"Is it over?" Chuck asked after the video ended with the woman shooting herself, leaving them more confused than before. They saw her body lying right where she was in the video.

"She said we were important," Newt said. "And what are we supposed to do now?"

"I don't know." Thomas's shaky voice replied to both of their questions. He couldn't think of anything. He looked around and saw his friends.

The only thing that matters is that we are all together. Thomas thought. "Let's get out of here."

"No." A voice came from behind them. It was Gally. He had a gun and the device which activated the door in his hands.

"Gally?" For a moment, Thomas was happy to see him alive until, "Don't." Teresa stopped him. "He's been stung."

"We can't leave," Gally said.

"We did. Gally, we're out." Thomas saw Gally's hand shaking in which he had a gun. "We're free."

"Free?" Gally asked. "You think we're free out there? No. No, there's no escape from this place." He pointed his gun at them.

"Gally," Frypan said. "Man, what're you doing?" He sounded defeated. "Put that gun away."

It looked like Gally didn't listen to what Frypan just said.

"Gally, listen to me. You're not thinking straight." Thomas tried to talk to him, his voice trembling. "You're not. Now, we can help you. Just put down the gun."

"I belong to the maze," Gally said.

"Just put down the gun." Thomas repeated, words sounding stressed.

"We all do." Gally said and a rough sound ringed in the air.

No one saw what happened as it happened so quickly. Gally fell to the floor with a spear on his chest. It was Minho's. He acted on instinct and saved all of them from Gally.

Everyone was shocked. They all stared at Gally's body lying in front of them.

"Thomas..." Chuck called.

"Chuck." Thomas looked at him and saw blood flowing out of his body. "Oh, shit. Shit!"

Gally shot him. He quickly put his hand over Chuck's gun wound. "Look at me, look at me!"

Everyone stood there looking shocked not knowing what to do. Thomas kneeled beside Chuck trying to stop his bleeding.

"Oh, shit!" Thomas couldn't believe it. "Chuck, look at me, all right? I got you, buddy. Just hang on. It's okay."

"Thomas," Chuck took out the thing he was carving in the Glade. He put it in Thomas's hands. "Thomas..."

"No, Chuck. You're gonna give it to them yourself." Thomas told him.

Teresa fell on the floor near Chuck's feet, covering her mouth.

"Remember, I told you that." Thomas continued, forcing his words with all his energy left.

"Take it," Chuck said, pushing it into Thomas's hands.

"No." Thomas couldn't form any sentence.

"Thank you. Thank you." Chuck repeated his voice out of breath.

"No, Chuck, you're gonna get-" Thomas lost his voice as Chuck stopped breathing.

"Chuck." Thomas repeated his name. "Chuck? Hey. Hey, Chuck, come on!" Tears fell out of Thomas's eyes. "Come on, wake up!" Thomas kept calling him to wake up.

Teresa started crying. She tried to control her sobs but failed.

"Damn it!" Thomas cried in muffled sound with his face hidden.

Newt forced his hand over his mouth to control his sobs. Chuck was just a small kid. He never thought he would have lost him one day. Chuck's images inside the Glade flashed through his eyes and his tears let go.

Minho forced his eyes shut, not able to see the scene in front of him, thinking if only he would have been fast enough.

"We made it. Come on." Thomas cried, still hoping for Chuck to wake up. He looked up at Chuck's face. "I'm sorry!"

"God damn it!" Thomas's voice echoed in the silence. "Damn it!"

Suddenly, a group of soldiers came through the door at the end of a corridor and started surrounding them.

"Thomas." Teresa called his name, but he paid no attention.

The soldiers made everyone walk out of the door forcefully. But because Thomas still didn't move, neither did Newt.

"Chuck! Get up, Chuck! Come on! Chuck!" Thomas was still hoping for Chuck to get up and walk with them.

Two soldiers dragged Thomas away from Chuck and pushed Newt to move ahead of them.

"You can't just leave him there!" Thomas yelled.

Newt turned around to look at Thomas. He saw one soldier moved towards the biggest screen in the room and took one file from the pile of hundreds lying on the desk below it.

He couldn't see much as they started half dragging him too. He got control of his body and walked faster. When he reached the end of the corridor, he felt his skin burning. He tried to adjust his eyes to bright sunlight reaching his eyes and found himself in a boiling desert.

There was a helicopter in front of him in which his friends were being seated. He reached the helicopter and turned around to see if Thomas was still there before getting inside.

Those soldiers practically threw Thomas inside the helicopter and quickly shut the door close. Thomas immediately moved to sit next to Newt. Newt massaged his back to calm him down and breathe evenly.

"You guys all right?" One soldier removed his mask and asked them after shutting down the door. But no one among them was able to get a voice out of their mouths.

Everything happened so fast that Newt didn't get the time to think about who these people were or where they were taking them.

"Don't worry. You're safe now." The soldier said and strapped himself into his seat.

Newt could only hope to believe his words.

The helicopter took off, leaving some of the soldiers there. Newt looked out of the window and everyone else leaned in behind him to see it - the Maze.

It was gigantic, in the middle of the desert. They found that a bigger area surrounded their maze, where maybe WCKD conducted experiments. Watching it from above made Newt realize they spent three years in here and still there was so much of it they never saw before.

How much bigger this WCKD was? Newt thought. Who are these people? How did they take down such a big organization? His mind got busy with these questions.

"Relax, kid." The soldier said, looking at him. "Everything is gonna change."

No one said anything. They couldn't. They didn't want to. They didn't know whether to be relieved that they're finally free or to be sad for all the life they lost today or to be worried about where they were being taken.

Thomas clutched what Chuck gave to him tightly in his hands and let his tears flow. Newt put a hand on top of his and Thomas quickly gripped it. He put his head on Newt's shoulder, tears still flowing out, and closed his eyes shut. Newt softly rested his head on top of Thomas's. Thomas didn't let go of Newt's hand for the rest of the flight.

They were in the air for almost two hours. It was getting dark outside now. Thomas fell asleep on Newt sometime during their journey. Newt didn't move at all during that time because he didn't want to wake Thomas up.

Newt saw that all of his friends were asleep except him and Minho. They both were wide awake. Newt couldn't sleep because rest was far from what he wanted. What he wanted was answers, to everything.

Whereas Minho had no sign of sleep because after being treated like lab rats, he was not sorry for the fact that he didn't trust these soldiers. He spent his journey looking out of the window, seeing the outside world.

Newt found out that they reached their destination as the helicopter started losing altitude.

"Okay, get up everyone!" The same soldier said.

Everyone slowly woke up except Thomas. Newt tried waking him up, but he didn't. He got worried. He saw the thing Chuck gave him covered in blood lying next to them. Newt picked it up and put it inside his pocket. They landed, and some soldiers surrounded the helicopter waiting for them outside.

"Run as fast as you can. Okay!" the soldier said and opened the door after putting his mask on again.

"Tommy!" Newt again tried waking him up but a soldier dragged him outside. He continued dragging all of his friends and told them to run to the enormous building which was near them.

"Minho!" Newt motioned him to wake Thomas up as he made all his other friends go before him.

"Thomas!" Minho shouted. "Thomas, wake up! We gotta go! Come on!"

Thomas finally woke up and left the helicopter with Minho running in front of him. More soldiers came from inside the building and surrounded them.

"Let's go! Let's go! We gotta go!" One soldier asked Thomas. "You all right? You all right?"

Thomas just nodded to the answer still confused as to what was going on. "Wait, wait, wait!" He said and went back to look inside the helicopter to find something.

"Where are you going?" One soldier asked. "We don't have time!"

"Tommy!" Newt called out, and Thomas turned around. "It's with me!"

Thomas didn't get the time to think. He just trusted Newt to know what he was looking for and believed he was saying the truth.

"Come on! Get out of here!" The soldier pushed him to run.

"Cranks! We got Cranks!" some soldier in distance yelled, stealing everyone's attention. The 'thing' they saw made Newt, Minho, and Thomas froze and feel disgusted. Half-dead zombie-looking people ran towards them through the desert.

"Gotta move! Not safe out here, kid!" the soldier told Thomas and shot one of the zombies they called cranks. Thomas ran behind Newt and Minho.

"Go, kid! Go, go!" another soldier said and helped Thomas run inside. "Set a perimeter! Hold them back on the right side!" He ordered his fellow soldiers.

Newt and Minho were turning back to look at Thomas again and again, to see if he's okay or didn't get left behind. But the soldier with him took care of that. "Come on, kids, let's go! Let's go! Move it!" He told Newt and Minho. "Come on! Keep moving! Keep moving!"

Just as they reached inside the building, the thick walls closed behind them reminding them of the walls in the maze. But inside of the building didn't remind them of the maze at all. It looked like an army base with weapons and machinery being transported here and there.

The Gladers looked around the building in amazement as they didn't get enough time to be amazed by its massive size from outside.

Some soldiers came and escorted them to a room silently. They didn't reply when asked where they were taking the gladers. Once they got inside, they didn't spend time realizing how big the room was as they were distracted by the table lying in the middle of the room which was covered with a lot of food.

For a moment all of them just stared, until Frypan shouted, "Dibs on the rice." and ran towards the table.

Everyone followed quickly and surrounded the whole table. They didn't even remember that they spent the entire day eating nothing until this moment.

Without wasting any time, everyone stuffed their mouth with the delicious food in front of them. They didn't have proper food like this in what they remembered to be forever.

"It's way better than Frypan's slop." Winston said and earned some laughs.

"Fry's cookin' is still better than Teresa's," Newt said and everyone laughed except Teresa, who frowned. "Hey!"

Teresa laughed a little later as she threw some rice on Newt, which resulted in a hilarious food fight among all of them. Everyone threw anything they can get their hands on and threw at each other. Frypan tried to stay away from all of them as much as he could so he could enjoy his fried rice in peace.

Everyone laughed and enjoyed it. For a moment, they became small children and forgot all their problems.

It was after they finished eating that they took in their surroundings. It looked like a storage facility. Minho moved towards a clean table and lied down on it. Everyone else followed him sat down somewhere their food fight hadn't left an impact.

Newt sat down on a pile of sacks lying beside the table Minho was on. Teresa sat down beside him and Thomas in front of them.

Frypan, still eating his rice, sat down behind Thomas. "I don't know who these guys are, but they can cook."

"But who are they really though?" Teresa asked. "I mean we don't know anything about them."

"Well, we know they're no friends of WCKD." Newt said.

"That's good enough for me," Minho said, getting up. "You guys think too much. We're free. Enjoy it."

Just like that, all the suspicion Minho had on these people flew away. All of the Gladers felt safe, felt free.

We're free. Newt repeated Minho's words inside his mind. We're finally free. Maybe... Newt looked at Thomas and he felt some fluttery feeling inside him. No! What the hell are you thinking! You have no idea what's going on! You don't know if you're actually free or not. Newt argued with himself while staring at Thomas.

Thomas looked at Newt and met his eyes. Oh no! Now he saw you staring at him. Good job! What will he... Newt's thought disappeared as Thomas gazed deeply into Newt's eyes as if trying to tell him something. He couldn't understand what his look said but Thomas's gaze felt like a magnet to him, pulling Newt towards him.

But before Newt could give into the unknown force and close the distance between him and Thomas, the door of their room opened and a rat-like-looking man came inside. Everyone got up and gathered in front of him.

"You kids doing all right?" The Rat man asked and without waiting for them to reply, continued. "Sorry about all the fuss. We had ourselves a bit of a swarm."

"Who are you?" Thomas asked.

"I'm the reason you're all still alive." The Rat man replied. "It's my intention to keep you that way. Now, come with me. We'll get you kids squared away."

He walked out of the room, and everyone took a moment before following him.

"Do you have a name?" Newt asked.

"You can call me Mr. Janson. I run this place. For us, it is a sanctuary, safe from the horrors of the outside world. You all should think of it as a way station. Kind of a home between homes." Janson told them while taking them through a place that looked like was still being built.

"That means you're taking us home?" Thomas asked.

Newt felt a little happy hearing his words, home.

"A home of sorts," Janson said. "Sadly, there wouldn't be much left of wherever you came from."

And Newt's happiness faded like it never was there.

"But we do have a place for you. A refuge, outside the Scorch, where WICKED will never find you again." Janson told them.

This means WCKD is still out there, looking for us. Newt thought.

"How does that sound?" Janson asked.

"Why are you helping us?" Minho asked.

"Let's just say the world out there is in a rather precarious situation. We're all hanging on by a very thin thread. The fact that you kids can survive the Flare virus... makes you the best chance of humanity's continued survival. Unfortunately, it also makes you a target, as no doubt by now you've noticed." Janson said and stopped right in front of a door. He swiped a card on the lock beside the door, which opened it.

"Beyond this door lies the beginning of your new lives. First things first... let's do something about that smell." He said and opened the door to a completely built area that looked like a mixture of a school and a hospital with very advanced technology.

A woman who looked like a doctor came to them and took Teresa. While Janson continued to take the boys to a different room. Thomas wasn't much happy at their separation but didn't fight it. Janson again swiped his card two different times before reaching their destination.

It was a big room with six bunk beds assembled with the wall. Three on both sides with enough space to move in between. The room only had two doors and one big closet. The second door was on the far end of the opposite wall and the closet was beside it.

"This is where you will sleep. There is the bathroom." Janson said, pointing at the second door. "It has everything you will need. You can find fresh items to wear in that closet." Janson said and was about to go outside the room.

"Wait!" Newt said. "We still need some answers."

"You will be told everything we can tell you tomorrow. It's getting late right now and I have some urgent things I need to take care of." Janson told him. "So, I'll leave you now." and he left closing the door of their room.

Frypan went ahead, opened the closet, took some clothes, and headed for the bathroom. After him, all the boys rushed to the shower, taking a fresh pair of clothing with them according to their sizes.

Thomas was the last one. It surprised him that the closet became empty after he took his stuff. It was as if the closet was filled with the exact amount of things the Gladers would need.

He didn't think much about it and went inside. It was the same size as the room outside with a line of small stalls attached on the two opposite walls and sinks attached to the wall between them. Everyone occupied the stalls on the left side as they were the ones with a shower.

Thomas saw his reflection on the big mirror above the sinks and went closer. It was the first time he saw himself. He looked older than he expected himself to be.

Thomas got out of his clothes, stepped into the nearest shower, and closed the door behind him. He put his new clothes on the railing which already had a towel hanging on it.

He turned the shower on and relaxed as the warm water sliding through his body helped ease his physical pain.

Thomas put a hand on the wall in front of him for support. Standing there feeling the water flowing through him, his mind started questioning.

What is going on in the world right now? What will happen now? How would that safe place look like? WCKD's still looking for us. Is that place actually safe? What will we do there?

After a while, his mind reminded him of Chuck's death. Chuck's face right before he died in his arms came into Thomas's view. Big tears formed in his eyes and he wasn't able to stop them.

He lost the track of time standing there letting his tears vanish with the flowing water.

"Thomas! Are you trying to drown yourself in there?" He jumped a little hearing Minho's voice coming from a far distance from his stall.

"Shut up, Minho." Newt's faded voice came. "Tommy, are you okay?" This time, his voice was clear and sounded concerned.

"Yeah! yeah just." He tried to sound like he didn't have a long crying session. "Give me a minute."

He quickly dried himself and wore his fresh clothes as he heard the sound of the door closing which told him that his friends went outside the bathroom.

When he stepped out of his stall, he found Newt standing there with his back facing Thomas and arms crossed in front of his chest. Newt turned around when he heard Thomas's footsteps. "Everything alright?" He asked with a worried expression.

Without giving it any thought, Thomas quickly closed the distance between the two of them and hid his face in Newt's shoulder. He cried all his heart out. He couldn't control himself.

He felt Newt's arms wrapped around him and caressing his back. "It's, okay. Let it all out." Thomas cried for a long time, hearing the calming words that Newt whispered in his ear.

Gradually his breathing evened and he turned his head a little so that he could speak. "I.. I couldn't save him. It's my fault." Thomas said in between his sobs. "It's all my fault, Newt."

"No! It isn't your fault, Tommy!" Newt told him, emphasizing his words. "None of it is your fault. You are the one who saved us all." Newt's hold on him loosened a little.

Thomas pulled back just enough to see Newt and rested his hands on his chest "But Chuck-"

Newt tightly held Thomas's shoulders. "Chuck was your friend, and he was very brave. He chose to give up his life for you. I'm pretty sure he didn't want you to waste it on things you could or couldn't do in the past. Respect his choice." Newt waited for Thomas to say something.

Thomas nodded a little, saying nothing, and again rested his head on Newt's shoulder. He didn't want to move away from him, not now at least. He felt Newt resting his cheek on top of his head and holding him closely. Thomas let out a deep breath. His heart felt light now that he cried it all out. He just wanted to stay like this.

"You're hot." Newt's words came out of nowhere, making Thomas's whole body red.

Newt pulled him back a little and place his hand on his forehead. "Are you having a fever?" He asked with concern.

"Oh! uh..." Thomas cleared his throat. "No, uh.. I just had a hot shower.. so.."

Thomas. mentally slapped himself and thought, What is wrong with you?

Newt was about to say something but unfortunately, "What are you two doing in there?" came Minho's voice, making Thomas jump a little. He got out of Newt's arms and hated the cold shivers and emptiness he felt after that.

"We're having a dance battle! You wanna join!" Newt replied with a frown, earning a soft chuckle from Thomas.

"I would destroy you both!" Newt rolled his eyes at Minho's words as he hadn't expected a reply from him.

Newt held Thomas's wrist. "Come on, Tommy." And took him outside. Thomas felt like a five-year-old but didn't complain. He looked at their hands and noticed that Newt had wrapped a piece of cloth around his wrist.

"I would destroy all three of you." They heard Frypan's voice as they made their way to their beds. They saw everyone was already settled on their respective beds and some had already gone to sleep.

Newt without letting go of Thomas reached an empty bed which was beside Minho's and Frypan's. Minho was about to say something which, judging by Newt's expression, he didn't want to hear.

Newt turned around and let go of Thomas's hand as he took something out of his pocket. His expression softened as he gave it to him. "Here, it fell out of your hands on the helicopter."

It was the wooden relic Chuck gave him. Thomas took it from Newt. "Chuck made it for his parents. He wanted me to give this to them for him." He told him.

Everyone went silent and looked at Thomas. He sighed heavily "I'll always keep it safe for him." And he sat down on his bed. Newt climbed up to the bed on top of Thomas.

Everyone was exhausted so it didn't take a long time for them to fell into a deep sleep. Except for Thomas. A feeling of emptiness didn't let him sleep. He stared up at the back of Newt's bed on top of him.

"Newt?" Thomas whispered unconsciously and felt stupid. He's probably asleep. Why the hell are you calling him right now? Thomas asked himself.

Suddenly, Newt's head appeared looking upside down from the side of his bed. "You called?" Newt whispered.

"Yeah." Thomas whispered back staring amazedly at Newt's hair hanging down.

"Can't sleep?"

Thomas just shook his head. Newt's head disappeared for a second before he saw him climbing down his bed. Thomas felt happy for a reason he didn't know.

Thomas sat up and folded his legs to give Newt some space. Newt settled down in front of him with his back adjusted to the wall and his arms resting above his knees, toes crossed.

"What're you thinking?" Newt asked.

Thomas thought about it for a moment before saying, "I don't know. I don't feel... okay. I thought we'll be free once we leave the maze. But now there's like a pandemic going on outside and the earth is pretty much destroyed. I mean that Janson guy told us he'll take us somewhere safe, but... I don't know..." He searched for words to express what he was feeling but couldn't find any.

"I get it," Newt said. "Things are more shitty here outside."

"Exactly!"

"Well, look at the bright side, we're all immune to that virus. And we're all together. Everything'll be fine once we reach that place outside the scorch Janson said about."

What will happen once we reach there? We won't have to separate there. Would we?

"Don't leave me once we get there." Thomas mentally punched himself for once again speaking without giving any second thoughts.

"I won't." Newt said sincerely, looking at him before turning his gaze to the front.

Thomas didn't know why he was expecting anything different. Newt always knew what to say to him. Hearing his words put a feeling of relief in Thomas.

Suddenly a sad expression appeared on Newt's face. Thomas followed Newt's gaze and found out that he was looking at Winston, sleeping with his back to them on the bed in front of them.

"I'll talk to him." Newt said.

"Winston? Why?"

"Jeff." Newt said without looking at Thomas.

"Jeff?" Thomas asked. He thought for a moment. "Were they... like.. together?"

Newt looked at Thomas in disbelief. "You didn't know?" Thomas remained silent feeling like an idiot. "They were constantly with each other inside the Glade. Mostly because Jeff had to patch him up every time he cut himself." A soft chuckle escaped his mouth. "Now that I think about it, he probably faked most of his wounds." Newt frowned.

"It must be really hard for him... to lose someone that close." Thomas felt sorry. "He must be devastated."

"Yeah," Newt muttered. "But gotta move on, right. At their own pace but have to move on." Thomas felt miserable just thinking about that.

"Hey! What are you Shanks talking about?" Minho whispered from the end of Thomas's bed giving both of them a mini-heart attack.

Thomas reached out for Newt and clutched his knees while Newt had one hand over his chest and the other on Thomas's shoulder.

"Minho!" "Dude!" Both of them whispered loudly at the same time trying not to wake the others. They wondered when he got there.

Minho grinned before settling down beside Newt crossed legs. "So? What were you doing?"

"Nothing. Just couldn't sleep." Thomas replied.

"Yeah, me too," Minho said.

"Good, I have to tell you something," Newt said. Thomas and Minho both got curious to know what he was going to say. "I- Thomas and I saw something, back at the lab outside the maze."

Thomas had completely forgotten about that. He tried to remember what he saw. Newt and he told Minho everything about how they found out that video and what they saw in it.

"So, you two knew each other before the maze." Minho asked.

"Yeah, it looked like it." Thomas replied.

"You both were best friends way before the maze even started." Minho repeated.

Thomas gave him a puzzled look. "We're not sure but maybe, yeah."

"Okay." Minho said.

Newt rolled his eyes. "Minho."

"What?"

"We just explained to you that whole thing and that's the part which you question."

"You knew each other!" Minho said.

"Well, it's not like we remember that." Thomas felt hurt listening to Newt's words. He wanted to remember what they were like before? How close they were before? What was he like? What did he do?

"They locked me up, I think." Thomas said. "They locked me up because I did something... And then they sent me to the maze." He looked at Newt. "What do you think I saw on my computer that hurt me.. so bad that I betrayed them."

Newt hesitated. "I... don't know."

"Wait!" Minho said. "When was it? Your last day at that lab."

"Judging by my looks in that video, maybe about a year ago." Thomas said.

Minho looked at Newt. Newt turned his head to Thomas. "So they kept you locked up for a whole year. Why not send you to the maze just then?"

Thomas thought about Newt's word. He was right, they could have sent him up anytime. Why wait?

"I don't know... I just keep thinking what was it that I saw. It was bad enough to make me betray the people I work with."

Newt didn't say anything so Minho did, "You were working with WCKD. Everything they did was horrible."

Newt thought for a moment and sighed, then looked at Thomas. "Whatever you did, it probably was for a good reason."

"Yeah, that's why WCKD sent you up to the maze." Minho said.

Thomas hummed. "That kid seemed like my friend. Do you think they killed him? He said he didn't have time."

"I want to say no but I think that wouldn't be true," Minho said. "Those people were evil. God knows what they did."

"Sorry, Tommy," Newt said when he saw Thomas looking sad. "He was a smart person."

"How do you know that?" Minho asked.

Newt put a hand over his eyes. "It's hard to explain. You know-how, we don't remember learning something but just know it." Minho nodded. "It's just like that but I didn't know that I knew all that coding and stuff until I reached that exact moment I needed it."

"What?"

"Forget that. I think I know some computer and technical stuff. Don't ask me how because I didn't know I knew that. And that Aris guy used some really difficult coding to protect that video so that only Thomas and I could see it, together."

"You mean if one of us couldn't make it-"

"We wouldn't have been able to access it." Newt cut Thomas off.

"How did he-" Thomas stopped in mid-sentence as he knew none of them could answer to how did Aris know they'll both be alive. Thomas's head hurt. He didn't want to think about anything anymore.

"So, yeah. He was smart."

"Nice. He was smart.." Minho said shifted to lie down next to Thomas. "Move." He told Thomas as he put his arms behind his back and closed his eyes.

"Hey! I thought you said you couldn't sleep." Thomas said.

"I'm not sleeping. I'm thinking." Minho told him. "I need to lay down to process all that."

He rolled his eyes and looked at Newt who shrugged. Both of them waited quietly for Minho to say something. Newt rested his head back against the wall and closed his eyes.

Thomas gazed at Newt's face in front of him and smiled. He didn't have his usual worried face on, like always. He just looked tired.

After a while, Thomas's legs started to hurt. He carefully straightened them out, passing them through beneath Newt's legs.

He moved as slowly as he could; not slowly enough it seemed like. His movement made Newt's head slid through the wall towards Thomas. He instinctually, in an instant put his right arm around Newt's waist to stop him from falling. Resulting in Newt's head landing softly on Thomas's right shoulder.

Thomas froze for a moment to acknowledge what happened. He very slowly turned his head to Newt sleeping on his shoulder. Thomas's heart fluttered seeing him like that, carefree and secure in his arms, like a small baby.

Thomas carefully looked at Newt's face. He thought he'll die feeling awed by how beautiful Newt was. It hurt him thinking that because of him Newt had to spend three years in the maze.

Thomas looked at Newt's hand resting over his stomach. He found out that Newt had torn down his old shirt and washed it before wrapping it around his wrist.

Thomas put his free hand above Newt's. I won't let anything bad happen to him now. Thomas thought. I'll take care of him. Just like he takes care of everyone. I'll be there for him when he needs me, always.

Thomas, thinking about the person in his arms, forgot when he slid down on the bed. He looked at his side and saw Newt's hair had fallen over his face.

He slightly pushed his hair back and kept brushing through them softly.

He wrapped his other arm around Newt thinking how good would it feel to be like this forever... to be with him... to be with Newt.

Maybe I'll ask him out when we reach the safe place, Thomas thought, far away from WCKD. But what if he doesn't want to be with me? We can still remain friends, I hope. We can be just like this. I don't want to lose him as a friend.

He once again looked at Newt and forgot all his worries. He closed his eyes and listening to Newt's heartbeat.

Maybe one day... soon, was Thomas's last thought before falling into a deep sleep with both hands put securely around the person he cared about the most.