The healer [The maze runner Newt x OC]

Chapter seven

''Hey. Hey. Get up.'' Grace had trouble to get awake as she laid in Newt's arms, rubbing her eyes as she glanced at Thomas. ''I see something.'' Multiple Gladers groaned or asked him what was wrong as he pointed in the distance. ''You see that? It's lights. We made it.''

Then came the lighting. They stared at it for a moment before Minho started running. ''Let's go. We gotta go. Come on. Come on, let's go.'' The group rushed after him. The sound was unbearable they never had to deal with lighting in the Glade and so Grace was not used to the loud sound and bright light.

She saw Newt and Frypan fall as Thomas helped them back on their feet, rushing towards the building ahead of them. Her ears were ringing as she turned around to see where her friends were, than she saw the explosion, right where Minho had been running. ''Minho!''

Thomas rushed to him as his clothes were consumed in flames. ''Come help him!'' Grace was next to him in a second, throwing sand on top of him as Aris and Newt pulled him up. ''Come on, get him up.''

They helped the boy inside as Grace slid on the ground next to him, trying to wake him up, shaking his body while trying to avoid the burns on his body. The others around him were calling for his name, yelling at him to wake up.

The boy finally groaned as Grace let herself fall back as Newt clapped her shoulder. ''There he is. Are you okay?''

''What happened?''

''You got struck by lightning.''

''Oh.'' Grace would have hit him if he wasn't burned. ''Come on, let's get him up.''

When night fell, only Grace, Newt and Thomas were still awake. The couple sat against a wall, Newt playing with Grace's hair as she was reading the notebook once again. "You okay, there?" Thomas asked. Grace looked up as Newt slowly turned to Thomas;

"Okay? Yeah, I guess I'm okay. We're alive—guess that's all that bloody matters anymore." The bitterness in his voice couldn't have been stronger. and Grace pushed the notebook away, grabbing onto his hand as she looked at him. It reminded her too much of the time where he yelled at her after his attempt. He was just like then, broken, defeated and stressed. 

"Sometimes I wonder," Thomas murmured.

"Wonder what?"

"If being alive matters. If being dead might be a lot easier."

"Please. I don't believe for one second you really think that." Thomas's gaze had lowered while he'd delivered the depressing sentiment and he looked up sharply at Newt's retort. Then he smiled, and it felt good. "You're right. Just trying to sound as miserable as you." Grace shot him a glare, happy that Newt changed the subject.

Newt gestured wearily toward Minho. "What bloody happened to him?"
"Lightning strike somehow caught his clothes on fire. How it did that without frying his brain I have no idea. But we were able to beat it out before it did too much damage, I think."

"Before it did too much damage? I'd hate to see what you think real damage looks like." Grace spoke as she shook her head. She had helped him earlier as much as she could, which wasn't much considering she didn't have the right tools. 

Thomas closed his eyes for a second and rested his head against the wall. "Hey, like you said—he's alive, right? And he still has clothes on, which means it couldn't have burned his skin in too many places. He'll be fine."

"Yeah, good that," Newt replied with a sarcastic chuckle. "Remind me not to hire you as my buggin' Medjack anytime soon."

"Ohhhh." This came from Minho, a long, drawn-out groan. His eyes fluttered open, then squinted as he caught Thomas's gaze. "Oh, man. I'm shucked. I'm shucked for good."

"How bad is it?" Newt asked him.

Instead of answering, Minho very slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position, grunting and wincing with every small move. But he finally did it, legs crossed beneath him. His clothes were blackened and ragged. In some places where skin was exposed, raw red blisters peeked

Thomas was right, most of Minho's face had been spared, and he still had all his hair—filthy as it was. It could have been worse, he could have died. "Can't be too bad if you can do that," Thomas said with a sly smile.

"Shuck it," Minho responded. "I'm tougher than nails. I could still kick your pony-lovin' butt with
twice this pain."

Thomas shrugged. "I do love ponies. Wish I could eat one right now." His stomach grumbled and
gurgled.

"Was that a joke?" Minho said. "Did Thomas the boring slinthead actually make a joke?"

"I think he did" was Newt's response.

"I'm a funny guy," Thomas said with a shrug.

"Yeah, you are." But Minho obviously had already lost interest in the small talk. He twisted his head around to take in the rest of the Gladers, still sleeping.

"Dude," Minho said. "How're we gonna fight our way through this city with only six people? There could be hundreds of Cranks in this place for all we know. Thousands. And we don't have a clue what to expect from them!"

Newt let out a big breath. "And that's all you can buggin' think about? What about the people who died, Minho? What about them?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Minho held his hands up, palms facing Newt. "Slim it nice and calm, brother. I didn't ask to be the shuck leader. You wanna cry all day about what's happened, fine. But that's not what a leader does. A leader figures out where to go and what to do after that's done."

"Well, guess that's why you got the job, then," Newt said. But then a look of apology washed over his face. "Whatever. Seriously, sorry. I just ..."

"Yeah, I'm sorry, too." Minho rolled his eyes, though, and Thomas hoped against hope that Newt didn't notice because his gaze had fallen to the floor again. Luckily Aris scooted over to join them. Grace desperately wanted the conversation to go in a different direction. Just to distract Newt from the depressing things that had happened since leaving the Maze, even before it. 

"Ever seen anything like that lightning storm?" the new kid asked. ''Didn't seem natural.'' Thomas answered. ''Even in my klunky memories, I'm pretty sure stuff like that doesn't happen normally."

''Well, who knows what could have happened.'' Grace spoke as heads turned to her. "Well, like the Sun flares, and the whole world burning like hell itself. That'd screw up the climate plenty enough to make crazy storms like that pop up.''

"Yeah, well." Newt pointed at the broken glass of the door, where the storm had ended. "Least it's over. We better start thinking about what we're gonna do next."

"See," Minho said. "You're just as heartless as me. And you're right."

The group was walking through the building when Teresa suddenly spoke up. ''What's that smell?'' She clicked her light on as a Crank carched at her, pushing the girl back to the boys. ''Behind you!'' Teresa yelled out as they all pushed each other back, shining their lights at the changed up Cranks. ''I see you've met our guard dogs.'' 

 ''Who's that?'' Frypan asked no-one in particular. ''Stay back! Stay back!'' Thomas yelled at them, resulting in Grace hitting the fall while Newt stood in front of her.

''You guys look like shit.'' A girl with a pixie cut spoke as she stood in front of them, looking them up and down before nodding to the doorway. ''Come on. Follow me.'' No-one made a move and so the girl turned around, lifting an eyebrow. ''Unless you want to stay here with them.''

I wanted to show more of the aftermath of what happened to the Gladers and so I decided to add this scene of the book. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you did, please leave a vote, comment and add this book to your reading list to stay updated! See you on Saturday!

-X Violet's-library