Subject B3 (newt x reader)

Chapter 52

A/N: sorry for such a short chapter today I've been very drained recently but I also wanted to say THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR 10 THOUSAND READS THAT IS LITERALLY INSANE! I love you all so much and appreciate each and every one of you for following this story I love you all and I hope you are enjoying this book so far, it's nearly finished
:( but thank you so much again and here's chapter 52!

I walk side by side with Teresa, gripping her hand tightly as we walk up the flight of metal stairs to top deck where the others should be.

"I promise it will be fine." I reassure the girl for the hundredth time. She nods and swallows hard as I push open the door at the top of the stairs.

The sea breeze instantly hits my face as we step out onto the deck, and I nearly gasp at the sight in front of us.

A large, lush island sits just before the horizon, still too far away for me to clearly see it, but from where we are I can already make out the luscious trees and the white, sandy beach surrounding the land. And if I squint hard enough I can make out the tops of canvas tents dotted around the island.

"Wow." Teresa says in awe next to me, her blue eyes widening at the sight of our new home in front of us.

I shift my eyes down to the deck below us, and see the group of kids from WICKED leaning against the railing of the ship, and the group of our friends stand next to them.

"Look, there they are." I nudge the girl, indicating towards the group. "You ready?"

Teresa inhales sharply and nods. "Yeah. Let's go."

We walk down the metal stairs to the bottom deck, and as we draw closer and closer to the group I feel Teresa gripping my hand tighter, so I squeeze it back comfortingly.

"Hey guys." Teresa says loudly, and instantly everyone stops talking and slowly turns around to look at us. One by one, their mouths start to gape open as Teresa stares at them nervously, waiting for someone to speak. Thomas and Newt look anxiously at the others to see how they react to the sight of the friend who betrayed them.

Are they going to ignore her, pretend like she's not here and go back to their conversation? Are they going to shout at her, scream and demand reasons for why exactly she did what she did?

Suddenly, Minho steps forward from the group, looking at Teresa with an expression on his face I can't quite read.

Teresa lets go of my hand and steps forward to meet the boy, and not a single noise comes from the group- even the WICKED children are watching to see what's happening.

"Minho." Teresa begins quietly, "look, I'm can't even begin to-"

But the boy cuts her off by pulling her into a tight hug, which catches her off guard slightly, as it does to the rest of the group.

"Look, the two of us can talk about all of this later, but right now I'm just glad you're alright." Minho says, rubbing her back gently. The girl hesitates for a moment before slowly wrapping her arms around him to return the embrace.

"Thank you." She whispers.

Minho slowly lets go of her and takes a couple of steps backwards to let someone else greet Teresa, and there's a couple of seconds of awkwardness when no one moves, but Frypan breaks it by stepping forward and pulling Teresa into a hug, whispering something in her ear that I can't quite hear. She nods in response and lets go of the boy, smiling weakly at him.

"Hermanos!" Jorge shouts from the top deck, causing us to all turn our heads in his direction. He leans over the railing, waving frantically at us with a big grin on his face. "Vince wants you all to wait by the exit of the ship. We're nearly there!"

I turn my head back around and see that we have drawn a lot closer to the island in the space of that conversation.

"Alright, let's go." Thomas says, taking the lead of the group towards the exit on the other side of the ship.

I feel an arm link with mine, and I look beside me to see Harriet smiling at me as we walk along the deck.

"Are you alright after the whole situation with Newt?" She asks softly, indicating to the blonde boy walking with Thomas at the front of the group. "He told us what happened."

"Yeah, I'm fine now." I reply, "just a bit of a shock."

"And Teresa..." the girl says quietly, and inhale sharply.

"I know, I know. Obviously I don't expect everyone to forgive her instantly- I know I haven't- but I just don't want anyone to lash out at her or do anything bad. She already feels awful enough. No one's going to brush over what happened obviously, but she's here with us forever now, and she's basically family- to the boys more than us- so we can't resent her forever."

"Alright." Harriet nods, and she squeezes my arm. "Now, I say we get off of this boat and go and enjoy the Safe Haven as much as we can, for the sake of Maz and all the others."

I wince slightly at the mention of Maria's name- as bad as I feel, amidst all the chaos I've been through in the past couple of days, I've haven't really thought about her- but the image of her lifeless body dangling from the ceiling in the WICKED facility a year ago instantly refreshes in my mind, and I shudder at the memory. But then the horrible image is replaced by one of her sitting by the lake back in the Coremeum. I remember the sunlight dappling through the leaves, illuminating her face so perfectly that it made it hard to believe that she wasn't some sort of water fairy, with her smooth, jet black hair, and her perfect bone structure made her look like something out of a children's fairytale. I can't imagine how excited she would have been to see the Safe Haven; how her face would have lit up at the sight of finally being free and safe from the monstrosities back in the real world.

Oh Maz, you don't know how much I would give for you to be here.