The Absent Cure (Book Three)

Chapter 12

"Newt! Newt!" shouted Jamie as she ran through the glade towards the gardens.

Newt smiled. "What is it this time?"

Jamie smiled mischievously as she held something behind her back. Newt smirked.

"What have you got there?" he asked

Jamie walked up to him and quickly placed something on his head.

"What is this?" he said, taking it off to get a better look at it. It was a crown made of flowers of all colors and sizes.

Newt placed it back on his head and stood up straight, lifting up his chest. Jamie giggled.

"You looked like a princess." she said.

"You look like a freak." said Zart.

Newt smiled. "Well I think I look rather divine, if I do say so myself." He began to spin around in circles in the grass, until he got dizzy and fell over. Jamie laughed. He did too.

Newt stood up and began to walk to the center of the Glade, running freely. He didn't limp even in the slightest. Which confused Jamie for a second.

"Come on, love! Let's go!" he shouted. His golden locks flowing in the breeze.

Jamie smiled and followed him. As she did, she looked around her, but she noticed something was different.

"Where did everybody go?" she asked herself as she ran. Through out the entire Glade, nobody was in sight. No one except for her and Newt, who was running towards the Maze doors.

"Newt, I think we should stop. Something doesn't feel..." Jamie stopped. She gasped loudly.

She had looked away from Newt for one second and the mood had completely changed. She was in a corridor. The one right outside the WICKED building. The place where Newt died. When she looked over at Newt again, she saw something she never wanted to see. At the end of the passageway stood Newt, but he wasn't his normal self. He stood, twitching horribly. His mouth dripped with a repulsive black fluid, and his eyes were pure black. He made terrifying chocking noises as he stood there. Then, he lunged towards Jamie with a ghastly shriek.

*****

Jamie shot up in her bed. Her forehead covered in beads of sweat. Her eyes full of tears. She had another nightmare. This had been the third one this week, and they were all about Newt. Jamie laid back down and turned on her side. She let the tears fall until there was nothing left. She got up and grabbed her clothes. She put on jeans and a blue T-shirt. She looked over to the corner of the room. In the corner sat a small chair with a jacket draped over it. She walked over to the chair and picked up the jacket. She examined it closer and realized whose it was.

Newts

She pulled it close to her chest and smelled it. It may have sounded weird, but Jamie still remembered what Newt smelled like. Jamie never knew why, but he always smelled like pine needles and earth. The scent made Jamie feel at home. She pulled on the jacket and walked back over to her bed. She crawled underneath and picked up a small stone that was next to it. She scratched in yet another line next to the one she drew the day before. These tally's represented how long they had been there.

Three months

Jamie crawled out from underneath the bed and grabbed the capsule that Newt had given her. Jamie had put the note back inside and tied a string to it so that she could wear it as a necklace. She stepped outside of her tent and breathed in the cool sea air. She looked up at the sky and saw that it was sunrise. The sky was almost ombré. It faded from the night's dark blue, to a purple, then a red, then yellow. Jamie made her way over to the kitchen hut to grab some breakfast. Ever since they got here, Jamie had a pretty simple schedule. Get up at rise, grab a snack, head to the fields for a while, and come back and help the boys at work. Jamie didn't have time to dilly dally around. As Newt once said, "If you stop working, you get lazy. And when you get lazy, you get sad." So, Jamie figured it was best to keep herself occupied 

Jamie walked into the kitchen and wandered into the back pantry. The kitchen was where Frypan liked to spend most of his hours. He said it helped him wind down and remember the good old days. Jamie looked around at the shelves for something she could eat on the go. She looked up and saw a small box of precooked bacon. She jumped up and grabbed the box. She opened it and saw three fresh pieces just screaming her name. She closed the box and inserted it under her arm. She later found an old box of pancake mix. She picked it up and looked at the expiration date. Only two days past. She then grabbed a bottle of water and walked back into the kitchen. When Jamie stepped back into the kitchen, she jumped. There in front of her stood Amber, snacking on blueberries.

"You scared the shit out of me." said Jamie, placing her items on the counter.

"Sorry, I just didn't want anyone to know I was here. Evie always steals my blueberries at breakfast and I wanted to eat some before she did." said Amber, stuffing another handful in her mouth.

"Whoa slow down there mate, don't eat all of them at once." said Jamie, grabbing her wrist.

"What are you doing here anyway?" asked Amber. 

Jamie looked at the instructions on the box before she started cooking. "I usually eat before the others wake up."

"Why's that? Don't you wanna be with your friends?" asked Amber.

"Yeah I guess, but I would still like sometime to myself." replied Jamie, pouring water into the mixture. She stirred it up, then turned on the stove.

"Ok, I see." said Amber. "How're you hanging in there?"

"What do you mean?" asked Jamie, tapping her finger on the counter, impatiently.

"I mean Newt...how are you handling his death?"

Jamie froze. Her fingers slipped and she dropped her bottle of water. She quickly picked it up and sighed.

"Better than I thought I would."

Jamie poured some of the batter onto the pan and began to cook the pancake.

"Ya know, I lost someone too." said Amber, who had finally stopped eating the blueberries. "His name was Alex. He worked with me in the medical department. Both of us were chosen because we were skilled in the medical field. They wanted to train us to become doctors. We were both great friends. When ever I had a problem, I could always come to him for help. One day, Alex said that he was gonna break out of WICKED. He said that we were doing the wrong thing and that we were hurting people. He convinced me to come with him, but when we got to the door, his finger ID didn't work. Neither did mine. The alarm started to go off and we were quickly escorted to Janson's office. Alex had tried to escape before, so you could only imagine how pissed Janson was. Alex had gotten on his last nerve. Janson threw him into the crank pit...I never saw him again."

Amber looked out the window at the rising sun. Jamie watched her, sadly. 

"As for me, I was stripped of my medical career and sent in to be a subject instead. Subject D6. I was never sent into the maze trials. You guys saved me from that."

Jamie flipped her pancake and looked back at Amber. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"Oh it's Ok. Sure I still miss him, but I've learned to live with lose...and I hope someday, you will too" said Amber. She walked out of the kitchen, leaving Jamie alone once again.

After Jamie had finished her breakfast, she headed for the fields. As she walked, she came across the memorial rock. She examined it closely until she found Newts name. She brushed her hand against it and sighed.

"I'm hanging in there." she said. "Staying strong just like you told me."

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Hey guys, I know this chapter wasn't super eventful but trust me, It will get better!