I Promise | The Maze Runner

Chapter 11: Goodbye ✔️

Bang!

I sit up and look around, confused.

"Winston?! Are you okay?!" Minho yells, looking towards the teen.

I get up as Thomas and Teresa run out of nowhere. "What happened?!" Thomas yells.

"He just woke up and grabbed the gun and tried to..." Fry's voice trails off as he holds up the gun. He doesn't need to finish, we all know.

"Winston, you good?" Thomas asks, taking a step towards Winston.

Thomas steps back as Winston starts coughing. Black blood comes out of his mouth as he flops onto the ground. "It's growing...inside me." He whispers, his voice low. He slowly lifts up his shirt to reveal the black veins and black blood over his abdomen. "I'm not going to make it...please, please, don't let me turn into one of those...things."

There's a pause, nobody daring to say or do anything. The blonde steps towards Fry, taking the gun from him. He walks over to Winston.

"Whoa, wait." Thomas whispers, but the blonde ignores him.

The blonde places the gun in Winston's hands. "Thank you." Winston whispers, his voice barely audible. "Now...get outta here."

"Goodbye...Winston." Blonde whispers before standing up and grabbing his backpack. He glances back at Winston and I can see the tears in his eyes. With that, the blonde walks away, not looking back.

Everybody, slowly and sadly, picks up their bags and says their goodbyes to Winston before walking away. I glance over to Winston. "Bye." I say quietly before grabbing my bag and walking away, leaving Thomas and Winston to say their goodbyes. 

I follow the rest over a sand dune when a gunshot echos through the silence. All of us stop, knowing what it was. We all stay silent for a minute before continuing. 

-----

Aris lays some more wood into the fire as we all stay silent, looking into the flames.

"I thought we were supposed to be immune." Minho says, looking up.

"Not all of us." Teresa says before adding, "I guess." like an afterthought. 

"If Winston can get infected, I say we should assume all of us can get infected." Blonde speaks up after a moment of silence.

"I never thought I'd say it...but I miss the Glade." Fry says, glancing around.

Everybody stays silence for a few minutes. "We should get some sleep." Thomas says, picking up his jacket. "We have more walking tomorrow."

Everybody agrees and lays down. Something stops me from being able to sleep so I just continue looking into the fire, thinking about today. I don't realise somebody sits next to me until they cough. I snap out of my daze and look to see the blonde boy sitting next to me.

"Hey, sorry...what were you saying?" I say, a little embarrassed.

"I wanted to say 'thanks' about earlier. You know, how you kinda saved me from the crank." The boy says.

"Oh, yeah. Your welcome." I say with a smile.

"I'm Newt." He says, holding his hand out.

I shake his hand. "Spencer."

We sit in silence for a few seconds, looking into the fire. "Can I trust you with something?" I ask, glancing at Newt.

He looks over at me and nods. "Anything."

"When we were back in the mall I...when the cranks were chasing us..." I try to form sentences, but can't figure out how to word it. I sigh, giving up. "I should just show you." I roll up the sleeve of my shirt a little before extending my arm towards Newt.

He takes my hand and turns it over, seeing the teeth mark on my hand. "You got bit." He says, quietly, running his thumb against the scar.

"I didn't say anything because it didn't make sense." I say, looking back towards the fire. "Winston dies, but I...she's fine."

Newt looks at me confused. "She's fine? What do you mean?"

"The crank." I say, glancing back at Newt. "The crank, she's fine."

Newt bites his lip before rolling up his own sleeve. I see the black veins start to go up his arm.

"I've had it since we were at WICKED. I didn't tell anybody 'cause I didn't know what it was." He says, looking down at his arm. "Now I know." He adds quietly.

"I think we can correctly say I'm immune and you aren't." I say, quietly. He doesn't say anything, but nods.

Newt rolls down his sleeve as a brunette boy stands up and walks over to us. "Here, Newt." He says, throwing Newt a water bottle. "I'm Jesse, by the way." He says to me.

"Spencer." I reply, not fully paying attention.

"Oh, yeah. The blonde over there's Evan." Newt says, pointing to the other blonde boy in the group. "I think you know everybody else."

We stay quiet for a minute before Newt hands the water bottle back to Jesse. Jesse walks back over to his spot and sits down, getting ready to go back to sleep.

"I didn't know Winston very well, but...he seemed like a cool guy." I say, quietly.

Newt nods. "He was." He agrees quietly. 

"Tell me about your maze." I say, glancing away from the fire to look Newt.

"The Glade." He says with a small smile. "It actually was a beautiful place if you didn't think about the hundred foot walls surrounding it." He says before glancing up at me. "What about yours?"

"We called it the Cove. It was kinda like an island..whatever an island is." I say with a light laugh. I stop and look into the fire. "If we could get our memories back, would you?"

There's a silence from Newt. I look over to make sure he's still with me. He looks deep in thought. "Maybe." He says, quietly. "I don't know if I want to know what happened before the maze, but at the same time...I do."