Free (Maze Runner fanfic Newtmas Newt x Thomas)

Chapter 3

Thomas felt... light. He tried to open his eyes, but all he could see was a grey mist; no maze, no faces, no homestead, just.. mist, swirling around even though he felt no wind. It was like he was staring into the eye of a storm cloud, but unable to feel its affects.

Nothing was happening. He just lay there, floating. Voices echoed in the air, voices that he didn't recognise nor could distinguish the actual words. Some were high pitched like a child, others deeper like an adult male. He tried to reach out and grab them, but he was just grabbing desperately at the air as they started to fade away.

Soon, they disappeared altogether and his vision darkened... then glowed red... then came the pain.

~*~

Newt was inside the map room with Minho, helping him with the new maze layout when a wail made Minho jump and his pen slid across the page. "Shuck it! Who's making such a stupid noise? Is Thomas going through the changing now?"

"I'll check!" Newt cried before Minho could interject, running out the room and sprinting across to the homestead where other gladers were trying to get in to see. "Out of the way, shanks!" He shouted over their yelling, pushing his way through the crowd.

Chuck was stood outside. "Alby isn't letting me in, he says something weird is up with him."

Newt frowned and opened the door just wide enough for him to squeeze through, not letting Chuck see anything. Newt knew what was wrong immediately. This was no ordinary changing. Instead of being covered in veins and skin a sickly green, Thomas' skin was red. A glowing red; the type of glow of when you put your thumb over a torch. Veins covered almost his entire body, but they were black; whenever his mouth closed after a scream of agony, blood would bubble in his mouth and dribble out; his teeth were stained with it, you could see them as he gritted them together to try and fight the pain. "What.. What is this?" Newt asked in disbelief.

"Not a clue. We suspect it's from that new creature you described, even though he's been stung my grievers as well; but something has happened in his body to make this happen. It's the best bet for now." Alby said after a particularly loud scream so Newt could hear him.

Newt sat on the floor beside Alby, head near his knee. "Are the medjacks trying anything? I know they've used the serum but clearly it's triggered some sort of change, just not the one we wanted."

"They're trying to pretend it's a normal changing. Laissez-faire, my friend."

"So there's nothing we can do but wait it out?" Alby nodded.

"I'll leave you with him." Alby gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "I can tell you like to spend time with him." Newt felt his cheeks heat up and he turned the other way.

Thomas let out another scream, his hands grabbing fistfuls of the covers he lay on top of. A medjack place a new cold cloth on his head, but it didn't do much to calm his growing fever. Beads of sweat covered his skin, his clothes slightly damp from it.

Newt put his hand over Thomas' and that seemed to calm his ever so slightly, loosening the fist he was touching. "I'm here for you Tommy." Newt said, voice drowned out by his scream. "To the bitter end."

~*~

Four days had passed and the screams continued. The usual changing only lasted a day or two and they'd wake up on the third, but Thomas had just been screaming.. for four days straight. On the bright side, his skin reduced its glow and was turning the green they knew much better, his veins were their normal colours, and he no longer drooled blood.

All the gladers were sick of it, even Newt at this point. Those who didn't like Thomas wished the doors hadn't opened and he died over there, but others like Chuck and Minho, Chuck especially, were grateful he was sticking around. Alby said he couldn't care less, and Gally wanted to throw him out there while they still had the chance.

There was one thing on everyone's mind; why hadn't the grievers killed him? Or the creature? Granted, they didn't know Thomas' story of what he'd been doing all day and night stuck in the maze, he never got to explain himself at the window.

With no signs of the creature, the runners continued their jobs a couple days ago, quite grateful for the rest, but now they ran in pairs in case of finding the creature. However.. it didn't help. Only five returned that night; two were found dead together, and Minho was losing blood and fast.

Alby had been the one to run out and carry him back, finding the same back wound as Thomas had; the one from the new creature. This confirmed their thoughts of it coming out in the day, which made things so much more dangerous than they already were, so Alby was going to have a meeting with Newt and Gally to decide on whether they should stop the runners from running anymore, to conserve numbers.

The supplies for the new month arrived, which had two new needles inside that contained purple liquid. They came with a note, labelled 'Mourner', so that's the name they gave to the creature. The medjacks gave it to both Thomas and Minho, and Thomas seemed to calm down from it, but Minho was still in the unconscious stage as his skin began to glow red.

Gally theorised that the creature was targeting the leaders one by one, and maybe he was right. How long until Newt, Alby, Winston, Frypan, or the other keepers got attacked? As long as nobody left the glade, and nothing came in, they should fine... Hopefully.

~*~

It was day five, and Thomas had finally stopped screaming.. while Minho had just started. Some people felt like they were going stir crazy from it. Normal changes seemed like nothing in comparison, this Mourner was ten times worse; the screams were just so loud.

Minho had never been one to feel pain, so the runners were extremely cautious leaving each morning, but most of them refused to go anymore. "Alby, I'm going to sit with Thomas for a while."

Alby gave him a dismissive wave, not really caring since he visited at least once a day already. His screams were etched into his mind, the pain on his face carved into his eyes, the feeling of his veins bumped up imprinted on his fingers. Looking at him almost gave Newt physical pain.

He was just heading upstairs when a medjack came out the room. "Oh, Newt. Great timing."

"Why? Is something wrong with Minho?" They both winced as they heard another shriek.

"No, Thomas is awake, and he's asking for you."