"i'm sorry," he said. "it's my fault this is happening to you."
"We'll find a way," she repeated.
When Thomas falls in love with an immune, will he be able to let her go and send her up to Group A?
All rights go to the brilliant author James Dashn...
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despite her anger towards thomas, she instinctively moved to stand beside him. they looked at each other in a shared fear. the boy with the odd accent hopped down inside, causing the cage to sway and groan under the added weight.
his eyes widened and he stumbled backwards as if he'd just seen a ghost.
"newt," someone called down from above. "am i dreaming or is that really a girl down there with you?"
"well," the boy, newt, ran his hand through his hair stressfully. "you're not dreaming."
hayley looked up, noticing for the first time just how many boys loomed overhead. they didn't look vicious but there were a lot of them and that was terrifying. she suddenly didn't care how angry thomas made her, she never wanted to leave his side because she could trust him a lot more than she trusted the boys above.
"what's your name?" newt asked finally.
"don't talk to her!" someone yelled. "she could be working for the shanks who put us here! she's not one of us. she's a girl."
"slim it!" newt yelled back. "no one assumes anything until we find out more, alright? someone find alby."
"name's newt," he extended his hand out towards them. veins stuck out of his muscled arms.
thomas was the first to shake his hand, and after much thought, hayley grasped his hand.
"where'd ya get that?" newt asked mid-shake, staring at the red ribbon around her wrist.
"i don't know," she pulled her hand back. "but you're not taking it."
newt raised his eyebrows and held up his hands defensively. "alright, calm down. sometimes i forget how clueless the greenbeans are."
someone lowered a rope from above, the end of it tied into a big loop. thomas grabbed onto it and the person holding the rope pulled him up. newt cocked his head to the side, "c'mon no ones gonna hurt ya."
"that's something a dangerous person would say," hayley scoffed.
"would a dangerous person offer you food and a bed?" asked newt, smiling.
"to lure us in," she said. "yeah, probably."
"i like you," newt grinned. "you're charming. do i look dangerous to you?"
she thought about it. "no, but i don't know about whoever is up there."
"look," said newt. "if you come with me i promise no one will hurt you. i'll make sure of it."
hayley knew she couldn't stay in the box forever. there was no bathroom or bed. food probably filled the boxes but she didn't want to spend another minute in the box. it scared her more than whatever faced her up there.
"you can trust me," newt held out his hand for hers. "take a chance."
"okay," she said hesitantly and he pulled her up onto a crate. he helped her with the rope and then she was pulled up too. her eyes immediately found thomas's, feeling relieved to know he was okay. he had the same relief on his face.
a few seconds later newt was out of the box and standing next to her. they were surrounded by boys. as she rotated in a slow circle, they snickered and stared; some reached out and jabbed her with a finger.
there had to be at least fifty of them, their clothes smudged and sweaty as if they'd been hard at work, all shapes and sizes and races, their hair of varying lengths. hayley suddenly felt dizzy, her eyes flickering between the boys and the bizarre place in which she'd found herself.
for the first time, she looked around.
they stood in a vast courtyard several times the size of a football field, surrounded by four enormous walls made of gray stone and covered in spots with thick ivy. the walls had to be hundreds of feet high and formed a perfect square around them, each side split in the exact middle by an opening as tall as the walls themselves that, from what hayley could see, led to passages and long corridors beyond.
"ya' alright?" newt asked worriedly.
"just," she tried to slow down her breathing. "a little overwhelmed."
newt then went on to push the others back, yelling orders at them to get back to work. thomas walked up to her and watched her closely. "hayley?"
it felt like the world was spinning and no matter what she couldn't catch her breath. she bent over, hands on her knees struggling to regulate her breathing. thomas was saying something but she couldn't hear him over the faint buzzing. the edges of her vision began to darken and suddenly her legs couldn't hold her up anymore and she began to fall.
thomas caught her before she could hit the ground.
WICKED kept thomas and hayley for awhile before they sent them up because they were deciding what to do with them since thomas betrayed them.
which is why newt was able to literally jump into the box, his leg had time to heal in that time frame.
