Subject B3 (newt x reader)

Chapter 11

I watch as Niamh's eyes flutter open slightly, before closing again, her chest heaving up and down as sweat runs down her forehead.

"Someone get her some water!" Renee cries out, gently tapping the unconscious girl's shoulder in an attempt to wake her up.

I sling my rucksack off and retrieve the water bottle from the the top, twisting the cap off and holding it up to Niamh's lips. Renee tilts the girl's head up slightly as I slowly pour the liquid through her parted lips.

Her eyes open again, and she gulps down the water before finally pulling away, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Are you ok?" Frypan asks from above me as Niamh props herself up on her elbows, sucking in as much oxygen as she possibly can.

"Yeah.... I'm fine." She pants. "I've just never been good with heat."

"Ok, just take it easy. Are you alright to keep going?" Thomas asks as Renee and I slowly pull the girl to her feet, my hand resting against her lower back for support.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Niamh gulps. "Once it's night, I'll feel better."

"Alright. Let's keep going." Thomas nods, spinning on his heel and taking the lead at the front of the group as the rest of us fall behind him. Natasha takes over my place and walks next to Niamh as she stumbles along, wrapping her own scarf around the top of her head. I trail along at the back of the group, and Newt falls into step next to me once again.

"I hope we get to wherever the hell we're going soon." I say, glancing forward at Niamh. "I'm not sure how long she'll be able to last out here. She always suffered severe heatstroke back in the Coremeum- since she was a gardener she was always out in the sun all day every day. We even had a near- death experience with her. If that happened in the Coremeum, I can't imagine how much worse it is for her out in the desert...."

"Hey." Newt says, turning his head to look at me. I shift my eyes to meet his chocolate- coloured ones. "She'll be alright. Soon it will be night time, and soon after that we'll find the Right Arm, ok? So don't worry, because that always makes things worse."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." I sigh heavily. I let my eyes trail off in front of me to the stretch of desert in front of me, and my mind wonders of to Harriet and Sonya, and what they might be doing right now. Are they dead? Did they not escape the mall in time, and did the Cranks find them and did they suffer the same fate as Ava?

Ava.....

The image of Ava's petrified face is still fresh in my mind, despite how hard I try to push it out. A massive part of me feels that I've failed Ava, that I could have tried harder to save her from those hideous creatures, instead of leaving her to suffer a painful death. I gave up so easily on trying to save her, just because she told me to leave and get everyone to safety. I should have gotten her to safety- she deserves to be here right now as much as the rest of us.

"Hey, are you alight?" Newt asks, shaking my shoulder gently.

"Hm? Oh, yeah. I'm just thinking about Ava." I say quietly, kicking my feet nervously in the sand as we walk along.

Newt sighs softly, trying to think of the right words to say. But nothing comes out. So we walk in silence for a while, with no sound apart from our group's shoes scraping against the ground, and the occasional noise from Niamh as she trudges along, swaying side to side. Anxiety rises in my body at her current state- the heatstroke never got this bad in the Coremeum.

"How are you feeling?" I ask softly, creaking open the medical hut door. Niamh is propped up on her elbows on the bed, using one hand to hold an ice pack against her swollen head.

"Better now." She smiles. "Expect my head. I bruised it pretty bad."

"Yeah, it was a pretty nasty fall you had when you fainted." I laugh lightly, standing at the end of her bed. "But in terms of the heatstroke?"

"It's alright, Y/N." Niamh replies, smirking slightly.

"You need to be more careful when you're out in the sun, Niamh." I say.

The girl laughs wryly and rolls her eyes. "Alright, mum."

"I'm being serious, Niamh. You can die from this type of stuff." I reply sternly, crossing my arms.

"I won't die from this." She says, "and I'll be more careful in the future, I promise."

"Y/N, is something wrong? You keep zoning out." Newt says, snapping me back to reality for the second time. He steps in front of me and begins to walk backwards so he's looking me right in my eyes. "Is anything bothering you?"

"No, nothing." I say, trying to cut in front of him, but the boy places his hand on my chest, preventing me from doing so, and raises his eyebrow.

"Newt, I'm fine." I repeat. "I'm just thinking about..."

"About what?"

"About the Coremeum. About Niamh's countless encounters with heatstroke- granted none of them were as serious as this- and about... Maria."

Newt stiffens up slightly at the mention of Maria, as do I, because I wasn't sure if I could keep myself together if the conversation lead to talking about her.

"Was she the girl back at the facility?" He says, walking by my side again. "The one who..."

"Was killed by WICKED, and the one who I found strung up hanging from the ceiling having every drop of her blood drained from her? Yeah, that's her."

"What was she like?" Newt says, his arm brushing against my coat sleeve gently.

"She was... everything you could ever want in a friend. She was like the baby of our group, even though she was the same age as the rest of us, but having her around was like having a little sister. She would always make me daisy chains from the flowers in the Coremeum, and bring them to me when I was cooking for everyone. And she would talk to the livestock we had for hours on end, to try and 'calm' them before we had to take them to the slaughter. She would sit outside the maze walls and wait for the Trackers to come back every night, just so she knew they made it back safe. She was so nice to everyone, even if they didn't return it back. This cruel world didn't deserve her, not one bit. She was too pure to suffer the fate she did."

By the end of my speech, I can feel tears starting to run down my cheeks as I reminisce about my old friend, and this time I don't try to stop them.

"She sounds amazing." Newt replies quietly.

I laugh wryly. "You have no idea. But, there's no point dwelling on it, because she's gone. All I can do now is make it to safety, and live the life she wanted to live so desperately. I'll do it for the both of us."

Newt stops walking, and steps in front of me again, but before I can try and move past him, he suddenly steps forward and wraps his arms around me, pulling me into his chest.

I hesitate for a second, slightly confused at the gesture from a stranger, but after a moment I return the embrace, wrapping my arms around his back. In this moment, wrapped up in this boy's arms with my face pushed against his chest, my whole body relaxes, like a weight of sheer exhaustion and pain is lifted from my shoulders.

Even though I try to fight them, tears start to roll down my face, staining the boy's jacket as he places one hand on the back of my head, gently stroking my hair as a couple of sobs escape from my mouth.

"You're so insanely strong, Y/N." Newt says softly, tightening his grip around me. "I honestly don't know how you do it."

I nod slightly into his jacket, but one sentence crosses my mind as I hear his words.
If only you knew, Newt. If only you knew...