We All Have Scars

Eleven

"Wake up, love."

"Five more minutes." I groaned.

I heard a chuckle. "We haven't got time."

I let out a sigh of defeat and reluctantly opened my eyes to see Newt's chocolate brown eyes gazing at me. It was already evening, which meant we had to get moving.

"Isobel, have sweet dreams?" He asked.

"You bet." I said as I stood up.

"Good that," Newt muttered. "Now come on, let's go wake Thomas."

I followed him over to where Thomas lay, asleep. Right next to Brenda, which made me smirk. Newt gave him a slight shake on his good shoulder.

"Sleep well, Tommy?" He asked.

"How's that shoulder?" I added.

Thomas sat up, rubbed his eyes. He rubbed his shoulder, as if to test it, and looked surprised. "Feels good, actually - aches a little, but not too much. Hard to believe I was hurtin' so bad before."

I smiled as Newt looked around at the Gladers preparing to leave, then back to Thomas. "Feels like we haven't talked much since leaving the bloody dorm. Not much time to sit around and sip tea, I guess."

"Yeah."

I felt like this was quite a personal conversation, and was about to thrn away, but Newt subtly grabbed my hand, making me stay.

Thomas continued. "I don't see how WICKED can be good."

"Huh?"

"Remember what Teresa had written on her arm when she first woke up? Or did you even know about that? You won't, Isobel. It said WICKED is good. I'm just finding that hard to believe." The sarcasm in his voice wasn't subtle.

Newt had a strange smile on his face. "Well, they just saved your buggin' life."

"Yeah, they're real saints."

I couldn't deny I was confused. They had saved his life. But they also screwed up everyone's lives.

Brenda, who had been stirring in her sleep, now finally sat up, letting out a big yawn. "Morning. Or evening. Whatever."

"Another day alive," Thomas answered. "I'm assuming you guys had time to get to know each other? If not, Brenda, this is Newt. Newt, Brenda."

"Yeah, we know already. Newt reached out and shook her hand mockingly, but had to let go of mine to do so, which, of course, Brenda noticed, and she got out one of those faces saying 'you hurt my sister, and I'll kill you'. "But thanks again for making sure this bloody sissy didn't get his butt killed while you two were out partying."

The barest hint of a smile flashed across her face and Newt held onto my hand again. "Partying. Yeah. I especially loved the part where we had people trying to cut our noses off." A look flashed across her face, part embarrassment, part despair. "Guess it won't be long until we're like those psychos, eh, Izzy."

No one knew how to respond to that. I felt Newt's grip on my hand tighten, and I looked down at the ground, finding my feet suddenly very interesting, until Thomas spoke up. "You're probably not that much further than us. Remember that -"

Brenda wouldn't let him finish. "Yeah, I know. You guys are gonna take me to the magical cure. I know." She got up then, the conversation obviously over.

Thomas looked at Newt, who shrugged. Then, as he got to his knees, he leaned in and whispered something about a new girlfriend and sniggered to himself. Then we left to get prepared.