𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐅 𝐀 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓 - 𝘋𝘌𝘈𝘛𝘏 𝘊𝘜𝘙𝘌

3 ~ furious

Lottie

"There! Look!"

We all crowded around the window, nearly trampling Frypan, who had been the one who made the announcement. We peered down at the ground in hopes to see Newt captured in the beam of light shining from our Berg, but all we saw were trees.

"What is it?" Thomas questioned.

"Go back a little!" Frypan instructed Jorge, who was up front controlling the aircraft. He slowed down, and began to circle back to the place Frypan had pointed out. Next to Jorge in the cockpit, Brenda held a sort of joystick that controlled the beam of light. She twiddled it until Frypan cried, "Stop!"

There on the ground, looking quite literally like a deer in headlights, was Newt.

He was looking up at us. I couldn't see his face too well since he was so far away, but I'm not sure I wanted to. Jorge told me that Infected people looked worse as time went on, and I didn't want to see my Newt fade away and some monster take his place.

"There's nowhere to land," said Jorge.

"Then how are we supposed to get him on here?" asked Minho roughly. I saw Julian place a hand gently on his shoulder and give him a warning look; one that said clearly 'watch your tone'. I would have laughed, since Julian was younger and nobody told Minho what to do, but I wasn't in the mood.

"If we get close enough, we can open the hatch and I can try to talk to him," I suggested, not taking my eyes off of the tiny Newt on the forest floor. He had begun to run away now, and Brenda seemed to be struggling with keeping the beam of light on him. I huffed. So he was going to be difficult. That was fine; I could deal with difficult. What I couldn't deal with was letting him go to Denver by himself, never to see me again. "Get closer," I ordered.

"Please," added Jorge, but began bringing the Berg closer to the ground before I could correct myself. The only problem with getting closer to the ground was that there were more trees to avoid, meaning we had to fly slower. Newt took full advantage of this and sped up. Brenda's light lost track of him.

"No," I gasped, squinting into the blackness. It was no use. Newt had disappeared. The beam of light swept over a river... "Wait! He had to have been stuck because of the river."

Jorge hesitated around the river for a few moments so Brenda could aim the light around, searching for the familiar lanky figure of my boyfriend. No such luck. There were only trees.

"Listen, Lot-"

"Let me go down there and find him!" I volunteered, already heading over to the closed hatch.

"Couldn't we just continue on to Denver? He's going there anyway."

"He could be dead before he even gets there," I snapped, blinking furiously and swallowing to keep my tears at bay.

"We don't necessarily have a choice," Brenda replied. "You can't go down there; we can't get close enough to the ground. Besides, the second Newt sees you, he's going to run again. And if you do manage to catch him, or convince him to come with us, how do you suppose we get him back up into the Berg? Going to Denver is the best option."

I remained silent. Brenda did make a good point. However, as much as I didn't want to admit it, I didn't want to go another day without Newt. If he continued to travel to Denver at his speed, it would still be another week or so before I could see him.

"If we head straight to Denver, we can intercept Newt before he even reaches the Crank Palace," Jorge reminded me in another attempt to be convincing.

I huffed, stealing one more glance down at the river. "Fine. But keep the light on; I want to keep looking. Just in case."

"You should sleep-" Frypan insisted, but I cut him off with a murderous glare.

"You think I'll be able to fall asleep right now?"

"You're right, sorry." Frypan apologized quickly.

"Keeping the light on wastes gas," Jorge informed me. "So unless you want us to run out of gas and have a crash landing in the middle of the woods..."

"I don't care," I said with my teeth gritted. "I'm looking for Newt." I turned back to the window, missing the concerned look between Jorge and Brenda.

"Go to sleep, Lottie," Minho grumbled from the floor. After looking out the window when we first caught a glimpse of Newt, he had laid down to try to go to sleep. "You're like a toddler, I swear."

I chose to ignore him. I sat looking out the window, fuming. How could he be so calm right now? Newt was his best friend. If he didn't even care if we saved him or not, he could have stayed behind. It would have been less room to give up on this cramped Berg.

I did try to give him the benefit of the doubt, though. Maybe the thought of Newt was too painful for him, so instead, he acted like it didn't bother him. On the other hand, I knew that Minho was angry. He thought Newt was being selfish for leaving us and causing us to go on this journey. But he was also angry at himself. I knew that he blamed himself for Newt leaving.

I thought he was crazy. How could it possibly be his fault? If anything, it was mine. Newt said specifically in his goodbye letter that he left mainly because of me. He wanted to keep me safe.

The more I thought about this, the more I understood Minho's anger. How could Newt think that leaving me would cause me less pain than being physically hurt? He thought I would just be okay without him there with me? I thought he knew me better than that; he should have known that I'd come after him. That we all would.

I suppose he just hoped we would stay at the camp, but that's not what I was taught in the Glade. No man gets left behind. Newt, of all people, should know that. 

A/N

Chapter Three! Hope you enjoyed it, don't forget to vote!

P.S: Please note that updates may come a bit slower and more at random than usual... I'm finding it a bit hard to juggle school, my sport, my family and friends, my yt channel, and this book, so please be patient! I'm not giving up yet, I promise.

- golden habit