Whatever It Takes ↠ Newt [The Scorch Trials] ¹

TWENTY FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
Whatever It Takes

          MAE SAT ON a boulder, looking over the Scorch. She looked down to her hands to see them covered in a mixture of blood and dust. It was a long night of cleaning up the Right Arm camp and Harriet and had ordered Mae to rest, much to her dismay.

The girl didn't have a mirror on her, but she could only imagine what she looked like. Her hair was all matted and tangled, dried blood stained her forehead while she had formed a black eye.

The image of her friends being taken away played in her head over and over again, almost as if it was a video on loop and she couldn't take it. Mae licked her lips, wincing at the stinging sensation she felt when her tongue touch the cut that had cracked her lip.

Foot steps trailed towards her and Mae sighed as the person sat besides her, rubbing his hands together. Mae turned her head to see Thomas staring at the sand in front of them.

"You know I never got the chance to thank you for saving me from Janson earlier." Thomas said softly, his voice raspy.

Mae let out an exhale in amusement. "I think you and I both know that the real saviour was Brenda. If she hadn't shot him, we wouldn't have gotten the chance to get away."

"Yeah," The boy concurred. "But if you hadn't tackled him, he would've shot me."

Shrugging, Mae beamed up at him. "Yeah, that's true."

Thomas smiled , but it disappeared as fast as it came. "Hey, I'm sorry about Frankie."

Mae swallowed. "I'm starting to think that maybe her being dead was better."

"I know how you feel."

The girl looked sadly at Thomas. "I'm sorry about Teresa. I know how you feel about her."

Thomas furrowed his eyebrows. "How I feel about her?"

"You're in love with her, aren't you?"

The boy stayed quiet, his face scrunching up in discomfort. "How could I be in love with someone who'd do that to us?"

"Sometimes there aren't any sane answers." Mae shrugged. "But that doesn't stop the fact that if I ever see her again, I'll punch her face in."

"I have no doubt that you won't." Thomas smiled.

"So," Mae clapped. "We've known each other for practically our whole lives, huh?"

Thomas' smile grew, his mind finally sidetracking away from the events that took place just hours before. "Yeah. I guess." His smile then disappeared. "I'm sorry about uh– you know, choosing Teresa over you. Clearly I made the wrong choice."

"Thomas, I'm not mad that you chose Teresa. In a way, I'm glad that you did, because if you hadn't, I would have never met my friends. And anyways, you can't beat yourself up for something you did before the Maze."

"Like you beat yourself up for what you did?"

Mae let out a small laugh. "Good point."