Chapter Eighteen:: The Shift

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—3rd Person—

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—3rd Person—

That night, not many spoke. The bonfire was postponed. Not many ate, even though Frypan busied himself with cooking instead of grieving a friend.

Zart was oddly silent. Though, having gone through the changing, his decaying brain was too full. Too loud to make any sounds of his own.

Elsie lay in her hammock alone in the hammock hut. In the dark. Wearing one of Minho's tee shirts and wrapped up in his blanket from his hammock.

She refused food. Didn't talk to anyone other than Newt and even then it was very minimal. She'd gone numb. Just like they thought she would.

Newt was trying his best. But that old nagging feeling in the back of his mind came back, causing him to rub away a dull ache in his messed up leg.

He wouldn't repeat his actions he'd done that day. Because he was lucky to have failed and it felt like some higher powers had prevented him from offing himself for a promise of better days.

And better days they did bring. Elsie. They brought his family to him. But took his friend like a brother.

He remembered how he'd made Minho promise Elsie's life and safety over his own. And he knew that had to have been his last thought. At least one of them. Probably next only to Elsie herself.

Newt had piled up a load of old cushions from a ratty old couch in the homestead and made them into a makeshift bed on the ground next to Elsie's hammock.

He'd had a funny feeling she wouldn't sleep the entire night and he wanted to be there to comfort her and keep her company.

He looked up at her from his propped up view on the floor and he frowned. Her cheeks were pink and shiny, dark bags moved in under her beautiful green eyes.

And she lay clutching tightly to Minho's pillow as she slept. Her face buried into the Minho scented fluff.

Something shifted in Newt that night. Something that told him they needed to find a way out of this place and fast. Before the Grievers decide to take any more of them.

At the meeting Alby had told the keepers about before everyone went to bed, he was going to give the greenie what he wanted. A free position as a runner. Because he didn't care.

They needed a beating heart and working lungs and brain to get through that maze. And Ben is the only real runner they've got left. Even then, he's just about as not here as Elsie is.

He was gonna get her out of the place no matter what it cost him.

—First Person—

"Red alert. Red alert. Intruder in the building! Red alert. Red alert. Intruder in the building!"

Gunshots rang out.

Blood was everywhere.

White coats stained red.

You Make Me Brave // Gally x OCWhere stories live. Discover now