Dynasty - Thomas (The Maze Runner)

Chapter 6 - Girls Are Awesome Dude!

Minho, Thomas, the Med-Jacks and I all race back to the central part of the Glade, detecting the disturbance ahead. I can hear Gally shouting for the girl to come down. I look up to see her throwing rocks at the other Gladers. Thomas hurriedly asks Chuck what going on, somehow not seeing the commotion in front of us.

"Girls are awesome, dude!" Chuck laughs. I stare at him harshly as he points up at the watchtower, but he shrinks under my gaze. Minho bites his lip to stop himself from laughing. The other Gladers are still shouting, Gally quickly losing his temper with her.

"Hey, throw one more of those things and - OW!" I hear him shout, prompting me to snigger before hurrying over to help. I narrowly avoid a rock to my head before hiding underneath a wooden plank with Newt.

"I don't think she likes us very much!" he shouts over the noise.

"You don't shucking say!" I shout back at him. In the middle of the bustle, Thomas' voice rings out.

"Hey, wait, wait, it's Thomas! It's Thomas!" The rocks stop falling, and the Glade becomes silent. The girl looks over the railings of the tower, and Thomas waves up at her.

"I'm gonna come up, okay?"  She disappears behind the railing again as Thomas moves towards the first ladder. Thomas tells us that only he is going up and Gally just looks pissed as usual. As Thomas sits at the top of the tower with the girl, we all stand around waiting.

"What's going on up there!?" Gally shouts up to them after a couple of minutes.

"Oh my god, just leave them be," I say.

"Is she coming down?" Newt asks as Thomas comes into view over the railings.

"Hey, um, you guys just give us a second, okay?" Newt and I get everyone to walk away from the watchtower as Thomas has asked us to. Everyone turns and walks away. Except for Gally, who we have to practically push away from them. They talk for a while, Gally's watching them the whole time. It's at the point where he might as well have not moved at all. After a while, I see the girl pull two tubes out of her pocket, they're filled with some sort of blue liquid. I raise my eyebrows before both of them come rushing down to the rest of us.

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"We don't even know what this stuff is," Newt says matter-of-factly, "We don't know who sent it, or why it came up with you, I mean for all we know this thing could kill him,"

"He's already dying," Thomas whispered, pointing at Alby, who was now struggling to breathe.

"He's right, you know, if there's something that might be able to help Alby get better then we need to try it," I say in an attempt to persuade Newt to give Thomas' idea a shot. Thomas raises his eyebrows at Newt as if to say "I told you so" before speaking again.

"I mean, look at him," We all take a glance over to him, he's shaking profusely and is lying in a cold sweat as if he has just woken up from a nightmare, "How could this possibly make this any worse? C'mon, it's worth a try," Newt just stands there for 10 seconds or so, looking down sadly at Alby's figure before answering.

"Alright. Do it," Thomas whips out the syringe and leaning over Alby. He hesitates, looking over at all of us.

"Go on," I urge. That's when Alby's eyes turn black and he lurches forward at Thomas. He grabs at his shirt, pulling him closer and shouting in his face.

"You shouldn't be here! You shouldn't be here!" I rush forward trying to pry Alby from off of Thomas.

"Alby! Come on! Stop it!" I shout. Upon Thomas' command, Teresa grabs the syringe and injects Alby with the serum, causing him to calm down immediately. Everyone is silent for a few seconds.

"Well... That worked..." Jeff says rather quietly.

"Okay, from now on, someone stays here and watches him. Around the clock," Newt orders. A few seconds pass when I notice Gally stood in the doorway.

"Hey, sundown Greenie, time to go," he nods and walks out. As Thomas turns to leave, I grab his hand unintentionally. We both look at where our hands are linked, heat rising to my cheeks slightly. I move closer, careful not to be heard by Newt and whisper,

"I'll bring some food later, or, well, someone will," He nods gratefully at me, looking down at our still intertwined fingers before letting go and following after Gally. The butterflies in my stomach start to go crazy, and I feel like an 8-year-old loser who has just held their crush's hand for the first time. But I don't like Thomas, right? I mean I barely know him, yet it feels like I've known him forever at the same time.

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It was now the dead of night, the only people currently still awake being me and Chuck. And right now, we were raiding the kitchen for some food to smuggle over to Thomas. After locating some bread, we snook out of the Homestead and over to the Slammer, the light of the torch showing the path ahead of us.

"Who's there?" Thomas asks wearily.

"Just us," Chuck whispers back.

"Sorry," I feed the bread and a bottle of water through the gaps in the gate to the Pit and pass it to Thomas.

"Here, you'll run better on a full stomach," I say, smiling a little at him. He smiles back before turning to the bread and stuffing his face with it.

"Thanks guys," He says, speech muffled by the bread he has just put in his mouth. Chuck's attention turns to a small ornament he had been making earlier that day and upon seeing it Thomas started to talking to him about it. Then, the conversation turned to our parents.

"You remember your parents?" Thomas questions.

"No, but I know I must have them. And wherever they are, I'm sure they miss me, but I can't miss them because I don't remember them," Chuck replies solemnly, "What do you think you're gonna find out there tomorrow?"

"I don't know, but hey, if there is a way out me, Y/n and Minho are gonna find it," Chuck turns away for a second before passing Thomas the small ornament and asking him to give it to his parents if we find a way out tomorrow.  Chuck then proceeds to walk off. However, he doesn't get very far before Thomas calls him back and shoves it back into his hand. This time when Chuck turns on his heel, he keeps walking and heads off to bed.

"You not going to bed yet?" Thomas asks.

"Thought you could do with the company, can't imagine you'll sleep well tonight, it doesn't exactly look comfortable," I say with a wide smile.

"I don't want you having a bad night's sleep because of me though,"

"I don't usually sleep well anyway..." I whisper softly, "Do you think we'll find something tomorrow? A way out?"

"Maybe... I hope we do anyway, but just in case. Any sign of danger, you turn and run the other way. Okay? I can't have you getting hurt, plus Newt will kill me if you come back with even a bruise,"

"You can't protect me you know. They've tried to, all of them. Newt tried so hard to protect me that he made Alby make me a Med-Jack even though he knew I wanted to be a Runner. I can look after myself and I'm sticking with you and Minho whether you like it or not," I argue back lightheartedly, not exactly annoyed by his remark about 'protecting me'. He just nods. We sit and talk in whispers for a while, laughing as quietly as we can amongst ourselves before I finally lie down, feeling the need for sleep hit me like a train. At some point in the night, I feel my fingers intertwine with Thomas' again as he subconsciously links our hands in his sleep.