Whatever It Takes ↠ Newt [The Scorch Trials] ¹

SEVEN

CHAPTER SEVEN
Trust

            THAT NIGHT MAE laid awake, her head on her back pack, while the rest of the group slept. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Frankie and Rachel and that was something she'd prefer not to see. She sat up and rubbed her temples, in attempt to get rid of her pounding head ache.

"You alright?" The voice of Newt asked and Mae instantly whipped her head to the left.

"Dandy." She replied before wiping her face and lying back down.

"Can't sleep?" The boy wondered.

"You could say that. I'm too afraid the Cranks will come back." The brunette sighed, making sure her voice wasn't loud. "Why are you up?"

Newt huffed. "The same reason you are."
Silence fell beyond the two, as they both stared up at the darkness. A few minutes passed with the two not uttering a word but, both were still wide awake. Then, Newt broke the silence. "Were they one of them?"

Mae's eyebrows pinched together in confusion. "What?"

"Your friends." Newt affirmed. "Were your friends the bodies you, Aris and Tommy found?"

"Yeah." Mae nodded reluctantly. "I only saw two of them but, I should assume the others were there too."

"I'm uh– sorry." The blond whispered, and Mae shook her head.

"I'm sorry about Jack." The two fell silent again, they had just lost friends in the Maze, only to lose more after escaping and they weren't sure how to handle it. "Thanks for helping me earlier." Mae spoke, referring to when Newt had saved her from the Crank that tried to climb up her.

"It's the least I could do after you saved our asses on numerous occasions today." Newt recalled, a smile on his face, earning a small grin from Mae. Both continued to lay down comfortably, Mae's eyes beginning to get heavy. "Why did you help save us from WCKD?"

Mae hesitated before she sighed gently. "Because, I couldn't save Reed. I couldn't save any of the other kids. And, I couldn't save my friends. So, if there's even the slightest chance that I can save at least someone, I'm gonna take it."

The corner of Newt's mouth tilted upwards at the girl's comment and not another word was said between them. It was then that mutual respect and trust was earned between each other. Both soon fell asleep, despite Mae's attempts to fight it, completely unaware that both Thomas and Minho had woken up just in time to hear the last part of their conversation.

Mae stood in the middle of WCKD's hallway. The girl's eyes widened as her mouth parted. "No!" She screamed, kicking the wall in front of her in anger and fear. "I just escaped!"

The girl looked down at her appearance to see the clothes she was just in when she ran from the cranks. Mae furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. She leaned against the wall, her fists above her head as she tried to steady her breathing. "No! This can't be possible!" She wailed, tears welling up in her eyes in frustration.

"Right this way to your new lives." A familiar voice guided. Mae whipped her head around to see Janson. Mae's eyes squinted in anger as the rat man walked down the hall and towards her.

"Son of a bitch." Mae cursed as she marched towards him. The girl raised her arm up and punched the man but her fist never came in contact with Janson's face as she fell forward on to the cold, hard ground. It was as if she wasn't even there.