The Deadliest Generation: The Maze Of Monsters

The Night of the Grievers

Tw: Mentions of self harm (described slightly), mentions of suicide attempts.

Most of the Gladers, much like Thomas, slept outside usually, so making all those bodies into Homestead made for a tight fit. The Keepers had organised and distributed the Gladers throughout the rooms, along with blankets and pillows. Despite the number of people and the chaos of such a change, a disturbing silence hung over the activities, as if the Gladers were in a video game and the player had pressed mute of the volume. No one wanted to draw attention to themselves. 

The only thing Thomas really noticed was River, who was doing pretty much nothing, just sat next to Chuck, allowing the boy to lean on him while he stared despondently at the watch he'd finally taken off, fiddling with it. And Thomas noted the silver metal that glinted in the light, the metal that was there even underneath the watch. He also saw the marks like Newt's under River's eyes, the same wrapped up, covered wrists and exhausted look.

Thomas avoided them, not wanting to make either of them upset. He continued to work to avoid dragging his eyes back to gawp at what he had glimpsed on River's finally partially exposed wrist before he re-buckled the watch. 

There had been lines all over it. Red, angry, sore, uneven and jagged lines.

Thomas knew enough to not ask about it whatsoever.

When the hubbub of chaos finally settled, Thomas found himself upstairs with Newt, Alby and Minho, and they were finally allowed to finish their discussion from earlier in the courtyard. Alby and Newt sat on the only bed in the room while Thomas and Minho occupied crooked and old chairs beside them. 

The only other furniture was a crooked wooden dresser and a small table, on top of which rested what dingy and musty light that filled the room: a lamp. The grey darkness seemed to press on the window separating them from the outside world, with promise of the awful things yet to come.

"Closest I've come so far," Newt was muttering, still looking as shattered as he had when Thomas had last seen him- maybe even more so, since Newt's hair looked like he'd been messing with it for hours it was so unkempt, "to just hanging it all up, going out there and just letting the Grievers take me."

Thomas wanted to scream at Newt to sleep, Newt clearly wasn't thinking properly, and it showed.

"Bloody grey skies," Newt continued in a distracted murmur, looking like he wanted to pace around the room, "walls not closin'. But we can't give up, and we all know it. The buggers who sent us here either want us dead or they're givin' us a spur. This or that, we gotta keep working, maybe then we won't all drop dead."

Thomas nodded, but didn't say anything. He agreed completely on what Newt was saying, yet the only thoughts running throughout his head was that he a), had no concrete ideas on what to do, b) wanting to make it tomorrow so he and Teresa could figure something out properly, and c), somehow, even in this tired, ragged state, Newt still looked appealing to Thomas, and Thomas's hand still tingled from when Newt's own hand had held it earlier that evening. 

Thomas glanced over at Alby to distract himself from the urge to press closer to Newt, and saw that the older boy was staring numbly at the floor, lost in his own, probably downright miserable thoughts. 

His face still wore the long weary look of depression that the Changing had imprinted onto him, making it seem an aptly named thing, considering what it did to one person. 

"Alby?" Newt asked, and goddamit, that just had to make Thomas turn to look at him, "You gonna pitch in?"

Thomas glanced hurriedly back at Alby, who just looked faintly surprise, having seemingly forgotten others were in the room. "Huh? Oh. Yeah. Good that. But you guys have seen what happens out there at night. Just because the royal King of the Runners and the freaking super boy Greenie here have survived doesn't mean the rest of us 'mere mortals' can." Alby's voice was dripping with sarcasm and anger by the end of the sentence.