Remembrance (Newt X Reader)

Chapter 19~ Found You!

The trapdoor was found about half an hour later by a quiet girl, who had to repeat that she'd found it a few times before anyone actually heard what she'd said. She then had to be reassured that it was okay to accidentally step on it, which she only replied with a curt nod before shrinking into the growing crowd of girls.

"Everyone ready?" Harriet had asked. She got a few uncertain nods and quite a few shaking heads. She ignored this and turned back to the trapdoor that now lay open, only a gaping black hole in the floor. "I can feel a ladder," she muttered, lowering her legs down and kicking them out. "I'll go down first, then everyone else follow once I give the all clear. Understood?" You nodded when no one else did.

Harriet turned onto her stomach and slid back until her feet hit the top of the ladder with a clang. She climbed lower until only her head stuck out. For a few long minutes, all you heard was heavy breathing and the faint sounds of leather brushing against rusty steel, until Harriet called up, from what sounded like really far down. "There's light down here!"

You let the first few girls go in first but quickly followed them. It took your eyes a little while to adjust to the pitch dark, but soon you could see the blurred outline of the girl who was climbing down behind you, her boots only a few inches from your face.

Gradually, the area around you got lighter, and you could start to make out the damp walls and metal rungs you were clutching, which looked thousands of years old. You put the thought out of your mind, trying not to picture the thing pulling out from the wall and crumbling to the ground.

It probably took about ten minutes to reach the bottom, which was actually very well lit by the old light bulbs that hung haphazardly from the ceiling, swinging slightly when a gust of wind blew through. It was cold too, and you wrapped your arms around yourself and tried not to shiver. After all, it was still better than the blazing heat of The Scorch.

Walking in the dimly lit tunnel was a whole other story compared to your journey through the pitch darkness after stepping through the Flat Trans. And there were no flying metal death balls trying to eat girls' heads off. Well, at least you hoped there were none.

Echoing footsteps. Whispered conversations, drowned out by the rushing of cold wind through the narrow walls. You pulled your food pack farther down over your shoulder and glanced back at the line of girls behind you. Everyone was down the ladder now, and walking in labored steps as if they thought there was no point in carrying on. You shook your head and turned your gaze ahead.

Harriet called for a break around two hours later. You threw your pack to the ground and slumped down next to it, leaning your head against the wall and stretching your legs out in front of you. It was probably almost sunrise above ground, and you couldn't remember the last time you'd had a full night's sleep.

Ripping open your pack, you found a slightly bruised apple and two chocolate granola bars. As you tore off the wrapper of the first bar, you had to remind yourself that everyone had to ration their food and make it last as long as possible. You downed it in twenty seconds flat and reached for the next one.

Once you started on your apple and packed the food away again, you looked up and pulled your legs closer to your chest in a more comfortable position. All around you, girls were munching on stale bread and carefully taking sips from their makeshift water containers. Quite a few had popped, so they needed to be conserved more now more than ever. A few girls had gotten lucky and found a few jars of peanut butter in their packs, and were spreading it over their slices of bread.

Teresa only sat a few girls away, and in one quick movement, without any recollection of actually deciding to do so, you grabbed your food pack and half-eaten apple and marched over to her. She didn't look up until you were sitting right next to her, knotted sheet set between you. When she did, it was a scared, kind of glance, then an averted gaze back to the floor.