THE SURVIVOR!
not in vain.

MARG!

   𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐓 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐎𝐅 the night awake and alert, each sound causing her to grip her axe and steady herself in case they had to escape, while her free hand never left Winston's injured stomach, trying her best to stop or at least slow down the bleeding.

She couldn't help but to notice that the rest of the group, once they deemed the place safe enough, slowly fell asleep, leaving her with one of the many tasks she was used to due to her time in the Maze.

Every now and then her eyes would drift to where Aris was currently sleeping, checking that everything was okay and that he didn't need her help. But Aris wasn't the only one she caught herself watching over, as, during the night, she found herself gazing at the sleeping figure of Newt, a boy she barely knew and yet managed to make her feel like she could trust him. A boy whose skin, when in contact with hers, caused knots in her stomach, a feeling she had never experienced before and therefore she didn't know what to make of it.

"Bloody bird." She muttered under her breath when, yet again, another black bird had showed up trying to pry some of the contents belonging to one of them. This time around the bird made so much noise that it managed to wake up the otherwise sleeping Thomas, who promptly started to shoo away the animal waking up the others in the process. "Morning sleeping beauty.".

"How long have you been awake?" Thomas stood up and stretched an arm in her direction trying to help her to stand up and causing Marg to stifle a laugh before grabbing his wrist and jumping up next to the shocked brunette.

"Been up all night, someone had to keep an eye out." This time her words caught the attention of half of the group, as they probably were not used to something like that. "Someone had to, wouldn't want to have another encounter with those freaks. Plus, it's not like I haven't done it before." She simply shrugged the whole thing away by waving her hand in the air in a dismissive way before taking in their surroundings.

"Are they gone?" Newt voiced.

"Yeah, I think we're safe for now." Thomas quickly replied, completely captivated by the place they had used as a refuge.

"I wouldn't stick around here much longer, we're too close to the compound." Margaret, who was facing the opposite direction, quickly flipped around in order to look at each member of the group, her hair flowing in the wind and the heat causing her to feel some beads of sweat on her forehead. "We should move, get further, closer to the mountains.". All the boys gave her a quick nod, while the girl, Teresa, simply sat down, staring at her with a bewildered look on her face.

Marg couldn't help but to notice the girl's fingers twitching in a nervous manner, something she quickly tried to hide behind her back. She didn't exactly know why, but she could swear the girl was hiding something, that she couldn't be trusted, but she also knew that she couldn't voice her opinion like that, therefore she simply decided to keep an eye on her.

Thomas started to call everyone's names in order to get moving, but a single grunt caught the redhead attention. Winston, who was lying in the same spot where he had spent the entire night placed a hand on his stomach and was clearly struggling to stand up.

"Hey man, you okay?" Frypan asked the boy, stretching his arm in his direction.

"Winston?" Margaret made her way through the rest of the group and crouched down next to the black-haired boy. "Are you okay to walk?" She asked, her tone soft, almost calming as she tried to comfort the injured guy. With the help of Frypan they hoisted the boy up and Margaret quickly slid her backpack on before placing her axe in the holster on the belt she had found the night before.

"Marg?" Thomas called, gaining the girl attention before nodding forward, silently asking her to lead the group with him. The redhead gave him a quick nod and made her way toward the leader of Group A after having squeezed Winston's shoulder and patted Aris' back.

🙤 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🙦

   The place they had spent the night in might have very well been beautiful once, but time and events had left it in such a state of decay that the group was forced to climb onto large pieces of concrete before reaching the top. The view was somewhat breath-taking, but not in a positive way as all that was left in front of them was a destroyed city, buildings that looked like they could crumble at any given time and streets filled with cars and debris.

"Does anyone have anything encouraging to say?" Minho asked the group only to be met with a wave of silence in return.

While the others seemed to be almost glued to the cement, Margaret hoisted her backpack higher on her back and started to walk off the bridge they were currently standing on, a place that was the exact opposite of safe and off the radar. When she noticed that the only sound that could be heard was the one coming off her shoes she stopped in her tracks before placing a flat hand in front of her forehead to shield her eyes from the sun and turning toward the rest of the group.

"I didn't kill a bunch of grievers just to die in the desert, so put your big panties on and keep walking." She spoke up, loud enough so each one of them could hear her, but not too loud to attract any unwanted attention. Her tone managed to get everyone's attention as no one had ever heard such an authoritative tone coming from a girl before, no one aside from Aris at least. "The bridge is not gonna magically bring you where we want to go." She motioned for them to follow her with her right before facing the city once again and moving forward.

"What the hell happened to this place?" Frypan, who was walking behind the girl she did not trust, asked no one in particular as he was staring at the building surrounding them while walking straight ahead.

"I don't know." Newt replied truthfully. "But it doesn't look like anyone's been here in a long time."

She couldn't help but to think back about the night before, the creatures that looked so much like a human being, only they weren't. They might have once been someone like them, but their greyish skin, black veins and empty black eyes caused her to involuntarily shudder. If there was something she knew for sure, was that she wouldn't wish that to her worse enemy, well, aside from Rat Face himself.

"I hope the whole world is not like this." Aris spoke up for the first time since they left their shelter and Margaret was quick to throw her friend an encouraging smile even if she knew that the odds were not in their favour. Apart from promising herself she would have looked after Aris no matter what, she had also promised the same to a couple of his friends before they had been taken away, the only people who didn't look at her as if she was a complete nut case aside from the scrawny boy.

If there was something people could count on was that Margaret never broke a promise.

All of a sudden, a small noise caught her attention causing her to stop dead in her tracks, ending up right next to Thomas. She quickly stopped the boy by placing a hand on his torso and blocking him from walking further. "Listen." She quickly said motioning around them. "What the hell is this noise? Guys. Guys!" She called after the rest of the group who had kept on walking.

"Hang on, everyone, stop." Thomas quickly backed her up. They both shared a confused and unnerved expression as the brunette boy finally caught up with what had caused the redhead to stop him.

"Anyone else hears the noise?" She asked the rest of the group, eyebrows scrunched together and eyes scanning each one of the teens. The noise became louder and louder and within a split second she knew that it was WICKED, they were looking for them. "Get down, everybody, move! Move!" She yelled sprinting forward and starting to shove both Frypan and Newt toward what once must have been part of a structure.

"Get in there, get in there!" Thomas kept yelling at the others who were still standing in the middle of the streets, perfect targets if noticed by the organisation.

"Teresa, get in here!" Margaret yelled as she grabbed the girl's arm and pushed her behind her before duking underneath the fallen structure to get cover. "Fucking WICKED." She muttered looking at a giant hovercraft that was sweeping the area along with another light aircraft. She was sandwiched in between Newt and a very nervous looking Teresa when the first one quickly pulled a hand around her small waist causing her to lean closer to him and hide further in the shadow casted on their bodies.

Margaret let out a long breath of relief she didn't even notice she was holding and let her body fall even closer to Newt's, placing her head on the boy's shoulder. It was weird, an unknown feeling started spreading inside of her. She felt even warmer than she did a few seconds before and, while she could blame it on the tight space they were hiding in, she knew that wasn't the cause of it. It was almost like her entire stomach had started forming knots on the inside and even swallowing had become harder, all of this because of her very close proximity to Newt. She was nervous, she didn't know what to think about it, but one thing was clear to her, at least to her heart, while her mind was in a constant battle with the organ, she liked that feeling and the boy next to her was the first and only one who had ever made her feel that way.

"They're never gonna stop looking for us, are they?" Minho asked, pulling her out of her thoughts, but not away from Newt who was still holding her close to him.

"I highly doubt that." The redhead replied lifting her head from Newt's shoulder and facing Minho, Frypan and the only other girl of the group, the one she was starting to trust less and less. "But they're not gonna get us. I am not gonna let the bastards get any of us." She continued, knowing that Thomas, Aris and Winston, who were hiding next to them were listening to what she was saying. "We are getting to those damned mountains, even if it's the last thing I do." Right as she finished that sentence she felt Newt's hand gripping her side with some added strength before pulling her towards him again. "Let's get out of here." She added while turning her head around, her hair flowing behind her, and smiling at the boy next to her causing him to reciprocate the action and lower his hand to let her crawl out of the space.

🙤 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🙦

   The entire city was such a mess that, what once must have been streets were nothing but a pile of fallen buildings and other debris forming small hills the group had to climb while making sure to stay balanced and not fall on anything sharp that could have hurt them. The scorching sun was high in the sky and causing each one of them to keep on getting rid of the sweat that accumulated on their forehead and hands. While some of the others kept looking forward, Margaret couldn't help herself but to keep a hand ready on her holster and, every now and then, glance at their surroundings to make sure they were all safe and there were no cranks ready to attack them.

"Everyone good?" Thomas asked from the top of a particularly steep hill they were currently climbing and, even if Marg's throat was screaming for some water, she knew that she would have had to save it. She knew the notion of rationing all too well by now and, knowing it was highly improbable for them to find a place to stock on some more supplies, she had to keep track of every intake.

"Winston?" The boy in front of her, as she had decided to stay in the back to make sure to avoid any unwanted surprises, was heaving and clearly still in pain from the wound inflicted to him the previous night.

"I am fine." He replied too quickly for her liking, turning his head around and sending her a small smile, almost asking her not to question his state anymore. The redhead simply nodded and helped him to get to the top of the hill made of fallen buildings until they reached a long stretch of desert by making sure he wouldn't fall down and hurt himself further.

She would have kept on helping the boy if it wasn't for his stubbornness that caused him to remove her hand from his back and nod forward telling her to keep up with the rest of the group. Margaret shook her head and raised her arms in surrender before starting to walk faster to catch up with the others.

The wind was blowing the sand in their direction, causing Margaret to squint her eyes in order not to get any in them and lose her balance. Between the steep hill of sand that made it even harder for each one of them to climb and the strength of the howling sand storm, each movement kept becoming slower and slower and she wasn't the only one struggling against the elements they were forced to face, as she noticed the others trying to keep their balance like she was doing.

"A little further, guys." Thomas voice sounded muffled from where she was currently walking, but she kept pushing her legs forward as the small ache she was starting to develop was nothing in comparison to what she had been through in the past few years. She pushed herself, forcing all the small pains in the corner of her mind and locking them there as she had no time for small things like that, until she reached Newt and then Thomas, now walking in front of the group along with the boy.

"Guess those are the mountains they were referring to." Margaret pointed in the distance to a cluster of mountains that must have been days away from where they were now if they kept on going at that pace. Everyone was now standing on top of the hill.

"That's where we're going." Thomas pitched in, agreeing with the redhead next to him.

"That's a long way off." Newt, who was standing on the other side next to Thomas, commented looking at the two of them. Marg simply nodded, knowing that what they were facing wouldn't have been easy. She barely heard Thomas replying to the boy as she noticed Winston taking off his backpack and, before she could say anything in regards, the boy fell forward.

"Winston!" She screamed after the boy along with Thomas, all of them running toward the tanned boy who was lying on the sand. She slid down in order to keep the injured boy's face in her lap before turning it gently while Newt kept calling his name, the boy heaving even more than before and causing her to worry for his wellbeing.

"He didn't say anything before, I think it's getting worse." Marg, whose eyes had remained on Winston's face for a minute, raised her head to speak to his friends.

"What do we do?" Teresa swiftly asked causing Margaret to fight the urge to slap some sense into her as it was one of her fellow Gladers there with them. She would have never left anyone from her Maze behind and she was for sure not leaving Winston behind now.

"Winston, can you hear me?" Newt asked the boy who was breathing loudly, almost panicking. She kept her eyes trained on the boy she barely knew and was clearly in pain while making sure he wouldn't trash his face around.

"Hey, Winston. We're gonna figure this out. We're not leaving you behind. I am not leaving you behind, okay?" She could feel some of the others looking at her, probably wondering why she cared so much about someone she barely knew. "Hey, hey." She tried to soothe him.

"Somebody help me create something we can carry him on." Everyone's attention was now on the leader of Group A as he quickly grabbed a few discarded rods that stood out in the sand. Margaret exchanged a quick look with Aris who simply nodded, having understood what his best friend needed him to do. In less than a minute Margaret found herself beside Thomas putting all her strength into getting the rods out of the ginormous pile of sand that was burying them, Minho and Frypan helping them while Newt started taking out anything they could have used to create a makeshift gurney.

Nobody really cared if their backpack had been opened to get hold of something useful as everyone, apart from Aris, who was still holding Winston's head, and Teresa, who seemed to be in complete shock, started working on something that would have made it possible for them to carry the injured boy. The end result wasn't much, but it was better than anything Marg or her group had ever had and. Since she was the only one who had had the need to create a gurney with a very few things before, she spent the entire time explaining the boys what they needed to do and working on the contraption they had now put Wilson on in order to carry him forward.

When they were ready to resume walking, she made her way toward the front right next to Thomas. There was nothing but hills upon hills of sand and, while in any other circumstance she would have stopped to admire what once had probably been a bridge, trying to keep her mind occupied, Marg kept her gaze on the mountains they could see in the distance and tried to calculate how long it would have taken them to get there and if they had enough supplies to get them through the trip.

"Over there." She pointed underneath the remaining of the bridge. "It's gonna take us longer if we keep proceeding straight on, we need to cut through it. Less time, save the rations." Margaret quickly explained to a very confused Thomas who easily caught up with what she meant. After having received a simple nod from the brunette, Margaret was quick to turn in the direction of the others and motion for them to follow the shorter path.

Going downhill forced the group to move Winston from the stretcher and carry him while someone else took hold of the harness. Nobody had to ask her for help as she was one of the firsts to take hold of the boy placing both of her arms underneath his shoulders and gripping onto the fabric of his sweaty shirt. The walk was even more taxing than before as four of them were holding the top part of Winston's body while Thomas was helping by grabbing him by his feet.

"Are you sure this is the right way?" Teresa asked once they had reached a long stretch of flat sand. The four boys, along with Margaret, had already placed Winston back on his make-shift stretcher.

"Yes, I am sure. If we kept going forward we would have ran out of shelter and the sandstorm would have hit us twice as strong. This would have caused us to run out of food and water in less than two days tops." She quickly explained stalking toward the girl before coming to a halt in front of her. "Why? Wanna risk someone to suffer because of dehydration?" She asked in a low challenging tone noticing how the girl had silently gulped and started to bite her lip in a nervous manner. "Just a heads up, I can see right through people and their bullshit." She added seeing that the girl was looking around as if to make sure that no one else could have heard what Margaret had just told her.

The redhead shook her head and went back to grab hold of one of the stretcher handle after having taken out of her backpack a green raincoat that she quickly slid on before pulling the backpack on again. She was thankful for the quick stop in the mall as, about ten minutes later, a heavy sandstorm hit the area they were walking in and the cap of her raincoat managed to help her to keep the sand away from her face while carrying Winston.

🙤 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🙦

   "Gotta find shelter!" Thomas tried to scream through a bandana that he had tied in front of his mouth. Their wishes were soon granted when Aris, having been sent to the front along with Teresa, noticed a covered space where they could have waited the storm out.

After having placed Winston in one of the most shielded area she let herself fall on the sand and crossed her leg before grabbing one of her water bottles and one of the rations she had stolen from WICKED.

"Eat something. You all need it." She quickly added before pulling out another ration deciding that they would have had to make do with two among all of them for now as they couldn't run out so soon. She passed a closed ration to Minho who was sitting on her right side before opening the other one and starting to share it with Newt who had just joined them by sitting next to her.

"Where did you get these?" Minho asked taking a bite of what must have been dry meat and taking his sweet time in chewing it.

"She's been stealing stuff from WICKED ever since we met." Aris added joining the four of them and sitting next to Frypan.

"Well, it paid off, didn't it? Never got caught and at least we are gonna have some energy." Margaret swiftly threw Aris an apple that the boy caught before glaring at his friend as she had used more strength than necessary.

"Oh, you are even more beautiful than I thought when I first saw you." Minho said between a bite and another causing her to laugh while he simply grinned at her before turning his attention to someone behind her and sending a quick wink their way trying to contain a snicker.

"Isn't it right, Newt?" Frypan added causing Minho to give him a low fist bump and Margaret, who was eating a rice cake, to turn around in order to look at the boy who was throwing invisible daggers at his friends.

The playful atmosphere quickly shifted once again as Winston's breathing became even louder. Newt shook his head and quickly stood up leaning against one of the pillars that were keeping the structure they were resting underneath up.

"How's it looking?" He raised his voice so Thomas, who was standing a few feet away from them, could hear him.

"It's a little further." The brunette boy replied almost immediately.

"That's not very convincing." Newt turned around, eyebrows scrunched together and raised at the same time due to the sun and to the answer received by his friend.

"Because we are at least a few days away from the mountains." Every single one of them, apart from Aris, looked at her as if she was from another planet.

"How did you...?" Minho started, but before he could even finish the question Aris let out a short laugh that prompted Margaret to answer to the boy.

"Winston?" Newt's tone caused all of them to turn around and see that the boy was no longer sleeping. He didn't give anyone time to speak again as he went for the gun.

Frypan was the first to react and, as soon as he noticed that Winston was going to press the trigger he managed to get the gun from him, but not without Winston pressing the trigger and shooting the wall.

"Winston?!" Margaret shoot up from her spot and ran next to the boy who was now leaning on the sand trying to stay balanced. "Winston? What were you doing?" She asked trying to bring his face in her hands, trying to look in his eyes and understand what prompted such an action. "Hey, hey, look at me."

The next second, just as soon as Thomas and Teresa had joined them, Winston moved away from the redhead and started throwing up a black substance causing everyone to back off. Once he was done he laid back on the sand, his skin had a grey tint to it and he was sweating even more than the rest of them. Margaret took a couple of steps forward ignoring the hand that tried to grab her wrist and stopped right next to the boy's head where she fell down on her knees and squeezed his shoulder.

"It's growing." Winston muttered while lifting his shirt. The simple wound inflicted by the cranks had grown, causing his skin to become almost thicker, his stomach to develop big cracks on top and underneath the surface, big and small black veins could be seen along with the deep purple and black tint that covered the entire surface. "Inside of me." He pulled his shirt down and that's then Margaret lifted her head and saw everyone standing a few feet away from him. "I am not gonna make it." He whispered. "Please, please." He stretched his arm toward Frypan, who was now holding the gun. "Don't let me turn into one of those."

It was Newt who grabbed the gun from Frypan before getting closer to where Winston was laying while Margaret was attempting to soothe him by running her hands through his hair. He kneeled down and placed the gun in his friend's hand and slowly brought it on his chest.

"Thank you." Winston whispered. "I am scared, is it normal to be scared?" He voiced while a single tear fell down the side of his face. For a few seconds no one answered, no one dared to. His friends looking at him heartbroken, Aris scared and Margaret angry because he didn't deserve this. "I don't want to be scared."

"I remember a song." Were the next words that came out the redhead's mouth causing the rest of the group to look at her bewildered, while Winston looked almost hopeful that his last few moments wouldn't have been spent like that. "A song my mom used to sing to me when I was scared."

"Sing it, please." Winston free hand reached upwards toward Marg's arm, an action that needed no further explanation as the redhead moved a little forward and temporarily placed the boy's head on her knees. Not even Newt dared to move, as he remained crouched right next to his dying friend while the others decided he needed this, he needed to smile for the last time.

Margaret smiled at the boy and started to run her fingers through his hair once again while humming a soft melody, never breaking eye contact with Winston.

"Smile, without a reason why. Love, as if you
were a child. Smile, no matter what they tell you. 
Don't listen to a word they say, 'cause life is beautiful
that way. Tears, a tidal-wave of tears. Light that slowly
disappears. Wait, before you close the curtain, there's still
another game to play, and life is beautiful that way. 
Here, in his eyes forever more, I will always be as close
as you remember from before. Now, that you're out there
on your own – Remember, what is real and what we dream 
is love alone. Keep the laughter in your eyes. Soon, your
long-awaited prize. We'll forget about our sorrow, and think 
about a brighter day, 'cause life is beautiful that way. We'll forget 
about our sorrow, and think about a brighter day, 'cause life is 
beautiful that way.There's still another game to play, and life is 
beautiful that way"

No one dared to speak while the redhead sang, while Winston smiled, closing his eyes and listening to the song that right in that moment meant so much to him. At the end of the song Marg gave the boy a quick nod.

"Thank you." The boy's voice was shaking as he was clearly trying to suppress any tears. "Now you all get out of here." He said looking at each single person that was surrounding him. "And guys, Margaret." Winston added while tilting his head backwards to look at the redhead whose hair was surrounding her face due to the fact she still hadn't moved from her spot. "Thomas, trust her. You can trust her." He inhaled, his breath almost getting stuck in his throat. "You two, you two take care of them." Margaret gave the boy one last smile before placing his head back on the sand and standing up.

"Goodbye Winston." Newt whispered to the boy before standing up again. Margaret didn't even think twice as her hand reached for Newt's who quickly let their fingers intertwine with one another. The boy quickly grabbed his backpack with his free hand and rushed away from the others without letting go of Marg's hand who, as soon as they reached her backpack, did the same, just to come to a halt when the two were far enough from the rest of the group who was saying their goodbyes.

That's when she noticed a couple of tears falling down on Newt's face and she quickly closed the space between them to hug him. He placed his head in the crook of her neck, causing her to feel a few tears fall on her skin just before he managed to stop them from falling, causing his breathing to become heavy and unsteady. Marg kept one arm around his side letting her hand reach up in between his shoulder blades where she grabbed a piece of the fabric of his shirt closing her fist around it and hooked the other underneath his shoulder letting her hand get lost in his hair.

"It's okay." She whispered leaning her face against his cheek. "It's okay, I am here. I am always gonna be here." They stood there for a few minutes, completely alone in the middle of the sand desert. She could feel his heart beat picking up the pace every other second and wouldn't have been surprised if he could feel the same as her heart was beating faster than normal as well.

When they took a step back from each other Newt's face was back to normal, no sign of tears spilled. Margaret, though, could still see it in his eyes, the same thing she felt whenever she lost one of the Survivors, someone who had fought for years by her side trying to get out of the Maze.

The redhead was too lost in his eyes to notice that he had raised his hand and brought it to the side of her face to slowly stroke her cheek with his rough knuckles only to stop once he reached her jaw. Marg's eyes fluttered close for a second before opening again and meeting Newt's small smile, the only smile he could give her in that moment, but still a smile they just shared together, alone.

One by one the rest of the group joined Margaret and Newt and waited for Thomas to keep going toward their destination. When the redhead spotted Aris' sad look she was quick to hug the boy in a sisterly way, trying to convey all of her strength onto her friend. Seeing Winston giving up was a reminder of what they were dealing with, but it also opened Marg's eyes to the fact that the people she was travelling with were now as important as the Survivors had been to her back in the Maze. Winston's only wish for her was to take care of the group and that's what she silently promised the boy as she picked up the pace, passing by Newt and giving him a quick hand squeeze, before taking the front of the line position.

All of a sudden, the sound they were all silently dreading echoed all around them: a single gunshot, nothing more, was heard and caused each one of the members to stop dead in their tracks. The redhead inhaled deeply and closed her eyes for a second, paying her silent respects to a boy who had been injured trying to help the rest of them. When Margaret opened her eyes again she could feel it in every single fiber of her being, the same determination she felt when she dragged the Survivors out of the Maze and when she promised to herself that she would have looked after Aris. WICKED would have paid for what they'd done.

She will have her revenge, she will avenge them all.

🙤 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🙦

AUTHOR'S NOTE

The song that Marg sang to Winston is called 'Beautiful That Way' and I like to imagine Margaret's life to be like Noa's. I highly suggest you go and give it a listen to get a better understanding and sense of the scene.

In this chapter we've seen another side of Margaret, what do you think about it?

Also, it has been brought to my attention that Marg & Newt don't have a ship name yet. One of you has suggested 'Mewt', but I still encourage you to leave any suggestion in the comments below.

I am speechless as this story has almost reached 1K and I truly never anticipated it. You guys are all amazing, each and single one of you.

I also wanted to let you know that if any of you ever wanted to create any fan art, gif or anything for this story, I'll be adding a chapter solely dedicated to your guys' creations and credit each one of you.