Without A Choice // The Maze Runner [Book 1]

NINETEEN

"You slept with her?!" Newt barked as he slammed Thomas against the wall behind him.

"Newt-"

"Did you?!" he hissed, turning to me. I flinched at his tone but didn't answer. "Answer the damn question, Thomas!" Newt bellowed again.

"Are you sure you want to know the answer?" I stepped in between the two. Newt looked at me with a furious look in my eyes that scared me. I knew I had to answer his question at some point so I muttered out a tiny, "Yes." 

Shock etched his face as he stepped back. I looked down and felt the blood rush to my cheeks.

"How could you do this?" Newt's voice was soft but he was angrier than I had ever seen him before.

"Newt, she hasn't even taken the test, what if it's negative?" Thomas spoke up.

"You don't get to say anything," Newt snapped angrily. "How could you, Leah?!" The raging tone disappeared and was replaced with betrayal.

"I'm sorry, okay?" I exclaimed, flailing my hands in the air.

"Just take the damn test." Newt hastily ran his hands through his hair before stalking out of the room. Thomas and I were alone once again.

I turned to him. "What have we done?" I asked, tears welling up in my eyes.

"We've been stupid, but whatever comes out of that test, we'll handle it, okay? I promise." He pressed a kiss to my head and wrapped his arms around me. I laid my head on his chest and listened to his heartbeat. 

We stayed in that position for several minutes before I had gathered the courage to pull back and go to the toilet. The test didn't come with any instructions, but somewhere in my head, I knew how to use one of these. You had to pee on the end and wait for a few minutes. A minus meant not pregnant, a plus meant pregnant.

I took the test and went straight back to Thomas. "What're we going to do if it's positive?" I asked softly, almost afraid to ask.

"We'll figure something out. I'll get us out of here so we can have a proper life." He wrapped an arm around me and I leaned into his side.

We looked at the test and saw that the minutes had passed, I fearfully saw a plus had appeared. A choking sob left my mouth and I quickly clasped my hand over it. Thomas pulled me into his chest where I let out every emotion I had built up in my body.

***

"Hey, Alby," I muttered as I plopped down on the stool. He was vastly asleep and probably didn't hear me. "So, things have started to go off track. I broke one of our rules, Alby, and I'm so sorry." I had to fight back tears and took a second to breathe before continuing my story. Even though Alby didn't talk back, it felt good to talk to someone. 

"I tried to fight it but I couldn't. I love him, Al, I really do and I wouldn't do this to you if it wasn't worth it." I wiped away some stray tears and calmed myself down before speaking up again, "The box came up the other day. There was only a test inside. A pregnancy test. Turns out I'm pregnant," I said softly as I averted my eyes to the floor. "There's a human growing inside of me. I'm responsible for making sure this baby gets to live, but you and I both know this is not an environment for a child to grow up in. Thomas is going to get us out of here, Alby, I promise." 

I spent the rest of the evening sitting in silence with Alby until it was time to go to the gathering Newt had called.

I sat down next to Thomas but couldn't bear to look him in the eye.

"We've had an awful lot of gatherings lately, don't you think?" Newt asked no one in particular. "Well, for those who do not know why we're here, Leah's pregnant." Gasps were heard and I felt the blood rush to my cheeks. "This is a serious matter and we can't ignore it. This is not the right place for a baby to be born. Let alone grow up. That's why we're going to work extra hard to find a way out of here," Newt said. "But, you broke a rule and we punished Leah by throwing her from the Runners. Thomas, we need to punish you too somehow."

"I say we banish him," Gally spoke up. I looked at him with wide eyes and a dropped jaw.

"That's not an option, I'm not going to be responsible for a fatherless child."

Gally shrugged and turned to me. "Then we need to get rid of it. Think about it, it is going to do nothing but cause trouble for ev-" Before he could finish his sentence, Thomas had jumped to his feet and was now holding Gally by his collar against the wall. 

"Don't you dare to talk to her like that," he seethed, infuriated. 

Gally roughly pushed Thomas away and snarled, "Why not, huh? It's going to be completely useless." 

Involuntary tears blurred my vision and Newt stepped up to pull the two apart. Unconsciously, I had gotten up and decided to pull Thomas away from Gally. He held a murderous glare in his eyes as he crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall.

Newt continued after a few seconds of exchanging glares and glances. "That's not what we're going to do." He placed his hands on his hips. "There has to be a good solution for this. She's pregnant for Shuck's sake!" he exclaimed. I looked at him in confusion. Minutes ago, he'd been furious about my involvement with Thomas, and now, he was actually defending me. 

Gally huffed angrily before stomping out of the shack. 

Newt blew some air through his nose. "Why did you do that?" I asked softly. He looked up. 

"Why I defended you and Tommy?" I nodded once. "Because I heard you talk to Alby and now I see why you did it," he said, his voice low and quiet. "And you're my friend." 

"Thank you, Newt," Thomas spoke up. Newt replied by nodding shortly.

"Alright, here's the plan. Everyone who isn't doing anything important is going to be focusing on finding a way out. The Runners are going to go out again tomorrow and-" Newt's voice was drowned out by loud yells coming from outside. 

I looked around in question before we all dashed out of the room. Thomas ran up to Winston. "What's going on?" 

"It's the doors, they aren't closing," Winston replied before he too ran off. A cold shiver went down my spine. 

We gathered in front of the entrance but were startled as a loud noise sounded through the air. I whipped around and was frozen in place as I saw what had caused the sound.

The other doors were opening.