You Make My Heart Run In Circles (Thomas x Minho, Newt x Gally)

Chapter 5: A Day In The Slammer

THOMAS'S POV

I wake up (from one of those nights where you know you dreamed but you can't remember it) to light bathing the maze walls. That's when I realize that I fell asleep... on Minho's shoulder. I blush looking at him, still sleeping peacefully. How the hell did we fall asleep here? If nightmares were a place, they would be the maze.

"Minho, get up, we fell asleep," I tell him and he slowly opens his eyes.

"We fell asleep? In the shucking maze?" he asked, clearly just as dumbfounded as I was.

"I don't know how, but we did. Let's go find Alby and get out of here!" I say eagerly. I get up and extend my arm to him to help him up. I blush again and remember holding his hand last night when the Griever was chasing us.

We run through the maze, I follow Minho's lead and every few minutes, he'll look back to make sure I'm alright. I can't help but check out his muscular, athletic body. I remember the way he held me last night, he made me feel safe in a place where we were anything but safe.

After running for about half an hour, we find Alby, still alive but still unconscious. I wonder if the Runners get a day off since they probably assume that me, Minho, and Alby are dead. I haven't seen or heard any Runners in the maze yet. Newt's probably taken over. They'll be so surprised when they see all three of us!

Like last night, Minho takes Alby's legs and I get his arms. It takes about another half hour to get to the doors where we see Newt standing. His face lights up when he sees us and he calls over the other Gladers.

"Don't scare us like that again, Tommy, you broke a rule, but in my book, you did a bloody good job!" Newt grins and goes in for a hug. Chuck is next for hugs, apparently.

"I knew it! I knew you would come out alive!" Chuck says, and with Chuck's hopeful attitude, you just gotta believe the kid.

Time Jump

NEWT'S POV

We gave Alby to the Med Jacks, and they're taking care of him now. Now, the next problem to tackle is the Gathering, a meeting with all the Keepers about what to do with Tommy.

"Tommy, when you're in there, you're gonna have to quiet unless we talk directly to you, can you do that?" I say to him, just before we go in. He nods yes.

We go into a room where all the Keepers are already seated. I take my seat at the front of the room, with Tommy next to me.

"So, we're here to discuss what happened last night when Thomas ran into the maze and if he should be punished. Minho, can you please come up here and tell us what happened last night?" Minho stands up, takes a deep breath, and walks to the front of the room, right next to me.

"After Thomas got his tour, I went into the maze with Alby to show him the dead Griever I found. I thought it was dead. It turns out, that Grievers have learned to play dead. It stung Alby and I tried to carry him out, but I couldn't and that's when Thomas ran in. We got in and he asked if anyone had survived a night in the maze. I told him that no one had ever done that. We heard a Griever and I told him that we had to go but he wouldn't leave without Alby. We tied Alby up to a wall with some vines and we covered him in them, hiding him from the Grievers. I cut a few notches in one of the vines to mark the spot where he was, and then we ran. We turned around to see a Griever following us. Thomas stopped running and I told him to run. He didn't. He saw a closing wall. The Griever started to run at Thomas and he waited a moment then ran. He timed it so that he would make it past the wall, but the Griever would get crushed. This shank killed a shuckin' Griever, saved my life, and saved Alby's life, but you want to punish him for that?! No, I want him to be a Runner," Minho storms back to his seat.