Free (Maze Runner fanfic Newtmas Newt x Thomas)

Chapter 11

Newt woke up half on top of Thomas; one of his hands was under his shirt and splayed across his stomach, his knee pressed against his crotch, and his head was just under Thomas' chin.

Thomas was already awake and grinning at him, clearly concealing laughter. "Sleep well?" He asked, pulling him up to kiss his forehead.

Newt nodded, rubbing his cheek against Thomas'. "Do we have time to get some food?"

"Probably. You'll have to get off me first." Newt groaned and shuffled so he was even comfier. "C'mon, Gally and Minho woke up already." Newt lifted his head. "I know it's early but we do have to meet them."

"Well why didn't you wake me?"

"You looked too cosy. I was about to, but then you started stirring so I left you to it."

"Oh.. Okay."

~*~

The four boys were back in the map room, trying to decide what they'd do today, but Minho kept the giving the couple a weird look. They both just hoped he didn't hear anything.

The arrow marked papers were put on the table, the number and letter code written at the bottom. "So.. Any ideas?" Newt asked, leaning against the table.

"Do we allocate them or something? Minho, you know the maze, is seven paths forward and then four left possible? Or right?"

Minho paused, then shook his head. "Not directly. If you were going to somehow take seven forward, you'd have to go left and right to do so. I can certainly try, let me have a couple sheets."

He leant forward over the large drawing of the maze on the table, following it carefully for each map design, and they kept going to the same place. "What about each day?" Thomas suggested, doing the same and ending up somewhere else.

"Maybe the numbers really are just a code and we do-" Gally followed something else, but got a dead end halfway through. "Nevermind, scrap that that."

"Minho," Thomas put a hand on his arm, "let's explore these areas today, if we use the right pattern we could find something. The walls open any moment now, we have the time. If you give us much more we'll have to do it tomorrow anyway."

"But if we wait any longer, we're giving the Mourner time to come back and kill the rest of us. Most of the gladers can barely walk from their bed to the campfire, so Newt you are not coming. So we need people to go now!"

"Then we'll just do the ones with the arrows. Newt, Gally," he turned to them, "ask everyone who got stabbed what they remember, anything relevant to the maze or this code or even myself is most helpful. Everyone will hate my guts, I know they will. We'll be back at our usual time, probably. Everyone know what they're doing?"

Thomas wasn't sure when exactly he took the authority, but it was working and the look on Gally's face was pleasant, but their truce continued because he didn't try and stop him. "Then let's go." Thomas and Minho picked up a rucksack each, before turning and running out.

~*~

Newt and Gally basically got people to line up and talk to them, although the ones lying down they didn't force to go anywhere. Most people said they only remembered school, and Thomas being a big teachers pet. They even mentioned names of people who weren't in the maze.

A few mentioned numbers in a keypad, arrows and vines, but anything more detailed was too fuzzy to remember. Newt was similar, but his memories were much more Thomas based. He was meant to bring something up with him, but he didn't know how Thomas would react; they had a fight, just before Newt was sent into the maze.

Newt remembered his first day in the maze like it was only that morning; he'd woken up feeling sick with dry tears down his face, his heart was hurting and his head was pounding.. Now he knew why. Only three other people had been there to greet him; Minho, Alby, and Gally. They were the first four, but until Thomas arrived his heart never felt fixed.

He was just glad he couldn't remember what their fight was about. It would probably break both their hearts.

~*~

Thomas had followed Gally's route, the one that came to a dead end. Nothing was out of ordinary, so Mourner, no missing vines, no falling stones. It was like things were almost normal, and it made Thomas feel.. calm. Like he hadn't been stabbed in the back, like Chuck wasn't dead, like the glade wasn't destroyed.

He reached the end and searched the walls, feeling around for.. something. He didn't really know what he'd feel in a stone slab wall, but he did find a crack a little bit above his head.

Thomas pulled a knife out from his belt and jammed it into the crack. It made a few bits of rubble fall out, so Thomas kept hacking at it until the knife hit something metallic. Was this the door!?

The sky was turning dark and he knew he'd have to return soon. Whatever was back there, they had a three day limit until the particular wall moved somewhere else, so they had that long to dig out whatever was behind it.

He found Minho halfway back, but let him run ahead because felt like they were a little too pressed for time, and if anyone was going to stuck it was better off being Thomas; but they made it back fine, both headed straight for the fire to get some food.

The evening was quiet; everyone seemed to be a bit more relaxed. Things were going smoothly; people were getting better, the Mourner hadn't even been heard in the maze today, but also the fact they were safe from everything at night when the walls closed. Even the runners looked forward to the time when they had to come back, because it meant they were safe.

At night, Newt and Thomas lay together, slowly drifting off when Newt spoke. "Tommy, I got something to tell you."

"Mm, can't it wait till morning?"

"It's just something I remember, I can't keep it hidden from you anymore."

Thomas frowned and lifted his head slightly. "What? What is it?" Thomas got high enough to look at him, but Newt looked the other way. "You remember something important?"

"It was just before I went into the maze, we.. we were arguing. I don't remember what about, but you were just so angry at me. My first day in the maze I woke up in that box wanting to throw up and I had dry tears all down my cheeks. Course I don't remember why, but I assume it was because of you."

Thomas was quiet and put his head back down, and then he sighed. "I was hoping you wouldn't remember it."

"You remember the fight?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I know what we fought about."

"What was it?" Newt rolled over and stroked his cheek, trying to gently coax it out of him.

"Your life."