Daughter of the Maze // Newt

Chapter Nine

"Rise and shine, bastard." I swung up the door
to the Slammer as the sun began to fall behind the walls. He didn't move. "Showtime, Stephen. Let's go." He stretched out an arm, and I shook my head. "Not happening. Get out on your own or I kill you right here." He grunted a curse under his breath and stood, climbing out of the pit at knifepoint. He made a move to grab my knife, but I drove my elbow into the front of his neck and sent him choking to the ground. "No funny business, you slimeball. I wanna see justice served."

He groaned on the ground. "Come on Minho, you evaluated me for Runner training. You know I won't survive a day out there."

I scoffed. "Yeah, that's the point. Now let's go before I get bored of just holding this." I flashed my knife between my pointer and middle finger.

Stephen pushed himself to his feet and walked alongside me, seemingly accepting his fate. Nope. Seconds later he made another move for my knife, and this time I stabbed him in the shoulder, not too deep but enough to elicit a cry of pain. "Ouch, what'd I tell ya? Cut the klunk." He whimpered the whole rest of the walk to the south door, where Alby, Clint, Jack and several other guys waited with sharpened sticks.

Ayla stood off to side, and Newt's arm tightened around her shoulder when he saw us coming. Winston was the only other bystander, and he was arguing with Alby, likely trying to bargain for his friend's life. I liked Winston; he was way too nice of a guy to be that loyal to such an asshole. I wouldn't be surprised if Stephen had threatened him at some point. I mean, dude was huge. Even I wouldn't feel the most confident trying to fight him. But that just made me angrier about what he'd tried to do to Ayla, who was easily and obviously the smallest person in the Glade. Yet somehow she'd been able to fight him off, even break his knee. Girl was scary as hell, that's for sure.

When we reached the door, I handed him off to Alby, who did a very bad job of pretending not to see the shoulder wound and nodded a grim thanks to me before offering me a stick, which I took. He gestured around the semicircle, indicating I could go wherever. I moved so I would be in front of Ayla and Newt to protect them if Stephen went crazy. As I moved, Stephen seemed to notice the pair for the first time. "You've gotta be kidding me. Him? Out of every guy in the Glade? Come on, sweetheart, he's fuckin' tiny."

Ayla's eyes narrowed and she stepped out from under Newt's arm, who also looked ready to kill the Slicer. "I'm not your sweetheart, you perv. Newt's twice the man you'll ever be, and he doesn't need to attack girls to get them to sleep with him. Go fuck a Griever." She spit out the final sentence with pure fury in her voice, then literally spit Stephen's direction.

My eyes had been getting wider and wider as she spoke, and I completely lost my shit when she spit at him, as did several other guys. Even Alby smirked a bit, and Newt looked at Ayla with absolute adoration. "Goddamn," I managed to get out between bouts of laughter. "There's no comin' back from that one, buddy. Might as well just walk into the Maze now."

He was absolutely seething, veins in his arms and neck popping out as Alby and Frypan moved him to the center of the circle, right in front of the door. "You're a whoring bitch, you know that?" He pointed with his face toward his shoulder. "My blood, this blood, is on your hands! How's it feel to be a murderer, huh?"

Ayla's face was steely as she marched past me, straight up to Stephen, who towered over her by nearly a foot. I saw my own concern reflected five times over in Newt's face, but Ayla held her ground. "How's it feel to be a dead man walking?" She almost whispered, and gestured to the doors. Stephen was practically foaming at the mouth with the effort he was exerting, trying to free an arm to hit her. She smiled and drove her knee up into his crotch with her full bodyweight behind it.

Stephen bellowed in pain, collapsing as Alby and Fry released his arms and moved to their positions in the circle. By the time Stephen could lift his head, we were already closing in and Ayla was back at Newt's side, clutching his arm tightly. "No. No!" His voice scared the birds out of the nearby trees and echoed through the Glade. He looked around the circle for anyone who had their guard down, then cast a desperate glance at Winston, who shook his head. His eyes then narrowed and landed on me, the one blocking his path to Ayla.

Alby must have seen his gaze shift, because he yelled "No!" and tried to run over to back me up, but not fast enough. The giant Slicer lunged at me, and I dropped my stick half a second too late. His fist collided with my head, and I felt the skin along my cheekbone split as I was knocked to the side, ears ringing and lucky to still be conscious. I tried to stand, but it was futile as my brain shook around in my skull. I was probably concussed.

Through the haze of pain, I saw the guys had formed another, more misshapen circle around two brawling figures. Newt and Stephen. The bastard knew Ayla would just kick his ass again so he went for Newt out of jealousy. As my vision focused a bit more, I made out a smaller figure on the edge of the circle, hands over her mouth in shock as Alby tried to prevent her from entering the fray. Then, Stephen landed a punch to Newt's chest and a loud crack echoed through the Glade. Ayla screamed and my friend doubled over in pain as the larger boy stood over Newt and knocked him fully to the ground.

Then, as quickly as she had climbed up my back the night before, Ayla scaled Stephen's huge frame and twisted her legs violently around his neck, used her arms for a bit more force, and snapped his neck with a loud grunt. Everyone went silent, and Alby's mouth fell open. I watched as the huge boy fell to his knees, then faceplanted into the dirt. Dead before he hit the ground.

Ayla barely glanced at the boy she had just killed, instead rushing to kneel over Newt. No one dared move as she rolled him over carefully and pressed her ear to his chest. A moment that lasted a century passed before she sighed in relief. "He's alive." She moved to his blood-covered face, cradling it gently in her hands as she finally broke down into tears. Clint and Jack took that as their cue to move in, one grabbing under Newt's arms and one around his ankles to move him to the Med-Jack hut.

Frypan gingerly put his hand on Ayla's shoulder, and she turned to throw her arms around him. He looked shocked, then lightly settled his big arms around her and patted her back as he helped her stand to follow Clint and Jack. That left the crowd of guys that had nothing to do with the fight, plus Winston and Alby. The latter saw me nearly konked out on the ground and walked over, crouching down in my face. Over his shoulder, I could see Winston standing over Stephen's body, an unreadable expression on his face.

"Hey, Minny." Alby patted my face gently. When I moved a bit, he looped an arm under mine and helped me stand. "Come on, dude. We'll take you to Fry for now. The Meds have bigger problems on their hands." I nodded, knowing Newt would need a lot more help than me. Alby helped me to the kitchen and had me lay down on the center island, then left and told me to wait for Frypan. I waited. For a long ass time, too. So long I actually fell asleep.

a/n

whomp, there it is. ayla's main moral obstacle has just taken place. all potential trauma aside, this chapter was both super fun and insanely hard to write because i love writing action but also royally suck at it. however, the amount of dead misogynists is another plus to this chapter. so yeah.

i originally had this and chapter eight written as one big chapter, but it was almost 3500 words and had a pov change right in the middle, so i split it. hope no hearts are broken about it.

anyway, see ya in the next one! stay safe and practice social/physical distancing if it's necessary to leave your house. much love <3