The Maze Runner Newt x girl Glader

Chapter 3: Winston's Death

I had a little trouble sleeping after all that. But I didn't want to tell the others especially Newt. So I try to get some sleep. The next morning, we wake up and notice the Cranks are gone. I notice Winston has a hard time getting up. I help him up along with Frypan.

"You okay, Winston?" I ask him in concern.

"Nah. Look at this." he answers as he lifts his shirt and shows a scratch mark from a Crank. It looks totally painful. I flinch at the sight.

"Ooh, my God. Are you gonna do this?" I ask him worriedly.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." he answers. I could tell he's trying to stay strong like me. I'm starting to feel guilty for not telling Newt about my struggles. But if I tell him and probably the others, I'd end up being called weak or they'd be protective over me 24/7 and I can handle being independent. I don't need help.

We start to walk on foot in the sandy scorch. We start to hear a noise.

"You guys hear that?" Thomas asks.

We look up and see helicopters from W.C.K.D. in the sky trying to find us.

"Guys, get down! Hide!" Thomas yells and we hide under a concrete slab. We wait for the helicopters to go away and they did. We come back and out we start to take a long walk in the sand. My feet are killing me and I am so damn thirsty. But I can't let the others know that. I hate suffering like this, but letting them know what I'm going through...they won't understand me since they're already letting go of all the pain and moving on but I can't. I can't let go.

We walk up a sandy hill and we see a city out in the distance. It's so far.

"We're almost there, guys. Let's go." Thomas says.

As we start to walk down the hill, Winston picks up his backpack and is the first to start walking before us and all of sudden he lost balance and collapsed on the sand and rolled down the hill.

"Winston!" Thomas alerts. We gather around Winston. He does not look so good. He looks worse than he did before. His lips are dry and chapped, his eyelids are getting dark, and his veins are starting to show. And his breathing sounds so hoarse. I lift his shirt a little bit and see the scratch getting worse. I gasp and let go of his shirt cuz of the sight of the scratch. Newt puts a hand on my back and looks at me in concern.

"Newt, I'm fine. Winston's in a lot of pain, he needs help. Not me, okay?" I say, trying to reassure Newt that I'm okay. Even though I'm suffering, I still care about my friends. I'd rather help them than help myself.

"What do we do?" Teresa asks, feeling helpless.

"I don't know. Winston. Can you hear me? It's okay..." Newt reassures Winston in his soothing voice.

Thomas spots something. It looked kind of like a wheelbarrow. We could use it to let Winston relax on it and we can drag it.

"Will he be okay?" I ask Thomas in concern.

"I hope so." he answers worriedly.

*time skip*

We find a place to rest for a little bit after all that walking for about an hour or two. I see Teresa standing alone. I go over to her. I get a little nervous to bring this up.

"Hey, Teresa?" I say.

"Yeah?" she replies.

"Do...Do you remember...our mother?" I ask her hesitantly.

She looks down and I can see in her eyes that she's suffering.

"Yeah. They gave us our memories back. I remember she had the Flare. You were really close to her and when I felt left out, you were always there for me and that I will always be your favorite sister." she says starting to tear up.

"I remember, too...That night when she died...I...I couldn't even explain how I felt after that..." I say, my voice cracking a little bit, trying to hold back tears.

"Hey, can...can I talk to Teresa alone?" Thomas asks me as he walks to us.

"Oh, sure. Go ahead." I say with honesty and with a smile. I didn't wanna talk anyway cuz I knew Teresa was about to ask me how I felt after our mother's death. I walk back to Newt, Frypan, Aris, and Winston. I sit down on my backpack by myself, trying to get everything that happened out of my mind, but failing to do so. I'm still trying to not think about them. I see Newt looking at me with concern. I fake a smile and mouth the words "I'm fine". As soon as Newt was about to walk over to me to check on me, a gunshot makes us jump. Winston has a gun in his hand and is trying to shoot himself, but Frypan is trying to prevent him from doing it.

"What's happening?!" Newt yells.

"I don't know! He had the gun in his bag and he tried to kill himself, but I...I tried to..." Frypan said while breathing heavily, trying to keep Winston from killing himself.

"Give me it!" Winston screams in anger. He has never acted like this before. Now he started to look like a zombie. We gather around Winston and look at him in confusion why he wanted to kill himself.

"It's growing...inside me...I'm not gonna make it..." Winston breathes out and lifts his shirt to show the scratch getting even worse. I flinch at the sight of it. I start tearing up at the thought of Winston dying.

No, we can't lose another Glader... I thought to myself.

"Don't let me turn into...one of those...things. Go without me..." Winston says weakly.

Newt walks over to him and puts the gun in Winston's hands.

"Thank you. Now...get...get outta here..." Winston breathes out, his voice getting hoarse.

"Goodbye, Winston..." Newt whispers and turns to us. I can see tears filling up in his eyes. I hurt me so much seeing him upset. But what hurt me even more was Winston dying. Frypan walks away with tears in his eyes. Teresa didn't really know Winston that much so she just walked away without looking at Winston, but I can see that she does feel bad. Aris walks away with a heartbroken expression on his face. I look at Winston with tears filling up my eyes, I try to fight back the tears. Winston looks in my eyes and knows that I'm trying to stay strong. He gives me a reassuring smile.

"It's okay...to...to cry, you know..." he tells me. He was right, but I still couldn't let it out. I nod in response and walk away. I see Winston look at Thomas one last time.

"It's okay..." he reassures him weakly.

"I'm sorry..." Thomas whispers and tears fill his eyes. He walks away and I rub his back, trying to comfort him. I was about to leave with the others until Winston called me.

"Jacqui...take care of them." he says as I nod in response.

"I will..." I say as my voice breaks and trying to fight back tears. I walk away with the others.

I hated the way we all turned our backs on Winston and left him to die. After a few minutes of walking, we hear a gunshot in the distance. He did it. He killed himself. The thought of Winston dead just made tears fill my eyes, but I still try to fight them back. I see Newt look at me with concern. He knows that I always need a shoulder to cry on when it comes to situations like these, but instead I'm taking it all okay and not having anxiety. This wasn't the Jacqui he knew.