The Paradise Cove - What happened after The Death Cure (ON HOLD)

Chapter 1- The Symbols

It has been a year since they all walked through the Flat Trans to this Paradise. Thomas promised himself never to tell Minho about Newt, but Minho still talks about him and he always wants to know who killed him. Teresa, is what Thomas thinks about. Chuck, is who he mostly talks about. Newt, Thomas just can’t get those last three words out of his head ‘Please, Tommy. Please’.

The weather there is perfect, it rains sometimes but never bad. Never too hot or cold. Perfect. Thomas was sitting on one of the beach chairs resting when Brenda came over and sat next to him. “Hey, Tom.” She says, Thomas doesn’t exactly like her calling him that because of Teresa, but he ignores it. “Hey, Bren.” Thomas replied, ever since Thomas lost Chuck, Newt and Teresa he hasn’t been the brightest and the only person he talks to every single day is Brenda. He can’t said talk to Minho a lot because he gets a feeling of telling him about Newt, but he hasn’t yet. “What’s going on in that head of yours?” she asks and then Thomas sits up to look at her, “I think you already know,” he glazes at Minho who is with Frypan and he is obviously thinking about Newt. “You know Tom that Minho would forgive you. Just tell him. Show him the note that Newt gave you.”

Brenda grabs Thomas’s hand and he lets her and then he feels tears forming in his eyes, “No Brenda! He won’t forgive me, never! Even if I show him the note Newt gave me. He will never forgive me! NO ONE WILL!” Thomas didn’t mean to yell that loud, he didn’t realize that tears were dripping from his face until Jorge came over. “What’s wrong, Muchachos?” Thomas didn’t want to talk, “nothing you need to worry about, Jorge.” Brenda says, Thomas wanted to yell at him, but he couldn’t. “Brighten up Thomas, we are free from WICKED now,” Jorge said slapping Thomas on the back. Thomas tried so hard not to yell and to hold it in, but he couldn’t. “No, Jorge! It is not that! I did something no one would forgive me for! And I can’t handle it anymore!” Thomas yelled it way to loud because some people looked at him. Jorge sat down next to Brenda. “Like what? Killed someone who a friend was close to? Or what is it?” Jorge asked sarcastically, Brenda tried stopping Jorge, but she couldn’t. Thomas had more tears falling down his cheeks and gave Jorge and Brenda a nasty look and ran into the woods, to a certain tree that no one knows and can never find him when he goes there, he goes there to chill and calm down. The tree is about 50 meters into the woods.

Thomas sat down on the green and leafy ground and put his back against the tree that has Chuck’s, Newt’s and Teresa’s names into. Next to Chuck’s is a knife. Next to Newt’s is a gun. And next to Teresa’s is a wall, representing how they died. Thomas was about to fall asleep when he heard two voices, Brenda and Minho calling his name. With a jump, Thomas ran to the right of where he was sitting and stopped at a big, fat tree. He hid behind the tree and looked over towards the way he ran from and saw Minho and Brenda were staring at the tree with the names on it, he heard what they were saying because he wasn’t far away, maybe about 10 meters away. “What is this?” Minho asked Brenda, she then looked around and Thomas could tell she knew what it was but didn’t want to say anything. “Well, it looks like Thomas’s writing,” is all she said. “Yeah, but why the shuck are their names there? And with those things next…OH…what the shuck! This is how they died! Chuck was stabbed by Gally, Teresa had the Maze wall collapse on her. But how did he know how Newt died? Unless… he was there?!?!” Thomas saw that Minho get tears, and Minho doesn’t cry a lot. Brenda stood there silent, Minho turns to her and says “what? Were you there? Did you see who killed my best friend? Who shot him!?!?” Minho sank to the ground and rested his head on the tree, Brenda sat down too.

“Listen, Minho. I can’t say anything about it, but I do know that I can’t tell you if Thomas doesn’t let me. And I promise NOT to. And I guarantee that if he did tell you what happened, you would NEVER forgive him, even me. So, find him, talk to him. But I know that you won’t like one single part.” Brenda got up and left back to the beach. Even tho Brenda didn’t say what exactly happened, Thomas was still angry that she even said anything, she shouldn’t have. Thomas sat down at the tree and fell asleep. He woke up probably 1 hour after dark, he was maybe asleep for a few hours. He looked over to where Minho and Brenda were, but Minho was still there. Asleep. So Thomas started running and then made a loud noise. Minho woke up and started running back to the beach probably to his house. Since Thomas didn’t want to talk to anyone, he decided to sleep at the tree, like he does every so often. Every time Thomas tried closed his eyes, the image of Newt is there, every time. The words. The gun. The yelling. The bang of the gun. Newt falling. And him running to the van. So Thomas jumped up and ran deeper into the woods, he maybe ran for 10 minutes through the Maze of trees until he finally stopped. When he stopped he thought about what Newt told him, about him climbing one of the Maze walls, and then jumping off. It gave him chills every time. That is why he has the limp when he walks, well when he used to walk. Thomas put his hand in his coat because his hands were cold and felt the note. That Newt gave him. He read it for the thousandth time.

KILL ME. IF YOU HAVE EVER BEEN MY FRIEND. KILL ME.

Thomas felt the tears forming again, he looked at his watch and it was 4:29am and he hasn’t slept yet. Thomas made his mind blank and sat down and fell into a deep sleep. He then woke up by a loud noise that sounded like glass shattering, he looked at his watch and it showed 10:50am. He jumped up and stated walking back, until he heard the noise again and started running. It took him about 20 minutes, walking. Running. Walking. Running. And then again until he was back to the beach. He sat down at a beach chair and laid down and closed his eyes and then something blocked the sun from his eyelids, he opened his eyes and saw Gally and Brenda standing there, Brenda looked mad. But Gally, he looked happy. “Where did you go last night, shank?” Gally asked him, smiling still, Thomas didn’t have a good enough answer but he just said, “I went for a run in the woods,” That’s all he said, he looked at Brenda and gave her a kind of nasty look. “What? The whole night? We looked everywhere for you,” Gally said, he kind of looked a bit angry now, not much tho. “Umm, yeah. I sat down at a tree and fell asleep, sorry Gal.” Thomas tried acting normal, Gally smiled and walked away. Thomas thought that was easy. “Thomas, you need to eat, go to Frypan.” Brenda says, Thomas doesn’t answer or say anything to her, he just walks away. He got steak, warm carrots, potatoes and pasta and then walked to his house, trying to avoid everyone who spoke to him. He ate all his food and washed his plate. He felt hot, so he went for a swim. He swam a long way because he went past the safe point, so he swam back and sat in the water for a while and went to go for a shower, but Minho and Brenda stopped him. “Thomas, we need to talk.” Minho said, Thomas thought it is about Newt he stood there staring at them, “we HAVE to.” Minho corrected, of course Thomas didn’t want to, he didn’t want to tell Minho anything, he just wants to forget about it all. “Why?” Thomas asked, just to see what Minho would say, “Because, you were there when Newt was killed, you have to tell me EVERYTHING.” Minho said while he crossed his arms. “I don’t want to talk about it.” Thomas said sharply glaring at Brenda.