Hi all! A new chapter is here! I am very excited for you all to read this!
So without further ado, here is chapter 6!
Thomas hurried towards Newt's tent. As he began ascending the hill, his strides quickened as his feet firmly pressed against the incline. His brow glistened with beads of sweat, as he quickly raced against time.
"Time that Newt might not have." Thomas thought, almost stumbling at the reality of his situation.
Thomas shook away his intrusive thoughts as he continued to stride. Once Newt's tent was in sight, his determination grew stronger. He was driven by the sheer will to save his best friend's life, even though he had been told by everyone that it was impossible.
What made matters worse, was that he had no idea of how to save Newt's life.
But that wouldn't stop him. The world around him seemed to blur, but he narrowed his vision, focused solely on reaching Newt in time.
After a relentless pursuit, Thomas finally reached Newt's tent. Without a moment's hesitation, he swiftly entered the tent, his heart pounding with anticipation.
He was not ready for the horrible sight that greeted him.
Newt was consumed by restlessness. Despite his body shaking, his eyes remained tightly shut. He violently twisted and turned as if his subconscious mind was engaged in a tense struggle. Gasping for air, he struggled to draw in deep breaths, followed by exhales that were feeble and strained. His limbs thrashed with fervor, as if desperately reaching for something that was just beyond his grasp.
Thomas froze, paralyzed from the dreadful sight that laid before him. Thomas knew Newt's body must be fighting against his illness, yet had no idea how to help him.
But he had to do something.
He watched Alby get killed by the grievers.
He watched Chuck get shot by Gally.
He let Winston shoot himself in the head.
He watched Teresa fall to her death as the burning building crumbled to the ground.
He wasn't going to stand around and watch Newt die too, not if he could do something about it.
Thomas snapped out of his thoughts and ran closer to Newt's side. His voice trembled as he called out to Newt, desperately trying to rouse him from his restless sleep. "Newt, wake up!" He pleaded.
When there was no response, Thomas reached out and gently shook Newt, hoping to jolt him back to consciousness. But when Newt remained lost in his troubled dreams, Thomas shook him more vigorously, urgently calling out his name.
Thomas's senses heightened as he noticed the flurry of activity towards the entrance of the tent. Harriet and Minho had rushed into the room, their faces engulfed with strained worry. Aris and Sonya entered quickly behind them, their faces holding the same expression.
However, their presence faded into the background as Thomas directed his focus solely back onto Newt, who seemed to be getting paler by the second. Ignoring the commotion around him, Thomas pressed on, desperate to awaken Newt. Thomas pleaded, begging Newt to wake up, while he continued to shake him persistently.
"That won't work, Thomas!" Harriet's voice rang out, as she forcefully grasped his arms and pulled them off of Newt.
Before Thomas could reach back, Aris stepped in. He asserted himself with a strong push towards Thomas, creating more space between Thomas and Newt. "Everyone except Sonya, stay back! Let the medjacks handle this!"
Aris' voice resonated with a newfound authority that silenced the chaos. The unusual display of aggressiveness from Aris caught Thomas and the others off guard. Momentarily stunned, Thomas, along with Harriet, and Minho quickly recognized the seriousness in Aris' demeanor and stepped back, allowing him and Sonya to take the lead.
As Thomas observed the two, he saw Sonya acting swiftly. She grabbed a small flashlight from a nearby table and directed its beam onto Newt's eyes. Simultaneously, Aris took hold of Newt's hand seemingly taking Newt's pulse.
"He has no reaction!" Sonya shouted towards Aris. Despite not fully understanding the meaning of her words, Thomas sensed their significance when Aris' eyes widened at her statement. Helplessness washed over Thomas. He hated being confined to the role of a passive observer. He wished he could do something to help Newt.
In an instant, Thomas shifted his gaze back to Sonya, noticing her rise in panic. "He hasn't responded to anything I do!" She shouted towards Aris, looking to him for help. Thomas noticed her breaths grow more jagged as she spoke. "It's as if he's trapped in some kind of trance!"
Thomas exchanged a glance with Aris, but Aris quickly pulled his eyes away and refocused them back on Sonya. With a disheartened expression, he gently lowered Newt's arm. "His pulse is weak and unchanging. Sonya, this is not a good sign."
As the weight of the situation pressed upon the room, a medical tool slipped from Sonya's trembling hands, clattering against a nearby table. Frustration seemed to tinge her voice as she spoke, "I know it's not good, Aris!" Sonya's forehead glistened with sweat, which she hastily wiped away. "I don't understand what's happening! Typically, he remains still!" Aris quickly went over to her and put a hand on her shoulder. She took a deep breath, seeming to sense her own franticness and attempted to calm down. "This is far from normal, Aris. He is normally calm, almost peaceful." The worry in her eyes mirrored the growing unease gripping the tent.
Thomas turned his gaze towards Harriet and Minho, noticing their intense fixation on Sonya and Aris. They, too, were trapped in a state of weakness from being unable to contribute meaningfully. The room began to fill with an overwhelming sense of panic, accentuated by the gradual weakening of Newt's breaths. Minho and Harriet, consumed by their own anxieties, began to voice a flurry of questions and observations, when Aris and Sonya seemed to be stuck.
"What are you guys going to do? Look at him!"
"Is he dreaming?"
"He is barely breathing! Do something!"
"Can you wake him up?"
"You have to work faster!"
"What is happening to him?"
"Will he survive?!"
Thomas said nothing. He remained fixated on his dying friend, feeling paralyzed by the weight of his helplessness.
Eventually the questions made Minho's frustration reach its boiling point. "Aris, look at him!" Minho gestured to Newt's weakening state. "You medjacks should have fixed him by now! Why is he so restless?!"
Aris didn't look up at him but spoke. "Minho, you are distracting me," he said in an aggressive tone. "Look, I don't know yet. You just have to trust me." He went back to his notes.
"You don't know yet?! And I'm just supposed to trust that he'll be okay?! You better know soon, you shank! I will not have my best friend die because you don't know!"
"Minho, your frustration is only making things worse!" Aris exclaimed. "We need to stay calm in order to think clearly and help Newt!"
Harriet swiftly stepped in, her presence a much-needed anchor amidst the mounting turmoil. "Stop! Both of you!" She shouted, her voice carried a firm yet soothing tone as she sought to break up the tension. But Minho would not calm down. In an outburst of frustration, he forcefully kicked a chair, causing it to topple over with a resounding crash.
A sudden hush fell over the tent as Sonya's voice cut through the commotion. "Guys! He's speaking!" she exclaimed, her words commanding the attention of everyone present.
The tent fell into a sudden silence, each person awaiting Newt's words with bated breath.
"Stop," Newt pleaded, his voice weak, and trembling. The words that followed were devoid of coherence, fragmented and scattered as they slipped from his lips. "No, don't touch her!" He gasped, those words louder than the rest. The urgency in his voice tugged at Thomas's heart, pushing him to extract meaning from Newt's scattered words.
Thomas looked down to see Minho's fists clench. "Shuck! He's speaking utter nonsense!" Minho exclaimed, his disbelief laced with irritation. "Who is 'her'? I don't even think Newt knows any girls!"
Harriet's voice rose in response. "Of all things, that's what you decide to bring up?!" she shouted, clearly exasperated.
"I'm just trying to make sense of it!" Minho defended. "He's clearly not in the right state of mind. It's all nonsensical!"
Aris, who looked more weary and resigned by the minute, released a sigh. "Minho has a point," he conceded. "Newt's mind is clouded. Engaging in this debate won't bring us closer to understanding his condition." Thomas could feel the weight of their helplessness bore down on the room, overshadowing any attempts to make sense of Newt's words.
Newt's body continued to thrash about. Every fiber of Thomas' being screamed for him to take action, to do something that would help Newt. But what could he do? He wasn't a medjack and had no experience healing people. In fact, he was usually the one getting healed.
"Aris we got to do something!" Sonya shouted as she ran to hold Newt down. She turned over Newt's arm to reveal his veins. Thomas gasped when he saw them. The veins were a haunting shade of black, that snaked all the way up his arms. As Aris and Sonya continued to shout orders at one another, Thomas tuned them out, focusing solely on Newt's veins. He had seen them before. Of course! Newt still had The Flare.
"Aris! I don't know what to do!" Sonya's voice snapped Thomas out of his thoughts. "I have been giving him the serum but it seems like his body is rejecting it!" Thomas looked closer at Newt and realized Sonya was right. Newt was spitting up blue liquid each time he coughed. "Not only that," Sonya continued. "His body has seemed to stop healing entirely!"
"Stopped healing?" Aris questioned, a mix of confusion and alarm spread across his face. "I thought the serum was supposed to act like a cure!"
Cure.
The word sent Thomas' mind spiraling to a halt. The other's voices faded away into the back of his mind, each sentence getting quieter than the last.
"Aris, what do I do? You've been a medjack longer than me!"
"Sonya, I know you want to help him, but I don't know if there is anything we can do."
Thomas instinctively reached into his pocket, his fingers searching until they grasped a small vial. With a swift motion, he brought it up to his eyes, peering closely at its contents—a familiar thick, viscous blue liquid. The cure!
"Sonya," Thomas called out, but his voice seemed to go unnoticed amidst the chaos. He tried again, this time raising his volume. "Sonya!" he repeated, his tone laced with urgency, but both she and Aris remained fully engrossed by Newt's condition. Feeling the weight of the moment, Thomas raised his voice to a shout, breaking through the din in the tent. "SONYA!" The force behind his cry pierced the room, and the medjacks quickly silenced. The attention of the room instantly fell upon him.
"Would the cure help?!" Thomas exclaimed, holding up the vial in his hands, his eyes locked with Sonya's.
The room stayed in silence, broken only by the faint sounds of Newt's labored breathing. All eyes were fixed on Sonya as tears streamed down her cheeks. But she seemed to pay no attention to the others, and swiftly wiped her tears away. With a new sense of hope in her eyes, she quickly took the cure from Thomas' hands and rushed to a nearby drawer. Her hands trembled as she searched frantically, finally retrieving a syringe. The tension in the air thickened as Thomas and the others looked on, unsure of the implications of Sonya's actions.
Before anyone could protest, Sonya searched for a vein in Newt's arm and injected the cure into his body. Almost instantaneously, Newt's restless movements ceased, and he laid still once more.
Aris stared at Thomas in shock. "Cure?" He spoke up. "I thought those didn't exist."
"Thomas," Harriet's voice trembled, her eyes fixed on the now empty vial. "Where did you get that?"
Then, suddenly, the flaps of the tent burst open. Gally, Brenda, and Frypan burst in, puzzled by all the stunned faces.
"What the hell is happening here, Greenie?!" Gally demanded, his voice breaking the silence of the room. "First, we hear tons of commotion, and now you all look like you've seen a ghost!"
"Thomas..." Sonya began, her voice shaky. "He...he has a cure."
Frypan's mouth gaped. The words that followed were barely a whisper. "Where did you get that, Thomas?"
Brenda started to speak, but her words caught in her throat, her disbelief evident on her face.
"No he can't–" Brenda cut herself off. "That's not possible."
"Yes...it is," Thomas replied with a soft voice. "In fact, it was used to cure you."
Thomas could feel everyone's attention shift between him and Brenda.
"Mary made it without knowing, and Teresa…" Thomas trembled. "She was able to recreate it before…before her…"
"Thomas, how do you even know it works?" Gally angrily interrupted. Ejecting an untested cure into someone could have dangerous side effects or even—"
"Or even what?" Minho interjected, his tone resolute. "Kill him?" Minho took a breath. "If you haven't noticed, Newt was already dying, Gally. Look, I might be the one who despised Teresa the most! After all, she betrayed me and tortured me for months! But let's face it: she was a scientist, and a damn good one at that. So, if Thomas says she made a cure, then I believe him."
Thomas nodded at Minho, glad that his best friend agreed with him.
Brenda furrowed her brow. "But how can we be sure?"
Minho's gaze softened as he positioned himself in the center of the tent, seemingly to ensure that everyone's eyes were fixed on him. "I'm choosing hope. Brenda, you are living proof that a cure has worked before, and none of us realized! This is Newt's last chance. Before tonight, I thought I'd have to say goodbye. But now, I have something to believe in again. If it even gives us the smallest chance of bringing my best friend back, it's worth the risk…and the consequences."
"Okay," Gally nodded his head. "If you believe in the cure, then I do too."
The room nodded, and filled with agreements. Everyone acknowledged the fragile hope that Minho's words had ignited. If there was even a chance to get Newt back, they would take it and believe in it. Thomas and the others all embraced each other in comforting hugs and offered reassuring pats on the backs.
As Thomas leaned in for a warm bear-hug from Frypan, he couldn't help but notice Sonya's hesitance. Her eyes were fixed on Newt, searching for any last glimmer of improvement. But, when she didn't seem to find one, she let out a quiet sigh.
"At least he's calm now," Sonya whispered so softly that only Thomas caught her words. She then glanced up at Thomas and the rest of the group, her expression transforming into a hopeful look. "I'm sorry, guys. I injected the cure without waiting for everyone's approval. But everyone seemed to think that there was no hope, and I wasn't ready to give up. Now, we have a reason to hope again! I don't know if it will work, I don't even know how a cure is possible, but I will watch him every day and try everything I can to save him."
"Thanks, Sonya," Thomas said, a genuine smile spreading across his face. While he may not have known Sonya that well, he couldn't help but admire her deep sense of compassion and unwavering willingness to help others. It struck a chord with him, reminding him of someone else – Newt. The same caring nature that Sonya possessed had been a defining quality of his best friend.
As he looked at Sonya, he realized that she embodied the very essence of what made Newt special. If she shared even a fraction of Newt's compassion and selflessness, then he knew without a doubt that Newt would be in the best possible hands.
The others started to disperse, leaving Sonya and Aris to tend to Newt. Thomas reluctantly tore his gaze away from Newt, who lay still and peaceful. With a heavy heart, he followed suit, but not before stealing one last look at his best friend, silently hoping that this would not be their final goodbye.
Throughout the night, Thomas found himself consumed by thoughts of Newt. Each passing moment only heightened his worry. He desperately wished for the morning to come soon, eager to check on Newt's condition and find him awake and well.
However, the night was not merciful to Thomas. Hours passed with restlessness, and sleep remained lost. His mind was a tumultuous storm of concerns, memories, and hopes for Newt's recovery. Every time he closed his eyes, the image of Newt lying motionless haunted him, causing him to snap awake again.
The night seemed endless as Thomas tossed and turned, caught in an unrelenting cycle of anxiety and anticipation. He yearned for the first light of day, a glimmer of hope that might bring news of Newt's improvement.
By the time the morning light finally crept into the room, Thomas had become weary and bleary-eyed. But even in his exhausted state, his eagerness to be by Newt's side did not waver. The sleepless night had only strengthened his resolve, and he knew he would not rest until he saw Newt awake and well again.
Will Teresa's cure heal Newt? Find out soon! Please leave your predictions and thoughts in the comments below! I will see you all soon with a new chapter!
-23LucyGrace
