THE SURVIVOR!
the first night in the scorch.

NEWT!

   𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐒𝐀𝐖 𝐀 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐖 of opportunity they started running again, this way in a completely random direction and Newt found himself hoping that they'd find somewhere to lay low at least for a little bit, his hopes coming to a halt when Teresa started running downhill and toward a row of glass windows that must have belonged to a building of sorts before the world became what it was now.

"Hold on!" He screamed at the brunette. "Teresa, we don't know..." He had to stop himself from talking as he felt a small amount of sand entering his mouth and giving him no other option but to spit it out immediately as he didn't wish to choke as they had just managed to escape the organization that was to blame for the death of so many of his own friends.

"Come on!" Teresa yelled before jumping through a cracked window and inside the building leaving them no other chance but to follow her. "Get down here!" She yelled once again and before he knew it a blur of red hair passed right by him followed by the skinny boy who had managed to open the door and set them all free. The two strangers who had already saved some of their lives in such a small-time frame jumped inside and he followed their example by doing the same right after Thomas, being only followed by Minho and the other Gladers that had left the Maze with them.

They ended up in a pitch-black space, or at least it was until Minho turned his flashlight on and started to illuminate their surroundings. He was standing next to Margaret who was now holding Aris' shoulder in a protective manner. He couldn't help but to see the resemblance of their relationship to the one Thomas once shared with Chuck and the thought of the young fallen Glader caused him to bite his lips, trying to keep his emotions in control.

While Minho shed a light around the place they were all currently standing in, each one of them seemed to take in every single detail and he was silently happy that he wasn't the only one not to have a single clue about their whereabouts when he heard his friend speak.

"Where the hell are we?" Minho asked in a slightly apprehensive way. During his years spent in the Maze with the runner he had barely ever heard this kind of tone coming from him.

"We gotta go" Thomas simply replied while motioning for them to follow him which caused a slight scoff coming from the girl who was standing beside him with her arms folded against her chest.

"We can't go without a plan." She stated, her tone almost reminiscing him of Nick and Alby. Her stance alone screamed 'Leader' while her tone screamed 'Fighter' at the same time. "If we go blindsided without even thinking about it first we might as well ask the fuckers to pick us all up." He heard Minho try to contain a small chuckle because of the girl's attitude and noticed him staring at her like she was the best thing ever happened to his shucking life.

"No." Teresa spoke. "Thomas stop." Thomas, who was already being followed by Minho, turned around almost immediately to look at the brunette. "Tell me what's going on."

Thomas started taking slow steps in their direction, but he was cut off by Marg who spoke up first sporting a stone-cold face. "What's going on is that it's WICKED.". His friend had already told them as much, but he was still trying to process the whole thing. Newt didn't realise it at first, but he quickly noticed that the redhead was staring at the brunette with a cold glare, her lip slightly twitched for a split second before she cocked her head to the right and let out a scoff that he could only interpret as one of annoyance even if this was the first time she had spoken to his fellow Glader.

"It's WICKED." Thomas backed the girl up while walking back in their direction. "They lied to us, we never escaped." He took a deep breath before continuing. "Me, Margaret and Aris, we found bodies. Too many to count."

"What do you mean, dead bodies?" Minho asked looking at Thomas only to shift his attention towards Margaret waiting for confirmation or denial.

"They were not dead, not yet." The redhead beside him spoke while squeezing Aris' hand who was now staring at the ground with a defeated look on his face before letting it go. "They were not just bodies, they were teenagers, kids from different Glades, all strung up like animals with tubes coming out of them." Newt attention was now on the girl who seemed to have stopped to take a deep breath, he couldn't help but to furrow his brows while trying to make sense of what her and Thomas were telling them. He noticed Margaret gaze lowering and, before he knew it and without knowing why, he put his hand in hers and intertwined his fingers with the redhead's who looked down at their hands for a brief second, almost as shocked as he was because of his sudden action. He was ready to pull his hand away, embarrassed to have acted like that, but, before he could even do that, he felt her fingers squeezing his hand in return. "Two of my friends were in there." She stated, the cold warrior façade back on. "At least those are the only two I managed to see while we were in the room.".

He nervously bit his lip due to this newfound information that he barely missed the slight nod that the other Group's Leader gave Thomas, telling him to keep on talking. Their hands were still laced together, the warmth of her hand causing him to feel a small shiver run down his back, something he had never felt once before in his entire life, at least not that he could remember, but something that was in no way uncomfortable, regardless of the fact he had just met the girl.

"They were all being drained. There is something inside of us that WICKED wants. Something in our blood. So, we have to get as far away from them as possible." He pondered for a second, letting everything sink in before deciding to ask some questions of his own.

"Okay." He sighed. "So what's the plan?" When Thomas didn't answer straight away he decided to press the issue even further. "You do have a plan, right?" He saw his friend slightly shaking his head before replying in a hesitant way.

"Yeah, I don't know." Thomas muttered.

"Well, we followed you out here Thomas." He could feel his emotions becoming heightened by the second as anger, fear and frustration laced each and every single one of the words that left his mouth. Margaret's hand squeezed his a little bit stronger and he quickly did the same almost out of instinct before noticing that the panic that was taking over his body a second before was slowly starting to diminish. "Now you're saying you have no idea where we're going and what we're doing?" He took a step forward toward his friend involuntarily bringing the redhead along with him.

"Hold on." Everyone, including him, quickly turned to look at Aris who simply looked at Margaret as a result of their actions.

"Rat Man..." He looked at the girl who was now shaking her head and emitting a low chuckle. "Janson and Ava Paige seemed rather worried about a group of people." She continued while shifting her attention from her friend to the rest of the group, looking at each one of them with a small smirk etched on her face only to stop when she reached Thomas. "People against WICKED, hiding in the mountains. My guess is that they're some kind of resistance and they are our best option."

"The Right Arm." Thomas immediately locked his gaze with that of Margaret. "If they're really against WICKED maybe they can help us."

"People" Newt butted in, his eyebrows scrunched together as he could barely believe what the three of them were talking about. "in the mountains." He continued while raising his brows in disbelief. "Mountain people, that's your guys' plan?"

"Well, right now this is the only real thing we have." Margaret replied to him, turning around while their hands still stood there, intertwined with one another, to look at him in the eyes. He bit his lower lip shaking his head in defiance before nodding, knowing that, even if the plane sounded completely nuts, it was the only thing they had at the moment.

"It's the only chance we have." Thomas agreed with the girl before giving her a quick nod.

"Our best chance." She concluded locking eyes with Newt once again almost waiting for him to go against what she had just said, but he simply nodded and smiled once he saw her doing the same while looking at him. Minho was quick to pat her on the back before quickly winking at him from behind the redhead who, in response, shoved her elbow back in a playful manner still managing to get Minho to stumble back in surprise.

"Hey guys, check this out." Winston's voice caused all of them to turn in his direction and Margaret's hand quickly left his as the girl neared his friend who was now crouched on the ground. "Minho, give me the light." Just as Minho was passing his flashlight to Winston he noticed Marg turn on one of her own that she had just slid out of the side pocket of the backpack she carried on her shoulders. In front of them there was a vast array of footsteps that seemed to lead in one direction.

"Someone's been down here." Minho commented while trying to illuminate the path the footsteps led to.

"I don't know about you guys, but I am not liking this one single bit." The redhead muttered turning around to look at Thomas, Aris and Newt. She quickly turned her back to them once again and slightly touched one of the footsteps tracing what he could only supposed to be patterns on one of them. "These footsteps are fresh. They'd be covered in sand if they were to be old."

"Only one way to find out." Thomas replied before taking a step forward.

"Wait." Aris spoke. "Marg is right. What if whoever has been down here was one of the infected?" His voice slightly trembling and his breath ragged.

"Thomas is right." Margaret spoke up once again, almost startling her friend. "There is only one way to find out, but no one goes wandering on their own. Stick to pairs or more, strength in numbers." He looked at the redhead as she stood up in less than a second and dusted off a little bit of sand that was still attached to her trousers. "Keep your eyes open, I don't like this place one bit." She added before nodding toward Aris as in telling him to stand by her side, which he did by reaching out for her before she took a defensive stand in front of him and started walking down the path that the footprints had laid out for them.

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   The place they had found had to be, at least before everything had started going south, one of those where people went to buy things, where they would meet up and probably spend hours being happy and laughing among each other. The name of said place was something that kept on bugging Newt as he couldn't recall it at all, it was as if the correct term was currently on the tip of his tongue, but his brain couldn't quite put the pieces together for him to remember it.

All the different places were either empty of closed and each and every one of them kept their eyes peeled at all time while trying to pry into the closed-up shops to get a better view of what was inside. So far they had found a big load of nothing.

"Come on, open up." Newt attention was tore away from the open space he was currently inspecting as Minho's comment seemed to have attracted the attention of every member of the group. Teresa and Aris stood behind as he neared the closed off place Minho was pointing at along with Marg. The rest of the boys, along with Margaret, quickly pulled up the metal door that was separating them from whatever was inside the room.

One by one each one of them found something they could use to illuminate their surroundings, everything starting from the simple action of Frypan turning a small lamp on.

Marg's hair flipped in the hair as she turned to look at the closed shop Minho was inspecting.

"Looks like people lived here." Minho said while inspecting something with his flashlight.

"Where are they now?" Newt asked while pointing his flashlight that had been passed to him by Aris around the room. Margaret was right, whatever this place was there was something unsettling about it.

"Well, hopefully they are not here to welcome us." Marg muttered while showing Newt a piece of clothing that looked like it had been torn to shreds by a rabid dog causing him to grimace at the sight and for her to throw the fabric back on the ground as if that was the less creepy thing she had seen so far in her life.

"Let's pack some of this stuff up, anything you think you might need." Thomas said while picking up and putting on a shirt that was lying on a table. "We'll split up, see what else we can find. Meet back here."

"Wait, Thomas." Newt called for his friend just to throw him a flashlight of his own in order for him to see where he was going without getting into any additional danger.

"Let's go." Thomas looked at Minho who, before making his way out of the door, gave him a quick nod doing his best to both reassure himself and Newt at the same time.

The only people now left in the room were himself, Frypan, Aris, Teresa and Margaret.

"Look for any kind of weapon we could use against those things, stay alert and if you notice something not normal just alert the rest of us." Margaret told each one of them while moving her torch around. Within seconds each one of them started to pick up things here and there and place them in a backpack each. Even if a part of him kept saying that it wasn't the right time to ask, his curiosity got the best of him as he neared the girl who had just spotted what looked to be an axe. Her expression seemed to falter for a second, hurt visible in her eyes as she ran her left hand on the handle of the object before exhaling loudly and placing it next to the pile of things she seemed to deem appropriate.

"You were your Group's Leader." Newt expected her to cut him off, but when she didn't he kept on talking "You protected us and you protect Aris as if we came all from the same place, why?"

"Because I don't give up on people." Margaret simply stated before grabbing a dark overcoat and tying it around her waist. "Because even if I am the last one of my Group, I am still a Survivor and I fight for what I believe in. This now includes helping you all as well." She quickly turned around only to meet his eyes and the same shiver he had felt before came back, this time almost making him want to smile at the girl. "I don't care if we came from different Mazes, all I care about is that we need to have each other's back." The redhead stopped for a second, almost as if she was pondering on her next words while studying his face before speaking once again. "Can I trust you?" She asked in a very blunt way taking Newt completely by surprise, but after all wasn't this the same thing he had asked himself when she turned up in their room back at the compound before they escaped?

"You can." He replied confidently earning a quick nod and a smile in return to which he replied with one of his own before going back to sort things out with the help of Frypan noticing that Marg had quickly stopped beside Aris, probably to check on him, before continuing further down the shop and reaching the place where Teresa was standing.

Newt quickly lowered his head and kept on packing his backpack passing a few items to Frypan who quickly took them and shoved them in his own. A sudden noise caught his attention and he saw Teresa jump as Margaret was looking around less than a foot away from her. "You all right?" He asked the brunette.

"I am fine." The girl quickly replied. He went on to fill a flask with some water just to stop and check back on the two girls, only to see that, in that exact moment, Marg was taking off the shirt she had been wearing until then leaving her back almost completely bare. The only girl he had ever interacted with before was Teresa, but seeing Margaret like that made him feel like his throat was closing on itself and he was in sudden need of water.

Someone placed two fingers on his jaw and turned it around and he couldn't help but to feel slightly embarrassed as Frypan smirked at him, having caught him staring at the redhead that had already saved at least half of them once. "She is cute, badass and cute, isn't she?" He asked raising a brow and causing Newt let out a small chuckle feeling his throat close up again. "Come on." His friend gestured to the flask he had stopped filling. Newt grabbed the container and drank some of the water that he had already decanted before going back to what he was previously doing while trying to avoid his friend's gaze who tried to stifle a laugh in response to his actions.

All of a sudden all the lights outside the room and even those inside of it lit up at the same time causing all of them to stand up from their former position and look around.

"Idiots." Marg spoke loud enough for them to hear. "They just put a giant sign on top of each one of our heads." Newt noticed Aris take a tentative step out only to be quickly stopped by the redhead who pulled him back like he was made of paper and pushed him behind her back, quickly sliding her backpack on and grabbing the axe she found earlier while they were speaking. "I don't want to be right, but if I am you might want to be ready."

"For what?" Teresa, who was standing behind the other girl voiced up.

"For shit to hit the fan, that's what." She answered before looking at each one of them.

"What's going on?" Winston, who had just reached them outside the room they were raiding asked.

"I don't know." Frypan answered as a matter of fact before they all heard Thomas scream in the distance, a sound that made them all turn in his direction.

"Run!" Newt could see Thomas and Minho in the distance running towards them as fast as possible, a sight that caused him to squint his eyes only to feel a strong tug on his arm half a second later when he, as well, had noticed the herd of cranks running right behind his friends.

"Oh shit." He muttered before securing his backpack on as quickly as possible.

"Move, Newt, move!" Marg screamed before darting off in the opposite direction along with all of them, Aris right in front of the girl, something that he kept on noticing as the redhead seemed hell-bent on protecting the boy at all costs.

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   They kept on running, the lights coming from the flashlights darting in all directions as each step echoed all around them. None of them stopped once, running up a still escalator while keep shouting at each other to 'Go faster' or 'Keep moving'. When Newt felt some sand get in his nose he didn't even bother taking care of it, all he wanted to do now was to get out of this shucking place and get away from the cranks that were on their tails. They arrived to a floor only to stop abruptly as a couple of cranks came out of nowhere and seemed to have noticed their presence. In a blink of an eye both Aris and Margaret ran forward, Aris aiming at a crank that was looking at Thomas with a bat, while Margaret went straight for the other one that was already advancing toward where he stood with Minho.

"Aris, Margaret, no!" Thomas screamed along with him and Minho in hope to stop them both from risking their lives for theirs.

Newt looked on as Aris hit one crank with a bat only to send it in flying and falling straight in front of Teresa who quickly scurried away, taking two steps at the time on another flight of stairs. Margaret, on the other hand, didn't even flinch as, while keeping the axe steady with both hands, she brought the weapon behind her and swung it forward cutting the crank's head off, therefore securing a path for them all.

Chaos surrounded them all once again as they were temporarily separated while running up different flight of escalators as Thomas was helping Teresa. Once they were all, or at least he thought as he couldn't look back to check, on what looked like the top floor, he found himself running side by side with Thomas until out of nowhere he felt a presence jump on top of him and he found himself being pinned down by a crank, a creature even more vicious than a Griever. He tried to pry himself free, tried to fight it, until out of nowhere he heard Marg's voice.

"You get away from him, you rotten bastard.". The fiery redhead yelled and in less than a split-second Newt saw her axe hitting the crank in the head with so much strength that the creature fell down the floor, freeing him at last. He didn't hesitate to grab hers and Thomas' arms thanking the girl quickly as the three of them noticed that even more cranks were on their tails and approaching rather fast.

The group darted away without even a second thought and ran through a series of concrete corridors, each one of them trying to get the others to keep going even if none of them had a clear idea of where they were running to.

"This one!" Thomas screamed before trying to pry open a set of red doors that were locked by a chain.

"I'll hold them back!" Winston screamed over the others starting to shoot at the approaching cranks as Newt joined Thomas and Marg in trying to kick, push, punch the door open at the same time. "Get that door open!" Their friend screamed again, screeching sound of cranks approaching now louder than ever.

"Move!" Frypan yelled before running against the door having taken a few steps back to have a kick start and managing to open it completely causing each one of them to get out of that place as soon as possible until a scream caused Newt to turn around and see that the cranks still inside the corridor had grabbed Winston by his legs pulling him back.

Panic started rising in his chest at the sound of his fellow Glader screams, but he knew they had to do something, they had to save him and Minho and Thomas seemed to have taken a head start as they were trying to keep the door as closed as possible making it impossible for the cranks to pull Winston back with them. Without even thinking about it, he ran forwards and grabbed his friend's arms, starting to pull him out along with Frypan and Margaret, the three of them of them using all the strength they could muster and struggling against the fight the cranks were putting up on the other side of the door Thomas and Minho were leaning on, the first pushing it with his shoulder and the latter with his back.

With one final pull, Newt, Frypan and Marg managed to pry away from the cranks a battered and injured Winston, whose hands were placed on one side around Newt's shoulder and on the other around Margaret's while Frypan ran ahead of them three so the four of them could get away from there. They all ran like their life depended on it until Aris started pointing toward what seemed to be the best place for all of them to hide and, as they had no other choice, they all squeezed in taking cover and turning their flashlight off.

Before the darkness started to engulf the group, Newt noticed that Margaret had taken a shirt that she had put in her backpack earlier and had placed it with a firm hand on Winston's injured stomach putting as much pressure as possible not to let his friend die.

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AUTHOR'S NOTE

Margaret being like: 'Subtle, Thomas and Minho, subtle.' lol.

What are your first thoughts about Newt interactions with Margaret?

I wanted to thank you all for all the amazing support you've been giving me by reading, commenting, voting this story and by adding it to your reading lists! Writing a Newt fan fiction has always been a dream of mine and seeing that you guys are enjoying what I am writing makes me so happy you couldn't even begin to imagine.