Her (Newt fan fiction/The Kill Order sequel)

Chapter 14 - Back To The Start

Newt woke early again, to a dark swirled grey sky looming above him. He groaned; a storm was coming, which meant disruption to everything. He sat up sharply at the sudden sound of someone carelessly stepping on a twig and snapping it, and glanced around. The noise had come from outside, as Thomas and Minho were still fast asleep. Knowing he wouldn't get back to sleep now, Newt walked out into the fresh air.

It was freezing! He shivered as he pulled a soft jacket around him, but stopped when a blur of golden caught his eye.

What was going on?

He thought, confused.

His instincts clicked into action, and he said quietly,

"Is someone there?"

Sealed inside his chest, where it had been for so long, Newt's heart started to beat faster. It had taken him years but he'd built up a wall, so no-one could hurt him, that if he lost someone, he'd be okay. And within weeks of Marley arriving, it had shattered, and he was just the lonely afraid young kid he'd been in the maze.

He'd gone back to trusting and feeling his emotions, just like in the maze.

Just like in the maze, when he'd climbed the walls of the maze and jumped.

The wind rippled in his messy hair, and he raked a hand through it. There was still no answer, and he was about to go and wake Minho; this was weird.

Without knowing it, he had walked all the way to the center of the settlement, and he stood there now, taking in once more the entrancing surroundings.

Marley had been right; he was lucky. He wasn't like his friends - Thomas, who'd lost Teresa, and Newt knew what that had done to him. He hadn't been fried in the scorch like Minho, who had blackened scars to prove it. He had just found Marley, and he should be ecstatic. Yet his heart ached in way he couldn't explain.

Suddenly, the wind turned and Newt lost his balance for a split second, scraping his arm on a thorny bush who's arms flailed in the gust of wind.

That was nothing; Newt retched violently as the pungent, repulsive stench of death poisoned the fresh sea air...

What the hell was it coming from?

He was too confused for his head to make sense of any of it, and the smell overpowered everything. It was like the bodies of 100 long dead humans smelt, and Newt had a sudden memory.

The darts hit over 20 people, and some died instantly. Others just collapsed. He'd just missed two, and the village was in a frenzy.

Twenty minutes later and there was a large and still growing pile of corpses sitting outside the village, the smell so strong they had to cover their noses and mouths at all times.

He was unnerved by the flashback, but it wasn't the time to think about it now.

It had gone cold, too - and the wind still whipped around Newt in a rage. People were coming out of their sleeping areas with cloths over their mouths and noses, and Newt followed their gazes, their horrified voices and pointing, to the west of the island.

The source of the stench, was, of course, a large pile of human corpses.

Of course.