surrender to the sound

you stupid shank

The Safe Haven - Thomas

Thomas pulled a load of wood over to where Gally and Minho stood. It was heavy and the sun beating down on him had him moving slowly across the beach.

"What so you can take over an organization that ruled the world, but pulling a case of wood is difficult?" Gally said sarcastically. Minho elbowed him in the side.

The lunch bell rang so Gally and Minho took off to the make shift lunch hall, made out of tarps and wood walls. Thomas followed slowly.

By the time he got there, Minho and Gally had sat down with Brenda, Harriet and Miyoko. They seemed to be discussing something important.

He got a bowl of stew from Frypan, then sat down.

They continued their conversation, but Thomas wasn't listening, he was thinking about the necklace again. Newt's necklace.

"Are you in, Thomas?" Brenda asked, with a grin. Thomas hadn't listened to a word any of them had said.

"For what?" He asked.

"A competition. Harriet, Miyoko and I are building huts on the east side and you, Minho and Gally are building on the west. Whoever gets them all done and ready for living gets to make the other their bitches for a month." Brenda said, a grin plastered on her face.

"So that means you three idiots will be at our hand and foot for a month." Harriet said, motioning with her spoon towards the boys.

"Sure." Thomas said, he really couldn't care less about a bet, but it might help him take his mind off of things. Things being Newt.

"I'll have you know I was a builder in the glade. I built some pretty cool stuff." Gally said.

"Yeah, but we're stronger, and better." Miyoko said, shoving a spoon of Frypan's stew in her mouth. "But I will say something you boys had better in maze. Frypan and his stew. This is the best thing I've ever tasted. Other than the pizza from that feast WCKD gave us after we beat you guys out of the maze."

"So it's settled then? You guys are willing to get your asses kicked?" Brenda asked. 

"Sure." Thomas said, shovelling a spoonful of stew into his mouth.

So far they had been there about two and a half weeks. Like any civilization, it was going to take them awhile to build up resources and places to sleep. Vince made a guess they would be done building all the shelters by the 2 month mark, as long as everyone pitched in.

So everyone was, including Thomas, who had absolutely no fucking idea how to build anything, and was just waiting for some sort of magical guide to pull down from above and help him.

He listened to their nonsense arguing, over who was stronger, faster, and able to get more women. Miyoko believed she had that last one in the bag.

Either way, the arguing led to proving these things, and Harriet, Brenda, Miyoko, Minho and Gally ended up leaving the lunch hall, to go down to the beach to test who was stronger and faster.

"Hey, Thomas." A familiar accented voice pulled him from his stew, which he was enjoying thoughtlessly.

"Hey, Son." Thomas said, and continued to eat. She sat down across from him with a bowl of stew.

"Did you see those idiots down by the beach? Testing out who was faster?" She said. She reminded him so much of Newt.

"Yeah. Who's winning?" Thomas asked.

"Brenda and Minho are tying last I saw." She replied.

"Minho's fast.. but Brenda doesn't like to loose."

Thomas finished his lunch, and gave his bowl to Fry, before going out to the beach. He sat down on a log, watching Gally and Harriet arm wrestle.

Thomas soon realized not having something to do to distract him was a nightmare.

Getting to The Safe Haven should've been a blessing, but to Thomas, it was nothing but an excuse for his guilty conscience to run wild.

Thomas couldn't stop thinking about all the people he lost and the things he could've done to protect them.

He could've pulled Chuck out of the way. Or better yet taken the bullet for him.

He could've used his blood to cure Winston. Sure they would have needed Mary's doctoring attention and help, but he could've given him blood until they got there.

He could've grabbed Teresa. He could've pulled her onto the berg. Even though he would've had trouble forgiving her, he didn't want her to die.

He could've done so much for Newt. He could've given him his blood, he could've helped him. As soon as he found out about the flare, he felt like he should've done so much more.

Even though he knew Minho would hit him upside the head for thinking like that and tell him 'you did everything you could, you stupid shank.' He still thought about it almost daily.

He picked himself up and went to the place where they were building another hut, and starting pulling wood.

***

The tarp ceiling of the hut that Minho, Frypan, Gally and Thomas were currently sharing has turned into a fascinating thing during the late nights.

Most nights ended up with Thomas unable to sleep due to overthinking, which led to complete and utter exhaustion the next day. It was a cycle Thomas had yet to beat.

He traced the outline of the sewed together tarps, as most were ripped when the group found them. His mind wandered to Newt, and he was grasping onto Newt's necklace yet again.

He could hear rustling from the corner of the room, and out the corner of his eye could see one of the gladers getting up and leaving the hut. Probably to go to the bathroom.

When they came back, Thomas looked up to see Minho, tired eyes and his hair messy staring at him.

"Ya alright, Shank?" He whispered. Thomas nodded. He didn't feel like speaking.

Minho didn't like that answer however, and crawled into Thomas' bed with him. Thomas hoped these things could hold, but Gally was pretty confident in his bed building skills.

Minho wrapped his arms around Thomas' head, pulling him tightly to his chest. Thomas wrapped his arms around Minho's waist.

"You don't gotta be so tough all the time, you Slinthead. Let us take care of you for once." Minho said into his ear.

Thomas nodded and closed his eyes.