Lost hope¹ | Maze runner

Nine

Cara sat down leaning against a burned wall, with Newt next to her. Everyone else waited for Thomas to wake up as they sat in front of the pit he was in. Teresa was in the pit as well, she punched one of the boys who were throwing Thomas in the pit so they threw her in there too. Cara rested her head on Newt's shoulder as he held her hand.

"What did he say to you that made you punch him?" Newt asked.

"He - Ugh he's so disgusting. He told me that he had convinced everyone that Thomas was the problem and no one would believe me if I told them he was not."

"You punched him because of that?"

"No, it was his suggestion that made me punch him."

"And what was his suggestion?"

Cara lifted her head turning to face Newt and he did the same before she took a deep breath in and whispered, "He said - He said for me to seduce them."

"What! That little shit! You had every right to punch him."

"I wasn't exactly mad at him," Cara said now looking at the fire on the touch in front of her, "I was just disgusted and out of all the people to say something like that, him? Really?" Cara told Newt not wanting to say Gally's name.

"It's alright, well just wait for Thomas to wake up then see what to do from there," Newt put Cara's head back onto his shoulder and he interlocked both of their hands trying to get some sleep.

Cara had always been a light sleeper, she was usually the first one to wake up when the birds started chirping at dawn. It became a habit for her to wake everyone else up as well for a busy day in the glade. So it was natural for Cara to wake up when she heard a loud gasp in front of her.

Cara's eyes fluttered open to see Minho standing in front of her with his mouth open and his hand up. She moved her head up which made Newt's head fall onto her shoulder.

"Close your mouth a fly is going to go in it," She told Minho sarcastically as she rubbed her eyes.

"Oh my god," Those were the only words that came out of his mouth, he seemed speechless for some reason.

"What? What happened?" Cara asked, confused why he was so shocked.

"Are you two - No way, Frypan owes me five slices of bacon," He said to himself, with a smile that crept up his face.

"Why does he owe you - why are you so shocked? What's going on?"

"Your," Minho said, shaking his hands gesturing to Cara's and Newt's interlocked hands, "You two are dating." He finally got it out with a huge smile across his face.

Cara looked down at her hands, she forgot she fell asleep like that and she was leaning on his shoulder, well her little secret was out now.

"I guess he does owe you five slices of bacon," Cara said with a smile on her face when she noticed something. "Wait, you were betting on whether Newt and I would get together?" She asked, baffled at Minho and Frypan.

"Ummm... That's not important, but what is important is that Thomas is awake," He said saving himself as he went back to the pit Thomas was in.

Cara gently woke Newt up, his eyes still heavily from the lack of sleep. Cara probably fell unconscious from the amount of blood she lost, which is why she could sleep, but not so much for Newt.

"Good morning love," He said, rubbing his eyes as he lifted his head from Cara's shoulder.

"Good morning," She said back to him, delicately kissing him. "Minho knows we're dating." She said sheepishly as she moved away from Newt.

"We're dating?"

"Oh, well we are now."

"That's lovely," Newt brushed his hair with his fingers and helped Cara up. They both went over to Thomas's pit and crouched down in front of it.

Minho gave Newt a smirk to which he rolled his eyes and turned to face Thomas whose eyes were adjusting to the light as he fully woke up.

"What the hell were you thinking," Chuck scolded Thomas as he sat up looking up at him.

"What happened?" Thomas asked, confused.

"Gally's taken control. He said we had a choice. Either join him or get banished at sundown with you," Newt explained.

"And Teresa," Cara added.

Thomas looked at her still processing the information as he had just woken up before he looked up again.

"And the others agreed to that?" Thomas asked, standing up.

"Gally has everyone convinced that you're the reason all this has happened." Teresa told him.

"Well, he's been right so far." Thomas commented.

Cara tilted her head in confusion as Minho spoke up, "What are you talking about?"

"This place... It's not what we thought it was. It's not a prison. It's a test."

"A test? What kind of test?" Cara asked him, still confused.

Thomas took a deep breath in before explaining, "It all started when we were kids. They'd give us these challenges. They were experimenting on us and then people started disappearing every month."

"Sending them up into the maze?" Newt guessed.

"Yeah, but not all of us."

"What do you mean?"

Thomas paused, "I'm one of them." Cara furrowed her eyebrows still confused. "The people who put you here, I worked with them. I watched you guys for years. The entire time you've been here I... I was on the other side of it." He shifted to look at Teresa "And so were you."

"What?" Teresa asked, not wanting to believe what she just heard.

"Teresa we did this to them," Thomas said, gesturing up to the four of them.

"No," Teresa denied it, her eyes tearing up. "It can't be true." She shook her head.

"It is. I saw it," Thomas told her. Cara put her hand in her hair, scratching it as she looked up to Newt and Minho who were both distraught as well.

"Why would they send us up if we were with them?" Teresa said, trying to convince herself she didn't do this to them.

"It doesn't matter," Thomas bluntly told her.

"He's right," Newt sighed "It doesn't matter, any of it. Because the people we were before the maze don't even exist anymore. These creators took care of that. But what does matter is who we are now and what we do right now. You went into the maze and you found a way out."

"Yeah but if I hadn't Alby would still be alive."

Newt clenched his jaw. "Maybe, But I know that if he were here, he would be telling you the exact same thing. So pick your ass up and finish what you started. Cause if we do nothing that means Alby dies for nothing and I can't have that." Newt finished convincing Thomas that he wasn't a bad person.

"Okay, But we've gotta get through Gally first."

Cara looked around to make sure no one was around them. "I might have an idea." She spoke up, explaining it to them.