Promise Me ➵ Newt [3]

SIX | tommy loves trains

(Newt's p.o.v.)

▬Newt stared down at his arm, at the black, red and purple veins creeping along his skin like vines.

He made sure that everyone had already fallen asleep before removing his jacket - he didn't want anyone else to see his infection, though he was still wary whenever one of his friends shifted in their beds.

He sighed and glanced down, where Rosalind was sleeping on his lap. Her chest rose up and down in steady rhythms, her dark brown hair flowing down her cheeks and nose. He reached out a finger and brushed her hair back, revealing her face. He found himself observing every curve of her features, noticing the way her eyelashes curled up, the faint freckles that dotted her nose unevenly, the way her lips jutted out slightly, making it look as if she was frowning a bit.

Newt wanted to stay as far away from her as possible - what if he accidentally hurt her and got her infected? He knew that the chances of her catching the Flare was close to a hundred-percent, but he didn't want to be the one to infect her. He didn't know if he could handle the guilt.

There was a knock on the door, then it swung open and in stepped Gally. Newt quickly covered his infected arm with his jacket. Gally's eyes swept around the dim room, seemingly searching for something, until they landed on Newt.

"It's time to go," he whispered into the darkness. "Where's Greenie?"

"He's still sleepin'," Newt answered.

"Well, wake up him up, quick, we're heading into the city right now."

Gally disappeared behind the door. Newt moved Rose's head from his lap gently, careful not to wake her, and went over to where Thomas was sleeping on his mattress. He shook him by the shoulders and Thomas shifted, groaning.

"Come on, Tommy," Newt whispered. "Time to go."

Thomas rubbed his eyes and sat up. He stared around him with bleary eyes, then got up and joined Newt to the door after a moment's hesitation. Gally was waiting outside; he tapped his foot impatiently against the concrete floor and looked up when the two approached him.

"Finally," he said. "Now come on. You two ready to enter The Last City?"

Newt and Thomas exchanged glances with each other.

"As ready as we'll ever be," Thomas said.

-

Gally led the two into the sewers. Newt and Thomas were pretty skeptical about it at first until they realized they had no choice. They jumped down the sewer hole and followed Gally down the stinky underground tunnels, dark, murky water splashing at their feet as they walked.

"Are you sure that there's no other way that we could've used?" Thomas asked, wrinkling his nose.

"Slim yourself, Greenie," Gally said. Though he was walking ahead of them, Newt could imagine him rolling his eyes. "I'm quite frank you've been through worse situations than this."

"Hey, I'm human, okay? I'm allowed to be disgusted by sewers and dirty water."

"Can you two bloody shut up already?" Newt said irritably.

They complied grudgingly, Thomas rolling his eyes dramatically while Gally let loose a small sigh. They trudged along the sewer tunnels, their shoes wet from the ankle-deep water and the hems of their pants dotted with splash marks. Newt wondered what disgusting stuff was mixed in with the sewer water he was walking around in right now. He decided he didn't want to know.

Gally led them further down, and as the minutes passed by, Newt started to doubt himself. What if the old Keeper of the Builders was leading them into a trap? What if all of this was part of WICKED's plan to let down their guard and smuggle them into The Last City to have them get experimented on again?