To The Shucking End

Chapter 36

Thomas didn't hesitate to push Tanya from the way as Newt growled and lunged at them.

As Tanya regained her balance so she didn't trip over her feet, Thomas was quick to move around him and shove Newt to the ground.

"Newt? Newt, it's me!" Thomas said as Newt got up again and came running towards him, but Tanya jumped between them.

"You gotta come back to us Newtie!" she screamed as she held him back, the boy seeming to wake up for a second before he roared again and they went rolling on the ground as Tanya ended up on top of him, pinning down his wrists.

"Tan, remember your promise!" he managed as he wriggled under her grip.

"Newt, please, no," she whimpered.

"KILL ME!" he spat before he started snapping at her again as if he was trying to bite her.

"I won't!" she returned before he wrenched a hand from her hold and grabbed her neck, reversing their positions as he forced himself on top of her as he squeezed.

"Newt!" Thomas shouted as he grabbed him from behind and Newt seemed to calm a bit as he said,

"I'm sorry, Tommy. I'm so sorry."

"It's ok," Tanya wheezed as she rubbed her neck, Thomas easing his grip on Newt as he stopped trying to fight them, but the second he let go, Newt went for the gun in Tanya's thigh strap as he raised it to his temple.

"NO!" Tanya wailed as Thomas knocked the weapon from his hand, only for Newt to growl again as he now tackled Thomas to the ground.

Tanya stood on unstable feet as her hands shook and she pulled a knife from a sheath in her boot, making her hands shake.

She had to keep her promise.

She couldn't let him be in so much pain, even if it killed her on the inside to do this.

"NEWT!" she screamed as Thomas lay on his stomach after punching him in the face, the two boys tussled on the ground and Thomas was barely able to keep him from biting at him.

"TANYA, NO!" Thomas bellowed as Newt charged at her, and all of a sudden, her resolve crumbled.

She couldn't do it.

She couldn't bring herself to kill her big brother and best friend.

She dodged his punches and evaded his attempts to grab her as Newt tried to go for the serrated blade in her hand.

"KILL ME!" Newt raged.

"No," Tanya cried, barely able to see through her tears.

"DO IT!"

"I can't!"

In the end though, whether it was Newt that did or Tanya that did it became a matter of perspective.

Because Newt had distracted Tanya by growling over at Thomas who was pulling himself up from the ground after injuring his leg in his tussle with Newt, and then he'd yanked her to him by her shoulders.

She knew her knuckles were white around the handle of the knife that Newt had pulled into his chest, and her whole body shook as Newt sagged against her, the hilt of the knife digging into her sternum.

"No! No! Newt, please," she sobbed into his shoulder as he gasped over her shoulder.

"Thank you, Tan," he muttered as her knees gave out and she lowered them both to the ground, Newt's head in her lap as he lay on the ground, eyes still open and her hand shaking frantically as she was finally able to uncurl her fingers from around the knife, staring at it as if she was trying to process what she'd just done.

And then she heard footsteps.

Seconds.

They had been seconds too late as Brenda pulled herself to a stop, the vial of blue liquid in her hand and a scream began to build in the back of Tanya's throat.

Thomas was on his knees nearby as Brenda looked from Tanya to him, her jaw open in shock and disbelief.

Thomas, on the other hand, was filled with rage as he eyed the gun that Newt had taken out of Tanya's holster, and he pulled himself to his feet as he looked from Brenda to his sister who was still crying over Newt as she brushed the hair from his forehead. She didn't even see Thomas break into a sprint as he headed for WICKED. He was going to keep his promise.

For Newt.

How do you describe a scream so full of anguish?

Because at that moment when Gally, Minho and Frypan rounded the corner to see Tanya wailing over Newt's body, they didn't have the words to describe how pained the sound was as it tore itself from her lips.

The three boys only knelt in front of her as she sobbed, tears filling their own eyes, especially Gally's because seeing her scream like that again was so much worse than hearing it in his dreams.

Agony wasn't strong enough of a word to describe the expression on her face as she looked up at the three of them.

"I didn't want to. He was in pain. I didn't want to," she swore as she looked at Gally who'd knelt at her side.

"Tan. Tanya, you have to let him go," he said softly as he placed his hands on her arms.

"I didn't want to. Please don't hate me. I kept my promise. I didn't want to," she begged as she looked up at him, her expression completely broken, almost a mirror image of the night he was almost killed.

"Hey," he said even quieter as he cupped her face, pulling it to meet his eyes. "No one blames you. And we could never hate you. He's with Alby now. And Winston and Jeff and everyone else. They'll be ok," he promised as she gently set Newt down and Gally pulled her into his chest. "I love you. You'll be ok. We'll all be ok. It's over now," he promised as tears slid down his own face.

"Guys, we have to go," Brenda said after a minute and only then did Tanya seem to note Thomas' absence.

"Wait, where's Thomas?"

"He's gone after Ava," Frypan realised.

"Janson's going to kill him. We have to help him! I can't -"

"You won't lose your brother. I promise," Gally said as he let her go before moving over to Newt and wrapping his fingers around the handle.

"What are you doing?!" Tanya sniffed, her brown eyes red-rimmed and puffy as Gally pulled the knife out of Newt's chest, tossing it to the side before gently closing his eyelids.

"Whether we bury him or spread his ashes, Newt is making it to Safe Haven. That Vince guy can eat the barrel of my fucking gun if he has a problem," Gally explained as he lifted Newt up into his arms. "Let's move!" he said as he buried his own grief as he carried his dead friend and began heading back to the airship.

"Gally, wait!" Tanya called as everyone froze and she pulled out her other gun. "I'm going after him."

"Tanya, you can't be fucking serious right now," Minho swore.

"Tan-"

"He's my brother!" she snapped as she cut off whatever Gally had been about to say. "I can't lose him too. Just get to the airship. We'll meet you on the roof."

Gally had a pained look on his face, a look that told him that he really didn't like this idea.

"You fucking stay alive, do you hear me? You. Stay. Alive," he relented, clearly torn about the situation, and she nodded, her face still etched with tears and her eyes still red.

"To the shucking end," she replied before she ran out the way Thomas had and slid a bullet into the chamber of her gun.

They may have lost Newt, they weren't about to lose Thomas too.