able to pull Alby up into those vines alone. 'How could you do that? How could you leave us like that?' His unspoken words were clear. "How could you leave me like that?" He stared at me needing an answer.
'I couldn't leave him,' is all I say in response. 'You know that.'
Newt sighs and sits down again. I hadn't even realised he gotten up. 'It was so bloody stupid. You survived by pure fluke.' I nod again.
'I'd have done the same for you, you know.' I whisper quietly. 'If you were hurt and unconscious, I wouldn't leave you.' Newt stares before looking down at his lap. I knew that he would do the same. 'I knew you could lead. You and Minho could have managed. Probably better than Alby and I. I trusted you to be able to do that. That's why I told Minho to not let you in. To hold you back if necessary.'
'I could've helped.' He interrupted.
'I know, but if we had both been in there, we would've died. We would've been too busy worrying about each other to actually see clearly. You know that! I was able to focus in there because I knew you were safe.' I grab his chin and tilt his head up so he is looking at me. After a moment, he sighs and nods.
'Yeah I know.'
'I get why you're angry at me, but if we want to get out of here alive, we can't get annoyed at each other for putting ourselves in danger. We live, constantly, in danger! There's going to be much worse than Grievers ahead, I can feel it.' I take his hands and start to play with his fingers. Newt sighs one last time and leans his forehead against mine. I can feel his soft breaths on my cheek.
'We look out for each other.' He mutters so gently I almost don't hear him. I nod as much as I can whilst still keeping contact. This feels almost intimate. More than we have ever been before.
Another knock at the door interrupts our moment. I grunt in frustration as Newt mumbles, 'Oh, bloody hell!' I chuckle softly at his reaction as I stand up and move towards the door. On the other side is Chuck and Teresa.
'Hey guys,' I say. Chucks eyes flick between Newt and I, and an embarrassed sheen lights up his face. Teresa however looks between us and grins maniacally. Oh fuck.
'Sorry,' Chuck groans, 'It's just, it's getting late and we're all going to sleep and I assumed Teresa would sleep in your room, so I brought her up here to show her where to go but I didn't realise that you and Newt were talking and…'
'Chuck,' I say to stop the poor boys ramblings. 'Its fine, we were almost done.' I look back at Newt and he smiles a tight smile.
'Yeah,' Newt agrees coming to my side. 'I have to go and check on Alby anyway. I'll see you girls tomorrow, c'mon Chuck.' As the boys leave, I think about our moment and smile.
Chapter 14 - tick! I really liked writing this chapter. Do let me know what you think of the relationships in this fic. Newt/Kira, Thomas/Kira, Kira/Teresa, Kira/any other Glader. Let me know. I love writing this fic and already have plans for the sequel!
Quick thank you to, LadyFantasy13, LuvinYouWasRed and Mystery for their lovely reviews. To answer your question LadyFantasy13, (when you get to this chapter), i hope you like how i introduced and incorporated Thomas!
Anyways, have a good week!
Zoe xx
