Escaping This Ivy Nightmare

Chapter 15

It had now been three days since the girl in a coma came up and there was still no signs of her waking up. Audrey, Clint and Jeff had been spoon feeding her every chance they had, but the girl kept eating less each time they tried. And she had started groaning, mumbling on about things that they couldn't make sense of. 

Audrey was currently trying to get the girl to eat before she took a late lunch, but it wasn't going well at all. Minho and Alby had gone to check out the dead griever hours ago, and Thao had gone out for a bit too, but would be back any minute to work in the map room. And Newt had gotten Thomas up and ready to go see Zart this morning, and she hadn't seen him since. 

"Jeff, I've been feeding her for the last twenty minutes. She's only accepted two small sips, so I'm going off to lunch now." She called, waiting for his answer before she left the girl unattended. 

"Gotcha." Jeff called back, and Audrey took off out of the Med-Jack tent. She made it to the Kitchen just in time to grab the last few bits of things before taking her plate outside in attempts to find her friends. She found Newt rather quickly, but he didn't look too happy. 

"Hey. What's wrong?" She asked, noticing how deeply he was frowning as he stared at the doors. 

"They should've come back." 

"They'll get here. Maybe the griever was heavier than they predicted and it's taking twice the amount of energy they thought they needed. Or it could've taken them a while to find a good way to move it." Audrey suggested up solutions, but really she was getting a little worried herself. "It's Minho. They'll be here before the doors close." 

Newt turned to her with a nod and kissed her cheek, muttering something about going to see Thao before leaving her to eat her lunch.

By the time it was dinner, everyone seemed a little anxious for Alby and Minho to return. Newt had basically forced everyone to eat dinner, but wouldn't leave the doors that the two boys had left out of. Thao had returned at her scheduled time but remained in the map room, and now they were all just waiting to see the other two.

The doors would be closing soon, and Newt wasn't even bothering to hide his concern anymore. Audrey sighed from the table she was at with Thomas and Chuck. 

"I can't watch him do this much longer, he's going to go insane any second now." She mumbled, getting up and pushing her plate away from her. "I'm going over to wait with him. Boys?" 

"Right behind you." They answered.

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"Where are they?" Newt said, his voice thin and strained. Minho, you're cutting it so close this time, you shucking slinthead.

"Why don't we send out a search party?" Thomas suggested, looking frustrated. Slinthead. Who even are you. You don't just stroll into the maze five minutes before it shuts.

"Bloody he-" Newt took a few deep breaths. "We can't okay?" Thomas looked confused and started to protest. " You don't get it Tommy. We can't just go out into the shuckin' maze. You don't think I wouldn't risk my life in a second to save those lugs?" Newt sighed, running a hand over his face.

"Minho knows this place inside and out, he's too smart to get lost. There's a reason they're not back. They're dead." Newt spit the words, watching the other three flinch. 

Audrey glared at him, and then looked at Chuck. She put her hand on his shoulder, and started to guide him away from Newt, not wanting the boy to be scared. Newt didn't feel too bad. It was the truth, after all.

Newt stared at the maze, his stomach contorting into knots, a lump rising in his throat. "The doors close in two minutes." He informed Thomas, before turning away from the walls. He started walking away, head hung, tears threatening to spill. Shuck. He heard the grinding sound of the doors, but didn't dare to look back.

"Newt!" He heard Thomas scream his name just as he made it back to homestead. "They're coming, I can see 'em!" Bloody hell. Newt turned quickly, and ran as fast as his shuck leg would carry him. He could make out the distant shape of two people through the small gap the doors left. One of the was dragging the other, but he couldn't tell which was which, all he knew is that they weren't close enough to make it.

He watched as Thomas approached the walls, desperately trying to aid the pair along, without actually entering the maze. He's gonna go in, the bloody slinthead. He was halfway there when he saw a blur to his right. Thao was running full speed at the door. Thomas saw her too.

"Don't do it, Shanks! Don't bloody do it!" He called, but it didn't matter. Both Thao and Thomas disappeared into the maze, and the doors banged shut, leaving the four to the same fate Ben had experienced the night before. Newt's heart stopped. Literally stopped. He fell to his knees, gasping for air.

"Shuck." He screamed as loud as he could, falling forward onto his hands. Alby is dead. That newbie is dead. Thao is shucking dead. Minho, oh god Minho. Minho is dead. Not Minho. The tears were falling down his face so fast he couldn't breathe. Shuck. I'm the bloody admiral, pull yourself together slinthead.

A few seconds later Audrey was at his side obviously still trying to process and figure out what was going on, pulling Newt into a tight hug and doing her best to comfort him through her own tears. 

The other gladers had started to gather around them, whispering amongst themselves and staring wide eyed at the point but Audrey didn't really care. 

"I.." Newt tried to speak from his place in her lap, but it came out as a hiccup that was soon followed by more sobbing. Audrey tightened their hug as much as she possibly could without hurting either of them, and gently laid her head on top of his. 

"Shh..." She mumbled, glaring at anyone who tried to approach them. "You're allowed to need a few minutes, you don't have to do a thing right now." She whispered, hoping that everyone else would eventually back off and leave them alone. 

"Min.." Newt whispered, and Audrey barely heard him over the growing gossip of everyone else. "Minho and... they are all out there." He whispered, as if he was saying something she didn't already know.

 "We can't know what their fate is til tomorrow." 

"I know what their fate is. They're all bloody dead. No one survives a night in the Maze." Newt broke into sobs all over again, and Audrey just let him curl up in her lap and cry, every second breaking her heart more each time he did.