Creators it took forever to get everyone back on track, eating breakfast about an hour late and then shuffling the lot of them off to work an hour after that. Newt's voice actually cracked from yelling so much.

He raised hand to his throat in embarrassed surprise. He cleared his throat awkwardly and glanced sideways to me. He probably didn't appreciate my amused smile, but I couldn't help it. Laughing quietly I wrapped my arm around his and laughed into his shoulder. "Maybe you should stop yelling?" I said.

He grunted, clearing his throat again. And looking down at me. "That was not funny."

Smiling up at him, I replied, "Of course not."

But then the supplies didn't come and that started an uproar.

Once that was settled, I just, collapsed, falling onto Newt with a groan. He wrapped and arm around me, letting me burry my face in his chest. I wrapped my arms around his waist and just hugged him, "I'm so sick of this klunk," i muttered.

"Good that," he muttered, his hands rubbing circles into my lower back. I sighed, moving my arms from around his waist and running my hands up his chest instead, wrapping my arms around his neck instead. I kissed his cheek gently, closing my eyes, "C'mon… we should go help Alby."

"Wait," He said, holding me in place, "You feeling better today?"

I smiled, shrugging, "A little bit," I said, "I'm okay, though… let's go."

I followed behind Newt. Alby had been snappish all day, and well… I set him off more than once today already, so I was airing on the side of caution and keeping my mouth shut for once in my life.

"Hey," Minho was back, "We were just-"

"Get on with it," Alby interrupted, "Ain't got time to waste. Find anything? Anything?"

Minho actually recoiled at the harsh rebuke, though it was more from surprise than anything else, confusion flashed across his face for a moment before he spoke, "Nice to see you too. Yeah, we did find something, actually."

I almost smiled at that, but worry was weighing on me more than I'd like to admit. "Cuz, this whole shuck place is fallin' to pieces." Alby said, seeming almost disappointed. He shot Tommy a glare, like it was all his fault. Which, in and of itself was absurd.

"What do you mean?" Minho asked, "What else happened?"

Newt answered, nodding towards the Box, "Bloody supplies didn't come today. Come every week for two years, same time, same day. But not today."

"Oh we're shucked for good now," Minho said. I nodded in agreement.

"No sun for the plants, no supplies from the Box- Yeah, I'd say we're shucked, all right." Newt said. I turned my gaze to Alby. He'd crossed his arms over his chest and was glaring at the Box as if it were the source of all the weird goings on around here. It was strange for him to be brooding so much.

"Yeah, anyway," Minho continued, "We found something weird."

"What?" Newt asked with raised eyebrows. I looked back to Minho, curious.

He explained how he and Thomas had come across a Griever and followed it to the Cliff, where it had disappeared. They'd started this sort of rock experiment, tossing rocks off of the Cliff until one had disappeared. Minho said it was only a few feet in dimensions, but the Grievers did fit through. "Must lead to where the… ya know… Grievers live," He finished.

"The Griever Hole," Thomas said, the others glared, but I just ignore the comment. Why did everything have to have a buggin' name anyway?"

"Gotta bloody see that for myself," Newt said. Then murmured, "Hard to believe." And I couldn't have agreed more.

"I don't know what we can do," Minho said. "Maybe we could build something to block off that corridor."

"No way," I said, "Those Shuck things can climb the bloody walls, remember? Nothing we could build would keep them out… especially now that the supplies aren't coming."

A commotion outside of the Homestead drew our attention away from the conversation. A group of Gladers stood by the front door, shouting in order to be heard over one another. Chuck was in the group and upon seeing us, he ran over, excitement in his face.

"Whats happened now?" I asked, almost in exasperation.

"She's awake!" Chuck yelled. "The girl's awake!"

Newt and I immediately set off to talk to the girl. Him because… well, that was his job and me, because I was the only other girl here and that might settle her a bit, seeing another girl and not being surrounded by boys.

But, you know what- this is what got me. The Med-Jacks lost her! I was struck by a sudden realization that her escaping was eerily similar to Ben escaping. Newt took off running and I was right behind him, Alby too.

She was with Thomas. Of course she was.

"How in the…" Newt began, staring at Teresa, "How did you get here? Med-Jack said you were there one second and buggin' gone the next."

The girl stood with surprising confidence, I smiled at that, good to know she had some backbone. "Guess he forgot to tell the little part about me kicking him in the groin and climbing out the window."

I laughed, full on laughed out loud despite everything that had just happened I laughed. "Congrats Jeff!" I said.

"You're officially the first guy here to get your butt beat by a girl." Newt laughed, watching as the boy in question turned bright red. I raised an eyebrow, crossing my arms over my chest. He quickly tried to backpedal, scratching the back of his head nervously, "Well ah, one who wasn't you… that it…" he trailed off, "But, you-"

I rolled my eyes, "Shut your yap, 'for you dig yourself a deeper hole."

Alby stepped up. "I'm sick a this," he said pointing at Thomas' chest, "I wanna know who you are, who this shank girl is, and how you two know each other."

"Alby, I swear-" Thomas began.

"She came straight to you after waking up, shuck-face!"

"Alby-" I began, stepping in to defend Thomas.

Newt pulled me back as Alby exploded, "Shuttup, Mac, he can speak for himself!" It was yelled with such animosity I almost didn't recognize him as Alby. I was… shocked.

"So what?" Thomas began, "I know her, she knows me- or at least, we used to. That doesn't mean anything! I can't remember anything. Neither can she."

"What did you do?" Alby said, suddenly turning that animosity onto Teresa. "What did you do!" First the sky, now this."

I sighed the gravity of the situation suddenly sinking in. Newt's hands were still on my arms, he hadn't dropped them after pulling me away from Alby.

"I triggered something," she replied calmly. "Not on purpose, I swear it. The Ending. I don't know what it means."

"What's wrong, Newt? MaC?" Thomas asked, completely bypassing Alby. "What happened?"

Alby grabbed him by the shirt, "What happened? I'll tell ya what bloody happened, shank. Too busy makin' lovey eyes to bother lookin' around? To bother noticing what freaking time it is!"

Tommy glanced at his wrist watch, horror settling into his eyes as he realized.

"The WALLS, you shuck. The Doors. They didn't close tonight."

Alby pointed at the girl. "I want her locked up. Now. Billy! Jackson! Put her in the Slammer, and ignore every word that comes out of her shuck mouth!"

"Alby!" I yelled, he wasn't acting right. No right at all and to be honest it scared the hell outta me.

"Shut up, MaC!" He screamed, his eyes boring into mine, Newt's arms holding me back. "Or I swear I'll throw you in there with her!"

"But-"

"Not another word." It was dangerously low. He meant it. Every last word.

I gave in to Newt's grip, letting him pull away from Alby closer to him.

"You can't possible blame her for the walls not closing," Thomas insisted, casting a helpless look at the dark-haired beauty.

Newt stepped forward, pushing Alby back a step. "How could we not, Tommy? She bloody admitted it herself."

He looked over to me, as if I could magically fix everything. I shook my head, shrugging helplessly, not saying a word. I didn't fancy a night in the Slammer, not when Newt and Minho… and yes even Alby were going to be holed up in the Homestead while the doors were open.

"Just be glad you aint going with her, Thomas," Alby said, glaring at the both of them coldly before leaving.

Billy and Jackson came forwards, grabbing Teresa's arms and escorting her away, but before they reached the trees, Newt stopped them. "Stay with her. I don't care what happens, no one's gonna touch this girl. Swear your lives on it." Did I mention how much I loved that boy?

The two nodded, walking away with Teresa in tow.

The next thirty minutes was chaos caused by mass confusion.

As Newt and Alby gathered the Keepers and put them in charge of making assignments and getting their groups inside the Homestead within the hour. I stood to the side, next to Thomas, not sure how long the 'not-talking' rule was supposed to last.

The Builders- without their leader, Gally, who was still missing- were ordered to put up barricade at each open Door; they obeyed, though we all knew there wasn't enough time or materials to do much good. I think that the Keepers, excluding myself as I was standing to the side like a useless spectator, were just trying to keep everyone calm, trying to delay the inevitable panic attacks. Thomas went to help the Builder while I went in pursuit of Minho and Newt. I was sick of standing around doing nothing.

Newt had said he planned for everyone to sleep in the Homestead that night, and that they'd kill the lights except for emergencies. Frypan was to take all the nonperishable food out of the kitchen and store it in the Homestead, in case they got trapped there. Others gathered supplies and tools, I was helping Minho carry weapons from the basement to the main building. Alby had made it clear we could take no chances; we'd make the Homestead our fortress and do whatever we had to, to defend it.

Thomas had snuck over after a while, helping me to carry a particularly heavy box of knives and barb-wire wrapped clubs. But Minho had said he had a special assignment and more-or-less told us to get lost. He then proceeded to tell me to and I quote 'Shut up and go ask Newt.'

So, I did.

But of course, Thomas was in a hurry to ask him… something. "Newt!" He called out, running after him towards the Blood house. "You have to listen to me!" That approach is never going to work, it just annoys him and then you can't get anything out of him.

"Make it quick," Newt said, a twinge of annoyance in his voice.

"You've gotta let the girl go. Teresa."

I rolled my eyes, walking up to them. "Ah, glad to know you guys are buddies now," Newt said, meeting my eyes and motioning for me to walk with him, "Don't waste my time, Tommy."

Thomas grabbed his arms, "Listen to me! There's something about her- I think she and I were sent here to help end this whole thing."

"Yeah- end it by lettin' the bloody Grievers waltz in here and kill us? I've heard some plans in my day, Greenie, but that's got em all beat." He had a point.

Thomas groaned, "No, I don't think that's what it means- the walls closing."

Newt folded his, looking exasperated. "Greenie, what're you yappin' about?"

"I think… I think we're here as part of some weird experiment, or test, or something like that. But it's supposed to end somehow. We can't live here forever- whoever sent us here wants it to end. One way or another."

I took a deep breath. Newt rubbed his eyes. "And that's supposed to convince me that everything's jolly- that I should let the girl go? Because she came and everything it suddenly do-or-die?"

"No," Thomas said, "You're missing the point. I don't think she has anything to do with us being here. She's just a pawn- they sent her here as our last tool or hint or whatever to help us get out." Tommy took a deep breath. "And they sent me, too. Just because she was the trigger for the Ending doesn't make her bad."

Newt glanced towards the Slammer, "You know what I don't buggin' care right now."

"She can handle a night in there, Tommy," I said, "If anything, shell be safer than us."

"Okay, we get through tonight, somehow. Tomorrow, we have a whole day of safety, we can figure out what to do with her. Figure out what we're supposed to do."

Newt snorted, "Tommy, what's gonna make tomorrow any different? It's been two bloody years, ya know?"

"Because now we have to solve it. We'll be forced to. We can't live that way anymore, day to day, thinking that what matters most is getting back to the Glade before the Doors close, snug and safe."

"Dig deeper," Newt said after a moment, "Stay out there while the walls move."

"Exactly," Thomas said, "That's exactly what I'm talking about. And maybe we could barricade or blow up the entrance to the Griever Hole. Buy some time to analyze the Maze."

"Alby's the one who won't let the girl out," Newt said.

"Alby's not acting like himself," I said quietly, more to Newt than Thomas. Newt nodded, "He's still in charge, and he's not too hot on you three right now. But we just gotta slim ourselves and get to wake-up."

Thomas nodded, "We can fight 'em off."

"Done it before, haven't you, Hercules?" Without smiling or even waiting for a response, Newt walked turned away, his free hand reaching out for me as if to make sure I followed. Which, he really didn't have to do. I'd follow him anywhere. Anywhere