Survive Till Dusk (The Maze Runner)

Chapter 45 // New(t) Beginnings

*Scarlett's P.O.V.*

After leaving my mom to tend to the other injured Right Arm members, I set out to find Newt. I finally spotted him, right after he had left Thomas' tent. 

However, before I had the chance to approach him, Gally and Frypan beat me to it. I stood back, watching as Frypan pulled Newt into a friendly hug and Gally gave him a pat on the back. It didn't take too long before the two boys were off again. As Newt made his way to the piers, I quickly caught up to him.

"Hey there, stranger!" I chirped. 

He turned around, giving me a small, slightly tired smile. "Long time no see, eh?" 

Chuckling at the absurdity of the entire situation, I pulled him into a friendly hug.

It felt strange having him back. The shock of seeing him die— or at least that's what we thought had happened — along with the grief I had felt over losing a friend, made suddenly having him back feel so surreal. 

Pulling away, we both gazed over the sparkling blue waters that surrounded us. After we had been rescued from WICKED and had left the city, Vince had flown us to an abandoned port on the West Coast. On our way there, we had passed the remains of a giant bridge that I had recognized from one of the many trips I had taken with my mother as a child— the Golden Gate Bridge.

Newt and I sat on two rusty metal barrels that had been washed up on the shore. He seemed to be deep in thought as he continued to sit there in silence, simply staring at the waves that lapped the shoreline. I watched him for a few moments, before I decided to speak. 

"It's nice, isn't it? Not being surrounded by sand, that is."

"Hmhm, it is nice," he hummed absentmindedly from beside me, his eyes still fixed on the water, as his mind wandered.

"Newt," I called out softly. The way in which he had answered my questions told me that there was something else on his mind — something more important than the pretty water around us.

"Hmm...?" he asked, snapping back to our conversation.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" I asked carefully, not wanting to intrude. "Because you know what they say: a burden shared is a burden halved."

For a moment, I thought he wasn't going to talk, before he finally glanced back up at me. "Everything feels so strange. I mean, why me? I shouldn't even be here... I should be dead for Christ's sake. All this shit I've put you through..."

"Newt," I stopped him, gently placing my hand on his arm. "This was all WICKED's s fault. None of this is on you, okay?"

"I should have told you! Maybe that way all, or at least some of it, could have been prevented. All these deaths..."

"No, no... Newt, listen to me. The moment WICKED put you in that maze, the moment they were willing to risk your life for their own purpose, that's when this all started. None of this is your fault, okay? You were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time. WICKED used you as their pawn and there was nothing you could've done about it — none of us could."

"Even if ALL of this wasn't my fault, I should've told you about what was going on. I chose to lie and keep secrets from you, and look where that got us. I just caused more grief." He trailed off and, for a few more moments, we just sat there in forlorn silence.

"I-" He hesitated, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath before continuing. "It was the worst feeling you can imagine, worse than any pain; losing myself, feeling pieces of me slip away, feeling it eat me alive. It was consuming me, changing me, and there was nothing I could do — nothing anyone could do."