The Other Side - A Newt Fanfiction

Chapter Thirty Four: A Moment of Truth

{Author's Note: The fate of the following character was determined by a selected pool of individuals that have a neutral stance on the character at hand in order to select the best possible plot line without any form of bias (given that I was truly indecisive on which route to take). Enjoy the voices of your fellow readers as their decision is brought to life.}

Leaning against Brenda for support, I do my best to keep my legs moving as our group quickly makes our way up a massive, wide flight of concrete stairs that lead up to the top of the tunnels where the Berg is waiting for us, dangerously close to the flaming buildings that are crumbling and falling to complete ruins nearby.
As we stumble onto the flat surface of the platform above the subway tunnels, the hatch of the Berg door slowly lowers to the ground, revealing Jorge. He waves us over before rushing down the hatch door and jogging to our aid. "Hermanos, we need to get onto the Berg and get going!" He explains, slowing to a stop as his eyes catch Newt.
I shift my tired eyes towards the unconscious boy. His veins have lightened up a bit, not bulging with such intensity. The Bliss must be helping, but the black blood stained in a thick strip down his chin and his blood soaking the back of his matted, sweaty hair still creates an unsettling feeling.
"He's alive." Brenda says reassuringly, panting lightly as she adjusts my arm draped over her shoulders and pulls me closer.
As Jorge shifts his concerned eyes to Brenda, I can sense the cloaked panic shoot through his nervous system when he looks at my state.
"We don't have much time." She says, regaining his attention. "Thomas went back to the main tower to get the Cure from Teresa. We have to go get him."
Pursing his lips together as his face hardens in concentration, mentally preparing to dive into further danger for our friend, Jorge nods. "Got it." He looks over his shoulder, bringing his fingers to his mouth and whistling. "Vince!" He calls over the chaos.
Shifting my heavy eyes to the hatch of the Berg, I spot the long-haired man as he peeks through the entrance. So he really did come with Jorge? Man, that was some shucking spot-on nightmare...
Jorge waves him towards us. "We need some help!"
Nodding, Vince immediately races down the hatch of the aircraft and rushes to our group. As he approaches us, I meet eyes with the man, and I watch his face fall slightly.
"Frypan, Minho, get Newt on the Berg." Jorge orders, shooing them with his hands. "Go, go, go!"
Chests heaving with heavy breaths, Minho adjusts his hold beneath Newt's arms as Fry tighten's his hold on the ill boy's legs, and the two of them begin charging towards the Berg.
"You, hermano." Jorge says, patting Gally on the back and pointing to the Berg. "I've got first aid supplies in the compartment that extends off over the right wing. Get them and help your friends bandage up Newt's head."
Gally, standing taller, nods as he immediately rushes towards the gigantic aircraft.
"Vince," Jorge says, snapping the bearded man out of his worried stare, "I need you to take (y/n) in the Berg and start patching her up." He orders. "Brenda, you're going to help me locate Thomas. Let's go!" He orders, turning on his heels.
Catching her breath, Brenda shifts her attention to Vince and guides me to the tall man's side.
Vince takes my other arm and drapes it over his shoulders, and, as soon as he is supporting me, Brenda lets me go and sprints to the hatch.
As I watch her run off, I feel Vince's eyes lock onto me.
"Man... What did you get yourself into this time, kid?" He mutters, scooping my legs up to carry me and striding towards the Berg.
My vision begins to cloud with black spots as I slowly avert my exhausted eyes to Vince.
Returning the glance, he somehow manages to chuckle. Adjusting his hold on me, he steps up onto the hatch door of the Berg, walking into the aircraft just as the door rises and shuts behind him. "I guess I should've expected this recklessness from you."
"I wasn't reckless..." I mumble defensively, beginning to nod off dizzily.
"Leaving the Right Arm camp with your friends without warning to venture off in a small group and break into the last- not to mention, the most dangerous- city to save one friend? That's reckless."
I manage to laugh tiredly. "I guess...you have a point..."
He smiles for a moment before his face shifts to a serious expression. "Gally, I need the first aid kit!" He calls as he sets me down on a chair along the side wall of the Berg.
"Alright, give me a second!" Gally replies from where he, Minho, and Fry work on bandaging Newt's bleeding head.
Although my stomach is already jumbled up with nausea, it ties into knots over the thought that I had given that injury to Newt, and I cannot help but worry if I've done more damage than necessary.
As I lean back against the chair tiredly, I trail my eyes along the opposite wall of the Berg, only to see the kids that we broke out of WICKED in seats along the wall with their worried and curious eyes locked on me. I slowly sway my head to my right side, looking along the chairs beside me to see the remainder of the kids. The brunette boy that was in charge of holding the Serums sits directly beside me.
"Are- Are you okay?" He whispers nervously, staring at me with wide eyes.
Managing to laugh weakly, I close my eyes and nod slightly, a pathetic smile tugging on my lips before my head rolls forward, drooping in exhaustion.
Vince, crouching down in front of me, watches in concern as my head hangs in pure nausea. "I was worried sick about you, you know?" He mumbles, causing me to lift my eyes to his. "You may not know this, but, over the past six months, you've become like a daughter to me, so you disappearing the following morning nearly gave me a heart attack."
I draw my brows together slightly. Like a...daughter?
Sticking the tip of my tongue out the side of my mouth in concentration, I slowly raise my pistol, aiming at the row of empty plastic bottles I had arranged carefully on various boulders.
The sun beats down on me from directly above, making the surrounding mountains useless in the matters of providing shade. Sweat begins to bead on my forehead, and I have to squint due to the sun's bright rays reflecting on the pale surface of the desert sand.
Closing my eyes, I inhale deeply through my nose. I hold my breath for a couple seconds.
One...
Two...
Three.
As I exhale through my parted lips, I slowly open my eyes before firing at each bottle one-by-one.
The plastic bursts with each shot, sending the bottles flying in the air before falling somewhere in the sand behind the boulders.
Withing seconds, each empty bottle is out of sight, taken out by a single shot each.
A smile of pride stretches across my face as I slowly lower the gun at my side, putting my free hand on my hip and placing my weight on one leg.
"That's some aim you got there, kid." A familiar voice says from behind, causing me to jump slightly and turn around, spotting Vince, who is leaning against a boulder a few yards behind me with his arms folded.
I smile proudly. "Thanks."
He nods, standing upright and walking towards me. "You're getting pretty good. How are you doing with moving targets?" He asks.
I shrug. "I've gotten a little better, but the distance still gets me."
Vince bends over and picks up a small rock, tossing it in the air and catching it in his right hand, his left on his hip. Taking a deep breath, he pulls back his right arm before throwing the stone as high and far as possible.
As the stone flies through the air, Vince swiftly pulls his pistol out of his holster at his right side, aims the gun, and fires.
The rock that was merely the size of the center patch of the palm of my hand bursts as the bullet hits it dead in the center.
My jaw drops. "How the shuck do you do that?" I ask, averting my eyes to the bearded man as he chuckles to himself, returning the gun to its holster.
"Lots of practice, kid." He says simply, smiling as he watches the bits of shattered stone fall to the ground in the distance.
Eyes still locked on Vince, I ask excitedly, "Could you teach me how?"
Shifting his eyes to me, Vince lifts a brow, laughing lightly. "After almost dying while teaching you how to drive last week? No thanks."
"Oh, come on, Vince, that was just one slip up-"
"More like ten."
"Fine, ten slip ups! But I didn't actually end up killing us, and, just like driving, shooting perfectly would be beneficial to me!" I exclaim. "Please!" I beg pleadingly.
Huffing a sigh as he shakes his head, though his smile remains, Vince mutters. "Fine. I'll teach you how to shoot well."
"Yes!" I grin wider, nearly jumping for joy. "When do we start?"
"Well, lunch is just about done-"
"I'll skip lunch!"
"Well, I won't." He says flatly, chuckling as he pats my back.
I groan, turning on my heels and walking with him in the direction of our temporary camp alongside the road.
"We can begin after we eat. Over the next few weeks, I'll teach you all sorts of shooting techniques." He says proudly. "Even ricocheting can be beneficial."
I distort my face in confusion, looking up at Vince as we walk through the sand. "How so?"
"Say you needed to hit an enemy without them expecting it, or, with ricocheting, if you hit a surface just right, you can make a cloud of dust or even sparks, depending on the material your bullet is hitting."
"Woah," I grin, "I want to learn how to do all of that."
"Don't worry," he says, patting my back and looking ahead as we walk, "you will."
Although it gets harder to hold myself upright by the second, I manage to smile weakly. "Now that you mention it, I can see that..."
Vince grins in response. Nodding slightly, he pats my knee. "Don't worry, kiddo. We'll get you bandaged up." He says reassuringly.
Gally rushes to Vince's side and hands him the supplies. "Anything I can do to help?" He asks.
Vince nods. "Keep her upright."
Gally, crouching down at my side, gently grasps my right shoulder and helps me sit back against the wall.
Standing up and unraveling some clean bandaging, Vince carefully tilts my head towards him and begins to wrap up my bleeding skull.
As he works, my head pulsing with pain, I mumble, "Remember how...I couldn't get a spark with ricocheting a bullet?"
I hear Vince chuckle as he continues to wrap the clean bandaging around my head. "Of course. That was the one part of training you couldn't get down."
"I did it..." I cough quietly.
Pausing in the middle of his work, Vince looks down at me, drawing his brows together. "You did?"
I tilt my wobbling head back to look up at him. "Yeah..." I grin tiredly. "We got stuck in a tunnel of Cranks and our car rolled upside down..." I explain. "We had brought gas with us, and it was still in the jeep, so, while Newt pulled me along, I shot the gas to make it spill...and then I shot the ceiling of the car...made a spark, and the jeep had burst into flames...cooked a ton of Cranks in the process..."
Vince, smiling proudly, returns to wrapping my head. "I knew you'd get it down one day."
• • •
Brenda helps me pull on her spare, clean maroon sweater over my head, cautious of my injuries. "There." She says with a smile as she puts her coat back on even though it's stained with my blood.
"Are you sure you don't want to wear this?" I ask, tugging on the hem of the sweater. "I mean, that jacket's got my blood all on the back."
She shrugs. "A little blood doesn't hurt." She says, laughing softly to herself, offering me her hand.
Smiling weakly, I grasp onto her hand tightly, and she pulls me out of my chair and to my feet, pulling my right arm over her shoulders to keep me from stumbling.
"There!" Minho shouts from the front of the Berg as Jorge works with the controls, causing all of us to look in their direction. "Thomas! That's Thomas!" The boy exclaims, pointing out the front window.
Brenda and I immediately exchange anxious glances before she quickly rushes the both of us to the front of the aircraft, the group of kids following behind. As we approach the window, we peer out into the city on fire. On the roof of WICKED's facility, there are two figures sitting on the concrete ground, holding to each other tightly.
Drawing my brows together as my eyes widen, I whisper, "Is that Teresa...?"
"Doesn't matter. We need to get to them now!" Minho exclaims, turning on his heels and sprinting towards the hatch, where Vince is already reaching above the door, pulling down a hook attached to a black rope and hooking it to his belt. "Minho, get locked in!"
Scrunching up his face, Minho nods, jumping up and grabbing another hook, yanking it down and connecting it to his belt.
"Jorge, get the hatch opened!" Brenda orders, patting his shoulder.
"I got it!" He replies, swiftly hitting the hatch button on the controls with one hand while his other attempts to keep the Berg stable with the wheel.
As the kids begin to anxiously whisper to one another, looking at the opening in the back, Brenda orders all of them to take a seat in the chairs and get strapped in.
Looking to Brenda, who anxiously watches the doors lower in the back of the aircraft as the kids do as she says, I press my lips tightly together, taking a deep breath. "Go help them get Thomas." I mumble.
She shifts her worried look to me. "What?"
"Go help them get Thomas. I'll be fine." I say reassuringly, standing upright on my own two feet and pressing my left hand against the wall of the Berg for support. "You let me help Newt, so I'm not going to stop you from helping Thomas."
The truest form of appreciation glimmers in her eyes, and, nodding, she whispers, "Thank you," before rushing towards the open hatch.
I grasp to the wall tightly as the aircraft begins to sway with a little more intensity, and, squinting my eyes, I do my best to watch the chaotic world outside of the open hatch door.
The inside of the Berg begins to glow with a bright orange tint from the raging flames outside, the fire dancing in the dark night sky as Jorge lowers the aircraft to be leveled out with the roof of the facility.
As soon as Thomas and Teresa come into view, my face falls as I watch Teresa struggle to pull Thomas to his feet, using her body to fully support his.
Something is immeasurably wrong, and they're going to need all of the help they can get in order to save Thomas.
"Jorge, you gotta bring us closer!" Vince shouts.
Frypan's eyes widen as he steps out of the compartment from where they've got Newt lying down in, and he looks out the hatch door before shouting, "I'm coming to help!"
As Fry rushes towards the hatch, Gally, who stands beside Jorge, turns on his heels to rush after.
I quickly grasp onto Gally's arm, stopping him in his tracks.
He looks back at me with a concerned, questioning glance.
"I want to help." I mumble weakly.
Darting his eyes over to the back door before shifting them over his shoulder to me, Gally sighs heavily. "As long as you don't try to do anything shucking stupid." He mutters, pulling me towards him by my right arm and draping it over his shoulders before rushing towards the hatch.
As the two of us quickly approach the back end of the aircraft, Frypan jumps up and grasps onto the third and final hook, yanking it down and connecting himself safely to the Berg.
"The rest of you kids, steer clear of the door! We don't want to risk having someone fall out!" Vince orders as Fry crouches down beside Minho, who is in the center, already reaching out towards the roof of the building as Teresa drags Thomas's weak body across the concrete, having him completely slump against her.
Brenda stands beside Gally and I as we struggle to remain upright in the shaking Berg, standing directly behind Vince, Minho, and Fry as they are all reaching for Thomas.
Teresa, her hair flying about from the intense, hot gusts of wind, manages to get Thomas to the ledge.
"REACH, THOMAS! COME ON!" Minho shouts, basically sliding on his stomach over the ledge of the hatch where only his lower body remains on the Berg, and he stretches his arm out as far as he possibly can.
Thomas, the veins bulging in his neck as he contends the overwhelming agony, reaches a bloodied, trembling hand out towards the boy before dropping his arm and slumping over.
Crying out, Teresa uses all of the strength she has to yank Thomas upright.
"COME ON, THOMAS! YOU CAN DO IT!" Fry screams, using his right arm to hold the side frame of the opening while extending his left hand out.
"JORGE, YOU GOTTA GET US CLOSER!" Minho shouts over his shoulder.
"I'M DOING WHAT I CAN, HERMANO!" He shouts back.
As the aircraft slightly inches closer to the tower, a building nearby collapses, sending a forceful wave of hot air in all directions, causing the Berg to jolt suddenly from the overwhelming power.
Losing balance, I nearly topple forward, but Gally quickly pulls me back, holding my right arm against his shoulders tightly to keep me stable. "Woah, there!" He shouts, holding my waist with his left arm.
"THOMAS!" Brenda screams as the brunette boy manages to extend his hand out again.
The tips of Minho's fingers brush against Thomas's before the weak boy's hand falls again.
"JORGE!" Gally snaps, looking back over his shoulder. "WE JUST NEED TO GET A LITTLE CLOSER! NOW!"
Watching anxiously, I suck in a deep breath and call, "COME ON, THOMAS!"
The Berg sways back and forth from the forceful winds, but Jorge manages to inch the Berg a little closer to the tower. "THAT'S AS FAR AS I CAN GO, HERMANO!" He shouts.
"ALRIGHT, THOMAS, REACH!" Minho screams, stretching out as far as he can.
Thomas, his heavy eyes locking onto the Berg, slowly reaches both hands out to the boys.
Just as Minho and Vince swing their hands towards his, Teresa displays upmost strength: she suddenly cries out, holding Thomas by the waist and shoving him towards the ledge.
Just as his feet leave the concrete, Minho and Vince manage to grasp ahold of Thomas's arms, and they begin to pull the boy up onto the hatch door, Fry reaching down over the edge and pulling Thomas up by his left leg.
The three of them manage to slide the boy safely onto the cold steel door, rolling him onto his back.
All of our hearts stop.
His entire stomach is covered in a pool of blood.
Without a moment of hesitation, Brenda dives to Thomas's side, the others huddling around him as Vince rolls up the bottom of Thomas's blood-soaked shirt, exposing a bullet wound in his abdomen, bright red blood gushing out of the opening in his flesh.
Gally, who remains standing completely upright to keep me balanced, pants weakly as he widens his eyes. "Shuck..."
"Alright, Thomas, you gotta stay with us, alright, kid?" Vince orders urgently.
Minho pats the sides of Thomas's face as the brunette's eyelids grow heavier by the second, brown eyes going cross from moment to moment.
Brenda, her big eyes swelling with tears, shakes Thomas while Fry moves to squeeze in between her and Vince.
Watching in disbelief, I slowly shift my eyes back out of the Berg, meeting Teresa's stare, her big blue eyes shimmering with tears, her chest heaving with desperate, heavy breaths as the fiery wind sweeps her hair upward. She stumbles in place, her ocean eyes flickering to Thomas as the tears roll down her cheeks.
Vince, carefully moving around Thomas, leans back out of the edge of the Berg while the others tend to the brunette, and he reaches his hand out to the girl, calling for her to grasp for his hand.
However, a thunderous roar demands for all of our attention. I dart my eyes to a building directly to the right of the WICKED tower as it's foundation finally gives way, and the burning building topples in the direction of the facility.
Breath hitching in my throat, I meet with Teresa's eyes again.
The expression on her face causes me to shudder. It's an expression I have only seen once before: the look Newt gave me before holding the pistol to his head. The look that would be engraved in the face of Death itself. The expression that no longer seeks to live and, now, embraces Death like an old friend.
She's not going to jump, even with the time she has.
The building crashes into the tower, and the facility quickly begins to crumble, the end of the roof opposite of Teresa suddenly dropping, falling apart to debris.
"T-Ter-esa..." Thomas sputters weakly through overwhelming pain, the veins bulging in his face and neck as he struggles to push through. Tears slip from his eyes as he closes them in exhaustion.
Within that instant, my brain goes back and forth in a tug of war, conflicted by a sudden desire that I honestly wish I did not have.
Shuck, the others are going to hate me for this. In fact, I'll probably hate myself for this.
With a burst of panic-driven energy, I suddenly shove off of Gally and charge towards the edge of the hatch.
"(Y/N)!" The others scream in unison as they dart their eyes towards me.
Using all of the strength I have, I sprint down the hatch and leap off of the ledge, diving towards Teresa just as the concrete beneath her feet collapses.
In this moment of time, the universe seems to stop, freezing altogether. Although the world around us is in utter chaos, I feel as if I could hear a pin drop. As Teresa's body and my own fall, the intense waves of heat from the untamed fire engulf us along with the disintegrating foundation of the tower and the tsunami of smoke. Crying out, I reach my hand out to hers, stretching every muscle, every fiber, to rescue the girl who had betrayed us.
The universe seems to slow down drastically, and, as the golden embers flutter past, my right hand manages to brush against Teresa's left wrist, and, the instant I grip onto her wrist, several strong hands grasp onto my ankles, and the world returns to its overwhelming pace as the hands hold my legs in place whilst gravity yanks down on Teresa, causing me to scream in pain, squeezing my eyes shut as my body is pulled in opposite directions, the muscles in my torso feeling as if they are getting ripped apart.
However, while the force of the fall demands for Teresa to slip from my grasp, I manage to keep my right hand locked tightly around her left wrist. Opening my eyes, I look behind me to see Minho and Vince dangling halfway over the ledge of the hatch door, the two of them holding tightly to each of my legs with both of their hands. I look back down, meeting eyes with Teresa as she dangles by her left arm in my grasp, her legs and right arm swaying from the forceful winds. She stares up at me with wide, bright blue eyes, tears rolling down her sweaty face.
Wheezing through clenched teeth in the agonizing, painful torment, I cry out as I force my left hand to also clasp around her wrist, too, refusing to let her go.
Screaming at one another frantically, the others begin to pull me back up into the Berg by my legs, other hands quickly grasping onto my legs and waist as I'm dragged on board.
By the time I'm completely on the surface of the door, Minho and Vince reach down to grasp onto Teresa with me, helping me pull her up with shouts and grunts of pain, using their limited strength.
Once Teresa is pulled into the Berg, Brenda shouts, "CLOSE THE HATCH!"
"GOT IT!" Jorge shouts from the front.
As the Berg door begins to close, Gally drags me back from the hectic situation as Brenda, Vince, and Minho return to frantically tending to Thomas's wound.
"I said don't do anything shucking stupid..." Gally mutters in a tone that fails to cloak his relief as he has me sit back against the wall of the aircraft.
Ignoring him, I watch the hatch door close completely as Fry crouches down beside Teresa, rolling her onto her back and shaking her slightly. "Teresa?" He mumbles, brows creased together in worry.
She takes shallow breaths in and out, unable to conjure up any words before her eyes roll to the back of her head and she passes out.