Kidnapped// Maze Runner Fanfiction ✔

Chapter: 18

The night had stretched on and on but Newt still refused to let his tired mind rest. He was too scared to sleep. The chances of Logan coming back were pretty slim but he had still worried. As it turned out, there had been cranks but they ran past, bearly even noticing Newt. That hadn't stopped the boy from panicking. He had closed his eyes shut tight everytime, fear crushing his heart. At one point, a really lively one had bounded right in front of him and Newt had allowed a few tears to fall. He wasn't ashamed to cry anymore. He was just tired of having a reason to do it.

Now, as the first rays of dawn cusped the horizon, Newt breathed a sigh of relief. He'd made it. Once again he was reminded that his life now consisted of the same routine day-in-day-out. It was time to break that usual way of life. He slowly stood up, feeling queasy but continuing nonetheless by gripping the concrete chunk. He sucked in short, fast breaths as his vision started to return to normal. Breathing in only caused his throat to become drier and his reflexes made him cough. The racking coughs lasted several minutes. By the time he'd managed to stop, Newt felt light headed. When would his suffering stop?

He looked around. At first, he was unsure of where he was, when he was running away, the location wasn't his concern but soon worked out which one was the building he'd come from. So instead, he turned to face the opposite structure. The building looked no different from all the offices in the complex and Newt hoped beyond anything that it wasn't yet another one. It was tall, at least six stories, and was falling apart like the rest. However, this structure seemed even more devastated than the others, as it visibly sagged in the middle.

He decided that he would just have to put up with whatever condition the building was in and continue on ahead. Limping forwards, he knew he would have to exert even more effort if he wanted to explore all three of the remaining buildings before dusk. And at the rate he was already going at, it wouldn't be long before he'd collapse, as well as the ravaged structure ahead of him.

It didn't take as long as he thought it would to get to the entrance and though the building looked completely unexplorable, the doorway was open. Right away Newt didn't feel safe.

"This isn't safe. Why am I doing this?"

He walked on through the doorway and the first thing he noticed was the large desk pushed up against the back wall. He was definitely in the main lobby so that meant any number of the corridors leading off could hold something and he had to choose which to go down first. It was surprisingly easy to pick as two of the walkways were blocked and one was almost as black as ink. That only left two possible ways to explore deeper into the building.

Newt picked the one on the far right. There wasn't much to look at as he struggled down the filthy hallway. Nothing but grey walls and the occasional tilting picture of a flower or the ocean. Oh, how much the boy wanted to see them in real life but here he was, in hell. The first door was dark mahogany and had a long pane of glass down the side. Something about the doors and the type of places they were usually found tugged at the back of his thoughts.

Newt tried the handle. At first, he just assumed it was stiff from lack of use but as he continued, nothing budged. It was simply locked. The room was too dark to tell what lay within but even if there was light, he wasn't sure he would've been able to see anyway, as the glass was grimier than a pig sty. So, he moved along to the next door, which was a few metres down the corridor.

This time, as he looked through the glass, he could make out the shapes of big work surfaces. The translucency of the window still wasn't great but it was a step closer to the truth. As Newt tried the handle on the new door, there was an audible click and the door opened ajar. However, the movement of the old object also caused dust and plaster to rain down on him, the sound of cracking wood sending the hairs on the back of his neck on end.

The cracking sound soon quietened down but Newt still felt on edge but he just kept telling himself nothing will go wrong. So slowly the task became annoying, he pushed the door slightly wider, just enough to slip inside. What he saw suddenly made sense with the doors. It was a laboratory. The jars and vials were smashed and glass was scattered across the floor. The worktops were still surprisingly white but paper was scattered all over. But that wasn't what caught his attention. In the furthest corner was a substantial tank. Like the glass in the doorways, it was murky but the something inside was liquid or it was immersed in it...

Once again, something about the tank pulled at lost memories. Could he have been into science as a kid? He walked closer, unsure of what to expect. Decapitated heads. A whole carcass. A monster? Another memory clawed at his conscience. The nearer he got the more skittish he became. Just as he came within half a meter, something moved inside. Newt jumped back in fright, knocking into the wall.

His attention was completely fixed on the tank as he moved in again and he was quick to realise that the movement wasn't inside the tank but was his reflection on the outside. But now, as the fear began to trickle away, his other senses picked up the quiet shattering sound. He was confused as to where it was coming from but almost collapsed when he remembered his sudden impact against the wall during the jump scare. He turned towards the wall and as his suspicions suggested, small cracks were appearing before his eyes.

"Oh shit!"

As if on cue, the cracks got bigger and the sound increased enough to cause Newt a headache. By the looks of it, this was the time to leave. He would much rather miss something than be buried under tonnes of concrete and metal. Wouldn't he?

Just then, the loudest smash yet sent Newt sprawling on the ground. The whole room shook and dust fell from the ceiling. It was definitely time to go. He pulled his painful body back up and ran towards the door, his limp slowing him a tiny bit.

The corridor looked even worse. Chunks of the roof littered the ground and a thin layer of plaster already covered the floor. Each step crunched under his foot but he never slowed even when a big slap of material fell only inches from him.

Once in the lobby, the entrance called to him like the gates of heaven. He sprinted through the doors. He'd only made it past the threshold before a sound like an explosion rumbled across the Scorch and the building began to tumble. Newt ran and ran, as fast as his limp would allow, as fast as his body could take but he couldn't outrun it completely. Something flew through the air and hit him in the back. The force knocked him to the ground, where rubble fell atop the boy.

Pain was all he could think about. The debris must've broken a rib if not more as he struggled to breathe. Luckily it didn't hurt as much as when he had gotten his limp, otherwise he would've passed out. That still didn't mean he was ok with it. He cried in pain as he became aware of the crumbling building behind him. It had stopped falling and there was only the sound of dust and small rocks settling, blocking out the sounds of Newt's sobs.