Subject B3 (newt x reader)

Chapter 56 (final chapter!)

Caution: This chapter contains slight mention of self harm. Please proceed with caution.

"Alright." I mumble after a few seconds of hesitation, looking between the blonde girl and the rock. "Alright, let's go."

Frypan smiles comfortingly at me as Gzi gently grabs my hand and pulls me down the beach to the rock. The rest of the survivors from Group B are already there, and not a single person is smiling.

"So... who wants to go first?" Renee mumbles as she fiddles with a strand of her hair- something she tends to do when she's uncomfortable. The awkward silence hangs heavy in the air as no one replies, but finally Harriet lets out a soft exhale and picks up the blade.

"I will."

The rest of us step back as the girl scans the rock, which is always covered in names, to find an empty space. Eventually she finds one near the bottom of the stone, and taking a deep breath, she brings the knife into contact with the rock and begins to carve one of the girl's name.

I tilt my head to left and squint my eyes to read the girl's scraggly writing as finishes the final letter, blowing away the excess dust.

Jenifer.

Jenifer was killed by a Griever as we were trying to escape, so she never even got to see the world outside those four walls, but her and Harriet were extremely close in the Coremeum- they even came up together. I'll never forget the look on Harriet's face when she watched a Griever leg pierce straight through her friend's heart. From then on, I decided never to mention Jenifer to her.

Harriet steps away from the rock and turns around to hand the blade to someone else, and I notice her glassy eyes as Aris takes the blade off of her before patting the girl's back comfortingly.

Harriet comes to stand next to me, and I squeeze her hand as Aris begins to carve. I hear him sniffle a couple of times before he rubs off the excess just like Harriet did and steps away from the rock, revealing the name Ava bore right next to Jennifer's.

****
The next few minutes go by as the girls take it in turns to write their chosen names on the rock:
Niamh
Billie
Saskia
Jax
Anya

But there's one name missing. One name left for me to write.

Gzi hands me the knife and nods reassuringly at me. "You've got this." She whispers.

I nod back and try to push the lump in my throat down as I step forward, quickly darting my eyes across the stone for a free space before landing on one near the top.

I feel everyone's eyes bear into the back of my head as I raise the blade up and begin to carve.

As I scrape the knife to make the letter M, memories of Maria play in mind like a movie, and I can feel the tears starting to well up. I remember her jumping about with happiness when we had our first rainfall, jumping and splashing in the puddles like a little child. I remember her sitting by the walls while the rest of us ate supper,waiting for Harriet and Sonya and the rest of the Scanners to return after a day of running. I remember the following days after she saw my wrists- how she basically glued herself to my hip, constantly asking if I was alright and if I wanted her to get me anything. Sometimes I would even wake up in the night to find her sleeping on the ground next to my hammock.

"Maz, what you doing here?" I whispered, reaching down and shaking her shoulder gently to wake her up. The girls stirs for a second as her eyes flutter open.

"Are you alright, Y/N?" She asks groggily, and I laugh lightly.

"I'm fine. Why are you lying on the ground next to me instead of in your own hammock?"

"I just wanted to make sure you were alright." She says, propping herself up on her elbows. "That you had someone to talk to if you woke up suddenly."

"Maz." I sigh, "that's very sweet of you, but I don't want to be responsible for you sleeping on the hard ground every night. Go back to your hammock, and I promise that if I need anything, I'll come to you."

I can barely see through the tears clouding my eyes as I finish off the girls name and drop the blade just as Harriet spins me around by my shoulders and pulls me into her chest.

"Y/N, don't cry." She cooes as I sob into her jacket, "Maz wouldn't have wanted you to be this upset over her. Remember how much she hated seeing you cry in the Coremeum?"

That was true- there was nothing more Maria hated than seeing someone cry.

Maz, I'm so sorry. I know you wouldn't want to see me in a state like this. But I wish you were here so badly. If it meant that for you to be here, I would of have to be the one strung up back in the WICKED facility, with tubes sucking the last remaining life out of me, then I would trade places with you in a heartbeat.

*****
"Knock knock." Newt's voice comes from the entrance of my tent. I roll over on the bed onto my other side as the boy walks in.

"Are you alright?" He asks worriedly, perching on the end of my bed. "Harriet told me what happened."

"Nothing happened, I just got a bit emotional." I reply, and Newt lets out a sigh.

"That's not a bad thing, you know." He says softly. "It's perfectly fine to get upset about these things. Everyone understands how much Maria meant to you, so obviously writing her name on the rock dedicated to the ones who couldn't be here isn't going to be easy."

"Yeah, well I didn't see anyone cry as much as I did."

"Maybe because you all express your emotions differently?" Newt says, tracing his finger up and down my leg. "Just because they didn't cry as much as you doesn't mean they don't feel any less amount of pain."

I don't reply, and we sit in silence for a few moments before the boy lets out a sigh and stands up from the bed.

"Well, another reason I came in here was to see if you were up for a swim? The rest of us are going. I think it would help take your mind off things, don't you?"

I let out a loud groan and stretch my arms above me before swinging my legs over the bed and standing up beside him.

"Alright." I say, and the boys face lights up.

"I knew you would." He smiles before grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the tent.

I can already see Thomas, Minho and Brenda down by the sea as we walk down to the beach. The girl's laughs echoes across the Safe Haven as Thomas sprints across the beach, quickly followed by Minho who's chasing him with a stick, shouting something I can't quite make out.

I laugh to myself at the sight, but out of my peripherals I see Newt smiling at me.

"Can I help you?" I smirk, turning my head to look at the boy beside me.

"Y/N, even if we were back in the Last City, with me on the verge of death and you so exhausted that you could barely walk, or if we were still in the Scorch running for our lives under the boiling sun while Cranks tried to kill us. Or if we were anywhere but here, I would still say that I'm at home. And do you know why?"

"Why?" I grin. Newt leans down and plants a kiss on my forehead, wrapping his arms around my waist and lifting me a couple of inches off the ground.

"Because home is wherever I'm with you."

The End.

A/N: and that my friends, is the end of Subject B3 (cue round of applause :)).
I cannot even begin to express how insanely blown away I am by the number of reads this book has. I'm finishing it on 13 THOUSAND! That. Is. INSANE. I never even thought I would reach above 100.
And to all you readers. Your support and love and all your comments mean more to me then you could ever possibly imagine. You have made writing this book so much better for me, and I am eternally grateful for each and every one of you, and I love you all so much from the bottom of my heart.
I do hope this final chapter is a good one and I haven't let you all down 🥲 but when I have less schoolwork I will probably come back to it and tweak it.
I'm tearing up writing this goodbye ngl, I have loved writing this story so much, and once again thank you all so so much for reading and leaving your lovely comments, until we meet again.
I love you all so much ❤️