The Inventor

Chapter Twenty Six; "Better than being sober"

     You woke up lying awkwardly on the table, Gally passed out in your chair a few feet away with a little bit of drool leaking from his mouth. From there you spent the morning nursing a hangover, hobbling around on your crutches while Gally went off like nothing happened. Nothing was said, now having established a friendship that only blossomed when you were drunk and other than that you were just acquaintances.

     You didn't have a choice of what to do, knowing if you didn't get back to work today then Nick would follow through with his word. Considering that you stabbed him you wouldn't count on him giving you any room for error.

     You kept it dark in the room to help your headache, rolling around in your chair as you robotically repaired things that were dropped off for you to fix. You swear it was like your mind was filled with a haze that wasn't from the hangover, it was dull and diminishing, nothing was going on. You had a feeling it wouldn't be long before you had another jar of moonshine with Gally just to get rid of the lifeless feeling.

     Newt came storming in as you were in the middle of making another griever caller, you didn't even bother to look up, just waited for him to talk.

     "You're hungover!" He stated accusingly.

     "Yup."

     "You drank alcohol!"

     "Three jars full, could have downed a fourth but I passed out."

     "You can't- why did you- Y/n!"

     You cracked your neck, it started to hurt from hunching over so much, "What?"

     "You can't just get drunk!" He scolded.

     You snorted, "Better than being sober."

     He sat down on a stool, staring at you, "Was it because Nick came in and bothered you? By the way, you stabbed him, you remember that? I mean good on you but you can't just stab people!"

     "It's worked out great so far," You pointed out, "He gave me permission to."

     "What did he say?" Newt pushed.

     "Probably everything he does in the gatherings," You shrugged.

     "Then that's the stuff that's not true," He said confidently.

     You didn't feel uplifted by this, you couldn't find it in you to care, "Whatever keeps you going."

     "Don't worry about what he said," Newt continued, "You don't need to work if you're not ready, you're doing great."

     "Right," You muttered tiredly, just wanting to get the day over with and go to sleep.

     It was quiet for so long that you forgot he was there, only remembering when he set down a water bottle for you.

     He tugged your sleeve, stopping you from working. You looked up at him for the first time since he arrived.

     "I meant it," He told you, "You're a rockstar, been spitting out genius since day one."

     "I know."

     "Good," He let you go, "So I'll come by and drop off dinner, yeah? You missed out on breakfast today. I'll tell ya' bout the secret weapons room that's getting built, going to keep a lot of your more dangerous inventions there."

     "Can't wait," You muttered, looking back to what you were supposed to be doing.

     Only for a few more minutes did he hang around before leaving. You continued, feeling like a robot, barely moving from your seat.

Present Day
     With Chuck's help everything got down into the underground workshop, everything separated into small boxes, you told him to keep his hands off of the chemicals and to stay in the bunker while you went to find Newt.

     You sprinted out, happy to have put on the more durable brace, searching through the crowd piling into the hogsmeade for Newt.

     You caught him corralling people at the entrance, gripping his arm and forcefully pulling him aside.

     "What? What?!" He asked frantically.

     "Come hideout in the bunker," You insisted, "it will be safer then the hogsmeade and has just enough room for Chuck, you and me. It's one of the safest places in this glade."

     "No, no! I can't just leave Alby and Thomas and everyone there without someone to actually lead them!" He protested.

     "It won't do any good if their leader is dead," You pointed out, "you can bring Thomas or Alby if you need to, we could fit four if we really need!"

     "No, I'm not leaving everyone!" He insisted.

     You heard grievers scream from the maze, so close you could almost feel it in your bones.

     "Please Newt, if you die here I swear-" You warned.

     "I'm not!" He promised, "I won't. Go take care of Chucky boy and build something to help us out here!"

     There was no more time left to convince him, if you wanted to get back and in the bunker safely you had to go now. You let go of his wrist and instead gripped his shoulders with a death hold.

     "You die on me, I will bring you back to life and kill you again," You swore.

     "Yeah, yeah, just get going you buggin loon."

     You paused, gritting your teeth and letting him go, making sure he was safely back to his position in guiding the crowd before running back to the workshop.

     The door slammed behind you and you made a straight shot to the cupboard where you stored the food but stopped dead when there was someone standing in your way.

     You blinked, utterly surprised at the boy standing, alive, in front of you.

     "Gally?" You questioned, "What are you doing here?! Get to the hogsmeade!"

     "Give me five minutes to talk," He said, struggling to get it out, "Believe me when I say you need to hear it."

     "Hurry!" You pressured him.

     "They'll kill one a day," He began, "one a day until there's no one left. It's his fault, Thomas did this!"

     "Slow down, shank and explain!" You interrupted, "Explain, you know I have the sense to listen."

     "The maze can't be solved!" He yelled, you could see he was struggling to get words out, it almost seemed to hurt him, "No one cares about what happened Y/n, they want to remember! They shouldn't remember! You have to run, they want you, they can control us! You have codes, you were never one of them, it won't be your fault."

     A griever screech sounded and he ran to the door in a flash.

     "Aye!" You yelled, "Gally, stay in the bunker, explain more."

     He forced out a horribly crooked and pained grimace, "Can't do that, time to die, not for you."

     He left and you were tempted to follow, to force him to tell you more but you had a feeling he already said too much to you.

     "Y/n!" You heard Chuck yell.

     You checked out the window once more and saw him making a break for the hogsmeade right as the first griever found its way to the glade. You drew the curtain back over the glass and took a box of food, tossing it down the stairs, you followed right after. You latched the door shut above you, muffling the sound of another griever.

     Chuck sat safely on your bed, clutching a pillow that you kept down here for him. You wish you could do the same but you had only a few days to make weapons, you intended to use every last minute of them.

     It was going to be an incredibly long night.